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mental map to places I can make doorways to.”
    “We appropriated my wood from the same forest where you got yours.” Mr. Winston lifted his bushy, gray eyebrows. “And it seems to magnify my feeble magic, also. Observe!” He turned to face the wall, the stick grasped in his left hand, and he spread his arms and shouted, “Fire!”
    The bookshelf seemed to burst into flames, floor to ceiling, and Dr. Tindall shrieked and flinched back, but Jamie smiled appreciatively. “It’s okay, it’s just an illusion. But a good one.” He nodded. “Nice, Mr. Winston.”
    The blaze vanished and Mr. Winston said, “It appears that illusions are all that I can manage, but that is a substantial improvement over my previous magical capabilities.”
    “Jamie, how did you know that it wasn’t real?” Dr. Tindall asked.
    “I felt the spell. I can sense how much power he’s using, and it would take a lot more than that to start a fire that big, that fast. And I didn’t feel any heat, either.” He stroked his chin and looked at the walking stick, still in Mr. Winston’s hand. “Even so, that was an impressive illusion. How did you figure out that you could do that with it, Mr. Winston?”
    “It came to me immediately, as soon as your Cherokee friend handed me the finished work. I’ve been experimenting with it when I have the chance. I think it will augment my stories when I teach my history lessons.”
    “No doubt. Try not to scare the kids, though.”
    “And take all of the fun out of it?” Mr. Winston grinned. “Would you like to see another illusion?”
    “Maybe later, if we have time. I want to show Dr. Tindall the rest of the school.”
    Directly behind the library was another building, clamorous with the sounds of construction — hammering, sawing, shouts of workmen. Jamie gestured at it as they passed. “This will be our cafeteria when it’s finished, which should be sometime next month. We’re waiting for the kitchen equipment to come in, the ovens and refrigerators and stuff.”
    “How about food supplies?” Dr. Tindall asked. “Will they all come from local sources?”
    “As much as possible, because we know they’ll be fresh. The rest will come from Hendersonville, and we’ll cart it through my granddaddy’s warehouse and then through that building across the road, his Rivershire headquarters. That’s one of the reasons we bought that land and had it built over there. It makes it easy to get stuff to the school when I’m not around to make doorways.”
    He led her to a square structure at the back of the campus. “This is our new maintenance facility. We hired a guy to take care of all this stuff, because it was becoming too complicated for us.”
    “Is he from Earth, too?”
    “He’s from Hendersonville, a fellow named Mr. Bass. My granddaddy found him, somehow. He used to be the head engineer at a big industrial complex in Asheville, but he took early retirement to take care of his sick wife.”
    “Is she okay now?”
    “She passed away about a year ago.”
    A couple of bicycles were leaning against the front of the building. Dr. Tindall said, “I take it these aren’t native.”
    Jamie groaned and shook his head. “I’m afraid we opened a Pandora’s Box with those. Fred’s mom found one at a garage sale and bought it for one of the girls here, Leora.”
    “The girl who caught the flu?”
    “Right. Then my gramma got one for this boy named Aiven, because she’s friends with his mother, and now all of the kids want one.” Jamie eyed the two bikes. “I think my aunt picked these up from somewhere. I guess Mr. Bass needs to do some work on them.”
    “So who gets those? If I were a kid here, I’d want one.”
    “Last I heard, they were thinking about giving them to the kids who have been attending school the longest.” He poked one of the tires with his foot. “Kinda like a reward. Stay in school, get a bike.”
    “That’s a good idea. Those bikes are probably a huge