Island of Fog (Book 1) (19 page)

That rang a bell at the back of Hal’s mind. “A wood nymph,” he repeated. “They’re shy creatures, aren’t they? They just sort of hang out in the woods and keep to themselves.”

“Very shy,” Abigail agreed, nodding vigorously. “Almost impossible to find, from what I read. They blend in so well with the woods that ordinary people can’t see them, even though they might be just a few feet away. I seem to remember reading that their smell is masked, too.”

“I don’t smell,” Darcy protested.

A distant crack in the woods reminded them all that the manticore was still out there somewhere. Everyone glanced around nervously.

“I vote we get out of these woods,” Hal said. “We’ve done what we came here to do. Now let’s go home and . . . and see what happens.”

The uncertainty of what lay ahead was almost as tangible as a blast of winter cold air.
Whatever should they do next?
All but Emily had managed a transformation of some kind—exactly the kind of transformation Miss Simone was looking for. A revelation of this magnitude would ensure that Fenton would not be the only family leaving the island that night! But what, then, of Emily? What if Miss Simone refused to let her come with them until she showed a sign of change? Nobody wanted to leave her behind. For that matter, nobody wanted to go anywhere at all until they knew where they were supposed to be going!

Besides,
the fog was lifting
. After a lifetime of fog on the island, Hal for one wanted to wake up to a blue sky the following morning.

On the other hand, if they said nothing and kept their transformations a secret for a bit longer, then Fenton and his parents would be leaving tonight—alone. There seemed to be a bit of a dilemma: either let Fenton go on ahead, or leave Emily behind.

“Or we could make a stand,” Abigail said in a determined voice as they left the woods and marched toward home. They had collected their backpacks but had, for now, decided to remain dressed in their magical clothes.

Just in case.

“What do you mean?” Dewey asked, trailing at the back of the group and giving sideways glances to Fenton, who was slithering through the long grass on his belly, pushing himself along with thin, muscular legs. His black reptilian body looked cold, slick and moist, but in fact was dry and curiously warm, as Hal had found out when Fenton had bumped against him back in the woods.

Abigail turned and walked backward as she spoke. “I mean we should tell everyone who we are,
what
we are, but tell Miss Simone that we’re
not going anywhere unless we all go as a group
. Including Fenton.”

Fenton was the only one of them who refused to change back into his human form. Oddly, Darcy had had no problem at all changing back; she had simply frowned, looked askew for a moment, and solidified. She made it look so easy, Hal thought with a pang of jealousy. But then again, her transformation seemed quite a bit simpler than his own. And since Fenton’s new lizard-like body was not too far removed from Hal’s own, he quietly understood that Fenton might be having some difficulty switching back.

Or perhaps he just preferred to stay as he was. It was hard to tell what was going through Fenton’s mind.

Darcy hung back with Emily and Lauren, while Robbie stayed up front with Hal. Abigail, a few steps ahead, continued walking backward, stumbling once in a while.

“You see,” she said, “earlier I suggested not saying anything at all about what we are. Well, now I think we should tell our parents
everything!
We’ll tell them what we are, and show them too. Then we’ll tell them about blocking the fog-hole, and perhaps they’ll understand that there’s no reason to leave the island anymore. Or, if we have to go, we can all go together. Including Emily. And if Miss Simone doesn’t let Emily go, then we’ll tell her that we’re not going either.”

Robbie rolled his eyes. “You make it sound so easy.”

“It
is
easy,” Abigail exclaimed. She sprouted her wings and buzzed into the air. “Look at us! In our class we have a dragon, an ogre, a faerie, a wood nymph, a centaur, a bird-girl, a gargoyle-lizard kind of thing, and . . . well, whatever Emily is going to turn into next. If we stand united, how can they refuse our demands?”

“Demands!” Robbie scoffed. “All right, so we stand up to Miss Simone. But what about our parents? What if they’re on Miss Simone’s side? Are we going to stand up to them too?”

“I can’t really see that an extra day or two on the island would make a difference to Miss Simone,” Hal said thoughtfully. “Surely she and our parents would agree to wait for Emily to change, since she’s the only one left. It’s just a matter of time.”

“Yes,” Abigail said, “and I’ve
seen
Emily change, at least partially, so I know she’s got it in her.”

