He went inside the mansion for more. Once outside again, he balanced them on Simber’s back and hopped on behind so he could deliver them to the rest of the teams.
» » « «
By the time Alex and Simber were off to make the rounds, Fox reached the ship that held Queen Eagala and Captain Baldhead. He scrabbled up the anchor chain so his ears were above the water, and hung on, listening carefully to the conversations on board like Alex had trusted him to do. It was a very important job, Fox knew, and he wasn’t going to mess it up.
He strained his ears like a smart, sensitive cat would do, and tried to understand what the people on board were talking about. Tar balls? Melee? Fox didn’t know what those things were, but they sounded like food and made Fox’s stomach growl. But then he heard the voice of the scary woman from Warbler, which Fox remembered well, and she said the most horrifying words that Fox had ever known. “The giant eel.”
Fox shuddered as the cool seawater dripped off his nose. He had seen the giant eel before, and he never wanted to see it again. He had to report back to Alex right away! All of Artimé depended on him!
With a tiny splash, Fox slipped into the water and began swimming toward Artimé’s pirate ship. But he didn’t make it very far before a slithering tail wrapped around his whole body. By the time Fox figured out what was happening, he was jerked underwater, his screams for help muffled by the waves and the thwaps of the catapults. When Fox’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the sinister face of the eel staring at him from just inches away.
The Battle Rages On
Over the course of the afternoon, Alex distributed water buckets to everyone and checked on the teams. There was only one injury so far—a Necessary on Aaron’s team who’d been a little too close to an incoming flaming tar ball had gotten burned. Alex and Simber shuttled the injured Necessary to the hospital ward, and then continued on to check on Liam and Haluki.
One house in the quadrant nearest Haluki had suffered extensive damage, but no one inside was seriously hurt. On the north side of the island, the Ancients Sector took the brunt of the damage. Even the group of crotchety Wanteds, who lived crabbily on their little piece of sooty land, ran for cover. Carina’s, Sky’s, and Kaylee’s teams kept the Ancients Sector from burning to the ground and helped the Ancients find safer places to stay farther inland. The teams were tired and hungry, but for the most part everything was under control.
“They’re handling it,” Alex said to Florence once he and Simber returned from checking in on the north-shore teams. “So far so good.” Simber dropped Alex off on the roof so he could help Mr. Appleblossom put out the flaming tar balls that continued to hit it.
“Good,” said Florence, filling six buckets at once at the edge of the sea and then handing them up to Alex and Mr. Appleblossom at the lowest section of the rooftop. “But I wonder what else they have in mind. They’re tiring us out. I think that’s part of their strategy.”
“They’ll have to run out of tar balls eventually,” said Alex. Once the roof fires were extinguished, he poured water over the shingles to help keep them from catching fire when the inevitable next round came flying in. “Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about it. This attack isn’t as bad as I had pictured. They haven’t even tried to come ashore.”
“Not yet,” warned Florence.
“Maybe Simber and I should join Ms. Octavia and Sean on the ship,” said Alex. “They seem to be getting the most work accomplished since they’re staying out of the direct line of fire and actually taking down some of the pirates and Warblerans. Have they disabled the ship nearest them yet?”
Simber craned his neck to look at the ship, and narrowed his eyes. “Definitely not. Therrre’s still plenty of movement on boarrrd the enemy ship.” He looked harder. “But something’s strrrange on ourrrs. Sean and severrral otherrrs appearrr to be lying down.”
“Are they hurt?”
“I don’t think so. Now Octavia’s waving.”
“That seems . . . odd,” said Alex, pausing to wipe the sweat off his brow. “Are their squirrelicorns all right?”
Simber frowned. “I don’t see any squirrrelicorrrns.” He sampled the air and rose up on his hindquarters to see better. “Wherrre’s that annoying little mutt?”
“What?” asked Alex. “You mean Fox?”
“Yes, of courrrse,” said Simber.
“I sent him to eavesdrop on the lead ship, remember?”
