by Lisa McMann
When Spike heard the noises from the ship, she got scared, but then she saw that the people on board were smiling and cheering. Spike smiled back and cheered with them as two creatures of the air picked up the Alex from her tail and brought him to the ship.
“Thank you, Spike! You saved Alex!” said the girl with short fur who had been near the cage with the boy.
Spike bobbed in the water, tail and snout sticking up. She liked the girl with short fur. The whale ducked her head underwater to fill her blowhole so she could speak, and repeated, “Thank you, Spike!” And for some reason, just like when she had spoken to the sea monster and the squid and the dead stone woman, it didn’t seem strange.
“Oh, you can talk,” said the girl. “How excellent. I am Carina. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Of course I can,” Spike said. She blew, and water shot up, hitting the Carina in the face.
Carina laughed and wiped her eyes. “Lovely! Alex did an excellent job with you.”
Spike nodded, somehow knowing this to be true, but not knowing quite how she’d learned of it. She submerged once more. “Where is the Alex?”
“He’s here on the deck, coughing up a lungful of water—do you hear him? But he’ll be okay, I think, because you rescued him in time.”
“It is always good to be in time,” Spike said, as if it just occurred to her. She was learning new things every minute.
“Indeed it is.” Carina glanced out to sea, a worried look on her face. “I’m wondering if you can do me a favor while we wait for Alex to feel better.”
“Oh,” Spike said, and she closed her eyes as a wave of . . . something . . . passed over her. “You want me to check on the monster with wings.” Again, Spike had no idea how she knew what Carina wanted, but the knowledge was there. She could feel it, anticipate it. “And the dead stone woman.”
“Yes, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“It is not.” Spike dove down and barreled through the water like a bullet in the direction of the cage. There was no sign of the eel, she thought with smug satisfaction.
» » « «
On board the ship, Alex felt like he might never stop coughing. As soon as he was able, and despite the outcry of those surrounding him, Alex got to his feet and stumbled over to the side of the ship. “Where’s Simber?” he demanded. “Has anyone seen him?”
For Alex, this scene was all too horribly familiar. Simber, lost underwater again. It was unnerving.
“Spike is checking on them,” Carina said, joining Alex at the railing. “Our whale friend is quite intelligent and seems extra intuitive. She guessed what I was about to ask her.”
Alex looked at Carina. “She spoke to you?”
“Yes—didn’t you make her that way?”
“I did, yes,” Alex said, a grin spreading over his face. “I made her to be able to communicate with all humans and creatures. But I didn’t think it would actually work.”
“She seemed to have no trouble speaking to that long-necked sea monster and the squid, and definitely no problems talking to me. That’s a lot already. She calls you ‘the Alex.’ It’s very cute,” Carina teased. “As if you are your own breed.”
Alex smiled and shook his head a little, lost in thought. “Can you believe it? I actually made a creature and brought her to life,” he murmured. “That’s crazy.”
“And she’s fully devoted to you. I don’t know what she did to scare that eel off, because when I saw that slimy evil thing pop out of the water and grab you, I thought it was all over. But then she was right there, jumping through the air, chasing after you, her body shining and her spike sparkling in the sun—she’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, Alex.”
Alex, a bit overwhelmed by Spike and still worried about Simber and Florence, couldn’t think of anything to say. And then he whirled around, remembering. “How’s Ms. Octavia? Is she okay?”
“She’s resting belowdecks, but we think she’ll be okay once her body has time to reshape and heal. The eel squished her pretty hard. Luckily, she’s flexible. She’ll bounce back.” Carina began updates on everyone else. “Copper and Henry have wounds we can treat. Lani’s already up and about.” Carina pointed to Lani, who was poring over a wrinkled paper and apparently having a terse discussion with Samheed. Carina gazed out over the sea once more. “It’s Florence I’m worried about.”
