Island of Fire (The Unwanteds) (7 page)

Soon enough Sam knew he had to either pull his arm out from under Lani’s head or lose a limb due to lack of circulation, so he nudged Lani and yanked his arm away, stopping in time to catch her head in his hand. He set her head gently on the stone floor and freed his fingers from her hair, then instinctively smoothed it away from her face, knowing how much it tickled his own nose when she flung it about. He found the most comfortable position under the circumstances and took a fresh grasp of Lani’s fingers while he waited for the numbness in his arm to subside. Eventually his lids drooped, and he slept too.

When Lani awoke, she didn’t bother to open her eyes—what was the point? Instead she readjusted her grip on Samheed’s hand and rolled to her side, pushing her back against his to try to warm it. Under different circumstances, she might delight in holding a boy’s hand for an extended period of time, even if it wasn’t Alex, because it was a new feeling, and Lani was nothing if not an explorer of new things. But there came a
time when enough was enough, and after what must have been many days, even weeks, she was so tired of holding Samheed’s hand that she sometimes squeezed it very hard to try and get some of her frustrations out.

The crazy thing was that Sam, who was such a hothead when she first met him, didn’t seem to mind. He let it happen, knowing there was no other way to express emotions in their mute world. He’d squeeze back, but not like one might expect Samheed to squeeze when angry, so it never hurt Lani. Something had changed in him since his early days in Artimé. He’d grown mellower. Lani liked that. She liked it a lot.

She sniffed deeply, trying to determine if anyone had brought food recently. Smelling nothing, she scooted over, rolled to her back, and slowly let her eyelids open.

She frowned. And then she sat up. She craned her neck, squinting, turning her head all around, and frowned again. And then she pounded Samheed’s arm.

Her heart raced, and she pounded him again, and then began to tap into his hand, “Wake up! I think . . . ”

He didn’t move, so she pounded him harder until he moved and sat up.

She began again. “Something’s different. Can you”—she paused, not quite sure—“see? A little bit?”

Samheed turned his head about, and Lani almost thought she saw a shadow, or a silhouette of his face. “I can see you!” she tapped. “Sam!”

“No,” he tapped. “I can’t.” He turned toward her, but she couldn’t make out his features at all. He was just an outline, black on dark gray. A moment passed. “Nothing,” he tapped slowly. “Are you sure?”

Lani strained her eyes, and the usual blackness was definitely gray now. She could see Samheed’s profile, and a blob not far away—the bucket of water. “It’s very faint,” she tapped. “Gray instead of black. Outlines. The bucket.” She turned toward him. “I’ll touch your nose,” she said, and reached out toward the line where gray became black along his profile and the tip of his nose was apparent. Her finger landed on it, and she could feel him breathe in surprise.

“I . . . ,” he began to tap, and shook his head. His heart twisted as he yearned to see anything, but all was still black. “Still nothing,” he finally tapped.

In wonder, just barely able to see the outline of him, Lani
guided her finger down his nose, across his cheek, and then she squeezed his shoulder. Tears jumped to her eyes as the world lightened before her at the slowest possible pace. “I can see you,” her lips mouthed, but she didn’t tap it. Instead she tapped, “I’m sorry.”

Samheed was still for a moment, and Lani watched him bring his free hand to his bowed head. She could almost feel his longing. Then he dropped his hand to his lap, deadweight, and tapped, “Tell me everything you see. And—” He stopped.

Lani waited. “And?”

Samheed turned his blind eyes toward her. She could see the outline of his body, feel his breath on her bare arm, his hand on her knee. Slowly, softly, he tapped, “Please don’t leave me.”

L
ani squeezed Samheed’s arm. “Of course I won’t leave you!” she tapped. She flung her arms around his neck, surprising him, catching him off balance. He righted himself and, after a second, hugged her tightly, squeezing his eyes shut and biting the inside of his cheek, wishing he weren’t so helpless. He hated this feeling—had always hated it. Before today he could be thankful that Lani couldn’t see the fear on his face, but now . . . He didn’t want to have to count on anybody at any time, not after all that had happened to him.

But when he was truthful with himself, and when he
remembered that Lani hadn’t left him the last time she’d had a chance, while he lay helpless and knocked out on a table, and when he thought about the past weeks in this stupid, horrible cave of darkness and silence, no one coming to their rescue, only Lani there, and the two in turn acting both vulnerable and strong, he knew that Lani was probably the one and only person in the whole world with whom he could truly let down his guard.

He clutched at her, devastated that she could see shadows and he couldn’t, yet trying not to lose hope. If she could see, she could try to escape. But if she had to drag him with her, he was only a liability. And despite her response, despite knowing deep down that she wouldn’t leave him willingly, he was still scared beyond anything he’d ever been through—beyond the Purge, beyond the battle, beyond the excruciating implantation of the necklace of thorns. Samheed was frightened that something would separate them, and that he would be left blind, deaf, mute, and alone in this stark cave once again, this time forever.

Lani’s lips parted in surprise when Samheed didn’t let go of her. And even though she’d been concentrating, straining her
eyes to see more and more as the light slowly increased, something in her stomach flitted about just then, and she became highly aware of Sam’s warm cheek against hers. She swallowed hard and her breathing grew shallower, almost as if she was afraid her intake of air would disturb the moment or cause Sam to come to his senses and let go. But he didn’t. Lani’s eyes fluttered closed, and she turned her attention from things she could barely see to things intangible and invisible inside of her, and for the briefest of moments, the two breathed together in time.

