Island of Dragons (32 page)

“Oh good. I'm glad you're both here,” said Aaron. Artimé is in a terrible spot, and we need your help. Rock, will you help us?”

The rock hesitated. “Of course I'll help you. But I don't know how.”

“That's okay,” said Aaron, anxious to get his plan in motion. “I've got that figured out. I'll tell you in a moment, but for now, can you find me some dropbears?”

The rock, which had learned to trust the mage of Artimé with his entire heart, went immediately without question, and soon disappeared into the jungle.

“Panther,” Aaron said earnestly, kneeling down and stroking her on the head, “I need you to listen very carefully.”

Panther nodded her head and impulsively licked Aaron's face, nearly knocking him over in his exhausted state.

“Good girl,” said Aaron. “Please fetch me as many of the vine spiders as you can find and bring them right back to me. Quickly now, all right?”

Panther darted off and disappeared.

“Stay in the tube,” Aaron ordered the squirrelicorns. “I'll be right back.” He broke into a run down a small path in the jungle. “Where are you, you little terror?” he called out in a kind voice. He looked up in trees and down on the ground, trying to find the camouflaged dog with the deadly spiked teeth.

Finally the pup jumped out at him and bit his arm. Aaron was ready for it, and knocked the dog loose before his grip could take hold. Aaron picked the dog up and held him at an arm's length, then ran back to the tube where the squirrelicorns cowered. Panther stood over them. A pile of vine spiders sat next to the tube.

“Panther, please leave the squirrelicorns alone. They are not edible.” Panther sat back on her haunches. Aaron held the dog up to show the squirrelicorns, leaving a safe distance between them. “One of you take this dog. If you hold him just right, he won't bite your leg off. Go straight through the tube and out of the mansion, and deposit the dog on the nearest enemy ship, and then come back immediately. Who is willing?”

All three of the brave squirrelicorns volunteered, so Aaron chose one and had the other two exit the tube. Aaron showed the chosen squirrelicorn the button he'd need to push, and then explained how to push all of the buttons at once in the mansion's tube in order to return.

Aaron carefully handed off the grinning dog, stood aside, and watched the squirrelicorn poke the button with his horn and disappear.

The ground shook again. Aaron, Panther, and the two squirrelicorns turned sharply to see what was coming, and they watched as the rock rolled into the area. Upon it sat six dropbears.

“That's perfect,” Aaron said to the rock. “Hold tight there for a minute until our other squirrelicorn returns.”

A moment later, the first squirrelicorn returned without the dog. “Job completed, sir,” he said.

“Excellent work,” said Aaron. “Okay, now this next part is going to be a little more difficult. I need each of you squirrelicorns to take two dropbears. They'll hold on to your bodies, but you need to hold on to them as well so they don't fall onto land. We need all six of these to go to the ship Queen Eagala is on. The way to do this is to fly overhead and hover there, and the dropbears will let go when they see a person they want to eat. Got it?”

The squirrelicorns contained their horror like professionals and confirmed that they understood completely.

Aaron set up the squirrelicorns with one dropbear clinging to each of their back legs. The squirrelicorns gripped the dropbears' fur with their claws, their wings flapping to keep them aloft. Aaron helped everyone squeeze inside the tube, and then said, “Once your bears have dropped, find Florence, tell her what we're doing, and ask her to come to the hole in the side of the mansion. I'm going to need some help.”

“Yes, sir!” said the squirrelicorns. The dropbears were silent, but looked pleased to be going on an adventure. A moment later they all disappeared, and Aaron was left standing with Panther and the rock.

Aaron turned to the rock. “I'm going to take Panther with me. She's trained now. I think we'll be okay—I'm taking the vine spiders, too.”

“And how can I help?” asked the rock. “Or . . . is my work finished?” He seemed sad to think it.

“Your work is definitely not finished,” said Aaron. “If you're willing, I'd like you to go farther than you've ever ventured before,” said Aaron. “Will you leave the jungle? Forge a path to the lawn and help Artimé?”

The rock seemed intensely excited about the proposition. “I—I will. If you think it's best.”

“I do,” said Aaron earnestly. “I believe you can help us a lot. We can use you to hide behind, and inside your mouth if you don't mind. And maybe if you find any other creatures along the journey who might do damage on board a ship, you could bring them along as well.”

The rock rose up a little straighter. “I can certainly do all of those things,” he said.

Aaron smiled and placed his hand on the side of the rock. “Thank you. And thank you for trusting me so willingly. You've been such a good friend to me, and, well, I don't . . . I don't actually deserve it.” Aaron cringed, and realized he couldn't ask the rock to do such a major thing as this under false pretenses. His time to confess had come. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and forged ahead with it.

“You see,” Aaron went on, “I'm not actually who you think I am. I'm not Alex. I'm Alex's twin brother, Aaron. And I've been . . . I've been lying to you. All this time. I'm dreadfully sorry, and I haven't found a good way to tell you once I knew I had to. I just hope that you will forgive me. And I understand if you don't want to be a part of this now. I truly do.”

The rock rumbled loud and low. “I know,” he said.

Aaron hazarded a glance. “You know . . . what?”

“I know that you are Aaron. Marcus told me about you, too.”

Aaron stared. “How long have you known?”

The rock thought for a moment. “I suspected from the beginning when you knew absolutely nothing about fixing Panther's tail. And when you began playing fetch with Panther, I became certain. Marcus told me I'd know the difference between you boys because you are right-handed and Alex is left-handed.”

Aaron was flabbergasted. “You let me lie to you all this time? Even though I was hated by all of Artimé?” he asked.

