Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(28)

“I’ve been meaning to do something,” Henry said under his breath, and left Talon’s side. “Spike!” he called out. He walked toward Karkinos’s reefy claw.

The whale surfaced near Henry. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Henry said, crouching down near Spike’s face. “I don’t think so, anyway. But I need you to speak to Karkinos for me. Can you do that?”

“Yes, I can and will,” said Spike.

“Tell him that I used a medicine on him that will extend his life indefinitely . . . perhaps even forever. And I should have asked his permission first, but he wasn’t responding to you and we were about to go over the waterfall, and, well . . . there were so many lives at stake that I administered the medicine without asking him first. And I’m sorry. I hope he thinks I did the right thing.”

Spike waited until he was sure Henry was done with his confession, and then disappeared under the water. A moment later Henry could see Spike talking earnestly to the crab.

The crab and Spike conversed for a moment, and then Spike swam back to Henry.

“Karkinos says he does not wish to be dead or stuck in a rotating waterfall, and he wants to live as long as Talon lives, which is likely forever, so you have done him a great favor. He is very happy.”

Henry breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good. Thank you, Spike. That’s a big relief.”

Spike left to go back to his hiding spot under the crab’s body.

Henry stood up and went back to Talon’s side.

“I couldn’t help overhearing,” Talon said. “Where did you get such incredibly powerful medicine?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Henry said. “I’m actually glad I’m finally rid of it.”

“I don’t understand,” Talon said. “Wouldn’t every healer wish to have a large stock of such a medicine?”

Henry regarded the bronze giant. “You’ve lived thousands of years,” he said. “Have you ever thought about what it would be like if you could die?”

“Many times in the past I’ve longed for such a thing,” admitted Talon.

Henry nodded wisely. He had spent hours thinking about it since that day in Ishibashi’s greenhouse when the scientist had given him the seaweed. “I don’t like having the power to take away someone’s death,” said Henry. “It’s too much responsibility. For me, at least. I worry about it a lot.”

Talon nodded thoughtfully. “You are wise beyond your years, lad,” he said. “I hope your worries subside now that you have so valiantly used up your supply.”

Henry gazed out over the water. “I have a feeling I’ll sleep all right tonight.”

Florence approached with an armload of firewood and some sand chairs. She stoked the fire as Lhasa the snow lion came prancing out of the woods, not quite touching the ground as always. Behind her was Bock, silent and observant as ever.

Talon watched them settle around the fire. “I think this is our cue,” he said to Henry. “Time for a story. I only wish Fox and Kitten were here to tell it.”

Henry laughed. “I guess you’ll have to tell one instead.”

“I shall do it with pleasure,” said Talon. “Whose story would you like to hear?” Talon and Henry walked over to the fire to join the others.

“The story of that smelly, blurry one, please,” said Henry.

“Ah, the hibagon,” Talon said.

“Yes, him.”

They settled by the fire next to Florence, and Talon announced the Tale of the Hibagon.

“I wish there were a great long story about the hibagon,” Talon began. “But Lhasa and I will tell you everything we know, won’t we Lhasa?”

“We will!” said Lhasa, her voice ringing with laughter. “Start us off, please.”

Talon smiled and began. “Not long ago, perhaps twenty years or so, a large bundle of logs bumped up against the side of Karkinos, just there,” he said, pointing to a spot on the eastern shore. “The logs were the size of entire tall trees, taller and bigger around than any tree we have growing here.”

Lhasa smiled dreamily. “I imagined they were trees from a giant forest that had never been found by anyone but the creatures living peacefully in it.”

Talon nodded. “I wrestled the logs ashore, thinking we could use them for firewood once they dried out. But when I released the cords that enclosed the bundle and the logs rolled apart, a strange creature emerged. I admit it gave me a fright, for I wasn’t expecting that. He was about as tall as you, Henry, covered in black bristles as stiff and sharp as pine needles. And he carried with him a rotten stench of death that could drop a human to his knees to beg for mercy.”

Lhasa curled up her nose. “He walked upright like a man but hunched over, and darted about so jaggedly that he was hard to see clearly. And even when he stood still, which wasn’t very often, he seemed blurry. Like his body had no true outline—his bristly coat faded away at the edges. I admit I couldn’t stand to look at him.”

“Which turned out to be good,” Talon said, “because once I coaxed a name from the fellow he insisted I not look at him again, for stories were told in the land he came from about the dangers of looking too long at a hibagon.”