Island of Shipwrecks (27 page)

Normally he spent only a split second there before hitting all the buttons, which would take him to the jungle. But this time he hesitated. It was quiet in the little kitchenette. He poked his head out of the tube and stole a glance beyond the room to the hallway and into the currently unlit office on the other side.

He listened carefully but heard nothing stirring, so he stepped out of the tube and snuck to the door frame. He peered out and to the left, down the intricately beautiful expanse of hallway. It was empty except for a small, ugly statue that looked strangely familiar, but at present Aaron couldn't remember where he'd seen it before. A moment later he was tiptoeing across the hallway and into the office.

He'd been in there before. And like that first time when he'd just discovered his brother was alive, the room made him long for something. The feeling was much stronger now, perhaps because he was getting used to seeing the unusual, colorful world.

On that day, Mr. Today had been sitting at the desk with Alex.

They had been so surprised to see him coming through their strange paper doorway that worked like a real door. They'd been happy to see him. And they'd invited him to stay.

He wondered how things would be different now if he'd said yes. Would Mr. Today still be alive?

Aaron pressed his lips together and dropped his gaze. He didn't like the gnawing feeling that dug into him.

After a minute he slipped back to the kitchenette and into the tube. He pressed all the buttons, and the warm comfort of Artimé was replaced by the cool, minty scent of the jungle. Aaron took it in and looked around.

The rock was there, with the panther curled up in one of its crevasses, sleeping.

Aaron remained still in the tube for a moment, looking out at the softly lit refuge. He'd liked it here before the horrible incident with Eva and the panther. It had an entirely different feel from home and from Artimé. It was the most welcoming place of all, he thought. Populated by misfits and failures of all shapes and sizes. Talk about unwanted.

He cringed. Aaron didn't like to admit to himself just why he felt so comfortable here. But it was pretty obvious. Despite his one success, Aaron was a misfit and a failure too.

He stepped out of the tube, and his soft tread upon the jungle floor sent the panther jumping to her feet. She took one look at Aaron, bounded toward him, and screamed in his face, just like old times. She brushed her body against his legs, nearly throwing him off balance, and nudged his hand with her head, prompting him to pet her.

Aaron's mouth twisted into a half smile and he did what she wanted, checking her all over to make sure she was intact.

“Hey, you, your tail's gone again,” he scolded. “What do you do to that poor thing, bounce on it? Bite it off?”

The rock opened his craggy yellow eyes. Its cave mouth spread into a smile. “I was hoping we'd see you soon,” the rock growled. “You seem to know just when to come.”

Aaron smiled. It was strange how he hadn't thought about the jungle for weeks, and then it just popped into his mind. “It's good to be back,” he said, and despite everything that had happened with Secretary, he meant it. He knew the panther hadn't meant to do anything wrong. It was his fault, not hers.

He took a length of vine and fixed her tail, magically melding the pieces together like before, with only a small fraction of the anxiety this time.

The panther screeched in appreciation. Aaron bent down so his face aligned with hers. Her fangs glistened.

“You're so smart,” Aaron told the panther. “You know that, right?” He tapped a finger nervously on his knee, debating what to do. Finally, he just decided to explain it, wanting the rock to hear as well.

“I have two tricks I'd like to teach you, Panther,” he said. “The first one is called down. When I say ‘down,' I want you to sit next to me and not move, no matter what is happening around you.”

The panther lunged, licking Aaron with her cold stone tongue and knocking him off his feet.

“Yeah?” Aaron asked, getting up. “Do you understand me? I highly doubt it,” he said. “But you will.”

The panther panted and screamed.

“She understands. But that doesn't mean she'll do it.” The rock moved a few feet closer. “That's the reason she's here, you know. What's the second trick?” he asked.

Aaron looked up. “I'm afraid there's trouble brewing in Artimé, my rocky friend. The second trick I need to teach the panther is called attack.”

The rock's eyes drew closer together in concern. “Are you sure that's a good idea?” it growled.

“No, I'm not,” Aaron said, surprising himself with how forthcoming he was being today. “But to be honest, it's the only hope I have.”

