“Turn a few degrees to the south,” Kestrel said to the oglodyte who had been steering the ship for the better part of a day. “There.” Kestrel, his hands no longer bound, pointed to a cloudy spot on the horizon. The webbed-handed fish creature turned the wheel, adjusting the direction of the sailing vessel.
Nearby, the Recluself was standing by the portside railing. Wily approached the elf, who was taking long, gulping breaths.
“I keep watching for the wave that will knock me into the sea,” the Recluself said. “It’s not coming. I know that now.”
“You sound disappointed,” Wily said. “You should be happy.”
“It means I could have left years ago,” the elf said. “I kept myself locked away for no good reason.”
“You’re out here now,” Wily said. “That’s what’s important. We all wish we could change some of the choices we made in the past.”
“But they’re what brought us to this moment,” Roveeka added, jumping into the conversation. “All we can do is learn and make better choices in the future.”
The Recluself continued to stare into the distance as his ship sailed swiftly through the night.
“Wily,” Kestrel said as he approached his son, “I’ve got something for you to roll around in your head. Once we get to Drakesmith Island, we will need to find the forge. Lucky for us, I know the riddle that holds the secret to the location. I’m curious to hear what you make of it.”
“I’m listening,” Wily said.
“I am too,” Roveeka added, “although riddles aren’t my strong suit.”
Kestrel began to intone in a singsongy voice:
To Drakesmith Island you must sail,
And climb upon the dragon’s tail
Beyond the earth where the dead drink milk,
One finds the grave of the pirate’s ilk.
Inside you go and there you’ll kneel
At the Temple’s Forge of Eversteel.
One thing Wily knew about riddles was they rarely made sense on first listen. And this one was no exception. Another thing Wily knew about riddles was that the answer would come at the strangest moment and suddenly seem as clear as the gooey ooze of an amoebolith. Back in Carrion Tomb, the Skull of Many Riddles had taught him to solve them quickly, but this one was rather tough.
“I was right,” Roveeka said. “I am terrible at riddles.”
“I’m not sure what to make of it either,” Wily said.
“You’re a Gromanov,” Kestrel said as he walked back toward the ship’s wheel and the oglodyte steering it. “I have faith in you.”
Wily let the wind blow through his curly locks. He hoped that once they reached Drakesmith Island, clues would present themselves. The choices would become clear. Yet right now, all he could do was ponder the strange meaning of the words that seemingly did not match up at all.
“One more thing,” Kestrel said as he put his hand on Wily’s shoulder. “You’ve got to start trusting me. I can see the way you look at me. I make the same face when I think there’s a trap about to spring. But I’m not a danger to you.”
“Why should I believe that?” Wily asked.
“Being locked away gives you a lot of time to think,” Kestrel said, “about what’s important and what’s not. I built countless machines. Ones more amazing than Panthasos had ever seen. But I should have been building a relationship with you. I didn’t realize until it was too late that you were my finest creation.”
Wily stared coldly back at his father.
“I’m not made of gears and levers. You didn’t make me. I just happen to be your son.”
“I’m not good at sharing my feelings,” Kestrel said, “but I’m trying.”
Wily watched as his father returned to where the oglodyte was steering the ship. Somehow the kind and gentle words only made Wily angrier.
AS DAWN CAME, an island pushed into view through the fog. Boulder-strewn hills lay on the north end of the island, while a gently sloping jungle covered the rest. A small port was located at the center of the crescent beach on the eastern shore. While not nearly as bustling as Ratgull Harbor, there were still a great many ships moored in the shallows surrounding the network of docks. Thatched-roof buildings jutted above the quilt of awning-covered markets that spread out in both directions from the town center.
“Drakesmith Island,” Kestrel said as his eyes lit up with delight. “We’ve made it!”
“And the Eversteel Forge is hidden somewhere in those jungles,” Pryvyd said. “It would take months to search every inch of it.”
“I think we should start there.” Odette pointed to the north, where gray plumes drifted out from the rocks into the sky. “Forges need flames. And flames make smoke.”
“If it was that easy,” Kestrel said, “the forge would have been found long ago. No, the riddle must hold the answer.”
“The riddle said that after sailing to Drakesmith Island,” Wily clarified, “you must climb the tail of a dragon. We need to find a dragon.”
“Depending on how big the dragon is, it could be hiding almost anywhere,” Kestrel surmised.
