Sky, on the other hand, had had her thornament attached for a few years. Even with magic, her voice came back much more slowly and remained husky from that point on, which she didn’t seem to mind. Alex thought she sounded quite nice indeed.

After a while they gathered in the hospital ward to talk so that Claire and Gunnar could listen as well from their beds. Alex and Florence asked them everything they could think of about Warbler. Soon, with Sky’s hoarse directions, Alex was sketching a map of the underground tunnels and outlining the various workstations around the island, all hidden from the view of the shore and camouflaged with brush and trees.

“Do you have any idea where Sam and Lani would be?” Alex asked as he studied his work.

Sky leaned over the map, her hair falling forward. Absently she tucked it behind her ear and pointed to the center of the maze of caves and tunnels. “They’d be in the dark cave for quite a while,” she said, her voice a husky song. “That’s where they put you after they administer the thorns and the acid eye drops. I think it needs to be fairly dark for the eyes to heal.” She said it without a note of bitterness. Florence studied the girl with a curious look.

“It’s hard to say how long you’re in there, though. It feels like a long time when you don’t know when something’s going to end,” Sky mused. “It’s pretty traumatic.” She glanced at Crow. “Isn’t it, buddy?”

Crow nodded. He was almost as quiet as before he’d had his thorns removed. He tilted his head and reached across the map. “That’s where the boys sleep. You get chained to a wire for a while until they know you’re good.”

From her bed, Claire wore a stony expression. She shook her head. “I’m so sorry,” she said in a quiet voice.

Sky pointed to a large cave on the opposite side. “The girls are in this one.” She pointed to various caves in a clockwise pattern. “Here’s where they manufacture clothing—I worked there part of the time, and also in the shipyard. This is the dining and kitchen area, which is where Crow worked. Mining is done in this cave here and throughout the island—there’s an open mine hidden by rock overhangs in the center of Warbler, and there is also a waterfall with a freshwater river flowing through the middle of the island. This big cave at the south end,” she said, looking at Alex, “which is the opposite side from where Meghan said she and the others anchored the boat, is where the fire cave is—they make the thorns there by melting the gold. And over here,” she said, pointing to the east side of the island, “is shipbuilding.”

“Ships,” Alex said, tapping his lips and thinking. “Multiple ships?”

“A fleet,” Crow said. “Queen Eagala wants them for the attack.”

Alex turned to Crow. “What attack?”

Sky interrupted. “Let me tell this part, okay, Crow?” She smoothed his hair off his forehead. He shook his head to mess it back up again, but he looked amiable enough and was silent.

Sky hopped on a chair like she had seen Alex do when he addressed a group. She hunched over, arms reaching out in front of her as if she were imagining a new setting, and began what sounded like a story.

“Many years ago, Eagala was born on Warbler Island to the current ruling family. When she was a child she and her older brothers and sisters created the sign language that Warbler now uses. Some of them could do magic. Today, Warbler Island is charmed with a magical silence spell created by Eagala herself. The queen and her siblings kept their magic a secret for years. One day, when she was still a young girl, Eagala’s oldest brother and sister left to explore the six other islands in our world. But they never returned. Eagala never saw them again. When she grew up she went in search of them, but found hostility at the other islands, so she made a hasty retreat back to Warbler, only to find that her father, the king, had passed away in her absence, and she was the new ruler.”

Alex and the others listened, spellbound, amazed at Sky’s natural ability as a storyteller, and her ability to speak so well after having been silenced for so long. He found himself admiring her even more.

Sky continued. “Fearing that her siblings had been killed by hostile enemies, she worried for her people and commissioned the residents of Warbler to dig the tunnels and caves for their own protection, which they did willingly. Soon Warbler appeared to be completely uninhabited, and she added the silent spell over the land not only so that Warblerans could work with concentration, but so no passersby would ever suspect—there is no noise from axes or hammers to be heard anywhere, and everyone was commanded to speak softly when outside. Queen Eagala credits herself for keeping Warbler from attack. But she wanted to be prepared for war, so she began to build a fleet of ships and sailing canoes.” Sky looked around. “There are over a hundred ships hidden in the trees in various stages of completion,” she said.

“A hundred!” Alex said, eyes wide. And then he frowned. “How many people are there on Warbler, anyway? It can’t be more than a few hundred, can it?”

Sky looked at him solemnly. “Thousands of people, all hidden underground. Most of them silenced, like us, from the age of ten, and the younger children all housed far below to keep their voices from being heard. It’s like an ant colony, everyone scurrying around in silence, doing their jobs, going from one place to the next.”

Haluki spoke up. “Did the people also agree to wear the thorn necklaces?” He sounded incredulous.