Escape from the Isle of the Lost

by Melissa de la Cruz

  Uma! Uma had been standing at the doorway, and she wanted something. Something Mal had.

  Mal checked her pocket for the remote. It was still there. She sighed in relief.

  Who had pushed Mal away from the door and brought her back to safety? It could only be some kind of friend or ally. She dimly recalled hearing Evie’s voice calling to her, along with Jay and Carlos yelling.

  Her friends had helped her. They had her back somehow. They had carried Mal away from Uma. She didn’t know how they’d managed it, but deep in her heart, she knew they were the ones who’d gotten her to safety. If only she could remember what had really happened down under the waves. Yet, as she stood on the dock, she had already begun to forget what she was trying to recall.

  She was standing on the dock when Dizzy appeared in front of her once more.

  “Dizzy?” she asked uncertainly.

  “Yeah, who else would it be? Are you okay?” asked Dizzy.

  “It’s the strangest thing. I was walking through the woods, and I came across this glowing orb thing and…” Had she told Dizzy this already? Why did she feel such déjà vu? “And you were Uma—you were speaking in Uma’s voice. Then I was underwater, but I could swim.”

  Dizzy frowned. “Ohhhhkay, maybe you shouldn’t go back to Auradon just yet. I could give you a makeover! That’ll make you feel better.”

  Mal was still confused. Then she saw something in Dizzy’s hand. She reached for it and studied it.

  “You like?” asked Dizzy, offering it to Mal.

  It was a seashell necklace.

  “Actually, no, I think it might clash with your outfit,” said Dizzy, taking it back.

  Then that familiar voice whispered from the woods. Mal…

  This time, Dizzy heard it too. “Did you hear that?” she asked nervously.

  Mal looked all around, chills running up and down her spine. She knew that voice. “Dizzy, I think we might want to get out of here,” she said. “There’s danger coming. I can feel it. And I think it might be headed for Auradon.” She took Dizzy’s hand and led her away from the shoreline.

  Then Mal took the seashell necklace from Dizzy, threw it on the ground, and stepped on it.

  hen Evie, Jay, and Carlos arrived back at the hideout, Mal was already there, safe and sound. Evie felt a huge rush of relief at the sight of her friend. She hadn’t realized she was so worried until the weight of it fell away. She ran up to Mal and gave her a quick hug.

  “Where were you guys?” Mal asked, returning Evie’s hug with a grateful expression.

  “Looking for you!” said Jay, giving her a fist-bump. “We went around the whole island!”

  “Your hair!” said Evie, pulling away to look at it from an objective distance. “You got a haircut?”

  Mal patted her new wavy locks, now cut into a long bob. “I ran into Dizzy.”

  “That girl is a genius,” said Evie admiringly.

  “You like?” asked Mal.

  “Love,” affirmed Evie.

  “A haircut? At this time of night?” asked Carlos. “I’ll never understand women.”

  The girls laughed. Then Mal turned to Evie and stared at her closely. “Um, Evie? You know you really look like your mom?” asked Mal.

  Evie ran to the nearest mirror. “I do! Isn’t that weird? I never wear my makeup this way. I should get it off before I frighten any children.”

  “Well, we’re glad you’re safe. That we’re all safe,” said Jay.

  “Safe on the Isle of the Lost. Now that’s new,” said Carlos with a grin. “Oh, by the way, I have an idea on how to get more kids to apply to Auradon Prep.”

  “You do? What is it?” asked Evie.

  “I think we’re going about this all wrong. What do villains like?” asked Carlos.

  “Fame,” said Mal.

  “Riches,” said Jay.

  “Attention,” said Evie.

  “Exactly! So we have to sell it to them as a way to get all those. Not learning how to be good or being part of a team—they’re not interested in that. Not yet. But they’ll understand the appeal of a celebration.”

  “VK Day!” said Evie.

  “Funny, that’s what I called it too!” said Carlos. “But Jane’s the one who came up with the idea.”

  “I knew there was a reason why I always liked her,” said Evie. “Anyway, we’ll tell Dr. Facilier that there’ll be a huge party, and that the four kids who are chosen will be famous!”

