Island of Silence (Unwanteds) (25 page)

Without hesitation, Mr. Today whipped a pen from his robe pocket and shot a blinding highlighter spell into Aaron’s eyes. But Aaron, unfazed and spurred on by Eva Fathom’s dare, didn’t need his eyes to know where the mage was. As he reeled backward, he flung all of the components at once toward the man, shouting, “Heart attack!”

Five clay hearts sprouted wings and flew at Mr. Today. The old mage tried to dodge them, but the components had locked in on their target. They slammed into his chest, knocking the mage to the floor as they found their mark.

Shocked by the impact, Mr. Today gasped and clutched his robe. The pain seared through him, from his chest outward in all directions, stopping his breath. He closed his eyes, sending one last message as the heart attack spells stabbed deep into him, five times the power and intensity of one. He writhed on the floor, shaking.

Aaron, blinded, called out to his team, unsure what had happened. “Help!” he called out. “I can’t see!”

A second later Aaron heard another noise from the cabinet. “Help!” he cried out again. “They’re attacking!” His housemates came thundering in. By the time Claire Morning stepped out of the closet and saw her father on the floor, Mr. Today had stopped shaking and lay completely still.

Crawledge and Bethesda seized Claire, and Liam clamped his hand over her mouth. He grabbed a rusty knife from the desk and held it to her throat. “Not one word,” he said.

Everyone stood transfixed by the strange, horrific situation as one by one they realized what Aaron had just done.

“What’s happening?” Aaron called out anxiously, but then his sight miraculously cleared. He scrambled to his feet, ready to attack, but everyone’s attention was diverted to the closet, where the strange glass tube faded away before the Restorers’ eyes.

From the Vast Ocean

A
lex never loosened his grip on the wheel, and he urged the boat on faster and faster. Simber stayed steady, ahead and to the right, so he could look over his shoulder now and then and make sure Alex was okay.

And Alex kept looking down at Meghan, glad she was shielded from the wind, hoping she was still alive, still hanging on.

Regret and fear pounded through his body in waves. He wished he’d stopped his friends. He wished he’d known what they were about to do. How foolish! What were they thinking? But he remembered his first glance at the beautiful island, thinking how serene and lovely it appeared. “Why’d you do it, Meg?” he asked, knowing she couldn’t hear him.

It was what he couldn’t say that crushed him. He couldn’t even think it, it was too horrible to imagine.
Lani.

And Samheed, too, but it was different with Lani. She was his . . . sort of . . . oh, this was all so horrible. He had to stop thinking about it. He glanced at their component vests, folded neatly on the seat next to him, the top one fluttering slightly whenever a gust of wind slipped under it. They’d had no protection. Why on earth would they take their vests off? They were smarter than that! Alex didn’t understand it.

And now he and Simber had left them there . . . wherever they were. Underground in a hole? That was crazy.

Maybe he should have had Simber carry Meghan and him home, and left the boat for Sam and Lani, just in case. He glanced over his shoulder and bit his lip, wishing he’d thought of that. Maybe they should turn back. But they were almost home now. In the dim light Alex could see the mansion all lit up. It was beautiful from this angle. He’d never noticed it like this before.

By the time they grew close to Artimé, Alex had decided it. He’d drop Meghan off in care of the nurses, and then he and Simber would go back to the island and leave the boat for Samheed and Lani, just in case. He doubted the natives of that island could know how to dismantle the anchor spell, so there was little worry of it being stolen. What if Samheed and Lani had watched him and Simber leave with the boat, and they’d been unable to make a sound, like Meghan? It tore Alex apart to think about it. He cursed the boat for not going faster, and Simber flapped onward, never tiring. Always there, faithfully at Alex’s side.

Until suddenly, he wasn’t.

Without warning the boat sputtered loudly and stopped running. Alex and Meghan pitched forward, Alex hitting the windshield and cutting his lip open, Meghan slamming lifelessly into a seat and stopping there. As he was about to use the magical verbal component to get the boat started again, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Simber frozen mid-flap in the air. The giant cat tipped forward sharply and began falling, falling, falling. “Simber!” Alex yelled, but the giant stone statue didn’t respond.
“Simber!”

Simber slammed face-first into the water with an enormous splash, sending a giant wave that nearly capsized the boat. Alex and Meghan flew out over the side like weightless rag dolls being tossed across a room, and plunged headlong into the sea. When Alex surfaced, coughing and sputtering, he saw the tip of Simber’s tail disappearing under the water. “Simber!” Alex cried out again. But he had no time to think about Simber now. He twisted in the water, looking frantically in all directions.

