Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(12)

“Panther has been very anxious to play stay and attack with you again,” said the rock in its deep voice. “None of us have heard the end of it.”

“Is that right?” Aaron smiled, and his shoulders relaxed. “I can help with that.” He picked up a stretch of vine and began shaping it into a spider. It was good to be with friends.





The Big Map


As the afternoon wore on, Lani and Kaylee went off to the library together to look for maps, and Samheed left to talk with Mr. Appleblossom about a play he’d started writing. Alex and Sky stayed in the grass, lying on their backs and watching a wisp of a cloud pass by slowly overhead. They hadn’t had much time alone together in months.

But Alex was distracted, bothered at first by the conversation with Aaron, but then his thoughts turned sharply back to the looming situation with Karkinos. “I hope Henry’s all right,” he said. “Maybe I should have gone with them.”

Sky stared at him. “Alex, please. Florence is there. Who could possibly offer more protection than Florence?”

“She’s great as long as she doesn’t get snagged by an eel. Did you hear? Multiple eels in these waters, according to the ruler of the sea.”

Sky smiled. “That’s such a great title,” she said. “Ruler of the sea.”

“It’s even greater when Spike says it,” said Alex.

“Spike is a seriously awesome creature. You really did a good job with her. I’m glad Pan is there to help her and the other sea creatures.”

“Sounds like Pan has got as many problems as we do,” said Alex, “with those eels working for the pirates and capturing her people.”

“Her people?”

Alex laughed and rolled on his side toward Sky. “Her sea people. Creatures.”

“People of the sea,” said Sky, rolling to face Alex.

They shared a kiss.

“I’m really liking this whole peace thing,” Alex said, lightly bumping his forehead against hers. “And having time to be with you.”

“Me too,” said Sky. “Both of those. And mostly I’m glad you stopped being ridiculous about us being together.”

“I am dumb; you are smart,” said Alex with a laugh. “At least I’m learning.”

Sky grinned. “At least there’s that,” she agreed.

They spent hours being lazy, then went to the dining room for a snack. There they found Lani and Kaylee standing over a large map that they had spread out over one of the tables.

Lani looked up excitedly. “Kaylee found this map up on the third floor of the library—she said her land of America is on it! Come over here and see.”

Alex and Sky exchanged quizzical glances and hurried over.

“This map is huge,” said Alex. “Look at all the land.”

“And the water,” said Sky. “Where is your America, Kaylee?”

“That’s it,” Kaylee said wistfully. She outlined a portion of land on the left half of the enormous map. “It’s this section of the continent of North America, called the United States.” She moved her finger to the right. “And I live here, along the east coast.”

“Is that where you ran into the hurricane?” Sky asked.

“Oh no,” said Kaylee. “I was far from home. You see,” she said, “I’m not sure if you know this, but the world is like a ball. This side of the map connects to the other side. It’s just lying flat on this paper.”

“Okay,” Lani said, sounding skeptical.

“I was in a race—a solo race around the world,” said Kaylee. “All the water in the word is connected, you see. It’s kind of like sailing from island to island here, only on a much larger scale.

“The race started in Newport, Rhode Island. From there I headed east across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Spain.” She pointed to it and traced her route. “Then I sailed south around Cape Town, South Africa. Then up to Abu Dhabi, and then around India and Singapore and the Philippine Islands to South Korea. I had just left there and was on my way to New Zealand when the storms hit.”

“That’s an incredible distance,” marveled Lani, who was using the map’s key to figure it out. “You were very far from home.”

“I was at sea for months,” said Kaylee, “except for restocking supplies in the ports. I was the youngest sailor to ever attempt this race alone.”

“You didn’t have anybody with you at all?” exclaimed Alex. “We’d never do that here. Too dangerous.”

“My instructor and team were in a boat nearby most of the time, following me in case anything went wrong. But the rules stated that I had to do everything alone.” Kaylee studied the map and shook her head. “I was doing fine. I don’t know what went wrong, exactly. The storm came out of nowhere, and I got separated from my team. But I’d been in lots of storms before. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Where were you on this map?” asked Sky. “Maybe we can find our island.”

Kaylee gave a grim smile. “South of Japan, northwest of the Philippines,” she said, and touched the spot on the map. “I realize all these place-names don’t mean anything to you. But Japan—that’s where the scientists are from.” She hesitated, then added, “This area of the sea is also where the circus ship had been when it hit a storm. Before it ran ashore on the Island of Graves, I mean. I read about it in the ship’s log.”