Island of Graves

by Lisa McMann

  “No idea,” murmured Sky.

  The gorillas began to gain on the girl now that they were reaching the bottom of the hill.

  Alex watched the progress carefully, and once it became clear that the girl was planning to come straight down the river to them, he directed the other two. “Aaron, figure out how many gorillas we’re dealing with. Sky, set yourself up halfway between the river and the shipwreck, there, and once we get the girl out of the river, Aaron’ll run her behind you, so you can fend off the gorillas. Shout if you see anything coming from the other side of the river, but I’m pretty sure Spike is keeping most of those beasts busy in the sea.” He ran forward several yards. “I’m going to try to slow them down,” he called, and pointed at the spot of land next to the bank, concentrating.

  “Glass,” he whispered. As a sheet of glass appeared, perpendicular to the river, he moved to the spot next to it and uttered the spell again. As each new sheet of glass appeared, Alex calmly put up another one next to it, making a giant glass shield that stretched from the bank of the river to the edge of the island. When the entire line was finished, he started a second row to reinforce the first line, going a little slower this time because the intensity of the concentration was beginning to sap his strength.

  “I count thirteen gorillas chasing the girl,” Aaron called. He gripped his dagger, his face awash in sweat and fear. “Will that glass stop them, Alex?”

  “Maybe for a minute,” Alex said. “It’ll be a shock, anyway, and might distract them long enough for us to get the girl to our boat.” He looked at his brother. “Come with me. We’re going to stand next to the river, here. She needs to paddle beyond the glass barrier and then we’ll pull her out, climb the bank, and make a run for our boat. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Aaron said. He felt sick to his stomach.

  Alex pointed. “Go to the river’s edge now and wave at her. Make sure she sees you and knows to come all the way down the river to you.”

  Aaron nodded, unable to speak, but he ran to the edge of the river and began motioning to the girl.

  “Sky, stand by to fight,” Alex called. “You’ve got the most useful weapon of all of us.” He shook out his hand, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and planted a few more glass spells for a third, scattered layer.

  The ground began to shake as the gorillas charged toward them, and the girl was getting nearer. With no time left for more glass barriers, Alex ran to join his brother. He climbed down the bank and stood in front of Aaron, ready to lend a hand to the girl, who was still paddling mightily.

  Alex and Aaron waved their arms when the girl grew close. She stared straight ahead, fully concentrating, nodding her head only to acknowledge that she saw them. “Ten seconds,” Alex called softly to Sky, not wanting to further enrage the gorillas, who would be plenty angry in about fifteen seconds when they hit the first line of glass shields.

  “Five,” he called, and then, as the girl came at them, she flashed a wide grin.

  “Catch my board!” she shouted. Aaron and Alex leaned out over the water as she flipped off the board and tossed it up. Alex caught it, and Aaron grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her out of the water.

  Breathing hard, she scrambled up the bank with Aaron. Alex was right behind, using the girl’s board as a shield between her and the gorillas. And then they ran.

  The first line of gorillas hit the glass shields at full speed with an earsplitting crash, sending shards exploding to the sky and raining down everywhere. The gorillas stumbled, surprised, but continued on. They hit the second line of glass, and it crumbled too. Some of the gorillas went down. But the first two furious gorillas that didn’t have a third glass shield in front of them were completely through the barrier. And they weren’t stopping. The glass had barely slowed them down.

  The Rescue

  To the ship!” the girl yelled, her voice hoarse. “Get to the old ship! They won’t touch us there!”

  Aaron pulled the exhausted girl along, his dagger raised, while Alex began flinging as many more glass spells and heart attack spells as he could to try to slow the gorillas down. Sky fearlessly ran toward the first gorilla, which was trying to head off Aaron and the girl. Some smaller beasts that seemed more affected by the glass walls moved sideways along them to the sea and jumped in to swim around them. Three of them caught sight of the magic boat and roared, then headed toward it.

  From the boat, Charlie jumped up and down on the seat, trying to get a better view. The gorillas advanced. “Go, Charlie!” Alex yelled. “Get out of here!”

