“Stop!” shouted Aaron, horrified. He ran forward, lifted his sword, and sliced it across the back of the nearest pirate who was attacking the rock. The pirate screamed, dropped his sword, and fell to the ground. Aaron took a second swing at the next pirate.
And then the lawn exploded into battle once more. Simber ran at the small band of pirates, knocking them away from the rock with his mighty wings, trying not to hit any Artiméans by accident. Florence grabbed the dead pirate’s sword and began swinging, striking down pirates in the circle, two and three at a time. Simber turned and charged toward the circle as well, running a length of it and plowing down pirates and Warblerans in a long row.
Alex pulled his sword and ran toward Captain Baldhead, but a dozen pirates jumped in the way. Determined, Alex vowed to fight his way to the captain or die trying. He swung blindly with all his might, felling one after another, but there was always one more to take his place.
Meanwhile Daxel lifted his finger to his lips, and at first Copper thought he was asking her to be quiet, but then she realized it was a signal. Forty or fifty pirate slaves threw off their jackets and ripped open their shirt collars, revealing their thornaments. And then several dozen Warblerans removed golden Warbler bird emblems from their shirts and tossed them to the ground, and pulled colorful ribbons from their pockets and put them around their necks, distinguishing themselves from the rest of the Warblerans. Copper watched as one of them signed to her.
“The Warblerans with ribbons are fighting with Artimé!” she cried out. “They’re fighting for their children!”
Sky’s heart surged as she joined ranks with nearly a hundred orange-eyed people from both islands. She pulled out her sword, hoping the extra help was enough to give Artimé a chance.
And now, with all the pirate ships seemingly emptied, Simber flew out to Artimé’s ship to transport Sean, Ms. Octavia, and the others to shore to help in the fight, leaving the ship unprotected, but having no other choice—they needed all the help they could get on land.
Artimé surged, their numbers nearly doubled by the turn of events. But they were still vastly outnumbered, and the pirates and Warblerans fighting against them were bigger, stronger, and had more training for this kind of battle than the Artiméans. The magical land began to falter again.
In the intensity of the battle, no one noticed the eel lifting its head up out of the water and assessing the potential damage it could do on land.
And nobody noticed the other enormous sea creature coming toward Artimé at a fast clip.
It was only when Lani heard a familiar shout that she glanced up. Others around her turned as well, and their mouths dropped open. Many of them gasped. The pirates fighting them stopped and stared, leading still others to look out to the water. And soon the entire lawn of pirates, Warblerans, and Artiméans focused all of their attention on the strange sight in the lagoon.
First came Spike the whale. Sitting on her back was Henry Haluki, shouting, his hands raised in a triumphant pose. On one side of Spike was a giant squid, and on the other was a sea monster. And together the three of them were leading a very large, very alive giant crab island named Karkinos, which gave home to a strange assortment of armed inhabitants standing all along the edge of his shell, waiting to come charging ashore.
Florence nearly dropped her sword at the sight of them. But then she saw a familiar, sinister ripple under the water and cried, “Wait! Look out!”
Some Very Special Guests
Captain Baldhead ordered his pirates to return to fighting, and as the Artiméans continued their battle on land, the eel slithered around Issie the sea monster and yanked her under the water.
Karkinos whirled around, his claws clacking furiously as the giant squid dove for cover underneath him. A second later the crab’s pincer connected with the eel. He lifted it up out of the water and shook it until it let go of Issie, and then Karkinos clipped the eel in half. Both ends slithered all the way into Karkinos’s gaping mouth and disappeared.
The inhabitants of the Island of Legends cheered and rushed down the crab’s reeflike claws all the way to the shore of Artimé. They didn’t wait for orders. Henry, Talon, Lhasa the snow lion, Bock the golden-horned deer, and the blurry, smelly hibagon all began fighting in very special and unique ways.
Henry noted that all the Artiméans were strangely fighting with nonmagical weapons, and he soon figured out that they must have run out of components. He had gobs of deadly spell components left in the crate on Spike’s back, having used none of them on his journey. He ran ashore with them and handed them out to the spell casters as quickly as he could, and then at Carina’s urging, he went inside the mansion to see how he could help in the hospital ward.