“As I said before,” Odette said with a sigh, “smoke leads to fire, and what breathes fire? Dragons. We should go to the north end of the island.”
“That’s a good point,” Jayrus said as he tapped his webbed thumbs together.
Roveeka chuckled loudly to herself. Everyone turned in her direction. She laughed again before quickly silencing herself.
“Did you figure something out?” Pryvyd asked.
“No,” Roveeka said. “I’m terrible at riddles. Wily knows that. I can never figure them out.”
“Then what’s so funny?” Odette asked.
“You know how clouds look like things in the sky? And when you’re hungry every cloud looks like a snail or a maggot?”
“Not really,” Odette said. “But what does that have to do with now? The sky is cloudless.”
“I was just thinking how things look like other things. The island looks like a sleeping lizard dragon. See?”
Wily turned back to the island and realized Roveeka was right. The boulder-strewn hills at one end of the island looked like the giant reptile’s head, while the gentle sloping jungle on the other side looked like the body and tail of the lizard. Smoke poured out of large stone nostrils, sending gray plumes drifting over the ocean.
“And I just thought it was funny,” Roveeka continued. “Because we are looking for a real dragon and the island happens to look like one too. Crazy coincidence.”
“You solved the riddle, Roveeka!” Wily said, giving her slumped shoulders a pat.
“Yay for me!” Roveeka said with pride. Then, “How did I solve it?”
“Turn the ship to the south end of the island,” Wily said. “The tail we are supposed to be climbing is the sloping hill through the jungle.”
Wily hurried to the bow of the Recluself’s ship as it glided across the smooth waters. As it moved closer to Drakesmith Island, Wily spied a buoy floating in the water with a large sign affixed to it that read STAY AWAY. VISITORS TURN BACK.
“Guess that means we won’t be getting a royal welcome,” Wily said to Moshul and Righteous, who were on either side of him.
“I think it would be best if we were dropped off,” Kestrel said, “and the Recluself and oglodytes remained hidden in the smoke blowing off the island. The locals clearly don’t want visitors.”
“It’s a good idea,” Odette said from her perch atop a nearby wooden barrel. “Although I can’t believe I’m agreeing with the Infernal King.”
“I’d prefer that you didn’t call me the Infernal King anymore,” Kestrel said calmly. “I’m not the same man I used to be.”
“‘Used to be’?” Odette snapped back. “You make it sound like it’s been ages. Just one year ago, you were rolling snagglecarts all over the land, kidnapping innocent people. People don’t change that fast. Even the cocoon folk take longer to sprout their wings.”
“Ease off,” Wily said to Odette.
Both Odette and Kestrel seemed surprised by this comment.
“Are you serious?” Odette stared at Wily in disbelief. “Have the vectrite bites made you loopy? You remember who he is? Have you forgotten the twelve years you spent in Carrion Tomb because he put you there?”
“I remember!” Wily had raised his voice. All his feelings of anger, frustration, and sorrow were bumping into one another like hobgoblets scrambling to the dinner table. Then he collected himself. “But right now, arguing and fighting is not going to help.”
Odette clenched her fists before looking out at the sea silently.
“Jayrus, steer us toward that deserted beach,” Pryvyd requested.
Turning the wheel counterclockwise, Jayrus guided the ship through shallows dotted with kelp and coral. As the bow of the boat cut through the water, winged fish leaped from the bay and soared above the surface, their tails flapping wildly to propel them faster. As the ship got closer to the shore, the companions lowered the sail and tossed the anchor into the sea. Once the sailing vessel came to a stop, Moshul, who still had the hugtopus wrapped around his leg, used the crank on the side of the sailboat to lower the dinghy into the water below.
Climbing down a rope ladder, Wily and his fellow companions boarded the small rowboat.
“And how will you signal the boat once you’re ready to leave the island?” the Recluself said.
Moshul signed to the Recluself as Pryvyd translated for him. “I can send my fireflies out to the ship. They will land on the wheel and guide you back to our waiting point on the beach.”
“Wait for our signal before returning,” Wily called up to Jayrus as Moshul dropped into the boat.
The mighty moss golem grabbed the oars, and it took only a few strokes of his powerful arms to pull the group to shore. As they touched down on the pink sand, Wily was pleased to discover they were not immediately bombarded by giant mosquitoes or salt boars. He looked back to see that the oglodyte crew was already raising the sails and setting back out to the sea.
It didn’t take the group long to find the beginning of a path that led up the hill through the jungle. As they climbed the slope, they were treated to a beautiful view of the Eversteel Sea. When the sun rose higher into the sky, the shallows around the island sparkled a light green that reminded Wily of the glowing flames of his old friend the Skull of Many Riddles.
Odette was bounding from rock to tree stump with an energy that Wily hadn’t seen from her in quite a while. And it wasn’t even early in the morning, her happiest time.
“Happy to be off the ship?” Wily asked.
With a double backflip, she landed by his side. “Actually, I’m just happy to be doing this. Exploring. Adventuring. I know that doesn’t make sense, right? Everyone wants happily ever after and we kind of had it, right? But then … it just felt…” She stopped speaking.
“What?” Wily thought he knew what she was going to say but wanted to hear it anyway.
“It’s not important. But what is important is figuring out what we should be looking for next.”
“The next line in the riddle,” Kestrel said as he came up behind them, “is ‘Beyond the earth where the dead drink milk, One finds the grave of the pirate’s ilk.’”
“It sounds like a cemetery where goats and cows roam,” Wily said.
“My theory exactly.” Kestrel pointed up the hill to an open patch of ground where headstones stood surrounded by a wooden fence.
The group picked up the pace with the hope that the forge was not far now. As they got closer, they saw that by the entrance gate was a statue of three women raising their heads to the sky. Wily didn’t see any goats right then, but he could easily imagine them wandering in through the gate.
“Someplace here is the grave of the pirate’s ilk,” Wily said aloud.
“Ilk?” Roveeka asked, eyeing the inscription on a headstone.
“It means people similar to a pirate or a pirate’s friend.”
“How can we know what the folk buried here were like?” Roveeka asked. “All we have are names and dates. And shouldn’t there be a pathway somewhere here? Like a cave or a tunnel?”
“Just start looking,” Wily said to his sister as he hurried over to the nearest tombstone. Pryvyd, Righteous, and Moshul started scanning the stones in the back, while Kestrel and Odette took the ones on the sides. Wily slowly read name after name despite the fact that he really wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for. Roveeka had made a very good point.
“Here’s one person that was named Gustav Highbeard,” Odette called out. “That sounds like he could have been pirate’s ilk.”
“Moshul,” Pryvyd said eagerly, “check to see if it is hollow beneath the surface. Perhaps there is a path below.”
Moshul walked over to the grave where Odette was standing. He put his ear to the ground. After a moment, he lifted his head and began to sign.
Nothing down below.
Wily and the others continued searching for what seemed like the better part of an hour. The only other name that sounded remotely like a pirate was Sylvie Scarlet, and that grave did not appear to have a secret path beneath it either.
“I think we might be in the wrong place,” Roveeka said.
“How can that be?” Wily asked himself aloud.
Wily took a seat on the edge of the statue and stared out at the jungle around him. How did I get this wrong? What am I not thinking of? This is where the dead drink milk. Or was it? He hadn’t seen any cows or goats. He stood, scanning for the animals. All he saw were trees. Palm trees. Coconut trees. Banana trees. Something clicked in his head like gears interlocking.
“The coconut trees,” Wily shouted to the others. “They have milk too. Coconut milk. This way!”
Before anyone could argue with him, Wily had left the cemetery and was pushing through the dense trees for the patch of coconut trees just downhill of them. The group hurried after him. The jungle opened up into a small glen where five dozen markers were buried in the earth. Each was made of the husks of coconuts.
“This isn’t a graveyard for humans. It’s for animals.”
“The path to the forge must be here somewhere,” Wily said excitedly as he ran to the nearest marker.
Righteous was flying past the graves to a rock wall covered with dangling vines. The floating arm grabbed a fistful of the green shoots and pulled them aside, revealing a cave hidden behind a curtain of hanging moss and ivy. With much excitement, everyone hurried over.
Kestrel peered inside the cave and then turned to Wily. “Do you want to take the lead?”
“Push your son into danger?” Odette said with a sneer. “How sweet.”
“Not at all,” Kestrel said. “He’s just proven himself to be much better at spotting traps than I am.”
“Well, that’s true,” Odette said reluctantly.
“Very true,” Roveeka added. “And he’s good at a lot of other stuff too.”
“I don’t doubt that anymore,” Kestrel said with a look of what seemed to be admiration.
Wily stepped through the ivy quickly. He didn’t want his companions to see that he was smiling.