  The statue hesitated, then pushed the lever and tore out to sea.

  Aaron nearly screeched himself at the sight of their ride leaving. He was most certainly going to die at any moment. He was sure of it.

  Sky gripped her sword and swung with all her might, slamming it into the first advancing gorilla. It staggered and tripped, knocking over the second. Sky looked over her shoulder. “Run!” she screamed. Aaron and the girl sprinted past, a gorilla right behind them. Alex slammed the floating board into it. The beast rose to its full height and roared as Alex jabbed the pointed end of the white board into its gut, then sprinted away. Furious, it dropped down and loped after him.

  “Get in the ship!” the girl cried to Aaron. “See the ladder? Now!”

  “I see it,” Aaron panted. “Stop screaming in my ear.” He pulled the exhausted girl after him, and then picked her up and ran when she couldn’t seem to get her legs to move fast enough anymore.

  The remaining gorillas had scattered around the area, circling their victims. Sky darted toward the ship as the beasts in the sea turned away from their chase and caught sight of her.

  Aaron and the girl reached the ship with a big silverback on their tail, and as Aaron hoisted the girl up and she climbed aboard, Aaron struck out at the gorilla with his dagger, catching it in the chest.

  “Get up here!” the girl screeched.

  The beast grabbed at Aaron. Aaron yelled and struck again. He started his climb up the ladder. Another gorilla reached them, grabbed hold of Aaron’s leg, and began pulling. Aaron flailed, swinging wildly from the rung, and managed to land a backward kick right in the gorilla’s nose. The creature loosened its grip and Aaron pulled out of it, then scrambled the rest of the way up, certain the gorilla would follow right behind.

  But it didn’t. It skittered away from the ladder with a hooting sound. From somewhere on the ship, the girl began making a racket that sounded like metal crashing against metal. Immediately the other gorillas backed off and began hooting warnings to their companions.

  Sky, who was trapped by three gorillas that surrounded her and kept her from getting to the ship, swung her sword wildly, connecting at every chance she could get. Her shoulders ached and her hands were numb, but she kept swinging, inching toward the ship.

  Alex used the board as a shield and threw every spell imaginable, and finally discovered that the blinding highlighter was the only spell that actually had a full effect on the creatures. He quickly blinded the gorillas surrounding him, making them roar and wave their arms. Alex slipped between two and blasted the ones who were attacking Sky. One after another they grabbed their eyes in pain and whirled around, knocking into Sky and sending her sprawling. Alex ran to help her up, and the two made a mad dash between blinded, howling gorillas, all the way to the ship.

  Aaron, bleeding from his shredded leg, reached down from above to grab the girl’s board and help them as they scrambled up the ladder, while the girl continued to make the clanging noise below.

  Alex shoved the board aside, and he and Sky flopped on the deck of the old beast of a ship, sweating and breathless, muscles quivering. As soon as they could manage it, they crawled away from the ladder, making the floor creak and a few rotten ship boards crack and fall away. The three lay heaving and bleeding, but alive, as half the gorillas still wandered about temporarily blinded, and others cowered several yards from the ship, distressed about getting too close to it.

 
“Where’s the girl?” Alex asked when he had his breath back.

  “She’s down there making that noise,” Aaron said. He took off his shirt and wrapped it around his leg, trying to stop the bleeding.

  A moment later the noise stopped, and soon the girl appeared on a ladder, coming up through an opening in the deck. “Welp,” she said, wiping her hands on her pants and glancing out over the sea, “that ought to keep them quiet. They’ll go away eventually, and then it’ll be safe for your boat to return.” She stood there, her clothes still dripping and her light brown hair a knotted mess with sticks and leaves stuck in it. She was a little shorter than Sky. Her soggy, tattered shirt drooped off one shoulder, revealing a patch of fair skin. The rest of her was deeply tanned. She was thin—a little too thin, like she hadn’t been eating normally—but muscular.

  Alex sat up. “How is it they won’t come on the ship?” he asked. “You saved us with this trick.”

