AMANI: Reveal (7 page)

Amya Priam

Some people spend their life wondering what they’re going to look like when they’re older. I know I do—well, I did.
              Being face to face with a senior, more mature version of myself was very intimidating. This Amya, looking at me with such kindness and wisdom, with so much love for someone she’d never seen in her life, made me feel like I was five inches tall.
              “Hello, Amya,” she voiced.
              “Ditto.”
             
Ditto
?
DITTO
? From a selection of dozens of ways to greet someone in the English language alone, I chose
ditto
?
              How embarrassing.
              Blue didn’t mind, though. On the contrary, she seemed quite amused by my complete lack of decorum. She sat down on the sand next to me and Xander, her pale green frock covering her tanned legs. And using her slow, angelic voice, she explained to me what had happened, from the moment we were attacked in the Cave to now.
              Three bemoths had been waiting for us at the exit. They could apparently hang themselves on the stalactites and thus raid their prey more efficiently. I had been the first one bitten, but Xander had to battle the other two. When Samera had heard me scream, she, her father, and Jeffrey had immediately come to our rescue. The two men had fought with Xander, while Sam had opened the curtain to the Blue Dimension in order to send sea-water onto the monsters.
              The bemoth who had attacked me left with a good hunk of my shoulder, but only part of my deltoid was injured. Xander had recovered seconds after we were out of the Cave and Karl, Jeff, and Samera came back unharmed.
              Xander had carried me in his arms while Jeff guided them through the city harbor, until they had reached a boat that belonged to Mrs. Cohen. Even Karl had been unaware his wife owned a boat in Red. Once inside and after they had thanked our guide for his help, we had Traveled to Blue—the Dimension where the earth and oceans are reversed from those in Amani—and Amya, my Blue-self, had welcomed us on the beach.
              “After reading Mrs. Cohen’s letter to, er, Jeffrey, is it?” Blue continued. I nodded. “I understood I had to help you. I have only met Mrs. Cohen once, but I owe her so much… In any case, we were able to calm your blood loss with a special ointment.” She leaned closer to me. “We did not invent it. To be honest, the recipe was created in Yellow and it was passed on by Protectors visiting our Dimension.” She winked at me.
              I didn’t dare look at my shoulder yet. From the smell of it, the ointment was the same that had healed Gareth’s leg after he was attacked by bemoths a month ago. A large bandage made of seaweeds covered half my neck, all the way down to my elbow. It wrapped tightly around my chest and left ribs, probably to keep the ointment firmly in place.
              “Where are the others?” I asked. I hadn’t seen Samera or Mr. Jensen on the beach yet. Only boats and beautifully designed tree houses coming out of the water were visible.
              “Your friend’s ankle was badly sprained. My colleagues are arranging something that will allow her to walk with more ease. We will meet them at the boat in a few minutes, now that you are awake.”
              “The boat?”
              Xander put his hand on mine. “We’re leaving the United States, Amya.”
              “What? Why? Where are we going?”
              He squeezed my hand and Blue grinned at me. “North,” Xander answered. “We’re going to Canada. Michelle said the Protectors are already looking for me, so we have to flee the country. She called earlier—”
              “Is Delilah okay?” I interrupted. I’d felt like the worst sister in the world leaving her behind. I knew she was safer with the Protectors since they would take care of her while I was gone, but I still wondered if I’d made the right decision by leaving her behind. “How is she?”
              Blue and Xander looked doubtfully at each other. Something was off. I stood up, my heart racing, and I started to feel dizzy; the water in front of me spun, the tree houses hazed… until Xander held my two hands firmly in his.
              “You lost a lot of blood. You should sit down and rest,” he told me.
              “Tell me my sister is okay.” His features were blurry for seconds, but it didn’t last. Soon enough, I could perceive concern eating up the earlier joy he’d displayed. “Xander…”
              He squeezed my hands. “Michelle said that many Protectors were injured, some very badly… and so far, five of them are dead.”
              “No…”
              “They did not find your sister dead, Amya.” Relieved, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. “They are still looking under the debris of the explosions, but Michelle thinks…” He paused, looking down at his feet, then into my eyes again. “Michelle thinks your sister was kidnapped.”
              Rage, fear, panic, disappointment, and an abundance of mixed emotions created a big stone in my stomach, so heavy I thought I would collapse. It was my fault. I should have never left her. She’d told me Wyatt wanted to take her away. And I had let him. I had helped him follow through with his plan. I had let my sister down.
              Someone’s hand gently touched my arm. I turned to face Blue’s compassionate eyes, but I couldn’t bear their pity, so I walked away, drying the tears that were already slithering down my cheeks.
              “Amya! You can’t seek her on your own. You’re still too weak,” Xander said as he joined me.
              “Then come with me.”
              He took my uninjured shoulder, forcing me to a halt. “I will. I will follow you to China if I have to. But for now, our priority is to get out of here. Michelle told us she’ll do anything to find Delilah.”
              “My priority is my sister. It should never have been anyone else.” I looked away, shameful tears menacing to spill. I didn’t really mean that. Xander was safe and that was wonderful. But the cost of his freedom was too high. Deli should have never been involved in this. “I’m so stupid. She came to HQ to seek my protection. She trusted me when I said she was safe…” I could hardly contain my sorrow anymore. I silently chocked back tears down my throat as I looked away at the boundless ocean.
              “You know none of this is your fault,” Xander whispered as his arms circled around me. “You couldn’t have known they were coming for her.”
              I didn’t respond because I didn’t feel like persisting on the subject would bring my sister back. Of course I could have guessed Wyatt was coming for her. She’d told me so herself. But I’d been too selfish. I’d thought he was looking for me. I’d never believed my sister was in any real danger. And I’d been wrong.
