Island of Fire

  “Great work, Simber,” Alex said. “And thank you, Florence—you saved me.” For the hundredth time in a matter of days, Alex was beyond grateful that Mr. Today had created such an amazing team to surround him.

  “Leaders!” Alex called out. “Report. Rufus?”

  “All here!” replied the squirrelicorn.

  “Sean?”

  “We’re good!” Sean shouted from the bow.

  “Meg?”

  There was no answer.

  Alex rushed to the stairwell and shouted down it. “Meg?”

  “Everyone’s here!” came the muffled shout. “But we’ve got a few cuts and bruises, and one of the ostrich’s legs broke off. Can you send help?”

  “On the way,” Alex called. He turned to Ms. Octavia and Henry. “Did you get that?”

  They both nodded. Henry took off sloshing in his shoes down the stairs at full speed, with Ms. Octavia swishing behind him.

  Sky and Crow scrabbled down the mast.

  “How did you think to do that?” Alex asked, still incredulous.

  Crow shrugged. “We did a lot of climbing. Trees, mostly, but Sky worked in shipbuilding for a while.”

  “Well, that’s pretty cool. You’ll have to teach me to climb like you someday,” Alex said.

  Crow nodded and tried to hide a grin, embarrassed by the praise. He ran downstairs to help Henry. Sky headed to the bow.

  Alex went through the rest of the leader roster, finding everyone present and accounted for. “Whew,” he said. And then he looked to the captain’s wheel, realizing the captain wasn’t on anyone’s team, and he hadn’t shouted in a while. “Captain?” He rushed through the maze of sopping wet humans and creatures and found Captain Ahab sitting on the deck, his head in his hands.

  “Are you okay, Captain?”

  The statue looked up. “My peg leg,” he growled. “That treacherous whale!”

  Alex looked all around. “I don’t think the whale took your peg leg.”

  “Aye, the greedy, monstrous, insatiable thief!” He pounded the deck with his fists. “Relentless beast!”

  Alex shook his head and then called out, “Attention! If anyone finds Captain Ahab’s peg leg, please return it to the ship’s wheel area immediately!” He turned back to the captain. “Don’t worry. We’ll fix you right up.” He looked at the wheel, which began to turn on its own. “Is there anything I can do with this ship? Do you know where we’re going?”

  But the captain just shook his head. “This ship obeys a ghoulish master. I am useless to you.”

  “That’s not true. We need you,” Alex said. He patted the statue on the shoulder, trying to hide his anxiety. “Just sit tight. Ms. Octavia will take care of you soon. Are you in pain?”

  “The pain of treachery festers in the darkest depths of the soul and never dies.”

  Alex nodded. “Okay, then. Catch you later.” He turned and made his way to the bow.

  Seeing Sean standing at the point with Carina, Sky, and Meghan, Alex went over to them, signaling to Simber to come along, which he did, staying far enough above to keep from disturbing the Unwanteds with his wings, but close enough to hear the conversation.

  “Hey,” Alex said to the others. Having Carina back made it feel like old times on the roof of the gray shack. Alex looked out over the calm water to the island that had risen from below the surface. A burst of fire spewed up from the very top of the rocky land. He glanced at Sky, but he could feel his face flush, so he looked ahead again. “Looks like the ship is headed straight for it,” he said. He cracked his knuckles and tapped his fingers on the railing. “You know, this is killing me, leaving Lani and Samheed back there.”

  “Me too,” Meghan said. “Ms. Octavia tried everything she could think of to turn it around, but its course is set.” She reached out and linked arms with Alex, resting her head on his shoulder. “Sky thinks the ship is going home.”

  “Home?” The others turned to look at Sky.

  “It’s Pirate Island. Home to pirates.” Sky blushed, perhaps realizing that was obvious.

  “But how could anyone live there?” Alex said. “You’ve seen it disappear and reappear before?”

  “Yes, I’ve seen it from Warbler. It’s a volcano island,” she said. “There’s something very spooky about it. No one really knows how anyone can live there, because it submerges randomly. But somehow they do.”

  “How do you know?” Sean asked.

