Simber soared over the ships one at a time, listening to the gruff shouts from the pirates below them and taking in the ship designs and vast number of pirates and Warblerans on board each one—the ships’ top decks were jam-packed with sailors, and who knew how many more were belowdecks. Simber kept his worries to himself. They were in this. There was no use adding more gloom to the situation. Alex would figure it out soon enough.
When they’d looked over all the ships within a reasonable distance for Fox to swim to, Simber circled back, and in the waning light, he looked one last time at Queen Eagala’s ship. Simber’s ears twitched and rotated as the great cat took in a multitude of conversations below, listening for Fox.
And suddenly, as Kitten was finishing the grooming of her left front paw, both she and Simber simultaneously jumped to attention.
“Mewmewmew!” said Kitten.
“Indeed,” said Simber. He reduced his altitude near the lead ship where Queen Eagala and Captain Baldhead had been earlier in the day, and Alex strained along with the cats to listen for the voice of their missing comrade. And soon enough, Alex could make it out too.
“I am definitely not a delicious sort of animal,” Fox was saying. “I’m basically made out of a tree stump. Do you really want a sliver in your gums? They can be very painful . . . or so I hear.”
“What’s happening?” Alex said, squinting as he tried to locate Fox on the ship.
“I see him,” said Simber. “He’s in a cage. I’m going in to grrrab it. Hang on.”
Alex shoved Kitten back into his pocket and gripped the cheetah around the neck. Simber dove toward the deck, legs outstretched. He glided as shouts rose up from on board, and the zing of swords being pulled from scabbards rang through the air.
Alex flattened himself against Simber’s back, his stomach sickened by the quick drop. As Simber reached his front legs out, he gave an enormous roar. He caught the roof of the cage where Fox was cowering and lifted up, but the bottom of the cage was attached to the deck. The top of it ripped off and the sides fell open, leaving Fox free but frozen in fear.
Simber threw the top panel of the cage at the sailors nearest Fox and lifted himself back in the air, then swooped around and headed back to snatch the canine. As he dove over the ship and picked him up, several Warblerans put tiny tubes to their mouths and sent darts flying. At the same time an enormous eel exploded from the water.
The eel wrapped its body around Simber’s neck as a sleep dart stuck fast in Alex’s back. Alex slumped lifeless against Simber, and all three Artiméans, plus Kitten in Alex’s pocket, went crashing over the railing and plunged into the water.
A Watery Grave
Alex, unconscious from the sleep dart, slid off Simber’s back and drifted toward the bottom of the sea. Fox bobbed in the water, unable to sink, and Simber thrashed and pawed at the eel, trying to loosen its grip around his neck. He chomped and bit at the creature and flapped his mighty wings trying to knock the eel away and free himself.
With a tremendous surge of effort, Simber’s stone wing caught the eel in the head. The eel’s body slacked, and Simber pulled himself loose. He kicked and bit at the eel, trying to kill it, but the eel was too fast. It slithered away into the dark water to nurse its wounds.
Simber continued to thrash his wings to keep from torpedoing downward. He managed to push himself above the surface. “Wherrre’s Alex?” he roared at Fox.
“H-h-he sank!” cried Fox.
“Blast it!” Simber cried. He let gravity take over and dropped through the water as if he were falling through air. His head turned wildly this way and that, looking and listening for Alex. Had the eel taken off with him? If Alex sank, he must have been unconscious. Had he been injured when they crashed through the railing? Simber hadn’t seen what happened. All he knew was that he had to find Alex fast.
After what seemed like far too long, Simber spotted movement. He swam toward it and saw it was Alex’s robe, swishing in the cloudy water. Simber lunged for it, gripped Alex in his jaws, and used the sea floor to push off. Flapping his wings to project himself upward, Simber soon burst from the water. He snagged Fox with one paw before the pirates could fish him out of the water and continued flapping. Alex hung limp, facedown, from Simber’s mouth, and Simber gently pressed on Alex’s chest with his jaws. Water dribbled from Alex’s mouth and nose, and he coughed and wretched violently, giving Simber hope. But the mage remained dead asleep.
Florence saw them coming.
Simber tossed Fox unceremoniously to the grass and landed on the shore by the mansion. Florence grabbed Alex and ran him inside, into the hospital ward. Simber followed close behind. Nurses gathered around and began working on him even before Simber had a chance to explain what had happened.