Island of Graves (11 page)

Lani shrank back as she supposed Sully would do in a situation like this and risked a glance in Alex's direction, but he was too far away for her to make out the expression on his face. Try as she might, she couldn't quite put the pieces together. The only thing that was clear was that Sully was already out with Governor Strang and must not be among the three drivers Alex froze. She didn't know what to say to the smelly man.

And then she did.

Her fear turned to disdain, and she straightened up a little. “Ain't you heard? The other drivers was taken sick. I'm all you
got for now, so I came back.” She paused, then added, “The governor said it was fine.”

The guard looked to the area where the drivers normally stood, finding no one there. He appeared uncertain, but soon the silence was disturbed by a clatter coming from inside the palace, and the guard scurried to open the door for the high priest.

Lani stepped quickly to the nearest car and opened the door to the backseat. She kept her head down, but occasionally peeked inside the open door to the palace. Gondoleery Rattrapp, her aubergine caftan fluttering, exited the palace and strode to the vehicle. The guard scurried behind her, leaving the palace door standing open. Lani bowed as the high priest got into the vehicle, and while Lani's head was lowered, a movement at the door caught her eye.

Matilda!
Sure enough, Matilda the gargoyle darted outside after the guard and ran to the back of the vehicle, hiding behind it. Once the guard helped Gondoleery into the car and returned to his post, Lani closed Gondoleery's door. She strode to the back of the jalopy, hoping she could figure out how to open the trunk.

She fumbled with the handle in search of a release button, and finally found the lever she needed. Sweating, she released the catch and swung the hatch open. While Matilda climbed inside, Lani pretended to rearrange something, fearing they were about to be caught at any moment. To Lani's amazement, no one at the palace noticed the oddity. The guards generally seemed as lifeless as any Quillen, and clearly weren't as alert at this early hour as they had been the day Lani was invisible.

“Driver!” barked Gondoleery. “What's taking you so long?”

“Safety check,” Lani called out. She gave Matilda a warm smile, then hastily closed the back of the vehicle, went to the driver's door, and got in, her eyes searching frantically for a clue to where the ignition was. Her father had told her to look near the right side of the steering wheel, but because of her nerves, she found herself searching the left. Finally she realized her mistake and located the ignition. But there was no key inserted in it.

Lani's heart dropped. She fought back the panic. For a second she had no idea what to do, but then she quickly patted down her driver's uniform pockets. Of course there was nothing there.

“I apologize for the delay,” she said. She burst from the
vehicle and ran in the direction of Alex, past the guard.

“What's going on?” the guard shouted at her.

“I'm feeling sick like the others,” Lani called back over her shoulder. “Have to vomit! You know? Back in a moment.” She sped to the back of the palace and rounded the corner.

Alex, who had seen her coming, figured out what the problem was. He was hurriedly searching the drivers' pockets, pulling out all the keys he could find. He shoved them at Lani.

Her hands were shaking. She closed her hand over the keys. “They think I'm chunking up my breakfast,” she said, and nearly began laughing hysterically.

“So I heard,” Alex said. “Take a breath. It's going to be fine. Just take your time and find the right key.”

“I think I should try to freeze her while I have her in the backseat, once we're away from the guards and the palace. Then you can finish her off. Doesn't that make more sense? I'm worried she's already suspicious.”

“If you can manage it, that's fine, but concentrate on driving.”

Lani nodded. “I'll only do it if I have a sure shot.”

“Okay.”
Alex reached up and gripped Lani's man shoulders. “I'm going to watch from here until you make it outside the palace grounds, and then Charlie and I will see you at the designated spot. Take it slow. You okay?”

Lani nodded.

“Okay.” Alex patted her on the back. “I think you're done puking now.”

Lani sucked in a deep breath. “Okay. Yes. Thanks.” She smiled and turned around, ready to hurry back to the vehicle. But as she rounded the corner of the palace, she ran smack into the guard, and with a loud
ooof!
the two bodies went tumbling to the ground.

A
lex gasped, then automatically reached for a freeze component and sent it soaring at the guard. He lunged for the guard's legs and dragged the man behind the palace before anybody else could notice, while Lani got to her feet, scrambled to pick up the keys she'd dropped, and dusted off Sully's suit.

“Go, Lani!” Alex whispered. “Before the other guard notices!”

Lani needed no further urging. She took long strides to the vehicle, got in the driver's seat, and shoved the first key in. It didn't fit.

“What
in Quill is going on around here?” Gondoleery barked. “If I had another driver I'd zap you dead right now. Get me to the Commons immediately”

Lani, deep in character once more and feeling as if she were the true Sully, felt a chill spread through her. Her fingers trembled. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. She dropped the first key on the floor of the vehicle and tried the second one.

The second key didn't fit either.

“Come
on
,” muttered Gondoleery. She pointed her finger at Lani and shot a tiny fireball, hitting her in the back of her head.

“Oh!” Lani recoiled, her hand automatically going up to the wounded spot and tamping out the smoldering bits of hair. “Ouch! Please don't do that!” Blindly she shoved the third key into the ignition, praying for it to fit.

It did. Lani turned it hard and held it for a second or two, like her father had told her, waiting for it to sound like a real running vehicle. The engine roared, then screeched angrily. Lani let go of the key, and the engine quieted and stayed chugging. She'd done it!

She breathed heavily and looked around for the gearshift. Once she found it, she ducked her stinging head to look at the
pedals on the floor. “The pedal on the right makes you go,” she remembered her father saying. She found the gear stick next to her and gently pushed it, testing its resistance. It didn't budge. Cringing, knowing Gondoleery could shoot a fireball at her again anytime, she gripped the stick and shoved it, hoping to land it in the right place. When it moved into gear, she pushed her foot on the pedal on the right. The engine revved a little. She pushed the pedal harder, and they started moving.

