Island of Dragons (37 page)

“Believe it,” said Simber. And with that, he was thundering off to grab another pirate.

Alex ran back into the mansion and went inside the hospital ward. “Attention!” he called. “If any of you are able to return to the lawn, we need you now more than ever. And with any luck,” he said fervently, “this war will be over soon. Reinforcements of the grandest nature are on their way. Join me if you are able.”

Alex didn't wait to see if anyone would follow. He ran back out to the lawn, picked up a sword, and began fighting with everything he had in him. Aaron joined him immediately, and other Artiméans trickled out of the mansion, limping and bandaged, ready to make a final go of it for Alex's sake.

Minutes later, Pan reached the shore. Alex and Aaron ran toward her, fighting off pirates as they went. Pan saw them coming and curled her tail around them, lifting them up in the air, out of reach of the enemy. With a flaming roar, she got everyone's attention.

The fighting halted abruptly, and the pirates began to grow frightened. A small band of them drew their swords, and in a concerted effort they ran at the dragon, trying to get to Artimé's leader. They swung and connected with Pan's chest, and she watched them in their attempt to hurt her.

When she did nothing in response, more pirates came running to attack. They surrounded the dragon, and some even climbed on her tail and ran up it, trying to fight Alex and Aaron. The brothers fought back, knocking the pirates down, and all the while Pan just glowered at the ones trying to hurt her.

“What's happening?” whispered the Artiméans to one another. “Why isn't she fighting them?”

No one knew the answer, but they were grateful for the chance to rest and watch in awe as the young dragons flew in and circled above their mother's head.

“I hope this isn't a trick,” murmured Sean to some others. “Are we sure the dragons are on our side?”

“They'd better be,” said Samheed under his breath. He'd done plenty to make them stronger.

Pan looked up at her young, signaling them to pay attention as more pirates grew brave enough to join their comrades and help attack her.

“Watch,” said Ms. Octavia to Sean and Samheed and the Artiméans around them. “She's teaching her children.”

When fifty or so pirates had gathered to beat on her with their swords, Pan took a deep breath, then flamed them with the heat of a thousand suns, burning them to a crisp in an instant.

Stunned silence was followed by an uproar from the enemy, and new vigor in their attacks. But the pirates were smart. They left the dragon alone and turned once more against the ones they knew they could beat—the people of Artimé.

With the pirates changing focus, Pan began moving Alex and Aaron around over the lawn with her tail, wherever they were needed the most, while at the same time fighting off pirate and Warbleran attackers with her jaws and her fiery breath.

The Artiméans dug in with renewed strength but kept their distance from the dragon for their own safety. Pan's children soared overhead, spreading out, then each found a spot on the lawn to land. Pan called to them in the language of the dragons, and they began sniffing the people, determining which of them contained more evil than good, and going after them one at a time.

Some of the pirates tried to capture the young dragons and drag them away, their greed taking over their senses. Others tried to fight the creatures. But their swords wouldn't cut them, nor would they penetrate their scaly skin, for the dragons' new wings had been protected by preserve spells, which covered them all the way to their extremities.

Pan let Alex and Aaron down so she could use her tail to protect her young. The brothers didn't falter. Instead they herded the pirates toward Pan so she could finish them off.

Arabis the orange and the ice-blue dragon played tug-of-war with one pirate, while the two purples teamed up against a small band of pirates and practiced using their ropelike tails to lasso them. When they reined in a pirate, they tried out their fire-breathing skills. And Ivis the green took to the trees, flushing out the pirates who had gone into hiding.

Pan moved toward another group of pirates and began picking them up with her tail and flinging them like torpedoes onto the ship where Ol' Tater was stomping around. And if the pirates were lucky enough to avoid being stomped on and dove overboard, Spike was there to bat them back on board so Ol' Tater could try again.

The pirate ranks thinned, and one by one the exhausted Artiméans dropped back, both to get out of the way as the dragons had fun playing with the pirates before putting an end to them, and to give themselves a chance to rest. Soon Alex had no other pirates or enemy Warblerans facing him, and he actually had to search to find some. He looked around, determined to fight to the very end, but then dove out of the way of Pan, who was coming farther and farther on land. Some of the pirates gave up and started to run away, but Pan's tail brought them back in. She wasn't about to let any of them escape.

The young dragons began to chase the pirates around the lawn.

Pan spoke sharply to her children, and then the six of them began herding the enemies to one central location, gently pushing the fighting Artiméans out of the way. Soon they moved to make a tight circle around the remaining enemies.

Alex backed off and saw that many of his friends had stopped fighting as well. They moved slowly toward the mansion, watching what was happening, almost unable to believe that the dragons had arrived to help them.

And then Alex remembered. “Has anyone seen Eagala?” he asked.

Samheed looked up wearily. “Lani took her out early on with a transport spell.” He looked around. “Where is Lani, anyway?”

“She's hurt,” Alex told him. “Pretty badly, I think. Henry's working on her.”

Samheed's face filled with concern. He glanced at the enemies, and then back at Alex.

“Go,” Alex said. “See how she's doing.”

Samheed didn't hesitate. He jogged to the mansion.

Alex looked around for Sky, his heart leaping into his throat. He hadn't seen her in a long time. Finally he spied her, still alive, and his throat tightened. She limped to the mansion, her exhaustion clear, but she lifted a hand at Alex to let him know she was okay. She went inside to the hospital ward.

The rest of the Artiméans and their Quill and Warbler friends backed away from the battle, awestruck by the size of Pan and the beauty of the young dragons, and thrilled not to have to be fighting against them.

