by Lisa McMann
The general laughed. “Do you really think we have any? We haven’t been attacked in over fifty years. Anyone that Justine was guarding against fifty years ago is dead or extremely old by now. Whether the wall is partially standing or completely removed, enemies would get to us eventually anyway.” He coughed and cleared his throat. “But in the end, I’m simply not concerned about it. We have only one enemy, and it’s encroaching on our island already. Stop looking beyond it for more when the most offensive one is practically upon us! Let’s do the job and take them out. This is really simple, High Priest.” He rolled his eyes.
Something about what the general said made Aaron feel even more unsure. But he was stuck. He needed the Quillitary. “Fine,” he said with a small squeak in his voice. “We’ll take down the entire wall.”
General Blair didn’t give Aaron the satisfaction of witnessing his surprise—he hadn’t been expecting Aaron to go along with him. Instead he nodded stiffly. “Very well. I’ll send my troops to assist your Necessaries in tearing it down. We’ll make quick work of it.”
“We’d better,” Aaron said in a voice as calm as he could command. But his heart filled with more fear than he had ever known.
Island of Shipwrecks
Of the three, Alex flew the farthest. Experience had taught him to suck in a deep breath before he hit the water. Florence and Spike narrowly avoided crashing into one another, and all fortunately managed to miss the jutting rocks.
The water was cold and rough. Alex struggled against the weight of it, pushing toward the surface as soon as his downward momentum slowed. His thighs and lungs burned as he fought against the current, and then moved with it. Eventually, because of the darkness, and because he was unsure if he was swimming toward the surface or away from it, he stopped struggling to see if he would naturally right himself.
It wasn’t long before he felt a nudge, and soon Spike was solidly below Alex, pushing him upward. Alex grabbed on to the whale’s spike and hung on for the ride. They burst through the waves with a small jump, Alex hanging on tightly.
“Hello, the Alex. I am sorry about the jumping,” the whale managed to say before they were plunging back underwater. Alex accidentally inhaled water and choked. A moment later the whale took another jump and said, “This jumping is the only way for me to get to the island because of the current.”
Spike waited for Alex to cough the water out of his lungs. As soon as Alex could manage to eke out “Okay, go,” Spike obliged, and down they went again. Alex learned quickly to grab a breath of air the next time they surfaced, and as he figured out the whale’s pattern, he actually thought he might enjoy the ride if he weren’t so worried about the rest of his crew.
As they traveled through the water, more Artiméans found themselves sliding onto the whale’s back, for every time Spike saw someone struggling in the current, she swam under them and vaulted them to safety. By the time they reached shallow water, the whale had collected Fox, Sky, and Samheed in addition to Alex. As soon as they neared land, the load of passengers jumped off Spike’s back and staggered through the roiling water, and Spike went out again to rescue anyone else she could find.
The group waded to shore, guided by near-constant lightning. Alex could see the outlines of several shipwrecks on the rocks. And no wonder, the way the storm seemed to stay centered over this island. But right now Alex wasn’t looking for shipwrecks, he was looking for people, creatures, and statues. And he was hoping that daylight would come soon, and the storm would end.
“Lani!” he called, and Samheed chimed in.
“Over here!” she said. “There’s an overhang.”
Alex and the others headed toward Lani’s voice, and soon they saw her cast a highlighter spell, keeping its light low so as not to blind anyone. With her under a small, stone overhang they found Captain Ahab and Copper, delivered safely by the squirrelicorns, who had now gone out once more to search for others.
Soon Ms. Octavia and the squirrelicorns made it to shore, followed by Henry and Crow, and then out of the water rose Florence, unscathed.
Alex craned his neck and squinted to scan the water. “Have you seen Spike?” Alex called out to her. “Is she okay?”
“She’s great. And having more fun than anyone else under the circumstances.” Florence’s wry smile was evident in a burst of lightning. “Apparently she found a lagoon on the leeward side of the island where the water’s not as rough,” Florence said. “She’ll be fine there. I told her to hole up for the duration and we’d find her when we need her.”
