Island of Legends (The Unwanteds) (6 page)

He frowned, trying to imagine what Mr. Today would say, and then followed his instincts. “Well, we have a few options here. Let’s see. Does anyone wish to be returned to Warbler? We will get you there safely. Don’t be afraid.” When no one moved, Alex said, “Uh, you don’t need to answer yet—let me give you all the options first.” He turned when he heard footsteps coming up the path toward him.

“Ah, good,” Alex said, relieved. “Crow, can you interpret for us?”

“Sure,” Crow said. He scanned the group. “Hey,” he said. His eyes alighted on the blond girl in the front. A look of recognition
passed between them. Crow studied her teary face for a long minute, and then turned to Alex. “You can ask them the questions yourself. But they can’t answer with the shackles on.”

“Oh. Of course. Which—?”

“Her,” Crow said, pointing to the girl. “I know her.”

Alex bent down next to Crow and said in a low voice, “Do you want to try to release the shackles?”

Crow shook his head. He wasn’t very good at magic. “You do it.”

Alex did. The shackles fell to the ground. The girl rubbed her wrists and signed, “Thank you.”

“Can you tell us . . . anything?” Alex wasn’t sure where to start. “Why did they use children in the catapults? Why did they leave you all here?”

The girl’s hands flew through the air. Crow watched. Sam and Lani did too, since they’d begun learning this language, but soon it was clear by the looks on their faces that they were lost. Every now and then Crow stopped her and reported her answers, and before long, the whole story came out.

“It was the parents,” Crow said. “When they heard that
Queen Eagala was going to attack, and how she was going to do it with the catapults, the parents began a secret mission to send the children on shore to fight. They convinced Queen Eagala’s ruling board that the catapults could fit more children because they are smaller. Their plan all along was to retreat without going back for them.”

“What? That’s terrible!” Lani cried.

“It’s just like Quill,” Samheed muttered.

“I can’t believe it,” Meghan said.

The girl began signing faster.

“No,” Crow said. He jumped up and down, trying to get the Unwanteds’ attention. “Not like Quill. Listen.”

Alex held up a hand to quiet everyone and addressed Crow. “What are you saying?”

“She says the people of Warbler—their parents—convinced the ruling board to send the children to attack because their parents were trying to
save
the kids.” He looked at the girl, whose hands had slowed. “Their parents did it so the children could escape Warbler for good. To give them a chance here in Artimé.” He turned to Alex. “They did it out of love.”

“So they’re not Unwanted at all,” Alex said. He tried to
imagine what it would be like to have to send your children off when you didn’t actually want to, in order to save them. It was kind of like what Lani’s parents did when they sent her to the Death Farm. Only she didn’t know it at first.

Samheed didn’t look convinced. “How do you know she’s telling the truth?”

Crow shrugged. “Because I know her. But mostly because that’s what parents are supposed to do.”

L
ater, with the nurses caring for the injured and several of Alex’s trusted friends monitoring the Warbler children to be sure they weren’t tricking the people of Artimé, Alex turned his thoughts back to the events of the previous night. Something had been bothering him.

He knew what it was, of course, but hadn’t had a spare moment to think about it. Now that things were settling down a bit, Alex frowned, deep in thought. Anger bubbled up inside him. He slipped past the busy Artiméans and made his way with a firm step up the stairs, across the balcony, and down the last hallway on the left. At the end of it, he turned
right and entered the tube. He pressed the first button.

In an instant he was reaching through the tube opening, feeling for the closet doors in the dark. He found them and pushed them open, stepped into Haluki’s stuffy office, and strode through the house to the front door, letting himself out into the overpowering desert heat of Quill. He walked up the short, dusty road to the larger main road that encircled Quill, and headed up the hill toward the palace.

As he drew near his identical twin brother’s lackluster residence, portions of his angry inner rant broke through his lips like bursts of steam from a kettle. He approached the rickety old gate. Two guards stood on the other side. “Open up,” he growled at the guards.

There was a moment of confusion as they looked at Alex, clearly mistaking him for Aaron but taken aback by the bright color of Alex’s robe. “It’s the brother,” one of them muttered. “I seen ’im before, wearing one a those ugly robes. Don’t let him in.”

The guards stood fast.

Alex clenched his jaw. He was in no mood for an argument. “Open the gate,” he said through gritted teeth, “or I’ll blast you.”

The guards drew their rusty metal weapons.

Alex’s brain had nearly heated to a boil. With a split-second movement, he reached inside his robe, pulled out two abstract spells, and flung them at the guards. Immediately their appendages spun around their bodies to different sockets, and their eyes and ears rearranged with their noses and mouths. The guards lost their balance and stumbled about, crying out.

Alex focused on the chain and lock and muttered, “Release.”

The chain fell in pieces to the dirt. Alex kicked the lock aside, opened the gate, and went up the driveway toward the palace door. Without comment, he stunned the door guard with a soliloquy. Inside the palace, Alex stood and looked around for a moment, unsure where to go. It had been a while since he’d been here, and he’d never gone upstairs before, but he had an inkling that would be where the palace chambers and offices would be.