T
he patchwork ship soon left the Island of Shipwrecks and the giant hurricane far behind. The Artiméans were so glad to be dry again, and Alex was even gladder to have Simber back with them once more. A quick consultation with the cat convinced Alex that Artimé was not in imminent danger. Simber reassured Alex that everything was under control and running smoothly, and that he would give him more details of future concerns once they had the ship in order.

And the ship was going to be a great task. It had lost most of its original rigging and tools, and because of the hurricane the
Artiméans had to stow all of the salvaged replacement items, food, and rainwater belowdecks to keep them from blowing away. By the end of the day they had repositioned everything in its proper place, and the non-statues quite fairly collapsed in exhaustion at the first hint of darkness after their harrowing day.

» » « «

By morning, once all the shipboard duties had been portioned out and things were running efficiently on the calm waters, Alex and the others finally had time to tell Simber all that had happened while he was gone.

Simber took specific interest in the shipwreck that contained the military vehicles.

Alex explained, “Ishibashi—he's the guy you scared half to death—said that nobody was on board when the ship wrecked. Isn't that weird?”

Simber frowned. “Yes, it's a little strrrange, unless they abandoned ship when they firrrst enterrred the storrrm. Even strrrangerrr, I rrrecall Marrrcus saying something yearrrs ago about a ship just like it that had come limping to Quill back when he and Justine initially inhabited the island, beforrre the
wall went up. The ship had been thrrrough some wrrretched storrrm, I guess. Perrrhaps it was the same hurrricane you've been living through.”

“Maybe . . . but if they escaped it and made it to Quill, how did they end up right back in the hurricane again? You'd think they'd know enough to steer clear.”

“You'd think. But they did drrrop some of theirrr vehicles on Quill to lighten theirrr load. That's how Justine got them. Perrrhaps therrre werrre two ships, and only one was able to make it to Quill.” He fell quiet for a moment, thinking. “If I rrrecall, Marrrcus said something about a warrr.” The cat shook his head. “I don't rrremember. I wasn't that interrrested in the storrry back then, so I doubt I asked many questions.” He puzzled some more as he flew.

Alex puzzled along with him on the deck below. “I suppose there's a book about it somewhere,” he said, rolling his eyes. “There always is.”

Simber chuckled. “I suppose. Marrrcus did a lot of wrrriting.”

“It'll be nice to be home,” Alex said after a time.

Henry joined them and entertained Simber for hours with stories of Ishibashi and the greenhouse, though he stayed
true to Ishibashi's instructions and didn't mention the glowing seaweed.

Every now and then Henry checked his vest's interior pocket to make sure the container was still there, and it always was. When he had exhausted all his stories, he went in search of a bit of wire. Once he found something that would suffice, he fashioned a magical fastener for the container's pocket that would only open on his command. He felt proud that Ishibashi trusted him to make wise decisions, and he took Ishibashi very seriously when he said the seaweed should never fall into the wrong hands. Henry imagined someone horrible like Aaron Stowe getting ahold of it, and imagined what would happen if a tyrant like that had the ability to live forever. It would be absolutely terrible for everyone else, he knew that much. It could cause the downfall of the whole world!

By midafternoon, Captain Ahab, who was functioning more like a normal, non-insane statue ever since Ms. Octavia cleaned out the inside of his head, shouted out for all to hear: “Land ahead!”

Simber confirmed the sighting, though no one else could make it out. That prompted Alex to ask Simber for his story.
“Now it's your turn. Tell us everything,” Alex said, “from the time you left with Sean and Carina until you scared the stink out of Ishibashi. And what took you so long coming back?”

“Afterrr yourrr adventurrrous storrries,” Simber said, “I'm afrrraid mine will borrre you.” He flapped his wings a few times. “But I'll give you the highlights.”

Others gathered to listen.

“Ourrr jourrrney home was a difficult one,” he began. “It took much longerrrr than I expected because of Sean's leg. If I flew too fast, the wind buffeted him arrround in his hammock. So we took it verrry slow. He's doing much betterrr now.”

“Thank goodness. And what about Artimé?” Alex asked. “Is everything all right? I've been anxious to know what prompted Ms. Morning's seek spell.”

