“What?” cried Sky. “Alex, don’t be crazy—what are you doing?”

“I’ll be right back,” Alex promised, and with that, he dashed off at a mad pace, back to the windward side of the island, leaving Sky standing on the shore alone.

A Reckless Parting Gift

Clearly Alex had lost his mind, and he knew it. Yet he ran as fast as he could to the other side of the island, past bewildered Ito and Sato who were collecting moss during the hour of calm. “Stay back!” he said to them, and ran straight into the water. As soon as he was deep enough, he dove and swam with all his might to the scientists’ ship.

When he reached it, he surfaced and pressed his hand against the part of the stern that stood above the water. He took a moment to catch his breath, staring intently at the shore in the exact spot where the pirate ship had stood for weeks.

A flash of lightning cracked the sky, startling him, and he knew he had to get back to Sky before the storm grew worse. He forced himself to focus, thinking only of the newly empty stretch of land nearby. Now that the pirate ship was out of the way, he could finally do something for the scientists who had been so hospitable to them all this time.

When Alex had eliminated all other stresses from his mind, he closed his eyes, picturing the cleared section of the island, and whispered, “Transport.”

As soon as he could feel the ship no longer, he opened his eyes. And there, perfectly placed on the shore, sat the almost pristine craft, marred only by the long, angry gash in its side. Water, fish, and mud streamed from it.

With a triumphant shout, Alex struck out toward the island once more, feeling the sea churning and pulling beneath him. He ran onto the shore and sped toward the other side of the island, past the shelter where Ishibashi was just coming out.

“I left you a present!” Alex shouted. “Go look!”

Ishibashi stared at Alex as the boy ran past, and then heard the shouts from Ito and Sato and hurried toward the recovered ship.

With all his heart, Alex wished he could see the scientists’ reactions when they found their ship and all the equipment still inside. But he didn’t have time. He pressed on toward Sky, who had followed after him a short distance and waited anxiously for him to return.

“Alex!” she shouted when she caught sight of him once more. “Hurry!”

Alex’s legs and lungs burned as he ran and jumped over the rocky terrain. As he went, he fished around in his pocket for his magic carpet component so they could take off. But by the time he reached Sky, he still hadn’t found it.

“Florence is in trouble,” Sky said, grabbing his arm. “Look!”

Alex stared. In his urgency to do something good for the scientists, he’d almost forgotten about Florence and her low ride across the water. “Blast it,” he muttered, spotting her. She was so low that waves splashed against her sides.

Sky gripped his arm. “It’s been almost ten minutes already and she’s not halfway there. She’s not going to make it! What are we going to do?”

Alex turned his pockets inside out, searching madly for components, and then stared at Sky. “Do you have it?”

“Have what?”

“The carpet component for us—I don’t have it!”

“I gave them all to you last night!” Sky said. “Why would I—? No, I’m sure you have them. I don’t have any.” She whipped her head toward the sea to look at the ship, as if that would bring it closer. “Alex! Tell me you have it!”

Alex’s lungs contracted. He felt light-headed. “I must have used them all for Florence,” he whispered.

Sky stared. She yanked his arm, pulling him so they stood face to face. “Alex,” she said in a sickly calm voice, her fingers digging into his skin, “my mother and brother are on that ship. They will freak out if I don’t get there.”

“I know, I know. I’m thinking.” He couldn’t look at her. “Maybe I lost it in the water,” he muttered, turning to look over his shoulder. It would be useless to search for it in the churning waves.

“Alex,” Sky said, shaking him. “What are we going to do? And what about Florence? She’s going down!”

Alex drew in a breath. “We’ll make another component. We have to.”

“There’s no time for that!” Sky cried. “The moss needs to dry, the loom is in the shelter—and the storm is getting stronger. Plus one component won’t help save Florence!” She looked around wildly and gripped her head in frustration. “Where’s Spike?” she asked, knowing full well that Spike was probably waiting exactly where Lani had told her to go, on the opposite side of the storm’s circumference.

“Florence will be okay,” Alex said, though the thought of her plummeting to the bottom of the sea gave him a stomachache. “She will. She said she will.”

“But what about us? How will our friends know what happened? They’ll think we drowned, Alex—we have to do something. Now.”

“Maybe the squirrelicorns will come back for us,” Alex said, but wasn’t at all confident about it—the squirrelicorns always waited for orders from him or Florence, and neither were there to give them. Alex could hardly stand hearing Sky’s pleas—he didn’t know what to do. There was nothing he could do, not now at least. The thunder crashed and the sea churned as the wind began to howl once more. Sky and Alex looked at each other, and at Florence, who barely skimmed the waves now, three quarters of the way to the ship.