The Guardians of Island X (16 page)

“Captain?”

For a moment she looked at Jem as if she couldn’t quite see him. Then she nodded. “Fitz, while you’re working on the house…I think…I also need you to do one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

She pursed her lips, then puffed out her cheeks, thinking hard. “I…I need you to be in charge of the crew. I have to disappear for a bit.”

“Scarlet, no!” Jem cried. “Not again! Whatever animal it is, forget it! We need you.”

“I know, Fitz. But it’s not an animal I’m chasing. It’s…much more important.”

Jem crossed his arms, wondering what could possibly be more important than helping them prepare for a pirate attack.

“Look, I’ll tell you everything when I get back. I promise. But for now, you’ve got to believe me that this is important. I wouldn’t think of leaving if it weren’t.”

Jem bit his lip. “I don’t know,” he said, remembering
his attempts at leading. “The crew doesn’t listen to me. I mean, I’m not…like you.”

“Course you’re not like me, Fitz. You’re you. That doesn’t mean you can’t take charge when I’m gone.”

Jem wasn’t convinced. “I’d like to try, but—”

“But nothing,” Scarlet interjected. “You’ve been doing a jolly job lately. No, I mean it, you
have
. You’ve got a good head, mate.”

“An Old World head.”

“Well, yes. And you’ve used it to solve some big, important mysteries. We need that Old World head of yours.”

It was the only time he’d ever heard her compliment something Old World. It gave him hope. “Really?”

“Captain’s honor.” She crossed her heart. “Now look, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“All right.” Jem nodded. “I don’t understand what’s going on…but I trust you.” Then he straightened and saluted. “Good luck, Captain.”

She saluted back, spoke quickly with the Islanders, and had begun to turn away when Sina grabbed her hand and shook it hard. It was an odd thing to do, Jem thought, but he reasoned that the Islanders weren’t familiar with Old World customs. And, anyway, he had more important things to think about. Like his captain taking off to who-knew-where and leaving him in charge of the Lost Souls.

Jem breathed slowly to calm his nerves. The pirates were going to attack—by morning at the latest. And he was in charge.

I’m in charge,
he told himself. Then he said it out loud to the Islanders. “I’m in charge.”

Kapu nodded as if he understood. He looked expectantly at Jem.

“Right. So what do I do now?” Jem tapped his foot on the grass. What needed to be done first? He looked around the clearing at the long shadows cast by the fading light of day.

The answer was obvious. In fact, it stood right beside him.

Sina looked downright upset. She was whispering to her brother, waving her hands and making her bracelets dance on her wrists. While Jem obviously didn’t know a word of the language Scarlet was relearning, he could tell Sina was saying something like “Let’s get the flotsam out of here!”

Kapu tugged on his sister’s hand, but she folded her arms across her chest and issued a command that sounded frighteningly similar to one of Scarlet’s. Jem had to do something before Sina scooped up Kapu and made a dash for the jungle.

“Please wait,” he said. “We need your help. You can
show me how to build a tree house.” He added as many hand gestures as he could to get the point across.

Kapu nodded. Sina shook her head.

“Blast,” Jem muttered. Not that he could blame her for wanting to go. She’d witnessed an incredible tragedy thanks to the Old Worlders. Why would she stick around to meet them again, or let them get near her brother?

But he couldn’t just let them leave. The Lost Souls needed all the help they could get.

Once again he looked around. The crew was scurrying about, directionless. Edwin dropped the lantern he was lighting and would have started a fire if a few others hadn’t stomped it out. Monty yelled at him, and the two started to quarrel. Gil wandered with his hands in his pockets, looking lost. Smitty stood off to one side, letting arrows fly every which way from his bow. Ronagh shrieked and covered her head when one swerved her way.

“That’s it!” Jem snapped his fingers. And he turned and beckoned to the Islanders. “Please follow me. Just this once.”

Sina sighed and grumbled something to her brother, who grasped her wrist and pulled her after Jem.

He led them across the clearing, weaving through the chaos. Then he stopped, touched Sina on the shoulder, and pointed at Smitty, who was stringing another crooked arrow into his bow, tongue clamped between his teeth.

