Island of Silence (Unwanteds) (18 page)

Others came running just as Simber chased the remaining attackers into Quill. When Alex saw that everyone had been contained, he hurried back to the instructors, releasing Ms. Morning first to stop the screaming, then the other ladies, and then finally he knelt down next to Mr. Today and released the heart attack spell. The old mage’s face had gone gray. After several long, stressful moments of waiting finally the man gulped in a breath and coughed quite savagely. He lay still for a moment, his eyes confused, and then slowly a wide grin crossed his face. He struggled to sit up, and then weakly he clapped Alex on the back.

“That’s a keeper,” he said, eyes wide. “Stunning.” He shook his head as everyone else ran off to get a look at the enchanted attackers, two of whom were still screaming. “I really thought I was gone there for a moment, Alex. Make a note not to wait too long to release the spell on that one.” He chuckled good-naturedly and held out a hand. Alex helped him to his feet. “Did anything exciting happen while I was out?”

Ms. Morning’s Secret

Once the eight remaining Quill opponents were disarmed, Alex put their arms into connecting clay shackles, and then the original spells were released.

Ms. Morning, back to her usual self, stood tapping one foot impatiently next to the heart attack victim, waiting for him to regain consciousness. A variety of Unwanteds took care of the other seven, prodding them toward the gate and sending them on their way, still connected. Mr. Today called on Charlie the gargoyle to communicate with Matilda at the palace, informing them that the high priest might find the prisoners along the road if he should choose to incarcerate them.

The instructors and the students, except for Ms. Morning, stood around in a circle discussing excitedly what had happened, when heart attack victim number one came to. He opened his eyes, sucked in a breath and coughed, and then looked up at his captor.

The two had exchanged glances once before, at the last attack, but he’d gotten away. Now, shackled and weak, he was trapped.

“Hello, Claire,” he said, defeated. He coughed again.

“Liam,” she said evenly.

He struggled to get up, and she did not help him. It took him several moments to finagle his way to his feet, his arms shackled as they were behind his back, and he toppled onto his face twice before he succeeded. Finally he stood up, wiping the gravel from his cheek with a shrug of his shoulder.

Ms. Morning stood with one hand on her hip, her eyes searching his face, betraying nothing. “Your family?” she asked.

“Both parents in the Ancients Sector,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He appeared puzzled by the sentiment. “Why?”

“Because it’s hard to watch your parents die.”

“It’s the way things are. Soon enough forgotten,” he said.

“Maybe for you. For people like you.”

“You say that with contempt.”

“That surprises you? Look what you’re doing to Artimé! It wasn’t enough to kill us once?”

Liam stepped back, alarmed, but spoke in the calm, brainwashed voice of Quill, “
I
didn’t kill you. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“No, of course not. No one is responsible,” Ms. Morning said, her voice dripping with sarcasm and bitterness. “No one in Quill is responsible for any of your sickening ways. No one questions anything. No one has a conscience. I’m surprised you even remember me’aren’t you programmed to forget?”

Liam stared at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “Quill was a perfect land before Artimé was exposed. We just want our country back.”

Claire’s eyes blazed. “Everyone in here is your countryman. Did you ever think about it, Liam? Did you? After they took me away in chains, and we exchanged one last look’did you think I deserved that? Did you ever try to stop it? Or did you just accept that others knew better than you?”

Liam’s lips parted, but he didn’t speak.

Claire wasn’t finished. “Did you even think about me afterward or did you just do as they told you to do? How is that human? Can you tell me how being forced to forget the ones you love is natural and good and right? Because I don’t understand.”

The small group of instructors and students had turned their attention to Ms. Morning and all now watched in silence.

Liam grew pale. “I’”

Ms. Morning lowered her voice. “Do you have a heart in there somewhere, Liam? You must, or the spell wouldn’t have worked.” She laughed bitterly. “I always held out hope for you. For twenty-five years I’ve thought, ‘He’s not like the others.’ Yet here you are.” She shook her head, caught between anger and tears. “You are disgusting.”

With that, she turned abruptly and ran, nearly colliding with her somber students, to the nearest mansion door and disappeared inside it.

Samheed looked at Liam. “You really messed that up, didn’t you.” He grabbed Liam by the arm and pulled him toward the road to Quill, then shoved him in the direction of the palace. “You just put a big target on your back, buddy,” Samheed called out. “Next time I see you . . .” He didn’t finish the threat, making it even more ominous.

Liam didn’t respond. He shuffled toward the palace, head down.

Along the way Liam passed Sean Ranger heading toward Artimé. Sean narrowed his eyes, but kept walking. Finally Liam caught up with the others. They took a side path to the housing quadrants and snuck to Gondoleery’s house so she could release the spell on their shackles before Haluki or anyone else could track them down. And then they got back to work, harder than ever before.

