Whenever Alex woke from this unsettling nightmare, he couldn’t get back to sleep, so he took to roaming the halls or getting a snack from the kitchen, trying to forget it. Sometimes there were other people around, but generally very few except the nocturnal creatures spent their nights moving about.
It was on one of these occasions that Alex, feeling pleasantly full and the nightmare having been extinguished from his thoughts, decided to peer down the new hallway that had been beckoning to him for weeks.
He never saw anyone enter or exit it, and no one else seemed to notice it at all. Because of this, Alex didn’t dare to explore it when others were around, or it would be painfully obvious that he’d be walking through what appeared to most students as a solid, mirrored wall.
Glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was about, he slipped quietly into the hallway and tiptoed down it. This hallway was different from the others he’d been in. It was much shorter and wider. And rather than soft carpet under his feet, this floor was deep, shiny mahogany planks. There were pillars carved of the same wood, and warm-colored paintings on the walls, giving this hallway a most comfortable feel.
Alex passed two wide, arching doorways on either side, though the doors of those four rooms were closed tightly and gave no indication of what was inside. As he walked farther down the hallway, he approached an area that appeared to be a lounge of some sort, extending far beyond the width of the hall on either side. He stopped, unsure. Straight ahead, above a sofa, was an enormous window overlooking the lawn. Alex could see stars twinkling and the shadowy trees of the jungle in the distance. Ahead and to the right he could just see into an area of gadgets and gauges, a blackboard, a tube, and a kitchenette.
Ahead and to the left he saw what appeared to be an office with a desk. Alex couldn’t tell whether someone occupied that room, but it looked fairly dark in there. He moved forward slowly, trying to get a better look. On a coatrack in the corner hung a multicolored robe very much like the robes Mr. Today often wore. Alex’s heart quickened, for certainly this was Mr. Today’s office, and certainly students were not meant to see it. Which made it all the more enticing.
He peered more closely and saw a display of blackboards lining the wall behind the desk. On them flashed different scenes, only Alex couldn’t make out what the scenes were. They all seemed quite dark, and after a moment Alex decided that they must be pictures of the outdoors.
His breath quickened as he crept closer. He looked over his shoulder again and, seeing no one, pushed ahead toward the room. Immediately he smacked hard into something, and with a loud twang he fell to the floor, his nose and forehead throbbing painfully. “Drat it,” he said, rubbing his nose. “Yeowch.”
When the sharp pain faded to dull, Alex sniffed and reached his hand out tentatively until it struck something cool and slick. “Glass,” he muttered. “What a nasty trick.” He followed the glass wall all around, finding to his dismay that it encased the entire width of the hallway and there was no way around it that would give him access to either of the open rooms that branched out, nor the comfy-looking lounge directly in front of him.
Gingerly holding the bridge of his aching nose, he slid as close as he could to Mr. Today’s office, trying to get a better glimpse of the blackboards. “What in the …,” he said, completely puzzled.
“Well, well, Stowe. You’ve found your way here too?”
Alex jumped and crashed loudly against the glass again, only this time with his shoulder, thank goodness. He whirled around, sucking in a shocked breath, and his mouth fell open in surprise.
Samheed’s Second Secret
Alex let out his held breath and grinned shakily. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question.” Samheed stood tall a dozen feet away, a dark look on his face. “Did I scare you? You sure jumped a mile.”
“Geez, Sam. Why’d you have to do that?” Alex straightened up and dusted off his pajamas, scowling.
“I made a little noise first, but you had your nose pressed so far into the glass I wasn’t sure you’d have heard a tank even if it rolled right past you. So haven’t you been here before?”
“Well, I’ve seen the hallway for a few weeks,” he said, remembering the first time he’d seen it, on the day of the governors’ inspection. “But there are always people wandering around, so I haven’t had a chance to go down it until tonight.”
“It’s better during the daytime,” Samheed said.
“Why?”
“Because you can see Quill better.”
“You … what?”
“And,” Samheed continued, “sometimes the glass barrier is down.”
“So you’ve gone in there? And what do you mean, you can see Quill better? Through that window?”
“No, not the window. And yes, I’ve been in there. Well … only twice. But those blackboards, which I’m guessing is what you were staring at, are really live pictures of Quill.”
“Live …?” Alex faltered.
“You know—they’re like a picture of what’s happening in Quill right now. Sort of like if you were looking out the window and seeing it.”
“How do you know?”
Samheed looked smug. “I’ve seen things,” he said. “The High Priest Justine, the governors, the Quillitary making armor and weapons. And—” He stopped short and pressed his lips together.