From "Eight Days of Luke" by Diana Wynne Jones

[loki]

From "Eight Days of Luke" by Diana Wynne Jones [1975]:

"Luke," he said, "I think those girls are stuck."

"Stuck?" Luke said vaguely. "Yes, I expect so. The stairs and the lift have gone. The roof's going in a minute."

The women round David saw the girls too, and began asking one another why somebody didn't do something. David took hold of Luke's elbow and shook him.

"Luke, could you stop this fire if you wanted?"

"Of course," said Luke, but his eyes were fixed on the heart of the building and he was not really attending.

"Then could you stop it now?" David said. "Those girls are going to be burnt."

Luke smiled absent-mindedly. "Little twits," he said. "They went to comb their hair first, then they panicked."

No doubt he was right. David thought they looked just that kind of girl. But it made no difference to the fact that they were hanging on to a chimney in a desperately narrow space between the flames and yelling for help. The firemen had put a ladder up against the next building, but there was clearly no chance of them reaching the girls.

"Luke," David said. "You can't bring the dead to life. Remember?"

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