  The four of them turned to each other with just-slightly-wicked smiles on their faces. They knew this would work.

  • • •

  The next morning, they met with Dr. Facilier at Dragon Hall once more.

  “Before we leave, we just wanted to share with you a new development concerning the VK program,” said Mal.

  “Oh? A new development, is there? Pray tell,” said the witch doctor with his frightening smile.

  “Tell him, Evie,” said Mal.

  Evie leaned forward, her voice a little breathless. “The four chosen kids will be celebrated with a huge, kingdom-wide feast that will be bigger and more spectacular than anything anyone has ever seen.”

  “We’ll have a marching band, the royal family.…It will be an amazing welcome,” said Mal.

  “Talk about rolling out the red carpet,” said Jay.

  “The gold carpet,” Carlos said with a wink.

  Dr. Facilier nodded, and his eyes shone with greed. “I will make sure to tell the students of this new, very exciting development.”

  “See that you do. We’ll be back in a few months to collect applications and announce the selected kids,” said Mal.

  royal limousine flying blue-and-gold Auradon flags was waiting for them when they walked out of Dragon Hall, and a group of students were milling about, gawking at it. Mal felt a bit self-conscious at the sight of the luxurious vehicle, but tried not to show it. They had already picked up their trunks from the hideout, so they were ready to go. All they had to do was open the barrier and call up the bridge, and they would be back in Auradon in no time.

  “Home, Jay,” Mal said to her friend with a wink as she climbed into the limo. Jay slid into the driver’s seat, grinning.

  “Finally,” said Evie, climbing in next to her.

  “Ditto,” said Carlos.

  “Let’s blow this joint,” said Jay, honking the horn. “Isle of the Get Lost.”

  Mal nodded. “I’m glad we’re on our way. I have this weird feeling that we need to be back in Auradon as soon as we can. I might even have Ben cancel the rest of my official visits. I want to be on guard,” she said, a determined look on her face.

  “It’ll be fine. You’re just spooked because we’re back here,” Carlos said. “Evil lurks in every corner on the Isle. Really, I think I just saw Claudine Frollo over there.”

  “Nah, Mal’s right. It’s good we’re heading back now. Besides, we have to get ready for graduation,” said Jay.

  “Graduation!” cried Evie. “Finals are coming up! And I still have to make all the caps and gowns!”

  Jay was about to roll up the window when they saw Celia emerge from a manhole cover, top hat first.

  “Oh, hi,” she said, nonchalantly, as if she often emerged from subterranean levels.

  “Hey, what’s up?” said Mal. She stared at Celia. There was something odd about her, but she couldn’t quite place it.

  “Everything okay?” called Evie.

  “I think so,” said Celia. “You guys are fine, right?”

  “We are,” said Mal. She still wasn’t sure what had happened the night before, but she knew she had faced and survived some sort of danger.

  “Good.” Celia leaned over to talk to Evie through the window. “That last card I told you about?” she said. “When I read your fortune?”

  “Yes?” asked Evie warily.

  “It doesn’t just mean disaster. I mean, it doesn’t mean disaster at all. It just means change,” said Celia. “Sorry I made it sound like a bad fortune.” />
  Evie brightened. “Change, huh? So change is in my future?”

  “Pretty much,” said Celia.

  “Well, I am graduating in a few weeks,” said Evie. “So there’s going to be a lot of change happening.”

  Celia yelped. “I was right? I predicted it correctly? That’s so cool!”

  Evie laughed. “You did. Thanks, Celia.”

  Celia rewarded Evie with a huge smile. Then she turned to face all of them. “Headed back to Auradon now?” she asked wistfully.

  Mal nodded. “Yeah.”

  “But we’ll be back,” said Evie.

  “Soon,” added Carlos.

  “We promise,” said Jay.

  “I hope so,” said Celia, tipping her hat to them.