Emily shook her head. “I haven’t changed at all, Abigail.”

“You have too! I saw your neck get longer in class one time.”

Hal marveled at how their conversation had so dramatically evolved in the last day or two. Just a week ago, talk of a neck getting longer would have been scoffed at. Now it was a perfectly natural comment to make about a classmate.

They discussed the matter all the way home, arguing reasons for and against a complete unveiling of their newfound abilities. In the end Abigail won—as usual, Hal thought with a wry smile. Darcy and Lauren were in favor of Abigail’s suggestion. They felt sure Miss Simone wouldn’t make them leave without Emily and her parents. Dewey and Robbie were against the idea. Dewey felt that he’d rather just keep quiet about the whole thing, keep it all a secret and hope that Fenton wouldn’t actually have to leave, although Hal suspected Dewey wouldn’t mind too much if the big boy
did
leave. Robbie, on the other hand, was just being rebellious. He simply couldn’t bear Abigail making all the decisions.

What Fenton thought, nobody knew. Perhaps he didn’t care anymore. In his broody, slithery body, he had the air of a creature who didn’t much care for anybody or anything as long as it didn’t get in his way.

Feeling a pang of guilt for going against Robbie in his vote, Hal agreed with Abigail’s suggestion. He was sick of all the secrecy and the guesswork involved with trying to unearth Miss Simone’s great plan. The quicker everything was out in the open, the better.

And so it was that the classmates crossed the foggy fields and made their way to Fenton’s house, where the adults were engaged in a somber farewell party.

****

The children didn’t know what time it was when they finally gathered outside Fenton’s house, just out of sight behind an overgrown hedge, but it was very dark already, and the glows from the lanterns inside the house looked extremely inviting.

“I wonder if they’ve missed us yet,” Hal murmured.

“More to the point, I wonder if they’ve missed Fenton,” Abigail said, glancing at the serpentine creature loitering in the street. Fenton had slithered up a long-dead street lamp and was now hanging upside down by the tail, his four feet gripping the post. If he looked out of place in the long grass of the meadows, he looked like something out of a nightmare here in the street outside the houses.

Robbie looked up at Fenton. “Are you ever going to change back, or what? You can’t just walk in looking like that. We should probably warn them all first.”

Abigail gave a sudden giggle and looked at Hal with a glint in her eyes. “I don’t see why,” she said. “Hey, they wanted to see some changes, didn’t they? Why don’t we just show them!”

Hal shook his head. “I don’t want my mom having a heart attack,” he said firmly. “What if I go inside and try to explain things? And then they can come out and . . . and see Fenton. If we’re going to show them what we are, we’ll have to do it outside anyway.”

Robbie looked fierce. “I’ll come in with you,” he said.

“Me too,” Abigail agreed.

Robbie immediately glared at her, but said nothing.

Hal sighed. “Let me do the talking then. Don’t just blurt things out. Okay?”

The three other girls and Dewey seemed relieved at the prospect of staying outside, despite the chill in the air. They sat together on a low wall and prepared to wait patiently. Nearby, Fenton remained utterly motionless hanging from the lamppost.

Hal stepped up to the front door and found it ajar. He pushed the door open and crept inside. The sounds of murmured voices came to him, and he recognized the deep tones of his dad although he couldn’t make out the words that were being spoken. Then he heard Fenton’s mom saying something in response.

Motioning for Robbie and Abigail to follow, Hal took a deep breath and walked down the hall to the living room. The room was jam-packed with adults, some sitting but most standing in a large circle so that, as Hal entered, he had to stop behind a wall of men and women.

“. . . be long before we’re all sitting outside getting sun tans,” one of the women was saying—Darcy’s mom, by the sound of it. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be along shortly.”

Something cold and wet touched Hal’s hand and he almost jumped out of his skin. But it was just Wrangler, Emily’s dog; evidently Mr. and Mrs. Stanton had brought him along too. Hal ruffled his head absently, listening to the conversation.

“I
do
worry, though,” Mrs. Bridges said. “But we’ve been over this already. Right now I’m more worried about Fenton. I think we should go look for him.”

“Well, maybe,” her husband said. “It’s not exactly late, but you told him to be back by—what, four? Four-thirty?” He sighed. “It’s after six now. I’m sorry, Simone. The kids probably just lost track of time.”

