“It’s the scorpion.” The rock was clearly pleased with himself. He opened up his mouth, and there in the cavernous space was an enormous orange scorpion, tail swishing, pinchers waving. And with the rock’s mouth open, it saw its chance for escape. The scorpion darted out and jumped down onto the lawn, squirming and charging unpredictably.
Screams resounded, and Aaron yelled louder than anyone. “FLORENCE! SIMBER! HELP!” Valiantly he threw himself on the poisonous tail and held on, trying to avoid the deadly stinger and keep it from hitting anyone from Artimé. It didn’t take long for the scorpion to buck Aaron off and send him sailing. Panther chased after him.
Florence came running and jumped on the beast’s back. They twisted and fought over the torn up lawn, rolling over bodies and flipping through the air. The scorpion’s tail slashed and struck out as Florence tried to pin the thing to the ground.
Simber swooped in, Florence rolled the scorpion on top of her, and Simber grabbed it with his claws and lifted it into the air. He flew straight out over the water to a ship that hadn’t seen any exciting creatures yet and dropped it on board, just barely dodging the swinging catapult arm that all the ships had ready, like giant flyswatters, to keep Simber from getting too close.
A moment later, on the next ship over, an enormous mastodon statue appeared on deck, completely still, crushing the ship’s catapult with his weight. Alex came running out of the mansion as Simber was returning to shore, and Simber, anticipating what was happening, swooped in low over land.
Alex jumped on the cheetah’s back, and with barely an explanation, Simber knew exactly what to do. He landed on top of the mastodon. Alex slid off him and crouched low on the stone beast to avoid the sleep darts that were being blown at him. The world watched, straining to hear what was happening.
Whispers of “It’s Ol’ Tater!” went around the lawn. Within seconds the mastodon came alive and began stomping around on the pirate ship. Simber grabbed Alex by the robe collar before he could get flung off Ol’ Tater’s back, and they cleared the area, flying over to Artimé’s ship and pausing on board for a moment to see what would happen next.
In a mad rush from the four vessels nearest Artimé, pirates and Warblerans began to abandon ship at a remarkable pace. Once in the water, many of them cried out for help because they couldn’t swim. The pirates on the lawn stopped fighting and watched what was happening, and as the sun set behind the ships, they began running for the small boats on shore that hadn’t been crushed by Simber. Shoving off in a panic, they retreated to their ships to rescue their drowning people.
? ? ? ?
The Artiméans would sleep that night.
But the ships didn’t go away.
Death Be Not Proud
When all the pirates had retreated, Aaron caught his breath and decided he’d pushed his luck with Panther about as far as it could go. As the other Artiméans moved slowly back to the mansion, Aaron made the trip back to the jungle with her. And with his arm aching and no longer fit to throw endless amounts of vine spiders, he thanked her and said good-bye, promising he’d visit again when the war was over.
When he returned to the mansion, he went straight to his room, completely exhausted. And with the absence of the adrenaline came the growth of the aching from his multitude of wounds. He hadn’t died. But he hurt so badly he almost wished he could. At this moment he was especially glad not to be the head mage, with all the responsibilities that went with it. He poured himself a bath.
Alex’s first duty once quiet had descended on the island was to extend the hospital ward to a size it had never been before, adding fifty more beds so those injured who’d been deposited in the entryway for lack of space would finally have one. Even with the extra beds, the ward was nearly filled, and all non-injured and visitors were sent out of the crowded ward so the overworked nurses could do their best to handle everyone who needed help.
Carina came into the mansion, dropped her sword and shield, cleaned up, and started a shift in the hospital ward with hardly a blink of an eye. She knew the hospital workers were in trouble without Henry there, and she dove in to help.
Samheed, having been banished by the nurses from sitting at Mr. Appleblossom’s side, retreated to the grand marble staircase. Lani sat with him.
Alex, unable to retire to his disastrous private quarters, and frankly not wanting to be there without Clive, got cleaned up in his old room in the boys’ hallway and then joined his friends on the stairs.
Before long Sky came in search of them and sat down too. Weary, all four eventually stretched out and fell asleep on the stairs. Sky slept on the stair below Alex, Lani on the one above, and Samheed on the stair above Lani. Simber watched over them, pacing through the rubble, going from window to window to watch for movement and checking in with Florence, who patrolled outside.