“I rrrememberrr,” said Simber. “But he’s not therrre, eitherrr.”
Alex put a hand to his forehead to block the sun, which was turning orange and sitting low on the horizon by this time. “Where can he be?”
Simber lowered himself to the ground. “He’s not therrre,” he said again with a shrug. “Oh well. We should check on Octavia.”
Alex frowned. “No, not oh well,” he said, indignant. “Come up here and get me. We need to find Fox and see what’s going on over at the ship. And where’s Claire?”
Florence hoisted herself up onto the corner of the mansion roof and looked around the island, then let herself down again, not wanting to damage it. “The white boat is floating on the north side, directly opposite us.”
Simber flew up to the mansion roof, balancing delicately on the edge of it and putting his wing out for Alex. Alex grabbed it and vaulted onto Simber’s back as another round of flaming tar balls let loose from the catapults. Simber dodged them and flew to Artimé’s ship.
When Ms. Octavia saw them coming, she began waving with several of her arms. As Simber and Alex drew near, she cried out, “I thought you’d never notice us. I was about to swim in to get you, but I didn’t want to leave the ship with everybody like this.” She quickly fired half a dozen spell components at the ship next to them, but the pirates held up shields and only one component found its mark. The others plinked against the shields and fell into the water.
“What’s wrong?” asked Alex, leaning forward, and then he gasped. Several humans were lying lifeless on the deck, and all of the ship’s squirrelicorns were spread out on top of Captain Ahab’s headless body. The captain’s head rolled around in a corner with the ebb and flow of the waves.
Ms. Octavia looked wearily at Alex. “What’s wrong? Clearly a lot of things, Alex. A lot of things.”
As Darkness Falls
As soon as Alex hopped off Simber’s back to the deck of Artimé’s ship, Warblerans from the nearby ship appeared at their railing with thin tubes, which they put to their mouths.
“Look out!” cried Ms. Octavia, shoving Alex out of the way as the Warblerans blew into their tubes. “Sleep darts!”
Alex ducked behind a stack of crates as a few of the darts pinged off Simber and landed on the deck.
“That’s what happened,” Ms. Octavia explained. “Captain Ahab brought us too close to the Warbler ship and they hit everybody on board except me with their sleep darts. The squirrelicorns all took hits too, and fell off the mast. They landed deadweight on poor Ahab and broke his head clean off.”
“Oh dear,” muttered Alex. He called out to Simber, “Cover me while I try to steer this thing closer to shore.”
Simber lowered himself in the air and hovered, giving Alex a chance to make a break for the ship’s wheel. He was glad for his bit of experience at steering the great ship, even though at that time he’d been heading into a hurricane. But at least he’d gotten a taste of it. Now he guided the wheel properly, and then ran to adjust the sails so they could move away from the Warbler ship.
“What else is happening?” asked Alex.
“There are a mix of Warblerans and pirates aboard all the ships as far as I can tell,” said Ms. Octavia. “The pirates have shields that must have some sort of magic treatment to them. I don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely a barrier that makes my components bounce off the shields without activating. I’ve been testing various spells while I’ve been trapped here in this corner, and just about all the component spells seem to be useless against the pirat
e shields. Watch.”
Ms. Octavia threw a tentacle full of scatterclips at one of the pirates in the nearby ship. He held up his shield and they bounced off and fell into the water. “I’ve managed to hit a few, though, when I’ve caught them unawares or if they turn around. It’s just the shield that’s helping them. The noncomponent spells are working pretty well, like the kind Meghan was good at—slam poetry, fire step, stinging soliloquy, and those sorts of things. But the freeze spell and the clay shackles aren’t working either.”
“I wonder if Queen Eagala’s magic is protective or barrier based,” said Alex. “You know, like Gondoleery’s was elemental. Maybe the shields’ power is similar to how Eagala keeps her island from having any sound at all—besides the sound of her own voice, of course.”
“I don’t know,” said Ms. Octavia, “but clearly our initial strategy is no longer working.”
