“Of course I do,” he said. “I can’t let you guys get in trouble when you were only doing this for me.” He turned away before Fairy Godmother could get suspicious.
“See, Mom?” said Jane. “I told you they weren’t doing anything wrong!”
“And may I ask what the secret mission is…?” Fairy Godmother still looked unconvinced.
“Unfortunately it’s council business,” said Ben. “Top secret information that could compromise the safety of the kingdom. You do understand.”
Fairy Godmother sighed and finally relented. “Of course. If you say so.”
“You have my word,” said Ben. He walked over to Mal and slung an arm around her shoulders. “I don’t know what I was thinking, sending you guys on such a dangerous assignment alone. We’ll do it together.”
“I’m so sorry I meddled,” said a contrite Fairy Godmother. “But I’m so relieved as well. I was quite distressed about expelling you,” she told the four friends. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found you.”
“It’s all right,” said Jay with a grin.
“Don’t worry, Fairy Godmother. All is well,” said Ben.
“I’m glad to hear it. I hope I didn’t disrupt your, um, mission,” said Fairy Godmother, still mystified.
“Not at all,” said Ben.
She turned to the four villain kids. “Well, then. It appears I owe you four an apology. I’m so sorry to have assumed the worst.”
“Quite all right,” said Evie. “It looked bad.”
“So bad!” said Carlos.
“The very worst,” said Jay. “Speedboats are expensive, aren’t they?”
“We’re sorry we couldn’t tell you the truth,” said Mal. “Are we dismissed?” she asked hopefully.
Fairy Godmother nodded. “If the king agrees,” she said.
“I do,” said Ben.
“Dismissed,” said Fairy Godmother.
The six of them left the headmistress’s office, but no one said a word until they were safely in Ben’s study. Mal found she could breathe again when they were inside the plush, opulent suite, with its magnificent desk against the window and the gym equipment in the corner. Jay wiped his forehead and flopped down on the nearest couch. “Phew! That was close!”
“Too close,” said Carlos, taking a seat next to him.
“I agree,” said Evie. “Thanks for rescuing us, Ben.”
“How’d you get back here so fast?” asked Mal.
“Jane called Merlin and told him to zap me back here immediately. At first, he was worried about using such dramatic magic, but she was able to convince him that it would be my wish given the circumstances,” said Ben with a smile. “That felt weird, I’ve got to say. Not sure I have all my molecules back. Am I missing any part of me?” he asked, patting himself down.
“You look complete to me,” said Mal, laughing in relief. She turned to Jane. “You are awesome,” she said, giving Jane a quick hug.
“Thanks,” said Jane, shrugging. “But I knew whatever it was my mother was mad about, it was probably just a misunderstanding. You guys can’t be sent back to the Isle of the Lost!” Mal noticed Jane sneak a look at Carlos as she said this, and Carlos beamed.
“Did you get your work done, though?” Mal asked, turning to Ben. “Were you able to get the villagers on both sides of the wall to agree to the terms of the truce?”
“Yes, thanks to Lonnie,” he said. “We were just about to return to Auradon when I was pulled away. She’s taking the jet home in a bit. So fill me in. Why were you guys taking the boat in the first place?”
“It’s my fault, I was the one who suggested we steal it. Never again,” said Jay. “From now on, I’m going to follow every rule to the letter. I’m walking the straight and narrow path!”
“Well, now that we don’t have to steal the boat, can we get back there, actually?” said Mal. “Ben, I’ll fill you in on the way. But right now we’ve got a trident to find.”
Uma would never admit it, but the Isle of the Doomed gave her the creeps just as much as it did Harry. She’d lost him somewhere around the forest of thorns, but heard his call and made her way back to where she saw him last, finally coming upon him in the middle of a clearing.
“Tell me you’ve found the trail,” she said, Gil right behind her.
“Nope, nothing like that,” said Harry.
