Secrets of Tamarind

by Nadia Aguiar

  They had to duck into the town to get around the Red Coral camp. They ran silently down the cloudy streets, past the deserted market and the closed doors of the bakeries. The town was eerily desolate, but Simon knew that it was only because everyone was waiting inside until the call went up that the army was here.

  They left the town and scurried back around the edge of the harbor to where they had left the Pamela Jane hidden in the mangroves. Simon could smell the cold water before he could see it. They battled their way across the swampy earth through the mangroves and soon were walking waist deep in water. Helix swung Penny up onto his back and they tried not to splash too much.

  Green water flowed over their legs and lizards watched them from the upturned roots, their orange dewlaps flaring now and then through the mist. Simon still didn’t see their boat. Maddeningly, the fog was rolling in thickly again. It was like being in the middle of a cloud. He stared blindly into it.

  Maya tramped ahead in the water. “There!” she whispered loudly at last.

  Simon heaved a sigh of relief as the fog parted, revealing the boat.

  The Pamela Jane had undergone her second transformation. When Simon had gone to Davies Maroner, Maya, Penny, the señoras, and General Alvaro had painted her hull gray-blue to disguise her once again. Her name had been covered over and in its place, in Maya’s finest script, were the words “Silver Witch.”

  Brushing cobwebs and spiders off their shoulders, the children scrambled through the murky water and climbed aboard. They rigged the sails quickly and soon the Silver Witch was creeping furtively through the swamp, veils of moss trailing across her deck, silk spiders rustling as they rushed down her sails and leaped onto overhanging branches. Maya steered at the cockpit and Helix and Simon stood at the bow, slashing vines and holding back branches to let the boat pass. The fog had engulfed the sun and the air was humid. Mist clung to the roots of the mangroves. In the background explosions rang out from the mines.

  Simon heard flapping and gasped as a green flame swept past inches from his face. Seagrape landed on the deck. She shuffled sideways over to them, murmuring and muttering cantankerously. Her wings were wet and lustrous from the mist, gleaming deep emerald. They greeted her quietly but enthusiastically. They knew now that Milagros had gotten their message. Simon looked all around, half expecting to see her appear. He hoped she would do what she could to help.

  As they neared the end of the cove of mangroves, the children saw a strange light up ahead. At the moment they entered the harbor the wind rose, pushing the fog away. Now the boat was exposed, but the children had a clear view to the astonishing sight in the middle of the harbor.

  The Red Coral’s great steel ship was already down at the stern. She listed slowly and water poured into her hull, then in front of the children’s eyes she began to sink. Her vast ophalla cargo spilled out, illuminating the sky and water. The mangroves all around the harbor were lit silver, and slippery eels and schools of ballyhoo appeared clear as day through the bright water. Blue vapor rose from the surface. Everything seemed to hover ghostly in the ophalla’s phosphorescent glow.

  The children watched in delight. If there were any Red Coral left after the army moved in they would be stranded in Tamarind! But if anyone on shore had noticed the event they had no time to react, for at that moment a cacophony erupted just beyond the hills.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Simon jumped, then looked gleefully at the shore. “That isn’t the mining!” he said. “The army is here!”

  A chilling war cry went up, echoing off the hills and out over the water. As the children watched, a dark seething line appeared on the ridges, and a moment later the army came pouring down the steep slopes. There were so many people that the hillside was soon dark. At the same instant, all the doors of all the homes in Floriano were flung open and people flooded the streets, running to join the army and encircle the Red Coral. In seconds the town went from peace to pandemonium. Penny shouted, catching sight of the advance guard galloping down the hills on ostrillos. She didn’t look frightened at all, Simon realized. She was thoroughly enjoying herself! Good—better she thought it was all a game. He glanced at Helix and could tell that he wanted to be out there fighting, but he remained steadfastly with the children.

  There were a few more explosions at the mines as the Red Coral kept on heedlessly, but then the explosions stopped and the din of battle began. The acrid scent of smoke hung heavy in the air. The sky was dark with storm clouds. As they crossed the open harbor, the children had a majestic view as the action unfolded. They saw a few Maroong already deserting, running along the shore with armfuls of ophalla.

