Island of Shipwrecks Read Online Free PDF Page A

he’d been too careless to find out if Florence could swim, which had caused intense worry for days when Florence was captured by the giant eel. These were big mistakes. Life or death mistakes. The kind he couldn’t afford to make again, not under any circumstances. All of which had led to awkward tension and a vast failure on his part to communicate the problem to Sky.
    If only he could explain it to her. But according to Lani, he didn’t have to now. Sky had given up on him.
    He stared long and hard at the pile of rubbish on the deck, hardly remembering that he’d built it. Of course she’d given upon him. She wasn’t the kind of person to wait around for someone to be done acting out all of his foolishness. If Alex couldn’t tell Sky the truth, at least she could be free to find whatever it was she wanted from life, whether alone or with someone else. And as long as threats to his people existed, Alex would have to keep away from romantic relationships.
    It was for the best. Alex had a million other things to do, and there was no way he could keep making such enormous mistakes with all of the Artiméans’ well-being at stake under his leadership.
    Even so, his heart twisted and pain shot through him in a most deep and intense way, more painful than any injury he’d ever sustained, because it came from inside. And while the pain surprised him, it brought with it an even more shocking revelation. For the truth was that in the time since the girl on a raft had washed up on shore, Alex Stowe, Unwanted, head mage and restorer of Artimé, in the midst of turmoil from all sides, had slowly—and quite tragically—fallen in love.
    And, unlike Sky, he was having quite a lot of trouble falling out of it.

The Pieces Begin to Come Together
    A few days later in Artimé, Meghan sat on the lawn with Ms. Morning, Mr. Appleblossom, and Gunnar Haluki. They had much to discuss.
    â€œIs it too soon to be concerned about Alex and the ship?” Ms. Morning asked. “Shall I send another seek spell?”
    â€œIt might be just a little premature,” replied Mr. Appleblossom in his traditional rhyming iambic pentameter speech. “And we don’t want to worry them, do we? I’ll visit poste d’observateur to check if there is any ship out there to see.”
    Meghan flashed Ms. Morning a curious glance.
    Ms. Morning smiled and explained, “Ever since he climbed up Florence to the top of the gray shack, he can’t get enough climbing, so he’s been visiting the mansion rooftop daily to watch for Alex. He calls it his observer position.”
    Mr. Appleblossom cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Ms. Morning.
    â€œPoste d’observateur,” Ms. Morning said carefully, trying not to mangle the strange words. “He thinks it’s some other language.”
    Mr. Appleblossom beamed.
    â€œWhat, from another island you mean?” asked Gunnar.
    â€œAnother island or another world, it is unknown; the truth remains unfurled.” He pointed to the book on the table next to him, which he’d gotten from the vessel that crashed into the sea near Artimé some weeks before.
    â€œAnyway,” Meghan prompted, “Mr. Appleblossom is right. I think if we send another seek spell it’ll make us seem like we’re in scads of trouble when all we really want is to let Carina know about her mother’s death.” She paused. “Which is kind of a big deal too, of course. But we’ve only used that spell in times of danger, so I bet they’ll be imagining the worst. Wedon’t want them to botch up the mission on account of them rushing to get back here.”
    â€œAll right, we’ll wait,” said Ms. Morning. “Now, what is this I hear about you going into Quill? Did you see your parents?”
    Meghan scowled in the direction of the girrinos, who apparently couldn’t keep a secret. “Not exactly,” she