When they drew apart at last, it was with a somber realization that they were alone in this strange and horrible world, and that hope for rescue was waning. That despite the trauma and horror of their predicament, all they had was the person sitting next to them. And all they could do was wait for Alex.

But Alex hadn’t come.

Neither needed to say it. They sat side by side, backs against the wall, fingers intertwined, with no pressing need for sight or sound in this moment, as long as they had each other.

It was perhaps an hour later that a towering shadow darkened the brightening space in front of Lani. She startled with
force and scrambled closer to Samheed, gripping his hand tightly as she tried to explain what was happening with taps from her other hand on his knee. But it became apparent that the figure, in the process of setting down a tray of food, noticed her commotion. In the grainy light, Lani saw the black holes that were his eye sockets, two dull orange spots coming from the depths of them, and a slow, evil smile spreading across his face.

He lunged at her, snatching her by her free arm, and pulled her toward him. Lani’s mouth opened wide in a silent scream, her body being pulled upward by the figure and down again by Samheed, who hung on to her hand and arm with all his might, knowing only that his worst fears must be coming true.

Pain tore through Lani’s body as the figure grasped her around the waist and yanked her up and away from Samheed. He stomped on Sam’s foot and kneed the boy in the stomach, but even breathless and racked with pain, Samheed hung on to Lani’s arm. “I’m not letting go!” he screamed, but the words could be heard only in his head. He kicked out wildly, trying to connect with whatever it was that was taking Lani away, but he missed over and over. Sweat slickened his grasp, and with one
lurch into the air and a kick from the enemy, Samheed lost his hold and hit the ground hard.

Lani nearly went flying in the other direction, but the figure tightened his grip around her waist as she kicked and pounded at him, and he carried her away, leaving Sam motionless on the stone floor of the cave.

B
reathe,’ ” Alex murmured. He looked up at Sky. “It says ‘breathe’!”

Sky looked back at him, her eyes shiny. She nodded. Then she pointed at another picture inside the miniature mansion.

Alex turned back to Mr. Today’s tiny office and aimed the magnifying glass on another picture. Sweat poured down his face as he concentrated, then tried not to concentrate too hard. This picture was similar to the first, but the colors of the dots were different, as was the pattern. Alex wiped away the sweat that dripped into his eyes, which made him have to start over. “Crud,” he muttered.

The girl rested her hand on Alex’s arm and gave him a stern look. He took a deep breath and relaxed. “I know,” he said. “I know.” He closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on being calm. Then he started again.

After a few minutes, something wavered before his eyes, and then it turned cloudy. Without warning, Sky pulled the magnifying glass from Alex’s hand and started blowing into the mansion with all her might.

Alex, startled, was mad. “What? I almost had it!”

She spoke with her hands furiously fast, even though Alex couldn’t understand what she was saying. Then she jabbed her finger at a black spot on the wall of Mr. Today’s office just below the picture Alex had been focusing on. It was a scorch mark. Alex sniffed and smelled smoke.

“Oh,” he said. “Wow. I almost burned the place down.”

Sky rolled her eyes and pointed down to the roof of the shack.

“Go inside the shack?” Alex guessed.

Sky answered by leading the way down the statue.

Inside, on the floor of the little kitchen, they found an unoccupied niche in which to sit. Once their eyes adjusted to the difference in lighting, Alex tried again. This time it took
only a few moments for the dots to start swimming around. Alex strained to hold the connection, and soon enough, letters popped out into space, danced, and then formed another word. This time, the word was “BELIEVE.”

“ ‘Believe!’ ” Alex whispered to the girl. She nodded excitedly and prodded him to go to the next one. He did, and a few minutes later, he had deciphered the third: “COMMENCE.”

Alex said the words in his head several times so that he wouldn’t forget, and he said them to Sky as well so that she could memorize them. He chose a new picture and soon he had his fourth word: “IMAGINE.” When he had that one, he glanced at the Silent girl. “Which one haven’t I done?” he asked, his voice pitching high with nerves. He didn’t want to waste any time by doing any of them more than once, but he’d been too shocked and excited at the beginning to keep track of where he’d started.

She pointed to the one in the middle.

Alex grinned. Sky was amazing, he thought. No wonder she’d been to able escape from Warbler. “You are the
best
,” he said.

She nodded.

Alex laughed softly. He loved that she knew she was smart and clever. He turned back to the miniature and trained the
glass on the middle picture. He was getting quite good at it now, and within moments the last one jumped to life. “ ‘WHISPER,’ ” he whispered.

Alex scanned the other walls of the office to see if there were any more dot pictures. When he was quite certain there weren’t, he said all the words aloud. “Breathe, believe, commence, imagine, whisper.” He pulled Mr. Today’s spell from his pocket once more and read it through silently.

Follow the dots as the traveling sun,

Magnify, focus, every one.

Stand enrobed where you first saw me,

Utter in order; repeat times three.

With every line, Alex’s heart pounded faster. He’d found the dots, magnified, focused on all the pictures, he had the robe . . . Now all he had to do was figure out what the sun had to do with the dots, and remember where he first saw Mr. Today, then say the words in order three times, and Artimé would be back.