Alex nodded. “Me too. If I had any energy left, I’d go down there myself. But I’m afraid I’ve reached my limit on sea breathing for the day, and I’d only have to be rescued again.”
“None of us, including Simber, would want you to attempt it at this point.”
They stood side by side, not talking. After a while, Sean joined them, and then Samheed came over, leaving Lani alone with her precious paper. They stood in stoic silence: hungry, exhausted, aching. Waiting. Hoping that soon all the questions that plagued them would be answered.
» » « «
When they saw the water rippling in a line toward the ship, they thought at first it was yet another sea creature. But soon they could see the ripples were coming from the tip of a sparkling spike, as well as from two enormous feet sticking slightly out of the water.
“It’s Florence!” Carina cried. “Spike’s got her, see?” She pointed as the whale moved toward them uncharacteristically slowly, yet steadily. Behind them, in an explosion of water, Simber appeared, his wings flapping wildly as soon as they hit the air, bringing him up and out of the water.
“Simber!” Alex shouted.
The enormous stone cheetah shook in midair, trying to rid itself of the horrid droplets, and he roared when the spectators laughed at the sight.
But the laughs died away when Spike and Florence approached. Spike sidled up to the ship with Florence, who was lying on Spike’s back just under the surface. Everyone leaned over to get a look at her. Simber, still trying to rid himself of the water, flew over and joined them.
Alex looked at Florence. Her face was serene, arms folded over her stomach, eyes closed. She even had thin ebony eyelashes—Alex hadn’t noticed them before. He bit his lip and looked up at Simber. “Is she . . . Is she dead?”
Simber’s mouth opened, and then it closed. He looked away.
A wave of cold fear passed through Alex. He turned back to Florence.
And then Florence sat up on the whale’s back. “HA!” she yelled, scaring everybody half to death.
Everyone screamed in fright. Simber cracked up—figuratively, of course—roaring with laughter. And before their hearts had stopped pounding, Florence grabbed the side of the ship while Simber touched down on the other side to keep balance, and in a rather undignified manner, with a little shove from Spike, the warrior hefted herself over the side of the ship and rolled nicely to the center, then sat up on the edge of the hole she’d made earlier and let her legs dangle through to the deck below. She looked at Alex, who was still gripping his robe, staring at her.
“Now,” she said, grinning, “where did we leave off? And what enormous grunt left this big hole in your deck? How rude.”
As everyone caught their breath and Captain Ahab and the other statues came running over to see Florence, Spike Furious jumped high into the air, unable to overcome her delight in saving the day.
The captain stopped short and stared at Spike, his eyes wide.
Spike blew the water from her spout in glee.
Ahab clutched his jacket. He whispered, “Deceitful eyes, can you deny this scene before me? The splash and spout reveal her . . . but bedecked as such? Bejeweled? Nary a white speck upon her . . .” His face clouded over, and then it cleared. “ ’Tis the elusive beast disguised!” He shook his fist as Spike surfaced and jumped again, trumpeting water from her blowhole high into the air. Ahab ran to the ship’s wheel. “Thar she blows!” he cried. “Thar she blows—the great blue whale!”
The Tale of the Sacrifice
When the crew had calmed Captain Ahab enough that he was merely shaking his fist an
d muttering at the whale whenever she surfaced and preparing the ship to sail once more, Alex called everybody together. As on their last journey, the injured were triaged in one area, and even Ms. Octavia had managed to make it back up to the main deck, looking as wrung out as a tattered dishcloth but happy to see everyone alive all the same, most especially Florence.
After they had all greeted one another, Alex called everyone to order to introduce Copper. It was clear the woman was Sky’s mother—not just because of the orange eyes or the thorny necklace she wore, but because Copper looked like an older version of Sky, only with darker hair and lighter skin.
“I’ve talked to my mother about taking the thorn necklace off. She’d like you to do it, Alex. If you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Alex didn’t hesitate. He went to Copper’s side and sat down to explain the procedure. Once she nodded her consent, Alex gathered up his concentration and cast the spell, and soon the horrible metal dissipated into the air.
