Aaron smiled. It was strange how he hadn’t thought about the jungle for weeks, and then it just popped into his mind. “It’s good to be back,” he said, and despite everything that had happened with Secretary, he meant it. He knew the panther hadn’t meant to do anything wrong. It was his fault, not hers.
He took a length of vine and fixed her tail, magically melding the pieces together like before, with only a small fraction of the anxiety this time.
The panther screeched in appreciation. Aaron bent down so his face aligned with hers. Her fangs glistened.
“You’re so smart,” Aaron told the panther. “You know that, right?” He tapped a finger nervously on his knee, debating what to do. Finally, he just decided to explain it, wanting the rock to hear as well.
“I have two tricks I’d like to teach you, Panther,” he said. “The first one is called down. When I say ‘down,’ I want you to sit next to me and not move, no matter what is happening around you.”
The panther lunged, licking Aaron with her cold stone tongue and knocking him off his feet.
“Yeah?” Aaron asked, getting up. “Do you understand me? I highly doubt it,” he said. “But you will.”
The panther panted and screamed.
“She understands. But that doesn’t mean she’ll do it.” The rock moved a few feet closer. “That’s the reason she’s here, you know. What’s the second trick?” he asked.
Aaron looked up. “I’m afraid there’s trouble brewing in Artimé, my rocky friend. The second trick I need to teach the panther is called attack.”
The rock’s eyes drew closer together in concern. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” it growled.
“No, I’m not,” Aaron said, surprising himself with how forthcoming he was being today. “But to be honest, it’s the only hope I have.”
Calm Seas
The patchwork ship soon left the Island of Shipwrecks and the giant hurricane far behind. The Artiméans were so glad to be dry again, and Alex was even gladder to have Simber back with them once more. A quick consultation with the cat convinced Alex that Artimé was not in imminent danger. Simber reassured Alex that everything was under control and running smoothly, and that he would give him more details of future concerns once they had the ship in order.
And the ship was going to be a great task. It had lost most of its original rigging and tools, and because of the hurricane the Artiméans had to stow all of the salvaged replacement items, food, and rainwater belowdecks to keep them from blowing away. By the end of the day they had repositioned everything in its proper place, and the non-statues quite fairly collapsed in exhaustion at the first hint of darkness after their harrowing day.
» » « «
By morning, once all the shipboard duties had been portioned out and things were running efficiently on the calm waters, Alex and the others finally had time to tell Simber all that had happened while he was gone.
Simber took specific interest in the shipwreck that contained the military vehicles.
Alex explained, “Ishibashi—he’s the guy you scared half to death—said that nobody was on board when the ship wrecked. Isn’t that weird?”
Simber frowned. “Yes, it’s a little strrrange, unless they abandoned ship when they firrrst enterrred the storrrm. Even strrrangerrr, I rrrecall Marrrcus saying something yearrrs ago about a ship just like it that had come limping to Quill back when he and Justine initially inhabited the island, beforrre the wall went up. The ship had been thrrrough some wrrretched storrrm, I guess. Perrrhaps it was the same hurrricane you’ve been living through.”
“Maybe . . . but if they escaped it and made it to Quill, how did they end up right back in the hurricane again? You’d think they’d know enough to steer clear.”
“You’d think. But they did drrrop some of theirrr vehicles on Quill to lighten theirrr load. That’s how Justine got them. Perrrhaps therrre werrre two ships, and only one was able to make it to Quill.” He fell quiet for a moment, thinking. “If I rrrecall, Marrrcus said something about a warrr.” The cat shook his head. “I don’t rrremember. I wasn’t that interrrested in the storrry back then, so I doubt I asked many questions.” He puzzled some more as he flew.
Alex puzzled along with him on the deck below. “I suppose there’s a book about it somewhere,” he said, rolling his eyes. “There always is.”
Simber chuckled. “I suppose. Marrrcus did a lot of wrrriting.”
“It’ll be nice to be home,” Alex said after a time.
Henry joined them and entertained Simber for hours with stories of Ishibashi and the greenhouse, though he stayed true to Ishibashi’s instructions and didn’t mention the glowing seaweed.
Every now and then Henry checked his vest’s interior pocket to make sure the container was still there, and it always was. When he had exhausted all his stories, he went in search of a bit of wire. Once he found something that would suffice, he fashioned a magical fastener for the container’s pocket that would only open on his command. He felt proud that Ishibashi trusted him to make wise decisions, and he took Ishibashi very seriously when he said the seaweed should never fall into the wrong hands. Henry imagined someone horrible like Aaron Stowe getting ahold of it, and imagined what would happen if a tyrant like that had the ability to live forever. It would be absolutely terrible for everyone else, he knew that much. It could cause the downfall of the whole world!