  The girl shrugged. “It’s the cages down below,” she said. She had a strange accent. “I discovered it by accident pretty early on. They don’t like the sound of the clanging, and they won’t try to get inside the ship. I don’t know if any of them are the actual animals that were caged on this ship or if they just learned from their ancestors to fear it, but it’s one of only a few safe places on the island.”

  “Wow, that’s fascinating,” Alex said. He stood up and held out his hand to her. “I’m Alex,” he said. “This is my brother, Aaron. Twins, if you can’t tell. And this is Sky. We’re from Quill and Artimé, two islands to the west.”

  The girl smiled, and instead of shaking his hand, she hugged him. Her eyes shone. “I can’t believe this nightmare is almost over,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming back for me.”

  “Of course,” Alex said, hugging her back.

  She pulled away and looked up at him. “My name is Kaylee Jones. I’m from America. I’m not sure where that is from here, but I know it’s pretty far.”

  “America?” Sky asked. “Is that an island?”

  Kaylee laughed. “Funny! No. You know, the United States?”

  Sky shook her head. “I’ve never heard of that.” She looked at Alex. “Maybe it’s that big piece of land on Lani’s map.”

  Alex took note of the fading smile on Kaylee’s face. “Maybe,” he said to Sky.

  Kaylee searched the faces before her. “You’re not joking,” she murmured.

  “No,” Sky said. “We’ve traveled all around the world and haven’t ever heard of it.” She was tempted to ask the girl about other worlds, like she’d asked Ishibashi, but the girl was in rough shape, and Sky thought it would be better to wait in case it upset her like it did the scientist. Instead, she offered a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry.”

  Kaylee pressed her lips together. “No, it’s okay. I . . . I had a feeling about this. Ishibashi tried to tell me. And then there’s the ship’s log . . . and everything that happened with that.” She turned to look out over the water again and let out a small despairing sigh. It almost sounded like she might be crying.

  Sky glanced sidelong at Alex, who shrugged. He glanced at the gorillas, most of which had begun grazing in the long grass nearby.

  Alex turned and walked carefully over the rotting boards to the sea side of the deck, wondering where the white boat was. It wasn’t hard to spot. It sat safely a few hundred yards offshore. He waved to Charlie, though he couldn’t actually see the statue from that distance, and then he saw Spike’s faux diamond–covered spike coming up alongside the back end of the old ship, which was in the water.

  “I’ll take you whenever you’re ready, the Alex,” Spike said when she sensed his presence. “Is everyone okay? Did you find the singing girl?”

  “Yes, we’ve got her,” said Alex. “You did good work, Spike—you kept dozens of gorillas from coming after us. We’re waiting for them to get bored and leave.”

  Alex turned to the others. “Okay, people,” he called softly. “Our ride is here, so as soon as the gorillas wander off, we need to head for home.” He looked at his brother, who was still nursing the deep scratches on his legs. “Hey, Aaron,” he said. “Tonight you get to learn how to swim.”

  Circus Tales

  So you found Aaron, then,” Kaylee said, turning back after her momentary grief. “That’s good.”

  “Oh yes,” Alex said. “We did. Thank you.”

  Kaylee nodded, subdued, and clearly struggling internally. None of the others knew quite what to do for her, so they waited respectfully for her to gather her wits.

  After a moment Kaylee took a deep breath, let it out, and said, “Okay. We need to stay out of sight from the gorillas for a while. Stay quiet so they forget about us. By evening they’ll head to the top of the mountain, where they sleep. Once they’re far enough away, they won’t come after us when we jump into the water.”

  Alex relayed the plan to Spike. “Go to the boat and tell Charlie what’s happening,” he said. “Then ask him to tell Matilda that we stopped here to rescue a castaway, and everybody’s safe, and we’ll be on our way again by nightfall.”

  Spike swam out to the boat, and Alex returned to the group.

  “I want to grab a few things from the cabin below before it gets dark,” Kaylee whispered. “This ship is super old, but there are three logbooks. I’ve only had a chance to read the first one. It was written by the cabin boy, like, a hundred years ago.”

