Harbinger

by Sara Etienne

  Then my root snapped and I plummeted through the air. The whole island coming with me.

  “No! Faye!” Kel’s scream cut across my terror and something grabbed my ankle, yanking me to a painful stop.

  I hung, dangling upside down, from what was left of the sheared-off slope. A tree root squeezed tight around my ankle, holding me there. More roots shot through the crumbling island. Weaving the rock back together.

  The root cinched around me, hauling me up the cliff face by my ankle. Pulling me back up onto the peak. Then the root released me and I looked around in awe. My island was whole again, a living mass of knobbly roots and branches. And that wasn’t all.

  Kel and the others still stood on a ridge in the middle of the empty bay. Their mountain of sand was now an enormous knot of roots. In the center of it Maya sat, looking alarmed at what she’d done, at the top of a single, tall tree. Embraced in a throne of branches.

  Bruised and exhausted, we all faced one another across the now-clear dawn. Kel, who I loved. The people who were my Family twice over, through two lifetimes.

  At that moment, the sun peeked over the far horizon and the moon hung low over the land, glowing the deep red of a total lunar eclipse. This was my moment.

  But I ached to stand with them. To call off the sea and begin my life again. To be just Faye this time.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to my Family. I would love them the only way I knew how.

  Kel stepped forward, his eyes full of grief as he stared across the gap still yawning between us. He said my name, just once, in his low, quiet voice.

  “Faye.”

  I turned my back on him and bellowed my command again. “Rise!”

  Waves charged back up the side of the island. A wall of water surged up from the sea, blotting out the rising sun. Vaulting into the air. Plucking gulls from the sky.

  The water stretched from horizon to horizon. Leaping, rising, creating a force as unstoppable as the orbit of the moon. Roaring with the waves, I stepped into the oncoming flood. Exchanging my fragile body for its silvery armor.

  Hurry. Hurry. It’s time.

  I was part of the sea now. Lunging at my prey. Jaws wide and dripping, I stormed the beach.

  35

  THE THUNDERING WAVES should have drowned out the Family’s screams. But I could still hear the shrieking. The noise reverberated in my skull, overpowering all thought, as the monstrous tidal wave raced toward Kel and the Family and Holbrook.

  With the screams, the final, buried memory from so long ago came rushing at me. I tried to stop it, but it came anyway.

  I stand at the crest of the mountain. Across the valley, the light of the massive bonfire is almost blotted out by the masses of people crowded onto the cliff. They raise their voices and thunder on drums, and the power of my people trembles in my very core. They believe I can become part of the ocean. That I can ride the waves into the future, and save this world we love. And I believe it too.

  Hands pressing into the cool boulder, I wait. Knowing my moment is coming. The sun peers above the horizon, just as the moon is eclipsed. Both calling to the ocean. My voice joins their song.

  It is a potent fusion. The moon and sun pulling at once. The eclipse. The voices of my people pulsing in the night. My hands still tinged with my Family’s blood. One silvery tendril of water stretches up into the sky. Climbing the mountain.

  A cloak of dazzling waves swirls around my shoulders. I let the power of the ancient meteorite flow through me into the sea. And we are fused together by the fire of great suns and long-lost stars.

  But even as the first half of the ritual succeeds, I sense my horrible mistake. The sea keeps coming. Rising up the mountain. Drawn to the great boulder. I cannot control it.

  I’m dragged along with the sea as it tears across the valley, ripping up trees and salting the earth. But my people stand their ground, chanting as the sea rushes at them, believing I will keep them safe. Believing I can.

  As the wave reaches them, it is my fist that crushes the village elders. My claws that rip apart the children. My grip that squeezes the last breath from the very people who sang my name moments before.

  When the carnage is over, there aren’t even bodies left behind. The Family’s graves are flooded, one of the talismans is lost. Nothing is left but gray stones and the empty valley. I’ve murdered everyone I ever loved.

  “No!” I yanked my soul out of the sea and fled back to my body on the island.

