The Guardians of Island X

by Rachelle Delaney

  “Shivers!” Scarlet tried to imagine it. Then she started as another thought came to mind. “What if Lucas decides to join him? He’s got the map!”

  “My thoughts exactly,” said her father. “He’s just the type to—”

  Voodoo Miranda poked her head into the kitchen. “Hungry yet?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at Scarlet.

  “Oh no!” Scarlet said. “I’m full.” She patted her stomach, which proceeded to growl.

  “Just as I thought,” Miranda insisted, sweeping through the door. The striped viper was still nestled in her hair, but the snake on her wrist was nowhere to be seen. Scarlet glanced around nervously. “Baked them last week.” Miranda grabbed a plate piled high with small gray lumps off the counter and thrust them at Scarlet.

  “Oh, I couldn’t—”

  “Try them!” Miranda pushed the plate toward her.

  Scarlet snatched up a gray lump and took a nibble. It tasted salty and a bit like the hardtack the Lost Souls used to eat on board the Hop. But there was something else…some flavor she couldn’t quite put her finger on. “Um…what kind of cookies are they?”

  Miranda wiggled her eyebrows. “I call them ‘rodent surprises.’ The snakes love them.”

  Scarlet’s mouth fell open and she looked down at her half-eaten cookie. Sure enough, she could make out the tip of a tiny, hairless tail sticking out. She gagged and sputtered. Miranda was watching her closely, as was the viper in Miranda’s hair. It took all her willpower to swallow.

  “It’s good,” Scarlet told them weakly.

  Miranda straightened and gave her a crooked smile. “I know,” she said, and slipped back out the door.

  Scarlet swallowed hard again and turned back to her father. “Look, I can’t stay much longer. I’ve got to get back to my crew, especially now that I know about this captain. We’ll need another plan now to protect the island.” She stood and pushed back her chair.

  The admiral checked his pocket watch. “Wait,” he said. “There’s one more thing I have to tell you.”

  “About the captain?”

  “Well, no. This is…something different.”

  Scarlet sat back down and watched him fiddle with his cap again. A pit began to grow in her stomach. Could there be even worse news?

  “Your uncle Daniel is coming for a visit. From the Old World.”

  Scarlet cocked her head to the side. “My what?”

  “Your uncle Daniel,” he repeated. “My older brother. You’ve never met him.”

  “Oh,” Scarlet said, wondering what the flotsam this had to do with her.

  “He won’t be staying long. Three weeks at most, and he’ll be bringing his daughter, who’s your age. Her name is Josephine.”

  Oh. Scarlet stayed quiet, hoping this wasn’t leading where she suspected it might be.

  “Daniel is a very high-ranking King’s Man. In fact, he’s a deputy advisor to King Aberhard himself.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” said Scarlet.

  “When we moved away from the Island after the fever, he used his power to get me a position again. They would have never taken me back otherwise.”

  “Because God forbid you’d gone off and married an Islander,” Scarlet finished, rolling her eyes. She despised the King’s Men and all their Old World ideas.

  The admiral paused. “Daniel means well,” he said carefully. “He doesn’t understand the tropics. He’s only ever advised from afar. But he’s my brother, and he’s always taken care of me. So when you disappeared, I…I didn’t tell him. I knew he’d be on the first ship over to search for you. It would have turned my family upside-down.”

  This only went to prove Scarlet’s theory that grown-ups made no sense. If you couldn’t call them for help because they’ll only make more trouble, what good are they? But she stayed quiet, the pit in her stomach growing bigger.

  “The point is, I need you to stay in port with me,” he finished.

  Scarlet’s mouth fell open. “You want…what?”

  The admiral nodded. “It’ll be about three weeks. A deputy advisor couldn’t be away from the king for any longer than a few months.”

  “Three weeks?” Scarlet couldn’t believe her ears. “Father, you’ve got to be joking! I can’t leave the island for three weeks.”

  The admiral frowned. “Believe me, Scarlet, I’ve thought this through. We have no choice here. I cannot have my brother finding out that you live by yourself on another island. He wouldn’t understand.”

  “But—”

  “And what’s more, it could be dangerous. Daniel’s loyalty lies first and foremost with the king, and if he were to find out about Island X and its treasure—the very treasure King Aberhard is looking for—I’d hate to think what he’d have to do.”

  Scarlet swallowed hard. “Can’t you tell him I’m at boarding school?”

  Her father shook his head. “He’d insist we go visit you. Trust me, Scarlet, there is no way around this.”

  Scarlet fought the rising panic in her throat by swallowing hard. “When are they coming?”

  “Their ship docks tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” she cried. “You’ve got to be joking! My crew—”

  “Will survive without you for three weeks,” he finished. “They’re smart and strong and nothing will go wrong in your absence.”

  “But—”

  “Scarlet.” This time his voice was heavy, and she knew there was no use arguing any more. “Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do. Sometimes that’s what having a family is all about.”

  And that just absolutely scuttled.