“I have,” Simber said. He raised an eyebrow, tempted to make them beg for his attention as cats are wont to do with humans, but gave in to their eager faces and continued. “Therrre arrre thrrree islands to the west’you can see two of them frrrom ourrr shorrre.”

Alex and Samheed exchanged a glance. Three?

“And thrrree islands to the east.” The giant cheetah brought his left front paw to his mouth and gnawed at a toenail for a moment. When he was finished, he said, “We’rrre exactly in the middle of a chain.”

“Wow,” Lani said, awed. When she wasn’t riding on his back, she generally stayed several steps away from the statue, as they’d had their altercations in the past. One couldn’t be too cautious, and she was never sure of Simber’s mood.

“Seven islands,” Alex said. “So the strangers could be from any one of them.”

“But if you factor in the ocean’s current,” Lani said, “which is really strong right here, by the way, that would make it more likely for some and less likely for others.” She’d just learned about currents from an old book up on the archives floor of the library, called Bodies of Water.

Samheed raised an eyebrow. “Okay, Smart Stuff, so which way does the current flow? Wait’don’t answer that. I think I know from swimming out there.”

Lani grinned at him. “Go for it.”

“It flows . . . west.” He hesitated. “No, I mean east.”

“Which is it?” Alex said.

“East,” Samheed said, sure this time. “I’m sure. The current flows east, which means it starts in the west and goes east. Because west is the direction the raft came from.”

“That’s the direction of the islands we can see. Right? Because that’s where the sun sets.”

“Right.”

“So it’s most likely one of those three out that way. Right, Lani?”

“That’s my guess.”

Simber coughed lightly and they all turned to look at him.

“Arrren’t you supposed to be in class?” he said pointedly.

“We’re skipping,” Alex said proudly, feeling sneaky and brave at the same time.

“I can see that,” Simber said. “Howeverrr, it doesn’t feel quite rrright to congrrratulate you.” The big cat stifled a smile.

Alex shrugged. “To understand the rules, one must first break the rules,” he said wisely.

Lani gave him a quizzical look. “Who said that?” she asked.

“Me. Der,” Alex said. “I made it up.”

Samheed snorted. “Come on, guys. Before Simber decides to mutilate us.”

Simber growled lightly as if in warning, but the four grinned.

“See you at the meeting,” Simber said. “Maybe you should prrreparrre.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “Oh, crudbucket! I forgot all about it.”

“Wait. You have another meeting?” Lani said, trying to contain her disgust. She’d made amends with Alex, but that still didn’t make her like the fact that Mr. Today hadn’t asked her to lead.

“We all do,” Alex said. “You guys are coming too. I totally forgot to tell you’that’s what Florence was talking to me about when the raft showed up.”

Simber cleared his throat loudly, which startled the four into moving quickly away.

“Florence wants us four to come to the meeting about magical weapons today, right after class. I can’t believe I forgot!” Alex began to trot toward the mansion. “Come on, we’ve got an hour’we need to bring our best spells and any other ideas we have.”

The other three traded curious looks and pleased smiles as they broke into a run after Alex. They entered the mansion, headed straight past the new sick wing to the tubes, all shouting, “Library? Yes! Go!” at once. A moment later they disappeared.

Gathering Strength

As Aaron’s following grew to thirty-five and then approached forty, they began meeting as a group in what seemed like it would be a most obvious place, but since people rarely traveled to the desolate areas of Quill, they were quite hidden in plain sight in a dusty field.

They met twice per week and they called themselves the Restorers. Aaron was the leader, Gondoleery Rattrapp was his rabble-rouser, and Eva Fathom, with the promise of her old job back once Aaron took over Quill, was the number-one spy.

“We have two objectives,” Aaron said to the group at their first meeting. “The first is to help Wanteds in need of food and turn them on to our ideas of restoring Quill to the way it used to be.” Half the group nodded’restoring Quill was their job. Aaron had taken them, a few at a time, to the Favored Farm to show them where to find food not only for themselves, but also for others. Gondoleery’s home became the headquarters for the food items, and Aaron moved some of the Halukis’ supplies to her house as a way of showing her he trusted her. He desperately wanted to know more about her magical abilities. While she had eventually admitted she could do magic, she remained tight-lipped on the extent of it.

“The second objective is to cause chaos and fear in Artimé, which will make our Necessaries very interested in coming back home where it’s safe.” This time the other half of the group smirked. They loved this plan. Sneak attacks to instill fear’that was their idea of a good time. They collected items from their own homes and daily raided vacant homes in the Necessary quadrant, stealing everything they considered useful. Eva Fathom offered her home in Quill as the storing place for these things since she was now living as a secret agent in Artimé.