Island of Legends (The Unwanteds) (22 page)

A
lex, Sky, and Ms. Octavia climbed up the volcano to the skylight to get a glimpse of Lani and Henry. It didn’t take the sister and brother long to figure out the doors. Soon they were tumbling onto the grate. They shed their suits and helmets and hung them up on the pegs where they belonged. Then they set out in search of Sky and Crow’s mother, looking exactly like they belonged there.

Lani wore a purple shirt and gray pants. Henry wore a red shirt and black pants. If someone looked closely, they’d find a very odd-looking seam in Henry’s pants where several pieces of
clothing had been sewn together to make it work, but it wasn’t visible at first glance—at least not from the skylight.

“They’re heading to the spiral staircase,” Alex relayed to Simber, who was resting his wings nearby. “They’re going down— Nope, false alarm. Lani’s stopping and looking at something inside a glass case next to the stairs. Henry’s keeping watch. What the heck— Okay, now he’s tugging at her to hurry up.” He laughed nervously under his breath. “It’s probably a bunch of books or something. She can’t resist them. Come on, Lani.” He paused, jiggling his foot. “Okay, finally. Now they’re going down.”

Simber growled. “Ten minutes. Surrre.”

A moment later, Alex looked up. “They’re out of sight.” He blew out a breath. “I hope they find her.” He was more worried than he’d let on before. Who knew what these pirates would do if they found two kids who didn’t seem to belong to anyone?

As they waited Alex fidgeted. He and Sky both shivered, having brought nothing dry to change into. After a while, Alex retrieved his robe from Simber and held it out to Sky. “Here,” he said gruffly.

She took it and thanked him just as tersely, though she wasn’t quite sure why. They sat back against some rocks, not talking, and watched the scene below.

Nothing bad happened. No one walked by. It appeared to be the easiest maneuver any Unwanteds had ever undertaken. Alex clenched and unclenched his fists, wanting desperately for it to stay that way.

Across from Alex and Sky sat Ms. Octavia, looking down through the skylight at a very different angle and seeing a different scene—the glass cage full of sea creatures. “Florence looks just the same,” she remarked, more to give Simber an update than anyone else. Simber didn’t answer. Soon Ms. Octavia’s eyes drooped with fatigue. Occasionally they closed. Everyone was tired.

All of a sudden, Ms. Octavia’s eyes flew open wide. She sat up. “Alex, look.” She pointed. “The eel is back.”

Alex scrambled over to the other side of the skylight and watched the eel slither up to the glass cage. Its back half was wrapped around its latest catch. “What’s it got this time?” Alex muttered. “It had better stay away from the fishing hatch.”

Sky sat up, alarmed. “What if it comes over as Lani and
Henry and my mother are escaping?” She couldn’t hide the panic in her voice. “What if it attacks them?”

Alex glanced worriedly toward the spiral staircase. He didn’t see anybody ascending. No one by the fishing hatch either. “So far so good. I hope they’d see the eel in time to stay inside until it’s gone,” he muttered, knowing it wasn’t likely since the water was so murky that far down and the only light was coming from inside. The sea itself was dark just a few feet outside the glass walls.

They watched, breathless, as the eel used its tail to press something, which sparked in the water just as it had the last time. The door slid open, the eel backed into the cage, and it deposited its latest victim inside with the others.

Alex squinted, trying to see what it was, but it was hidden from view behind the giant squid, who this time tried without luck to escape. Instead the squid merely succeeded in getting one tentacle stuck in the door as it closed. The squid’s eyes reacted, widening in pain. But it was stuck fast. “Oh no,” Alex whispered.

“Poor thing,” Sky said. “I wish we could do something!”

“It’s too dangerous,” Ms. Octavia said. “It’ll hurt, but he’ll
be okay. We can try to help him later when we spring Florence free. But first we need Lani and Henry to find your mother. Where are they? What’s keeping them?”

“I don’t know.” Alex’s eyes were fixed on the cage, wondering what the new creature was and why the eel was so intent on collecting them.

Just then he heard a growl from Simber.

Without looking up, he asked, “What is it, Sim?”