  As the Silver Witch approached the other side of the harbor the children saw the sinuous Jal River. The tang of salt air washed over them, and gusts of wind filled the mainsail, and then they were sailing at a fast clip up the river. The sounds of the battle in Floriano grew fainter and the glow in the sky from the sinking Red Coral ship faded from sight.

  The riverbanks were mostly deserted and it was only occasionally that the children saw the twinkle of lights of a tiny village through the heavy fog and rainstorms. There was no way to tell the hour of the day. Insects confused by the darkness into night song chirruped unseen on the riverbanks and nocturnal hunters prowled the shores. They passed towns waterlogged and abandoned, half-buried under the mudslides of recent storms, and saw more and more signs of the havoc the weather had wrought. Every now and then they felt tremors and heard the earth rumble, and the river swirled muddy around them. Simon had to steer around the swollen carcasses of animals drowned in floods, debris, and trees felled.

  After they had been sailing for an hour the children saw a lightweight craft skimming up the river. It caught up to the Silver Witch and a man leaned out.

  “The Red Man has escaped!” he shouted. “No one has seen him anywhere—keep a sharp watch!” Then his boat glided off quickly to keep searching up the river.

  Simon felt a chill. “Where can he have gone?” he asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Helix. “He can’t hide for long. He sticks out like a sore thumb here.”

  Dr. Fitzsimmons was still a threat. He could have spotted them sailing across the harbor and could still come after them, perhaps with a contingent. Now that his ship had been sunk, he would be desperate to secure a way home. He would want the Pamela Jane. It was more important than ever that the children make it to Faustina’s Gate. Even if Isabella was victorious in battle, they would achieve nothing unless the gate was closed.

  Simon took out the map, now dog-eared and grubby. They were making good time and would soon be at the entrance to the caves. He checked his backpack several times but the ophalla key, the stopwatch, and the mineral-fruits were all still there.

  It had all come down to them.

  Only they could save Tamarind now.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  A Warning • Penny Objects

  Finally the sun burned off the storm clouds and emerged. Afternoon light shone exhausted on the river. The children began to notice more and more birds. Sloop wingers cavorted around a lemon tree, a white whalla carved the sky high above, and a flock of bluebandas passed low overhead. Seagrape squawked up to them and they down to her.

  The Pamela Jane, disguised as the Silver Witch, turned the bend and up ahead the children saw a few large golden birds strutting regally on the shore. Then, as they got closer, standing on a hill above the river they saw a figure wearing a great cloak of iridescent feathers, peacock blue with navy eyes, shimmering in the hazy daylight.

  “Milagros!” said Simon.

  They drew alongside the riverbank and Simon and Maya quickly leaped ashore and tied off the boat. Helix helped Penny onto the bank and the four of them climbed the soggy hillside to meet the Dark Woman. Up close, though she had worn her finest cape, the sunlight laid her filthiness bare. Bird droppings encrusted her clothes and a feather caught in her hair shivered in the breeze. Her skin was tanned from grime.<
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  The hilltop looked out to sea on one side and out across the jungles of Tamarind on the other. The S of the river curved below them, twinkling in the light, heading toward the low humps of ancient, time-eroded mountains that stood on the coast. The faint sparkle of the river disappeared into a dark triangle at their base, just like in the ophallagraph.

  Milagros stretched out her arm and Seagrape landed on it. “Hello, my friend,” she murmured. “You have more to do.” Bird and woman regarded each other, then Seagrape returned to Helix.

  “You knew where the cave was all along,” said Simon. “Why didn’t you tell us when we first came to you?”

  “It would have been no use to you without the tools,” said Milagros. “You would have tried to come here straightaway, but without the tools you would have perished in the caves, to say nothing of the fact that without them, even if you found the gate you would not be able to close it.

