Half Over
When Alex made it back to the glass cage, he found Carina and Sean struggling with the door mechanism, trying in vain to make it do something. Sean cast one spell after another at it, but nothing worked.
Alex went straight up to the glass and began pounding again, hoping to get Spike’s attention. Spike turned to look and swam over to Alex.
“We’re going to smash the glass!” Alex said, trying not to use up too much air. He pointed to the south side of the cage. “That wall. Move away! Tell them.” Alex pointed to the other trapped creatures.
The whale looked startled for a moment, and then she went up to the long-necked sea monster and seemed to converse with it. The sea monster moved to the north side of the cage. Then Spike approached the giant squid. After a bit of hesitation, the squid looked at Alex and shot to the opposite corner from where he’d been, nursing his injured limb.
Then Spike pushed Ms. Octavia’s floating body to the back corner as well, near the squid. The Octagator seemed to move a tentacle or two, Alex thought, but he wasn’t sure. The squid reached out and cradled Ms. Octavia with one tentacle to keep her from floating away. Alex pointed out the act of kindness to Carina, who gave a sweet, crooked smile at the sight of it.
Then Spike swam to the bottom of the cage and began poking Florence’s shoulder with her spike, trying to tell the statue to move. Alex watched.
The whale poked Florence again and again, but Florence didn’t budge.
Alex pounded on the glass. “Tell her Simber is coming!” If anything would do it, it would be that, he was sure.
The whale seemed to understand, and just as Alex caught sight of Simber torpedoing through the water toward them, he thought he saw Florence open one eye. But he couldn’t be certain.
“Look out!” Alex yelled, not sure how far his words would carry in the depths of this watery world. But Sean and Carina heard, and so did the whale. Sean, Carina, and Alex pushed away from the glass as fast as they could, and everyone inside flattened against the north wall. When the squid saw what was coming toward him, he wrapped his enormous body around all his strange-looking prison mates, shielding them just in time.
Simber hit the glass at full speed and broke through. The impact shook the entire underwater island—it was like an explosion. Alex covered his face as giant chunks of glass flew in slow motion through the water and Simber came to rest on the floor of the cage, like a perfect fire-breathing origami dragon coming in for a landing. Sean and Carina closed in, waiting for the debris to stop flying. Alex joined them.
Inside the reverse aquarium, there was a sudden flurry of movement, enough to make Alex look over. There, pirates began running about, pounding on the walls, trying to pull the seats out so they might secure themselves. At first, Alex didn’t understand what they were doing, but then he realized that they thought the tremor was a signal from the volcano that it was about to move again. When no seats dropped into place, chaos broke out. People began running every which way, trying to find a place to strap themselves in for the ride, but to no avail.
It was during this that Alex saw the tiniest movement from within the glass island. A little white dot, jumping up and down, waving her little paws. Alex could see her pink tongue as she no doubt cried out, “Mewmewmew!”
Alex poked Sean with his elbow. “Kitten,” he mouthed.
They watched as Kitten ran away from them, straight toward the fishing hatch.
Alex looked at Simber, who had gotten to his feet by now, though slowly.
“Okay! Get sea creatures out,” Alex mimed. “I go help Kitten.”
Sean and Carina nodded. They went around to the hole and inside the cage. Sean darted up, grabbed Ms. Octavia, and headed to the surface, while Carina spoke to Spike the way Alex had, telling Spike to tell the sea monster and the giant squid and the other creatures to escape. While Alex swam toward the fishing hatch, the sea monster and squid darted out at Spike’s urging and headed west. The last thing Alex saw was Carina, hopping onto Spike’s back and riding toward the sky.
Alex rounded the glass island, running too low on oxygen, he could tell. His lungs burned. His eyesight dimmed. He pressed the door to the fishing hatch, and when it slid open, he moved into the box of water, then pressed the second button and fell into the island, gasping for breath. There was so much chaos inside, nobody even noticed him.
Except Kitten, of course. “Mewmewmew!” she cried. “Mewmewmew!”
Alex didn’t have a clue what she was saying. “Show me,” he said when he could catch his breath.
Kitten pranced through the chaos with a soaking-wet Alex on her heels. He dodged and weaved, keeping his arm near his face so he wouldn’t be noticed. An alarm sounded, and pirates everywhere were becoming hysterical trying to find safety seats before their sickening ride upward. If Alex hadn’t been so overwhelmed with everything else, he might have thought this was the most inconvenient and annoying island he’d ever seen. He never wanted to see it again.
Kitten darted down the spiral staircase, jumping from one step to the next, and raced up a hallway past a few panicked people wearing the brown uniforms of slaves. Kitten stopped at a door. “Mewmewmew!” she cried, throwing herself at it.
Alex grabbed the handle and pushed open the door. He nearly fell inside when he saw the scene before him.
Fear Replanted
It didn’t take long for Aaron and his new governors to make up a variety of atrocities to pin on the unsuspecting people of Artimé, painting them as a looming threat to the people of Quill. Aaron worked and reworked his speech, knowing he needed to be alarming yet appear totally in control, and also instill trust in his new team of leaders so that when Aaron wasn’t around, the Quillens would listen to the governors.