Island of Fire

Sean reached out and shook Alex’s shoulders. “I’m obviously not explaining this right. Yes, we checked everywhere. They’re gone now. Everyone in the gray shack—all of them are gone. Disappeared. Wiped out.”

Alex gaped. “What?”

“Gone.”

“B-b-but,” Alex sputtered, “why wouldn’t the people inside the gray shack just turn up inside the mansion once Artimé is back? It’s basically the same house, isn’t it?” The Silent girl grabbed his hand and tugged at him.

Sean raised his voice. “They’re not here, Alex! That’s all I know. My sister is not here. I’ve been all through the place.”

“Okay, okay,” Alex said. “I’m worried too, I’m just trying to figure it out, is all. Did you call out for her or the others?”

“Of course I did,” Sean said, annoyed.

“What’s shaking the mansion?” Simber growled.

Sean turned to Simber. “I don’t feel anything shaking.”

Sky stomped her foot and jumped up and down, waving to get their attention. She pointed up the staircase.

“I think you ought to be paying morrre attention to the young woman,” Simber remarked.

The girl started up the stairs, looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was coming. Simber bounded up the stairs after her, with Sean and Alex right behind. As they neared the top of the staircase, they too could feel a bit of a tremble in the floor.

Sean and Sky stopped on the landing, the girl feeling along the wall where the mostly secret hallway was. Sean pressed his ear up against what was an open space to Alex. “It’s behind this wall,” Sean said.

Alex gave Simber a questioning look. Simber’s eyes narrowed. He nodded at Alex, urging him to take the lead.

“There’s a secret hallway here,” Alex said quietly to Sean and Sky. “Simber and I can see it. You guys stay here. If anything weird happens, or if we don’t come back, find Octavia and Florence. They can get in too.”

Sean raised an eyebrow. “Well. I guess I never knew about that.” He seemed a bit put out.

Alex smiled grimly. “Not many people can see it.” He turned to Simber. “Let’s go.”

They entered the mostly secret hallway, leaving Sean and a very startled Silent girl watching them disappear through the wall.

Simber and Alex both glanced to the left at the door to Mr. Today’s private chambers. They caught each other’s eye but didn’t speak. They would have to pay a visit to that room eventually, when things settled down. But now Simber stopped in front of the door across the hallway from it. “Have you everrr been in herrre?”

Alex nodded. “Once. It’s the Museum of Large.” His memory of that visit was foggy after all he’d encountered in the past weeks.

“Can you get in?”

Alex thought hard. “I can . . . if I remember the spell.” He pressed his ear against the door but heard nothing, only feeling the shaking against his cheek. He racked his brains for the spell to get in. It had been so long since he’d been able to do magic, and such a long time since he’d had even a second to think about any spells other than the one to restore the world, that it took him a while to engage that part of his brain. He turned to Simber. “Can you tell what’s going on in there? What if it . . . what if it’s dangerous?”

“That hasn’t stopped you beforrre,” Simber said. He sniffed under the door. “Something’s familiar . . . ,” he said, and then he shook his head. “But the doorrr is magically sealed. I can’t rrreally tell.”

Alex closed his eyes and let his forehead rest against the door, trying to picture his visit to this room with Mr. Today. What was that dratted spell? He mentally ran through all the museum’s items that he could remember in case they offered a clue. The library, the pirate ship, the whale, the gray shack . . .

“The shack,” Alex murmured. He opened his eyes and stared, unseeing, at the door. “Oh, say! The gray shack is in there,” he said, getting excited. “Whoa, wait. Let me think this through. When I was in here before, I remember seeing the gray shack, only it was behind this really awesome whale skeleton, and I didn’t go over to look at it. Do you think . . . ,” he said, and then he paused and started again. “Do you think that when Artimé disappears, all that remains on the plot of land is the gray shack, and that when Artimé exists, the shack automatically stores itself in this room?”

“What I think is that you should open the doorrr,” Simber said dryly, but he looked relieved at Alex’s revelation. “The shaking is prrrobably a few dozen angrrry Unwanteds jumping up and down in therrre, trrrying to get ourrr attention.”

“Probably. Phew,” Alex said. And now that the pressure was off him, the spell filtered into his brain. “Ah, that’s right. I’ve got it.” He reached for the handle and muttered, “Door number one.”

When the door popped open, the sounds of fifty or more screaming Unwanteds pierced Alex’s ears, but none of them were jumping. Instead they ran about hysterically, being chased by an enormous mastodon statue, whose thunderous steps were doing all the shaking.

Alex and Simber stared at the scene, and then Alex gasped and pointed. The Silent boy, Crow, hung precariously thirty feet above the floor from one of the mastodon’s gleaming tusks.

Ol’ Tater

Alex and Simber charged into the room and assessed the situation at top speed. “Buckets of crud! When I brought the world back to life, I think it woke up this guy,” Alex yelled over the din. think ? Hey! Ol’ Taterrr!” Simber roared to get the statue’s attention, and then he turned back to Alex. “I thought Marrrcus got rrrid of him yearrrs ago.”