Island of Fire (The Unwanteds) (22 page)

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
s 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.”

A
lex 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.