Secrets of Tamarind

by Nadia Aguiar

  “Well, that’s the end of that,” said Isabella, rubbing her newly bruised knees.

  Simon got the map and his compass out and took a bearing. “Thirty-eight degrees northwest should get us straight to Prince’s Town,” he said. “I have to get to Maya and Penny.”

  Isabella had to hurry to keep up with Simon, who set out walking as fast as he could. Maya and Penny were so close now.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Prince’s Town

  They soon found a road where they flagged down a farmer’s cart that took them all the way into Prince’s Town. The town, nestled between the sea and the same icy blue mountains Simon had seen from the general’s hut, looked as if it were about to slide into the sea. Recent storms had torn off roofs and planted them in the surrounding fields. Homes lay collapsed in heaps. The roots of fallen trees had yanked up great stretches of the road and gusts of salt spray had silvered what trees still stood. Down by the shore, big sea-smoothed boulders had been rolled by the waves and lodged between buildings on narrow streets. Landsides had driven several feet of mud down some roads and the scrape of shovels on pavements rang throughout the town.

  “It shouldn’t be like this,” Isabella muttered grimly as she surveyed the damage. “This area never gets storms…”

  Simon didn’t care about the state of Prince’s Town right now; he only wanted to find his sisters. He covered his nose as they passed rotting fish flung into gardens by the wind and waves. Down at the foot of the town he caught a glimpse of a grotty little harbor jammed with boats. Of course—the docks!

  “They’ll be down there,” he said to Isabella. “When the Pamela Jane was our home we’d live on board the boat in different ports—that’s where they’ll go to wait for me.” He broke into a jog.

  “I’ll come with you,” said Isabella. “I need to find a boat to take me to Cabarro.”

  Now that they were so close, Simon began to feel ill. What if Maya and Penny weren’t in Prince’s Town at all? What if they had never made it out of the tunnels? He came out onto the street that ran along the waterfront and paused, letting his eye rove over the mossy old fishing boats and barges knocking together along the docks. He saw no women there at all, only crab-handed old fishermen and ancient dockhands.

  He ran down the length of the waterfront, but afraid to reach the end without seeing his sisters, he slowed down. His eye ran over the people on each boat, skipping over the boats with no one aboard them.

  And then he stopped.

  He saw a boat that looked very familiar.

  He held his breath. He peered hard. Despite the blue paint on the hull, the battered old burlap-colored sail, and the name Blue Duck painted crudely on her starboard stern, he would know her shape anywhere.

  “That’s our boat!” he said. “That’s the Pamela Jane!”

  Isabella followed his gaze. “The Blue Duck?” she asked, confused.

  “Helix must have disguised her, after he took off,” said Simon.

  He began to sprint down the dock. If the boat was here, Helix must be, too. And if Maya and Penny had reached Prince’s Town they would certainly have found the boat and would be on it or nearby! Then a dreadful thought brought him up short. What if Helix hadn’t disguised the Pamela Jane—what if someone else had? Helix might have abandoned her somewhere and perhaps someone else had stolen her. If that was true, Simon should approach cautiously.

  Suddenly he felt frantic. More than anything, he wanted to see his sisters and know they were safe. He was blistered, sunburned, hungry, and his arm throbbed where the spokes of the umbrella had cut it. He stood still and whistled, a code whistle that they had used when they were hiding in the garden at Granny Pearl’s as children. He waited. The sun came out from behind the haze of clouds, rolling out over the town and docks, and lighting the shifting points of wavelets and glinting off the fish scales that littered the wet dock. He whistled again.

  At that moment he saw Maya emerge onto the deck of their boat, Penny behind her. Maya’s hair was tucked under a mussel diver’s cap. Penny was tanned and still wearing her pink pajamas. They were okay! His heart felt as if it would overflow.

  Maya’s head shot up and her eyes searched the dock. She saw him and a huge smile broke out over her face and she leaped from the deck onto the pier. Simon ran as fast as he could down the dock.

