Adnarel rose swiftly from the chair. Admael turned from the microscope. The twins stiffened.
Their mother"s voice called, "Twins! Are you home?"
"Oh, oh," Sandy said. "We"d better get the unicorns out of here."
"They"ll go as soon as they aren"t believed in," Adnarel said.
Dennys exclaimed, "But Meg and Charles Wallace believe in unicorns!"
Admael asked, "And in seraphim?"
"And we"re not supposed to be in the lab anyhow, with an experiment in progress." Sandy looked anxiously at Adnarel.
"Never fear," the seraph said. "You are all right?"
"Until Mother finds us in here."
Dennys added, "Looking the way we do, all sunburned."
"Compared with some of your other problems-" Admael started.
Their mother"s voice called out again. "Twins! Where are you?"
"No farewells," Adnarel said. He glanced at Admael, then put both strong, long hands on Dennys"s head. Admael followed suit with Sandy. Both boys felt, rather than a sense of pressure, a sense of the tops of their heads lifting, almost as the animal hosts lifted to become seraphim. And then each twin was staring at a normal winter twin, skins not darkened by the desert sun, hair not bleached almost white. Sandy glanced briefly at Dennys"s still bare feet, started to speak, then stopped as Adnarel held up his hand.
"Many waters-" The seraph reached out and clasped a unicorn horn. The light from the horn flooded back into the seraph"s hand, through his body, his wings, until he was streaming with light. Admael, too, was filled with flowing light.
"Cannot quench-" he seemed to be saying. Light blazed fiercely, blinding the twins. Then the brilliance faded.
Unicorns and seraphim were gone.
Brown-haired, winter-skinned twins stared at each other.
Mrs. Murry opened the door to the lab. Behind her, Meg and Charles Wallace peered in, curiously.
"Sandy. Dennys. What are you doing here? Didn"t you see the sign on the door?" She sounded extremely displeased.
"We didn"t actually see it," Sandy started.
"We just came to get the Dutch cocoa," Sandy explained.
"Look," Meg said, "it"s out here on the floor, by the kitchen door. Lucky it didn"t spill."
"We were just going to make some," Sandy said. "Shall we make enough for you three?"
"Please," their mother said. "It"s turning bitter cold. But, Sandy; Dennys, I beg you, don"t go into the lab when you"re asked not to. I hope you didn"t touch anything you shouldn"t have."
Sandy said, slowly, "It all depends. But I don"t think we touched anything we shouldn"t have, do you, Dennys?"
"Under the circ.u.mstances, no," Dennys said.
"Why are your feet bare, Den?" Charles Wallace asked.
"Good heavens!" Mrs. Murry exclaimed. "Put something on your feet this second, Dennys Murry, before you catch cold."
Meg opened the kitchen door, and there was the familiar odor of fresh bread, apples baking in the oven, and warmth, and brightness, and all the rea.s.surance of home.
As they followed the others in. Sandy whispered to Dennys, "I"m very glad the kitchen is all here. But you know what-I"m homesick."
"We probably always will be, a little," Dennys agreed.
"Well." Sandy straightened up. "As soon as we have our birthdays, we can get our driver"s licenses."
"And about time," Dennys said. "Now let"s make that cocoa."