“Meghan!” he screamed.

She was nowhere to be found.

Gone

A
aron watched in amazement, and then came to his senses. He grabbed a pistol from the table and pointed it at Claire Morning. “If you speak, you will die,” he said.

Ms. Morning couldn’t make a sound. She didn’t even look at Aaron. She could only stare at the body of her father, crumpled and unmoving on the floor. He looked so helpless.

Keeping the gun trained on Claire, Aaron turned back to Mr. Today. He stepped carefully over to the mage and nudged him with his foot. The magician didn’t respond.

“Is he dead?” Bethesda asked. “What did you do to him?”

“Quiet,” Aaron barked. His heart raced. Had he killed Mr. Today? Had it really been so easy? He turned to Crawledge and Bethesda. “Take her to the pantry and lock her up. Bar the door. Liam, give her a little something to help her remember not to give us any trouble.”

Liam’s eyes widened. “Like what?”

Aaron shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them from trembling. “Just . . . whatever. Threaten her. Think of something! I don’t care.”

Claire turned her head back to Liam now, her eyes filled with hatred and unshed tears. She glared at him, and he couldn’t look at her.

“Come on,” Liam said roughly. He picked his way over Mr. Today and around furniture and led them to the kitchen pantry, Claire struggling slightly, but not enough to get herself shot. “Just throw her in there,” he mumbled. “I need to help Aaron with the body.”

Crawledge and Bethesda shoved Claire into the space under the bottom shelf, tied her wrists and ankles, stuffed a dusty cloth in her mouth, and closed the door. When they had secured the pantry, and the sounds of their voices grew distant, Claire Morning closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall.

The Restorers

nce Eva had delivered the false message, Gondoleery Rattrapp wasted no time. She’d been waiting weeks for this moment, and her teams and weapons were ready. They slithered toward Quill, staying in whatever late afternoon shadows they could find along the way. They arrived at dusk. Gondoleery tried to release the spell on the gate, but it didn’t work. She tried again, and then realized it must be a very strong spell’more powerful than she was at the moment.

“We’ll have to break it down,” she said. But first she gathered her troops around her to go over the plan one last time. They were all in agreement to wait until the moon was high overhead so they could have some advantage of light when the Artiméans came pouring out of the mansion to fight.

But before the plan could be enacted, a strange cry rose up from inside Artimé. Gondoleery and her team could hear it, plain as day. As far as she knew, that had never happened before’Artimé had a sound barrier around it, which had helped to keep it from being discovered all those years. But now they could hear people shrieking and crying out. Something chaotic had clearly happened. And then the gate clicked and popped open an inch.

Gondoleery was happy to take advantage of that.

“Ready?” she whispered harshly. “Charge!” She opened the gate and her team streamed in behind her. But it wasn’t long before they were all nearly trampled or swept up by the crowd of people that flooded out of Artimé.

“After them!” Gondoleery cried. She wasn’t pleased that no one seemed to even notice her ferocious team amid all the chaos. Still, they managed to take down a few straggling Unwanteds as they chased after them.

Out in the road around Quill, the Artiméans, realizing they were under attack, struggled to pull themselves together. Soon they began to fight back. Gondoleery flinched as an Artiméan sent a rubber sphere flying toward her, hitting her in the shoulder.

But nothing happened. The spell component bounced harmlessly to the ground and rolled in the dirt. As the look of surprise came over the face of the Unwanted who’d thrown it, Gondoleery picked up the ball and stared at it, then shoved it in her pocket. There was no time to ponder this latest development now. She had a battle to win.

To the Depths of Despair

A
lex sucked in a breath and dove down, eyes wide open, looking for any flash of color, any sign of Meghan. It was dark down there, and mentally he scrambled for all of the possible spells he could use to help him in a situation like this, but he could think of none. Even his origami dragons would be of no use now to light up the night, for they were a sopping wet mess in his component vest pocket.

Desperately he searched for Meghan, waving his hands around through the water. His lungs felt like they were going to burst. He came up for air and whipped his head around, looking for any sign of her, but there was nothing. Then down he went again.
Please!
he screamed in his mind, thinking of Lani and Samheed.
I can’t lose everyone.

That thought nearly made him break apart, but it also gave him the strength to dive deeper, to search harder. He surfaced once more, panting, and looked everywhere. Only the boat, upright again and drifting toward the shore, was visible. He knew there was no time to waste.