“Oh, so you got bored and gave up, did you?” she accused.
“Stop grouching. Follow me.” Harry led them to what he’d found. There, carved into the bark, a symbol glimmered in the evening light.
“What is it?” said Uma.
“A crescent,” said Harry.
“Or maybe it’s a moon,” Gil added.
“A crescent is a moon,” Harry snapped. He traced the mark with his finger. “The professor didn’t make a map, Sophie said, because he thought it would be too dangerous to leave around. But he had to have some way to figure out where he’d kept it.”
“You think this is it? This mark?” Uma asked.
“Shall I grab the shovels?” Gil asked.
“I don’t think this symbol marks the treasure. Remember, we’re looking for a trail. The path isn’t on the ground. It’s written on trees. If I’m right, there are more of these markings. Follow them, and we’ll find the treasure,” said Harry.
“Or we’ll find out where two lovers carved a heart in some tree,” said Uma.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” Harry joked.
“That I’ll cut you if you don’t find the treasure chest?” Uma snorted. “There’s nothing here that says trail to me.”
“Fine, you’ve got a better idea on how to find this thing?” Harry said.
Uma shook her head reluctantly. “It’s just there are a lot of trees, and it’s not exactly easy to get a look at their bark.”
“I know, I had to hack off a branch to find this one, but I think that’s the point. The trail is hidden. It’s not supposed to be easy to find.”
And it wasn’t. They searched trees and shrubs, rocks, and moss. They cut aside branches and sheared the leaves off of bushes.
“I’m beginning to feel like a lumberjack,” Gil whined.
“And I’m—” Uma stopped.
“What is it?” Harry asked.
“About to give up. That was what I was going to say, but look here.”
Her toe had hit a rock. A small sun—a rough circle, ringed by radiating lines—graced its surface. “I think our professor had a chisel,” said Uma. “It’s a sun, and I think that last one was a moon. This might be a trail after all,” she said. Now her spirits were lifted. The impossible suddenly seemed a tad more possible, though they had found only two symbols. It wasn’t exactly a trail, but it was a good enough start.
“Two points make a line,” said Uma, “so let’s look this way and that and see if there is another marker that aligns with these first two.” She stood at a spot midway between the two marks and pointed in either direction. Gil went one way, Harry the other, hacking his way into the jungle as he went.
The third mark was easier to find than the second. It wasn’t exactly in line with the first two, but it was close enough, so Harry found it relatively quickly.
“It’s a star,” said Uma when she caught up to him.
“We’re on the right path,” said Harry. “Three marks: the sun, the moon, and a star. Just like the symbols on the wizard’s hat. It cannot be a coincidence.”
As the crew drove deeper into the jungle, the marks were more difficult to unearth, hidden as they were among tangled branches or scratched on stones half covered by clumps of moss. And the trail bent in every direction, not following a straight line, but curving to and fro, making it difficult for the pirates to judge where they might find the next mark.
Branch after branch fell to the earth. Stones were overturned. They made a royal mess of the island, but there was no one there to complain about it. And Uma doubted the goblins would mind, although she still hoped they wo
uldn’t notice all the noise. They followed the celestial markers. There were stars of all different types, and even a few constellations carved into the trees and rocks, but at last one symbol stood apart from the rest.
“This is it!” said Harry. He was kneeling in a clearing, brushing away some scattered leaves from the earth as Uma approached. Over his shoulder she read the words TOPS EHT SKRAM X deeply scrawled into the hard-packed dirt.
“Is it telling us to scram?” asked Harry, reading the text. “I do feel like getting out of here. That fortress gives me the creeps.”
Uma shushed him. “It must be here. This is the spot. There’s an X! Pirates love them. It’s highly piratical.”
“Yen Sid is a sorcerer, not a pirate. And this is a bit clichéd, if you ask me,” Harry said.
“I didn’t ask you,” Uma replied, looking around, trying to discern what import the message held.