  But the tsunami rushed on without me, heading for my Family and the throng of students still watching from the Screamers’ cliff.

  The repercussions of the memory convulsed through my mind. There was no more mystery. My entire culture had disappeared because I had killed them. That wave had been small compared with this one, but it had exterminated my people.

  They hadn’t wounded the Earth. They were innocents. I’d never meant to hurt them.

  Thousands of years later, I understood the depth of my mistake. Without them, without anyone to become the new Family, there’d been no one left to be a conduit for the Earth. No one had even known enough to try. That night, so long ago, I had made my own vision come true.

  Now the giant wave was only a hundred feet away from Kel and the others. And like my people before them, they stood their ground. Reliving my nightmare, I threw ice at the colossal wave, but nothing happened. I ripped apart hydrogen and oxygen, barely slowing it.

  Kel and the others huddled in the shadow of the towering flood. The wave was only forty feet away from them now and closing the distance.

  Pleading with the water to listen, I whispered of deserts and droughts. Twenty feet and still cresting.

  I commanded the moon to pull against it. The sand to dam it. The wind to drive it back.

  Heart pounding, I screamed over the howling sea. “I am the Harbinger!”

  Five feet from Kel, his eyes open to greet it, the tsunami stopped. Suspended by my voice.

  “You must do it now, or all those deaths will have been for nothing.” Rita suddenly appeared next to me on the peak. I’d forgotten that she was bound into this ritual. She would never truly be gone until I stopped the vision from coming true. “Crush them and be done with it.”

  I looked up at the deadly wave, shrouding the Family in its murky pall. Tears streamed down my cheeks. “I can’t. I can’t go through that again. I won’t kill everything I love. I’d rather die.”

  “And you will. If you’re too weak, then everything is doomed. Not just the humans.” Her eyes gleamed with malice. “And you and I and all of the Family will have to watch the entire Earth wilt and die before we are released. Knowing you could have saved it.”

  “There must be another way,” I begged her. I wasn’t sure how long I could hold the tidal wave.

  “I’ve had a hundred years to think about the choice we made. There is no other way! Do you think I wanted this?” Her voice shook with anger, but she wasn’t the same mad girl I’d mistaken for a student. Rita’s shoulders sagged and her next words came out in a hoarse whisper. “I’m so tired, Faye. None of us will be free until you reach the end of The Path.”

  It was horrible to see her like this. Rita’s braid was limp and bone white. Her eyes haunted by dark shadows. She looked pale, almost translucent.

  I never meant for this to happen. I never meant for her to end up abandoned and tied to this time.

  Her eyes glittered with my betrayal. “You’re supposed to be the Harbinger. You’re the only one who can end the suffering.”

  Rita was right. The tide was at its zenith. The great wave shimmered crimson. The moon was still dark. I had to end this now. But no one else was going to die today.

  No one but me.

  From my mountain peak, I chanted the Song of Balance. That ancient cadence from my first life that had followed me to this one. The looming wave stopped straining forward and listened.

  My voice soared out over the exposed sand and barren islands. I sang of pelicans skimming ac
ross the water. Of sea turtles gliding on dark, ancient currents. Of oysters slowly, slowly, shaping pearls in their bellies. The wall of water pulled back toward me, lowering itself by inches, then by feet, as it remembered where it belonged.

  I cajoled the tidal wave, reminding it of deep ocean trenches and icy, dark caves. Calling it home. The waves swirled gently around Kel’s island of roots and eased themselves back down onto Holbrook’s empty shores.

  Slowly. Slowly. The time has passed.

  Then I added a dissonant harmony. One thread of water spilled up the island to me. I bathed my hands in it, summoning the blood-red algae to me. Letting it stain my fingers.

  Oil came with it, and the poison soaked into my skin, making me nauseous. As the toxins spilled into me, the bay below deepened into a rich ultramarine hue.

  “Faye!” Kel’s voice tugged at my mind. “What are you doing?”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t listen to Kel. He’d only make me want to stay.