“Ah, yes,” Simber said solemnly, and he recounted the story of Eva Fathom's tragic death, and the confusion about whose side she was really on. Simber saved some of the more sensitive information about Sean and his secretive work with Eva for a time when he and Alex could talk privately.

“Well if that was all that went wrong,” Samheed asked
after a while, “what took you so long to come back?”

Simber took a moment to sample the air and check to make sure Spike was nearby, and then he began anew. “You might not believe this,” Simber said with a rare, wry grin, “but shorrrtly afterrr we got to Arrrtimé, and just as I was about to rrreturrrn to you, a most extrrraorrrdinarrry thing happened.”

“What?” Alex asked.

“The Quillitarrry and the Necessarrries began tearrring down the wall that surrrounds Quill.”

“That's crazy!” Lani said.

Ms. Octavia just shook her alligator head in disbelief.

“It's trrrue,” Simber said. “They werrre going at it with some vigorrr when I left.”

“And is Aaron still high priest?” Alex tried to picture Aaron making that decision, knowing what he knew of his brother. He added sarcastically, “How much time did they spend tearing it down before
someone
changed his mind and demanded it to be rebuilt again?”

Samheed snickered.

“That's what I was wonderrring,” Simber said, “and of courrrse we werrre all concerrrned about the motives behind
that action. So I decided it was best that I stay forrr a while, at least, to see if we could deterrrmine what was coming next. Of courrrse we anticipate an attack eventually.”

“But you changed your mind and decided to find us anyway?” Sky asked.

“When you didn't rrreturrrn, I began to worrry,” Simber admitted. “The Quillitarrry continued theirrr demolition, planning to topple the entirrre wall, level the rrrubble, and chop up the barrrbed-wirrre ceiling. It seemed rrreasonable to me that they wouldn't do anything to us until theirrr task was completed.

“In the meantime, Clairrre and Meghan have rrreinstated Magical Warrriorrr Trrraining for everrryone, including teaching defensive spells to the Warrrblerrr childrrren. Carrrina is worrrking harrrd on incrrreasing the medicine supply. Sean and Sigfrrried Appleblossom and some of the youngerrr Unwanteds arrre building up ourrr stock of spell components. And of courrrse the girrrinos arrre keeping a close watch on the borrrderrr between Quill and Arrrtimé. They've rrrecrrruited help from Jim, the winged torrrtoise, and the ostrrrich statue, and a varrriety of otherrr statues to stand guarrrd along the
borrrderrr, since we no longerrr have a wall at all.”

“That must look so strange,” Sky said.

Lani nodded. “I can't even imagine it.”

Alex was flabbergasted. He couldn't picture a scenario where his brother would do such a rash thing, so opposite of what Justine stood for. “This is very strange,” he muttered. “I don't think Aaron is working alone. This is not something he would ever do—I just can't see it.”

“You know him better than anyone,” Ms. Octavia said. “It's one of the reasons Marcus chose you to be the next mage. Let us know if you think of anything that would help us defend Artimé, for I fear that's what he's after. Why else would he expose Quill by taking down the wall, if it's not to have better access to attack us?”

Alex absently rubbed the patches of fuzz on his chin. “Yeah, of course,” he said, lost in thought. “I'm not sure what to think, quite honestly.”

Samheed nodded. “We've got time to figure it out. I hope.” He looked out over the water toward home.

Alex knit his brows, unaware of the others watching him curiously. “He would have been one of us, you know. He
had a chance to join us early on, before that first battle. I remember . . .” He trailed off.

Sky glanced at Crow. This was news to them. She looked up at Simber, who stared ahead in stony silence.

“I remember he almost did it,” Alex said, finishing his thought. “He was tempted.” He shook his head and sighed. “Things would be a lot different for us if he had.”

Samheed snorted. “Yeah. A lot worse.”

Lani nudged him with her elbow. “Take it easy,” she said, nodding her head in Alex's direction. “He's having a moment.”

Samheed raised an eyebrow and glanced at Alex, and then he shrugged and turned back to the water. After a minute, he craned his neck and stood on his tiptoes, straining his eyes. “I see it,” he said, pointing. “Just there. The mysterious island number six.”