Island of Silence (Unwanteds) (21 page)

Mr. Today beamed with happiness. “Delightful. Simply a dream.” His eyes grew moist for a moment. “While we will be out exploring on serious business, I must tell you, Alex’getting away is something I’ve longed to do since the walls went up. I’ve never felt more confident than I do now that Artimé will be in the best hands with you and Claire.” He reached out and took Alex’s hand, shaking it solemnly. “Thank you.”

Alex wanted to say, “But I don’t know half of how to run this place!” He wanted to say, “There’s so much you haven’t explained!” He wanted to say, “Please don’t go. Please don’t go!”

Instead, he did his best to smile confidently. He reached out and hugged the old man, patting his back quite hard a few times in the embrace. Mr. Today chuckled, the laugh rattling soundly in his chest. Finally Alex came up with what he thought were the perfectly grown-up words to say. He released the embrace and looked at the mage. “I hope you find everything you are looking for, sir. Thank you for believing in me.” He smiled, and some of his jitters went away.

Mr. Today nodded solemnly. “Never forget, my boy. I chose you for this. There will always be times we struggle, make bad decisions, even fail. What’s important is not that we fail, but that we learn and grow. And that we know that there is always someone out there who believes in us.”

Alex nodded.

Mr. Today continued. “Whatever problems you may face, you must know this: I do believe in you.”

Alex nodded, eyes shining, not trusting his voice to speak. He looked down at the ground, a smile forcing its way to his lips, feeling proud and sheepish at the same time. He stepped back as if to escape from the strong circle of emotion that surrounded Mr. Today. And as his leader continued to gaze proudly at him, Alex finally said, “Okay, okay. It’s just a few days. Sheesh.”

Ms. Morning and Mr. Today’s voices pealed in laughter through the office and down the mostly secret hallway. The man wiped the mist from his eyes. “Well said, indeed.” With a mischievous glance, he said, “Come, let’s go create a gate and tell Artimé of our plans. We’ll put a big crown on your head so the Necessaries know whom to bother with their trifles while I’m gone.”

This time it was Alex who laughed.

» » « «

When Mr. Today called all of Artimé to a meeting on the lawn to explain the reason for the newly reinstalled gate and his impending absence, Alex gazed out at the crowd of people. Such good people here in Artimé’even the former Necessaries, who were struggling to fit in and help out. He looked around from face to face, unable to tell a difference between the groups.

As he looked he began to search for his friends, wishing he’d had a chance to give them the scoop before the rest of Artimé heard. But he grew troubled when he noticed from his place next to Mr. Today that his three closest friends were nowhere to be found. It was strange. He scanned the audience more carefully, and realized there were a few others missing too, like Sean Ranger. And Eva Fathom.

Suddenly something seemed terribly . . . off.

Making Preparations

T
here really wasn’t time to wait until darkness fell in Quill’Aaron needed to get busy right away. Still, he didn’t want to bring any attention to himself or to any of the homes of the others who’d recently joined the Restorers’some of the Quillens were nervous enough as it was, and many of them were doing this without the knowledge or support of their families. So their options were limited.

Aaron managed to round up everybody and split them into groups to be less obvious, sending a few from each group first to Gondoleery Rattrapp’s house to get supplies and weapons, then having them disperse as unobtrusively as possible to their respective meeting spots. If the Quillitary saw too many people gathering together or walking together, they’d certainly be suspicious. Aaron didn’t need that.

So he had no choice but to use the Halukis’ home as a meeting spot, as much as he didn’t want to. But there were so few residents roaming the streets in the governors’ row most days that he hoped for the best. At the very worst, if he were caught outside the home, he’d claim to be on a delivery and no one would likely know the difference.

He, along with Eva Fathom, Liam Healy, a woman named Bethesda dia Gloria, and Crawledge Prize, one by one snuck into the back door of the Haluki house and spread out their goods, including half of the magical items that Eva Fathom had been confiscating for him for the past few weeks. Aaron agreed with Eva that it made sense to use magic if they had the ability, though he despised the creativity behind it. Still, they were powerful weapons, which had been easy enough to see when Aaron brought Alex down.

Gondoleery Rattrapp, who in recent days often sat at her kitchen table alone, staring at her fingers and pondering over her childhood and the magic of her youth, had the other half of the magical weapons’and Aaron discovered that she seemed to be even better than Eva at picking up on magical spells. Gondoleery’s plan had been to spend some time teaching her team how to use the magical components to see if any of them were at all competent. But the older Quillens had a significant disadvantage, they’d found. Their creativity was virtually nonexistent, and that translated into a big fat zero in the magical ability department. It hadn’t taken long for Eva to give up entirely on anybody over the age of twenty-five, and the more impatient Gondoleery threw the towel in on the entire lot of them and went back to her kitchen table to brood over the components. Which was quite fine with Aaron. He didn’t want too many people knowing how to do it, anyway.

