Alex made a mental note to restore water to the water cabinet in case the world ended again. That had saved them. And then he bent down and looked into the cupboard where the model of the mansion was kept. He spied it and pulled it out, looking it over. “Brilliant clue, really,” Alex said aloud. He smiled and pushed the miniature mansion back in its place.

“I’ll fix you later, as soon as I have time,” he said to the whale bones, which were scattered near and far. “Promise.” And then he laughed at himself. He sounded like Mr. Today, talking to the whale as if it could hear him. “And I’ll explore the rest of this room one day too,” he promised himself. There were hulking things in all directions, some of them curiously covered with tarps.

On the way back to the wall of books, he patted the side of the pirate ship. It whispered unintelligibly in return.

And then he dove into the library, trying to find the W section.

There wasn’t one. As he searched through piles and shelves overflowing with books, his mind turned to Sky. And to Lani. And to how awfully confused he felt. How could he even be thinking about girls when he had so much to do?

Then he thought about his parents. And Aaron. And how awful Aaron was. And about his mother having twins. Alex would be an older brother, and he’d probably never meet the children. How coincidental, he thought. Twins again.

On second thought, maybe he would meet one of them eventually. He gave a rueful chuckle and picked up another book, Everything There Is to Know About Shells. Alex opened it and just laughed. He was sure it was a great book and very useful—though not quite as useful as the vomit book, which had already provided entertainment for Alex and several of his friends—but . . .

He set it aside and dug deeper, trying to organize titles as he went through them, but ultimately giving up because the job was endless and took too much time. He searched into the night.

Finally he happened on a small book written in Mr. Today’s own hand. It was a biography or a journal of sorts. Alex paged through it and then put it in his pocket to take back to his room.

When he left the Museum of Large, his mind was swimming with book titles about everything one could possibly imagine. Books on flags, books on famous people, books on geography and cooking and war and craft making. Books on art, sculpting, music, and magic. Books of fiction, scripts, plays, and poetry. And one of the most interesting things of all was that most of the books in the library, except for the ones written by Artiméans and two piles of random titles that Alex found in pristine condition, were very old.

It was puzzling, but there was no time to wonder about it.

“Come on,” Alex muttered. He was tired. He just wanted to find something that would help him. “We need to come up with a find spell,” he said.

And then he spied it—a book called simply The Islands. It was old and tattered—well loved, Mr. Today would have said. That had to have some information about Warbler.

Alex stifled a yawn that threatened to crack his jaw, and realized he was useless without sleep. He took the two books, closed up the Museum of Large, and headed back up the not-really-secret hallway. It was late. Late enough to be stumbling across Samheed right about now, Alex thought. A pang ripped through him. Things weren’t happening fast enough, and he couldn’t seem to make anything go faster.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he emerged from the hallway, and nearly tripped over someone.

“Oh,” he said, catching his balance. And then he smiled when he realized who it was. “It’s you two. Sorry about that.” Crow hopped to his feet. Alex blushed and held his hand out to Sky. She took it and pulled herself up, then hastily let go.

Alex looked from one to the other. And then he frowned. “You guys have rooms, don’t you?”

They both nodded.

“Oh, good. I thought we forgot. I’m glad somebody took care of you,” he said. “Did Meghan find you?” He tried to sound nonchalant, but it wasn’t working.

The Silent girl nodded again, and then she pointed to the thorns around her neck and looked up at Alex with a solemn face.

Alex looked back at her. Just looking at her made his knees weak. “So . . . ?” He flashed a lopsided grin. “You want me to take that nasty collar off you now?”

Sky didn’t smile. She just swallowed hard and nodded.

Alex took a deep breath. It was crazy how excited he was. He wondered what her voice would sound like. What if it was nothing like he expected? What if she’d had the necklace on too long and her voice didn’t come back?

He’d thought about it and realized there was no need for Florence and her tools. It would be even easier removing one solid piece rather than half a dozen broken pieces. “Let’s do it, then,” he said gently. “All you have to do is stand there and don’t move.” He turned to Crow. “This would be a very, very bad time to bump me, okay? You got that?”

Crow nodded and stepped back, his eyes wide and solemn.

Alex turned back to the girl and moved her hair out of the way. “Cover your ears, Crow,” he said, his eyes not leaving the girl’s beautiful orange irises.

Obediently, Crow put his fingers in his ears.

Alex touched the metal thorns, careful to stay far away from her skin. “Ready?” he whispered.

Sky blinked once, not daring to nod her head. She squeezed her hands into fists so tight that her knuckles looked like they might split.

Alex closed his eyes and pictured the thorns disappearing, and then he whispered, “Dissipate.”