Alex felt his face growing warm with all the staring. “Look,” he said, “is that her coming back?”

But it was someone else—a woman in an enormous, flouncy, feathery dress. At least Alex had turned the attention away from him. He got to his feet and stretched out a cramp in his leg, then went to join Simber, who had found a place to perch on a cliff above. “I don’t know what else to do but wait,” Alex said. “Do you?”

Simber sampled the air. “Florrrence knows we’rrre herrre. She can send Rrrufus if they need us. I don’t think therrre’s anything else we can do.”

Alex’s stomach growled. “We should have eaten breakfast.”

Simber yawned and closed his eyes. Alex shrugged and sat down, leaning against the beast.

Carina, Crow, and Sky waited by the pool of water.

All of them desperately hoped the volcano would remain above the surface.

Crow’s harsh whisper startled Alex awake. He scrambled down the rocks as Sky spoke with her hands at top speed, and then he peered over the edge and watched the woman hold up a piece of paper with strange words on it.

“Memorize it!” Sky said. “Hurry!”

“I’ll take the last line,” Alex said.

“I’ve got the third,” Carina said.

“First,” Crow said.

“Second,” Sky said.

They all stared, trying to think of word tricks that would

help them remember the strange words. Alex suddenly remembered that he had his notepad with him, and he pulled it from his pocket. He tapped it, making a pencil drop out of nowhere. He began scribbling the words. Too soon, the woman snatched the paper down and shoved it in her meager peasant dress.

They each recited their lines, and Alex wrote down the words, correcting the spelling as the others told him to. When he finished, he held the notepad facedown just above the water.

Sky’s mother squinted, trying to see it, and then she nodded and began speaking to Sky once again. Sky replied, and they went back and forth for several seconds, almost as if they were arguing.

Then Sky gasped. Her mother whipped around. A rugged man in a billowy shirt with gold bars on the shoulders approached her. She shook her head vehemently, but he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. The last thing Alex saw was Sky’s mother turning back and mouthing the word “Go.”

Sky held her fingers to her lips and sent a kiss, but it was too late. Her mother didn’t see it.

The Death

Enchantment

Sky scrambled down the rocks with the others right behind her, and she told them everything as they hopped back onto Simber and headed to the ship.

“She said the pirate ships are ancient and enchanted with a lost language, the original language of their owners, which is why we can’t understand what it’s whispering,” Sky explained. “My mother said this saying is carved into the wall of the volcano, and she’s seen her master disenchant ships before when they’ve returned to the lagoon. I guess when someone dies aboard the ship, the ship immediately whispers its wishes to turn back home, and steers itself there.”

“Weird,” Alex remarked. “It must have run aground on our island as the sailors were dying. It never had a chance to go home.”

“So it’s been whispering ever since,” Carina mused. “Yes, as I recall, Mr. Today thought the sailors might be able to be revived, and he tried, but it was too late.”

“Did your mother say anything else?” Sky was silent for a minute. And then she said in a softer voice, “Mother said we should go quickly and never come back. There’s no way to save her.” She bit her lip hard. “Everyone from the outside who has tried to get in has drowned.”

Alex looked at her, feeling a rush of courage. “Then we’ll have to figure out how not to drown.”

Sky looked down. “You mean it,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes. But we’re not prepared today. We’ll have to come back. After.”

“Of course,” she whispered. “After we get the others home safely.”

Home, Alex thought. She called it home.

The conversation weighed heavily on all of them as Simber dropped the four aboard the ship. As he did so, the volcano rumbled and a belch of flames shot from its mouth. Bits of glowing lava dropped down and sizzled in the lagoon, and a small glob landed on the ship’s deck. Sean jumped to attention and stamped the fire out.

“Sheesh,” Alex said, eyeing the volcano. “Let’s get out of here.” Alex and the others placed their hands on the ship’s railing. He nodded to Sky. “You want to do it?”

She looked startled. “Me?”

“Why not?”

“Just hurrry, please,” Simber said from the shoal. “We’rrre still in grrrave dangerrr.”

Sky nodded. “Okay.” She read the words in a slightly faltering voice, not knowing if she had the accent right. When she finished, they all craned their necks and strained their ears, listening to the whispers.

When nothing happened, Alex nudged her. “It’s okay. Try again.” He knew more than anybody that things didn’t always work right the first time.

Sky took a deep breath, and she and Alex shared a quick, private smile. She had to remember to breathe too sometimes. And then she read the words once more, louder this time.

Everyone waited.

After a moment, the ship’s whispers grew faint, and soon they were gone completely. With a startling snap, the sails flew up and the anchor chain groaned as it wound itself. The Artiméans cheered.