“I just felt a trrremorrr.”

Alex turned sharply, the cage forgotten. “I didn’t feel it. Are you sure?”

Simber’s look told him yes.

“Oh, no,” Alex said. He felt the blood drain from his face. “Lani . . . Henry . . .”

“Mother, hurry,” begged Sky.

Everyone felt the next tremor. A few pirates appeared out of nowhere as the wall seats dropped. They slipped into the seats and buckled up.

“Crud,” Alex muttered. Dread filled his heart. He strained to see the staircase, but no one was rushing up it. “Where are they?” Alex looked all around, wondering if maybe they’d
come up a different way. He bit his lip hard, trying not to panic. “Come on, guys,” he murmured. “Get out of there.”

But they didn’t come.

“Sky, get on Simber’s back. You too, Ms. Octavia.” The volcano shuddered hard, sending Alex running to get on the statue’s back after the others. Simber lifted off the volcano, staying low so they could watch through the skylight.

Lani, Henry, and Copper were nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, come on,” Sky urged. She gripped Simber’s neck.

As Simber circled, Alex saw something bright flash out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus on the spot where they last saw Lani and Henry. When Simber turned, three heads turned with him. “There!” Alex cried. “See them? They’re coming up the stairs!”

The volcano trembled as Lani, Henry, and Copper raced to the top of the steps and bounded past the display case, around the greenery, and toward the fishing hatch. Behind them something flashed again. It was coming from the glass cage. Alex looked. And what he saw nearly caused him to fall off Simber’s back.

“Spike?” he said, in the midst of Octavia and Sky crying out
for the others. “Spike Furious!” The eel’s latest capture was none other than Alex’s shiny blue whale, swimming up and over the squid. Her diamondlike horn caught the light.

But Alex didn’t have a second to think about his creature, because Lani, Henry, and Copper were running at top speed for the hatch, and a man was chasing them. Alex, Sky, Simber, and Ms. Octavia watched in horror. “Run!” Alex cried, even though he knew they couldn’t hear him.

Lani reached the hatch first. She slammed her hand on the first button as the volcano shuddered and seized, knocking her to the floor, and then Alex lost sight of everything as the volcano plunged down into the sea.

T
he water crashed over the site where the volcano had been and churned in an angry boil until the waves organized themselves once more, giving no indication that anything had ever been there. Once it was calm, Octavia leaped from Simber’s back and dove into the water to see if Lani, Henry, and Copper had made it out or if they were trapped.

Sky, sitting behind Alex on Simber’s back, gripped Alex’s arms in fear and worry. But Alex didn’t feel anything except pain in his stomach at the thought of his friends being sucked down deep under tons of seawater, trapped inside a hidden, hostile, and dangerous world.

Sky and Alex scanned the waves. “Should we go down?” Sky asked. “We should go down. Shouldn’t we?” Her fingers drummed Simber’s back, and she couldn’t sit still.

“No,” Alex said. “I want to as much as you, but it won’t do any good right now. Ms. Octavia will be back soon.” He shivered with nervous energy. “I don’t think they made it out. That outer door opens so slowly. . . .” He trailed off, unable to think straight enough to finish the thought.

They flew in silence as the minutes ticked by.

There was nothing else they could do but hover and wait. Eventually Simber asked, “What did you yell earlierrr, Alex? Just beforrre the island sank?”

Alex pulled his mind from his worries. He had to think about Simber’s question for a moment before he figured out what the cat was talking about. “Oh!” he said finally, and then his face clouded. “Oh, that’s right—Spike,” he said, remembering, which only added fuel to his worries. “Spike Furious. Um, yeah. Remember my whale sculpture from the Museum of Large that I brought to life the other day? I know you were watching. Anyway, she swam away, and that stupid eel captured her, too. That’s who he put in the glass cage earlier.”

Simber’s gaze never left the water, but his body tensed. “Does she brrreathe?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, but she’s a whale, so she needs the water—”

“She’ll die in the cage, Alex. She’s going to need airrr.”

