“Maybe Simber and I should join Ms. Octavia and Sean on the ship,” said Alex. “They seem to be getting the most work accomplished since they’re staying out of the direct line of fire and actually taking down some of the pirates and Warblerans. Have they disabled the ship nearest them yet?”
Simber craned his neck to look at the ship, and narrowed his eyes. “Definitely not. Therrre’s still plenty of movement on boarrrd the enemy ship.” He looked harder. “But something’s strrrange on ourrrs. Sean and severrral otherrrs appearrr to be lying down.”
“Are they hurt?”
“I don’t think so. Now Octavia’s waving.”
“That seems . . . odd,” said Alex, pausing to wipe the sweat off his brow. “Are their squirrelicorns all right?”
Simber frowned. “I don’t see any squirrrelicorrrns.” He sampled the air and rose up on his hindquarters to see better. “Wherrre’s that annoying little mutt?”
“What?” asked Alex. “You mean Fox?”
“Yes, of courrrse,” said Simber.
“I sent him to eavesdrop on the lead ship, remember?”
“I rrrememberrr,” said Simber. “But he’s not therrre, eitherrr.”
Alex put a hand to his forehead to block the sun, which was turning orange and sitting low on the horizon by this time. “Where can he be?”
Simber lowered himself to the ground. “He’s not therrre,” he said again with a shrug. “Oh well. We should check on Octavia.”
Alex frowned. “No, not oh well,” he said, indignant. “Come up here and get me. We need to find Fox and see what’s going on over at the ship. And where’s Claire?”
Florence hoisted herself up onto the corner of the mansion roof and looked around the island, then let herself down again, not wanting to damage it. “The white boat is floating on the north side, directly opposite us.”
Simber flew up to the mansion roof, balancing delicately on the edge of it and putting his wing out for Alex. Alex grabbed it and vaulted onto Simber’s back as another round of flaming tar balls let loose from the catapults. Simber dodged them and flew to Artimé’s ship.
When Ms. Octavia saw them coming, she began waving with several of her arms. As Simber and Alex drew near, she cried out, “I thought you’d never notice us. I was about to swim in to get you, but I didn’t want to leave the ship with everybody like this.” She quickly fired half a dozen spell components at the ship next to them, but the pirates held up shields and only one component found its mark. The others plinked against the shields and fell into the water.
“What’s wrong?” asked Alex, leaning forward, and then he gasped. Several humans were lying lifeless on the deck, and all of the ship’s squirrelicorns were spread out on top of Captain Ahab’s headless body. The captain’s head rolled around in a corner with the ebb and flow of the waves.
Ms. Octavia looked wearily at Alex. “What’s wrong? Clearly a lot of things, Alex. A lot of things.”
As Darkness Falls
As soon as Alex hopped off Simber’s back to the deck of Artimé’s ship, Warblerans from the nearby ship appeared at their railing with thin tubes, which they put to their mouths.
“Look out!” cried Ms. Octavia, shoving Alex out of the way as the Warblerans blew into their tubes. “Sleep darts!”
Alex ducked behind a stack of crates as a few of the darts pinged off Simber and landed on the deck.
“That’s what happened,” Ms. Octavia explained. “Captain Ahab brought us too close to the Warbler ship and they hit everybody on board except me with their sleep darts. The squirrelicorns all took hits too, and fell off the mast. They landed deadweight on poor Ahab and broke his head clean off.”
“Oh dear,” muttered Alex. He called out to Simber, “Cover me while I try to steer this thing closer to shore.”
Simber lowered himself in the air and hovered, giving Alex a chance to make a break for the ship’s wheel. He was glad for his bit of experience at steering the great ship, even though at that time he’d been heading into a hurricane. But at least he’d gotten a taste of it. Now he guided the wheel properly, and then ran to adjust the sails so they could move away from the Warbler ship.
“What else is happening?” asked Alex.
“There are a mix of Warblerans and pirates aboard all the ships as far as I can tell,” said Ms. Octavia. “The pirates have shields that must have some sort of magic treatment to them. I don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely a barrier that makes my components bounce off the shields without activating. I’ve been testing various spells while I’ve been trapped here in this corner, and just about all the component spells seem to be useless against the pirate shields. Watch.”