“It’s all right,” came Miss Simone’s voice, sounding like it was not all right at all. “But the darker it gets, the harder it is to find our way across the island.”

Someone gave a sudden exclamation, and the two men standing in front of Hal swung round to face him. He was suddenly the center of attention as all adults in the room, including Miss Simone, noticed him standing there. Wrangler seemed to sense the shift in the atmosphere and slunk off to a corner.

“Hal!” his mother said. “Where’s Fenton? He’s late.”

“Outside,” Hal said. Robbie and Abigail appeared in his periphery as they stepped up. “We’re all here. Um, sorry we’re late.”

“Well,
you’re
not late,” his dad said. “But Fenton was supposed to be back earlier. We were getting worried. Miss Simone needs to get home, and . . .” He trailed off and frowned. “What on earth are you wearing?”

“They’ve been to the lighthouse,” Miss Simone said coldly. Her silky green cloak was wrapped tightly around her neck and body. It draped all the way to the floor and hid her feet. “They’ve been snooping.” She glared at Hal. “How did you get in?”

Hal had almost forgotten his strange attire. He self-consciously crossed his arms and found himself trying to hide his bare feet by curling up his toes.

“We found a way,” he said vaguely. Abigail nudged him sharply. “Look,” he said, trying to ignore Miss Simone and speaking directly to his parents, “we came to tell you that things are different now.”

There was a silence in the room, broken only by the crackling of the fire in the hearth. The weight of all those adult eyes on him almost squashed Hal into the floor.

He shook himself and turned back to the golden-haired stranger from Elsewhere. “Miss Simone, if you’re going to take Fenton away, then you’re going to have to take all of us,” he said boldly. “Or none of us.”

The silence lengthened, this time accompanied by a number of stern expressions.

Miss Simone’s eyes narrowed. “I beg your pardon?”

Hal gulped. He felt this wasn’t going as well as planned. “We . . . that is, uh, me and my friends—”

“My friends and I,” Mrs. Hunter corrected him. Lauren’s mom would always be the teacher no matter what.

“My friends and I,” Hal went on, “have decided that, um, we should stick together and, uh, well, not go anywhere unless we
all
go. And that includes Fenton. And Emily.”

“What on earth are you talking about, son?” his dad said under furrowed, bushy eyebrows. “Where did you get those clothes? Have you been to the lighthouse as Miss Simone said? How did you get in?”

“This isn’t a game, boy,” Miss Simone said sternly. “Those clothes are not for playing in.”

“What
are
those clothes?” Mrs. O’Tanner asked, looking Hal up and down before moving on to Abigail. “They’re really very pretty. Abigail looks like a doll.”

“They’re special clothes,” Miss Simone said. “They were supposed to be for when the children started changing. I brought all different sizes because I didn’t know when . . .” She shook her head. “Well, anyway, that was then and this is now. All I’m interested in now is getting Fenton into my world where he can go to work.” She glanced at Mr. and Mrs. Bridges, reddening slightly. “And you too, of course.”

“We busted the gates down,” Robbie blurted.

Again that awful silence. Now there were a number of suspicious glares, coupled with a few worried gasps.

Hal turned to Robbie and gave him a look of his own. His friend looked defiant but nervous at the same time. It was almost as though he were looking for trouble.

Abigail seemed to take Robbie’s announcement as a cue to switch on her own vocal chords. “Yes, it’s true,” she said sweetly, a hint of glee in her voice. “Robbie simply shoved the gates off the hinges. Then he punched the lighthouse door in. We went all the way to the top of the lighthouse and out on to the platform.”

“Gallery,” Hal murmured.

“We saw the blue sky for the first time,” Abigail went on, despite the widening eyes all around. “And felt the sun on our faces. It was wonderful. And we couldn’t help noticing that we could see Out There too—the city across the water, with those huge buildings and empty houses. It was deserted, just as you said it would be.” Abigail’s voice hardened. “But we breathed the nice clean air above the fog and felt the warmth of the sun on our skin, and it was
lovely
. And we couldn’t help wondering: Why have you never let us up there before? Why have you never let us see the blue sky before?
Why?
”

“Oh, Abigail,” her mom said, her hands flying to her face. Dr. Porter came forward with her arms out, but Abigail backed off.