Free Ambassador by William Alexander

out. Get out now. Let firefighters fight their way into the burning house to rescue pets. Let exorcists fight their way into a haunted house. Get out.
    Gabe hated that rule. He still followed it.
    The Envoy tugged him toward the kitchen door. Gabe let go of its hand-mouth to grab both cane sword and vajra hammer from the table. That was not part of the emergency plan, but they were right there, and grabbing them didn’t slow him down. Then he grabbed his jump bag from the coat hook on the way out. That was part of the plan. He noticed that Lupe’s bag was already gone.
    Gabe and the Envoy made it as far as a tree in the very back of the backyard, beside the fence. The boy braced himself against the far side of that tree. The Envoy wrapped itself around the trunk. Behind them the foundation and first floor of the duplex collapsed in on itself. It did so silently. Air that would have carried sound was sucked into the vortex along with the house. Gabe heard nothing but wind, howling and furious, rushing into the yard to fill up the suddenly empty space.
    The vortex compressed, collapsed, and vanished. The top half of the house fell into the hole where the rest of it used to be. Gabe felt the impact through his feet and legs more than he heard it happen.
    The wind subsided. Gabe came out from behind the tree trunk, breathing hard, grateful that the air around him held still long enough to be breathable.
    The second floor of his house stuck up from a hole in the ground. Gabe could see his bedroom window. He saw Zora tap her beak against the glass. He dropped the jump bag, ran across the yard, and yanked open the window sash to rescue his pets.
    Zora hopped onto his head and clung there with her claws. She made several chirrupy noises of alarm.
    Garuda sat on the bookshelf near the window. The shelf still stood, though all the books had fallen out. The lizard looked intrigued by recent events, but not especially alarmed. Gabe caught him up and held him. Then he called for Sir Toby. He couldn’t see the fox, but the bedroom door was still shut so he had to be in there somewhere.
    It felt bizarre to peer into his second-floor bedroom while standing on the ground, as though he had suddenly grown very tall. He stuck his head farther inside, and smelled smoke. “Of course,” he said. “Of course there’s smoke.”
    â€œI also smell smoke,” said the Envoy beside him. “Broken wiring may have ignited insulation in the walls. The insulation is very old and made out of flammable paper. Not at all sensible. I noticed that hazard while crawling between walls yesterday.”
    â€œSir Toby is still in my room.” Gabe wanted to go back in. He wasn’t supposed to go back in. It was expressly against the emergency plan to go back inside. He almost went in anyway.
    â€œStop,” the Envoy insisted. “I’m less fragile than you.” It climbed through the window like a slinky in reverse, found the fox underneath Gabe’s bed, and herded him out from under the blankets. Sir Toby yip-barked, angry at being herded. Then the fox saw Gabe through the open window and made a running jump in his direction.
    Gabe caught Sir Toby, tucked him under his other arm, and backed away from the wreckage. The Envoy oozed out and followed him.
    Thick, dark smoke began to billow through every open window. They stood by the tree and watched the house burn. Zora chirped from the top of Gabe’s head.
    â€œThe kitchen is gone,” Gabe whispered. “Dad’s spice rack is gone. He’s really proud of that spice collection.”
    â€œI’m very sorry for the loss,” said the Envoy.
    â€œWhat just happened, exactly?” Gabe asked, still too astonished to be upset. “How did this happen?”
    â€œThe disaster triggered when you approached the clothes dryer,” said the Envoy. It shifted colors from pale purple to dark indigo-blue, like the sky when the sun is almost