Island of Fire (The Unwanteds) (20 page)

“Well, I could do it in a pinch,” Florence said, adjusting her bulging quiver of arrows on her back, “but Siggy found someone else in the theater supply closet with a lot more experience. He’s bringing him by in a bit.”

“Perfect,” Alex said. “High tide is around eight. That’ll help with launching this crazy ship.”

“You know it whispers, right?” Florence asked.

Alex nodded. “Any idea what it’s saying?”

“No,” Florence said. “Hopefully nothing bad.” She smiled and picked up the stack of crates, lifting them over the railing and placing them on the deck.

Before long, a strange assortment of volunteers had assembled in groups according to their assigned leaders. Alex, Sean, Meghan, Ms. Octavia, Florence, Simber, and Rufus each carried a written list of their charges, each leader responsible for counting and keeping track of their volunteers. The statues mostly stood quietly, though a few hopped around sniffing things, while the squirrelicorns circled overhead.

Soon Mr. Appleblossom arrived, walking with a marble statue. He was a man with a peg leg, and he wore the uniform and hat of a sea captain.

Mr. Appleblossom stopped in front of Alex. “A bright and lucky morn to you, my boy,” he said. “Meet Captain Ahab, here to run your ship. A finer man the sea has never known.” He leaned in and whispered, “Take heed, or find yourself with a fat lip.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “Ah, nice to meet you, Captain Ahab.”

“Pirates!” exploded the statue, pointing at the sails. “Blast my skull to bits!”

Alex stared. He slid his gaze to Mr. Appleblossom, who smiled politely, almost with mischief, and said nothing.

“We-we’re not pirates. We’re just going to that island there, and then back again. Can you sail this thing?”

“Ransacking thieves!” he roared. “Ye ever seen the white whale?” He leaned toward Alex, leering at him.

Alex fought off a strange urge to laugh. No wonder Mr. Appleblossom kept this statue in the props closet. The captain was crazy, and Mr. Appleblossom knew it, but he was a ship captain. And, well, they really needed him. Alex decided to try a
more direct approach. “Follow me,” he said. He turned abruptly and started up the gangplank, hoping the captain was following him. A minute later the uneven thump of the statue’s gait assured Alex he was.

“When we push off, I need you to take us there,” Alex said, once they reached the main deck. He pointed to Warbler. “Okay?”

The captain peered out over the water. “Thar she blows!” he bellowed. He pointed to what looked to Alex like the next island beyond Warbler, which they could sometimes see, and sometimes not see, depending on the light and the waves. Alex looked out of sheer curiosity and thought he saw a bit of froth rising from the surface of the water, but a second later it was gone. He shrugged. Maybe this guy had a thing for whales. But that was probably just a big wave crashing against a rock wall.

“Great,” Alex said. “Stay here and be ready.”

“Ye blast my skull!” the captain said in return.

“You’re blasting mine,” Alex muttered, and then made a hasty retreat when he remembered what Mr. Appleblossom had said about avoiding a fat lip.

A glance at the waterline on the sand told him they were
near high tide. It was time to go. He peered over the ship’s rail and called out, “All aboard!” He watched the army, pleased, as they boarded the ship in an orderly fashion. Those who could fly did so, and those who couldn’t made their way to their stations on foot, the legless tiki statue again mysteriously appearing on deck, without anyone having noticed it moving.

When Mr. Appleblossom returned to the mansion to help run things, and everyone but Simber and Florence was on board, Simber braced his rippling shoulder against the stern and lifted up, taking care with the rudder. Florence gripped the sides, lifting and pushing. Together they poured all their weight into dislodging the ship from the bit of sand that remained.

Simber growled when the water lapped at his feet. He’d had enough of that lately. But he pushed on, and soon he and Florence were gliding through the water with ease. “That’s enough forrr me,” he said to Florence, and began to flap his wings, rising into the air. He shook his body to rid it of the awful liquid.

Florence smiled and waved him off. “Poor kitty,” she said.

Simber growled again, this time playfully, and showered
Florence with droplets. “We’rrre farrr enough,” he said. “Grrrab hold, I’ll give you a leg up.”

“Everybody to the bow!” Florence shouted. She let go of the ship and, careful to avoid Simber’s wings, slung an arm around his neck. He rose slowly, bringing Florence up and out of the water, and set her gently on deck opposite everyone else to keep the ship from capsizing.

Captain Ahab gave a shout, and with that, they were seaborne.

But then, just as they pulled away from their glorious Artimé, a figure burst from the mansion’s seaside door and rushed to the shore, waving her arms and shouting, “Wait!”

S
imber turned his head, hearing the cry. “I’ll be rrright back,” he said, and soared over the ship, turning sharply toward the shore. Alex watched him, alarmed, trying to figure out who was standing at the shore. Was it Ms. Morning? What could have happened to bring her out of her bed?

Simber landed on the sand and spoke a few words to the woman, and then she climbed on his back. Soon they were heading to the ship, and within seconds the woman was dangling from Simber’s neck and dropping to the deck. Alex watched, curious. The woman dusted off her clothes and looked around anxiously.

“Carina!” Alex cried. He ran over to her and picked her
up, twirling her around in a huge circle as the rest of the crew looked on, some with smiles, some with curiosity.

“Alex,” she said with a wide grin, and then she grabbed his head and kissed him soundly on the cheek.

He laughed, only a little embarrassed, and happier than he could possibly explain to see Carina Fathom—or rather, Carina
Holiday
, again. “You came back!” But his delight turned to concern. “Where’s your baby? Is everything okay?”