He took the stairs two at a time. At the top, he rounded the corner and nearly ran smack into someone.

It was Eva Fathom, Carina’s mother. She gasped at the sight of him, then clapped her hand to her mouth, too late to stop it.

Alex stopped short and fought the urge to turn around and
go the other way. Eva’s betrayal, choosing Quill over Artimé and helping Aaron take down the magical world and its leader, still stung quite a bit. He cringed but held her gaze, and waited for her to shout a warning to Aaron that he was coming.

The two stood frozen, staring at one another in a most intense way, each wondering what the other would do next. After what seemed to Alex like the longest second in the history of time, Eva Fathom wordlessly stepped aside and pointed out the door to Aaron’s office.

A
lex remained still a moment longer, confused and surprised, and then brusquely nodded his thanks. He turned on his heel toward the office door while Eva slipped downstairs at a frightening speed for an old woman.

Alex shoved the door open. It slammed against the wall, and a giant hinge broke off, which made a dissonant clang when it bounced on the stone floor.

The High Priest Aaron Stowe jumped out of his seat, yelling out in fright. His pencil went flying, and the paper he was doodling on slipped to the floor. “What do you want?” Aaron
demanded, once he realized it was his brother standing before him. “Secretary!”

But Eva Fathom had been just swift enough to make it outside and, arguably, out of earshot. Alex caught a glimpse of her from Aaron’s window, walking along as if she hadn’t heard.

Alex picked up the paper, looking at Aaron’s ship drawings in disgust. He faced his brother, and the anger welled up again. He slammed the paper down on Aaron’s desk and gave him a cool stare. “You’re a disgusting coward.”

Aaron looked on in disdain. “Please,” he said with a sneer. “I’m the high priest of Quill. You’ll treat me with respect.” He snatched the paper and turned it facedown, out of Alex’s reach.

Alex laughed bitterly. “Right. Like how you treat me?”

“I don’t have to treat you with respect,” Aaron said. “You’re nobody.”

“I see.” Alex toyed with the spell components in his robe pocket. “Well, it may surprise you to realize that I am not under your command, so I don’t have to respect you. Nor do I. But I’m not here to quibble about that. I’m here to call you a coward, and to inform you that if you don’t do a better job of protecting
our
island, you might not remain high priest for long.”

Aaron glanced out the window at the forty-foot wall around Quill. “I’m taking care of
my
island just fine. In fact, further reinforcements go into place today.”

“We protected you.”

“From?”

“From Warbler Island’s attack. You saw the ships.”

Aaron barely shifted. “They weren’t attacking Quill.”

“We all live on this island, Aaron. And they didn’t get into Quill because we kept them at bay on our shore! We protected your people. And what did you do? You ran away and hid.” Alex could feel the bile rising to his throat. “You’re such a stinking coward! Next time we’ll let them in and point them in the direction of your cruddy palace.”

“No, actually, you won’t,” Aaron said coolly. “After today, there will no longer be an entrance into Quill.”

“What?” Alex looked confused for a moment, and then his eyes flew to the window once more. “You filled in the hole in the wall?” he said. “Why would you want to do that?”

“And we’re blocking over the space where the gate was as well. You’ll have to continue fighting battles on your own. I’m not interested. Justine had it right. And I have it even more
right. There will no longer be
any
vulnerable parts to our fortress.”

Alex gripped his head in frustration. “Aaron, not that I care to help you, but that’s a
huge
mistake. Just because you can’t
see
things happening doesn’t mean they aren’t happening! Besides, some of your Quillens visit—”

Aaron cut him off. “Actually, the fact that all of you exist is the huge mistake, and I do blame Justine for not being aware of what her nasty brother was doing. And I’m not stopping there. Once we’ve walled over the gate, I’ll be blockading your magical entrance to Haluki’s house. Since you haven’t destroyed your evil tube in Artimé, I’m going to have to do it here. We’ll never have to see each other again.”

Alex seethed. “Fine. You need us more than we need you, anyway.”

“Ha! Tell that to all the Unwanteds and Necessaries you starved. They’re all here in Quill!”

Alex worked his jaw. “When you come to regret this, remember that you sealed your own fate—literally. If you wall off all access, it will be for forever if I have anything to say about it.” He pulled himself up to his full height. “You want to
cut all ties? That’s completely fine with me. I don’t need you in my life—you’re just a cowardly, annoying fly buzzing about, being worthless.” He went on, growing more stubborn and reckless by the minute. “But make no mistake. If you do it, Artimé will never, ever help you again. Never.”

“As if I need help from a bunch of Unwanted losers.”

Alex glared at his brother. He glanced at the drawing on Aaron’s desk and shook his head, disgusted. “You could have been one of us.”

“Death would’ve been a better option.”

Alex clenched and unclenched his fists. And just before he turned to leave, he did something he knew was completely, utterly wrong. He wound up and punched Aaron smack in the jaw.

Aaron reeled, off balance, and flipped over his desk, landing hard on his back on the floor. He grunted, the wind knocked out of him.

“That’s for the day in the rain when we were ten,” Alex said. He shook his hand out, adjusted his robe around his neck, and set off, out of the palace.