  “Penny, Penny!” Maya cried. “He’s here! Simon’s here!”

  She grabbed Penny’s hand and pulled her up onto the dock just as Simon barreled into them, wrapping them both up in a giant hug.

  “You’re okay,” said Maya, wiping away tears. “I’m so glad! I was really worried! We didn’t know what had happened to you…”

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” said Simon. “I’m sorry it took me such a long time to get here. I’ll explain everything. But first, you found the boat! Is Helix here, too?”

  Maya hesitated. “No,” she said. “We just missed him.”

  Simon’s heart sank a little at this news. He was eager to hear what Maya knew about Helix, but Penny had been jumping up and down and now she leaped into Simon’s arms. He squeezed her tightly and swung her around. As he spun he caught sight of Isabella jogging down the dock. He had totally forgotten about her. She stopped awkwardly a few feet away, breathing hard.

  Maya caught sight of her, too, and her eyes narrowed. “What’s she doing here?” she asked, staring icily at the other girl. Then she glanced furtively down the dock. “Come onto the boat,” she said. “We shouldn’t stay out in the open all together like this. There were Red Coral boats here just yesterday—who knows who’s lurking around. I guess she’d better come, too.”

  Still holding Penny, Simon followed Maya onto the Pamela Jane. It had never felt so good to set foot on her deck as it did then. He offered Isabella his hand and she jumped down after him.

  “Are you hungry?” Maya asked. “I was just fixing lunch, let’s all eat.” As they went into the cabin Maya caught sight of Simon’s bandaged arm and feet.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said quickly, waving her off. And he really did feel fine now—like new. He was so relieved to know that she and Penny were okay, and so happy to be together again on the Pamela Jane. Their boat had been their home for such a long time and he loved her fiercely. His sisters, too—he couldn’t believe that they had ever gotten on his nerves.

  “We had to go in the dark,” Penny told him.

  “She means the tunnels,” said Maya. “Our flashlight went out near the end and we had to feel the rest of our way out. Then we arrived here three days ago. We met the city children. Remember Jolo and Small Tee? They’re mussel divers here! I guess islands are like that—you’re always running into the same people. We went looking for you all through town. That’s when we ran into them. We found the Pamela Jane, too, obviously. Helix had disguised her, but we recognized her straightaway. I couldn’t believe it—we missed him by hours, we were so close. But he’ll have to come back—I don’t think he meant to leave the boat for good.”

  Maya returned with a plate of mussels, bread, and olives for them to share. She banged an empty bowl for the shells in front of Isabella, ignoring her.

  “Mussels again,” said Penny, wrinkling her nose.

  “Don’t complain,” said Maya. “At least we have food—something’s happening in the water here,” she said to Simon. “So many fish and so much sea life is dying … Every day the fishermen and divers come back with less.”

  Simon moved the plate of mussels over to Isabella so she knew she was welcome to them. He wished Maya would be a little friendlier.

  “Do you have any idea where Helix went?” Simon asked.

  “Some fishermen nearby said he went up into the mountains,” said Maya, sitting down and pushing her hair behind her ears. “To a place called the Moraine of Lost Loved Ones.”

  Hungry as Simon was, he was so surprised that he stopped with a hunk of bread halfway to his mouth.

  “The Moraine of Lost Loved Ones?” he asked
.

  Maya frowned. “You’ve heard of it?”

  “It’s in one of the ophallagraphs!” said Simon excitedly. He rummaged in his backpack for the ophallagraphs. His sisters hadn’t even seen the most recent one. He had so much to tell them. Isabella leaned forward, curious. Penny sat eating olives, swinging her legs under the table and listening carefully as Simon explained everything he had learned from the Mole Monks. He pointed out the Last Ferry in the ophallagraph of the boats in the harbor.

  “It’s the symbol for the moraine,” he said. “It’s called the Last Ferry—it’s a raft that drifts around the moraine, taking people from one side to the other.”

  “That’s where Helix went?” said Maya. “That’s too weird to be a coincidence.”

