“I’ve talked to my mother about taking the thorn necklace off. She’d like you to do it, Alex. If you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Alex didn’t hesitate. He went to Copper’s side and sat down to explain the procedure. Once she nodded her consent, Alex gathered up his concentration and cast the spell, and soon the horrible metal dissipated into the air.
Everyone watched anxiously as Copper tried to speak. It took her some time to get even a bit of her voice back, but it was better than nothing.
“It’ll take a while, but I think you’ll have it eventually,” Sky assured her.
Copper nodded. “Thank you, Alex,” she managed to whisper.
“Yes, thank you, Alex,” Sky echoed. She looked at him.
Alex nodded. “Sure,” he said in a quiet voice, holding her gaze for once. “That’s what I’m here for.” After a minute, he broke the connection and busied himself with other tasks.
Copper relaxed, eager to have everyone take their eyes off her and go back to whatever they usually did after a rescue. Only, her eyes darted every now and then to the spot where the island would surface.
While Sean and Samheed began to assist Ahab with the sails, Alex said, “Lani, tell us what happened to you guys. You must have freaked out when the island sank.”
Lani held her head, remembering. “I thought we could make it. But when the volcano plunged underwater, Henry and Copper and I all went flying. At least I was in the hatch, so I didn’t get battered as much. But Henry hit his head pretty hard.”
“As you can see,” Henry said, proudly pointing to his bandage.
“Yes, it’s terribly serious,” Lani said. She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, we all took a hit.”
“Daxel, too,” Copper whispered.
“Who’s Daxel?” Alex asked.
“He’s the other slave who worked with Copper,” Lani explained. “He wanted to escape with us, but when we didn’t make it out of the hatch, Copper signaled to him to act like he was trying to stop us so he wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“Instead,” Henry said, “he distracted everybody so we could hide on the lower floor.”
“I don’t know how we made it down there,” Copper rasped.
“Daxel saved us,” Henry said.
Lani stood up and began to act out everything that had happened to them. “The island had this sickening drop, and then it jerked and shook for a while. We were falling all over the place, down the stairs and everywhere, trying to get to safety.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t wasted time in the beginning looking at their dumb drawings, you would have made it out in time,” Samheed muttered.
Alex tilted his head. “How did you know she—”
Lani, ignoring Alex, retorted, “Will you stop, already? I’m telling you, it was important.”
“We were there to rescue Copper, not nose around in some stupid ancient book. You put yourselves in danger.”
“It wasn’t a book,” Lani said, jaw clenched.
Alex, Sean, and Carina glanced uneasily at each other. It felt like old times with Lani and Samheed bickering again.
Samheed sighed loudly. “Whatever. Sorry, everyone. Go on with your story.”
Lani lifted her chin. “I’m trying to. Anyway. We were falling all over the place—”
“And I was getting gravely injured,” Henry interjected.
“And yeah, Henry got a little bump on his head. Luckily, only a few people saw us. When we were hiding in that room, I saw two pirates take Daxel away. They didn’t bother to hunt for us. I don’t think they’d realized yet that Henry and I didn’t belong there.”
“And then I kept bleeding and bleeding, and we realized just how very badly hurt we were,” Henry said, milking his injuries for all he was worth.
“Poor boy,” Copper whispered. “Your mother will nurse you back to health when you get home.” She smiled.
Henry dropped his eyes. Everyone was silent. “She died,” he said at last. “I’m stuck with her.” He pointed with his thumb at Lani. Alex and Samheed hid their grins.
“Oh—I’m sorry. About your mother, I mean.”
“It’s okay, Copper. You didn’t know,” Lani said. “Lots of us don’t really have parents. It’s different from Warbler in that way, I suppose.” She reached over and patted Henry’s hand, and then put an arm around her brother and looked at him. “I guess you are hurt pretty bad,” she conceded.
A small smile tugged at Henry’s lips. “Yes. I might need some extra snacks to make me feel better.”
Carina leaned over and opened a crate next to her. She pulled out a basket of treats and handed it to Henry. “That about right?” she asked him.
Henry pawed through the basket in delight. “I think this might work,” he agreed.
Across from them, Sky smiled and reached out to hug her mother, silently grateful she had hers back.
“What happened next?” asked Carina. “Come on. We’re anxious over here.”
“We sent Kitten to explore,” Henry said, “and hung out in that slave room until she brought Alex back. Good work, Kitten!”
Kitten emerged from Crow’s pocket, her eyes sleepy. She smiled and arched her back. “Mewmewmew!”
Fox opened his mouth and took a breath, and then glanced at Simber. He closed his mouth again and pointed his nose at the deck.