Allina rushed into the bedroom. I've done everything correctly, haven't I? she wondered. Was it the blood on the mandrake roots? Did I take out the mixture too quickly?
She looked over the recipe again. In her hurry, Allina had forgotten to speak the mouse's true name.
She flipped through Alejandra's journal, searching for some index of true names. Nothing. And her ear was still burning with awful pain.
Allina ran to Alejandra's workdesk. On it lay stacks of old books; Allina tore through them in search of true names.
Finally, she found something: a dusty tome handwritten in Spanish titled Los Animales de Washington, Oregon, y California. Inside were hasty pen drawings of different animals. Blocks of text in languages Allina couldn't read accompanied the drawings. Below each drawing, however, there was something she could read: the animal's Latin name, and then a word in Greek script.
The words were of no dialect recognizable to Allina; indeed, they seemed like babble. But she knew in her bones that those words were important. Perhaps, she thought, these are the animal's true names.
She flipped the pages until she found a drawing that looked liked a mouse, though it might have been a rat. Allina didn't waste a second double-checking. Wand held tight in her hand, Allina said the mouse's true name.
She began to shrink. Her eyesight became poor: the world looked duller and browner. Her hands and feet became small, pink things. She sprouted whiskers; a tail grew behind her. Allina could hear things she'd never been able to before. She stood on all fours in a heap of her clothing, a miniature wand still clutched in her paw.
Allina took the wand in her mouth, then scampered for the doorway. She slipped under the curtain, and she was out.
YOU ARE READING
The Library
FantasyA young girl meets a favorite guest every Saturday at the library. She discovers an old book, and begins to wonder if the guest is who she says she is.
