Night of the New Magicians Read Online Free Page B

please, we are happy to help,” said the man as the couple climbed off their bicycle.
    “This is really nice of you!” said Annie.
    “Good luck!” the woman squeaked. Then she and the man started walking away.
    “You
were our good luck!” shouted Annie. “Thanks!”

    “Yes, thanks a lot!” shouted Jack.
    The man turned back. “You had better hurry!” he called over his shoulder. “If you want to be there by ten, you will have to spin like a whirlwind!” Then he and the woman rounded the corner and were gone.
    “I love this bike!” said Annie. She climbed onto the front seat, and Jack climbed onto the one in back. “Ready?”
    “Go easy till we get the hang of it,” said Jack.
    Jack and Annie started pedaling. At first, the large bike was very wobbly and they almost fell over. “We have to pedal at the same speed,” said Jack.
    Jack and Annie balanced themselves on the bike and tried to pedal together. The bike bumped over the cobblestones a little more smoothly.
    “I think I’ve got the hang of it now!” said Annie.
    “Me too!” said Jack. “It isn’t that different from riding a regular bike.”
    “Which way do we go?” said Annie.
    “We have to find that busy street with the cafés,” said Jack.
    They rode the bike to the corner and looked right and left. “That way” said Annie. She pointed to the right, where there was a busy block with lots of gaslit restaurants and people strolling about.
    “Okay go,” said Jack.
    Annie turned the front handlebars, and she and Jack pedaled down the bumpy street. Annie steered them carefully around couples walking arm in arm. People at outdoor cafés waved at them as they rode by.
    But the street grew more deserted as Jack and Annie kept riding. By the time they came to the end, there was no one around. They pushed back on their pedals and brought their bike to a shaky stop.
    “Which way now?” said Annie.
    Jack looked to the right and left. Both ways were dimly lit, with closed shops and dark houses. Jack didn’t recognize anything. “I don’tknow,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention during the carriage ride.”
    “Me, either,” said Annie.
    Jack could see the Eiffel Tower rising into the sky behind other buildings. It didn’t look that far away, but he had no idea how to get there. “Let’s try going left,” he said.
    Jack and Annie turned left and rattled over the cobblestones until they came to an empty square at the end of the street.
    “It’s a dead end,” said Jack.
    “We have to go back!” said Annie. “Hurry!”
    Jack and Annie turned the bike around and sped back up the street. They pedaled until they came to another dead end.
    “Oh, no!” said Jack. “Where’s that busy street with all the cafés?”
    “We must have missed it somehow,” said Annie. “We’re
completely
lost! And it’s almost ten o’clock!”
    “This is so annoying!” said Jack. “The toweris
right there
!” He pointed to the Eiffel Tower looming over Paris. “It’s really not that far away! We just don’t know how to get there!”
    “Wait a minute,” said Annie. “That guy said that to get there by ten, we’d have to ‘spin like a whirlwind.’”
    “I know, but we’re lost!” said Jack. “We don’t know which way to go!”
    “It doesn’t matter!” said Annie. “We have to spin!
Spin into the Air!
That’s one of our magic rhymes!
We have to spin our bike into the air!”

“ W ow,” whispered Jack. He reached into his satchel and pulled out their rhyme book.
    “I’ll say the first line of the rhyme,” Jack said to Annie. “You say the second. Then we’ll start pedaling as fast as we can. The street’s empty. No one will see us. So we can—”
    “Good,” interrupted Annie. “Let’s get going.”
    Jack held up the rhyme book so they could both read by the light of a streetlamp. He read his line first:
    Whirl and twirl and swirl and spin!
    Then Annie read the second line:
    Tee-roll-eye-bee-eye-ben!
    Jack shoved