“Ah, but you forget that I am not actually either of those animals, not even a little bit. I only look like a combination of them. I was created from items found in the sea—seaweed, shells, plant life.”
“I remember that now,” Alex said, thinking back to when all of Artimé was gone and Ms. Octavia’s body had morphed into those materials. “So what exactly is the real dilemma here? I think it’s like I told Lani yesterday. I can’t create a third arm and attach it to her, and expect it to work like the other two arms, can I? Because she was born a living human, and magic and human parts can’t communicate. A third arm would need blood and muscle and bone connected to the rest of the body, and magic can’t create that, can it?”
“No magic that I know,” said Ms. Octavia. She tapped her snout thoughtfully as a second tentacle began jotting down notes and a third picked up her coffee mug and brought it to her mouth. She took a sip and swallowed.
As they sat thinking, there was a knock on the door. Aaron poked his head in.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked.
Alex frowned. He wanted to be the one who figured this out, not his freak prodigy brother. But then he reluctantly admitted it was silly of him to be acting so petty about Aaron’s abilities. Alex needed Aaron, just like he needed his other friends for the various things they were good at. And then he remembered Aaron would be leaving soon, perhaps for good, and the empty feeling gnawed at him.
“No, you’re not interrupting,” said Alex. “We’re talking about dragon wings and . . . and I think maybe you can help us. Unless you can’t stay, of course.” Alex tried not to look hopeful.
“I was just looking for you to see if you were getting lunch,” Aaron said. “Of course I’ll stay, but I don’t know what help I’ll be.”
“Okay. Great, then. We’ll get something to eat afterward if you can wait,” Alex said.
“If I can wait?” Aaron nearly laughed. “I’m from Quill. Of course I can wait for food. I’m just thrilled to know there is some. Also, I was wondering about Henry. Is there any news? And if it’s all right for me to, you know, go home. To Ishibashi’s, I mean.”
“Ah, yes—sorry,” Alex said. “I meant to tell you. I should be able to get you back to the Island of Shipwrecks very soon, but I was sort of hoping to finish the dragon project first. Then we can set off together, attach the wings, and continue on to the Island of Shipwrecks.”
“Oh,” Aaron said. “All right.” He was only a little put off that Alex wasn’t going to jump into the boat today to take him away. “Of course that’s fine. I don’t want to inconvenience you.” He came and sat down with them. “What’s going on?”
Alex filled Aaron in on the conversation so far.
Aaron listened intently, and when Alex reintroduced the third-arm scenario, he closed his eyes, a perplexed look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.
Aaron didn’t answer at first, and then he said, “So you’re saying that you wouldn’t be able to give Lani a third arm because you can’t create human blood and bones and things like that, and for this same reason you can’t make dragon wings.” He opened his eyes and looked inquisitively at Alex.
“Right,” said Alex. “I know you think you can do this, but—”
“I can,” said Aaron. “You’re making it too complicated.”
Ms. Octavia nodded. “I think you may be right, Aaron. Why do the wings need to have dragon’s blood and bones and muscles in them in order to work?”
“Because they have to grow with the body when it grows,” Alex explained, feeling a bit exasperated. “See, the dragons are small. About my size right now. And Pan said they’ll stay around this size for another ten years or so, but then they’ll grow rapidly, and they’ll continue growing until they’re a hundred years old. And if the wings aren’t made of actual dragon parts, then once the dragons start to grow, their magical wings won’t grow with them. And they’ll be useless because the dragons will be too heavy for the wings to support.”
Aaron sighed, and Ms. Octavia looked at Alex. “I’m sorry, Alex,” Ms. Octavia said, “but I don’t think it’s possible to provide the dragons with body parts that will grow with them. There are limits to our magic for good reason. And this is one of them. Don’t you agree?”
Alex pushed his hair off his forehead thoughtfully. “I guess so,” he said. “So what do I do? Make prosthetic magical wings that cease to be useful once they have their growth spurt?” He leaned forward and said quietly, “I think she wants to keep her children away from the pirates.”
“By the time they grow, maybe they won’t need to fly to get away from the pirates anymore,” Ms. Octavia said. “They’ll be big enough to fight them off.”
“Yes, exactly,” said Aaron. “So it’s really a simple solution. It’s no more difficult than using a vine to fix a—” He clamped his mouth shut.
“What?” asked Alex.
“Um, a rope,” Aaron said lamely. “Or,” he said, scrambling to come up with something, “no different from the heart attack spell. That spell has wings.”