“Well,” growled Simber, “I forrr one am tirrred of this. I’m going afterrr them.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” asked Alex.
Simber didn’t respond, and Alex dove behind the crates to hide and watch as the big cat flapped his mighty wings and flew to the nearby ship. Immediately the sailors all scattered down the stairs and into tight corners that Simber couldn’t reach. Simber slammed into the ship’s cabin, but all it did was chip a bit of his wing and leave him furious and tripping over the catapult. Immediately someone released a flaming tar ball, hitting Simber square in the chest and sending the giant cheetah flipping head over tail through the air and plunging into the water. The splash was enormous and rained down on both ships.
Simber surfaced, spitting and flailing, until he finally composed himself enough to rise out of the water. He shook his body violently to free himself from the wet stuff.
Ms. Octavia hid her face behind a tentacle and eased from her hiding spot as the ship finally moved out of range of the blow darts. Alex reappeared from behind the crates, and Simber pretended like nothing had happened to him.
“Simber,” Alex called. “There’s nothing more we can do here. Octavia can abandon ship if she needs to, but she’s a safe distance from the enemy ships now. The others will wake up eventually. We need to find Fox.”
“Fox!” exclaimed Octavia. She looked all around in the water, alarmed. “He never came back,” she said. “I didn’t notice. Good heavens.”
“He’s not in the water around Queen Eagala’s ship either,” said Alex. “Not that Simber could see, anyway.” He began dragging bodies off one another and laying them flat on their backs. “Sean got hit by a sleep dart,” he said. “Again!” He rolled the sleeping young man onto his back. “Carina’s not going to let him forget that.”
“Carina might be in the same predicament before this is over,” said Ms. Octavia.
“You’re right, of course.” He stood up straight. “I can spare you a squirrelicorn and a few people from my team until yours wake up. It’ll be dark soon—are you all right here on your own for a bit?”
“I think so,” said Octavia. “The other ships don’t seem to want to follow us.”
“Because it could put them in the line of firrre frrrom the catapults,” observed Simber. “I think you’rrre safe forrr now.”
Alex climbed on Simber’s back. “You won’t be alone for long, Ms. Octavia.” He instructed Simber to go back to the shore. There Alex ordered a few Artiméans from his team to head out to the ship, carried by squirrelicorns, and then Alex and Simber flew back over the sea, dodging flaming tar balls and looking for Fox.
As the sun began to set in earnest, Simber rose up high in the air, out of range of the catapults. He flew over the ships, wishing he could safely catch the flying tar balls and drop them back onto the ships. But he didn’t want to risk losing any claws to the heat.
Despite his dislike for Fox, who was definitely not a cat no matter how much he wanted to be, Simber scanned the water and the ships for signs of the creature. Over his shoulder, Alex searched anxiously. And as they were searching, Kitten pushed her way out of Alex’s pocket and onto his thigh, and began to stretch.
Alex picked her up so she wouldn’t be blasted off Simber’s back by the wind.
“Mewmewmew?” asked Kitten.
“We’rrre looking forrr yourrr annoying frrriend,” answered Simber.
Kitten’s ears stiffened and she sat up. “Mewmewmew?”
“Alex sent him on an errrand and he disappearrred.”
Kitten struggled against Alex’s grasp, trying to see, and he held her out over the side of Simber’s back so she could look too.
“Mewmewmew!” she said, pointing.
“No,” said Alex, “that’s just a piece of driftwood.”
Kitten pointed the other way. “Mewmewmew!”
“No,” said Alex patiently. “That’s an oar.”
Kitten frowned and stared harder, but after a time she stopped staring and began licking her porcelain fur, which was getting ruffled in the wind.
Simber soared over the ships one at a time, listening to the gruff shouts from the pirates below them and taking in the ship designs and vast number of pirates and Warblerans on board each one—the ships’ top decks were jam-packed with sailors, and who knew how many more were belowdecks. Simber kept his worries to himself. They were in this. There was no use adding more gloom to the situation. Alex would figure it out soon enough.
