Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(96)
Panther screamed in his face.
Spike was thrilled to have underwater friends nearby, and she spent her days as the great communicator between crab, giant squid, and sea monster. She delivered the squid’s report to Alex that Queen Eagala had indeed ridden the whispering ship straight into the volcano and disappeared, hollering most of the way.
Sometimes Spike helped Issie look for her baby, though the sea monster mostly kept to herself. Every now and then Issie would disappear for several days at a time, but she always returned. No one ever learned where she went—or if they did, they kept silent about it. Kaylee had a pretty good guess, though.
Pan and her children roamed the sea and airspace around the islands. Pan made sure all five of the young dragons had met the people and creatures of Artimé and Karkinos and understood that they were friends.
Thisbe, Fifer, and Seth grew very fond of the young dragons, and quite vociferously wished they would visit more often. The girls especially took to Arabis the orange, who was the calmest among the five, and who even let them ride upon her back as she floated gently in the shallow water.
? ? ? ?
On the morning that Aaron and Kaylee were to depart with the scientists, Alex and Sky sat on the lawn with Samheed and Lani, all of them working on projects of some sort. Samheed ignored everyone as he desperately wrote the last scene of the play he’d been working on so that he could reopen the theater and get the new young students to test it out. It was a daunting task, but Samheed was determined to fulfill his mentor’s dying wishes, and he could think of nothing else.
Sky studied the ship’s logbooks that Kaylee had recovered from the Island of Graves, wondering if there were any clues inside that would help them understand how people from the outside world first came to be here in the Dragon’s Triangle—and if there was any way out. As an added bonus, she learned a lot of strange things about circus people.
Lani was penning a book of her own. “It’s for the library,” she explained, “like Mr. Today’s journals. So one day after we’re all gone, people will know what happened here. And even though I’m writing it down, we have to promise to tell the stories about our battles and adventures and about the way life used to be on the seven islands. We must tell them over and over again,” Lani implored, “so they aren’t forgotten. Maybe if we tell the stories, things won’t ever get as bad as they have been.”
Sky and Alex nodded and promised to communicate them to everyone who would listen, starting with Thisbe and Fifer. Secretly Alex wasn’t worried—he knew the stories would live forever with Aaron. Samheed grunted in agreement, but didn’t look up from his work. Lani watched him, laughing softly. She’d have plenty of time to remind him once he was finished writing his play.
Alex sorted spell components in front of him so he’d have something to give Aaron to magically protect the ship from whatever unknown enemies still lurked in the waters.
Thisbe, who was playing with Fifer and Seth Holiday, saw what Alex was doing and sidled up to him. “Dat?” she asked, bending over and picking up a heart attack component.
“Hmm?” said Alex. He looked up at her, and his eyes widened in fear. “No, no, no! Don’t throw that!” He lunged for her chubby fist, trying to get the component away from her, and she giggled and threw it at him. Wings sprouted from it, and it sailed at Alex, hitting him in the chest. “Aaauuugh!” he cried, shuddering and falling back on the lawn.
Sky gasped. Lani and Samheed looked up from their work. Thisbe came closer, still giggling, to see what Alex was doing, and Lani quickly realized what had happened. She released the spell.
Alex sucked in a ragged breath and opened his eyes, finding Thisbe, Lani, Samheed, and Sky all looking down at him. “Ouch,” he said, clutching his chest with his good hand and giving Thisbe a look. “No more spell components for you!” He coughed weakly and sat up, and quickly grabbed Thisbe when she reached for the sack of scatterclips. “Oh no you don’t.” He snatched it away and looked at his friends. “This kid is dangerous,” he said, shaking his head in wonder. “She didn’t even have to say the verbal component—did you notice that?”
“I sure did.” Lani nodded and scribbled furiously in her notebook.
Sky leaned over her. “What are you writing now?”
“I’m making sure that if we all wind up dead,” said Lani, “people will know it was Thisbe who did it.”
“This is going to be very interesting, raising these two,” Alex muttered. He put all of Aaron’s components into one sack and all the rest into another, and looked around very carefully to make sure he hadn’t left any on the lawn.
? ? ? ?
A short while later, Aaron and Kaylee came out of the mansion, each carrying a few crates. Simber flew them out to load the supplies onto the ship, which was anchored in front of the mansion between Artimé and Karkinos.
When the two returned to shore, Alex got up and took the girls with him to the front of the mansion. Ishibashi, Ito, and Sato emerged from it, having come from their island through the tube and the magical 3-D door, all packed for their first adventure.
Alex looked at their excited faces. “Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes, we are ready,” said Ishibashi. “Thank you again for your hospitality and the use of your ship.”
Ito and Sato smiled. “Thank you,” they repeated.