Harry stood and put away his sword.
Gil wandered over from the other side of the clearing and looked at the message upside down and backward. “‘X MARKS THE SPOT’!” he declared.
“You’re a genius!” said Harry.
“Let’s not go that far,” said Uma. “It’s written backward. Even brats can figure out this code.”
“But you guys didn’t,” Gil pointed out.
“Who cares? It was hard enough just finding this thing—let’s start digging,” said Harry, removing the shovel that he’d strapped to his back. He whistled for the rest of the crew, who came running, clanking through the jungle, picks and shovels at the ready. “We found it!” he told them. “Dig!”
“Where?” said Gil.
“On the X, just like it says,” said Harry. “Makes sense, right?”
They dug, shoveling dirt and stone, and the pit grew larger and deeper. Harry and Gil were down in the hole as it grew in width as well as depth, but they didn’t find a treasure chest.
“I knew this was too easy,” said Harry as he climbed his way out of the hole. They had dug exactly on the spot the X had marked, but they’d found nothing. “There must be more to it. I mean, any random goblin could wander through the forest, find the X, and dig this thing up.”
“You’re right,” Uma acknowledged. “The professor would never have done something so obvious. He hid his symbols well, so clearly he hid the chest just as well.” She looked down at the symbol. “Wonder why he wrote the words backward. I mean, it’s not much of a code.”
“What if it’s not a code?” Harry offered.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if it’s a direction of some sort,” said Harry.
Gil was already ahead of them. He had turned around backward and walked to a place where two trees grew at strange angles. One tipped to the right and the other to the left. Together they formed an X.
“There it is!” Uma saw the X formed by the trees. If she turned so the hole was at her back, this tree was exactly in line with where the carving had been. So once more, they drew shovels and thrust them into the earth, digging as fast as they could.
Harry dug furiously by the X-shaped trees, forming a pit that was too small for anyone else to stand in when the sound of steel striking wood echoed in the hole. “I think I found it!” he crowed, his entire body covered with mud.
Uma ran to the edge of the pit, Gil at her shoulder. “You found it?” she asked, sounding as if she didn’t quite believe it.
“I did!” he said, hitting the shovel on the ground again, this time with an extra-strong wallop. That was when the ground gave way underneath his feet and he tumbled down into the darkness.
Harry flailed in the air, barely hanging on to his hook. He was falling, the wind blowing in his face. He nearly retched. His stomach heaved. He was weightless and then he wasn’t. With a great splash, he struck water. He had fallen a good distance, and he did not hit the water lightly.
“It might as well have been concrete,” he mumbled, splashing around.
He was in a great underground lagoon, black as night and as still as ice on a frozen lake. Harry frantically tried to keep his head above water. A pair of light trousers and a thin shirt would have been useful in such circumstances, but pirates wore neither, and Harry’s heavy clothes threatened to draw him down. He threw off his jacket and paddled to the shore. At least he did know how to swim.
Harry checked for injuries—water can break bones after a fall from such heights—but he was intact. His back stung from when he’d struck the surface, but that pain would fade. Only his pride was truly damaged—he’d landed in the ultimate belly flop. Luckily, no one had been around to see it.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, but there wasn’t much to see. He could not even make out the far side of the lagoon. Harry looked up and found only an enveloping darkness.
He was trapped. “Help!” he cried. “Help! I’m down here!”
But there was nothing but silence. Where was everybody?
He reached an area of rocks at the edge of the lagoon and tried to get some kind of hold on the muddy walls surrounding him, to find some kind of footing, but it was too slippery, and he fell back in the water every time. “Hey! Anyone up there? Help!” he called again.
Ominously, from the darkness, he heard a sound that was all too familiar.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Maybe after all this time, Harry would get his real hook at last. He found he wasn’t looking forward to that possibility as much as he’d imagined.
