Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(3)

As the crowd grew louder in their discussion over whether grass should be allowed, and whether they wanted it to rain more, Alex leaned toward his brother. “Now what do I do?” he whispered.

Aaron put a hand on the podium. “You want me to step in?” he asked quietly.

Alex frowned. “No, I can do it. Just tell me what to say to them, because I have no idea right now.”

One corner of Aaron’s mouth turned up slightly. “Tell them that if they try having grass in their yards and they don’t like it, we can always remove it so they can have dirt yards like before.”

Alex sighed. “But I don’t want to create dirt yards.”

“Think of all the drawing they can do in the dirt when it rains,” Aaron said, almost mischievously.

The look on Aaron’s face caught Alex by surprise, as so many things had in the past few months. His brother was a different person now, thanks to his time on the Island of Shipwrecks with the three old scientists: Ishibashi, Ito, and Sato. Alex still wasn’t sure if Aaron had gotten whacked on the head a little too hard when the pirates had kidnapped him—that’s how big his transformation was. But Aaron insisted he had still been an awful person when he’d first regained consciousness in the stone shelter, and Ishibashi had been quick to agree.

Alex smiled. “All right,” he said. His insides felt complete now that he had his brother beside him. The two of them standing together with the same goals in mind was a dream Alex never thought could come true. Not like this. Not as friends, anyway.

Alex stepped back to the podium and lifted his hand in the air for silence, which came quickly. The Quillens were nothing if not militant about letting the person at the podium speak—even if he was someone they didn’t trust. “We can always give it a try with the grass yards,” Alex said amicably, “and if it turns out you don’t like this luscious stuff massaging your bare feet every day, I will give you a dirt yard as before. Aaron will see to it.”

Aaron nodded his promise to the people, and that calmed them immediately.

“Leave it at that,” Aaron said under his breath. “Finish up—you’re about to lose them.”

Alex nodded. “Thank you, people of Quill. All in favor of having your own magical homes right where the old ones used to be, raise your hand.”

The Wanteds and Necessaries had never been asked to vote on anything before. They looked at one another, confused.

“Just go ahead and put your hand in the air like I’m doing,” Alex said, “if you want me to extend the magical world in order to give you your homes back. And if most of you agree, I’ll do it.”

Samheed stared from the audience and made a face at Alex.

Alex ignored him.

Aaron raised his hand as well to show the people. But no one wanted to be the first in the audience to do it.

“Okay, then,” Alex said, hesitating a bit, trying to figure out what to do next. “How about this: Everyone who would like to have their own home back as I proposed, just keep standing there with no hands in the air.”

No one moved.

“Good!” said Alex. “Excellent. That’s all of you. I’ll begin working on it right away. If everything goes well, we should have the first new homes ready in a matter of days. Thank you for coming!”

The people didn’t move.

“And now you may go,” said Alex, with a grand flourish that made Lani crack up and have to hide her face.

Alex stepped back from the podium and turned to Aaron as the Wanteds and Necessaries began to disperse. Only a few small groups stayed around to voice complaints. “Whew,” he said. “Tough crowd.”

“Yes,” Aaron said. “That was pretty clever how you did that, though.”

A group of five or six Wanteds approached Aaron.

“We don’t want to live in the magical world,” one said grumpily. “We want nothing to do with that Unwanteds magic.”

Aaron and Alex exchanged a worried glance. “But . . . ,” said Aaron, “there’s nowhere else for you to live.”

“We don’t care,” said the spokesperson.

Alex scratched his head, perplexed. How was he going to satisfy everybody?

But Aaron took hold of the situation. “No problem,” he said. He turned to Alex. “Can you leave a small portion of Quill untouched by magic for these fine Wanteds?”

“I—” Alex began, then hesitated. “Well, sure, I can, but . . .”

“Very good,” Aaron said smoothly. “Our problem is solved. Give them a bit of barren, burned-out land to live on.” He thought about what Ishibashi might say, and added, “And make it as far away from here as possible.”





Aaron Longs for Home


It had been a crazy few years for Aaron Stowe. He went from Wanted, to university student, to assistant to the secretary of the high priest, to leader of the Restorers, to high priest of Quill. He’d killed a kind magician; nearly killed his brother; sent his father to the Ancients Sector and made his only friend, Secretary, get him back; and sent Secretary to the Ancients Sector only to watch her die because he stupidly set loose a wild creature upon a group of innocent children.

That was a lot of horrible deeds to deal with, and Aaron would be lying if he said he didn’t think about them often. He spent hours roaming the smoldering ruins of Quill alone, contemplating. He stood where the portcullis had been, and looked at the charred remains of the palace—his former home. Yet there was nothing he could think of that he missed about the place. Nothing had made that cold, gray palace feel as cozy as his cot on a rock floor in the middle of a hurricane.