“What is going on here?” Liam asked under his breath. “I’m not quite sure I understand . . . you.”
Eva tilted her head and opened the door to the palace. “Hmm?” she said. “Whatever do you mean?”
The Team
Once the ship had sailed and everyone had stowed their things, Alex gathered them on deck. “Do any of you know what ‘sports’ are?” he asked.
Lani, who had been studying a wrinkled piece of paper, folded it quickly and put it in her pocket, then lifted her hand in the air, along with a few others. “I read about it. It’s kind of like having a battle. Everybody on your side has a job to do, and if everybody does their thing right, you can win against the other team. People do it for fun. I don’t get why you’d want to have a battle just for the fun of it, but whatever.”
Samheed and Carina Holiday exchanged a grin. They both loved a good battle and would probably choose to do it for fun every day if they could.
“I saw that,” Lani said.
“Anyway,” Alex interrupted, “that’s the kind of mission this is. Those of us who have been training with Ms. Octavia will have certain parts to play in the rescue, and everyone else will have different roles. If we do it right, it’ll work perfectly and no one will even notice we’ve stolen Sky and Crow’s mother away. That’s what we’re going for. A rescue without a fight.”
Carina looked disappointed. She was still a bit mad about the last battle on Warbler, where she and Sean had been knocked out at the very beginning by sleep darts.
Alex continued laying out the plan. “Ideally, it’ll be simple,” he said. “We’ll wait for Sky and Crow’s mother by the skylight. Her name is Copper, by the way, which is also the same color as her hair, so that will help you identify her.” Alex glanced at Sky to make sure he’d gotten the details correct.
Sky nodded. “Her hair is long and a little bit lighter than mine,” she said. “She wears scarves over it, or at least she did. And she has the golden-orange eyes and thorn necklace as well.”
“Sounds like she’s not hard to miss,” Sean said. “Right, Crow?” He’d taken quite a liking to the quiet Warbler boy.
Crow nodded. “She’s beautiful,” he said.
Carina’s hand flitted to her mouth and her eyes glistened. “It’s settled, then,” she declared, patting the boy on the knee. “We shall save her.” Carina had a young son of her own and was no doubt thinking of him. She gave Sky’s shoulders a squeeze.
“Once we’ve spotted her and alerted her to our presence, we’ll communicate a time for her to sneak out the fishing hatch, and we’ll take her from there. And if she’s unable to access that hatch or too afraid because she can’t swim, we’ll have her return to the spot by the skylight. Florence can smash in the window, and we’ll lower a rope and pull her out that way.”
Samheed yawned. “Sounds easy enough. You probably won’t even need us.”
“Well, that’s where phase two comes in.”
Carina perked up her ears. “Phase two? I’m listening.”
“Remember the animals? The sea creatures caged underwater on the other side of the reverse aquarium? Some of us saw them the first time we were there.”
Sky, Crow, Simber, and Carina nodded.
“Are we going to set them free?” Crow asked, excited.
Alex grinned. “Yes. At least we’ll try. They shouldn’t be trapped like that. I can’t stop thinking about them.” He also couldn’t stop thinking about Spike, but that was another matter.
“Cool, so we’ll figure out how to release them,” Samheed said. He narrowed his eyes. “Wait. What kind of creatures are we talking about?”
“I’m not sure,” Alex admitted. “We didn’t get a good look.”
“So they could attack us.”
“I suppose they could.”
Henry frowned. “I’m not sure I have any medicine to treat injuries from sea creatures,” he muttered.
Simber glanced at Ms. Octavia. “Can you communicate with waterrr crrreaturrres, Octavia?”
“I’ve never done it before, but I can try,” the art instructor answered. “I won’t know until we get there.”
The team began to buzz with excitement. Alex let them talk it out. He was glad to see their enthusiasm. But Sky’s face wore a look of dismay. Alex studied her, and then walked over and knelt on the deck by her side. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him. “You all seem more excited about saving the creatures than saving my mother.”
Alex touched her arm. “Only because they didn’t know about the creatures. It’s a new development—one I’d only been thinking about recently. They’ve known all along we were going to save your mother. And, I should add, they all volunteered their time to train for this rescue because of you and your mother, not because of sea creatures. They committed to weeks and weeks of intense training—you know more than anyone how hard we’ve worked.” He smiled, remembering the time she’d tried to leave on a raft to rescue her mother on her own before she even knew how to swim. Impulsively he took her hand. “The entire team will be on backup in case something goes wrong with your mother. Believe me, it’s our first priority.”
Sky squeezed his hand. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m just anxious about it. I really am grateful.”