Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(60)

Simber surfaced, spitting and flailing, until he finally composed himself enough to rise out of the water. He shook his body violently to free himself from the wet stuff.

Ms. Octavia hid her face behind a tentacle and eased from her hiding spot as the ship finally moved out of range of the blow darts. Alex reappeared from behind the crates, and Simber pretended like nothing had happened to him.

“Simber,” Alex called. “There’s nothing more we can do here. Octavia can abandon ship if she needs to, but she’s a safe distance from the enemy ships now. The others will wake up eventually. We need to find Fox.”

“Fox!” exclaimed Octavia. She looked all around in the water, alarmed. “He never came back,” she said. “I didn’t notice. Good heavens.”

“He’s not in the water around Queen Eagala’s ship either,” said Alex. “Not that Simber could see, anyway.” He began dragging bodies off one another and laying them flat on their backs. “Sean got hit by a sleep dart,” he said. “Again!” He rolled the sleeping young man onto his back. “Carina’s not going to let him forget that.”

“Carina might be in the same predicament before this is over,” said Ms. Octavia.

“You’re right, of course.” He stood up straight. “I can spare you a squirrelicorn and a few people from my team until yours wake up. It’ll be dark soon—are you all right here on your own for a bit?”

“I think so,” said Octavia. “The other ships don’t seem to want to follow us.”

“Because it could put them in the line of firrre frrrom the catapults,” observed Simber. “I think you’rrre safe forrr now.”

Alex climbed on Simber’s back. “You won’t be alone for long, Ms. Octavia.” He instructed Simber to go back to the shore. There Alex ordered a few Artiméans from his team to head out to the ship, carried by squirrelicorns, and then Alex and Simber flew back over the sea, dodging flaming tar balls and looking for Fox.

As the sun began to set in earnest, Simber rose up high in the air, out of range of the catapults. He flew over the ships, wishing he could safely catch the flying tar balls and drop them back onto the ships. But he didn’t want to risk losing any claws to the heat.

Despite his dislike for Fox, who was definitely not a cat no matter how much he wanted to be, Simber scanned the water and the ships for signs of the creature. Over his shoulder, Alex searched anxiously. And as they were searching, Kitten pushed her way out of Alex’s pocket and onto his thigh, and began to stretch.

Alex picked her up so she wouldn’t be blasted off Simber’s back by the wind.

“Mewmewmew?” asked Kitten.

“We’rrre looking forrr yourrr annoying frrriend,” answered Simber.

Kitten’s ears stiffened and she sat up. “Mewmewmew?”

“Alex sent him on an errrand and he disappearrred.”

Kitten struggled against Alex’s grasp, trying to see, and he held her out over the side of Simber’s back so she could look too.

“Mewmewmew!” she said, pointing.

“No,” said Alex, “that’s just a piece of driftwood.”

Kitten pointed the other way. “Mewmewmew!”

“No,” said Alex patiently. “That’s an oar.”

Kitten frowned and stared harder, but after a time she stopped staring and began licking her porcelain fur, which was getting ruffled in the wind.

Simber soared over the ships one at a time, listening to the gruff shouts from the pirates below them and taking in the ship designs and vast number of pirates and Warblerans on board each one—the ships’ top decks were jam-packed with sailors, and who knew how many more were belowdecks. Simber kept his worries to himself. They were in this. There was no use adding more gloom to the situation. Alex would figure it out soon enough.

When they’d looked over all the ships within a reasonable distance for Fox to swim to, Simber circled back, and in the waning light, he looked one last time at Queen Eagala’s ship. Simber’s ears twitched and rotated as the great cat took in a multitude of conversations below, listening for Fox.

And suddenly, as Kitten was finishing the grooming of her left front paw, both she and Simber simultaneously jumped to attention.

“Mewmewmew!” said Kitten.

“Indeed,” said Simber. He reduced his altitude near the lead ship where Queen Eagala and Captain Baldhead had been earlier in the day, and Alex strained along with the cats to listen for the voice of their missing comrade. And soon enough, Alex could make it out too.

“I am definitely not a delicious sort of animal,” Fox was saying. “I’m basically made out of a tree stump. Do you really want a sliver in your gums? They can be very painful . . . or so I hear.”

“What’s happening?” Alex said, squinting as he tried to locate Fox on the ship.

“I see him,” said Simber. “He’s in a cage. I’m going in to grrrab it. Hang on.”

Alex shoved Kitten back into his pocket and gripped the cheetah around the neck. Simber dove toward the deck, legs outstretched. He glided as shouts rose up from on board, and the zing of swords being pulled from scabbards rang through the air.

Alex flattened himself against Simber’s back, his stomach sickened by the quick drop. As Simber reached his front legs out, he gave an enormous roar. He caught the roof of the cage where Fox was cowering and lifted up, but the bottom of the cage was attached to the deck. The top of it ripped off and the sides fell open, leaving Fox free but frozen in fear.