Worldweavers: Spellspam Read Online Free PDF Page A

stood at the window, staring out at the rainy afternoon, his right hand closed around his left wrist on his back, the fingers on his left hand drumming the air in a manner which suddenly reminded Thea painfully of Twitterpat.
    “I’ve shut down the Nexus,” the principal said at last.
    Thea suddenly looked up and caught Terry’s eye. Nexus. Nex . The strange icon on Twitterpat’s computer.
    Terry dropped his eyes, his fingers clenching over his knees. “You reacted to it. You shut down the computer; you’ve just let them know thatthey got a hit,” he said faintly. “You’ve opened a vulnerability—if you’d realized what was happening, if you’d set up a filter in time…”
    The principal was staring at Terry, his expression slowly changing from astonishment to something very different.
    “John, no !” Margaret Chen whispered. “They are children ! You can’t…!”

To: [email protected]
From: Grant D. Reames < I_CAN_MAKE_IT_HAPPEN@dreamgate. com >
Subject: If you could have three wishes, what would they be?

    Be careful what you ask for! Only three wishes allowed—no exceptions!

1.
    T HE PRINCIPAL DID NOT show them the Nexus. Not then. He muttered something about too much curiosity and impatience having gotten the five of them into trouble in the first place, and abruptly dismissed them.
    Thea hesitated at the door of the principal’s office as they all filed out. “Just before we left…I couldn’t hear it all, but my father said something about sending help,” she said.
    “He might, and I will make contact with him on my own terms,” the principal said sternly. “But, Thea, this must stop. You have an extraordinary and hard-to-control gift, and until things settle down, I would very much like totrust you out of my sight. There is far more riding on this than any of you can possibly realize.”
    Thea flushed, hanging her head. “Yes, sir.”
    “Don’t forget what I said. I am actually giving you permission to lie about what went on in this office. Use the privilege well. Terry…and Tess…I would like a word with you, please. The rest of you may go. Margaret, would you make sure that the situation in the halls is under control?”
    Margaret Chen knew that she was being dismissed along with the students, and her eyes flashed with something that was suddenly dangerous, a light that changed her face and made Thea see the mage that Margaret had once been. Before she came to the Academy. Before she “retired.”
    She shook her head, once, decisively, and turned to Thea, Magpie, and Ben. “You three…you heard the principal,” she said, and her voice was brittle and hard-edged, like broken glass. “Stay quiet and stay out of trouble. I will check in on you later. John…if you insist on doing this, I stay.”
    “Very well,” said the principal.
    Thea, Magpie, and Ben knew better thanto ask questions, given the expression on Mrs. Chen’s face. They filed out of the office, with the door closing softly but firmly behind them, and then out of the administrative building, pausing on the top of the five shallow stairs that led down to the graveled path.
    “Well,” Ben breathed. “Who knew what a hornet’s nest we’d kick over?”
    “You did,” Magpie said. “Or at least you kept on saying so, back in the computer lab. Well, you were right about the hornet’s nest—but we didn’t kick it over. It’s this whole spellspam thing.” She snorted, pushing her hair back behind her ears, glancing back into the building. “What do you suppose he wants with Terry and Tess? And what’s this Nex—”
    Thea flung out a hand. “Walls. Ears.”
    “Oh,” said Magpie. “Right.”
    “The skunk hospital. Tonight,” Thea said.
    “You think they’ll let us wander around at night, with all this going on?” Ben said, sounding genuinely appalled. “And what’s a skunk hospital, anyway? I wouldn’t be surprised if they locked down the—”
    “Doing your laundry late at night means there