Island of Fire (The Unwanteds) (25 page)

Gondoleery laughed out loud, which was something the people of Quill never did, so it was all the more shocking to Eva. “Aaron? Enemies? Ohhh, well, of course not. How could
anyone be against that boy?” Gondoleery looked hard at Eva.

Eva lifted her chin ever so slightly, her lips set in a line. “Exactly,” she said, her voice thin but not without a hint of accusation as well.

They stood for a moment, regarding each other through narrowed eyes. Finally Gondoleery broke the strained silence. “Please tell the high priest I can’t make the meeting.”

Eva nodded slightly. “I will deliver the message.”

As the Quillitary vehicle carried Eva back to the palace at a snail’s pace, Eva Fathom gazed out the window, lost in thought.

I
nspiration struck, and as the ship traveled toward Warbler, Alex took out his notebook and drew tiny pictures of each member of his army. He tapped them with a little bit of rubber, affixing the magical coating that would keep it from being destroyed under most circumstances. By late afternoon the pirate ship was drawing near to Warbler again, and this time it was heading straight for it. Alex was relieved, but still jittery. It was a dangerous mission—the evidence of which was found in the fresh scars around Meghan’s neck.

As they drew close to the island, Alex gathered all the
Artiméans together again to discuss the mission and go over the plan. He held up the map, reminded everyone of their routes, and then he handed out the pictures he’d drawn earlier. “Even if you’ve never tried magic, you should be able to do this. If you are captured or in trouble, close your eyes and touch this drawing, and think or say the word ‘seek.’ It will send out a ball of fire, show me your picture, and guide me to your location. We will come for you. Don’t be afraid.” He paused, a lump in his throat, while he waited for everyone to either pocket their picture if they had pockets, or for Meghan to stick it to their bellies if they were statues or creatures.

“Now would be a good time to get some water and food if you can stand to eat,” he said. “I sure can’t,” he added with a grin, which brought a round of nervous laughs. “I’ll see you back at your stations in twenty minutes, ready to go.”

They all dispersed, leaving Alex alone with his thoughts again. He bounced on the balls of his feet, focused but anxious, and took a few deep breaths. Simber flew over to him.

“And what if
you’rrre
capturrred or in trrrouble?”

Alex looked up. “What?”

“You gave everrryone a way to call for help but yourrrself.
Don’t tell me I’m going to have to rrransack the whole island searrrching forrr you,” he said.

“Oh—I—” he started. “I guess I didn’t think of that.” He paused, and then said, “But I can’t give a drawing to myself, because the seek spell wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“I’m awarrre of that,” Simber said. He held the side of his paw to a burning torch for a few moments, brought it to his mouth, and bit down hard, making a cracking noise. He turned his paw up and let something slide from his mouth into it. “Somebody’s got to take carrre of you, I suppose,” he said gruffly. He tossed it to Alex.

Alex caught it and opened his hand. It was the stone dewclaw from Simber’s paw.

“Oh, Simber,” Alex said. “You didn’t have to ruin yourself.”

“Well, I can’t drrraw. Besides, I don’t use that claw anyway. I didn’t exactly make it, but it grrrew afterrr Marrrcus made me, so I’m hoping it counts as something I crrreated. It’s all I have. Just stick it in yourrr pocket and be quiet about it.” Simber frowned, which was an even surer sign that he cared.

Alex could hardly speak. “Thank you,” he said in a quiet voice.

Simber nodded and went back to his post.

Alex put the stone claw into his pocket, and it clinked against something. Alex reached farther and pulled out the two spell prototypes that Lani and Samheed had made.

“Oh yeah,” he said, smiling. He closed his hand over them and wished on them. And then slowly he opened his hand and stared at them, thinking hard. “Wait a second,” he whispered. His lips parted and he sucked in a short breath. And then he closed his hand over them tightly and pumped his fist. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s a bonus.”

As he slipped them back into his pocket, the captain called out, “Blast my skull! It’s land!”

F
rom the deck, the Unwanteds could see no sign of life on the shores of Warbler. “It’s just like last time,” Meghan said in a soft voice to the first group. “Don’t be fooled. Right, guys?” she looked at Sky and Crow.

They nodded. “There are eight or ten guards in the trees,” Sky said softly. “They know we’re here, but they won’t alert anybody yet—they don’t want to be seen, and they don’t know we know they’re there. They are experts with the sleep darts, so they feel very confident right now.”

“Do you know how many darts they have?” Alex asked.

“At least a dozen each, I’d guess.” Sky lifted her chin in
defiance as she gazed at the island. “They’re very accurate, though, so they never expect to use them all.”

Alex nodded. He checked the sun, which hung low over Pirate Island. “We’ve got about an hour of daylight left,” he said. He turned to get reassurance from Simber as his stomach started flipping like a fish on the sand. Simber nodded.

“First wave,” Alex said, trying to make his voice sound commanding, “you’re up. Be careful.” He turned to the fox and kitten. “You know what to do.”

They both nodded. Fox’s hind legs jittered with excitement, and Kitten stood up on Fox’s head. With a nimble leap, the driftwood fox jumped over the side of the ship and splashed in the water, bobbing immediately to the surface. He began swimming with all his might. Kitten rode high and dry—except for the initial splash, of course. Florence followed, stepping carefully off the ship as Simber put his weight on the other end to balance it. She gathered up the rest of the statues in her arms like a bundle of sticks and made her way to the shore in a few long strides, just barely beating Fox and Kitten. Everyone else stayed on the ship.

