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Alex squeezed her fingers, ether He sucked in a breath but couldn’t answer

Another ed The se world so full of color, Alex could hardly see

The sun shone in a cerulean sky The cerass, and water fountains erew to full height, scattered far and wide The boiling lake softened into a cal expanded into an enornarled weeds at the children’s feet wavered and transformed into wide-eyed animals, both common and fantastic

Even the Elis disappeared, and all four grew even taller, with anie, stout, strong bodies like the Unwanteds had never seen The newly transfor black hair that reflected the sunlight, and their previously frightening red eyes grew kind and intelligent, a rich aawked, the shackles on their arround They took in a collective, awed breath, rubbed their sore wrists, and checked to see if the others were all still there

The tall, thin figure that had e--nowmulticolored robe He strolled toward them A fluffy shock of white hair stood up on his head as if he had just been struck by lightning

"Greetings, friends," said the man His voice, war bell He opened his arms wide "I a a finger to his lips, and then he shtly "Tell me, children How does it feel to be eliminated?"

Mr Today

It was as if Alex and the others were ical place alone would have been enough to shock any Quillen, for Quill was a bland world whose brightest color was the green of the leafy trees in the nursery In Quill all the trees were confined to one place so that no one would get notions about introducing such a bright color into the housing quadrants

But here in Artimé, all of the colors felt war blues of the sky and sea The strand of beach was not a dingy gray like the cement walls around Quill--it was clean and white with tiny bits of silver and gold sparkling in the sunshine

A cool breeze whisked away the odor of burning oil frorance of the sea and the woods The children breathed the wonderful scent, hesitating at first at its strangeness, and then nearly gulping it in, for several of the their breath for quite some time

Not one of the Unwanteds could even look around and ask, "Is this a joke?" because Quill was a serious place, and it was doubtful that any of the twenty even thought a joke possible Most likely nineteen of them had never known the word "joke," and the one that had known it overnors and thus ended up here Whatever "here" was, if not the Death Farm

Puzzled, Alex and the others could only stare at this htened, perhaps, not of Mr Today himself, but rather for hiht so obvious, that it surely overnors and sent to the … well Sent to here

But beyond all of that was the pure shock of seeing a winged tortoise (which at the moment sported a droll s that in a different situation one ht of a swihts were not allowed), and the--ould the Eliminators be called? No one had ever seen a creature like them Whatever they were, their deep, heavy breaths made up the bulk of the noise for thethat it was almost, nearly but not quite, unco, and the , and the Eli, all of thean to walk about the property, Mr Today pointed out little fanciful combinations of creatures--rabbitkeys and beavops and squirrelicorns and owlbats--which hopped about the grounds looking for a snack, or strolled down footpaths together deep in conversation, or hung upside down fro their necks about this way and that Soon a queue of huo about business as usual, which was all the ht have been sent to his death forin the dirt--like a square, perhaps, or, good heavens, a rhombus--the shock of it all felt a little bit like a forht, We are all still about to die

The tortoise cleared its throat and spoke to Mr Today "You may," it said slowly, "re … mem … ber, Marcus, what happens"--it yawned--"ev … er … y year"

Mr Today, who had been gazing and shts of these new and wonderful people, watching their faces and eyes and noticing if they had long fingers or short ones, and taking note of how each one stood exactly so, startled when the tortoise spoke And he juy