“Good.” Alex sighed in relief and batted at a sodden lock of hair that kept dripping into his eye. He looked around in the dim light from the highlighter. “We’re all here, then, right? Where’s Kitten?”
“I’ve got her,” Samheed said. Kitten emerged from his pocket and ran down his leg and over to Fox to perch on his head.
“I feel bloated,” Fox said to no one in particular.
“Okay, good,” Alex said, ignoring Fox for the moment. “Squirrelicorns?”
“Over here in the corner,” piped one of them. “Six in number, sir!”
“Great. Everyone’s accounted for.”
“Except the ship,” Florence said. “And it’s too dark to see if any of it survived.”
That took the mood down considerably. For several minutes the cave buzzed with questions, mainly, “How are we going to get out of here?”
Finally, Alex quieted the group. He didn’t have an answer, but he knew things weren’t completely dire. “Look, everyone,” he said. “I know this feels bleak, and we’re all cold and wet, but we’re safe, and we have to stay positive,” he said. “We’re smart. We’ll figure this out. Once the storm is over we can see what the ship looks like. And at the very least, we’ll have Simber back here soon to rescue us. I’m sure he’ll find us. It’s hard to miss Florence when you have eyes as sharp as his.” He sounded more sure of himself than he felt.
“Alex is right,” Ms. Octavia said. “Simber will be back to save us. All is not lost.” She looked at Florence, then tapped a tentacle to her lips as her face clouded. “Well, except for you,” she said.
“We can’t leave Florence here!” Lani said.
“Don’t worry about me,” Florence said. “But did you notice all the shipwrecks? I’m feeling a bit of an itch to explore and maybe see if we can build something that will take us home.” She grinned. “We don’t need Simber to save us. We’re perfectly capable of rescuing ourselves. Right, Alex?”
Alex laughed uneasily. “Right, of course!” His gaze automatically went to the sky, as if looking for the flying cat would bring him soaring in. But there was nothing to see but driving rain and lightning. “Of course,” he said again with less enthusiasm this time, but trying his best to stay heartened. “We managed to bring back Artimé without him, didn’t we?” he asked, glancing at Sky.
She smiled. “We did.”
“Well then,” Alex said, “I figure we can get out of here no problem, ship or no ship!” But his insides felt extremely uneasy.
The words seemed to reassure everyone, and eventually they settled under the overhang, spreading their wet outer layers of clothing over rocks to try to dry them—though the hope for that was minimal as the air around them seemed almost as wet as the rain itself.
The mood changed once more as the group fell silent, each member lost in his own individual fears.
“We may as well try to sleep,” Alex said presently. “And hope the weather clears up by morning.”
There was nothing to eat and only rain to drink, and no dry wood for a fire. So the Artiméans huddled together, trying to get comfortable under the shallow overhang in the storm, occasionally struck by slaps of wind and rain so strong they stung. Florence, who couldn’t fit under the overhang, sat outside trying to block the flying debris from the others. The rain didn’t really bother her. She kept watch so those who needed sleep could get it, just like she would do back home.
It was at times
like these that Florence’s thoughts often turned to Talon. But tonight, her mind was on Simber. After a few hours of silence, Florence overheard a whisper from the back of the cave. It sounded like Lani.
“What are we going to do if Simber doesn’t come back, Al? We don’t have any food or fresh water. . . .”
There was a long silence, and for a moment, Florence thought the storm had drowned out Alex’s response. But then she heard it.
“We’ll do the only thing we can do,” he said, his voice tired and defeated. “Try not to die.”
Copper Steps Up
A dreary morning dawned. The wind died down and the thunder and lightning quieted, but a steady drizzle remained. Florence reached under the overhang and nudged Alex awake.
He groaned and rolled over, finding Crow’s feet in his face. His eyes shot open. He sat up and looked around, and then seeing Florence beckoning to him, he crawled out from under the overhang and got to his feet. She stood as well, and Alex followed her around their shelter so they could talk without waking the others.