  “I think so, too,” said Simon. “Do you know how to get to it?”

  “I’ve asked everyone, but nobody knows,” said Maya. “I don’t think anyone has been there for a very long time. Only the oldest people knew about it, and even they couldn’t tell us how to get there. All they knew was that it’s in the mountains somewhere—those there,” she said, nodding at the mountains visible through the porthole. “But they’re huge—where would you even start?”

  Simon looked through the porthole at the glimmering peaks of the mountains towering over Prince’s Town.

  “Do you know where it is?” Simon asked Isabella, but she shook her head.

  “I thought it was just a myth,” she said. “I didn’t think it was real.”

  “What else did you find out?” Maya asked.

  Simon paused and then unhappily he told Maya about Dr. Fitzsimmons and the Floriano operation. She looked at him gravely. When a whiff of rotting fish came through the open porthole she got up to close it.

  “So what now?” she asked.

  Simon explained how the ophallagraphs formed a triptych, which was an old method of hiding secrets. He showed them the two tools that they had so far: the mineral-fruits from the oasis in the Neglected Provinces and the key that had been hidden in the umbrella Dr. Bellagio gave them. Maya and Penny gazed at the objects reverently. He told them that the Mole Monks thought the Pamela Jane was important, too.

  “So we’re just missing one tool,” he said.

  “And you think that the moraine has something to do with it?” Maya asked.

  “I think it might,” said Simon. “Anyway, it’s our only lead at this point. Not that it’s much use to us if we don’t know how to get there.”

  They stared at the ophallagraphs. Finally Isabella spoke. “I keep thinking I see something glinting around this man’s neck,” she said, pointing to the man on the left beneath the umbrella. “Like a chain or something. Could that be important?”

  “I don’t see how,” said Maya dismissively. She frowned and Simon knew she was irritated that Isabella was involved. Maya wound a strand of hair around her finger. Then she gasped softly.

  “Maybe…” she whispered. Eyes shining, she turned the ophallagraph of the two men beneath the umbrella around so that Simon could see it. She pointed to the man on the left. Isabella was right. There was some sort of chain gleaming around his neck, as if the sun was reflecting off it. Simon had noticed it before. “The general said he was dead,” said Maya. “Remember? He said this other man was propping him up. Maybe there’s a link between this man and the moraine—maybe he’s in the water there and we’re supposed to go there to find this chain that’s glowing around his neck! Maybe it’s one of the tools!

  “And Helix is there now,” Maya went on. “Milagros said we would cross paths when the time was right—maybe this is it!”

  “I think you’re right,” said Simon, slightly enviously. “I wish I’d seen that!” But his excitement faded when he looked out of the porthole. The mountains were long and treacherous. “We know the moraine is up there somewhere,” he said. “But we can’t just start climbing without knowing where we’re going—the mountains are huge and the moraine could be anywhere. We don’t even know if Helix found it.”

  They fell into silence, staring at the ophallagraphs, each hoping for some new pattern to spring forth, for some element within to suddenly make its purpose known.

  “There’s the face,” said Penny suddenly.

  “What?” asked Simon, not really listening.

  “The face,” said Penny. She pointed at the ophallagraph with the two men and the umbrella. “The one I told you I saw outside, on the mountain. It’s here.”

  “What do you mean, Penny?” Maya asked.

  “See, it’s in the cloud there, where the birds are, it’s the same face I saw in the mountain.” Penny turned the ophallagraph ninety degrees and then the others saw it, too—a human profile in the puffy white banks of clouds. “See,” she said. “There’s the nose, there’s the mouth, there’s the chin, that’s where the eyes are and that’s the forehead.” It had been there all along, but none of them had seen it before.

  “Show me in the mountain outside,” said Simon.

  Penny tilted her head sideways and pointed through the porthole to the mountain, purple-blue with shadow. “Look,” she said. “In that part of the mountains right there. It’s the same face. Like someone’s lying on his back looking up. I saw it when we were walking to the general’s house, before we rode the ostrillo and went in the tunnels. Only it was the other way around then. I said I saw it then, but nobody listened.”