Sweat poured off Lani's head now. She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles were white, and pressed harder on the pedal. The vehicle picked up speed down the driveway. She tested the steering wheel, finding that slight movements of it didn't really do anything. Peering ahead in the weak morning light, she aimed for the portcullis.

Behind the palace, Alex watched, barely able to breathe. When the vehicle began to move, Alex left the frozen drivers and the guard where they were, scrambled back down the hill to Charlie, picked him up and carried him like a baby, and began running from rock to rock around the curve of the island. He had to get past the portcullis and cross the road to Haluki's house as quickly as possible, and hopefully catch a glimpse
of Lani driving slowly, steadily, and successfully toward the desolate area. He moved as quickly as he could while carrying Charlie. The weight of the stone gargoyle was going to slow him down—he knew that much already. But Charlie wasn't a fast enough runner to keep up, so there was no other way.

The vehicle was rapidly picking up speed as Lani drove down the hill. With the palace gate in sight, she sat up higher in the seat and leaned forward over the steering wheel. Why wasn't the gate opening?

The vehicle's velocity continued to increase. Lani's father had said the Quillitary vehicles moved painfully slowly, but that didn't seem to be the case today. If somebody didn't open up the gate soon . . . Lani pulled her foot completely off the gas pedal and wildly began to feel around for the other pedal, which was the brake. She got her shoe stuck between the two pedals for a moment, still unused to her large Sully feet. She panicked and looked down, trying to free it. Giving it a hard yank, she pulled it loose and looked up at the road. The gate loomed in front of her, still closed.

Suddenly two guards jumped up from their sleeping positions on the ground and scrambled to open the gate, but it
was too late. They could only leap out of the way as the jalopy crashed into the iron structure, sending rusty metal pieces flying through the air.

Lani gasped, knowing the high priest could kill her at any moment. But she also knew that Gondoleery probably wouldn't do that as long she was driving the vehicle, because then they'd crash. Banking on that tiny bit of comfort, Lani forced herself to breathe and kept going.

“Well!” exclaimed Gondoleery as the gates clattered to the sides of the road behind them. “That was unusual.”

Lani cringed, waiting for punishment, but she was also intent on keeping the vehicle on the road, which was much harder to do than she had expected. It kept trying to turn to one side, so Lani was constantly tugging the steering wheel toward the other, causing them to bounce and sway.

“You know, driver, I always hated that gate,” Gondoleery added dryly.

“Yes, your greatness,” mumbled Lani. Her foot finally landed solidly on the brake pedal, but every time she pushed on it, they lunged forward uncomfortably, so after a while she just rode down the hill trying not to swerve too wildly.

“I say, driver,”
Gondoleery said, rising up and leaning forward. “Is something wrong with this vehicle?”

“Oh, most likely, I'm sure,” Lani replied. “Dozens of things.” She began improvising the way Mr. Appleblossom had taught them in theater class. “The treads are broken,” she said, “the joist is, ah, completely melted through, the grids are nowhere to be found, and . . . we're out of chicken grease.” She caught Gondoleery's frown in her rearview mirror.

“I thought Aaron came up with a new substance to replace the chicken grease,” Gondoleery said suspiciously.

“Right,” Lani said quickly. “This vehicle hasn't gotten any yet, though.”

“It's going awfully fast for a vehicle that is out of oil,” Gondoleery muttered. She flounced back in her seat.

As they reached the bottom of the hill and the road flattened out, the jalopy began to slow down. Lani, who'd barely gotten used to handling the steering wheel alone, without using her feet on the pedals at the same time, now began to panic. Worried that Gondoleery might attack her if she stopped, she pressed down hard on the gas pedal. The vehicle lurched forward, the tires spinning and spraying loose gravel behind
them. Lani and Gondoleery were flung back in their seats, and the car began swerving and sliding.

“Sorry!” Lani exclaimed in a voice too high pitched to be Sully's.
Stay in character!
she commanded herself.
You are Sully!
She lifted her foot off the pedal and gripped the wheel, trying to straighten the vehicle's path. This was so much more difficult than she had anticipated. And if she lost her concentration as Sully, she'd also lose her disguise, which would foil everything. She had to stay calm—had to!—and get this trip under control.

Once the ride smoothed out, Lani began to breathe normally, and she reinforced her role as Sully. By the time she had her wits about her again, Lani remembered that she was supposed to be going somewhat slowly to give Alex time to get to the meeting spot. But this vehicle wasn't moving anywhere nearly as slowly as her father had said it would—they were speeding along. She wondered if Aaron's new oil was responsible. They certainly hadn't factored that in.

Meanwhile, as Alex raced around the curve of the island on his way to Haluki's house, Charlie on his hip, he heard the shouts of the gate guards and the subsequent crash, and he saw one part of the portcullis come flying down the hill toward him.
But he also heard the vehicle chugging away, so he didn't stop to investigate what had happened. Instead he continued along the shore until the line of rooftops that covered the governors' houses came into view, then dashed up the hill to the main road.

When he saw that the road was clear and the dust was rising toward Artimé, he knew Lani was well on her way. He shifted Charlie to his other hip and dashed across the road to Haluki's house. “What's happening with Matilda?” he asked the gargoyle as he jiggled the door handle.

Charlie signed something, but Alex was so busy trying to get into the house that he didn't catch anything the gargoyle was saying—not that he understood much sign language, anyway. And there was no time to try to decipher it now. Lani must have been going a lot faster than Alex anticipated to have been raising dust that far down the road, and he was starting to worry that he wasn't going to make it to the desolate area in time.