  They waved to Celia until she was just a dot on the horizon and the car was speeding on the bridge back to the mainland. Carlos raided the treats in the limousine, happy to find it was still stocked with as much chocolate and candy as always. Mal looked out the window as the island grew smaller and smaller in the distance.

  “I’ll call it. This was a success,” said Carlos. “We got the applications out. Now we just wait to see them come in.”

  Jay smiled at them in the rearview mirror. “They will. Dr. Facilier was practically drooling at the thought of VK Day.”

  “To villains!” said Carlos with a cackle. He put out his hand. “Come on, make the pile,” he said to Mal and Evie.

  One by one they put their hands on top of one another’s. Jay met their eyes in the mirror and nodded.

  “The Isle of the Lost will always be home,” said Evie. “It’s where we’re from.”

  “But we’re also from Auradon now,” said Mal. She had grown up a child of the Isle of the Lost, a mean-spirited, selfish little sprite, but now she was a defender of Auradon, a lady and a dragon. She wasn’t only Maleficent’s daughter or King Ben’s girlfriend. She was also just Mal.

  “I’ll always be just Mal,” Mal murmured.

  “‘Just Mal’?” asked Evie. “That’s more than enough.”

  They took back their hands and beamed at each other. As long as the four of them were friends, anything was possible. The future was waiting.

  “It was weird,” said Mal. “There seemed to be something off about Celia.”

  “What?” asked Evie.

  “Didn’t you notice?” said Mal thoughtfully. “For a minute, it almost looked like she had no shadow.”

  kay, so maybe life on the Isle of the Lost wasn’t too bad. There were still demons to do his bidding—fetch his coffee, run his errands, pick up his dry-cleaning. Sure, there wasn’t any magic on the island, but henchmen abounded. Even Pain and Panic were there! And there was still food—spoiled and stale, of course, but edible. Oh, dear Athena, what was he saying? This place was a dump! A total nightmare! A low-rent establishment where even centaurs wouldn’t stay! And they lived in stables!

  He should be on Olympus, feasting on grapes, with nymphs hanging on his every word and laughing at all his jokes! Not scrounging for scraps in the back of an alley, just to have some uppity wicked fairy who thought she ran the place chastise him for being in her way.

  Hades fumed until his face was red. His hair no longer burst into flame, which was probably a good thing, because nothing on the Isle was fire-retardant. He had to get out of here! He just had to find a way.

  If he couldn’t burst through the invisible barrier that surrounded the Isle of the Lost, or climb over it, there was only one way left: dig underneath it. After he’d fallen off the pirate-mast ladder, he had set his crew of demons, goblins, and pirates to digging as deep as they could, creating a maze of tunnels underneath the Isle of the Lost. Hades went down to see how the work was going.

  “Any luck?” he asked. “Have we hit Auradon yet?”

  “No,” said a sweaty pirate, wiping his forehead with his bandanna and resting on his shovel. “Nothing.”

  “Maybe this way?” said Hades, gesturing over to the other direction.

  “No, I think I hear water trickling from this way,” argued the pirate.

  “Hmmm. Okay,” said Hades. (In fact, he had just missed the fork that led into the Endless Catacombs of Doom, which would be discovered and explored by a crew of young villains one day. But that’s another story.)

  Instead, they kept digging until they dug around in a complete circle. It was officially official: There was no way out of the Isle of the Lost.

  Hades raged. He kicked the cave walls. He took his ember and began banging it on the walls of the tunnel, creating a single tiny crack. For a moment, a minuscule blue spark glared weakly from deep within the crack, but it died out before Hades even noticed.

  “BY ZEUS, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!” he screamed.

  Then he called the biggest and strongest demons back and made them clean up the largest part of the tunnel that he would take as his cave. If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well be comfortable. Every good villain needed a lair.

  n Monday morning, the students of Dragon Hall gathered for their regular assembly in the crumbling auditorium before classes began. Except there was nothing regular about this morning’s assembly at all. In fact, it was completely irregular, because no one had ever actually adhered to the morning schedule, instead just showing up late or causing trouble in the hallways. So when an announcement boomed in the overhead speakers that attendance was mandatory, the students knew something was up.