  I grasped at the nuclear sludge that’d settled in the fathomless ocean canyons. The poison didn’t want to let go of its prize, but I sang of movement and new places to claim, luring it to me.

  The radiation scalded my fingers, blistering my throat, my lungs.

  “Don’t do this!” Kel’s voice seemed to be closer now, demanding my attention. Trying to tether me to this world.

  But I shut out Kel’s pleas, letting the taste of chemicals quench my grief. Death clung to my tongue and I embraced it, swaying on weak legs. This is my fault and I will make it right.

  I rooted my feet down into the island. Thinking of thick trees and timeless mountain ridges. Borrowing their strength, I sucked in the smoke and smog, watching the horizon clear. A delicate, early-morning blue filled one corner of the sky.

  It isn’t enough. I was powerful, but even so, I could feel my lungs clogging. My mind seemed to be playing tricks on me too. I swore that Kel was walking across the air toward me. His mouth opened and closed, but his words were drowned out by the ringing in my ears.

  My rasping voice rumbled through the Earth. Decay and venom siphoned through my fingers, draining like acid into my muscles and organs and bones.

  My heart slowed. Whooooosh. Whoooooosh. Whoooooooosh.

  My eyelids drooped and I sank to my knees, pressing my hands into the Earth. I never wanted to hurt you.

  Then I imagined that Kel was cradling me in his arms, tears swelling in his eyes. I reached up to wipe them away, but my hand wouldn’t obey.

  I’m sorry. I only wanted to save you.

  The pain softened as I faded. I closed my eyes, finally ready to enter the void one last time.

  But instead, heat flooded back into my numb hands. The world bucked and shook around me. I forced my eyes open.

  Kel was really there, looking down at me, worry creasing the middle of his forehead.

  “What happened?” The words leaked out in a harsh whisper.

  Did he stop me before I was able to fix my mistake?

  A smile crept onto Kel’s face. Not the wry half smile I was used to seeing. But a giant grin. “You’re still here. You scared me.”

  “You scared me first.”

  Kel’s arms tightened around me, and he pulled me to him, kissing me hard. I closed my eyes and savored the peppery taste of Kel, salted with tears. I could barely breathe, but I didn’t care as I relaxed into his body, letting him hold me up.

  When he finally let me go, I asked the question that frightened me most. “Did it work?”

  “See for yourself.” Kel took my hand, helping me up.

  We stood under a canopy of silvery leaves. The lattice of roots holding the island together had somehow burst into a full-fledged forest. The ground still shifted beneath my feet, and every few seconds a new tree would erupt somewhere nearby.

  Still weak, I rested against one of the trunks. Through the twisting veins of sap and resin, I felt the Family. Somewhere in the great network of branches and roots, they were working to siphon the poisons through this living filter. The trees were absorbing the pollution, breaking it down into harmless molecules. Binding the worst of it deep within their cells.

  Doing what I could not.

  “You are still more than everyone around you, Faye.” The green in Kel’s eyes sparked as he led me through the trees to the edge of the cliff. “But that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.”

  The Family still stood on the mass of roots out in the bay, but it was a forest now too. And the thick roots had intertwined, looped, and doubled back, knitting together the space between their new island and mine, creating a walkway so that Kel had been able to reach me. One giant tree stretched out of the center of their island, rising hundreds of feet into the still-smoggy air. The Family circled its enormous trunk, each pressing their hands into the bark.

  Maya, Damion, Nami, Zach, Rita. Kel. And me.

  Yes. We were all part of this now. Even Rita. In the end, she didn’t have a choice. All her clues and prophecies were gone, the eternal years spent scheming and waiting for this moment. If we didn’t fix our mistake, we’d all be trapped in this dying world.

  But as Rita stared at me from across the gap, the anger faded from her eyes. This is what we’d sacrificed ourselves for a lifetime ago. Her hair shone yellow again in the sunlight, and her shoulders were strong as she pushed her hands into the great tree, channeling its power.