“Get me out of here!” He scrambled against the slick mud walls, trying to use his hook for leverage, but it kept slipping off the surface. Harry was about to panic. It was dark and the lagoon was deep. He could not see the far side, so he dared not try to swim across it. He was stuck here at the rocky edge of the water, clambering for a foothold.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Once old Tick-Tock got a taste of him, he was sure to want more.
He fumbled over more rocks, tripped, and hit the water. He stood and tried again, feeling his way through the darkness.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Closer and closer.
Harry ran backward, splashing across the narrow edge of the lagoon, but the sound only got louder. It was all around him. There was no use in running. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go. So he did the first thing that came to mind: Harry shut his eyes and prepared to be chomped.
A moment passed.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
That terrible ticking persisted, but no crocodile arrived. He waited for the titanic jaws to close around his head, for the forelegs to clamp his neck, but nothing touched him. There was only darkness, the water, and the rocks.
He stepped back, and his foot touched sand. It was dry and sturdy. The hole he’d fallen in was larger than he’d realized. Out of the water, he followed a sandy beach, stumbling in the dark, hoping his head wouldn’t smash into some unseen wall.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
The sound hadn’t been coming from the water: it was out on the sand somewhere. Harry had a good idea what was making it, so this time he ran toward it.
The cave opened into a wider space where a hole in the distant ceiling sent shafts of light streaming into the cavern like golden spears. They faintly illuminated a great pile of discarded objects, including an old alarm clock.
“So that’s what made all that ticking,” he said, though there was no one else within earshot. Now that he thought about it, the tick-tock had been a bit too loud to be the tick-tocking of the clock the old croc had swallowed.
Harry rooted through the pile, finding glass canisters full of strange and wondrous items: NEWT’S SPLEEN read one, EAGLE EYES another. There were candlesticks and candelabras, silver snuffboxes, crystal balls, iron cauldrons, and bloodstained tarot cards. He threw each and every piece aside until at last, beneath all that junk stood a treasure chest, exactly as Sophie had described.
He grabbed it and tucked it under his arm, just as he heard his name being called.
 
; “Harry!” Uma said, materializing in the darkness, holding a torch above her head. He almost jumped out of his boots at the sound of her voice.
“You all right?” said Uma. “We didn’t know where you went. All we saw was this crumbling hole in the ground. It collapsed just after you fell through it, but we dug it out again. We tried calling to you, but you didn’t answer, so we just climbed down after you.”
Harry grinned. “Yeah, I’m all right. Thanks, Captain.”
She smiled, and Harry realized it was the first time he’d fully acknowledged that she was captain and meant it.
Behind her was the rest of the crew, ropes coiled around their shoulders. “Ooh, what’s that?” Gil said, seeing a skull in the assemblage of magical items.
“Don’t touch it!” cried Uma, but it was too late.
A whirling red cloud shot out of the skull, and the pirates cowered, fearing the worst. But the red mist only turned into a butterfly and dissipated.
“Phew,” said Gil.
“Don’t touch anything else!” barked Uma. “Leave it all alone!”
“Look,” Harry said. “I found it.”
“The treasure chest!” Uma cried. “Open it.”
Harry set the treasure chest on the ground gently. All of them gathered around it, Harry and Uma, Gil, and the rest of the pirates. They’d come far and risked much to find this little chest. All of them were eager to see its contents.
“Ready?” Harry asked.
“Ready,” said Uma. “Show me my mother’s necklace.”
Harry pried the lid of the treasure chest and it opened with a great creak.
And that’s when all the skeletons appeared.
Ben didn’t argue against Mal’s urgent assessment of the situation. Whatever it was, it had to be dire if Mal wanted them to hurry like that. “You guys go,” urged Jane. “I’ll keep an eye on things over here and make sure my mom doesn’t meddle again.”
“Thanks, Jane,” said Carlos. “You saved us.”
“It was the least I could do,” she said, flushing pink. “Now go, run. Go do what you need to do.”