Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(79)
Alex pulled his sword and ran toward Captain Baldhead, but a dozen pirates jumped in the way. Determined, Alex vowed to fight his way to the captain or die trying. He swung blindly with all his might, felling one after another, but there was always one more to take his place.
Meanwhile Daxel lifted his finger to his lips, and at first Copper thought he was asking her to be quiet, but then she realized it was a signal. Forty or fifty pirate slaves threw off their jackets and ripped open their shirt collars, revealing their thornaments. And then several dozen Warblerans removed golden Warbler bird emblems from their shirts and tossed them to the ground, and pulled colorful ribbons from their pockets and put them around their necks, distinguishing themselves from the rest of the Warblerans. Copper watched as one of them signed to her.
“The Warblerans with ribbons are fighting with Artimé!” she cried out. “They’re fighting for their children!”
Sky’s heart surged as she joined ranks with nearly a hundred orange-eyed people from both islands. She pulled out her sword, hoping the extra help was enough to give Artimé a chance.
And now, with all the pirate ships seemingly emptied, Simber flew out to Artimé’s ship to transport Sean, Ms. Octavia, and the others to shore to help in the fight, leaving the ship unprotected, but having no other choice—they needed all the help they could get on land.
Artimé surged, their numbers nearly doubled by the turn of events. But they were still vastly outnumbered, and the pirates and Warblerans fighting against them were bigger, stronger, and had more training for this kind of battle than the Artiméans. The magical land began to falter again.
In the intensity of the battle, no one noticed the eel lifting its head up out of the water and assessing the potential damage it could do on land.
And nobody noticed the other enormous sea creature coming toward Artimé at a fast clip.
It was only when Lani heard a familiar shout that she glanced up. Others around her turned as well, and their mouths dropped open. Many of them gasped. The pirates fighting them stopped and stared, leading still others to look out to the water. And soon the entire lawn of pirates, Warblerans, and Artiméans focused all of their attention on the strange sight in the lagoon.
First came Spike the whale. Sitting on her back was Henry Haluki, shouting, his hands raised in a triumphant pose. On one side of Spike was a giant squid, and on the other was a sea monster. And together the three of them were leading a very large, very alive giant crab island named Karkinos, which gave home to a strange assortment of armed inhabitants standing all along the edge of his shell, waiting to come charging ashore.
Florence nearly dropped her sword at the sight of them. But then she saw a familiar, sinister ripple under the water and cried, “Wait! Look out!”
Some Very Special Guests
Captain Baldhead ordered his pirates to return to fighting, and as the Artiméans continued their battle on land, the eel slithered around Issie the sea monster and yanked her under the water.
Karkinos whirled around, his claws clacking furiously as the giant squid dove for cover underneath him. A second later the crab’s pincer connected with the eel. He lifted it up out of the water and shook it until it let go of Issie, and then Karkinos clipped the eel in half. Both ends slithered all the way into Karkinos’s gaping mouth and disappeared.
The inhabitants of the Island of Legends cheered and rushed down the crab’s reeflike claws all the way to the shore of Artimé. They didn’t wait for orders. Henry, Talon, Lhasa the snow lion, Bock the golden-horned deer, and the blurry, smelly hibagon all began fighting in very special and unique ways.
Henry noted that all the Artiméans were strangely fighting with nonmagical weapons, and he soon figured out that they must have run out of components. He had gobs of deadly spell components left in the crate on Spike’s back, having used none of them on his journey. He ran ashore with them and handed them out to the spell casters as quickly as he could, and then at Carina’s urging, he went inside the mansion to see how he could help in the hospital ward.
Talon the bronze giant made fists and began punching pirates in the face and throwing their shields into the sea. Their weapons had little effect on him, though the clanging was a bit hard on everyone’s ears.
Lhasa showed a vicious side of her no one had ever seen before, and she bared her teeth and began biting pirates in the bum very hard at every turn, and dodging their swipes at her. Bock used his golden horns to ram into the enemy fighters, sending them flying through the air quite precisely in front of Karkinos, who crushed them soundly with his claws.
The hibagon, who was extremely nervous but wanting to help, went over to blend in near the rock, and the mere odor of his presence made pirates run away from the hidden Warbler children just to get some distance from the rotten stench . . . except for one unfortunate pirate who made the mistake of looking at the hibagon for a little too long, and fell in love.
Issie the sea monster lumbered onto land, swinging her tail and knocking pirates down, and yowling her familiar noise, demanding the pirates give back her missing baby. Ms. Octavia jumped on the opportunity to follow in her wake, casting lethal spells on the fallen pirates to keep them down permanently.
Even Vido the golden rooster left his perch and fluttered around the pirates’ heads just out of reach. He uttered disconcerting prophecies and made-up proverbs, like “Those who follow Captain Baldhead lose much more than just their hair.” At the end of the phrase he drew the tip of his wing across his neck, cutthroat style. Another favorite he recited was “A stitch in time saves NOBODY—YOU WILL ALL DIE! TRUST ME I KNOW!” which made no sense at all but still managed to unnerve several pirates and completely throw the most superstitious of them off their game.