Island of Fire

Alex ran up to them as Sean and Meghan dismounted. “How did it go?” Alex asked. “Was it strange?”

“A little,” Meghan said. She had formed a habit of touching the scars on her neck when she spoke. “But we were able to get in pretty close to see the tunnel that I escaped from. And we found a couple more spots where Simber could sense people nearby, only we couldn’t see them.” She glanced at the ship. “Um . . . explain, please?”

Alex grinned. “We made some great progress today. You left this morning before I could tell you that Crow and Sky let me take their thornaments off late last night.” He shook his head. “Sky gave us a ton of information. It’s pretty scary over there, and this is going to be really difficult. Come on—I’m meeting with all the statues. I’ll fill you in.”

Alex, Sean, and Meghan went inside and made their way to the theater via tube while Simber went through the temporary 3-D door that Ms. Octavia had put up for the larger statues. It was an odd assortment in the auditorium. Dozens upon dozens of statues of all sizes had gathered, from the enormous Simber and Florence down to a tiny porcelain kitten the size and color of a bite-size marshmallow. The kitten perched on the shoulder of a somewhat rambunctious rust-colored fox statue carved from driftwood. The fox spent most of his time playing the saxophone in the lounge band. Charlie the gargoyle was there, and even the tiki statue from the third-floor library had somehow arrived despite having no legs to walk on. The grouchy ostrich that Alex and his friends had thrown their first origami dragon at was there as well, looking quite skeptical.

Alex walked to the stage and stood next to the podium, facing them. He put his hands in his pockets and waited.

When all was silent, Alex looked earnestly at the statues. “Thank you for coming,” he said, pulling his hands from his pockets and clasping them together in front of him. “Artimé is in great need of your help, and I’m wondering if any of you are up for a bit of an adventure.”

That evening, Alex gathered his most trusted instructors, friends, and mentors. He expanded the hospital wing slightly so that they all could fit inside, and they met there for the sake of Ms. Morning and Gunnar Haluki, who now had advanced to sitting up in bed.

Alex held up a handful of papers, including the map of Warbler and the books about the islands that he had found but hadn’t yet had a chance to read. He looked at Ms. Morning and Gunnar first. “You know how to restore the world if anything should happen, correct?” he asked. “And are you physically able to do it if something . . . something bad should happen to me?”

“Yes,” Gunnar said solemnly.

“Absolutely,” Ms. Morning said.

Alex smiled. “Good. Here’s a robe,” he said, taking it off

and handing it to Ms. Morning. “You should wear it. If you don’t have a robe and Artimé disappears, you’re sunk.” Ms. Morning nodded and wrapped it around her shoulders, fastening it at her neck.

Alex turned to Simber. “Does anyone in Quill know that Artimé is restored?”

“Not to my knowledge, but I’m surrre it won’t be long beforrre they do.”

“And the girrinos?”

“They’rrre rrready forrr anything and we have additional spies monitorrring the rrroad to Quill.”

“Great.” He looked down at Rufus the squirrelicorn, who stood next to him. “Do you have your team?”

“Ready and waiting, sir.”

Alex smiled at the term. It felt strange to have a warrior like Rufus calling him sir, but he thought it was kind of nice and it made him feel more confident about himself, so he didn’t stop the creature from saying it.

He looked at Meghan, Sean, and Henry. “You guys good?”

They all nodded.

“And you’re sure you want to go?” Alex asked Henry. “Don’t you want to stay here with your dad?”

“I’m going,” Henry said. “I need to rescue my sister. And I can help with the healing spells in case anybody gets hurt. I’m getting really good.”

Alex nodded. “I’ve noticed that. All right.” Then he turned to Sky and Crow. “Can you guys help keep things rolling around here while we’re gone?”

Sky’s eyes narrowed. She glanced at Crow, whose face wore a look of surprise, and then she looked back at Alex. “Oh,” she said. “We thought we were coming with you.”

Alex’s lips parted, and then he glanced at Meghan and Ms. Morning to see their reactions. “You’d be priceless in the way of helping, but I—I didn’t think you’d want to,” he stammered. “What if they see you?”

Sky lifted her chin and folded her arms over her chest. “Then the sight of me will be the last thing they’ll ever see,” she said.

Alex’s heart swished. And he knew, at that very moment, that he wanted Sky on his side of any fight, anytime, anywhere, for as long as he could convince her to stay in Artimé.

And Finally, They’re Off

Before dawn, Alex got up. He loaded up his component vest and filled an extra sack with more components—there was no way he was going to run out, that was for sure. And with him in charge, well, he had responsibilities now.

“I’m going away,” he announced to Clive. Clive, who was still miffed about finding out from other sources what had happened to Artimé, didn’t respond.

“We’re going to try and rescue Samheed and Lani,” Alex said. “They’re captured on another island.” He looked fondly at the growing line of prototypes of the components that he and his friends had created, thinking he’d soon need another shelf to display them all. He glanced over his shoulder and said, “It could be dangerous.”