When they’d looked over all the ships within a reasonable distance for Fox to swim to, Simber circled back, and in the waning light, he looked one last time at Queen Eagala’s ship. Simber’s ears twitched and rotated as the great cat took in a multitude of conversations below, listening for Fox.
And suddenly, as Kitten was finishing the grooming of her left front paw, both she and Simber simultaneously jumped to attention.
“Mewmewmew!” said Kitten.
“Indeed,” said Simber. He reduced his altitude near the lead ship where Queen Eagala and Captain Baldhead had been earlier in the day, and Alex strained along with the cats to listen for the voice of their missing comrade. And soon enough, Alex could make it out too.
“I am definitely not a delicious sort of animal,” Fox was saying. “I’m basically made out of a tree stump. Do you really want a sliver in your gums? They can be very painful . . . or so I hear.”
“What’s happening?” Alex said, squinting as he tried to locate Fox on the ship.
“I see him,” said Simber. “He’s in a cage. I’m going in to grrrab it. Hang on.”
Alex shoved Kitten back into his pocket and gripped the cheetah around the neck. Simber dove toward the deck, legs outstretched. He glided as shouts rose up from on board, and the zing of swords being pulled from scabbards rang through the air.
Alex flattened himself against Simber’s back, his stomach sickened by the quick drop. As Simber reached his front legs out, he gave an enormous roar. He caught the roof of the cage where Fox was cowering and lifted up, but the bottom of the cage was attached to the deck. The top of it ripped off and the sides fell open, leaving Fox free but frozen in fear.
Simber threw the top panel of the cage at the sailors nearest Fox and lifted himself back in the air, then swooped around and headed back to snatch the canine. As he dove over the ship and picked him up, several Warblerans put tiny tubes to their mouths and sent darts flying. At the same time an enormous eel exploded from the water.
The eel wrapped its body around Simber’s neck as a sleep dart stuck fast in Alex’s back. Alex slumped lifeless against Simber, and all three Artiméans, plus Kitten in Alex’s pocket, went crashing over the railing and plunged into the water.
A Watery Grave
Alex, unconscious from the sleep dart, slid off Simber’s back and drifted toward the bottom of the sea. Fox bobbed in the water, unable to sink, and Simber thrashed and pawed at the eel, trying to loosen its grip around his neck. He chomped and bit at the creature and flapped his mighty wings trying to knock the eel away and free himself.
With a tremendous
surge of effort, Simber’s stone wing caught the eel in the head. The eel’s body slacked, and Simber pulled himself loose. He kicked and bit at the eel, trying to kill it, but the eel was too fast. It slithered away into the dark water to nurse its wounds.
Simber continued to thrash his wings to keep from torpedoing downward. He managed to push himself above the surface. “Wherrre’s Alex?” he roared at Fox.
“H-h-he sank!” cried Fox.
“Blast it!” Simber cried. He let gravity take over and dropped through the water as if he were falling through air. His head turned wildly this way and that, looking and listening for Alex. Had the eel taken off with him? If Alex sank, he must have been unconscious. Had he been injured when they crashed through the railing? Simber hadn’t seen what happened. All he knew was that he had to find Alex fast.
After what seemed like far too long, Simber spotted movement. He swam toward it and saw it was Alex’s robe, swishing in the cloudy water. Simber lunged for it, gripped Alex in his jaws, and used the sea floor to push off. Flapping his wings to project himself upward, Simber soon burst from the water. He snagged Fox with one paw before the pirates could fish him out of the water and continued flapping. Alex hung limp, facedown, from Simber’s mouth, and Simber gently pressed on Alex’s chest with his jaws. Water dribbled from Alex’s mouth and nose, and he coughed and wretched violently, giving Simber hope. But the mage remained dead asleep.
Florence saw them coming.
Simber tossed Fox unceremoniously to the grass and landed on the shore by the mansion. Florence grabbed Alex and ran him inside, into the hospital ward. Simber followed close behind. Nurses gathered around and began working on him even before Simber had a chance to explain what had happened.