“Little Seth is fine,” Carina assured him, smoothing her short locks of light brown hair. “I snuck home to Artimé during the night to see how you were all doing, and lo and behold, I found you back in business! Friends told me at breakfast that you were setting out on this adventure. They said they’d take care of Seth while I’m gone. I didn’t want to miss it. I felt so bad for leaving you like that.”

“Don’t, please,” Alex said. He gripped her arms and smiled warmly. “You needed to go, and I’m so glad to see you again. You look . . . just . . . great. Doesn’t she, guys?” He turned and looked around, his eyes stopping at Sean, who was staring intensely at Carina. Alex dropped his gaze and smiled a little.

“It’s good to see you,” Sean said.

Carina’s face nearly split, she was grinning so hard. “Sean,” she said. She went to him and gave him a big hug. “I missed you.”

Sean dipped his head, embarrassed. “It’s . . . yeah. I—Me too.”

Meghan, who had been watching the reunion, cast a glance at Alex and almost laughed. Her brother had a crush on Carina Holiday! She’d had no idea.

“Sean,” Meghan said. Carina gave a look of surprise at Meghan, who could speak again. “Why don’t you fill Carina in on everything that happened after she left? Alex and I have some planning to do.”

“We do?” Alex looked at Meghan. “Oh. I mean, yes. We do.” He let Meghan drag him by the arm to a quiet spot on deck below Simber, who only had to flap his wings every now and then to keep up with the lazy speed of the ship. From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Sky standing off to the side with Crow and Henry, watching him. But just as he was about to call out to her, she tugged Crow’s shirt and headed down to a lower deck.

“Oh,” Alex murmured.

“What, oh?”

“Never mind. What’s up?”

Meghan tilted her head and flashed Alex a quizzical look. “What’s going on with you and her?”

“Her who?”

“Sky. Duh.”

“Nothing.” He didn’t know why he felt guilty.

“So you still like Lani?” Meghan’s sharp green eyes bored into Alex’s soul.

“Of course,” Alex said.

Meghan looked like she didn’t believe him. “You know,
if
she and Sam are alive, and
if
we are able to rescue them, it would be really bad timing to suddenly stop liking her.”

“She’s my friend. I’m not going to stop liking her.”

“You know what I mean.” Meghan narrowed her eyes.

“So?”

“So I’m telling you as your best friend that you shouldn’t do anything dumb. I mean, I really like Sky. She’s great. But it would be really dumb to, you know,
like
her right now. So maybe you should stop.”

“I don’t like Sky,” Alex said, growing exasperated. “I still like Lani, okay? I’m not going to— Bah! Whatever, okay? I
miss Lani. I miss her like crazy,” he said, and he meant it. “You have no idea how much I miss her and Sam, or how horrible it’s been for me knowing we couldn’t do anything to help them. I don’t even have time to like
anybody
, okay? Because this dumb job that got forced on me never, ever ends. There’s always some crisis, and there’s always some problem, and there’s always some—”

“I’m sorry. Wow,” Meghan said. “Calm down.”

“No! You know what? Who am I kidding? Look at Mr. Today—he left his family to do this job, and he never seemed to have time to
like
his wife or anybody again, and I know why. It’s because this job is endless. So don’t even talk to me about who I should like or shouldn’t like, because I’ll never be able to have anything resembling . . . that. Ever.” Even as he said it, he began to realize the truth in his words. He made a quick move to his feet, nearly taking a blow to the head from the tip of Simber’s wing. He ducked and shuffled off to go belowdecks. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt Lani’s feelings,” he said over his shoulder. “But she’ll figure out eventually that I’m going to pretty much be a big loner for the rest of my life.”

He stepped down, barely catching sight of a familiar piece of clothing disappearing around the corner in front of him. He hurried down the step and saw Sky running at full speed toward the bow. He watched for a moment, mouth open, and then he wrinkled up his face and cursed his stupidity under his breath, pounding his forehead against the cabin wall.

A
n hour into the journey, Alex began meeting with each group to give them a copy of the map and go over the plan. They would arrive by late afternoon and enact the plan before dark—Sky had told them that would probably be the best time. Each group would be responsible for different parts of the plan, and each leader had the authority to call off a part of the plan that wasn’t working.

They had brought plenty of food along, so everyone ate a hearty lunch as they went over their directions with their leader. Alex sat quietly alone in the spot he’d been sitting in before. Meghan came up to him, apologized, and left again after
Alex apologized too. Simber flew overhead, quiet as ever, noticing everything, saying nothing, as was
his
modus operandi.

It was midafternoon, after a zillion thoughts had flown through Alex’s head that kept him from concentrating, when Simber spoke.

“Alex,” he said.

Alex looked up. “Yes?”

“Something’s off.”

Whenever Simber said those words, it was never good.

“What is it?” Alex said.

“We’rrre strrraying off courrrse. Just a little. But enough to be a concerrrn.”

Alex looked up at the sails. “Is it the wind?”

Simber was quiet for a moment. “No.”

“Is it the crazy captain?”

“That would be my firrrst guess.”

Alex got to his feet. “Thanks. I’ll go talk to him. Though I don’t know what good it’ll do. He doesn’t exactly know how to carry on a conversation.” He made his way to the ship’s wheel. As he grew close, he could hear the mutterings and outbursts of Captain Ahab.

“Shred my beard and call me Ishmael!” the captain shouted. He leaned heavily on the wheel.

“Excuse me, Captain,” Alex said. “It seems we’re off course.” He put a hand to his brow to shield the sun. “We need to go to that island over there.”