  “We’ve seen their ships—they get caught in the current sometimes around the other side of our island. Queen Eagala has added a few of them to our fleet.” She paused. “Obviously, we’ve seen their pirates, too. Some were captured and live on Warbler now. A few escaped a couple of years ago.”

  Alex leaned his head forward to look at her, all memories of the kiss forgotten now in his quest to figure out what was happening. “Did they escape in a ship like this one? And did they have the thorn necklaces?”

  “I think so,” Sky said. “Queen Eagala tries to cover up any news of escapees, but word gets out, even though the hand signals limit conversation.”

  Carina tapped her chin. “I remember when this ship came ashore. The two guys inside were dead.”

  Alex nodded. “I bet it was them.”

  “So the whispers of this ship . . . ”

  “It wants to go home,” Sky said, and she sounded convinced. She raised her hand to her forehead as a line of flames reached up from the volcano to enhance the red-gold setting sun. “Looks like we’ll be there in a few hours.” She turned toward the others with a very serious look on her face. “We need to hope that Pirate Island stays above the surface.”

  “Why?” Meghan asked. “Maybe if the island is gone, the ship will stop trying to find it.”

  Sky shook her head. “No. It was heading for the island when it was underwater earlier. It’s homed in. But the biggest problem now is if the island sinks when we’re anywhere near it. If it does, then this ship and everything on it will get sucked down into the gaping hole left by the volcano.”

  A Long Night

  As it became increasingly clear that the pirate ship was indeed heading straight for the volcanic island, Alex called everyone to the upper deck to discuss the plan before darkness overcame them. Meghan and Ms. Octavia began to light torches around the ship so that everyone could see.

  “We’ve hit a bit of a snag, as you can tell,” Alex began. “Our ship is sailing on its own. To our extreme surprise and by no fault of our brave captain, we sailed right past Warbler and now appear to be heading for, well, that lovely-looking place.” He took a deep breath, thinking fleetingly that this story would someday, hopefully, be hilarious. But it wasn’t today. “We aren’t sure what will happen once we reach the island, but we’ll keep you posted.”

  Alex cringed when he saw a wing waving in the air. It was the ostrich from the library. “Yes?”

  “You’re saying the boat is in control, and we might never get back to Artimé?”

  Alex blinked as murmurs began chasing through the group. “No,” he said quickly. “I’m not saying that. We will of course get back to Artimé, even if it means Simber carrying us back in groups. Don’t worry about that.”

  Several of the statues began to fight over who would be first to go back to Artimé.

  “Guys! Hey!” Alex said.

  Simber let out a roar, which stopped all the statues midsentence. “Excuse me a moment, Alex,” Simber said, and then he flew over to the group of complainers and growled. “Statues, let me rrremind you that you rrreprrresent me. And I am not pleased.”

  The statues remained quiet. Some of them nodded sheepishly. Simber returned to his spot near Alex. “Sorrry. Please continue.”

  Alex nodded. “Thank you.” He addressed the statues. “Look. I know this is a new situation for many of you, and it’s frightening, but I feel like it’s better for me to tell you what’s going on and admit that we’re not sure, rather than try and pretend everything is okay. That’s just how we do things,?
?? he said, shrugging and smiling a bit, trying to take the fear away while his insides clenched nervously.

  Florence gave Alex an encouraging nod.

  “So, basically, we don’t have a choice. We’re in for the ride. And with any luck, we’ll be on track again by morning, heading back to Warbler to do the task we set out to do.” He put his hands on the railing and spied Sky nearby watching him. “I just want you to know,” he said, “that we’re going to do everything we can to save Samheed and Lani. It’s still our most pressing goal. But all of you are equally important to Artimé”—he looked at Crow and Sky—“and we all need to work together to have the best chance of all of us making it home safely.” He paused, and then he said, “Are you with me?”

  The response was subdued, more due to the vastness of the sea surrounding them than to lack of enthusiasm. The humans tapped their fists to their chests in support as they said, “I’m with you!” And the statues, eyeing Simber, were more enthusiastic than they’d ever been.

