Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Here, Piggy, Piggy. Where Are You Hiding? Don't Be Koi! H arper lowered her net down into Ironsword's outdoor pond. A large koi fish with orange and white scales bobbed up to the surface to investigate the disturbance. Its mouth wiggled open and closed in a friendly way, hoping for a snack.

The air was calm. Most of the students had gone home, and the weather was nice. The grounds behind Ironsword were wide and green— this was one of the only places with shade because a big tree hung over the pond. The five of them all swished their nets around in the pool, collecting fallen leaves, branches, and trash blown into the water by the wind. Bloop. The koi fish bobbed back underwater. Harper looked at her own reflection next to it and smiled. She tapped the cool water with her finger, making perfect circular ripples. This is nice, she thought. A quiet moment to—

"HELP!" Harper tumbled forward and almost fell into the pool. Theo caught her arm and pulled her backward. The voice in her earbud kept yelling: "HELP! I'M SORRY, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! I MESSED UP, AND NOW EEK IS IN DANGER—" Everyone around the pond was wincing. Harper was the first to answer. "Ash? Is that you? What's wrong?"

"There you are!" Morgan said. "Finally!" "I KNOW, I'M SORRY, BUT—" Ash took a moment to control her voice. "Eek is trapped. On treasure island." "Treasure…Island?" Theo asked, thinking of the book. "Yo-ho-ho?" "They're in a bastion," Jodi explained. Harper understood immediately. "He's by the treasure! Surrounded by lava. And you're not there?" "He jumped!" "I used a boat!" Eek added. "It was very cool, but now I am running around in circles on an island." "I don't have enough blocks to build a bridge," Ash continued. "Eek's already been hit once." "I am all right now, though! I am becoming a master of running around in circles on an island." Eek yelped. "Ouch! Perhaps it is not a perfect method." "I don't have much time. I can't think of anything. I messed up. I shouldn't have told him

to—I shouldn't have come in here, and—" Harper wasn't going to let Ash get stuck feeling bad. She didn't deserve it, and they had Eek to save. "What do you have?" She reached to grab her net, which had fallen into the water. "Gold. Two blocks of blackstone. A bunch of other random treasure. A ton of boats Eek put in my way back at the base—" Harper's net snagged on something at the bottom. She pulled up carefully—it wasn't stuck. It had caught something…a pigurine! A little piglet skipping rocks at the edge of a tiny lake.

Skipping rocks… "Ash! I know what you can do!" Harper exclaimed. "It's a big risk, but if anyone can pull it off, it's you." Ash leapt from the lowest level of the bastion, straight toward the lava. She watched carefully as she fell, and at the very last second dropped a boat. Thunk. She landed in the boat—which was already burning! The lava set the boat on fire immediately. If Harper was right, though, she had another second to… Jump again! And place another boat beneath her. Ash was the skipping rock. Fire raged around her on all sides, and she had no room for error! Jump, boat, land. Jump, boat, land!