“Simber,” Alex said, “I’d like to do a flyover of Warbler as soon as possible. We need to get an idea of what we’re dealing with and figure out where the cave entrances are.” He looked at the afternoon sun. “Tomorrow, first thing?”

“I’ll be rrready,” Simber said.

Meghan frowned. “I should go.”

Alex looked at her. “I didn’t think you’d want to.” “I don’t. But I should,” she said. Her voice was growing

clearer as the day wore on, and it was easier to understand her now. “I’ll be able to show you where I escaped from.” “No,” Sean said. “You’re not going.”

Meghan flared. “Yes, I think I am.”

“Then so am I,” he said. His face was stone.

Ms. Octavia cleared her throat.

Everyone looked at her.

She smiled, her sharp teeth gleaming, and then looked at

Alex. “Alex, I think Artimé needs you to stay on the grounds for now as we plan things.” Alex flashed a confused look, which cleared a moment later. “Oh. To keep things stable around here,” he murmured. “Rally the troops, as they say.”

“At least until Claire is feeling better,” Ms. Octavia said. “I agrrree,” Simber said, and Florence nodded.

Alex pressed his lips together. He wasn’t sure he liked

counting on someone else to get things right. But then he thought about it. Who better than Sean and Meghan to take on this task? They were certainly invested enough—Meghan had the scars to prove it—and Sean had been a great leader. “Okay,” he said. “Both of you go with Simber tomorrow.”

The brother and sister team wore nearly identical grim smiles. “And I’ll work on Sky and Crow,” Alex said. He rubbed his temples. “If we could only convince them to let me take those chokers off, we could communicate. They could tell us everything.”

“What do you mean?” Florence asked. “Are they hesitant?” “Sky seems to be really worried that something bad will happen. I wonder what kind of nonsense they were told would happen if they removed them.”

Meghan gulped. “You mean something could have happened to me?”

“The point is, nothing did happen,” Alex said. “See? You’re fine.” He tapped his lips. “Maybe you could go talk to Sky this afternoon, Meg. Show her that you’re okay.”

“Sure,” Meghan said.

“As for Sam and Lani,” Alex said, “well, Lani, at least, is still alive. She sent a seek spell about an hour ago.” He pointed to the fading trail of light that streaked across the water to the west. “I hope they can hang on a bit longer. They must think we’ve abandoned them.”

“They won’t give up waiting for us,” Meghan said. “They must have figured out by now that things aren’t normal.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Could you have imagined what happened here?”

Meghan paused. “No, I guess not. But if Lani has been doing the seek spell, she had to have seen that it wasn’t working for a while.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

They sat in contemplative silence. “Anything else?” Alex asked. He looked around. “I’ll send out a message to everyone’s blackboards just to make sure everybody’s doing okay, like Mr. Today would do. I don’t see a need for a big meeting—everyone seems to have gone back to their routines quite easily.”

The others agreed.

“What about the gate?” Simber asked. “I don’t think Quill has discoverrred that we’rrre back in business yet, but they will soon.”

Alex nodded. “I’ve thought about it. We need to keep it open in case some of our Unwanteds return. Let’s get another line of guards in place, and maybe Rufus can act as lookout from above.”

“I’ll handle that,” Florence said. “Shall I start up the Magical Warrior Training again?”

“Yes,” Alex said. He looked at Ms. Octavia. “And let’s get regular classes going again too.”

The octogator nodded. “That will be good. Poor Siggy doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’s still so distraught over Samheed.” She wrung two or three tentacles in her lap.

After they had sorted out all the most urgent tasks, Alex looked around the group. “Well, I guess that’s enough for today. Thanks, everybody.” He smiled. “It’s good to have you back.”

The Birds, the

Birds!

When the advisors dispersed to take care of their tasks, Alex made his way inside the mansion. He peeked into the hospital ward, seeing Gunnar and Henry Haluki, along with Crow and also Charlie the gargoyle, all sitting together on Gunnar’s

bed. Crow was signaling wildly to Charlie, and Gunnar was signaling too, only at a much slower pace. Henry looked up and saw Alex watching them. “Charlie and Crow speak the same language,” he said, eyes shining. “Can you believe it? And my dad can understand Crow a little bit too!”

Alex grinned. “That’s incredible,” he said. “What a strange coincidence that Charlie and Matilda would use the same sign language as the people on Warbler.” He thought about that for a bit, scratching his head as he turned to leave. “Then again, that’s where Mr. Today was born. Maybe he learned it there and taught it to the gargoyles.” He climbed the steps, deep in thought. And then he stopped, turned around, and went back down. He peeked into the hospital ward again.