Inside the Haluki house, no one had time to gawk at the size and amenities that came with the governorship, though they each noticed. Instead they began to assess and clean their weapons, and create new sharp weapons from the odds and ends of metal pieces they’d found or stolen over the past weeks. All the while Aaron paced and muttered to himself, trying to figure out the perfect plan.

It’s too soon,
a voice in his head kept telling him.
It’s a perfect situation but we’re not ready yet. Be smart!
Aaron tried to ignore it, but the more he tried, the louder it got. He began to doubt himself.

“Eva,” he said sharply. “I need a word with you.”

Eva Fathom narrowed her eyes at the way he ordered her around. She finished what she was doing, and then when she was good and ready to do so, she set her weapon down and slowly walked over to Aaron. He swiped the back of his hand impatiently across his forehead, wiping the sweat from it.

Eva approached, folding her arms across her chest. She’d taken a lot of orders in her life, and it bothered her that some peach-fuzz-faced boy was trying to tell her what to do. “What is it?”

Aaron took her by the shoulder and turned her away from the others, and began walking with her. “You’re sure you have the guts to kill off the old guy? Just do the heart attack magic thing and throw his body into the ocean, right?”

Eva stiffened. “Why are you doubting me?”

“I’m not!” Aaron said in a harsh whisper. “I’m doubting me. I don’t think we have enough weapons or people yet to make this successful. But we’re certainly messed up if the old man survives.”

Eva didn’t much care for Aaron’s continual negative remarks about Marcus’s age, seeing as she was a year or two older than Marcus herself. But now was not the time to quibble. “It’s all part of the plan,” she said. “I’ll take care of him.”

“You keep saying that. You’ll . . . take care of him.” Aaron averted his eyes and wondered if he could really trust her to do the dirtiest of all deeds. “You mean you’ll
kill
him. Right?”

Paradise

W
e probably shouldn’t stay long,” Samheed said. He slipped out of his sandals and took off his component vest, and then he hesitated, looking at it. “Should we wear these?”

Lani, who’d been intent on studying the island for several minutes, knew instinctively what Samheed was talking about without having to avert her gaze. She’d thought of the same thing a moment earlier, and thus had time to think. “The paper components will be ruined, and the clay components will melt in the water and make a mess in our pockets.” She turned her gaze to her friends. “Besides, I don’t think there’s anybody living on this island anymore. I haven’t seen or heard a single thing.”

“We could bring just the metal and rubber components with us in case we need them,” Meghan said. “And leave the vests here.”

Samheed nodded. “That sounds good.” He took out a few scatterclips and dementia spells and slid them into his pants pocket, leaving his vest on the boat seat. The others did the same.

Lani cast the magical anchor spell, as was laid out in the instructions by the captain’s wheel, and felt a slight tug of the boat when the waves tried to wash them closer in. Satisfied, she slipped off her shoes as well. “I wish we’d thought to bring swimsuits, or at least other clothes to change into later.”

Meghan shrugged and climbed over the side of the boat. “We’ll dry.” She jumped in with a big splash and when she surfaced, she said, “It’s all part of the adventure! Come on, you guys!”

Samheed and Lani needed no more urging. They joined Meghan in the water, forgetting to be quiet now and striking out in the cool water toward the shore. When they could reach the bottom, they began wading toward the beautiful sand that sparkled before them. As they neared they began to run, splashing in the shallow water. Meghan collapsed on the wet sand, and Lani fell next to her, causing Samheed to trip over her leg and fall down too.

“Ahhh,” Meghan said, the waves lapping at her feet. “This feels good.” Little ocean bugs scurried about on the sand, being water-lifted to other places without a moment’s notice.

Lani wrung her long hair out and playfully slapped Samheed in the face with the ends of it.

“Watch it,” Samheed growled, but he had to admit getting to hang around with two creative, smart, talented girls on a beautiful beach was not his idea of a bad time at all.

The three of them lounged on the shore, eyes closed. It wasn’t much different from lying on the beach of Artimé, but when they thought of the adventure they’d taken to get here, it seemed somehow very special.

Suddenly Lani sat up. “Something’s weird,” she said.

Meghan shielded her eyes with her hand. “What’s weird?”

Samheed sat up too. “I was just thinking that same thing.”

“It’s too quiet,” Lani said. “I mean, there’s no sound at all since we reached the shore except for our own voices.”

“No birds, no tree frogs . . . I can understand. But no noise from the waves? That’s strange.” Samheed knitted his brows. “I’m not sure about this place.”

Lani looked at him, concerned. She glanced at Meghan, who had risen to an elbow now. “Huh,” Meghan said.

As the three of them looked at one another, they wondered if they should perhaps heed the worrisome grip of fear in their chests and run at their highest speed away from the strangely quiet island. But there was no time to process the thought, for a moment later they each felt a sharp, severe poke between their shoulder blades. Without even a chance to cry out or see what had hit them, Meghan, Lani, and Samheed exchanged an identical look of terror before their bodies went limp and they dropped back to the sand, unconscious.