Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(15)

“Spike, you found it!” said Florence.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Henry breathed. “You have no idea what this means.”

Florence reached out to get the vest and handed it to Henry. Anxiously he checked the special pocket, and there he found the tin of seaweed, safe and sound. He slumped back in relief, then put the vest on and secured it.

“Well done, Spike,” said Pan, like a queen to her favored subject.

Spike bowed to her, then turned to Henry. “I am terribly sorry I hurt you,” she said.

Henry stroked the whale’s forehead. “You couldn’t help it,” he said. “And I’m all right now. I would have been fine if I’d just taken a breath before we went under. I was just surprised.”

“We all were,” Pan said. “We’re lucky Spike detected the eel coming at us when she did or we’d be in much more dire circumstances now.”

Spike bowed her head humbly and sidled up to the dragon. “We must go,” she said. “We have lost too much time.”

“Are you fit to go again?” Florence asked Henry.

The boy nodded. His vest was in place and secured, with the container inside its pocket. That was all he needed.

Florence helped Henry climb from Pan’s back onto Spike’s. He slid into the cocoon, and when all was well again, the four continued their journey.





The Dragon’s Triangle


As Kaylee gazed at the map on the table, Alex, Sky, and Lani looked curiously at her.

“The Dragon’s Triangle?” Alex asked. “What’s that?”

Kaylee gave him a grim smile. “It’s a mythical place. Or at least that’s what I used to think.”

Sky and Lani exchanged a questioning glance. “We’re not mythical,” Lani said. “We’re real.”

Kaylee continued to explain. “There are a few places in the world—the world I came from, I mean—where ships and airplanes have been lost and never found. The Bermuda Triangle is one. The Dragon’s Triangle is another.” She pointed them out on the map. “In the old days sailors would avoid the mysterious waters in those places for fear of being lost for good.” She pulled a dining chair out from the table and sat down heavily. “I remember studying it before I set out on my journey, knowing I’d be passing nearby. A fleet of Japanese military ships disappeared there—here, I mean—in the 1950s.” She looked up. “When I saw the Quillitary vehicles on your island, I wondered if they’d come from those missing military ships.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “There’s a whole shipload of them sunk off Ishibashi’s island.”

“I’m not surprised to hear that. Some scientists went in search of the missing fleet,” Kaylee said. “But they went missing too.”

“Ishibashi, Ito, and Sato?” guessed Lani.

“For sure,” said Kaylee, nodding. “I forget the name of their ship, but it was well documented.”

“Oh!” said Alex abruptly. “I saw the name. Some of the letters were missing. K-O something number five.”

Kaylee looked sharply at him. “That’s it! Kaiyo Maru Number Five. You saw it? It was Ishibashi’s ship?”

“That’s what Ishibashi told me,” Alex said. “I transported it from under the water and put it on the shore so they could get their stuff if they wanted to.”

“And they did,” said Sky. “Remember the telescope Ishibashi showed us?”

Alex nodded.

Tears welled up in Kaylee’s eyes for reasons she had trouble articulating. “No one has ever returned from a triangle,” she said. “I guess . . .” She trailed off, gazing across the dining room deep in thought. “I guess I always thought the people had died. And the ships and planes that disappeared were at the bottom of the Devil’s Sea, so deep they were unable to be recovered. I never imagined there was an actual place where people could survive . . . and thrive, even.”

Sky frowned. “If the scientists are from your world, are you saying that it’s possible we all came from there? That we were somehow swept into the Dragon’s Triangle? Because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t. I was born on Warbler. So was my mother.”

“Not you specifically,” Kaylee said. “But maybe your ancestors. Your grandparents or great-grandparents or who knows how many generations ago were lost at sea, succumbing to the grasp of the dreaded triangle. And instead of dying, they found themselves here.”

“Like the people in the vessel?” Sky asked. “Several months ago a . . . a thing fell from the sky and landed in the water.”

“An airplane,” said Lani.

“Right,” said Sky. “The people inside were dead, though.”

Kaylee nodded. “I suspect they came from my world,” she said. “If no one on all the seven islands you’ve visited manufactures or flies airplanes, they must come from somewhere else, right?”

“We have parts of airplanes upstairs in the Museum of Large,” Alex said. “Mr. Appleblossom and Mr. Today kept them from years ago.”

Kaylee looked at the others, puzzled. “But I don’t understand something. Didn’t anybody ever tell you stories about how they came to be here? Your grandparents or anyone?”