“If only I had told him I wanted the job . . . ,” he muttered. “If only I hadn’t been so selfish, I could have found out how to do it. But no, I refused the job, and he refused to teach me. And now it’s too late.”

Sky looked at him. “You’re doing that thing again. Mage problems?”

Alex startled, then laughed under his breath. “Yeah.”

“What is it this time?” Her voice rang curious and not at all annoyed, which reminded Alex just how much he liked Sky. She no longer seemed to resent the time he spent preoccupied with his other thoughts. She had plenty of her own thoughts to be busy with, so they made a good pair.

Alex picked up a stick, sat down, and began to sketch the whale in the sand as he talked. “I made this whale out of the old bones in the Museum of Large. It started out as a project to clean up the museum after the Ol’ Tater incident, but once I had all the bones in place, I covered the skeleton with layers of woven seaweed to give it a body. Then I preserved it and painted it, and earlier I realized she would really come in handy if she could swim along with us to Pirate Island.”

“Cool. Wish I could see her.” She sat down in the sand next to Alex.

“Me too.”

“Can’t you just bring her to life like Mr. Today did with Jim and Florence and Simber and all the statues?”

“I wish I knew how.”

Sky wrinkled up her nose, thinking. “What about the book Mr. Today left you? The one with the restore spell—I remember how disgusted you were that he’d left it out for you just a little too late to be useful when we lost Artimé.”

Alex frowned. “I don’t think that spell will bring the whale sculpture to life if it wasn’t living before.”

“Yeah, probably not, or else the mansion and the fountains would all be alive now, I suppose.” She grinned and leaned against Alex.

He loved it when she did that. “Wouldn’t that be creepy?” He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and they sat in silence for a few minutes, lost in thought again. Then Alex scrambled to his feet. “Wait a second,” he said. “That book!” He started running for the mansion, then stopped abruptly to turn around and run back to Sky. “I’ve got to go,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet. “I think there’s a living type of spell in that book! It was called The Triad something or other. I think ‘Live’ was one of the sections.”

Sky laughed. “See? I knew you’d figure it out. Go on, then!” she said, shooing him away. “Don’t come back until you have a real, live whale.”

“I won’t,” Alex said, but he didn’t move. He just looked at her, his stomach flipping all over the place. “You’re kind of brilliant, you know that?”

Sky tilted her head, a smile playing on her lips. “I know,” she said.

It reminded Alex of the time they were on the roof of the shack together, figuring out Mr. Today’s riddle. His skin tingled, a rush of good feelings surged through him. And she didn’t look away. Without thinking, Alex reached his hand out to touch her cheek, and then he leaned in and kissed her.

“Thanks,” he said, grinning when he pulled back and saw the startled look on her face. He turned away and ran toward the mansion, leaving Sky blushing alone in the moonlight.

» » « «

Alex found the book on the dresser in his room. The Triad: Live, Hide, Restore. He’d been meaning to read it ever since Simber showed it to him, but it wasn’t like Alex had a lot of spare time lately. Now it felt like he didn’t have time not to read it. He climbed into bed and paged to the first section.

LIVE

HISTORY: It is with a heavy heart that I begin this book. When one thinks about life, one hopes for a good one. Simber, Florence, and Octavia, among others, are the epitome of successful creations. Creatures with good lives. Unfortunately, I have also given a less-than-perfect life to a number of creatures, and I wish to chronicle their evolutions here, so that my successor is able to learn from my mistakes and, hopefully, not repeat them.

All my longings, my needs, my desires, went into Simber. I was lonely, in need of a companion, and as I created him I thought about all that was missing in my life. It was with love that I first breathed life into Simber, and he took on the very essence of my thoughts and dreams.

As Simber was my first creature, I thought I was quite perfect at bringing creatures to life. Excited and enthused, I began a series of creatures in quick succession, thinking that if Simber was this wonderful, wouldn’t a dozen more creatures be a dozen times more wonderful?

But it was not to be.

I made a little dog, but he attacked without provocation. I have the teeth mark scars to prove it. Then a panther—yes, a wonderful, beautiful creature. I designed her as a friend for Simber, but while she could understand me, she refused to speak. She was violent and grew to resent Simber for his closeness with me, and she became a threat.

I created a scorpion that for reasons unknown grew to an enormous size, and a few other creatures, just trying to re-create what I had with Simber. But I had used all of my heart at that time for the cheetah, I’m afraid. It took me too long to realize it, and to admit that my creatures were failures. When I finally realized what had to come from inside me in order to make a successful life, I had a dozen monsters on my hands, including Ol’ Tater, who terrorized the other terrorists, making everyone miserable, even himself, and eventually he asked to be put to sleep.