The rock smiled, revealing a glimpse inside his cavernous mouth. “Marcus didn't hate you. He said you were misunderstood. A misfit, just like us. I thought you probably belonged here in the jungle.”

Aaron didn't know what to think. And there wasn't time to process.

“I'm sure you're needed back in battle. I'll be off now,” said the rock. “I'll wait on the lawn until I'm needed.” With that, the rock moved surprisingly fast over the paths, almost with a spring in his stride.

“Unbelievable,” Aaron murmured. He piled the spiders inside the tube, stepped in, and looked at Panther. “Looks like it's just you and me and the spiders now,” he said. “Can I trust you?”

Panther was ridiculously still, appearing to be frozen. For a horrible second, Aaron wondered if Alex had been killed and Artimé was gone, all the statues and creatures freezing in their tracks as they'd done before. But then Aaron remembered who was head mage. And Panther opened her mouth and screamed in his face.

When Aaron got over the shock of it, he called her to join him in the tube. Panther rose on her hind legs and put her front paws on Aaron's shoulders, and when she had squeezed fully inside the tube, Aaron pushed the button. Soon Panther was in Artimé once more.

A
aron and Panther nearly fell out of the tube into the kitchenette. It had been a tight squeeze. Aaron gathered up the spiders, and then he led Panther down the hallway to Alex's living quarters.

Florence stood outside the hole looking in at them. Her eyes widened when she saw the panther. “You're either brilliant or a total idiot, Aaron Stowe,” she said brusquely. “I'm hoping for brilliant, but quite honestly we'll take anything right now.” Florence eyed the killer panther warily. “Which ship does she go on?”

“I want to keep her here on land,” said Aaron, trying to sound more confident than he was.

Florence looked at him. “Won't she kill randomly like she did Eva Fathom?”

Aaron hesitated. “I'm confident that she will follow my commands. I've been training her for quite some time now.”

“Ah, so that's where you go off to when you head down the mage's hallway,” said Florence. “Simber and I have a bet going, and neither one of us is right. I'm kind of mad about it.”

“Yes,” said Aaron. “That's where. Alex doesn't know . . . I still have to tell him, so if you could maybe not mention it . . .”

“There will be time for you to tell him after we win this war,” said Florence. She reached up and stroked Panther's head. “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “I guess I trust you.”

She was looking at Panther but talking to Aaron. Or at least that's what Aaron thought. “I'll try not to let you down,” Aaron said.

“Even if she kills randomly,” muttered Florence, “she's got an eighty percent chance of getting a pirate.” Florence helped Aaron down with his bundle of vine creations, then picked up Panther and set her beside him. “I'll go with you. We could really use a big distraction to give our people a minute to breathe.”

They went around the mansion. Panther began to shake with excitement at the activity on the lawn. She clearly recognized this place.

“Stay with me, Panther,” said Aaron, and he began talking softly to her as they entered the fight scene. People moved out of the way when they saw them coming. Aaron dropped all the spiders at his feet except for one, and stroked Panther's neck at the same time. And then he started singling out the biggest, meanest pirates. He wound his arm back and let the first spider soar through the air, hitting a startled pirate in the shoulder with it.

“Attack!” he cried.

Panther needed no further urging. She took three powerful bounds and leaped at the pirate, shoving him to the ground. Her giant jaws opened wide, and her gleaming teeth dripped with saliva. It was lights out forever for the man.

“Panther!” Aaron commanded. Panther came bounding back with the spider daintily in her mouth and set it at Aaron's feet. He threw another spider at a pirate, commanding Panther to attack her. And another, and another, and another. With no one daring to come near him, Aaron realized he could probably play this game for as long as his arm held out.

By the time Alex noticed what was happening, Panther had taken down nine pirates, the little dog had terrorized the entire top deck of one of the Warbler ships and had headed belowdecks, and the dropbears were having a terrific lunch on board Queen Eagala's ship. By the time the enormous rock burst out of the jungle and rolled into Artimé, Alex was dashing into the mansion with an idea of his own.

The rock moved over the lawn toward Aaron and Panther, and several pirates ran in the other direction, holding their fighting to see what was happening this time.

“Aaron,” said the rock, barely opening his mouth, “I brought a jungle friend to help.”

Aaron's eyes widened. He tried to think of other creatures he'd met in the jungle, but his brain was fuzzy from lack of sleep. He shook his head dumbly. “Who is it?”

“It's the scorpion.” The rock was clearly pleased with himself. He opened up his mouth, and there in the cavernous space was an enormous orange scorpion, tail swishing, pinchers waving. And with the rock's mouth open, it saw its chance for escape. The scorpion darted out and jumped down onto the lawn, squirming and charging unpredictably.

Screams resounded, and Aaron yelled louder than anyone. “FLORENCE! SIMBER! HELP!” Valiantly he threw himself on the poisonous tail and held on, trying to avoid the deadly stinger and keep it from hitting anyone from Artimé. It didn't take long for the scorpion to buck Aaron off and send him sailing. Panther chased after him.

Florence came running and jumped on the beast's back. They twisted and fought over the torn up lawn, rolling over bodies and flipping through the air. The scorpion's tail slashed and struck out as Florence tried to pin the thing to the ground.

Simber swooped in, Florence rolled the scorpion on top of her, and Simber grabbed it with his claws and lifted it into the air. He flew straight out over the water to a ship that hadn't seen any exciting creatures yet and dropped it on board, just barely dodging the swinging catapult arm that all the ships had ready, like giant flyswatters, to keep Simber from getting too close.

A moment later, on the next ship over, an enormous mastodon statue appeared on deck, completely still, crushing the ship's catapult with his weight. Alex came running out of the mansion as Simber was returning to shore, and Simber, anticipating what was happening, swooped in low over land.