The island was simply rocky and barren. There were no trees anywhere, only large slabs of moss-covered rock peppering the landscape, with an occasional scrubby bush growing sideways because of the wind. Near the water were pods of wet sand, and the sea churned dark gray all around—no gently lapping waves on the beach here, like in Artimé. It was the ugliest place Alex had ever seen. Even Quill couldn’t compete with this. “Wow,” he said, taking it in. “It’s bleak. Any inhabitants?”
“None that I can see,” Florence replied. She pointed and said, “It’s a pretty small island. When I stand up I can see between rock formations to the water on the other side. I think I saw Spike’s spike flashing a minute ago in the water over there.”
“Oh, good,” Alex said. “Do you see any animals? Food or water? Anything?” His stomach growled loudly, and his tongue felt thick with thirst.
Florence shook her head. “Not even a bird. There’s not much plant life on the island either, as far as I can tell, but I haven’t explored everything yet, and obviously I don’t have Simber’s infallible sense of smell to detect things. The shipwrecks all seem old, weathered, and abandoned—I can’t imagine anyone surviving a violent wreck like the one we had, without also having the swimming capabilities of our Artiméans.” She looked at Alex. “Other than the wrecks, there’s nothing much here but these giant rock formations with moss and lichen growing on everything. It must rain a lot here.”
“I wondered last night if the storm is permanently stationed above the island,” Alex said, looking up at the circle of dark clouds above their heads that didn’t seem to be moving anywhere. The thought didn’t seem as weird now that the weather had remained so consistently stormy throughout the night. He looked beyond the shoreline and could see far enough to discern sunshine on the water in the distance. He ventured farther into the drizzle. “All those shipwrecks,” he said.
“Yes,” Florence said. “I counted at least ten. Ours is over there.”
“You found it?” Alex asked, looking up at her. “It didn’t sink?”
“It’s lodged on the rocks, split in two. Or maybe it’s in more pieces than that, but there are two large ones for sure.”
Alex and Florence walked to the island’s edge and stared at the wreck.
“Oh dear,” Alex muttered.
“You said it,” Florence said.
Alex absently raked his fingers through his damp, tangled hair, setting it on end, not unlike Mr. Today used to do. He took in the scene. The ship sat half underwater, split from port to starboard. Its gaping maw made a V, like a giant window allowing them to view the water on the other side of it.
“Do you, um,” Alex began, and tilted his head as he studied the ship. “Do you think it’s something we can . . . repair?”
“Not out there.”
“Right, right. No, of course not. We’d all get swept away.” He squinted. “Well then what?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can try to put it on land, you know.”
Florence tapped her lips with her finger. “So you can. I’d forgotten about the transport spell.”
Alex sized up the land nearest the water, trying to figure out if there was a flat enough spot on the shore for the ship, and then he looked back at the wreck. “I don’t know if it’ll all come in one piece, though, if it’s a complete split.”
“I fear it is, or it’s close, anyway—look at the angle. It can’t be held together by much, if anything. We’ll have to try it and hope for the best.”
“Yeah, that spell is a little finicky,” Alex said, remembering how hard it had been to find Spike when he’d transported her to the water. “I’ll do what I can to land it in a good place. I just hope . . .” He trailed off, wondering what sort of mess it would be if he had to transport it in pieces, and whether they’d end up anywhere near each other. He decided to put that out of his mind. “You know,” he said, “if we can find a rope, I bet we can attach one half to the other with it. That way it’ll technically be one piece.”
“Good thinking, kid,” Florence said. “You’re smarter than you look.” She grinned. “We may as well try now while no one’s wandering about to get crushed to death.”
Alex laughed. He was really starting to enjoy Florence’s sense of humor, and he liked it when she teased him. It made them feel like friends. “You should take cover then too—or better yet, will you carry me out there so I don’t have to get wet again now that it seems to have stopped raining for the moment? My skin is shriveling up.”