  And then Simon saw the profile for the first time: sloping forehead, shallow place for the eyes, blunt nose, jutting chin. Maya exclaimed when she saw it, too.

  “You’re right, Penny,” said Simon. “There is a face.”

  He looked at the ophallagraph again more carefully, alert to any details that would appear afresh to him. Then he remembered: The tiny black etchings of birds were a clue. They carved a path across the cloud—or mountain, depending on how you looked at it—starting in a narrow pass between two distinctive formations before making their way up in loops and switchbacks, all the way to what looked like the chin of the profile.

  “The birds mark the path from the bottom of the mountain to the top!” said Simon excitedly. “Right there, in the dip of the chin—it must be there!”

  “Helix is up there,” said Maya, looking through the porthole at the icy mountains. “We have to go!”

  Isabella cleared her throat. “If I may,” she said.

  “What is it?” asked Simon.

  “First, I would like to apologize for the reception you received when you arrived in Tamarind,” she said, her tone lofty and presidential. “Please understand, my family had just been kidnapped by Outsiders, the same Outsiders who were wreaking havoc throughout the island. I thought you were involved with them somehow. But I was wrong—clearly you’re friends of Tamarind—true patriots, even if you aren’t from our shores—”

  “Get to the point,” said Maya sharply.

  Isabella leaned forward across the table. “I need a boat,” she said. “I can’t help you until—’

  “Every time you try to help us, we end up in trouble,” Maya interrupted. She glared at Isabella. “We don’t want your help anymore. We’ll find Helix and get to Faustina’s Gate ourselves.”

  Simon, too, was suspicious. He knew that when it came down to it Isabella would do what was best for Tamarind—even if that would harm the children. He remembered how the Peace March four years ago had almost resulted in them ending up at the bottom of the ocean. But beggars couldn’t be choosers—they needed someone who could rally the people and raise an army to stop the mining, and except for Isabella there wasn’t exactly anyone else around who had the resources to do that. And … he and Isabella had survived a plunge over a mighty waterfall into a roaring river together just yesterday and now he felt a bond to her.

  “What’s your plan, Isabella?” he asked.

  Maya folded her arms and Simon listened closely as Isabella told them what she hoped to do.

  “I’ll get to Maracairol by boat,” said Isabella quickly. “I’ll rescue my
mother and brother along the way and we’ll organize a resistance army. The three of you—with Helix, if you find him in time—will find the missing tool from the ophallagraph in the moraine, then return to Floriano. The señoras and the colonels—they were the greats of the last war—they’ll be able to help us, too. Tell them what’s happening so they can mobilize the people of Floriano to join the army when it arrives.”

  She paused. “You said that Milagros and the Mole Monks told you that Faustina’s Gate is the only way to restore the balance and save Tamarind,” she said. “I think it’s too late to simply defeat the Red Coral—too much ophalla has already been mined. You’ll have to find the gate and close it, whatever it takes.”

  This time they all wanted the same thing: to save Tamarind. And Isabella couldn’t do it on her own. She needed their help, which, Simon decided, was ultimately the only safe and logical reason to trust her. “All right,” he said. “It’s a plan.” Reluctantly Maya nodded.

  “But right now I need a boat,” said Isabella.

  “Well, you can’t have ours,” said Maya firmly.

  The two girls glared at each other.

  “Why don’t you ask Jolo and Small Tee if you could use their cousin’s boat?” Penny asked Isabella, swinging her legs under the table. “They’re coming back now.”

  Simon glanced through the porthole and saw that the fishing boats were indeed returning. A few moments later a boat sailed in alongside the Pamela Jane and a couple of boys leaped nimbly onto the pier and tied it up. Jolo, followed by Small Tee, hopped across to the Pamela Jane.

  “There’s a fleet of Red Coral and Maroong coming!” called Jolo as he came down the companionway. “We just heard! They’re sailing down the coast now—they’ll be here by tonight—they’re on their way to Floriano!”