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Did he?

Aaron looked up at the general "All right," he said, his words like ice

Liaan

Aaron held up a hand to the governor, shushing him "Please," he said with disdain

Lia in the , the stretch of wall nearest Artih," General Blair said "We need the entire wall removed All of it"

Aaron scowled "Why the entire wall, if the problem was in the area around Artimé?"

"Because," General Blair explained with an air of annoyance, "think about it If the wall stays up around part of Quill, the Artiméans can fan out around the perimeter of the island, behind it They can use the wall as a bunker They’d be able to hide behind the two ends of the wall and set up sneak attacks And with their quick method of warfare, they’ll take us down every tihts better in the open So it’s all or nothing, High Priest" He leaned toward Aaron "And if it’s nothing, then youit to adulthood"

Aaron studied the general’s stony face His lungs felt like they were squeezing all of the air out of him, and his heartbeat pounded in his eardruripped his kneecaps until his fingers were numb "What about outside eneeneral laughed "Do you really think we have any? We haven’t been attacked in over fifty years Anyone that Justine was guarding against fifty years ago is dead or extre or coet to us eventually anyway" He coughed and cleared his throat "But in the end, I’m simply not concerned about it We have only one ene beyond it for more when the most offensive one is practically upon us! Let’s do the job and take theh Priest" He rolled his eyes

Soeneral said made Aaron feel even more unsure But he was stuck He needed the Quillitary "Fine," he said with a small squeak in his voice "We’ll take down the entire wall"

General Blair didn’t give Aaron the satisfaction of witnessing his surprise--he hadn’t been expecting Aaron to go along with him Instead he nodded stiffly "Very well I’ll sendit down We’ll make quick work of it"

"We’d better," Aaron said in a voice as calm as he could command But his heart filled with more fear than he had ever known

Island of Shipwrecks

Of the three, Alex flew the farthest Experience had taught him to suck in a deep breath before he hit the water Florence and Spike narrowly avoided crashing into one another, and all fortunatelyrocks

The water was cold and rough Alex struggled against the weight of it, pushing toward the surface as soon as his doard ainst the current, and then moved with it Eventually, because of the darkness, and because he was unsure if he iling to see if he would naturally right hie, and soon Spike was solidly below Alex, pushing hi on for the ride They burst through the waves with a shtly

"Hello, the Alex I aed to say before they were plunging back underwater Alex accidentally inhaled water and choked A mo is the only way for et to the island because of the current"

Spike waited for Alex to cough the water out of his lungs As soon as Alex could ed, and down they went again Alex learned quickly to grab a breath of air the next tiured out the whale’s pattern, he actually thought he ht enjoy the ride if he weren’t so worried about the rest of his crew

As they traveled through the water,onto the whale’s back, for every ti in the current, she swam under them and vaulted them to safety By the time they reached shalloater, the whale had collected Fox, Sky, and Samheed in addition to Alex As soon as they neared land, the load of passengers ju water, and Spike went out again to rescue anyone else she could find

The group waded to shore, guided by near-constant lightning Alex could see the outlines of several shipwrecks on the rocks And no wonder, the way the storht now Alex wasn’t looking for shipwrecks, he was looking for people, creatures, and statues And he was hoping that daylight would come soon, and the storm would end

"Lani!" he called, and Sa"

Alex and the others headed toward Lani’s voice, and soon they saw her cast a highlighter spell, keeping its light low so as not to blind anyone With her under a s they found Captain Ahab and Copper, delivered safely by the squirrelicorns, who had now gone out once more to search for others