The Guardians of Island X (3 page)

Jem lowered his hand and cleared his throat. “I say we talk about housing. I mean, it’s all well and good to sleep under the stars, and I know the animals won’t hurt us here, but we’ll need better cover than our cloaks when it rains.”

A few pirates nodded and murmured their agreement.

Scarlet had to admit Jem was right. Sleeping under the stars was jolly, but sleeping in the rain would seriously scuttle, and it was bound to happen sooner or later. Jem was full of practical Old World ideas like that. He was another one of the few who didn’t seem fazed by their new home. But Jem hadn’t had time to get used to life on the
Hop
before they’d moved to Island X, Scarlet reasoned. To him, everywhere and everything was new and exciting.

But Scarlet was reluctant to start building shelters in a place that was obviously so special. The Islanders, she was certain, used to only visit the clearing where the Lost Souls were camped to make sure it stayed unspoiled. She told Jem as much.

“I thought you’d say that,” he said. “And I have a solution. Tree houses!”

“Tree houses! What fun!” Smitty shouted.

“It’s more than fun, though,” said Jem. “We’ll build them on the edge of this clearing, so we can keep watch over it without harming it. And most importantly, it’ll be a good battle tactic. From up high we’ll be able to spot invaders before they find us.”

Scarlet liked that. “Does anyone know how to build a tree house?”

“I bet I could figure it out,” Jem offered. “We did some woodwork back at the King’s Cross.” The King’s Cross School for Boys had been Jem’s boarding school in the Old World. “And Emmett and Edwin are good at that kind of thing.”

The twins looked at each other and shrugged. Scarlet recalled the time they’d tried to fix a few loose boards on the
Hop
; Edwin had nailed his brother’s pant leg to the ship, then hammered his own thumb with such gusto that he’d declared himself unfit to clean the long drop (as the Lost Souls called the toilet) for an entire month. But Jem looked so hopeful, so ready to put his Old World knowledge of things like fractions and right angles to good use.

“Go to it, then. Jem, you’ll head up the Housing Committee.”

Jem’s ears turned pink with pride. “Thank you,” he murmured.

“You’re welcome.”

Scarlet was about to move on to the subject of pirate attacks when Monty suggested they form a committee for food gathering. Scarlet agreed that was a good idea, too. While her crew may have been uneasy about living on land, they were certainly good at preparing to do it. “Who wants to lead it?”

She saw Gil Jenkins’s hand shoot up but instead chose a reliable though rather unimaginative boy named Charlie. Gil had been Lucas Lawrence’s sidekick before Lucas defected to join the
Dark Ranger
pirates—with Jem’s treasure map. Scarlet still didn’t trust him entirely, even now that Lucas was gone. She often gave him tasks that kept him closer to home rather than the ones he wanted. She knew the boy didn’t appreciate it, but he had, after all, planned to mutiny against her.

“You can pick your own crew of food gatherers,”
she told Charlie. “You’ll collect things like star fruit and guava—”

“And nuts,” Ronagh added.

“Papaya,” Emmett said over a mouthful of it.

“Berries,” said Monty.

“Wild pigs,” said Sam, the mouth-breather.

There was a pause as twenty-two heads turned to the boy with perpetual sniffles. Then Ronagh screeched,
“Wild pigs?”

“You know…for meat?” Sam’s eyes darted around, looking for support.

“We’re not
eating
the
pigs
!” Ronagh’s face turned red beneath her freckles. “Are we, Scarlet?”

“No, no, of course not,” Scarlet said. Though they smelled like dirty socks and rotten cheese, and though they did have a tendency to rip humans limb from limb, the local band of smelly wild pigs seemed to be on the Lost Souls’ side. They’d protected them from Lucas and the
Dark Ranger
pirates when the intruders attacked. “We can’t eat the pigs, Sam. They’re our friends.”

“Then what about the other animals?” Gil asked.

Scarlet looked around the group. Most Lost Souls were shaking their heads, but a few seemed to be considering it. Ronagh looked as if she might explode.

“No,” she repeated firmly before the little girl could blow her ginger top. “I don’t feel right about it. Remember how the monkeys and aras and snakes chased away the pirates? Let’s stick to foods we can harvest for now. After a few weeks we can reassess the situation.” She knew Jem would like that. Along with fractions, right angles, and
asking far too many questions, assessing situations was one of his Old World specialties.

