“In fact,” Alex said, bolstered by the reaction, “I can give you a similar layout to what you had before. I can even number the houses exactly the same, and just add some trees—and grass, if you want it—and schedule some occasional rain, which will help your living situations a lot. That way you won’t have to limit yourselves to two buckets of water a week. Your gardens and farms will flourish, and you and your livestock and chickens will have plenty to eat and drink.”
Mr. Appleblossom, who had been in charge of rescuing the livestock and chickens that had run from the fire into Artimé, nodded and smiled as the Quillens talked among themselves about this new development. Once Mr. Appleblossom had put all the farm animals in one place, he’d set up a nice corral behind the mansion where they wouldn’t be bothered or frightened by the owlbats, platyprots, and other strange creatures that roamed freely in Artimé. The Quillen animals were flourishing on the food, water, and care that Mr. Appleblossom and his helpers had been giving them.
Kaylee Jones, the American sailor whom Alex, Aaron, and Sky had rescued from the saber-toothed-gorilla-infested Island of Graves, had found a bit of comfort in the sight of animals that actually seemed normal to her, so she had joined Mr. Appleblossom’s team. She’d set up a petting zoo for the children from both worlds to enjoy, which was something she remembered loving from her own childhood. Carina’s son Seth and the younger set of Stowe twins, Thisbe and Fifer, were frequent visitors.
Now Kaylee stood off to one side with Sky, Samheed, and Lani, looking decidedly healthier than she’d been at the time of her rescue. Upon her arrival, she’d been shocked by the gray, desert land of Quill—perhaps more shocked by it than by Artimé—and wondered how anyone could turn down the opportunity to have enough fresh water to drink. Yet before her eyes, a small group of Wanteds stubbornly argued and shook their heads, complaining about ridiculous things. She marveled at the stark difference between the two kinds of people on this island, and was infinitely glad that her rescuers had come from Artimé.
As the crowd grew louder in their discussion over whether grass should be allowed, and whether they wanted it to rain more, Alex leaned toward his brother. “Now what do I do?” he whispered.
Aaron put a hand on the podium. “You want me to step in?” he asked quietly.
Alex frowned. “No, I can do it. Just tell me what to say to them, because I have no idea right now.”
One corner of Aaron’s mouth turned up slightly. “Tell them that if they try having grass in their yards and they don’t like it, we can always remove it so they can have dirt yards like before.”
Alex sighed. “But I don’t want to create dirt yards.”
“Think of all the drawing they can do in the dirt when it rains,” Aaron said, almost mischievously.
The look on Aaron’s face caught Alex by surprise, as so many things had in the past few months. His brother was a different person now, thanks to his time on the Island of Shipwrecks with the three old scientists: Ishibashi, Ito, and Sato. Alex still wasn’t sure if Aaron had gotten whacked on the head a little too hard when the pirates had kidnapped him—that’s how big his transformation was. But Aaron insisted he had still been an awful person when he’d first regained consciousness in the stone shelter, and Ishibashi had been quick to agree.
Alex smiled. “All right,” he said. His insides felt complete now that he had his brother beside him. The two of them standing together with the same goals in mind was a dream Alex never thought could come true. Not like this. Not as friends, anyway.
Alex stepped back to the podium and lifted his hand in the air for silence, which came quickly. The Quillens were nothing if not militant about letting the person at the podium speak—even if he was someone they didn’t trust. “We can always give it a try with the grass yards,” Alex said amicably, “and if it turns out you don’t like this luscious stuff massaging your bare feet every day, I will give you a dirt yard as before. Aaron will see to it.”
Aaron nodded his promise to the people, and that calmed them immediately.
“Leave it at that,” Aaron said under his breath. “Finish up—you’re about to lose them.”
Alex nodded. “Thank you, people of Quill. All in favor of having your own magical homes right where the old ones used to be, raise your hand.”
The Wanteds and Necessaries had never been asked to vote on anything before. They looked at one another, confused.
“Just go ahead and put your hand in the air like I’m doing,” Alex said, “if you want me to extend the magical world in order to give you your homes back. And if most of you agree, I’ll do it.”
Samheed stared from the audience and made a face at Alex.
Alex ignored him.
Aaron raised his hand as well to show the people. But no one wanted to be the first in the audience to do it.
“Okay, then,” Alex said, hesitating a bit, trying to figure out what to do next. “How about this: Everyone who would like to have their own home back as I proposed, just keep standing there with no hands in the air.”
No one moved.
“Good!” said Alex. “Excellent. That’s all of you. I’ll begin working on it right away. If everything goes well, we should have the first new homes ready in a matter of days. Thank you for coming!”