Island of Graves (33 page)

They ran straight to the flat area near the mouth of the river, watching right and left carefully, but no gorillas were on this part of the island. Though they were coming this way, based on the waving grass and brush on the mountain.

“Wow,” Sky
said, bending down and pushing some grass aside. “Look at all these graves.”

Alex and Aaron looked around. Dozens of mounds of dirt peppered the area, overgrown with grass and weeds. Each mound had a large rock marker at one end. There were words on the rocks, identifying the person buried there. Alex knelt down next to one and pushed the overgrowth aside. “ ‘Marietta Plum, beloved performer and friend, d nov one, one nine one three,' ” he read. He looked at another. “ ‘William Strange, animal trainer, d feb two five, one nine one four,' ” he said. “And look—‘Figar Osari, ringmaster, d jan one three, one nine one four.' I wonder what a ringmaster is.”

“I don't know. Some sort of lord of the rings, I suppose.” Sky moved on to read more, while Aaron stood watch, too scared to look anywhere but in the direction of the thundering gorillas. How he wished he had Panther here to protect him now!

“ ‘Imelda Fanzini,' ” read Sky, “ ‘primate trainer, d apper one, one nine one four.' ”

“Why are we waiting here, actually?” Aaron asked nervously.

Sky looked up. “We're not sure, but the sailor seemed to
know what she was talking about. I wonder why this is where she wants us to wait.”

“She probably has a reason after managing to survive here so long,” Alex said. He moved to read another gravestone. “ ‘Madame Fiona,' ” he said. “ ‘Mother to us all.' ” He looked up. “I wonder what the story is here. It's wild.”

“What do the numbers mean?” asked Sky.

“I'm not exactly sure,” Alex said, “but I've seen numbers like that in some of the books we have in the library.”

The thundering grew louder. Aaron shifted anxiously, looking all around. “Do you see the girl anywhere?”

Sky and Alex strained to look as well. Then Sky pointed up. “Look. She's jumping into the waterfall,” Sky said in awe. “She's hanging on to a hunk of . . . something! See?” Sky watched as the girl free-fell a sickening distance. She landed at the bottom and disappeared in a big splash.

“Oh dear.” Sky stood on her tiptoes and watched. “I hope she survived that,” she murmured. A moment later, she spotted the girl again. “There she is! She's coming this way down the river.”

“Unbelievable,” Alex said, eyes landing on the girl. She
floated on a white board, paddling with all her might. Not far behind her, the gorillas were making their way down the rocky mountainside in pursuit.

“How did she get away from them at the top of the mountain?” Aaron wondered, his anxiety temporarily replaced by amazement.

“No idea,” murmured Sky.

The gorillas began to gain on the girl now that they were reaching the bottom of the hill.

Alex watched the progress carefully, and once it became clear that the girl was planning to come straight down the river to them, he directed the other two. “Aaron, figure out how many gorillas we're dealing with. Sky, set yourself up halfway between the river and the shipwreck, there, and once we get the girl out of the river, Aaron'll run her behind you, so you can fend off the gorillas. Shout if you see anything coming from the other side of the river, but I'm pretty sure Spike is keeping most of those beasts busy in the sea.” He ran forward several yards. “I'm going to try to slow them down,” he called, and pointed at the spot of land next to the bank, concentrating.

“Glass,” he whispered. As a sheet of glass appeared,
perpendicular to the river, he moved to the spot next to it and uttered the spell again. As each new sheet of glass appeared, Alex calmly put up another one next to it, making a giant glass shield that stretched from the bank of the river to the edge of the island. When the entire line was finished, he started a second row to reinforce the first line, going a little slower this time because the intensity of the concentration was beginning to sap his strength.

“I count thirteen gorillas chasing the girl,” Aaron called. He gripped his dagger, his face awash in sweat and fear. “Will that glass stop them, Alex?”

“Maybe for a minute,” Alex said. “It'll be a shock, anyway, and might distract them long enough for us to get the girl to our boat.” He looked at his brother. “Come with me. We're going to stand next to the river, here. She needs to paddle beyond the glass barrier and then we'll pull her out, climb the bank, and make a run for our boat. Okay?”

“Okay,” Aaron said. He felt sick to his stomach.

Alex pointed. “Go to the river's edge now and wave at her. Make sure she sees you and knows to come all the way down the river to you.”

Aaron nodded, unable to speak, but he ran to the edge of the river and began motioning to the girl.

“Sky, stand by to fight,” Alex called. “You've got the most useful weapon of all of us.” He shook out his hand, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and planted a few more glass spells for a third, scattered layer.

The ground began to shake as the gorillas charged toward them, and the girl was getting nearer. With no time left for more glass barriers, Alex ran to join his brother. He climbed down the bank and stood in front of Aaron, ready to lend a hand to the girl, who was still paddling mightily.

Alex and Aaron waved their arms when the girl grew close. She stared straight ahead, fully concentrating, nodding her head only to acknowledge that she saw them. “Ten seconds,” Alex called softly to Sky, not wanting to further enrage the gorillas, who would be plenty angry in about fifteen seconds when they hit the first line of glass shields.

“Five,” he called, and then, as the girl came at them, she flashed a wide grin.

“Catch my board!” she shouted. Aaron and Alex leaned out over the water as she flipped off the board and tossed it up.
Alex caught it, and Aaron grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her out of the water.

Breathing hard, she scrambled up the bank with Aaron. Alex was right behind, using the girl's board as a shield between her and the gorillas. And then they ran.

