Island of Fire

Samheed tapped his hand lightly on the railing and nodded, feeling awkward now, unsure what else to say. And thinking it was strange that Rufus called Alex a mage. Even though they all were mages, the Unwanteds tended to reserve that term for Mr. Today as a sign of respect. But maybe creatures thought about the word differently. The squirrelicorns turned back to their conversation, giving Samheed the excuse he needed to walk back to the bow and stare toward home.

After a while, Meghan joined him. She slipped her arm around his waist in a side hug and brought his arm up to hug her shoulders. They didn’t need words to transmit what they were feeling. After a while Samheed turned to look at her face. He smiled, and she smiled back, and then he looked more closely at her. “They didn’t get your eyes,” he said.

“No. Thanks to Lani.”

“She never mentioned it.”

“Of course not.” Meghan gazed over the water, a wry grin on her face. “Wait—how could she have mentioned it?”

“We—” He began to tell her about their secret tapping language in the cave, but then he stopped. “They were teaching us the sign language,” he said, not looking at her.

“Ah,” Meghan said. “Well, the way it happened was that you were on the table. They’d just put my thorns in, and Lani managed to cause a commotion and scatterclip somebody to the wall so I could run for it.”

Samheed swallowed hard. “She’s pretty amazing,” he said, trying not to betray his feelings. He had to put them away now, he knew.

“I’ve always thought so,” Meghan said. “But you didn’t.” She leaned into him. “Sounds like you gave her a chance.”

Samheed started to protest. “I’ve always thought—”

“No, you haven’t.” Meghan’s soft laugh rang out over the water.

“Yeah, okay. You’re right.” Samheed squeezed his fist in his pocket. “But I respect her now. She’s the only thing that . . . kept me . . .” He trailed off, reprimanding himself.

Meghan raised an eyebrow at his heartfelt admission. It wasn’t like him to speak so openly. He seemed so different now. But people change when circumstances change, she knew that well enough from the aftereffects of the Purge. She didn’t say anything.

They stood for a long moment.

“So then you escaped,” Samheed said, going back to their conversation.

It took Meghan a second. “Yes. There was a huge group of Warblerans coming, but I ducked out just in time and managed to find my way out the south hole by the lagoon. There weren’t many others roaming the tunnels.”

“Probably all working,” Samheed mused.

Meghan shrugged. “I made a mad dash for the beach, and zigzagged so no darts hit me—I don’t think they expected anyone to approach from that direction. It was pretty miraculous, actually, that I got out of there.”

“I’ll say.”

“So I swam back to the white boat, but I was bleeding a lot, and so exhausted. Nobody came after me.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand why.”

“They’re not allowed to go into the water,” Samheed said. “That’s why they didn’t follow us to the ship earlier. The queen doesn’t want anyone to learn how to swim. She wants them to fear the water so they don’t dare to escape.” He paused. “That’s what I heard, anyway.”

A heavy sigh escaped Meghan’s lips. “Wow.”

“So, ah, then what?” Samheed glanced at her, growing fidgety as his troubled soul began to bubble. “You . . . what? You drove the boat to Artimé and they threw you a monthlong party or something?” He cringed and shook his head, cursing himself under his breath. “Aw, cripes. I’m sorry. That was totally—”

“It’s okay,” Meghan said softly. “Really. I understand how you must have felt.”

Her words struck him like a slap to the face. He wanted to laugh. “Um, no. I don’t think you do,” Samheed said, unable to keep the bitterness from rushing out. He pulled his arm off her shoulders and let it drop to the railing, bouncing his fist on it a few times. And then he turned his head to face her, his lost eyes searching hers. “Is anybody ever going to explain what took so stupid, blasted long?”

Meghan looked at him, her expression unreadable, and pulled her arm from his waist. She put her elbows on the railing, taking care to put space between them. She tapped her lips, eyes narrowed, reminding herself that they knew nothing, and that this was going to be hard. She wanted to yell, but in an even voice, she continued, pretending like he hadn’t just been a total jerk. “When I got to the boat, I was too weak to climb in, so I hung on to the ladder.”

Samheed shuffled his feet and said nothing.

“I don’t know how many hours passed,” she continued. “Eight? Ten? I was delirious and freezing and bleeding, and nobody knew we were gone. They were all busy with preparations for Mr. Today to go on holiday.” She sniffed, but didn’t cry. “Amazingly enough, when they saw the boat was missing, Alex managed to figure out from our comments earlier in the day that we were going on an adventure and we’d taken the boat. He and Simber began searching. Finally they saw it in the Warbler lagoon.”

Samheed gazed out over the water, unblinking.

“So Simber dropped Alex into the empty boat and went flying over the island looking for us. It took Alex a while to notice me. I couldn’t speak. I managed to make a splash, I guess—I don’t remember that part. Alex heard it and found me clinging to the ladder. He hauled me into the boat. When Simber came back without you guys, they didn’t know what to do, but I was unconscious, and they finally decided they had to get me home before I died.”