by Liz Kessler
“He’s the only one who can save us all,” Ella said quietly. “You know it, don’t you?”
I thought about her question. I wasn’t one of them. I hadn’t been brought up on these tales. I had no reason to have faith in their prophecy.
No reason except that I had seen it for myself. I had lived it. I was part of it. There was no room in my mind for doubt.
I nodded in reply. “But what . . .” I began. The question hovered behind my lips. I wanted to ask it, and I didn’t. I almost knew the answer — but I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear it out loud. What was the alternative, though? Hide from the truth and let the earthquake come? I couldn’t do that. Ella was right. There were way too many lives at stake.
“What . . . ?” Ella echoed softly.
I cleared my throat and tried again. “What is my role?” I asked. “Me and Aaron. If the giant is the one who’s going to save us all, what do we have to do?”
Saul turned to me, and then, in a quiet, calm voice that left nowhere to hide and nothing to misinterpret, he replied, “You have to find him.”
Ella, Saul, Joel, and Marc gave me a stream of instructions as we made our way back to Blue Pool. That was our starting point: from there, a tunnel would lead us out of the pool and hopefully toward the realm where the giant lived.
They tried to be as helpful as possible, but given that most of what we had to do was about interpreting pictures drawn hundreds of years ago, none of us could be completely sure we would succeed.
What we did know was that we had to find the giant — and once we had found him, we had to persuade him to help us.
“Remember how many people are relying on this mission,” Saul said as we approached Blue Pool. “You are the only ones who can do it — and thousands of lives are at stake.”
In the back of my mind, questions kept tugging at me.
I tried to stop the questions, but they kept coming.
Would I get back to the other side in one piece again? And if I did, and we set off on this mission, what if we couldn’t find the giant?
What if Saul was wrong after all? What if there was no earthquake coming? What if I was being sent on a dangerous mission for absolutely no logical reason?
As if she had heard my thoughts, Ella came to my side as we reached the pool.
“Let me go down with Emily first,” she said to the others.
“Why?” asked Saul.
“Just give us a moment, Saul. Please.”
Saul shrugged his acceptance, and Ella and I made our way down the rocks to the pool.
We stood on the edge, looking down at the water. “We believe that everything in nature has an opposite force,” Ella said.
I thought back to my science lessons. Weren’t we taught that, too? Newton’s law of something or other?
“The water goes down a long, long way,” she continued. “We believe it goes as far down as the mountain you’ll be climbing to find the giant goes up.”
“OK,” I replied.
“Blue Pool is in some ways the heart of our island,” Ella went on. “And yet, it is the one place we cannot go. We can swim into the pool, but we can’t get beyond it. The tunnel you traveled through and the one you will take from here to continue your journey to the giant — we have attempted them many times.”
“But . . . ?”
“We cannot last more than seconds inside them. They are life-threatening to us — to anyone who cannot breathe in water. You are the only person we have ever met who can survive in these tunnels. You understand?”
“I — I think so,” I replied.
“But anyway, that’s not why I brought you here,” Ella went on quickly. She beckoned me a tiny bit closer to the edge. “Listen,” she said. “And watch.”
I leaned over the pool and did what she said. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be listening to or what I was supposed to be seeing. Nothing was happening.
“I can’t hear anything,” I said after a moment.
Ella put her finger to her lips. “It will come soon,” she assured me.
So we stood there in silence and carried on listening.
The minutes stretched on.
And on.
I was starting to feel a bit silly and was just about to ask what exactly I was meant to be listening to when I heard it: a low rumble. It was coming from the pool. From deep inside it.
“Look,” Ella said, pointing at the water. The perfectly smooth surface had broken out into ripples.
“Can you feel that?” Ella asked.
I could. The tiniest shake of the ground below my feet.
Seconds later, it was over.
Ella turned to me. “We believe the earth’s unhappiness lies deep below us, deep below the ocean bed,” she said. “That is why we feel it only when we can access the lowest points of the island.”
“Like here, because Blue Pool goes down so deep,” I said.
“Exactly. There are one or two other places where the seabed has small holes. To a lesser extent, it has been felt in those places. But none as much as here. It’s been getting stronger and more frequent each day. We passed it off as nothing at first, when it happened only once every couple of days and was barely noticeable. But now it happens several times a day.”
“Does everyone know about it?”
Ella nodded. “We have brought every member of the community here in recent weeks. That’s why even those who have not believed the Prophecy have known without a doubt that a terrible danger is coming.”
“I see,” I said. And I did. Literally. I saw exactly what she was telling me. Saw, heard, felt it. There was no escaping it. An earthquake was coming — right in the middle of this island. And I knew enough from my geography lessons at Shiprock School to know that everything I’d been told here was true. When it happened, it would surely destroy the island — and such destruction would cause an absolutely devastating tsunami. It could change the shape of the world; it would devastate whole countries. It would kill thousands, if not millions, of people.
