The Unwanteds Read Online Free PDF Page A

and continued walking.
    The others, startled, had no idea what to think, but after a moment Meghan began to clap too, for there was something inside her churning mind that just about, but not quite, understood why. Soon Alex joined in as if he almost understood it too, and a curious look passed between Meghan and him, one that made them both want to laugh out loud.



Home in the Stone Mansion
    I t was near dusk when the Unwanteds followed Mr. Today toward the mansion. Samheed had not rejoined them. Some of the children murmured their concerns. Mr. Today smiled. “He’ll be fine; there’s no need to worry. He needs to think and walk, and that is a good thing for a strong, angry fighter like him.”
    “But what if he gets lost?” Lani asked, feeling quite comfortable in her new surroundings already. And though she was curious, she didn’t particularly care whether the sullen Samheed ever returned.
    “He can’t get lost,” Mr. Today assured the children. “I’veput the scroll feature into effect. Once he reaches the end of Artimé, just beyond the mansion, he’ll slip through and come out the opposite side, at the edge of the jungle where it meets the shore. He’ll simply need to walk a bit farther to get back to where he started.”
    Alex gave Mr. Today a quizzical look. “Scroll feature? So there is no jungle? It’s just a … a …” He struggled for the word.
    “A picture? More like a giant window at the moment, actually. And yes, the jungle is really there—good heavens, where would all the animals go if it weren’t? You just can’t get to it at the moment.” His eyes twinkled. “But when you are all sure of me, and I am sure of you, and I know you have found your bearings quite satisfactorily, I’ll remove the giant window and the scroll feature, and you’ll find that the jungle is quite lovely.” The old man paused thoughtfully. “Though it can be frightening and dangerous. Lots of fascinating things to see there too. But that’s for another day.”
    Alex didn’t understand, but he nodded anyway, and soon they reached the walkway to the mansion. As they drew near, a pleasant-sounding noise could be heard coming from the shrubs. “Music in the bushes,” Mr. Today said.
    He climbed the steps. “This is our home. You may come and go as you please and even stay out all night if you wish.”
    Lani’s eyes opened wide.
That’s a bit of a shock
, she thought. But what so far this day
wasn’t?
    The old magician then opened the enormous wooden door to the mansion and walked inside, the children following.
    Before them was a stunning, massive marble entryway flanked by two statues standing upright on pedestals. The pedestals alone were as tall as Alex, and the statues on top of them reached twenty-five feet off the floor, yet they nowhere nearly approached the ceiling. On the left stood a towering winged cheetah made of sand-colored stone, with sharp ivory teeth thicker and longer than the children’s fingers. He stood poised to attack, reared up on his hind legs, his wings widespread, frozen in mid-flap. On the right, carved from ebony, was an enormous, sleek woman with long, flowing hair and bulging muscles, a quiver of arrows and a bow slung over her shoulder.
    Mr. Today looked up. “Hello, Simber. Good evening, Florence,” he said.
    The statues nodded stiffly.
    “There ought to be one more boy coming along presently,so be aware. Probably shouldn’t eat him, all right, Simber?”
    The winged cheetah purr-growled in response and fluidly lowered himself to all fours on the pedestal, his huge paws with gleaming claws hanging off the edge within inches of Alex’s face. Slowly the boy slid away from the stony beast.
    “Wow,” Lani breathed, and the others followed her gaze from the statues to the rest of the great foyer. Beyond the entrance the marble floor led to an extremely wide marble staircase whose steps split halfway up and wound around to meet again in an incredible expanse of