  Sky looked up. “Wow. Can I come?”

  “Sure,” Kaylee said. “Stay quiet. One on the ladder at a time—this thing is falling apart.”

  The two girls descended the ladder, which was missing a few rungs, to the deck below. Toward the stern, several tiny, narrow cabins lined the hallway. But Kaylee turned forward and went down a few stairs into a larger square cabin. There was a small bar with broken bottles everywhere, and a rickety old desk that was bolted to the floor. Kaylee headed straight for the desk. She tugged open a warped drawer and pulled out three yellowed volumes. On each book cover were the words “Ship’s Log.”

  Kaylee held them out to Sky. “See? I’ll bet the whole story of this shipwreck and the people and gorillas on board, and maybe even something about the graves, is in here.” Her eyes shone with excitement. “So far, in reading the first book, I’ve discovered that this whole tribe of saber-toothed gorillas began with just four animals about a hundred years ago. There’s at least seventy of them now on the island—I’ve counted them enough times.”

  “Incredible,” Sky said, carefully opening one of the logbooks and looking at the strange handwriting on the fragile pages.

  While Sky looked through it, Kaylee moved around the cabin as if she were at least a little familiar with it, pulling out papers and unpinning a giant map from the wall, which she folded up. “Do you want to see the cages?” asked Kaylee.

  Sky nodded and tucked the books under her arm. Kaylee led her out of the cabin and down another level, where cages lined both sides of the ship. A few portholes up high on the walls let light in. Some of the glass was broken or completely missing. Standing on her tiptoes, Sky could see the gorillas not far away.

  They heard a slight noise behind them and saw Alex and Aaron coming down the ladder. “We were curious,” Alex whispered.

  The two stood side by side, looking remarkably the same except for their clothes.

  “Which one is which again?” Kaylee asked. “Oh wait—Alex has the robe.”

  “Yes, and Aaron has the scar,” Sky said. She grinned at the boys. “I guess people will be able to tell you apart now, at least until the scar fades.”

  Aaron smirked. “Don’t go trying to imitate my scar now,” he said to Alex.

  Alex grinned reluctantly. “I won’t.” He was actually impressed with Aaron’s willingness to fight the gorillas even though he’d clearly been scared to death. With a little training, Aaron might become a decent fighter. Though there was still something about Aaron that worried him. What if his evil twin was so sneaky that he really was fak
ing this new alignment with Alex and Sky? But then again, what kind of idiot would willingly risk fighting gorillas if he were faking it? Aaron could have stayed in the boat, but he chose to help. He was either insane or truly sincere with his new attitude. Alex was starting to believe that Aaron might have actually changed for real.

  “Obviously these are the cages,” Kaylee said, keeping her voice low. “According to the logbook, this was some sort of animal transporter bound for a circus in the US when it got lost in a storm. Saber-toothed gorillas,” she said, shaking her head. “Can you imagine that scene at the circus? What an attraction that would have been.”

  The three looked puzzled, and no one dared admit they had no idea what a circus was, or the US for that matter. They understood storms, though.

  “It’s all documented, you see,” Sky told the boys, holding up the logbooks. She shivered. “It’s creepy down here. All these creaking cages in the dark underbelly. No wonder the gorillas won’t come near it.”

  Kaylee nodded expertly. “The original animals must have passed down the fear of this ship and the cages to their offspring after having been locked up in them the whole voyage,” she said bookishly. “It couldn’t have been a good ride through the storm.”

  Their new companion sounded so much like Lani that Sky and Alex just looked at each other and laughed. “You sound like one of our best friends,” Alex explained, not wanting Kaylee to think they were laughing at her. “You’ll get along just fine.”

  “Yeah?” Kaylee smiled sadly. “So . . . what happens now? I guess I go to your island with you, right?”

  “That’s pretty much the only option,” Aaron said. “For now, at least.”

  “Anywhere but here,” Kaylee said. “What’s your island like? And how on earth did you do that thing with the glass walls? That was really freaky.” She began to perk up. “Also, I don’t know if you know this, but you have a talking whale.”