“Oh, sure,” she said drily. “Now you let me carry you, when there isn’t any danger. Stubborn mages. You’re all alike.”
“Sorry,” Alex said sheepishly.
“Shall I clear an area on the beach so you can aim for it?”
“That would be excellent.”
While Alex ran back to the shelter to tell everyone to stay there for a while, Florence quickly uprooted a few scraggly bushes and tossed several large boulders out of the way near the flat, open area of the beach. She approached the remains of an old fishing boat that had somehow made it through the maze of jutting rocks and all the way to the mainland before wrecking. After peering inside it, she carefully picked it up and moved it to another area, leaving behind a small army of crabs scuttling across the wet sand. When she was finished, she met up with Alex again, hoisted him up to her shoulders, and set off through the rough water to their ship.
“You know, we used to climb on you when you were frozen,” Alex confided. “You happened to be standing in a very convenient spot when the magic disappeared.”
“Is that so?” Florence said. She narrowed her eyes. “Who is we?”
“Oh, me and Sean and Carina and Sky and Mr. Appleblossom—”
“What? Siggy, too? I-I’m actually somewhat embarrassed by this information.”
“It wasn’t for fun, believe me. It was to get to the roof of the gray shack so we could escape from the masses of people and try to figure out how to fix things. I never thought I’d tell you—we were so scared you’d come back alive while we were climbing on you. We didn’t know what you’d do to us.”
Florence chuckled. “Well in that case, I’m glad I could be of some use.”
By the time they reached the rocks where the pirate ship rested, Alex had scrambled to the top of Florence’s head to stay dry. She grabbed on to a boulder, found a foothold, and pulled herself up out of the water, finding a place to perch on the rocks that had split the pirate ship.
Alex stood on Florence’s shoulders, reached for the ship, and peered over the railing. There wasn’t much left inside, but he spied a few ropes floating there, attached to the ship at one end. He reached out for one, grabbed it, and climbed deftly along the inside of the ship to a spot where Florence could take it. He handed off the rope to her. She quickly wound it around the mast on the other half of the ship and tied it tightly. They did the same on the other side.
“There,�
� Florence said. “Now the two pieces are connected.”
Alex scrambled back out of the ship to climb on Florence’s shoulders again. Once settled, he leaned out and touched the side of the ship. “I can see some of our water containers tied up,” Alex said, relieved. “Let’s get this ship on shore.”
“Sounds good.”
“Are you ready?” he asked. He took a deep breath.
“Whenever you are, but take your time. There’s no need to rush. Focus on that open spot on the beach.”
“I know.” He realized all too well that if the ship didn’t transport properly, they could end up with nothing but an unfixable mess. After a moment of panic at the gravity of the situation, he shoved the fear aside and removed all other thoughts from his mind. He focused intently on the open space on land. He made sure he had his hand firmly placed on the ship’s side, and then, in an intense whisper, he said, “Transport.”
Both halves of the ship vanished.
Florence and Alex whipped their heads around to scan the shore. An instant later the battered vessel appeared almost exactly where Alex had intended it to land. Upright, and nearly perfectly placed. Seawater gushed out of it onto the sand.
“Yes!” Alex shouted, pumping his fist in the air.
Florence held a hand up in triumph. “You did it! All in one piece—just barely, thanks to the rope idea. Nice work.” She climbed down the rock into the sea with Alex crouched on her head to stay dry, and began the walk back to shore. When they reached land, Alex gave a shout. The others came running to see the ship and assess the damage. Alex slid off of Florence’s shoulders and landed with a thud on the ground.
“Oh my,” Copper said, peering at it. Her voice was still a bit raspy from the thorn necklace she’d worn up until her recent rescue. “I wonder if it’s something we can fix.”
She came up to the broken edge of the ship and took an expert look all around inside. She’d worked on plenty of Queen Eagala’s ships on Warbler.
