“No,” Sean whispered. His eyelids fluttered, but the medicine was beginning to work. “Hurts . . . so much . . .” He closed his eyes.
Henry looked at Alex. “And then we have to get him home.”
Alex nodded. “As soon as we can figure out how to do that, we’ll be on our way.”
“No,” Carina said. “He needs to go right away.”
Alex frowned. “Look, I know he’s in pain, but there’s no way to turn this ship into a speedboat. We have a leak, Captain Ahab is in pieces, and Ms. Octavia is—”
“Alex,” Henry interrupted. “You don’t understand. We’re almost out of medicine.”
Alex sat back. “What? How could that be? I thought you brought a lot.”
“We had plenty for a trip to rescue Sky’s mother,” Henry said, sounding a little defensive. “But then we kept going, and we used two whole bottles on Lhasa before Kitten brought her back to life. And Sean’s been taking it regularly for days. Even after all of that, we would have been fine, except we lost the medical bag when we went over the waterfall. So all I have left is what was in my pocket.” Henry, who was quite young for having such excellent healing abilities, blinked hard, as if he were trying not to cry. “I should have hung on to the bag better.”
Carina patted his shoulder. “You did just fine.”
“Yes, and you saved one bottle, which Sean desperately needed,” Alex reassured him. “I understand—I’m not blaming you for anything. I was just surprised.” He sucked in a breath and blew it out, thinking hard about how to handle things. “How long do we have?”
“I’ve got a few drops left in this bottle,” said Henry. “Not enough for a full dose when this wears off, but it’ll help him get through the rest of today.”
“Oh boy,” Alex muttered. He doubted there was a way they could get home in several days, much less by nightfall.
“And we need to set his leg now, while he won’t feel it as much.”
Alex blew out a heavy, frustrated breath. Setting Sean’s leg had been bad enough the first time. He looked around and saw a slightly bedraggled Ms. Octavia coming toward them, almost appearing to float through the air on her many tentacles. Alex waved her over.
Henry filled her in on the plan and explained how they were going to do it. Ms. Octavia wound two tentacles around Sean’s leg and Alex held Sean’s upper body steady. At Henry’s command, Ms. Octavia pulled while Henry and Carina set the leg. Sean cried out in his sleep. Once the leg was set, Alex rushed over to help Carina replace the splint and secure it.
When Henry and Carina no longer needed him, Alex slipped away to assess their situation, beckoning Ms. Octavia to join him. “I need you to fix Captain Ahab as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re out of medicine. We need to get Sean home.”
“Do we know where we are?” she asked. “How far is home?”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t know for sure. We think we’re at the easternmost end of the world. But all we know for sure is the direction that Ms. Morning’s seek spell came from.”
“So the seek spell doesn’t require us to go back the way we came, around the world?” asked Ms. Octavia.
“Thankfully, no,” Alex replied. “It must have rerouted once we made it through the waterfalls. It was gone when I woke up, but Kitten saw it before it faded away.”
“Well that’s good, but we’re still a long way from Artimé, and the ship is barely moving. What will we do with Sean in the meantime? He’ll need something for the pain.”
Alex looked up at the top of the battered mast, where six squirrelicorns rested. “I was thinking maybe the squirrelicorns could . . . you know, take him. Back home.”
The two looked at each other—once teacher and student, now peers solving a dilemma. After a moment Ms. Octavia shook her alligator head. “The squirrelicorns aren’t like Simber—they can’t fly indefinitely. We don’t know what’s out there or if there’s any place for them to land if they need to rest.”
“Oh,” Alex said, his thoughts whirling. “Right. Of course you’re right.” He pushed back a lock of tangled hair that had fallen over his eyes and sighed, defeated. “Then I guess there’s no other choice,” he said, turning to gaze at Artimé’s grand protector who circled the ship above. “But it worries me. I just wish it wouldn’t leave us so vulnerable.”
“You mean Simber?” Ms. Octavia said, her voice grave.
Losing Simber was the last thing Alex wanted to do. He had no idea what dangers awaited them. But it was the only way to save Sean. He nodded slowly, even as his gut twisted. “We’ll have to make our way home without him.”
Aaron Loses Someone Important
As he ran away from Artimé through the jungle, the High Priest Aaron Stowe tripped over a root and fell hard to the ground. He lay there for a minute, panting, trying to get the horrible image of Secretary being attacked by the panther out of his mind, but he couldn’t.
He touched the pocket where the heart attack spell components had been. The fabric lay flat against his leg now. Had he killed Panther? He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that after that attack, there was no way Secretary was still alive. And it was his fault.
It was almost like he’d murdered the woman himself.
His chest tightened. He sucked in a breath and choked on it. He tried to tell himself that she’d have died eventually anyway since he’d sent her to the Ancients Sector. But it wasn’t the same—because he’d actually seen her die, which somehow made it more real. Besides, his plan had been to get her out of there again. To scare her into being more obedient. The plan had backfired.