  Dizzy and Celia found seats in the front and waited to hear the news with the rest of the school. Dr. Facilier slunk into the room, and a hush fell over the crowd. Some of the younger first-years began to shake and tremble. The witch doctor headmaster was downright frightening sometimes, with his eyes that seemed to see through your soul. Celia should know—it was the look he gave her when she used up the last bit of expired milk in the morning and then put the jug back in the fridge.

  “Good morning, villains,” Dr. Facilier greeted them when he stepped up to the microphone, a sneering Professor Tremaine and a clueless Coach Gaston behind him. “I have some special news.”

  He surveyed the crowd. “Transfer applications to Auradon Prep will be available today. These students will be able to leave the Isle of the Lost this summer and continue their studies in Auradon.”

  Auradon!

  Wasn’t this what Mal was saying the other day? From the balcony? That was real? It wasn’t a trap after all? And that roundtable discussion they had invited everyone to (except almost no one went)…that was also legit?

  “The students who are chosen will be celebrated throughout the land and enjoy a spectacular welcome feast at the school, complete with a parade. Your names will be immortal, and you will be known throughout the kingdom as the Isle’s finest villains,” said Dr. Facilier, playing directly to the crowd.

  “Remember, only the wickedest of you will be chosen,” he added with a laugh. “Auradon representatives will be back in a few weeks to announce their selections for the VK program. Now go forth and do your evil deeds.”

  Celia and Dizzy turned to each other, almost unable to contain their excitement. They were really taking applications! They could really go to Auradon Prep! They clasped hands and headed to the front, where the application forms were stacked.

  “My dad said they’re going to take four kids,” said Celia.

  “Only four?” asked Dizzy. “That’s not that many.”

  “There are only two of us!” said Celia. “We’ll make it.”

  “Evie said they’re going to come back to the Isle again in a few weeks,” said Dizzy. “That must have been what your dad meant when he mentioned the Auradon representatives. Maybe they’ll bring us back then!”

  “Maybe.”

  “And the celebration sounds amazing,” said Dizzy. “A welcome feast!”

  “I hope it’s a warm welcome,” Celia said with a snicker.

  There was a bevy of students fighting over the applications.

  “You’re applying?” Dizzy asked, as she
saw her cousin Anthony Tremaine take a form.

  “Why not?” said Anthony, raising an eyebrow. “At least in Auradon there’s better hair gel.”

  Ginny Gothel walked up with her friend Harriet Hook. “I’ll take one,” said Ginny, her curly black hair flowing down her back. “There’s magic in Auradon. Even if it’s regulated, I want to see what I can do there. What about you, Harriet?”

  “My sister CJ likes it there, so I’m a little curious,” said Harriet. “But Harry would never move to Auradon, not without his pirates.”

  Ginny nodded. She couldn’t imagine Harry without his crew. He was practically miserable without his captain, Uma. “So are you going to apply or not?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Harriet. “Maybe. Fine, I’ll take one. Actually, give me three, I’m babysitting for the Smees tonight. Maybe their kids want to apply.”

  By the time the bell rang for the first class, almost all the applications had been taken.

  t was a few weeks after their return from the Isle of the Lost, and things were starting to gear up for graduation, which was coming faster than Cinderella’s carriage trying to get home before midnight. During the debriefing, Ben asked the four of them if they thought the visit was a success, and they had unanimously agreed that they had done their best. Ben had assured them that was all he had hoped for, and Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay went back to focusing on enjoying the last days of the school year.

  Just as Doug had predicted, almost all the graduating seniors of Auradon Prep wanted an Evie’s 4 Hearts original cap and gown for the ceremony. Between finals and trying to get all the gowns ready, Evie was so busy that Doug had to step in and help as business manager.

  A line of girls stood in the hallway leading to Evie and Mal’s room, waiting for their appointments. Doug walked out with a clipboard. “Okay, who’s next? Oh, Ally, come on up.”

  Ally of Wonderland ran over. “Is it ready?” she asked upon entering the room, which resembled a high-end boutique.