  The anger left me too. I reached up and kissed Kel again, and this time it was like stepping onto hot coals. All the violence and doubt burned away, leaving me bare. I couldn’t hide behind my past. Or my visions. Everything was gone but this instant. This self. Kel looked at what was left of me and smiled.

  I answered his smile, knowing what to do. Knowing how to undo The Path we’d all set in motion so long ago.

  Reluctantly, I let go of Kel. I knelt down and pressed my hand into the vast chain of roots. Together, Kel and I sang.

  We sang of fruit bats flying from their forests, ready to feast. Of lemurs welcoming the sun in faraway lands. Of people who didn’t understand this connection but could learn the song.

  Rita, Maya, Zach, Damion, and Nami sang with us. They pulled the pollution up through the maze of roots. They soaked it in through the leaves. Helping the tree to contain and transform it.

  I thrust my hands into the air, singing of hawks spiraling through the skies. Of seedpods floating on the wisps of breeze. Our words wove nets of wind. Drawing the smog and gases in toward the great tree. In toward the Family.

  I stomped my feet, sending soft tremors through the Earth, and the Earth answered. Shaking free of its illness. Letting go of the poison weighing it down.

  The moon escaped the shadow of the Earth, dipping below the horizon. The sun dazzled its way into the sky. The last refrain faded into silence.

  And then it was done.

  36

  I SMILED AT KEL, exhausted and elated at the same time. The sea unfurled around us, cradling the new forest. Colors I’d never seen outside of my visions streamed across the landscape. Cerulean blue. Viridian. Cadmium yellow.

  I sank down to the ground, touching my hands to the Earth gratefully. Sending it my thanks. But there was only grit and sharp rocks under my fingers. I felt for the underground streams, the deep layers of granite, but there was nothing.

  “No!” Panicked, I called to the wind, but there was only a suffocating silence. The power was gone. Used up. I shivered, feeling naked on the island bluff. Alone.

  Then Kel was next to me, kneeling on the ground. “Faye, it’s okay. It’s over.”

  I shook my head, refusing to look at him as I absorbed what I’d lost. “I don’t think I can survive being cut off again. I can’t go back to that. To being just Faye.”

  “You will never be just Faye. Listen.” He took my hand in his and we sat there in the new morning.

  A small breeze drifted across the peak. It carried the clean tang of the sea. The shriek of gulls calling back and forth. The rhythm of the waves.<
br />
  I rested my head on Kel’s shoulder as the earth beneath us grew warm in the sun. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Its pulse drummed in time with ours.

  I wasn’t alone.

  Maya strode across the bridge of roots, looking mesmerized by the world around us. Hand in hand, Nami and Damion followed close behind her. And Zach brought up the rear, whistling as he picked his way over the uneven roots. The Family finally coming together.

  Except, I realized, for Rita. I looked toward the immense tree, but she wasn’t there either. Two dark handprints were seared into the trunk, proof that she’d been here and gone.

  Then it really worked.

  As they got closer, I could hear their excited voices. Going over what had happened. How beautiful it all was. What was going to happen now.

  The same babbling came from the shore. The students, released from their trance, crowded down onto the beach. Now that the water was calm, boats were cautiously making their way toward us.

  Kel turned to me expectantly, asking the very question that was in my mind. “So, what’s next?”

  “I don’t know. But whatever it is, I’m not sure I’m ready for it yet.”

  Kel’s eyes smiled his understanding, the flecks of green shining. He kissed the palm of my hand and let it go. Then he stepped onto the path of roots and went to join our Family.

  I turned and walked into the forest. Through the trees, I watched the waves rippling out to the horizon. The sea mirrored the intense blue of the sky, the sun gleaming in both.

  It wasn’t perfect. What was left of the oil rigs still marred the horizon. The cliffs bordering Holbrook were still stripped bare. The world wasn’t done changing.

  But it would change. We’d make sure of that.

  I hummed the Song of Balance to myself. My feet stomped out the beat. My hands reached into the sky. The wind picked up the chant, and the ocean murmured. High up on the mountain, I danced.

  Me, Faye. I danced.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE