“I’m fine,” Knox said. “I didn’t get punched in the face.”
“What about you?” Vanessa asked Tess, gripping her hands.
“I’m a little scared,” Tess said. “But we’re safe, right?”
Vanessa looked at the cyclops. “Baroi?”
“I believe there are no more dullions,” Baroi said. “I will patrol the area to be sure.”
“Do you know if Kendra is safe?” Vanessa asked.
“She is well,” Baroi said. “She is with my brothers, near the Sunset Pearl.”
“Four dullions,” Warren said.
“Four?” Knox asked.
“Two attacked Savani as she oversaw the expansion of her garden,” Vanessa said. “The menehunes helping on the project came to her aid. They fought one dullion, and Baroi battled the other.”
“He called for us to go to the beach,” Warren said. “He could sense the dullions there.”
“Were the dullions targeting the children?” Vanessa asked.
“Difficult to know,” Baroi said. “They may simply have been after whoever they found on the sand. I’m sorry it took me so long to overcome the dullion in the garden. It was more evasive than these.”
“These directly attacked you,” Warren said.
“Their mistake,” Baroi remarked.
“How did dullions get in here?” Warren asked. “This area should be protected!”
“They might have been planted when all protections were down,” Baroi said. “Before the first moai was revived. Or else it was an inside job. Someone with access could have admitted them.”
“Who would do that?” Vanessa asked.
Baroi tilted his face skyward. “I cannot see.”
“Do we have a traitor?” Knox asked.
“Possibly,” Vanessa said. “Many people went missing when the preserve fell. It could be somebody who had access but is presumed dead. It could also be a high-level member of Dragonwatch.”
“Or they might have been brought in when the defenses were down,” Warren reminded her.
“If so, why wait so long to deploy them?” Vanessa asked.
“I don’t know,” Warren said. “Why attack now in the first place?”
“I came running the moment I sensed them,” the cyclops said. “Tal and Hobar stayed back to protect Kendra and the pearl.”
“How could they have avoided your notice for so long?” Warren asked.
“These dullions seemed to spring into existence,” Baroi said. “They were either dormant or created on the spot—or else they snuck into the preserve through a portal. I wish I could have reached you sooner.”
“Could other dormant ones still be hiding?” Knox asked.
“I will conduct a thorough search,” Baroi said. “We must all consider the likelihood that our defenses have been compromised.”
“We barely got our defenses back,” Warren complained.
“The defenses of the sanctuary are functional,” Baroi said. “But somebody may be granting unwarranted access, or else your enemies have found another way to work around the protections.”
“What now?” Knox asked.
“Short term?” Warren replied. “You two need to stay in the tree house.”
Knox glanced at where he had dropped his stick before running into the water with Tess. Maybe he wasn’t as ready to become a warrior as he had imagined, but did he have to hide in a tree? “Isn’t the danger past?”
“We didn’t anticipate an attack like this,” Vanessa said. “It shouldn’t have been possible. Until we figure out what is going on, you ought to stay in our most defensible stronghold.”
“Why punish us for getting attacked?” Knox complained.
“Staying alive is not a punishment,” Warren said. “If attacks can happen, we have to take more precautions.”
“That could have been the last attack,” Knox said.
“Or it could just be the beginning,” Vanessa countered. “There is a war going on.”
“We might be safer on the ground,” Knox said. “If I were the bad guys, I’d chop down the trees.”
“Good thing you’re not them,” Warren said. “March.”
“Why do safety precautions usually happen after the accidents?” Knox asked.
“It’s how we learn,” Vanessa said. “Better late than never.”
Knox crouched to pick up his stick without stopping.
“Thanks for staying by me,” Tess said.
“I wish I could have knocked their heads off,” Knox said.
“I wish the same thing,” Warren said, raising a hand to gingerly probe his swollen eye. “We’ll keep this fair. We’ll all stay mostly up in the trees.”
Hobar patted Kendra reassuringly with a hand big enough to crush a watermelon. “Your cousins and friends are safe. Baroi destroyed the last of the dullions.”
“Are you sure?” Kendra asked.
The cyclops nodded, then sniffed the air. “Something else is coming, though.”
“More dullions?” Kendra asked.
“Something of greater magnitude,” Tal said. “Something from the depths.”
“We have sensed a growing disturbance,” Hobar said. “An imbalance.”
“The war?” Kendra guessed.
“Not exactly,” Tal said.
Kendra looked to where she had just planted a seed from the Sentient Wood. The hamadryad Eldanore had entrusted her with three seeds—an oak, a redwood, and a banyan. They would grow into thinking trees like those in the ruminating forest at Wyrmroost.
After returning from the Fairy Realm, Kendra had gone directly to the cyclopses. Baroi had suggested she plant the banyan here on Timbuli, within sight of the Sunset Pearl. Scooping the dirt over the seed had felt like her final duty at Crescent Lagoon. As she was searching for a feeling of farewell, the cyclopses had sensed the intrusion, and Baroi had raced away.
Now Kendra stared at the pearl, resting in a shallow basin atop an altar of black, porous rock. The size of a softball, the Sunset Pearl had a rainbow sheen on its milky white surface. Around the clearing where the altar had been raised stood the ten Grand Moai, enormous statues with elongated heads like those on Easter Island. When the pearl was present, the moai around the sanctuary exerted their protective magic. After the pearl had been stolen, the sanctuary had fallen.
“I know now,” Hobar and Tal spoke in unison, interrupting her musings.
“You know what?” Kendra asked.
“The cause of the imbalance,” Hobar said.
“The coming upheaval we perceived,” Tal said.
Kendra heard heavy footfalls approaching. Baroi bounded into view, breathing heavily.
“Yes, they are fine,” Baroi said to her unasked question. He laid a gentle palm against her back. “Come to the center of the clearing and witness an event that has not transpired for centuries.”
The ground began