“You understand what I’m telling you, don’t you?” Ella asked.
“I understand,” I said to Ella. “I know what I have to do — and I’m ready.”
Joel and Saul had joined us at the rocks next to Blue Pool.
“Last chance, Emily. You’re sure you are up to this?” Ella asked me. “It’s a lot to put onto you.”
What was she saying? That I could back out if I wanted to?
“Just because we know how many lives are at stake — no one can force you to do it,” Ella went on. “It still has to be your choice.”
I met her eyes and nodded slowly. “I know how important and how dangerous it is.” I glanced between the three of them. “But I know that if I don’t do this — and if Aaron doesn’t join me — the consequences will be disastrous for the world. I don’t want that on my conscience. Let’s do it.”
Ella reached out to squeeze my hand. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. I could see the gratitude in her eyes.
“And you’re clear on everything?” Saul asked. “No last-minute questions?”
I ran through the plans one last time. We’d been over and over them before we left.
I had to get back to the hotel and find Aaron. We’d decided on going through the pool and tunnels, rather than trying to get through the falls again. Both were pretty horrendous experiences, but this one was marginally less so.
Before doing anything else, I had to apologize to Aaron for what happened earlier and hope that he was still speaking to me. I hadn’t told these guys about fighting with him and Shona. I was pretty sure both arguments were my fault, and I didn’t quite know how to explain it without making myself look awful. I just had to hope Aaron and Shona would accept my apologies and be as eager to make up as I was.
Once we were — hopefully — friends again, Aaron and I had to get Shona to cover for us somehow, so we could disappear for however long the journey was going to take us. We had to do that
tomorrow.
Next, I had to bring Aaron back here, and together we had to swim to the bottom of Blue Pool and find the other death chute, which would lead us out of the pool and onto another part of the island. From there, we could climb the big mountain only accessible on the other side of that tunnel. Once up there, we had to find the giant and persuade him to come down, so that when the earthquake hit, he could stop the landslide that would set off a deadly tsunami and destroy the island.
I had never felt such pressure in my whole life.
“One of us will stay by Blue Pool at all times,” Ella said. “We’ll wait for you here and see you off on your journey. Don’t be afraid, little one.” She smiled gently at me. I couldn’t reply. Too many rocks were clogging up my throat. So instead, I just gave her a thumbs-up.
“Good luck,” Joel called as I slipped into the pool.
“Thanks!” I called back.
As I dived under the water and waited for my tail to form, I added silently: I’ll need it.
Going back through the tunnels was even worse this time. The pressure of the water was working against me, as though it didn’t want to let me through.
I hung on, swimming harder than I’d ever swum, focusing on the task ahead, on how important it was and how many lives depended on me getting through here. I pushed on. And eventually, I made it through.
Bedraggled and exhausted, I swam upward, looking for the tunnel that led out of the water.
I couldn’t find it.
All the tunnels were filled with water. The walkways we’d been led down by Susannah, the ones I’d run down after my argument with Aaron — all of them were now underwater.
Of course! I remembered Susannah’s words as we’d sailed into the tunnel on the boat. It was only on a very low tide that the boat could get in the tunnel. The tide had come up in the time I’d been gone. The tunnel was no longer accessible from the outside.
I swam on, past the quay where the boat had moored, and finally out of the tunnel’s entrance.
I was back in the open sea.
I swam up to the surface and gasped in the daylight. Blue sea ahead of me. Unbroken blue sky above me. Rushing falls over to my right. Forgotten Island behind me.
I allowed myself a moment — just one moment — to enjoy feeling the sun on my face, to glide in the smoothness of the still water.
And then I dived down and swam back to the hotel as quickly as I could.
I had a job to do, and there was no time to waste.
I felt as though I’d been away for days. In reality, it had been a matter of hours.
Unless Shona and Aaron had covered for me, my parents would be worried sick. And to be honest, after everything that had happened, I didn’t see why they would cover for me.
As I swam into the bay, the first person I saw was Millie. She was lying on her deck, reading a magazine and drinking from a large glass filled with ice and something bubbly. She giggled a bit as she spoke to me, so I guessed there was something stronger than her usual Earl Grey tea in the glass.
“There you are!” she said, sitting up and pointing at me as I swam over to her, treading water with my tail just below her balcony.
“I — I — I’ve just been —” I began.
Millie waved a hand. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Aaron told us you’d made some new friends, and you’d be on the next boat.”
“He did?” I asked.
Millie nodded emphatically and took a sip from her glass.
“So did you see any?” she asked.
“See any . . . ?” I echoed.
“Bats, of course!”
“Bats . . . ?”
“In the tunnels. Aaron told us that’s why you’d gone with your friends. He said you’d joined a group looking for local wildlife in the tunnels. Said you’d seen a bat. Got any pics?”
