our after-school Aphrikan class, we were still doing foundation work, which is like a cross between trying to watch everything around you very closely and trying to meditate quietly inside your head, both at the same time. It was very difficult. Miss Ochiba insisted that we keep trying until we could do it to her satisfaction, but she never said what would satisfy her.
We found out unexpectedly, about three weeks after Christmas. It was a bitter day, clear and sunny, but so cold the snow squeaked underfoot and the air outside hurt to breathe. Most everyone hightailed it for home as soon as the regular classes were finished, because everybody knew it would get colder the later it got, and there’d probably be a nasty wind. That was why there were only four of us in the after-school class that day—Alexei Sokolov, Kristen Olvar, William, and me. I should have gone straight home with Lan, because on extra-cold days Mama still worried about the rheumatic fever coming back, but I hated missing my extra class, no matter what the reason.
Miss Ochiba had us put our chairs in a half circle, and we started in, sitting very still, trying to see everything and not think about anything, to hear Miss Ochiba’s instructions and follow them without really listening. We’d been working for ten or fifteen minutes when my head whipped around toward the window, without me intending it to. An instant later, I realized that everyone else had done the same thing at exactly the same moment.
Something moved across the sky at the upper corner of the window. It looked like a small, dense cloud, but we all knew it wasn’t a cloud. The sun sparkled and flashed from the heart of the “cloud,” and it left a thin white tail behind it for the crosswind to rip to shreds.
“Miss Ochiba,” Alexei said, “what is that?”
“A steam dragon,” Miss Ochiba said calmly. “You cannot see it clearly because the cold air condenses the outer part of the steam around it.”
“But—” said William.
“Hush,” said Miss Ochiba. “Listen.”
In the quiet, we heard the first alarm bell start, and then another, tolling one-two-three-pause, one-two- three-pause. I’d heard the bells a time or two before, but never in the rhythm of the wildlife alarm before.
Kristen shivered, still staring out the window. “How did it get past the Great Barrier?” she whispered.
“It flew over,” William said in a that’s-obvious tone. “Just like the ducks do. The barrier doesn’t go up much higher than the clock tower on the town hall. It—”
My stomach dropped as the white sparkly cloud suddenly dove toward the ground. Miss Ochiba moved in front of the window, but not before the cloud was stripped away by the dragon’s speed and we all got a glimpse of its silver-snake body trailing steam all the way down. The nearest alarm bell lost its rhythm and went into an urgent jangle. I felt something hard and bitter cold run down my side, like the flat of a knife blade left out of doors in winter. I shook my head, and everything around me seemed to whirl around once and then drop into its usual place.
Alexei licked his lips. “Miss Ochiba, what was that?” he asked, and from his tone we all knew that this time he didn’t mean the steam dragon.
“That was your sense of the world, unfolding,” Miss Ochiba replied. “Excellent work, all of you.”
“‘Sense of the world?’“ William said doubtfully. “Because we saw the steam dragon?”
Miss Ochiba’s lips curved in the faintest of smiles. “No, Mr. Graham. Because all of you knew the small cloud you saw was really a steam dragon, because all of you knew that each of your friends was also aware that it was a steam dragon, and because all of you knew those things before the dragon came into sight.”
I saw right off that Miss Ochiba was right. We’d all turned toward the window without thinking, before we could have seen anything outside. Kristen and William even had their backs partly toward the window, and they’d whipped right around with the rest of us.
Kristen and Alexei were nodding, like they were thinking the same as me, but William had a stubborn frown on his face. Miss Ochiba’s smile grew a little more. “You will have plenty of opportunity to test your world sense,” she said to William. “Foundation work is not something you master in one or two tries. You four will move on to circle work, but only three days each week. The other two days, you will continue to do foundation work with the rest of our group. And,” she added with a significant look at Alexei, “you will progress much faster if you also practice on your own, even when you are not working on it here.”
Everyone at school knew that Alexei did as little extra work as ever he could. It was a nine days’ wonder when he joined Miss Ochiba’s after-school class, and I’d heard that some of the older boys had a bet on how long he’d keep coming. But now he only looked thoughtful. “If I practice, can I learn to feel a steam dragon coming from farther away?” he said.
“Yes,” Miss Ochiba said. “I can safely promise that with additional practice, you will increase the distance at which you can sense steam dragons and other creatures. How great an increase will depend on a number of factors, including your native ability, so the skill may not be as useful in the end as you hope.”
“Even a little…” Alexei said under his breath. Then he nodded, once, as if he was making an agreement with her. “I’ll do it.”
“The bells have stopped,” Kristen said.
We all looked at the window, except for Miss Ochiba, but there was nothing to see but sky. “They’ll ring the emergency-over in a moment,” Miss Ochiba said. “I think this will be enough for today, so you may leave as soon as they do.”
William and Alexei immediately started for the coat hooks. William looked back over his shoulder at me. “Come on!” he said. “I’m not going to miss seeing a real steam dragon, just ‘cause you’re slow.”
“Oh!” Kristen said, and shuddered. “You’re not actually going after that thing, are you?”
“Why not?” Alexei demanded. “It can’t have come down very far away, and it’s not like it’ll still be alive. Not once they ring emergency-over.”
“This may be our only chance to get a good look at a real steam dragon,” William added. “Eff, are you coming?”
Truth to tell, I was a lot more of Kristen’s mind than William’s or Alexei’s. Just seeing the steam dragon from the window had given me the shivers. But William was the closest thing to a friend I’d ever had, and I didn’t want him looking at me the way he was looking at Kristen right then. “Hold your horses,” I said. “An extra minute or two won’t matter. That thing was big—they’re not going to cart it off in a hurry.”
“Eff!”
“Go on without me, then,” I said, knowing perfectly well he wouldn’t. “I still want to ask Miss Ochiba some things.”
Miss Ochiba stopped tidying her desk and looked at me expectantly. I swallowed hard. I hadn’t meant to say that straight out until I’d thought a little more. But now I was stuck, so I said, “When the steam dragon came down, I felt real peculiar for a minute. Why was that?”
“Peculiar in exactly what way?” Miss Ochiba asked.
I described the sinking in my stomach and the cold-knife sensation, while Alexei and William left off struggling with their coats and sidled close enough to hear.
Miss Ochiba pursed her lips. “The sensations you felt are quite normal,” she said after a moment. “That is, they are part of your developing world sense. When you begin to know things in this way, your mind tries to fit the new knowledge into old, familiar patterns.”
“Like smelling something funny?” William broke in. “Or hearing a strange noise?”
“Exactly,” Miss Ochiba said. “But the world sense is very ... individual. The exact sensations—and their meanings—are not the same for every practitioner, and it will be better if you all learn for yourselves how to interpret them. It will no doubt feel ‘peculiar’ at first, but it becomes more natural with time and practice.”
“Time and practice, time and practice,” Alexei grumbled. “Isn’t there anything magical we can just
“Sure,” Kristen said. “You can mess up.”
William snickered. Alexei turned angrily, but Kristen said, “Listen! The bells have changed.”
That sent us all scrambling for our coats, and then out the door. The boys went straight toward the area where the steam dragon had fallen, and I trailed along behind. It wasn’t too hard to find. Practically everyone else on the street was heading the same way, especially as we got closer.
A good-sized crowd had collected by the time we found the place, so we never actually got near the dragon. Still, even from the back we could see the bottom half of it draped over the feed store, like a silver fire hose twice
