Alex stood firm. “Please. I need to.”
Simber regarded Alex for a long moment, and then wearily he nodded, knowing the mage wouldn’t be satisfied until he had at least tried. “Let’s fly out therrre, then.”
Alex nodded. He let Florence know what he was about to do, and she agreed it couldn’t hurt, though she, too, doubted anything could come of it.
The head mage of Artimé climbed onto Simber’s back. Simber bounded along the shore and leaped into the air, flapping his mighty wings. They flew high over the ships, Simber using his keen sight to search for signs of Queen Eagala on the vessels.
They found her on a pirate ship straight out from the mansion, standing with a male pirate on deck.
Simber lowered himself slowly over the ship. Alex leaned to one side and looked down at them. “Queen Eagala!” he called out. “Will you speak with me?”
Queen Eagala rose to her full height, reminding Alex so much of Eagala’s sister, the late high priest Justine. “Captain Baldhead and I warn you that there is no stopping this without full reparations for the wrongs you have done to our islands,” she replied.
“What is it that you want?” asked Alex.
“The Island of Warbler demands the return of all Warblerans.”
“Including the ones you so foolishly catapulted onto our shores?” asked Alex. “I thought they were a gift.”
Eagala’s face burned with rage. The golden Warbler pin on her garment flashed as it caught the sunlight. “Every last one of our children and our escapees, plus the two intruders, Lani and Samheed, whom you kidnapped.”
Alex held his voice steady. “And the pirates? What do they want?”
The pirate captain growled in a deep voice, “We want our underwater glass cage fully repaired and all the sea creatures returned to us, plus ten million pieces of gold for the two eels you murdered.”
Alex almost laughed at the impossible demands. There was no way Alex would send anyone back to live under the rule of the evil queen, and there was no way Alex would give the pirates the sea creatures that had been free and lived peacefully on the Island of Legends. As for gold, he didn’t have a single piece to offer, much less ten million of them. “Anything else while you’ve got me here?” he asked sarcastically.
The pirate continued. “We want the hurricane restored to the Island of Shipwrecks, or we’ll have to take control of it and find a new home for your little friends on the Island of Graves.”
Alex’s heart dropped at the threat of harming the scientists, and then his temper flared. “What else?” he barked at them through gritted teeth.
Queen Eagala snarled. “We want you.”
“That’s right,” said the pirate captain, pulling a sword from his belt and brandishing it. “We want you. Dead.” He turned to look over his shoulder. “First Mate Twitch, prepare the fleet.”
The young man named Twitch pulled on a rope, which raised a black flag high in the air.
“What do you say, child?” asked Queen Eagala, her voice mocking.
“I don’t agree to any of your demands,” said Alex. “And you’ll regret all of your decisions by the end of the day.” Alex pressed his fingers hard against Simber’s neck. “Simber,” he said, pulling heart attack spells from his robe. “Attack!”
The Return of the Catapults
Captain Baldhead signaled the first mate, and suddenly the air was filled with the thwapping echo of catapults releasing all around the perimeter of the island.
“Heart attack!” Alex cried amid the din, pulling back his arm to fling a handful of spell components at the captain and Eagala. But just as he released the components, an orange flaming ball of tar came flying at them from close range, hitting Simber in the right flank, knocking the cheetah sideways in the air, and throwing Alex off balance. His legs jarred loose from Simber’s sides, and Alex slipped off the statue’s back and crashed to Eagala’s ship below. One of his heart attack spells hit a random pirate, dropping her, and the others went flying into the sea.
Alex lay on the deck for a moment, stunned, as Eagala barked out orders and silent Warbler men and women rushed over to capture him. But Simber dove down, plowing into the people and scattering them far and wide. He snatched Alex up in his jaws, with one orange-eyed woman grabbing on to Simber’s open mouth and hanging by her fingertips as Simber soared out of reach. They rose higher and higher.
Alex lifted his head and looked over the edge of Simber’s mouth. The woman’s eyes were wide and frightened. Alex stared at her for a long moment, knowing she’d drown if she fell into the water, and then he grabbed her wrists and hung on as Simber carried them the short distance to land.