Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(20)

Henry gasped and reached out blindly, clinging by one hand to a section of teeth, nearly dropping the tin of seaweed, but managing to hang on. Water rushed past him, and when the crab’s head settled, there was only a little bit of water remaining inside his mouth. As soon as Henry felt certain the crab wasn’t going to swallow again, he dropped down and hurried to open the tin.

The seaweed glowed, shedding a tiny bit of light in the moist pod. Henry knelt down and felt around the briny sludge of the crab’s mouth for a place to pack the medicine where it could be absorbed. He soon found a slippery fold of tissue near the crab’s cheek . . . or whatever it was called. Quickly he pulled half of the glowing seaweed out of the tin and pushed it into the space, spreading it out for maximum exposure and packing it down as tightly into the fold as he could.

He felt his way over to the other side of the crab’s mouth and did the same. “Come on, Karkinos,” he breathed. He shook the tin upside down to get the remaining bits out, hoping it was enough for the enormous creature.

There was nothing more Henry could do but wish. And he could do that just as well outside of the giant crab’s mouth. He shouted to Spike through a tiny space near the feeding appendages and waited. He could hear the churning water and the shouts of Pan and Florence outside. “Spike!” he cried out again. “Open up!” Now that he had done the job, he was more anxious than ever to get out of Karkinos’s disgusting mouth.

“I am coming, Henry!” Spike shouted.

Henry jiggled impatiently.

“No, Spike!” Pan called out. “I need you! We must all push together now or we’ll never get out of the waterfall’s grasp. Hold on, Henry! Everyone, push to the northeast with all your might!”

Henry’s heart sank at the words. “Okay,” he managed to say. He slumped against the crab’s mouth opening, watched the seaweed glow, and tried not to gag at the stench. He could feel the crab’s mouth slime drip onto him from above. He hoped he wouldn’t run out of air. More importantly, though, at the moment at least, was his hope that Karkinos wouldn’t go sailing over the waterfall headfirst with Henry trapped inside his mouth.

There were so many things to worry about, and Henry sat there, helpless to do anything. He wished he could see. And then he remembered he had a highlighter right in his pocket. He lit it at half power and looked around at the algae on Karkinos’s teeth and the sea worms crawling along the crab’s cheek. His stomach gurgled. Quickly he put the light out again. “Disgusting,” he muttered. “Really wish I hadn’t seen that.”

From outside he heard Florence shout. “Hang on, Henry!” she thundered. “We’re going over the edge!”

Henry’s heart flew to his throat.

And then the giant crab’s mouth began to churn.





A Clattering Reunion


Henry froze as the crab’s muscles rippled under him, sending the seaweed tin tumbling to the back of his mouth and Henry scrambling for a sharp upper tooth to hang on to. Then Karkinos opened his mouth, and water rushed in over Henry’s head. He could barely hold on, and he couldn’t escape. When the water rushed back out, Henry coughed and sputtered and looked out over the edge of the waterfall as he dangled above it from Karkinos’s tooth.

“Aaaaaaah!” screamed Henry. “Help!”

Pan shouted unintelligibly, and the crab began shaking. Spike was yelling too, and Issie and even the squid had joined them by now, everyone using all of their strength to stop the crab from plummeting over the waterfall. It inched forward, then somehow moved two inches backward. Then forward again. Then three inches backward, the crab’s body beginning to hum. Karkinos was coming alive.

His claws snapped once, twice, and his body swiveled in the water, Henry swinging with it. Soon the crab was scooting backward, and with the help of all the other sea creatures, Karkinos began inching against the tremendous pressure of the current.

“He’s doing it!” Henry shouted once he could catch a breath. “Karkinos is alive! And he’s paddling! Everybody, don’t give up—now’s the moment! Give it everything you’ve got!”

With another giant rush of seawater coming into Karkinos’s open mouth, Henry lost his grip on the crab’s tooth. He dropped underwater and surfaced, trying to swim back to the tooth, but a wave struck him. Henry was washed outside of Karkinos’s mouth and into the churning sea. The boy surfaced and sputtered, grabbing and grasping at anything he could reach, lest he be swept away.

Once Karkinos realized what it was that he’d just spat out, he picked Henry out of the water with his giant claw. Henry gratefully hung on to catch his breath, then climbed onto the reef and crawled his way to shore. When he looked up toward the center of the island, he saw Talon, wings engaged, flying above Vido the golden rooster’s perch in the tallest tree. Talon pulled on a rope that was attached to the island.

Hearing Henry’s news brought new life to the strange crew, and they dug in harder than ever, finding extra strength from the encouragement. With a shattering groan and a hearty grunt, Karkinos paddled and pushed with the bit of life he’d regained, and soon the entourage was making even more headway.

“You’ve got it!” Florence shouted, paddling with a tree trunk she’d pulled from the woods nearby. “Keep going! Due north will get you out of the pull of the current faster. Good work everybody!”