Island of Legends

“No,” Aaron said, almost embarrassed to think it. But why else? “Did it somehow sense that I am the high priest of Quill?” There in Haluki’s office, it sounded ridiculous. But so did a magical world called Artimé, yet that existed.

Still he wondered. The thought of creatures from other realms obeying his commands was enough to get Aaron’s blood pumping. If he could command creatures like that, it would be so much easier to take over Artimé.

As he worked the chain, his fingers slowed. Aaron bit his lip. It was daylight now. Perhaps . . .

He stood there contemplating for a long moment. And then slowly, with trembling fingers, he worked the chain the other way until it slithered to the floor at his feet. The closet doors popped open, and once again, Aaron stepped inside.

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

After making the rounds once more, checking on the injured and stopping for a meeting with Mr. Appleblossom about how to handle the new children from Warbler, Alex took the tube to the lounge. He waved to Fox and Kitten in the band, stopped to greet Earl, the lounge blackboard, and made his way over to the booth where his friends had gathered.

“Alex!” Lani exclaimed. “I thought you were too cool for this place now.” She grinned. Once jealous that Mr. Today had chosen Alex over her as his successor, Lani, after all she’d been through as a prisoner on Warbler, no longer held any animosity toward Alex about that.

“I think this place is probably too cool for me,” Alex said with a laugh. “I miss this.” He squeezed in next to Sky, who was feeling back to her old self now that she could breathe. She smiled and dropped her eyes as she scooted to make room.

“At least we’re all together again,” Meghan said, and Samheed nodded. Sean and Carina came over and pulled up chairs to join them, and, as it was crowded, Sean tapped the table and the entire booth grew a bit to accommodate them all. He signaled to the lounge server, who in no time brought out a round of creamy orange drinks for everyone.

“How are the injured?” Lani asked Carina.

“Lots of them have been fixed up and sent to their rooms already,” Carina said. She leaned her head back against the seat, tired from a long day in the hospital wing. “Most had scrapes, bruises, that sort of thing. A few deep gashes, a handful of concussions, and some broken bones. But everybody is stable.”

“That’s good to hear,” Lani said.

“Henry’s really developing his skills for medicine,” Carina added. “He’s keeping everybody comfortable and relatively free of pain, which is something we weren’t able to do last time we had a battle, so I think we’re really improving.”

“That would be good,” Samheed said, remembering the fight he once had with his father, when Mr. Appleblossom had come to his aid. His face had ached for days.

“Are you feeling all right, Sky?” Sean asked.

“I’m totally fine,” Sky said. Her bronze cheeks deepened in color. “I just feel kind of stupid about it. I mean, what kind of idiot inhales a rock?”

The group laughed, and Meghan said, “Well, that boulder did explode into a billion pieces right in front of you as you were casting a tuba spell. How could it miss? Well done on that, by the way.”

Alex glanced sidelong at Sky. “You’re casting spells now?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I had the components. Figured I’d try, at least.”

“She did it, too,” Meghan said.

“Third attempt,” Sky added.

Alex smiled. He knew not to say anything—he’d learned a lot about when to shut up from Lani since they’d first found themselves here in Artimé. He knew that Sky had jumbled feelings about whether she belonged in Artimé, and whether she was creative enough to do magic. As much as he and Meghan had tried to explain to her that everybody in the world was creative in their own ways, Sky had kept her distance when it came to embracing the Unwanted status. Not because she didn’t feel worthy, but because she wanted to prove herself valuable without being magical. Which she had, multiple times.

“When the rocks started coming at me, I figured I ought to give it a try before getting crushed to death,” Sky said agreeably. And then she added as a warning, “Don’t get used to it, though. I tried it once, but I didn’t really enjoy it, so I probably won’t be doing that again.”

“You never have to,” Alex said. He sipped his orange cream, and the others fell into a pleasant silence. It was good to be together. “I saw my father today,” he said. “First time since the Purge.”

Meghan frowned. “On purpose? Did he come here?”

“No, I ran into him when I went into Quill to take care of a few things.” He rubbed his sore knuckles. “Aaron, for one. He’s planning on walling over the gate between Artimé and Quill. He’s going back to Justine’s ways, and then some.”

“Fear, fear, fear,” Sean said, his voice angry. “And what about the people who like to go back and forth now? They have to choose one place or the other, permanently?”

Alex shrugged. “Don’t get too worked up. I figure we can blast the wall down anytime we want. It’s not like they’ll notice—nobody in the government ever comes near the gate anymore.”

“Oh,” Sean said. After a moment he chuckled. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Alex sniffed. “That’s why I’m the mage around here.”