Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(5)
“The man from the Island of Shipwrecks?” asked Carina.
“Yes.” A spear of longing passed through Aaron. He looked left, to the east, as if that would bring Ishibashi’s island closer. But then he turned his gaze back to the girls, his face clouding over. He’d miss them. A lot. “Once we have the Wanteds and Necessaries settled, I guess I’ll be free to go back there.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“It doesn’t really matter what I want,” Aaron said. “It was part of the deal. Alex found me, brought me here, and I did my job. I was never meant to stay.”
Carina reached out, putting her hand over Aaron’s, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Thank you for helping us,” she said. “You’re an incredible mage—I have no idea how you were able to do so much without training. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m very glad you came back. At least for a little while. If you decide to stay, well, I certainly wouldn’t mind. You’re all right, Aaron.”
Aaron stared at her hand on his. He wondered if he’d ever get used to people being kind to him.
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Later, when Aaron was alone and thinking about the responsibilities he had to attend to here on this island before he could leave, he found his mind turning to Panther. He went inside the mansion, past Simber and Florence, whose broken leg was restored. He climbed the stairs to the balcony and slipped down the not-even-a-faint-secret of a hallway. He went past all the doors, not knowing where some of them led, and into the kitchenette.
He stood for a moment in front of the tube, feeling guilty. One thing he hadn’t told anyone about was his past visits to the jungle. He’d tell his brother eventually. He had to, so Alex could take care of the creatures once Aaron was gone. But he knew that when that happened, he’d have to confess to the rock and to Panther that he’d been lying to them. He’d have to tell them that he wasn’t Alex.
The thought pained him, and the longer it lingered, the more painful it became. Maybe he would ask Alex to confess for him . . . but that made Aaron feel like a coward. A feeling he knew all too well.
For now, Aaron decided as he stepped inside the tube, the jungle is my secret. It was the only thing left that truly belonged to him. And he wasn’t ready to give it up. He desperately needed one place to go where nobody stared at him or wondered if he was still evil inside.
House After House
Alex had never spent so much time working on his concentration and spells as he was spending now. Once he’d found Mr. Today’s journal that detailed how he created the world in the first place, Alex designed his own spell that would expand the existing boundaries of Artimé to cover almost the entire island.
It didn’t all happen at once, unfortunately. He had to go bit by bit, section by section. Each section fell into place a little like how the hospital ward did whenever Alex had to expand that. As he pressed the invisible boundary outward, grass dropped down to mark his progress.
Once Alex had extended Artimé to cover up all but one small section of the charred remains of Quill, which he left for the cranky group of Wanteds as promised, he began working on the infrastructure, putting in a paved road where the dirt one used to be and laying down walking paths throughout the community. He widened the stream and had Ms. Octavia create a bubbling freshwater fountain in the Commons like the one she’d made for the Claire, so that the community could come and draw water from it whenever they needed it. Things were taking shape. Alex was careful to hold back so he wouldn’t accidentally make Quill too beautiful. The restraint was almost painful.
Then Alex took to his office to work on a house component. He asked Aaron to help design the layout, and Alex created a prototype for the first house and tried it out in the vast open space in the Museum of Large. After a few tweaks, Aaron approved, and Alex had the design exactly the way the Quillens would want it.
The head mage called Samheed, Lani, Carina, and Sean Ranger to help make replicas of the component. The group spread out their supplies and tools in the Museum of Large, below the outstretched trunk and huge sharp tusks of Ol’ Tater, the mastodon statue.
The new magical houses looked more like Wanted houses than Necessary ones, not just because the design was simple enough to replicate, but because Alex thought the Necessaries—who had been on the cusp of helping Artimé take out Gondoleery—deserved nicer houses than the ones they’d had. And it was easier to design and replicate one spell component than two, so Alex chose to do it as such. He decided that if any Necessary came to him demanding a smaller, less equipped home, he would gladly oblige.
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When Alex finally had enough components for all the Quillen households, he began installing the houses one at a time in nearly the same layout as Quill had previously had, doing his best to work from memory and getting guidance from some of the older Necessaries who had known every inch of Quill.
By this time, the Wanteds and Necessaries were more than anxious to go back to their familiar-looking, yet slightly more colorful and less ugly world. Dozens of Wanteds and Necessaries moved into their new homes every day as Alex worked long and hard to re-create their world. Most of the recipients knew very little about how to express their thanks for a gift so huge, but some of them managed, which felt like progress to Alex. And a thank you now and then for the hardworking head mage of Artimé was very much appreciated.