Meghan gripped Alex’s arm as Florence set everyone down
on the sand. “Just when you think you’re safe,” she whispered. “Bam!”

Right on cue, the first round of sleep darts soared through the air. The tiki statue remained on board to count darts with its three sets of eyes, and Simber hovered above the ship, waiting.

When the darts bounced off the statues, Captain Ahab hobbled around, picking them up and putting them inside his hollow peg leg, and the statues, unaffected, kept walking. There was a moment when no darts flew. “They’re shocked,” Sky said. “But now they’re recovering and reloading.”

A moment later the darts began again, pelting the statues like a freak desert hailstorm. In the flurry, the fox and the kitten darted into the trees and disappeared. Charlie loped after them.

“Magicians ready?” Alex called. He pulled out a component in each hand and held them. When the darts thinned out and the tiki statue had counted one hundred and fifty, he said, “Go!”

“Attack dart throwers!” the magicians commanded, each launching two origami dragons. The flaming dragons soared toward the trees, seeking out their invisible targets.

“Okay, Simber. You’re up.” Alex said.

Simber beat the wind and flew through the air just as the dragons began to explode, pointing out the hidden dart throwers. Florence and the other statues grabbed the ones who fell from their posts attempting to escape the fierce fiery dragons, and Simber plucked all the other dart throwers from the trees. From the ship, Ms. Octavia was the best long-distance shot, and she froze any of them who tried to get away, while Florence cast spells on the ones within their grasp on the beach.

Soon all the orange-eyed dart throwers were contained and placed in a neat stack on the beach, frozen. Simber and Florence checked the trees once more, finding no one else. Florence turned to the ship and gave Alex a thumbs-up that all was clear. Then she barked out an order and most of the statues began to move along the perimeter of the island, staying close to the trees to guide any stray, fleeing, or lost Artiméans to safety. Florence disappeared, making her way to the other side of the island, where the entrance nearest Queen Eagala’s cave was, in case any problems arose there.

“Rufus, your team is clear to go,” Alex said. “Be safe up there.”

The small army of squirrelicorns took off flying for the center of the island.

Alex turned to the humans. “Meg, if there are any problems, send me a seek spell. And if Lani and Sam both make it back here, send out Lani’s so I know. The squirrelicorns are monitoring above and will alert Florence to any activity. Once things move this way according to plan, she’ll head back here to get the statues loaded on the ship.”

Meghan nodded. He face was white and she gripped the railing. This was a little too real for her.

Alex glanced at the setting sun once more. “How long has it been?”

“Eight minutes since Fox and Kitten made a break for it,” Sean said.

Alex set his jaw. “I can’t stand this.”

“You have to give them time,” Sky said.

“I know.” He stared at the island, unable to see anyone at all.

The agonizing minutes crawled by. Alex fingered Lani and Samheed’s spell components in his pocket, waiting. “Time?” he asked after a while.

“Twelve minutes.”

“Sheesh.” Alex dropped his head in his hands and wiped away the sweat.

Everyone else paced, or wriggled a foot nervously.

Finally Sean touched Alex’s shoulder. “Fifteen, my friend,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

“Okay.” Alex sucked in a breath and pulled the two prototype components out of his pocket. He clenched them in his fist and held his hand in front of him. He let out the breath, concentrating on the items in his hand, and whispered, “Seek.”

Two flaming balls whooshed out of Alex’s hand and raced to the shore, going in different directions, and soon they were hidden by trees. “Come on,” Alex whispered. He blew out another nervous breath and gave a grim smile to his friends. “Okay,” he said. He looked at Crow, Henry, and Sky, and then at Sean and Carina. “Ready?”

They nodded.

Alex turned back to Sky and Crow. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Both of them looked sure. “Yes,” they said, breathless.

Alex nodded, and then he took out two invisibility paintbrushes
from his vest and addressed Crow and Sky. “We’ll leave one of your arms unpainted so that we can see where you are, but this way no one will recognize you. But we need to hurry—it’ll wear off in fifteen or twenty minutes.”

They held an arm out and Alex painted the rest of them quickly.

“Why aren’t you painting all of us?” Henry asked.

“Because we don’t want to have to call out to find each other—we’d be discovered for sure. And we will lose each other if we’re all invisible. Plus Lani and Sam won’t be able to see us then either, and they won’t understand what’s happening. We can’t risk them not believing we are who we say we are.”

Henry shrugged. “Guess that makes sense.” He wanted Lani to see him, that was for sure.

Everyone but Meghan removed their vests and held them high above their heads with one hand as they climbed down a rope to the water, careful not to get their vests too wet. Then Sean and Alex loaded the nearly invisible Sky and Crow on their shoulders to make sure they didn’t lose sight of them completely in the water.

“Be safe,” Meghan called out as the six made for the shore.
She stood by Ms. Octavia and the tiki statue and nibbled on her fingernails, the giant bag of spell components in reach so that she could defend the ship if she needed to.

Alex glanced back. “Don’t worry, Meg. We’ve got this. Sean and Carina will be right here on the beach in sight at all times to fight off attackers and get the team home.”

As they reached shallower water, all six now walking independently toward the beach, a ball of fire came whizzing through the trees and stopped in front of Alex. It exploded, but this time it wasn’t Lani’s face looking back at him.

Alex gasped. It was the fiery outline of a tiny porcelain kitten.