The History Mystery by Ana María Machado Read Free Book Online Page A

The search for perpetual motion had ended up helping to develop physics. The search for the Elixir of Youth and the Philosopher’s Stone had contributed to findings in chemistry. So it wasn’t just silly magic, like a lot of people think. Deep down, the paths of humanity …
    That’s enough! thought Pedro. He really felt like screaming at Will to stop. But he didn’t want to be mean to his friend. So he just said, ‘I’m sorry, but aren’t we straying a bit from the subject here, Will?’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Will. ‘I didn’t realise. I was just explaining how this alchemy thing worked in the Middle Ages, so Sonia could understand the message from the wizard’s assistant.’
    â€˜Yeah, OK, but now you’ve explained it, everybody gets it. Can we move on?’
    Will nodded, slightly offended, and let Pedro carry on. So Pedro explained what the wizard’s assistant had told them.
    One time, while the wizard was doing some experiment, a few drops of liquid had splashed over the assistant. It was just a little accident, but those few drops had consequences, and the effects endured over time.
    â€˜That Elixir of Youth thing?’ Sonia asked. ‘So he got baby skin in a few parts of his body, where the liquid touched him, maybe?’ She was trying to imagine what that would look like.
    â€˜No,’ Will said. ‘This liquid was probably not the Elixir of Youth, or of Eternal Life, as it was sometimes called. In fact, it couldn’t have been, because the elixir was never found. With the passing years, even the alchemists started believing that it couldn’t ever be developed. They gave up looking for it. Later, only the explorers kept looking for the Fountain of Youth in distant lands.’
    â€˜But anyway,’ Pedro picked up the story, ‘what our guy said, the wizard’s assistant, was that what splashed on him was this liquid that was being experimented with. It wasn’t the Elixir of Youth itself, but it was maybe going to be an ingredient in the elixir.
    â€˜And it didn’t affect his skin, as you imagined it might, Sonia, but it had consequences in his spirit. Something deeper than an effect on the surface of the body.’
    â€˜What on earth do you mean?’ asked Sonia.
    â€˜Well, from what this person told us, something in him never died. He may not have gained eternal youth, but he did gain a kind of eternal life, a sort of immortality, I don’t exactly know, but something like that.’
    â€˜So the guy’s a zombie?’ squawked Sonia. ‘Like, the living dead?’
    â€˜No,’ said Pedro. ‘As Will explained, it’s not his body that lives for ever, it’s not physical eternity. It’s his spirit that goes on living for ever.’
    Sonia came up in goosebumps at that thought.
    Pedro continued: ‘Something mental, it appears to be. But he wasn’t able to explain this thing properly, whatever it was. So that’s what we want to find out.’
    â€˜Exactly!’ Will was getting excited. ‘So the plan is, we’ll play the game again until we get to the same point, in the same room, and then we can see if the big alchemy book turns towards us again with another message.’
    â€˜Or at least with a ready-made chemistry project,’ joked Sonia. She was feeling a bit nervous, and she was trying to cover up. ‘We have to hand in our paper to Ms Nancy next week, remember? Just as Matt suggested back on that very first day, when Mr Costa gave us such a good grade for our history project.’
    But the boys didn’t find this very funny, so Sonia decided to keep her mouth shut from now on.
    They tried for hours, the three of them in front of the computer monitor. They overcame many obstacles. They came to the tower of the wizard with his pointy hat – without any stars or magic wand. But this time the wizard’s assistant did not show up.
    It was a