“What?” Alex asked, confused. “She nearly died from too much air in the museum. I had to . . .” He glanced at Sky, who stared at him, mouth agape, and the terrible feelings of failure became fresh all over again. “I had to put her to sleep and transport her to the water first.”

“You what?” Sky asked, incredulous.

“No, no, no!” Simber said, frustrated. “Whales need to be in the waterrr to surrrvive because they can’t move on land. Theirrr bodies arrre so heavy, they’ll crrrush themselves and overrrheat. So if you crrreated herrr as a brrreathing crrreaturrre, which it sounds like you did, she can only live a shorrrt time without any airrr.” Simber ended his sentence in a growl of frustration. He swished his tail.

Sky shook Alex’s shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell me you brought her to life? All this time I’ve been wondering, and you never said anything.”

Alex looked from Simber to Sky, feeling helpless about what to do now. “I don’t know,” he said anxiously. “I was really sad about it. And embarrassed. I nearly killed her by accident before she got away. I didn’t feel like telling everybody, okay? I didn’t want to let you down.”

Sky stared at him, speechless. She shook her head. “So that’s why . . .” She trailed off. There was no time for this conversation. “I can’t even deal with this right now.”

Alex gripped his knees and leaned forward, his head next to Simber’s neck, straining to see through the water. “Now what? How much time does Spike have?”

“I don’t know,” Simber muttered. “Maybe thirrrty or forrrty minutes. We need to get herrr now . . . while she still has a chance.” Simber dropped lower, just above the water, and stared down, trying to see if Octavia was coming back. “Alex?” he prompted. “What’s the plan?”

“Just let me think!” Alex couldn’t look at Sky. Where could Ms. Octavia be? Spike couldn’t wait. But what was happening down there? What if Ms. Octavia needed help? He dug the heels of his hands into his eye sockets and wished that someone else had to make the life-or-death decisions for once. After a measured
breath, he spoke. “Okay,” Alex said quietly. “We’re going in. I need everybody on the ship standing by. Now.”

Simber soared back up. “Coverrr yourrr earrrs,” he said to Sky and Alex. When they did, he bellowed at the top of his voice, “Ahab! Brrring forrrth the ship!”

Alex, still stunned by the news of the time-sensitive threat to Spike, grew more fearful about Ms. Octavia’s lengthening disappearance, because
she
could drown too. He knew there was only one choice . . . but how best to do it?

“All right, then,” he said, ripping his fingers through his tangled hair and looking over his shoulder at Sky. “It’s happening. Are you ready?”

“What’s happening?” Sky asked.

Alex hesitated. He was still figuring it all out himself. “Okay, so . . . Simber, I say we send one team down to find Octavia and the others, and another team to rescue the sea creatures and Florence. We do it simultaneously. Maybe it’ll cause confusion and we’ll be able to pull it off.”

Simber nodded. “You think like a leaderrr,” he said. A grim compliment.

Sky was quiet. Waiting.

Alex sat up a little straighter and peered into the darkness. “Is Ahab coming?”

“Yes,” Simber said.

“Tell him to call all hands on deck and be prepared for rescue. Send the squirrelicorns here now.”

Simber did so. When he was done, Alex looked at Sky for a long moment, and that’s when the last piece fell into place. He knew how it would go now.

He offered a small smile. “We’re going in. Sky, I want you to lead Operation Copper. You’re the only one besides me who has been through the hatch, you know the workings of those doors the best, and you’ll be the best one to convince your mother to leave the island at that depth. Can you do it?”

Sky’s eyes crinkled with worry. “What about you?”

Alex looked down. “I need to right a wrong,” he said. “Artimé’s statues and creatures are sacred—as sacred as its people. I may have lost Florence because of my stupid mistake. I can’t lose another one.” He glanced at Simber, who stared hard at the water.

Sky gulped. “Okay,” she said. “Okay.” She sucked in a few deep breaths. “So what do you want me to do?”

Alex looked her in the eye. “I want you to take Samheed, Crow, and Kitten down to the volcano. We don’t know how deep it is. It’s going to be very difficult if it’s far. Just take your time. You may need to go in and fight—you have your component vest.”