Theo tapped the tube’s mouth that faced me. “Shouldn’t we have something larger than the tube, Professor? That is, if you mean to capture her magic.”
“Yes,” he mused as he swept his eyes over the area. “Help me find something.”
The two scoured the room, and I grew more uneasy with each passing second. I grasped my pants with both hands and tried to stop the trembling my body so desperately wanted to do. I failed.
A soft tug on the hem of my pants made me look down. Ramaro sat at my feet with one paw on my pants. “You look as pale as a ghost.”
I managed a shaky smile. “I’m kind of worried I’m about to become one.”
Marc’s gentle voice floated over to me. “I won’t let that happen.”
I turned and found his blue eye staring straight at me. “I swear it. If anything happens, I’ll stop the process.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “It’s alright. I’m sure your friends know what they’re doing.”
A terrific crash came from the far end of the attic. Theo and Eldric were buried under a mountain of books and broken beakers. They swam their way out, both covered in slight knicks from the busted glass.
Eldric glared at his assistant. “I told you not to touch that book!”
“I’m sorry, Professor! I didn’t know it was holding up two piles of books!”
I winced. “I hope they know what they’re doing. . .”
“Did you at least grab what we were going for?” Eldric growled.
Theo popped his hand out of the mess and held aloft a small lamp cover. “Yes, Professor.”
“Good,” Eldric mused as he climbed out of the pile and brushed himself off. “Now we can begin.”
Chapter 12
I sat stiff as a board as the two men attached the lamp shade to the tube’s mouth. They stepped back and admired their work. “What now, Professor?” Theo asked his master.
Eldric turned to me with a smile. “Now we will have the pretty young woman sing us a song. The same one as before, if you would.”
I cleared my throat and slipped into song. More of my confidence had fled, and my voice ebbed and flowed with my nervousness. The air wavered, and what little dust remained floated out from between the floorboards and surrounded me.
Eldric tapped the new mouthpiece. “Direct the sand into here, Miss Rose, as you did out the window.”
I focused all my attention on that small glass bowl, and the dust slipped inside. The clear tubing allowed us to watch the dirt slide into the stomach of the beaker, where it tumbled about. Every new addition increased the frenzy until the inside of the beaker resembled a tempest.
Eldric hovered his hands over the swirling mass, and his eyes shimmered. “Wonderful. Brilliant. This should be enough, Miss Rose.”
I gladly ceased my uneasy warbling. The tempest also ceased, and Theo was quick to stop the bell mouth with a cork. I was glad to be sitting down, as a faintness swept over me, but I had one thing with which to console myself.
That I’d done a fantastic job cleaning the attic. Not a speck of dust remained on the books, furniture, and even the floor.
Theo gaped at the cleaned area, and his shocked eyes fell on something on a table. He snatched it up, and his face lit up with glee. “My Iris pin! I’ve been looking for it for ages!”
Eldric gingerly lifted the whole mechanism and studied the bits of sand. “Fascinating.”
Ramaro scuttled onto the table and wrinkled his snout. “How is that going to help fix his patch?”
Eldric grinned over the top of the beaker. “You’ll see.” He fixed his attention on Marc. “Are you ready?”
Marc’s eyes flickered between the man and his beaker. “I’d be more ready if you told me how you were going to work this.”
“You’re going to open that eye patch into the bell.”