  “I couldn’t tell you where the tools were because I no longer knew,” she went on. “Once I gave them to others I had no idea where they went. I knew, though, that if you were clever enough to find them by using the ophallagraphs, you’d be clever enough to find your way to Faustina’s Gate through the cave. You have to be very sharp to survive—its chambers are home to deadly creatures and its passages are tortuous. If you choose the wrong way you’ll never see the light of day again. You must remain alert the whole time and never let your guard down.”

  “We have the tools,” said Simon, taking them out to show her. “Can you tell us how to use them?”

  “Unfortunately, I cannot,” said Milagros. “Part of their secret lies in figuring out how to use them when the time comes. I’ve never seen the gate myself. I’ve come here now only to warn you about something very important you must know before you close it.”

  The children waited, listening.

  “If you succeed in closing the gate, you’ll emerge on the other side of the mountain, in a cove in the Green Vale,” said Milagros, speaking deliberately. “It’s said to be the most beautiful place on the whole island. When you sail out of the cove, there’s a current that will carry you out to the Blue Line. You have only a short time—minutes—to reach it.”

  “But we’re not going home yet,” said Maya. “We told the señoras we’d be back. We didn’t even say good-bye properly.”

  Milagros shook her head. Her eyes were dark beneath her drooping eyelids. “Once you close Faustina’s Gate, you have to leave Tamarind at once or you’ll have lost your chance,” she said. “In closing the gate you’ll be saving the Blue Line—it will be restored. Very quickly, the line will become so strong that you won’t be able to make it across—you’ll be trapped in Tamarind. And once the gate is closed, it can’t be opened for a very long time.”

  “Even the Pamela Jane—can’t she still make it back across?” Simon asked.

  “No,” said Milagros. “Not even this boat can. Not once the line has been strengthened again.”

  Simon was stunned. Never come back again? Simon and Maya looked quickly at Helix. He had just met his family! How could he leave them so soon?

  “If we close the gate, how long will it stay closed for?” Helix asked, gazing steadily at Milagros.

  “No one can answer that,” said Milagros. “Perhaps forever. Or for such a long time that it may as well be forever.”

  Helix cast his eyes down and stared quietly at the ground. Maya watched him worriedly.

  Simon gazed somberly out over Tamarind. From there he could see the whole lie of the land: the green jungle; the band of Jal River, shining in the sun; the red dust rising over the old mines. Somewhere, too far away to see, clouds were shifting across the shining peaks of the snow-clad mountains between whose cool depths lay the Moraine of Lost Loved Ones. Forever.

  The first time Simon’s family had been to Tamarind, his mother had been imprisoned on a pirate ship and his father had been trapped in the Ravaged Straits. They had seen only a small stretch of the southwest shore and the tiny tin towns there. But even though they were in Tamarind so briefly and saw so little of it, in the years afterward they stood up to the Red Coral Project valiantly in order to do what they believed was right. Now they would never have the chance to see the place that had haunted their imagination for so long.

  Simon was filled with fierce love for his parents then. He felt a new respect and a tenderness. Standing there, as all this flooded through him, he felt another strange sadness.

  He was not a child any longer.

  He felt it; he knew it. In the end, in the moment it happened, it was the simplest of transformations.

  Simon loved Tamarind, but more than Tamarind he loved his family. It was time to go home.

  The children looked at the great old woman solemnly.

  “Thank you,” said Simon. “Good-bye.”

  “Good luck—to all of you,” said the Dark Woman, bowing her head. She turned and left, disappearing into the jungle, and for the first time the great mass of her seemed strangely ephemeral, as if any breeze coming through it would leave only feathers where she had been. The great gilded birds went, too.

  “Come on,” said Helix. “We have to get to the gate.”

  They went quickly down the hill. When Simon looked back a few buzzards circled high overhead. The boat rocked uneasily in the water and Penny began to dig her heels in the ground as they approached.

  “Come on,” Simon said, tugging her hand.

  But Penny was gazing intently at the boat. She reminded Simon of a cat staring—almost in a trance—at something invisible. When Simon went to pull her along again she balked.

  “No!” she said, her face growing stormy. “No—I’m not going!”

  “Penny,” said Maya impatiently. “Let’s go—we don’t have time for this!”