  Later, when everyone had eaten and settled down to get some rest, and the captain had a new peg leg thanks to Ms. Octavia, Alex and his friends spread out on their backs at the bow of the ship, where the only sound was the water lapping against the hull and the soft whispers of the vessel. The vast layers of stars above reminded him of the first time he and Sky sat on top of the gray shack, after the lights of Artimé had been doused and nothing else remained. He had cried for Mr. Today, for Simber, for Lani and Samheed, and Sky had been there to comfort him. He glanced at her and saw the stars reflected in her eyes. That night seemed so long ago, but here they were, running up against yet another dead end, and Lani and Samheed were still captured.

  Almost as if he and Lani were thinking in time with one another, a small ball of fire raced overhead and came to an abrupt stop in front of Alex’s face. It exploded as usual, leaving the fiery outline of a drawing of Lani, with Alex’s name in the corner. Alex could barely stand to look at it—it only made him more anxious and upset that they were stranded on this ship.

  Carina sat up and looked at the tiny streak of light left behind, going all the way to Warbler and glowing more brightly than usual in the dark night. “What was that?”

  Alex sighed, and when he didn’t answer, Meghan explained.

  Carina reached over and squeezed Alex’s shoulder. “Poor guy,” she said. “You must feel so helpless.”

  “Yeah,” Alex said.

  “At least it’s comforting to know Lani is alive and well enough to send spells, though,” Carina said, her voice full of hope.

  Alex closed his eyes, the sudden pain in his chest making the rest of his body numb. He couldn’t bear to look at Sky, or anyone else. “Yes,” he managed finally. “At least there’s that.”

  Carina squeezed once more and then lay back again with a rueful smile. “We’ll find them,” she said.

  Alex couldn’t respond. His mind was whirling with confusion, and his stupid feelings kept messing everything up. Oh, what he would give for this moment to be in Quill again, where feelings weren’t allowed.

  Finally he got up and stood in awe as Pirate Island loomed large and tall before them. It hadn’t spewed any fire since sunset, and by the light of the night sky, Alex could see a few patches of bushes and scraggly trees growing sideways from the rocky volcano’s shaft, with large blankets of seaweed draped over craggy points.

  The ship skirted around a shoal as if it knew it was there, and headed for the calm, deep water of a lagoon. With a startling clap the sails dropped all at once and the ship glided, slowing to a stop not more than twenty feet from the rocky shore of Pirate Island.

  “We’re here,” Alex whispered. It felt sacred and spooky, the only sounds the whispers of the ship and the squeaky reel and splash of the anchor chain eerily releasing of its own accord.

  Alex looked around, finding Simber in his usual spot near the stern. He lifted his hand and drew a circle in the air with his finger. Simber nodded and flew toward the base of the volcanic island, weaving around rocks and clearing small juts and peaks, searching for signs of life.

  By now the others had stood too, and they all watched in silence, looking down into the murky water and up at the volcano, hoping it was tired of shooting fire for now, because they were uncomfortably close.

  » » « «

  It was a long, anxious thirty minutes before Simber came back into view again, and half the ship let out a sigh of relief to see him, backlit by the moon. He drew close and landed on the nearby shoal, resting his wings for the first time since that morning, though he didn’t need to. Alex moved to the side of the ship nearest Simber and leaned over the railing.

  “Did you find anything?”

  Simber folded his wings and licked his shoulder where some water had splashed on it, and then he turned his attention to Alex and the dozens of others who had tuned in to listen. “No signs of life, not human, crrreature, or anything else, that I could detect,” he said. “It’s completely deserrrted.”

  Still Stuck

  Alex and Simber decided it was safer being on the ship than on the island, and there wasn’t much they could do in the dark, so everyone tried to settle in for the night.

  Alex stayed on the deck near Simber. He lay on his back staring up at the sky, his arms propping up his head. He couldn’t sleep knowing that at any second, without warning, the volcano could sink back into the sea, creating a vortex that would pull millions of gallons of seawater and their boat into its mouth and swallow them up.