              But I would find her. I would find her at any cost.
              At some point, I felt warm tears slide down my cheeks. “I’m not going to Canada,” I said through quiet sobs.
              “We don’t really have a choice. Besides, as long as Michelle hasn’t found the Rascals’ location—and that’s if they are the ones responsible for the explosions—we have no idea where to look for her.” He leaned back and cupped his hands around my moist face. “We
will
find her.”
              Resigned, I dried my eyes with my sleeve. Xander was right about one thing: we needed to find my sister’s location before we could make a move. Michelle was very resourceful when it came to seeking information or a person. I was willing to give her a week. One single week.
              “Truly sorry to interrupt,” Blue said from behind me. I’d completely forgotten she was there. “Samera’s cast is done. We are ready to go now.” She smiled mildly, turned around, and disappeared behind the palm trees.
              I took a deep breath, slipped my fingers through Xander’s, and we followed my Blue-self to a nearby wooden bridge made of interweaved tree trunks and branches. Emerging from the smallest house in the area, Samera ran—or more leaped her way—on one-and-a-half legs to us and threw her arm around my left shoulder, careful with the injured one. Xander and Blue continued their route to what looked like a stack of round logs tied together.
              “Oy! Why is it that, lately, you always lose consciousness when Traveling in the Blue Dimension?” Sam wondered.
              Recalling how I’d almost drowned in the open sea after Samera and Xander had helped me escape from the hospital last month, a mild smile brushed my lips.
              “History repeating itself, I guess.”
              She broke away and grinned. “How’s your shoulder?”
              “It tickles a little. Probably means it’s healing, right? I don’t want to think about what it’ll feel like when the painkillers wear off.” Samera made a face. “Your ankle?”
              She shrugged. “I’ll survive,” she said. Then her features melted into a frown. “Did somebody tell you about—?”
              “Deli? Yeah… Do you really believe your mother can track her down?”
              “If I know one thing about Mom, it’s that she has contacts literally everywhere. Unless Wyatt can make himself and your sister invisible, someone will eventually notice them and notify the Protectors.” When I said nothing, Samera continued on a more cheerful note. “So you met your Blue-self!” She gazed behind her to ensure Amya couldn’t hear us. She was, with Xander’s and an old man’s help, circling the logs with yet more ropes. “I still can’t believe she’s here. Personally, I’ve never met my selves. I wish I could, but it’d be hard to track them down. Does it feel like you’re having a conversation with yourself? Isn’t she pretty? I wonder why she walks so funny. Did you break your leg when you were young?”
              I shook my head.
              A silhouette appeared in the corner of my eye. Mr. Jensen came out of the small house and headed toward the others. He and Xander seemed to be on good terms.
              “What about your father?” I pointed in his direction with my chin. “Did he make peace with Xander?”
              “That’s the strangest thing,” Sam said. She bit her upper lip. “Dad doesn’t remember trying to kill Xander. He sort of blacked out soon after we Traveled in Red, when he became violent. He spoke of this to Mom on the phone earlier, and she said that many injured Protectors were in the same situation. Others have gone completely mad. They have apparently hallucinated monsters, spiders, snakes, and such. One of them thought my mother was an evil clown and he tried to stab her with his fork. She was able to knock him out, and when he woke up, he said he had no recollection of the event. Mom said Headquarters is a real madhouse right now.”
              “Do you think it has something to do with Wyatt?”
              “Probably. We think he might have put something in the aeration fans before bombing the place, some hallucinogenic drug that enhances people’s deepest fears.”
              “That’s just sick.”
              Sam’s eyebrows raised. “One more reason to blame Wyatt. Although, why are some Protectors fine? According to Mom, close to a quarter of the Protectors did not show any symptoms.”
              It all made absolutely no sense to me. Why would Wyatt attack HQ and turn the Protectors into animals? Just for fun? He was obviously deranged, but as far as I knew, he always had a purpose behind his actions, however insane they were.
              “Why kidnap Delilah?” I said out loud.
              “Isn’t that evident? He wants
you
. He knows you’ll try to find her. And when you do, he’ll be right there to take you away.” The mere idea made me shiver. “The real question is, why does he need you? He won’t harm you or he would’ve done it when you were in a coma. For some twisted reason, he needs to keep you alive until… well that’s also something we need to figure out.”
              “Need me? I doubt it. I’m no use to anyone. You saw what happened in the Cave…”
              “You have your ability.”
              “A useless ability.”
              “But unique all the same.”
              “Girls,” Mr. Jensen called out. “We’re ready to leave.”
              Turning around, I noted that the supposed wooden boat had no engine whatsoever. It was about ten-feet-wide by eight-feet-long and there were five pairs of straps set in two parallel rows. Was it some kind of surfing device? I couldn’t comprehend how my Blue-self planned on taking us to Canada with this large stack of logs.
              Samera and I stared at each other for a moment. “Don’t worry,” she told me. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
              We walked past two small bridges leading to different blocks of houses, all adorned with green leaves and intricate designs of branches, and some decorated with tiny geysers emerging from the roofs. Xander first helped Samera onto the miniature barge. Then my best friend seemed to know exactly what to do. She lay on her stomach while Xander strapped her waist and gave her a pair of swimming goggles.
             
What in the world?
              I was next. “Er, wait. How’s
this
supposed to take us to Canada?” I asked, still not convinced that the piece of timber was safe.
              Xander smiled and stretched out his hand to mine. “I’ve never tried it either, but it sounds fun, you’ll see. I will buckle your waist and the segment of wood coming out of the boat at your feet will prevent you from being projected backward during the trip. You can also hang on to the rope in front of you if it makes you feel safer. And the goggles are in case you want to admire the road.”