“Hmph.” Ronagh stuck her tongue out at Gil.

Blimey, I’m being wishy-washy today
, Scarlet thought. But the crew was throwing tough questions at her—questions that deserved some thought.

“All right, next item. How about—” Scarlet stopped as a feeling of distress cut right through her brain. Another animal in need. Not as impatient as a monkey or as nervous as a shrew…a snake, she decided. Possibly from the nearby pit of deadly striped vipers.

“What’s wrong?” Jem asked.

“Oh, nothing.” She’d ignore it. At least until after they’d decided how to fight off the pirates. “Next item…yes, Swig?”

“Captain, what about the
Hop
?” Tim straightened his spectacles. He’d stolen them from the Dread Pirate Captain What’s-his-name when the Lost Souls first raided the
Dark Ranger
, and Scarlet had yet to see the boy without them perched on his nose. “I’m worried someone might steal her. We can’t just leave her alone.” The quartermaster shoved his hands in his pockets. For the past month, he’d led regular trips down to the ship to gather supplies and patrol the shores of Island X. Since it took a good five hours to reach the ship, the Lost Souls usually stayed overnight and hiked back up in the morning. The long trip never fazed the Drivelswigger, though. A real sea dog, Tim was—born to steer a ship. Unfortunately, that also made him the Lost Soul who felt least at home on Island X.

“D’ya think we really need it?” Smitty asked. “I mean, now that we live here, maybe we should just get rid of it.”

Tim looked at Smitty the way Ronagh had just looked at Gil. “Get rid of the
Hop
? Are you
insane
?”

“No, we can’t get rid of it,” Scarlet hurried to say before Tim’s eyes could get any bigger. The snake was still nagging at her brain.
Give me five minutes
, she tried to tell it. “The
Hop
is our home. Well, our other home. Swig, why don’t you gather a group and find a good hiding place for it? Maybe a cove someplace close by? It’s not the perfect solution, but it’ll do for now.”

Tim nodded. “It’s the least we can do. I’ll take Monty, Elmo, and…” He looked past Gil’s waving hand. “Liam. Let’s head out this afternoon.”

“What about me? Can I come?” Gil asked, still waving his hand.

“Uh-uh,” Tim replied. “It’s best to have a small crew.”

Gil dropped his hand and pouted.

“All right now. Final item for discussion.” Knowing that this one might take a while, Scarlet settled cross-legged on the ground with the crew. “We don’t know when Lucas and the pirates will return, but we know for sure they will. We can’t let them get near the rubies, of course, but there could be trouble if they even see the clearing.” She gestured to the trees and the shining pool. “We have to decide what we’re going to do and how we’ll fight them off.”

A long pause ensued. Several of the Lost Souls became very interested in the grass.

“Tree house lookouts?” Jem suggested.

“That’s
a good start,” said Scarlet. “What else?”

Another pause. Sam sniffed. Ronagh squirmed.

“What about the animals?” asked Elmo. “They helped us chase off the baddies before. I bet they’d do it again.”

A few pirates nodded, looking hopeful.

Scarlet chewed her lip. The smelly wild pigs were the only animals on Island X that seemed to understand English. Jem himself had made that recent discovery. Scarlet had assumed it would make her job much easier, but she’d soon found that being able to understand her didn’t seem to make the pigs any more willing to help.

“Maybe,” she told the crew. “But I’m not sure we can depend on them all the time.”

“Why wouldn’t they want to help?” asked Liam. “This is their home.”

Scarlet looked at her crew, debating how to tell them that whenever she spoke to the pig chief, she could feel a clear lack of enthusiasm.

Smitty jumped to his feet. “I can’t think of a better time to cut in,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen of Island X, allow me to present…the island warrior uniform.” With that, Smitty reached behind him, produced a large fern, and plopped it on his head.

For a moment the Lost Souls looked stunned. Then they burst into laughter.

“Nice hat, Bertrand!”

“Wait! This is fierce, not funny!” Smitty cried. “Think how well we’ll blend in to the jungle when we attack that biscuit-eater, Lucas, and his filthy crew.” He turned to
Scarlet, a hopeful look in his eyes. “Captain? What do you think?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I think you’re wearing a plant on your head.”