  The ship’s whispers grew stronger, or maybe it was the quiet night that made the whispers seem louder; Alex wasn’t sure. He could hear a soft purr somewhere nearby, more kittenlike than Simber-like. It was a comforting sound, and Alex was glad someone was feeling comfortable. He couldn’t stop thinking about being responsible for all these lives. He couldn’t stop thinking about Gunnar Haluki losing Henry and Lani. About Carina’s son growing up an orphan, never really having a chance to know either of his parents. About Artimé losing so many great leaders. Maybe it had been a bad idea to bring so many of them with him.

  But he needed them. If they could ever get out of this lagoon, Alex would need them desperately. He fell into a fitful sleep, waking at every sound, expecting to be swallowed by the volcano at any moment.

  When at last the sun rose, Alex stood up, shivering a little in the cool morning air, waiting for the rays to warm him. He could see Quill, a dot in the east just this side of the sun, and Warbler, a large lump on the horizon with its rocks jutting out.

  In front of him the volcanic Pirate Island loomed blue-black and craggy and ominous, throwing spooky shadows everywhere. As far as Alex could tell, the fiery outburst had subsided completely.

  Alex peered beyond Pirate Island to the west, knowing there was one more island out there somewhere. He thought he spied something rising up from the water, but it wavered and moved, the sea playing tricks on his tired eyes.

  Simber stretched his hind legs, first one, then the other, and then arched his back and yawned.

  Alex leaned over the side. “I want to explore,” he whispered, not wanting to wake anyone. “Maybe there’s a clue somewhere about how to deprogram the ship.”

  Simber nodded. “Just you?”

  Alex thought for a moment. He shook his head. “Be right back,” he said. He picked his way over sleeping bodies on the deck, making his way to the bow, where his friends had camped out for the night. He bent down next to Carina and shook her shoulder.

  She roused and was wide awake in an instant. “What’s wrong?” she asked. She smoothed her pixie-cut hair, but it still stood up in one spot.

  “Will you come explore the island with Simber and me?”

  “Sure,” Carina said. She got nimbly to her feet.

  Alex grinned. He stepped over to Sky and found her already awake. “Want to explore?” Alex whispered.

  Sky nodded once, and then she said, “But not without Crow.”

  Alex flashed her a puzzled look.
“Okay,” he said. “He can come too. No problem.”

  Sky stood up and woke Crow, and then the four went back to the side of the ship nearest to Simber. Crow rubbed his eyes sleepily as he stumbled along.

  Alex signaled to Simber and the great cat unfurled his wings, making a bridge to the ship. Alex hoisted Crow up on the wing first, and the boy crawled along it to Simber’s back without fear. Sky went next, and then Carina, and finally Alex.

  “Hang on,” Simber said quietly, then loped along the shoal and flapped his powerful wings. Soon they were soaring toward the rocky shore, and then the short journey was over. Simber landed and everyone got down.

  “Stay close. If anything begins to move, jump onto my back,” Simber said.

  Alex hesitated. He glanced back at the ship, realizing that thanks to Simber, the four of them were probably safer here on the base of the sinking volcano than the others were in the boat.

  “That’s why,” Sky said softly, reading Alex’s mind. “I can’t leave Crow. We live and die together. I took that oath when I took him with me from Warbler.”

  Alex and Sky followed behind Simber, Carina, and Crow. Alex glanced at Sky with admiration. “That’s pretty noble of you,” he said.

  “He’s the only family I have now.”

  Alex wondered what she meant, but he didn’t dare ask. It felt personal.

  She touched his elbow. “I’m sorry I kissed you,” she said softly. “That was . . . weird. I know that you and Lani are . . . whatever. It was just—I wanted to feel like—” She sighed. “Oh, never mind. I know you and Lani . . . you know. And not me, and that’s okay, because I’m not sure about . . . things . . . either. So you don’t have to, like, feel bad.” She blushed, fingering the scars at her throat.

  Alex looked down, feeling strange and empty inside. A sort of airy rushing sound batted him around his ears, almost making him dizzy. But when he remembered to breathe, his brain went back to Mr. Today and how he’d seemed destined to be alone. “Don’t worry,” Alex said, trying to sound cheerful. “I already forgot about it.” But it was the biggest lie he’d ever told. So big that saying it made his skin hurt.