“Who’s there?” he whispered sharply.
Lani held her breath. And then, because she was not a coward like her father, she stepped out from behind the tree into the shadows.
“Claire?” Senior Governor Haluki said uncertainly.
Fingering her weapon, the metal growing hot in her fingers, Lani stepped closer, her rage increasing. “No, Father,” she spat. “It’s me. Or have you forgotten me, like all the others conveniently forget their children?” A tiny sob caught in her throat as she twisted her arm behind her expertly, just as Samheed had taught her, and prepared to fire.
Governor Haluki sucked in a breath. “Oh, Lani,” he whispered. He glanced over his shoulder in each direction, and then stepped toward his daughter, holding out his hand just as she snapped her wrist and sent the deadly star in flight.
“No! Lani—you don’t understa—,” he cried. The star struck him at an awkward angle. As he fell to the ground, rolling and writhing wildly in pain, his body transformed into an enormous gray wolf. He took off running, tripping, limping, into the night.
The gun lay gleaming on the ground where he had stood.
Simber, with the unconscious, bleeding Alex cradled gently in his enormous jaws, and the captured, now thawed, terrorized Aaron hanging on to Simber’s neck for dear life, nodded to Mr. Today and sped fluidly along the shore, leaped into the air, and flapped his powerful wings. He rose up high enough to clear the great wall and flew in a direct path this time, at his top speed, over the barbed-wire ceiling that covered the land of Quill. Aaron cried desperately in fear all the way, knowing that falling would mean certain death but that hanging on might give him another option, eventually. Mr. Today cruised around the perimeter in the boat, which could magically sense the reefs and rocks in the dark.
As the waves pounded the sides of the craft, the weary man’s eyes filled with grief. He whispered constantly, pulling at his hair. “Not Alex. Please, not him. It can’t happen like this. Marcus, you careless fool! How many more deaths will you be responsible for?”
When he neared Artimé, he slowed and cast the anchor spell. Simber, without either boy now, swooped to within sight in the moonlit evening, and the man climbed nimbly on the cheetah’s back.
“How is he?” Marcus asked in a low voice.
“Still alive,” Simber said. “Yourrr enchantment of the vest may have saved him.”
“And the twin, Aaron?”
Simber roared in frustration. “He scrrreamed and pounded me the whole way. Finally he jumped as we flew overrr the inlet at the shorrre of Arrrtimé. I expect he’ll have drrrowned by now, or been eaten by sharrrks. I left him—it was morrre imporrrtant to get Alex inside. He’s lost a lot of blood.” And indeed the blood had stained Simber’s sandstone mouth and neck, making him look fiercer than ever.
“But we have otherrr trrroubles rrright now. Justine is holding a pistol on Clairrre; Gunnarrr is missing; Florrrence was hit by an out-of-contrrrol vehicle and she’s lopped off at the knees. Octavia is now Septavia—she lost a tentacle, but she’ll rrregenerrrate. Sean and Meghan arrre on the rrroof playing sniperrr.”
“Egads.”
“I’ll say.”
Mr. Today gazed across Artimé, counting the remaining Quillens, and then mused over his spell strengths and capabilities. “There are less than a hundred of them left,” he said. “I think I can stop the remaining ones now on my own. And Quill has seen enough to know we are a strong force to be reckoned with—they’ll think twice about fighting us again, which means our future is safe from further attacks. Yes, my friend, it’s time. You and I both know the only spell that will end this.”
“I hate to do it.”
“It won’t hurt them.”
“That’s exactly why I hate to do it,” growled the cheetah. “Though you might catch Aarrron in it, which would keep him out of our hairrr forrr now.”
Mr. Today patted the cheetah’s smooth neck. “You had your moment of glory in the palace, Sim—you saved Alex. And you’ll have another one soon. In the meantime, Claire will be all right, won’t she?”
“I cerrrtainly hope so.”
“Justine won’t shoot her without me there. She’ll want me to witness it. I’m sure she thinks it’ll be symbolic.” Mr. Today’s voice was bitter.
“I imagine Clairrre knows that too.”
“All right then, it’s settled.”
“Herrre we go, my frrriend.” Simber took a pass along the seashore, from mansion to jungle, as Mr. Today held out his hand over the lawn. Back and forth they flew, Mr. Today keeping his hand out and concentrating very hard to hold the spell on so many people, Simber being very careful to weave just so across the property trying not to miss any of it, as if he were mowing the lawn.
When they had covered all the land up to the entrance to Quill, Mr. Today, barely holding on to the weighty spell, whispered, “Quillitary, take a dive,” and snapped his fingers.
Immediately, and as one body, the remaining mobile Quillitary stopped fighting, turned, and marched their way to the seashore. The Artiméans who had a moment ago been fighting now caught their breath and watched in surprise as the Quillitary stopped and stood in the shallow water.
Simber flew over them.
“Freeze,” Mr. Today said.
The water at the shore froze, trapping all the Quillitary in place, making them furious but oddly cooling off some of the hotheads nicely.