They watched as the young dragons gently pushed the more-good-than-evil Warblerans and pirate slaves to the outskirts of the lawn, and corralled the more-evil-than-good pirates, herding them with their fiery bursts of breath toward the center of the lawn.

Soon all of the remaining attackers were surrounded.

Alex retreated for safety to the front steps of the mansion, with Simber, Florence, and Talon standing behind him. Together in silence they watched Pan demonstrate to her children once more how to decimate an enemy group in quick fashion. And soon there were no more pirates.

» » « «

When the dragons had finished their lesson, they returned to the water to cool down and play, and Pan joined them there, praising them for their work in detecting the mostly good from the mostly bad.

The remaining defenders let their weapons fall from their hands. Some of them wept. Others fell to their knees, overcome by the intensity of the battle, or the fact that they had made it through alive. None of them felt like cheering.

They had overcome the enemy at last, but it came at a tremendous cost. Alex wasn't sure how many Artiméans remained alive, but evidence of their struggle was strewn about the entire island. How many had they lost? The numbers seemed extraordinary. Clive. Liam. Mr. Appleblossom. And Alex spotted Bock the golden-horned deer lying on his side, dead too. Hundreds more, gone for the sake of Artimé. It was almost too much to bear. But the hospital ward, with ninety full beds, was buzzing with the news of the dragons. There was life in there. The bodies would heal. And Artimé was at peace at last. Was it worth it?

Alex knew that was an impossible question. Would he have done better by surrendering and saving everyone's life, but forcing them to become slaves to the pirates? In Alex's mind, there was no choice—he'd done the right thing. And though he'd faltered, he'd always had people, creatures, and statues to back him up and set him on track again.

Aaron came up to Alex in the crowd, a hint of a grin working at the corner of his mouth. “You made it through,” he said.

Alex held his brother's gaze and nodded. “Amazing. And you—you look . . . good, actually.”

“Fast healer,” said Aaron. His tired eyes lit up, making Alex laugh. “I'm half-dead inside, though. I don't care if it's still daytime. I'm going straight to bed. Wake me up if you need anything.”

“I will,” said Alex.

Aaron went inside.

While others filed into the mansion to collapse from exhaustion, Florence, Simber, and Alex remained outside looking at the destruction.

“It's over,” said Alex. “I can't believe it.”

“I hope we never see anything like this again,” said Florence.

“Me too,” said Simber. “I'm rrready to rrretirrre.”

Just then, there was a bit of commotion around the corner of the mansion behind them. Alarmed, they turned to look. Alex's heart sank, fearing the worst—that someone had been hiding, lying in wait to attack. But then three figures rounded the corner, and a familiar voice pealed as they came closer. “What has happened here? Did we miss our chance to help you, Alex-san?”

Alex, Florence, and Simber could barely contain their shock.

“Ishibashi-san!” exclaimed Alex. “Is it really you? Ito-san and Sato-san!” He was caught speechless for a moment, and then found his voice. “How in the world did you get here? Did you build a boat?”

Ishibashi shrugged and smiled his toothless smile, his eyes twinkling behind his cat-eye glasses. “I fixed the tube,” he said.

A
fter their arrival, the scientists discovered they'd just missed Aaron and didn't want to wake him. They'd wait until morning to surprise him. In the meantime they helped clean up the mansion and looked forward to retiring to their newly assigned rooms to enjoy the comforts of home: bubble baths, soft beds, and room service. It wasn't too much of a hardship.

Henry and Carina and the nurses continued to help the injured, who still streamed into the hospital ward. Simber, Talon, and the young dragons began to transport the dead pirates and Warblerans to some empty Warbler ships, piling them up high on the deck. Pan promised to give them a respectful burial at sea.

The herbivorous dropbears from the Island of Legends returned in a mini stampede to their island and disappeared into the woods, and the hibagon and Vido the rooster returned home as well. Lhasa retired to her favorite spot on Karkinos to mourn the loss of Bock, who had died valiantly protecting a group of Warbler parents who were fighting for Artimé. No doubt Bock had wanted them to fulfill their wish of being reunited with their children again.

The squirrelicorns transported the Artiméan dropbears and the little dog from the ships to the rock. The rock put them inside his mouth and delivered them to the jungle to be with Panther, with plans to return for the scorpion when Simber was finished collecting pirates.

Alex rode on Spike to the pirate ship where Ol' Tater was still stomping around and crushing things. Standing on Spike's back and looking into the very happy mastodon's eyes, Alex sang the song that put Ol' Tater to sleep.

Once Ol' Tater was in dreamland, Alex climbed aboard the ship. He pressed his hand against the mastodon's side and closed his eyes, breathing deeply for a moment, ignoring the pain all over his body. With all the concentration he could muster, Alex focused on the giant empty space in the Museum of Large and whispered, “Transport.”

Ol' Tater vanished.

Alex listened for a moment. “Do you hear any screaming, Spike?” he asked.

“No I do not, the Alex,” said Spike.

“Good. I think Ol' Tater made it to the right place, then.”

“I knew he would.” Spike was silent for a moment, perhaps in contemplation over the fate of a fellow magical creature. And then he said, “He was happy to stomp around and scare all the pirates away.”

“Yes,” said Alex. “I definitely think he was finally happy. If there was any good in this battle, it was giving Ol' Tater a ship and some pirates to stomp on for a couple of days.” He climbed down the side of the ship and dropped to Spike's back, feeling like he just wanted to lie down and take a nap. But he stayed stoic, wanting to get as much taken care of as he could before nightfall. “Okay, Spike. Now we've got to get Captain Ahab and his head from our ship so Ms. Octavia can put him back together.”