Everyone watched anxiously as Copper tried to speak. It took her some time to get even a bit of her voice back, but it was better than nothing.
“It’ll take a while, but I think you’ll have it eventually,” Sky assured her.
Copper nodded. “Thank you, Alex,” she managed to whisper.
“Yes, thank you, Alex,” Sky echoed. She looked at him.
Alex nodded. “Sure,” he said in a quiet voice, holding her gaze for once. “That’s what I’m here for.” After a minute, he broke the connection and busied himself with other tasks.
Copper relaxed, eager to have everyone take their eyes off her and go back to whatever they usually did after a rescue. Only, her eyes darted every now and then to the spot where the island would surface.
While Sean and Samheed began to assist Ahab with the sails, Alex said, “Lani, tell us what happened to you guys. You must have freaked out when the island sank.”
Lani held her head, remembering. “I thought we could make it. But when the volcano plunged underwater, Henry and Copper and I all went flying. At least I was in the hatch, so I didn’t get battered as much. But Henry hit his head pretty hard.”
“As you can see,” Henry said, proudly pointing to his bandage.
“Yes, it’s terribly serious,” Lani said. She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, we all took a hit.”
“Daxel, too,” Copper whispered.
“Who’s Daxel?” Alex asked.
“He’s the other slave who worked with Copper,” Lani explained. “He wanted to escape with us, but when we didn’t make it out of the hatch, Copper signaled to him to act like he was trying to stop us so he wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“Instead,” Henry said, “he distracted everybody so we could hide on the lower floor.”
“I don’t know how we made it down there,” Copper rasped.
“Daxel saved us,” Henry said.
Lani stood up and began to act out everything that had happened to them. “The island had this sickening drop, and then it jerked and shook for a while. We were falling all over the place, down the stairs and everywhere, trying to get to safety.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t wasted time in the beginning looking at their dumb drawings, you would have made it out in time,” Samheed muttered.
Alex tilted his head. “How did you know she—”
Lani, ignoring Alex, retorted, “Will you stop, already? I’m telling you, it was important.”
“We were there to rescue Copper, not nose around in some stupid ancient book. You put yourselves in danger.”
“It wasn’t a book,” Lani said, jaw clenched.
Alex, Sean, and Carina glanced uneasily at each other. It felt like old times with Lani and Samheed bickering again.
Samheed sighed loudly. “Whatever. Sorry, everyone. Go on with your story.”
Lani lifted her chin. “I’m trying to. Anyway. We were falling all over the place—”
“And I was getting gravely injured,” Henry interjected.
“And yeah, Henry got a little bump on his head. Luckily, only a few people saw us. When we were hiding in that room, I saw two pirates take Daxel away. They didn’t bother to hunt for us. I don’t think they’d realized yet that Henry and I didn’t belong there.”
“And then I kept bleeding and bleeding, and we realized just how very badly hurt we were,” Henry said, milking his injuries for all he was worth.
“Poor boy,” Copper whispered. “Your mother will nurse you back to health when you get home.” She smiled.
Henry dropped his eyes. Everyone was silent. “She died,” he said at last. “I’m stuck with her.” He pointed with his thumb at Lani. Alex and Samheed hid their grins.
“Oh—I’m sorry. About your mother, I mean.”
“It’s okay, Copper. You didn’t know,” Lani said. “Lots of us don’t really have parents. It’s different from Warbler in that way, I suppose.” She reached over and patted Henry’s hand, and then put an arm around her brother and looked at him. “I guess you are hurt pretty bad,” she conceded.
A small smile tugged at Henry’s lips. “Yes. I might need some extra snacks to make me feel better.”
Carina leaned over and opened a crate next to her. She pulled out a basket of treats and handed it to Henry. “That about right?” she asked him.
Henry pawed through the basket in delight. “I think this might work,” he agreed.