The Lost Souls howled. But Smitty just wagged a finger at them. “Watch.” He crouched low to the ground. “We can hide in the bushes like this. And when Lucas arrives”—he hopped up again and pulled off his hat—“he’ll be all, ‘Look at me, here to steal the treasure, har har.’ And then…” Smitty put the fern back on his head and crouched again. “We’ll jump up like this.
Argh!
” He jumped up and waved his arms, nearly losing his fern. “And scare the bilge rat senseless. See?”

He pulled Liam up to act like Lucas. Liam pretended to weep like a baby while Smitty danced around with his new headpiece. The Lost Souls roared, imagining the traitor at Smitty’s mercy.

Scarlet laughed, too, but halfheartedly. She’d lost their attention, and the snake’s angst was still rattling in her brain. She gave in and stood up.
I’m coming, you impatient reptile
, she tried to tell it.
Keep your scales on
. “This meeting is adjourned, mates,” she said aloud, although that was quite obvious since most of the Lost Souls were now dancing a jig around Smitty and Liam.

“At least they’re acting more like the Lost Souls of the
Margaret’s Hop
,” she murmured as she walked away. But it was little consolation. They still had no plan to protect the island. And it was sure as the thorn in the sole of her foot, Lucas and his crew would be back.

Jem liked to envision his new title with capital letters: Head of the Housing Committee. It looked rather important like that.

After the meeting, he’d immediately gotten to work, collecting some thin palm bark, an ara feather (found under a nest and not plucked from the source, of course), and some bright purple berries. Then he’d crushed the berries into a thick juice.
Voilà!
He had paper, a quill, and ink to sketch the tree house village he was going to build.

It hadn’t taken him long to realize, however, that he hadn’t a clue how to build a tree house, let alone an entire village. Not that he’d been fibbing at the meeting; he had done some woodwork at the King’s Cross School for Boys. And yet, he wasn’t sure that carving a cricket bat was exactly on par with building a real house to hold real people. So he reassessed the situation and decided to start by choosing the best place to build the tree houses.

For that, he would need to draw a map.

He began by sketching the clearing, from the freshwater pool and the rookery to the papaya trees. Then he drew the rest of Island X, adding as many details as he could remember from his treks down to the
Hop
and from Uncle Finn’s original map. He vaguely recalled that map warning of a panther’s lair on the western arm
and two dangerous mountain peaks to the north, so he sketched them in, hoping he’d never encounter them.

As he worked, he realized that his map could also help the other Lost Souls. They might feel more at home if they knew the lay of the land. Even Uncle Finn might like a copy! Jem kept his head down and sketched throughout the evening and most of the following day.

He’d just added the finishing touches to the compass in the corner and had leaned back against the tree that shaded him from the sticky-hot afternoon sun when Scarlet wandered by without even seeing him.

“Scarlet!” he cried.

“Fitz!” She leaped a good foot off the ground. “You just took a year off my life.” She looked a little disheveled, with twigs sticking out of her hair and scratches on her cheeks. But then, Jem had never really seen the captain of the Lost Souls in any other state. Scarlet wasn’t exactly the garden party type.

“Sorry, Captain.” He scrambled to his feet. “But look what I’ve been working on.” He presented his map with pride.

Scarlet looked at it blankly for a moment. “It’s a map,” she said.

“Well, yes, of course. I was going to draw up the plans for the tree houses, but then I decided to start with a map of the area.”

Scarlet nodded, looking distracted. “It’s…nice.”

Jem’s pride fizzled. “Well, it’s not supposed to be
nice
,” he huffed. “It’s supposed to be accurate.” He began to roll up his masterpiece.

“Oh, Fitz, I’m sorry,” said Scarlet. “It’s a great map. I’m just not thinking straight. I…”

Jem looked at her squarely. Something was obviously wrong. “Captain, what’s going on?”

“Nothing. It’s…” Scarlet met his eyes, then looked down at her bare feet. After a pause, she sighed. “All right, if you must know, it’s this…”
How to explain without sounding loony?
Scarlet wondered.
“Ability
the island’s given me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for it. But…it’s a little…overwhelming. Like having an entire zoo in your head. All the animals are hungry. Or too hot. Or regretting how much they ate last night.”

Jem didn’t entirely understand Scarlet’s new talent. But it sounded somehow like every animal in and around the clearing could let Scarlet know how it was feeling, whether it was sad, happy, or suffering from indigestion. It wasn’t the kind of talent Jem would want, no, sir.