The first line of gorillas hit the glass shields at full speed with an earsplitting crash, sending shards exploding to the sky and raining down everywhere. The gorillas stumbled, surprised, but continued on. They hit the second line of glass, and it crumbled too. Some of the gorillas went down. But the first two furious gorillas that didn't have a third glass shield in front of them were completely through the barrier. And they weren't stopping. The glass had barely slowed them down.

T
o the ship!” the girl yelled, her voice hoarse. “Get to the old ship! They won't touch us there!”

Aaron pulled the exhausted girl along, his dagger raised, while Alex began flinging as many more glass spells and heart attack spells as he could to try to slow the gorillas down. Sky fearlessly ran toward the first gorilla, which was trying to head off Aaron and the girl. Some smaller beasts that seemed more affected by the glass walls moved sideways along them to the sea and jumped in to swim around them. Three of them caught sight of the magic boat and roared, then headed toward it.

From the boat, Charlie jumped up and down on the seat,
trying to get a better view. The gorillas advanced. “Go, Charlie!” Alex yelled. “Get out of here!”

The statue hesitated, then pushed the lever and tore out to sea.

Aaron nearly screeched himself at the sight of their ride leaving. He was most certainly going to die at any moment. He was sure of it.

Sky gripped her sword and swung with all her might, slamming it into the first advancing gorilla. It staggered and tripped, knocking over the second. Sky looked over her shoulder. “Run!” she screamed. Aaron and the girl sprinted past, a gorilla right behind them. Alex slammed the floating board into it. The beast rose to its full height and roared as Alex jabbed the pointed end of the white board into its gut, then sprinted away. Furious, it dropped down and loped after him.

“Get in the ship!” the girl cried to Aaron. “See the ladder? Now!”

“I see it,” Aaron panted. “Stop screaming in my ear.” He pulled the exhausted girl after him, and then picked her up and ran when she couldn't seem to get her legs to move fast enough anymore.

The remaining gorillas had scattered around the area, circling their victims. Sky darted toward the ship as the beasts in the sea turned away from their chase and caught sight of her.

Aaron and the girl reached the ship with a big silverback on their tail, and as Aaron hoisted the girl up and she climbed aboard, Aaron struck out at the gorilla with his dagger, catching it in the chest.

“Get up here!” the girl screeched.

The beast grabbed at Aaron. Aaron yelled and struck again. He started his climb up the ladder. Another gorilla reached them, grabbed hold of Aaron's leg, and began pulling. Aaron flailed, swinging wildly from the rung, and managed to land a backward kick right in the gorilla's nose. The creature loosened its grip and Aaron pulled out of it, then scrambled the rest of the way up, certain the gorilla would follow right behind.

But it didn't. It skittered away from the ladder with a hooting sound. From somewhere on the ship, the girl began making a racket that sounded like metal crashing against metal. Immediately the other gorillas backed off and began hooting warnings to their companions.

Sky, who was trapped by three gorillas that surrounded her
and kept her from getting to the ship, swung her sword wildly, connecting at every chance she could get. Her shoulders ached and her hands were numb, but she kept swinging, inching toward the ship.

Alex used the board as a shield and threw every spell imaginable, and finally discovered that the blinding highlighter was the only spell that actually had a full effect on the creatures. He quickly blinded the gorillas surrounding him, making them roar and wave their arms. Alex slipped between two and blasted the ones who were attacking Sky. One after another they grabbed their eyes in pain and whirled around, knocking into Sky and sending her sprawling. Alex ran to help her up, and the two made a mad dash between blinded, howling gorillas, all the way to the ship.

Aaron, bleeding from his shredded leg, reached down from above to grab the girl's board and help them as they scrambled up the ladder, while the girl continued to make the clanging noise below.

Alex shoved the board aside, and he and Sky flopped on the deck of the old beast of a ship, sweating and breathless, muscles quivering. As soon as they could manage it, they crawled away
from the ladder, making the floor creak and a few rotten ship boards crack and fall away. The three lay heaving and bleeding, but alive, as half the gorillas still wandered about temporarily blinded, and others cowered several yards from the ship, distressed about getting too close to it.

“Where's the girl?” Alex asked when he had his breath back.

“She's down there making that noise,” Aaron said. He took off his shirt and wrapped it around his leg, trying to stop the bleeding.

A moment later the noise stopped, and soon the girl appeared on a ladder, coming up through an opening in the deck. “Welp,” she said, wiping her hands on her pants and glancing out over the sea, “that ought to keep them quiet. They'll go away eventually, and then it'll be safe for your boat to return.” She stood there, her clothes still dripping and her light brown hair a knotted mess with sticks and leaves stuck in it. She was a little shorter than Sky. Her soggy, tattered shirt drooped off one shoulder, revealing a patch of fair skin. The rest of her was deeply tanned. She was thin—a little too thin, like she hadn't been eating normally—but muscular.

Alex sat up. “How is it they won't come on the ship?” he asked. “You saved us with this trick.”

The girl shrugged. “It's the cages down below,” she said.
She had a strange accent. “I discovered it by accident pretty early on. They don't like the sound of the clanging, and they won't try to get inside the ship. I don't know if any of them are the actual animals that were caged on this ship or if they just learned from their ancestors to fear it, but it's one of only a few safe places on the island.”

“Wow, that's fascinating,” Alex said. He stood up and held out his hand to her. “I'm Alex,” he said. “This is my brother, Aaron. Twins, if you can't tell. And this is Sky. We're from Quill and Artimé, two islands to the west.”

The girl smiled, and instead of shaking his hand, she hugged him. Her eyes shone. “I can't believe this nightmare is almost over,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming back for me.”

“Of course,” Alex said, hugging her back.

She pulled away and looked up at him. “My name is Kaylee Jones. I'm from America. I'm not sure where that is from here, but I know it's pretty far.”