Across from them, Sky smiled and reached out to hug her mother, silently grateful she had hers back.
“What happened next?” asked Carina. “Come on. We’re anxious over here.”
“We sent Kitten to explore,” Henry said, “and hung out in that slave room until she brought Alex back. Good work, Kitten!”
Kitten emerged from Crow’s pocket, her eyes sleepy. She smiled and arched her back. “Mewmewmew!”
Fox opened his mouth and took a breath, and then glanced at Simber. He closed his mouth again and pointed his nose at the deck.
“Before we go on to hear Florence’s story,” Alex said, “I have an unrelated question.” He noticed they were floating to the west, and that they were precariously close to where Pirate Island would appear when it next chose to surface. He felt strongly about getting out of there in case the pirates decided to come after them. But he didn’t necessarily want to lead the pirates toward Artimé if they did decide to come after them. Still, he knew everyone was tired, and he wanted to see how the Unwanteds were feeling.
When Alex had everyone’s attention, he asked, “Is everyone set on heading home? We’re all present and in relatively good shape—except for Henry, of course, who is near death over there. But I guess I can’t think of anything else to do but head straight back to Artimé.” He lifted his eyebrows innocently. “Can you?”
The thought of doing something else beyond the rescue hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind. They shrugged and looked about. “I guess we should just go home,” Sean said. “In case they need us.” But he sounded a little disappointed.
Lani looked up. “They know how to send a seek spell if they need us. I think we should keep going west.”
Samheed rolled his eyes.
Alex had had quite enough of their obscure argument. “What is going on with you two?”
They both began talking at once, so fast that neither one could be understood.
“Stop!” Alex shouted. “Stop it!”
They became silent.
Alex shook his head at them, his mouth open to speak, but he had no words for their ridiculous behavior. They hadn’t fought like this since their early days in Artimé.
“Ahem, ahem,” came a voice from the bow. “Excuse me, please.”
Alex turned to look, glad for the distraction. It was Fox who had spoken. “What is it, Fox?” Alex asked.
“There is another island. I saw it last night when the sun went down and the moon was rising. I wanted to howl, but as I am a cat, I would never do that.”
“You’rrre not a cat,” Simber said to Fox through
clenched teeth.
Alex knew there was one more island in this direction. He looked up at Simber. “Can you see it?”
“Yes, it’s therrre.”
The fox licked his lips and resisted the urge to pant.
From alongside the ship, Spike said, “That is where the squid went.”
Alex rushed to the railing. “Really? I’ve been wondering about her crushed tentacle.”
Spike looked up. “Oh, hello.” She paused, as if realizing something. “The Alex. You are finished with the coughing.”
Alex grinned and saluted. “Hello again, Spike Furious. Yes. Thank you for saving me.”
Spike considered that for a long moment. “Yes, and thank you as well.” She dove down and circled back. “The other big one went that way too, I think.”
“What about the eel?”
The whale frowned. “The eel moves around. It doesn’t live at the island. But the squid . . .” The whale trailed off, swimming just below the surface. “Oh no.” And then she sped up and jumped into the air, landing with a splash, and with a swish of her tail she was speeding to the west.
Simber sampled the air and stared hard after the whale. “I’m going to follow herrr,” he said. “Something strrrange is happening.”
Alex looked at Simber, who pumped his wings and flew off, following Spike. Fox stood at the bow of the ship, eyes like slits against the wind, and began yipping excitedly. Alex wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was very sure he didn’t want to miss it or go home, especially with two of Artimé’s finest creatures heading in the exact opposite direction.
“Captain,” Alex said with a decisive air, “follow that whale.”
The Tale of the Statue
Captain Ahab couldn’t have been happier to take off after a whale. Sean helped the captain adjust the sails, and soon the pirate ship was sailing at a brisk clip, following Simber and Spike. After a time, Simber slowed and waited for the ship to catch up.