Island of Fire (The Unwanteds) (16 page)

Alex stared at it, his face growing pale just as the picture faded away. He swung around to look at the trail of light streaking toward Warbler Island. And then he turned back to Sky. His lips parted as if to speak, but he didn’t have a clue what to say. Sky held his gaze solemnly for a moment, reached
up and squeezed his arm, and then smiled, bringing her hands together in her lap.

“I’m sorry,” Alex whispered, though he wasn’t sure why he was saying that. His gut twisted with guilt—here he was relaxing and smiling when Sam and Lani were still captured. He looked at the ground. “I’m such a dolt.” He lifted his eyes up to hers again. “I came to tell you that we took Meghan’s thorn necklace off, and she can speak again. And if you want, we can do yours and Crow’s, too.”

Sky’s eyes grew wide, fearful. Her fingers fluttered to her neck, and now it was her turn to look away.

Alex got to his feet, knowing he had no time to waste, knowing he had to do something fast to get the rescue effort started, but desperately wanting to be with Sky. “I’m sorry,” he said once more. “I have to go.” Impulsively he reached out and squeezed her hand. And then he turned and ran to the mansion to find Simber, every step he took reinforcing the confusion of feelings he had in his head and in his heart.

W
hen Alex had gathered up his group of trusted friends and advisors, he, Sean, Meghan, Florence, Simber, and Ms. Octavia picked a spot on the lawn to talk strategy. But first he invited Meghan to tell them all about her experiences on Warbler.

As she told her story, the others looked on in shocked silence. Sean sat silent and still, staring at the grass, fists balled up and jaw set.

She remembered making it to Claire’s boat and not having the strength to climb inside, instead hanging on to the ladder
for dear life. And that was the last thing she could recall before she woke up inside the gray shack. She didn’t remember the rescue or flying out of the boat or nearly drowning.

“I can’t imagine what they’ve done to Lani and Samheed,” she said. “But you have to understand—we have one shot at getting them out of there. And almost everything is underground. There are spies in the trees with sleep darts—they got us on the way in, but I don’t think they were expecting me to escape. They must only be looking out to sea. So by the time they saw me running for the boat, I was too far away and they missed.” She thought for a moment. “We’re going to need a lot of help.”

“Simber,” Alex said, “I’d like to do a flyover of Warbler as soon as possible. We need to get an idea of what we’re dealing with and figure out where the cave entrances are.” He looked at the afternoon sun. “Tomorrow, first thing?”

“I’ll be rrready,” Simber said.

Meghan frowned. “I should go.”

Alex looked at her. “I didn’t think you’d want to.”

“I don’t. But I should,” she said. Her voice was growing clearer as the day wore on, and it was easier to understand her now. “I’ll be able to show you where I escaped from.”

“No,” Sean said. “You’re not going.”

Meghan flared. “Yes, I think I am.”

“Then so am I,” he said. His face was stone.

Ms. Octavia cleared her throat.

Everyone looked at her.

She smiled, her sharp teeth gleaming, and then looked at Alex. “Alex, I think Artimé needs you to stay on the grounds for now as we plan things.”

Alex flashed a confused look, which cleared a moment later. “Oh. To keep things stable around here,” he murmured. “Rally the troops, as they say.”

“At least until Claire is feeling better,” Ms. Octavia said.

“I agrrree,” Simber said, and Florence nodded.

Alex pressed his lips together. He wasn’t sure he liked counting on someone else to get things right. But then he thought about it. Who better than Sean and Meghan to take on this task? They were certainly invested enough—Meghan had the scars to prove it—and Sean had been a great leader. “Okay,” he said. “Both of you go with Simber tomorrow.”

The brother and sister team wore nearly identical grim smiles.

“And I’ll work on Sky and Crow,” Alex said. He rubbed his temples. “If we could only convince them to let me take those chokers off, we could communicate. They could tell us everything.”

“What do you mean?” Florence asked. “Are they hesitant?”

“Sky seems to be really worried that something bad will happen. I wonder what kind of nonsense they were told would happen if they removed them.”

Meghan gulped. “You mean something could have happened to me?”

“The point is, nothing did happen,” Alex said. “See? You’re fine.” He tapped his lips. “Maybe you could go talk to Sky this afternoon, Meg. Show her that you’re okay.”

“Sure,” Meghan said.

“As for Sam and Lani,” Alex said, “well, Lani, at least, is still alive. She sent a seek spell about an hour ago.” He pointed to the fading trail of light that streaked across the water to the west. “I hope they can hang on a bit longer. They must think we’ve abandoned them.”

“They won’t give up waiting for us,” Meghan said. “They must have figured out by now that things aren’t normal.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Could
you
have imagined what happened here?”

Meghan paused. “No, I guess not. But if Lani has been doing the seek spell, she had to have seen that it wasn’t working for a while.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

They sat in contemplative silence. “Anything else?” Alex asked. He looked around. “I’ll send out a message to everyone’s blackboards just to make sure everybody’s doing okay, like Mr. Today would do. I don’t see a need for a big meeting—everyone seems to have gone back to their routines quite easily.”

The others agreed.

“What about the gate?” Simber asked. “I don’t think Quill has discoverrred that we’rrre back in business yet, but they will soon.”

Alex nodded. “I’ve thought about it. We need to keep it open in case some of our Unwanteds return. Let’s get another line of guards in place, and maybe Rufus can act as lookout from above.”

“I’ll handle that,” Florence said. “Shall I start up the Magical Warrior Training again?”