Sina watched for only a split second before crying out in horror. Her long legs broke into a sprint, and
she grabbed Smitty’s bow before he could let another arrow fly.

“Yes!” Jem whispered. He’d figured Sina wouldn’t be able to stand back and witness such a disaster.

The girl shook her head at Smitty, and he, openmouthed, lowered his weapon. Then she plucked it from his hands and examined its design. She rolled her eyes and said something that probably amounted to “Blimey, I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Jem and Kapu grinned at each other while Sina drew out her own weapon and handed it to Smitty, adjusting his stance so that he stood square on both feet. Smitty shut his mouth and concentrated on the lesson.

“Excellent,” said Jem, turning to Kapu. “Now you and I will go work on the tree house.” He pointed in the direction of his unfinished work, and Kapu hopped up and down, impatient. “Let’s go!”

They scampered back across the clearing, skirting a dozen or so Lost Souls clustered in the center. Jem was about to dash right on past when he heard Tim’s voice. “We’ve got no ship. We can’t use our cloaks as disguises. How are we going to fight them?”

“Scurvy.” Jem slowed to a jog and motioned for Kapu to wait.

“The legend of the Lost Souls used to protect us, but now everyone knows we’re just children.” Tim’s voice wavered as he spoke.

“Even the pigs won’t help us now,” Sam added.

Jem thought back to what Scarlet had told him: That he had succeeded by using his own strengths
here on Island X. So if
he
could do it…

“On the
Hop
we had it all figured out. We had everything we needed to take on the bad guys.”

Jem opened his mouth to interject, but another Lost Soul cut in.

“Island X is totally different. What’ve we got here?”

“But—” Jem began.

“If we were on the
Hop
we might stand a—”

“All right, that’s enough!” Jem shouted. Over a dozen faces turned toward him, surprised. “Listen to yourselves! So what if you’re not on the
Hop
right now? You’re no different, any one of you, than you were last month, or the month before that. You’ve still got all the skills you had at home. Those don’t just disappear in the jungle.”

He stopped to take a breath and was alarmed to find them all listening to him. So he continued. “You’ve got to take your Lost Soul skills and talents and combine them with what you’ve learned on Island X.”

“Sounds jolly,” someone called from the back of the group. “But how?”

“Well…” Jem thought for a moment. “Take Elmo, for one. He’s a wicked climber. Scales the mast to the crow’s nest in less than a minute, right?”

“Forty-three seconds, actually,” Elmo said, blushing.

“So here he can climb trees instead of masts. He can hide and tell us when the pirates are approaching. We’ve got lots of good climbers, so we can have lots of lookouts.”

A few Lost Souls murmured that this was true.

“What else?” someone asked.

“Oh, blimey,” Jem said under his breath, racking his brain for answers. “How about—”

“Bull’s-eye!” A cry interrupted him. The Lost Souls turned to see Smitty with his fists in the air, triumphant.

“Didja see that?” He pointed to an arrow lodged in a tree some twenty yards away. “A perfect shot! Sina taught me, just like that!” And Smitty turned to his teacher with a look of pure adoration.

“Archery!” Jem cried. “Those of you who have good aim’ll pick it up fast. Sina’ll show you!”

The Lost Souls began to whisper among themselves.

“Charlie, that’s you. You’ve got good aim.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Come on, what else are you good at?” Jem pressed.

“How about rope tying?” someone else suggested.

“The rope tiers could make a trap!” Monty shouted. “When a pirate steps in it, he’ll get strung up!”

“Hey!” Tim cried suddenly. “I can do that! I know just the knot!”

“I’ll help!”

The crowd broke off into smaller groups. Some headed toward Smitty and Sina. Others ran off to find rope for their trap. Jem couldn’t help but gape at his own success. By giving the Lost Souls reason to believe in themselves, he’d convinced them that they could protect the island.

“Um, Jem,” a small, gruff voice spoke up behind him. Jem turned to see Gil Jenkins, hands still stuffed in his trouser pockets. The boy glanced up at him, then
down at the ground. “Anything…I can do?”

Jem regarded him for a moment, wondering when Gil had last felt important—like he was really good at something. He’d been a lowly cabin boy before becoming Lucas Lawrence’s sidekick, so it had probably been ages.

