Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(32)

Alex tested Lani’s spell by melding a flowerpot to a large rock outside and moving it this way and that. Then he fired all sorts of elemental spells at it to make sure it could withstand fire, storms, salt water, heavy winds, and anything else he could think of that the dragons might come in contact with. When he was satisfied with the results, he asked Lani to make up a large batch of melding components for him to bring along to the Island of Dragons. Finally they were ready to test out a pair of wings to see if they would really work.

“Do you want to test it?” Alex asked Aaron.

“Me?” asked Aaron nervously. “Oh, no thank you. I’m—I’m just fine here on the ground. And besides, I have a cooking lesson in the kitchen to get to.”

Lani jumped up. “I’ll do it.”

“Sorry,” said Alex. “You’re not heavy enough. We have to simulate a real dragon.”

“Drat!” said Lani, sitting back down. “Foiled again. I never get to do anything fun.”

“I won’t remind you about driving the Quillitary vehicle,” said Alex.

“We agreed to never discuss that again, remember?” said Lani sweetly.

Samheed rolled his eyes and groaned. “Fine. I’ll do it,” he said.

“Thank you,” said Alex.

They went out onto the lawn with one pair of wings. Alex instructed Samheed to take his shirt off so the wings could adhere to Samheed’s back. Samheed shucked off his shirt, and Alex melded the wings to him.

“That feels really weird,” Samheed said. He shrugged his shoulders a few times.

“Does it hurt?” asked Alex. “Walk around a bit.”

“No, it doesn’t hurt. They’re not even all that heavy.” Samheed walked around and the wings, still folded, moved naturally with his stride. “It sort of feels like I have two extra arms.”

“Can you move them?” asked Alex. “Think about flying—they should be intuitive to you, at least a little.”

Samheed rotated his shoulders, experimenting with his new appendages and thinking about flying. After a minute he figured out the muscles he needed to move in order to make the wings unfold. He concentrated and flapped the wings in an awkward, jerky movement as he walked around. After several minutes, his motions grew smoother.

“Good,” said Alex. “Now take a running leap and start flying.”

“Yes, boss.” Samheed did as he was instructed. He ran toward the jungle as fast as he could, wings flapping, and jumped into the air.

He soared straight up two or three yards, his wings flapping wildly. Then he faltered and crashed to the ground.

“Ouch,” Samheed said. He spit grass from his mouth and pushed himself to his feet.

Alex frowned. “What did you do wrong?” he asked.

Samheed looked at Alex. “How should I know? You’re the head mage.” He noticed a grass stain on his knee and tried to wipe it clean.

Lani stood quietly, arms folded, and then she brought one hand to her chin as she studied Samheed. She tilted her head slightly, watching the wings move as he walked around. Samheed started running again, soared up into the air like before, and then spiraled down to the ground in another crash landing. “Oof,” he said.

Samheed lay there for a minute, winded, then rolled to his side and got up again. “You know, I’m not sure how many more times I want to do this,” he said.

Alex shook his head. “You’re flapping your wings. I don’t know why they won’t keep you up, unless they’re just not strong enough. In which case we’re in trouble.”

“They’re definitely strong enough,” said Lani. “I did all the equations. That’s not the problem.” She continued to study Samheed, and then a thought struck her, and she began digging around in her component vest pockets.

After a moment Samheed started running again.

“Wait!” hollered Lani. “Don’t try just yet.” She pulled an origami fire-breathing dragon from her pocket and looked at it.

Samheed slowed, and both he and Alex turned to Lani. “What is it?” asked Alex. “Did you think of something?”

“Remember when we created these?” Lani said, holding up the origami dragon.

Alex nodded. “What about them?” He and Samheed walked over to where Lani was standing.

“Do you remember what happened when we tested them out?”

Samheed took the dragon and looked at it. “No. What happened?”

“Oh!” said Alex. “We had to give them eyes.”

“Yes,” said Lani.

“But Samheed already has eyes.”

“Right, but then we had to tell it where to go,” Lani said. “We had to give it directions.”

Alex grimaced. “Of course. How are we possibly still alive after being so stupid?” He looked at Samheed. “You have to tell the wings where you want to go.”

“Yeah, I picked up on that,” said Samheed, shaking his head and walking away.

“We’re nothing without you,” Alex said to Lani as Samheed started running once more.

“It’s true, I know,” said Lani.

Samheed jumped into the air, shouting, “To the jungle!” And this time, the wings flapped and Samheed began flying forward instead of straight up. He hovered about ten feet off the ground, then gained altitude when he figured out how to pump his wings harder.