“Yes,” Alex said. He looked at Ms. Octavia. “And let’s get regular classes going again too.”

The octogator nodded. “That will be good. Poor Siggy doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’s still so distraught over Samheed.” She wrung two or three tentacles in her lap.

After they had sorted out all the most urgent tasks, Alex looked around the group. “Well, I guess that’s enough for today. Thanks, everybody.” He smiled. “It’s good to have you back.”

W
hen the advisors dispersed to take care of their tasks, Alex made his way inside the mansion. He peeked into the hospital ward, seeing Gunnar and Henry Haluki, along with Crow and also Charlie the gargoyle, all sitting together on Gunnar’s bed. Crow was signaling wildly to Charlie, and Gunnar was signaling too, only at a much slower pace.

Henry looked up and saw Alex watching them. “Charlie and Crow speak the same language,” he said, eyes shining. “Can you believe it? And my dad can understand Crow a little bit too!”

Alex grinned. “That’s incredible,” he said. “What a strange
coincidence that Charlie and Matilda would use the same sign language as the people on Warbler.” He thought about that for a bit, scratching his head as he turned to leave. “Then again, that’s where Mr. Today was born. Maybe he learned it there and taught it to the gargoyles.” He climbed the steps, deep in thought. And then he stopped, turned around, and went back down. He peeked into the hospital ward again.

“Crow,” he said, “can you tell Henry’s dad what the leaders of Warbler have told you about the thorns in your neck? Did they tell you something would happen to you if you took them off?”

Crow’s face turned ashen. He gripped the choker and backed away from Alex.

Alex put his hands in the air and stepped back. “Whoa, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Crow watched Alex for a long minute, and then he turned to Gunnar and began to sign.

Gunnar watched Crow carefully. When Crow finished, Gunnar turned to Alex and shook his head. “I didn’t get it all,” Gunnar began, “but the gist of it is that if they ever escaped and tried to remove the thorns, the birds would come.”

“The birds?” Alex asked.

Gunnar looked at Crow. Crow signed some more.

“The Warbler birds, he says,” said Gunnar. “The Warbler birds will come and peck them, starting with their eyes. And then the people of Warbler would find them and kill them.”

Alex stared. Henry stared. Even Charlie stared.

Crow cowered, his hands over his eyes.

Alex’s mind raced. What would Mr. Today say right now to this scared little boy to soothe his fears? He put his hands in his pockets and offered a kind smile. “Well, all I know is that a
crow
can beat a warbler any day of the year.”

Crow didn’t move.

“And you know what else I know?”

Crow remained still.

“I know that warbler birds are friendly. I also know that the leader of Warbler told you that to scare you, and I bet I know why—they don’t want you to remove the thorns so you can’t talk to anyone about what they’re doing over there.” Alex began to wind up. “It’s like Quill. Justine told everyone that the walls were there for our protection from the neighboring lands, but she was lying to us. She wanted us to be scared only so that we wouldn’t dare to leave.” He took a breath.

Crow let his hands slip down from his eyes.

“There’s nothing special about that thorny necklace,” Alex said decisively. “Its only purpose is to keep you from talking to outsiders, and to scare you into obedience.”

Crow looked up at Alex, his eyes begging to be assured.

“I can prove it,” Alex said. “We took Meghan’s off this morning. She sat outside for hours, and no Warbler birds came. Plus, now she can talk again.”

Crow’s face strained with hope.

“Go find her—you’ll see for yourself. And tell your sister, too. She’s probably with Meghan right now.”

Crow bit his lip, and then he scrambled off Haluki’s bed and jumped to the floor, running at full speed to find Meghan and his sister.

Gunnar grinned at Alex. “You have a way with that boy,” he said. “He trusts you.”

Alex smiled. “I guess so,” he said, feeling a new confidence growing inside him. And then he turned to Henry. “Now that we have our art supplies again, see if you can get Crow to draw a map of the tunnels on Warbler, will you?”

“Sure,” Henry said. “He’s pretty good at drawing. I showed
him my things and he drew some stuff.” He got off the bed and went after Crow.

Alex looked at Gunnar Haluki. “We’re doing everything we can to find Lani,” he said. “She’s alive, we know that much. She sent a seek spell this morning.”

Gunnar smiled weakly. “I know you’re doing your best, Alex. And from what little I’ve seen, you’re doing an excellent job. Marcus would be very proud.”

Alex blinked hard and looked at the floor.

Gunnar went on. “Thank you for taking care of my son. I can never repay you for that.”

Alex nodded. “I’m sorry about your wife,” he said.

Gunnar closed his weary eyes. “There is only one instance where living without ever expressing one’s feelings seems like it could be useful, at least on the surface, and that is when someone you love dies.” He took a breath. “I will never be the same person again.”

Alex nodded. He thought he understood, at least a little. After a moment, thinking Gunnar was asleep, he turned to go.

“Alex,” Gunnar said.

Alex stopped and looked at the man.

“I didn’t want to say this in front of the boys, but Charlie is communicating with Matilda, who is in Aaron’s office at the palace. She overheard a conversation. It seems Aaron has somehow managed to sentence your father to his death, but then decided to save his life again on the condition that they never support you in any way.” He paused. “I thought you should know.”

Alex’s stomach dropped. He felt numb. He pinched the bridge of his nose as a headache threatened. And then he let out a held breath. “I see,” he said. “Thank you for telling me.”

“And your mother is due any day now.”