Jem thought for a moment. “Well,” he said finally, “you’ve always been good with a dagger, Gil. Why don’t you take yours and get Sina to show you how to carve arrows? I bet you’d be good at that.”

At first Gil looked as if he wasn’t sure whether to believe Jem. Then, finally, he nodded. “I think I could do that.”

“Course you could. You’ll be a real fletcher.”

“A what now?”

Jem sighed. “A person who makes arrows. Go on.”

Gil mouthed the word
fletcher
to himself, then fished his dagger out of his boot and trotted off.

Finally Jem turned to Kapu. “Whew. That’s done. Now it’s just you and me and the tree house.”

But on the way, they passed Uncle Finn’s and Thomas’s piles of belongings, and Jem stopped. Once again he’d forgotten about the explorers, and the realization filled him with a dreadful certainty. There was no way they’d been gone this long looking for plants. Uncle Finn and Thomas had met with foul play—and Jem was fairly certain he knew who to blame.

Kapu tugged on Jem’s sleeve.

“It’s my uncle,” Jem explained, not caring if Kapu could understand him. “I just don’t know what to do.”

Kapu tugged again, and Jem looked down at him. The boy wore an impatient look—a look that told Jem exactly what he had to do. The only thing he
could
do, in fact.

Defeat the pirates.

As she tore through the trees once again, Scarlet wondered how many times she’d run this route in the last few days. It felt like hundreds. In fact, she realized after a while, despite the growing darkness, she now recognized nearly every turn and tree she passed. She was steering herself rather than relying on the island. And what’s more, thanks to some nice new calluses, she barely felt the twigs and burrs underfoot.

“Well, really, who needs boots?” she puffed as she ran. “Or a map for that matter.” She ducked a split second before knocking her head on an overhanging branch. “But a lantern. Now that’d be nice.”

Still, she had something even better tucked inside her trouser pocket. It had taken her a moment to recognize it when Sina had pressed it into her hand before she left.
How did Sina know?
Scarlet wondered.

The King’s Men were beginning to light their own lamps, giving the tents a warm glow. Once again Scarlet crouched in the bushes and picked up a stone. She hesitated before throwing it, asking herself one more time if she’d made the right decision. Part of her still couldn’t believe she’d left her crew at such an important time. But a larger part of her knew she’d done what she had to do.

She nailed the admiral’s tent with her stone. “Come on,” she whispered. “Come on, it’s important.”

She had to throw three before a shadow finally stirred inside the tent. The admiral stepped out hesitantly, as if he feared the awful memories she might inflict on him this time.

She didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Clearing. Right now,” she whispered, and darted off.

She waited there, arms folded across her chest, tapping a bare foot on the grass. He appeared minutes later, approaching slowly with a lantern at his side. And looking very, very tired.

“Scarlet, this had better be important. We’re moving out tomorrow morning, and I have a lot to do—”

“I know, Father. I don’t have much time, either. The pirates are going to attack your camp. Tonight.”

Admiral McCray started. “What? How do you know?”

“It’s a long story.”

He settled his fists on his hips.

She sighed. “All right, but I have to make it quick. See, one of my crew—Lucas Lawrence—defected to the
Dark Ranger
about a month ago, and he’s been using another one of my mates—Gil Jenkins—to spy on us. So Gil—he’s a bit of a twit, but I do think he means well—gave away some very,
very
important information that’s booted the pirates into action. They want to get your men out of the way before heading our way. So you see why I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

Admiral McCray shook his head. “Wait! Why do these pirates need to do away with us first? What do they want from you?”

“That’s a long story, too. Maybe another—”

“Now.”

She debated for a long moment but couldn’t think of another way to get him to believe her. So she shut her eyes and silently asked Island X for forgiveness. “The treasure,” she said very softly.

“Treasure?”

She opened her eyes and nodded. “The one we’re guarding. The rubies.”

“Rubies?”

“Well, it’s more than that, really, but the rubies are what everyone else considers—”

“More than that?”

“Father, this might go faster if you stopped repeating everything I say.”

He shook his head again. “Let me get this straight. You, my daughter, are protecting a treasure—rubies, among other things—on this island. The pirates know about it, and they’re going to attack you. But first they’ve got to get my men out of the way.”