Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(71)

That hope was replaced by the somber truth. Artimé was destroyed. There would be no prevailing this time. Soon there would be no more people for the pirates to kill, because they would all be dead, except maybe Aaron—and the pirates would just torture him until he finally outlived them all.

“Florence,” Alex said, his voice anguished.

Florence turned again to face the mage. “What is it, Alex?”

“I think we need to surrender.”





One More Try


Florence looked at Alex. And without blinking, without reacting, without arguing, she shouted in her loudest, most booming voice, “SIIIMBERRR!”

Alex looked at her, aghast. “What are you doing?”

Florence shook her head in disgust. “I want to see you make that suggestion to Simber. I could use a good laugh right now. SIIIMBERRR!” she called again.

“Stop!” said Alex. “Don’t do that. He’s busy.”

Florence opened her mouth to call again, but Alex skittered down the slant of the roof.

“No!” he cried, and jumped on her, fists flailing. She caught him and held him up with one hand. “Really, Alex? You want to break your fists punching me?” Quickly she stuck out her other arm and clotheslined a pirate who was running by. He hit the dirt, and Florence grabbed his sword. She stabbed it through his chest, barely taking the time to look at what she was doing.

Alex deflated. He’d lost his mind. He stopped punching the air and hung limply in Florence’s grip until finally she set him down on the ground. She pulled the sword out from the pirate’s chest, wiped it clean, and gave it to Alex.

“Moment of insanity,” Alex mumbled, taking it. “Can we just pretend that didn’t happen?”

“I’d certainly like to,” said Florence. She saw Simber flying at full speed toward them.

“You’re not going to tell him?” asked Alex anxiously.

“Not today.”

“Good. Thank you. And sorry. I’m out of here.” Alex ran off to start swinging his sword at pirates.

“What’s wrrrong?” Simber asked Florence.

“Nothing,” said Florence. “Only I see Claire and Sky at the edge of the lawn by the jungle. Do you see them?”

Simber turned to look. “I do now. And the rrrest of the teams arrre hiding on the otherrr side of the mansion, including Samheed and Lani, whose teams took some of the worrrst action. They just arrrived afterrr a skirrrmish with a group of pirrrates coming frrrom the lighthouse, and found the otherrrs setting up forrr an ambush.” Simber snarled at a pirate, clamped her in his jaws, tossed her into the air, and batted her out to sea.

“Well then, let’s go assist,” said Florence.

“Wherrre’s Alex?”

“Oh, he’s around. Fighting hard.”

“Does he know about this plan?”

“I don’t think so, Sim. Let’s surprise him. He could use it right about now.”

Just then, a shrill whistle went up from the lawn where Claire and her team were standing. Automatically at least half of the pirates turned to see what was happening. With their backs turned, Carina and her team of forty rushed in and fired deadly spells at them, dropping a whole section on the lawn at once. They fired again and took down another group.

When the pirates realized what was happening, they all turned toward Carina’s team. With a roar, the pirates rushed at them, giving Claire’s team open targets on their backs. Claire’s team fired, once, twice, three times, until all their components were gone, and another thirty pirates went down. Then the team went in with swords drawn and continued the attack, with Sky leading the way.

Florence and Simber rushed in to clobber any pirates who had been struck dumbfounded by the attack.

At the sight of Carina, Aaron, Kaylee, Lani and Samheed, and Claire and Sky, Alex felt his heart refire. His friends weren’t dead! Sky was alive! And Aaron! All of them! They were alive and fighting and not in any way looking like they wanted to give up. Maybe the tide was swinging just the least bit.

“We fight until we win!” Alex cried to the returning teams, who were equally glad to see him alive. But the returning teams were less glad to hear that there were still pirates and Warblerans on the ships, and no one quite knew what was coming next. They all dug in and kept going.

But the twenty-four-hour battle had taken its toll on their bodies, and slowly their euphoria at the momentary victory began to slip away.

They fought valiantly, but the pirates on land still outnumbered them four to one. It was only a matter of time before the Artiméans would collapse from exhaustion.

“We must win!” came Alex’s ragged battle cry. “We must win at all costs! Every human, statue, and creature—fight for your life! Fight for our freedom!”

It was those words that stopped Aaron cold. First, seeing Alex alive brought a huge sense of relief, and not an ounce of disappointment. But beyond that, what Alex had said stirred a new idea in his mind. He turned and looked at his brother, taking in the words. Every human, statue, and creature—fight for your life! And then Aaron slowly looked the other way, across the lawn, past all the fighting, to the jungle beyond. He stared for a long moment, his sword going slack in his hand. And then he dropped it on the ground and moved stealthily away from the action, around to the west side of the mansion, where the gaping holes in Alex’s room were.