  “Nooooooo!” shouted Penny, and when Simon tried to pick her up she burst into angry tears.

  “What’s got into her?” Maya asked.

  “She’s had enough,” said Simon. Poor little Penny. She was always so brave and she made such an effort to be grown-up like the others. Finally it was all too much for her. The strange old woman had probably frightened her.

  Helix looked slowly all around them, his expression dark.

  “Penny!” said Maya. “Sweetheart, don’t cry! Here…” But Penny just kicked Maya away.

  “Listen, mouse,” said Helix, bending down and scooping her up. “We’re going to get you home, okay? But we don’t have much choice—right now we have to get back on the boat.”

  Penny kicked and screamed. “I don’t like it,” she cried. “Something’s bad! Something’s bad!” Her howls echoed off the riverbank.

  “She’s just scaring herself more,” said Maya.

  Helix carried her onto the boat and on the deck she curled up in a ball, arms wrapped around her knees. Her outburst subsided to sniffles, but every now and then a sob broke through. Maya stroked her hair. “It’s okay, Pennymouse,” she whispered. “We’ll be home soon.”

  It went unspoken between the older children that perhaps they wouldn’t be home soon—they might not, in fact, make it through the caves.

  “Here, you be in charge of this,” said Simon, giving Penny the stopwatch from the ophallagraph to hold. He slipped its chain around her neck. Distracted, she fiddled with the knobs and listened to the soft whirring of the gears. Soon they were sailing back up the river. Helix whistled for Seagrape and she coasted down the hill and landed on the main mast, but she wouldn’t come down on the deck with them.

  Though no one said anything, Penny’s reaction had spooked them all.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Cave of the Musical Winds • Ancient Masks • Tools and Treachery

  They sailed in silence and the dark entrance at the base of the mountain grew enormous as they drew closer. Before they reached it, Helix lit several torches and lashed them to the railings. Simon reached into his backpack and touched the mineral-fruits and the key. He had to be ready to use them. Penn
y kept twisting the winder on the stopwatch and watching it spin down, entranced by the gentle buzz it made. Seagrape seemed very interested. Finally she dived down from the mast and sidled up to Penny and leaned over, peering at it with one eye.

  Sailing into a cave in a fifty-two-foot schooner was a profoundly strange sensation. The children gazed around them in awe as the Silver Witch glided soundlessly through the towering entrance. At once the world outside was left behind, and they found themselves in a vast, yawning cavern whose far reaches dissolved into darkness. As they drifted deeper into the cave the triangle of light from the entrance shrank and finally disappeared. Even with the torches, it took a while for their eyes to adjust to the dimness. The wind died and the sails collapsed. The boat sat becalmed. The children didn’t know what to do—without wind or current they were powerless. Simon peered with all his might into the darkness. What was out there? Then, above them, a mournful moaning started up. Penny took Maya’s hand.

  “Is it ghosts?” she whispered, her eyes wide.

  “Of course not,” said Maya at once, but she looked up nervously.

  The boat rocked in place. Helix lit a new torch and held it high above his head and a ceiling of carved masks suddenly appeared.

  “The Ancients must have put them there,” he whispered.

  The masks, big as shields, were suspended a hundred feet overhead and painted with dyes from the jungle. Untouched by the sun and elements, their paint was preserved, their faces bright. They rippled like the surface of water under a skidding breeze, and looked down on the children as they passed beneath them. Penny whimpered.

  “Don’t be afraid,” said Simon, squinting. “The noise is from the wind blowing across their mouths. Like the sound that the wind makes over the mouth of a bottle.”

  A light breeze, barely a whisper, came down from the roof of the cave and filled the sails and the boat began to drift forward. Simon trimmed the sails, eager not to head too quickly into the unknown. The wind sighed and groaned through the tunnels. The Pamela Jane left the chamber with the masks and headed down a long, wide passageway. Simon and Maya stayed at the wheel and Helix went to the bow with a torch to look out. Penny fiddled fretfully with the stopwatch. Seagrape perched on the bulwark.