The Box is on the deck next to us. We’ve been keeping it close during the journey, watching for any sign of the message, but so far we haven’t seen a glimmer of magical light. It’s just dull, plain cardboard.

“So what are you going to do with this thing?” asks Win, patting the Box. It’s still wrapped in Rose’s tangle of ropes, and Mitch added some magical super-strong seaweed. It looks like something that’s been dragged up from the bottom of the ocean.

“I say we take it to Home,” says Rose.

I shake my head. “It won’t fit through the tunnel.” During the journey, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Box, and I think I might have come up with a solution. “I say we try to open it.”

“What?” The others stare at me openmouthed.

“Arthur, this box has given us nothing but trouble,” says Rose. “We need to get rid of it.”

“We can’t get rid of it,” I say, “and I don’t think we need to. Since we left the End, the message hasn’t appeared, and something else has changed: I’m not scared of it anymore.”

“Really?” says Win.

I nod because it’s true. I realized it as we sailed back through the gap in the mountains. I was sitting on the Box watching Win do some kicks. The Box was uncomfortable, what with all the rope and seaweed, so I pushed them to one side, and just like that, I realized I wasn’t frightened of it.

“If this trip has taught me anything,” I say, “it’s that everyone is scared of something, but when you’ve got friends, real friends, those fears lose their power. Rose, I think you know this too, and that’s why the message hasn’t appeared. It’s not the Box anymore, it’s just a box.”

“Arthur’s right,” says Win. “Friends like us have a powerful magic. We can make dragons!”

“So we just . . . open it?” says Rose.

I nod. “And we leave it open.”

She frowns. “But what if you’re wrong? What if something does come out?”

“If we’ve got each other, we can face anything.” I look straight at Rose as I say this. I want her to know that what we have in Roar, this magic, will follow us home. “I’ll always be there for you, and you’ll always be there for me, right?”

The light from the stars shine on Rose. She smiles and shrugs. “Of course. You’re my brother.”

“Then let’s do it,” I say.

Everyone gathers around. The orangutans stop playing their music. The Lost Girls come down from the rigging. Win helps us pull off the layers of rope and seaweed until the Box is sitting in front of us, its lid loose.