The Mysterious Guests

E
very day after Advanced Magical Warrior Training, Alex and Lani slipped into the hospital wing of the mansion to visit the strange collared guests, who remained unresponsive. Often Alex and Lani sat in chairs between their beds, wondering aloud what their story might be, while working feverishly to make new spell components. Mr. Today had put in a request for a thousand each of heart attack spells, backward bobbly heads, pin cushions, dementia, and bee swarms, which was a Cole Wickett design that Alex had taken a strong liking to.

Alex and his cohorts now carried supplies with them wherever they went so they could create components whenever they had a few extra moments, quite like someone might carry around a book, or a satchel full of knitting, to fill in the unexpected lulls of life.

On one such occasion Mr. Today came in and pulled up a chair next to Alex. They sat in silence for a while, Alex and Lani working, Mr. Today examining and admiring their products, and then Alex said out of the blue, “I think they were trying to escape.”

Lani nodded as if she’d been thinking the same thing at that very moment. “Me too.”

Mr. Today rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his fingers making a light scratching sound against the stubble. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s the raft, I think,” said Lani. “And they had nothing with them’no fishing supplies, no extra clothes. Who goes anywhere like that unless they’re in a massive hurry? And who would attempt anything at all on a junky raft like theirs?”

“Good questions, all,” mused the old mage. “Perhaps all their equipment was washed away in an unexpected storm.”

Lani considered it. “Maybe.”

“I wonder where they’re from,” Alex said for at least the tenth time since they’d drifted ashore. He stared at the girl.

“As do I,” Mr. Today said. “I can only guess they’re from one of the farther islands to the west, beyond Warbler.”

Lani raised an eyebrow, and Alex leaned forward. “Have you ever been to those other islands?” he asked.

“Yes. The two distant ones were inhabited by somewhat primitive people, as I recall, thus perhaps more capable of doing something like this. . . .” He swept his hand toward the unconscious ones, indicating their thorny collars. “I came from the nearest, Warbler, a beautiful place. Tropical and sunny, but with more rain than Quill has gotten these past years. It has majestic rocks jutting up near the center of it, like someone’s giant fist pushed a mountain through from the sea underneath. There’s a freshwater stream running through Warbler, too, and beaches all around. The people were friendly and welcoming.”

“It sounds dreamy,” Lani said wistfully.

“It was. Perhaps we were foolish to leave, but we had our plans and ideas, you know. We couldn’t have been convinced otherwise, even though we left some dear friends and family behind.” He paused. “Eva Fathom grew up there as well. It was one of the places we were hoping to visit, but now . . .” He trailed off.

Alex frowned. “But now what?”

“I’m not sure this is a good time for me to leave after all.”

The words hung in the air as if they wanted to be proven wrong, but Alex and Lani thought about everything’from the unconscious guests in the beds to the recent escalating attacks from Quill’and they couldn’t come up with a way to do it.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Mr. Today went on, “but I can hardly forgive myself for the loss of Arija. What if someone were to be killed while I was off having a holiday? There’s no room for forgiveness there.”

“But Arija died doing the job she loved, the job she was created for,” Lani said passionately. “If we all died doing the things we most believe in, we should die satisfied.”

“All the more reason for me to stay, don’t you think?” Mr. Today asked.

Alex was surprised to feel a little bit disappointed by Mr. Today’s news. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “I bet these visitors will want to leave eventually, once they’re well. Maybe while you’re gone you can figure out what island they came from, so that we know how to get them home. I mean, if that’s what they want.” Alex thought some more. “And maybe . . . well, I don’t know about this for sure, but maybe you could put the gate back up. For a short time, anyway. Just while you’re gone.” He hurried to add, “Not that Sean was right, or anything.”

Mr. Today tilted his head curiously at Alex, and he hid a smile with his fingers. “Interesting way to look at it, Alex. I’ll consider it.”

“I mean,” Alex continued, emphasizing various words as if he were just realizing his passion for the thought, “after all, I said I would help you and Ms. Morning. I think it’ll be fine if you go.”

Mr. Today scratched his chin again and then sighed. “We’ll see. But there’s no great urgency. Is there?”

Lani’s Plan

T
here was something about the strange visitors that made Lani uneasy. And after the talk with Mr. Today and Alex, something about “no great urgency” just didn’t sit right with her. She couldn’t stop thinking about them. And she was quite certain that those two had been trying to escape.

That would virtually rule out the nearest island to the west, where Mr. Today had come from. Mr. Today had said that island was like paradise. Who would want to escape from a place like that? It only made Lani more and more curious to see it for herself.

The thought simmered inside of her for days, and at one point she even found herself back in the lagoon, staring at the gleaming white boat again, with dreams of an adventure dancing in her head. But she was smart enough to never do anything so adventurous alone.

Finally, one day at lunch, she brought it up. “Wouldn’t it be fun to go on holiday like Mr. Today is going to do?”