“Um. No. I didn’t manage to get any pics. But yes. Of course. Bats. Looking for bats. Yes, that was what I was doing.” I faltered, thinking that anyone except Millie would have known I was lying through my teeth.
“And did you see any?”
“Err. Yeah, we saw a few. They were . . . flying around. In the tunnels. They were, um, sweet. I got the next boat back.”
Millie nodded again and took another loud slurp of her drink. “Good. Well, your mom and dad went out for a romantic lunch, and now I think your mom’s in the spa, and your dad’s gone off exploring. You’d better go find your pals. See you at dinner,” she said, and with a wave of her hand, she went back to her magazine and her drink.
I set off to look for Shona and Aaron.
I started with Shona’s room in the cave below mine. While swimming under the deck of my balcony, I called out.
“Shona!”
Nothing.
I swam a little way inside and called again. “Shona? You in here?”
An empty echo was my only reply.
I did the same at Aaron’s. No one there, either. As I swam away, I saw Dad swimming toward me.
Act normal. Act normal. You’ve been looking at bats in the caves. Nothing out of the ordinary.
“Hey, Dad,” I said, smiling as naturally as I could but feeling as wooden as a three-hundred-year-old tree.
“Hey, stranger,” Dad said, grinning at me. “Did you have a good time in those tunnels?”
“Mmmm, yeah,” I muttered.
“See any?” he asked casually.
I was prepared this time. “Bats?” I asked. “Yeah. A few. It was great.”
“Excellent. The kids are down at that underwater playground,” Dad said.
Underwater playground? What underwater playground?
A stab of — I didn’t even know what it was — jealousy? Sadness? Something not particularly nice, anyway — hit me in the chest. I should have been the one discovering underwater playgrounds with Shona. Instead, I’d barely seen her since we got here. She was right: I’d been an absolutely terrible friend.
I couldn’t wait to make things right.
As for Aaron — I didn’t like the idea of him going off finding special places with someone else, but I could hardly blame him. I’d been about as bad at being a girlfriend to him as I’d been a best friend to Shona.
All I wanted right now was to make up with them and work together with them on what we had to do. I had to find a way to make us work as a team again.
But first I had to figure out where they were.
“Oh, you mean the one in . . .” I said to Dad, stalling in the hope that he’d fill the gap.
Luckily, he did.
“Yeah, down there behind the rocky outcrop near West Beach,” he said, pointing vaguely toward the edge of the bay.
“Yes, of course, I know the one you mean,” I said. I didn’t feel great about lying to Dad, but he seemed so sure I’d know where they were that I would have felt even worse if I had to admit how out of step I was with my best friends.
I turned and swam in the direction Dad had indicated and hoped I’d figure out where this playground was before they left and went somewhere else.
I found the rocky outcrop that Dad had mentioned and started swimming around it.
On the far side of it, a huge fishing net lined the seabed. Beyond that, two tall rocks had ropes wrapped around each of them. In the middle of the rocks, a massive tire had been tied onto the ropes, joining them together to make an underwater swing.
Sitting on the swing, laughing, smiling, throwing her hair back, was Shona.
Aaron was behind her, grinning and laughing as he swished his tail and pushed the tire to make her swing higher.
For a moment, all I could do was stare. My stomach felt as if it was swinging and swirling with the tire. They both looked so . . . happy. When had either of them last smiled like that at me?
I didn’t have time to answer my own question, thankfully. A moment later, Aaron glanced across and saw me.
“Emily!” he exclaimed, leaving the swing and swimming over to me. I swam toward them both. I got only h
alfway to the swing when Aaron reached me and pulled me into a massive hug.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” he said, hugging me even harder.
I hugged him back.
“I’ve been so worried. We both have,” he added.
I pulled away from him a little. I didn’t want to ruin everything right away by pointing out that they hadn’t exactly looked worried just now. But I couldn’t stop my mouth from mumbling, “You don’t seem that worried.”
Aaron’s face reddened a tiny bit. “We looked for you,” he said quickly. “After we separated, I assumed you’d make your own way back to Majesty Island. We’ve been swimming all around the island trying to find you. Honestly, Em, we only just took a break. We ran out of ideas.”
Shona had slipped off the swing and edged a tiny bit toward me. “You’re not exactly in a position to complain,” she said to me coldly.
I guessed she wasn’t feeling quite as forgiving as Aaron. And I couldn’t blame her.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” I looked from one to the other. “I’m really sorry,” I said. “I have been a terrible friend and girlfriend. I’ve treated you both badly. I’ve been selfish, thoughtless, and stupid.”
Aaron reached out for my hand. “You haven’t been that bad,” he said. “Don’t beat yourself —”
“Let her finish,” Shona interrupted him.
I pulled my hand away from Aaron and swam closer to Shona. “You’re the best friend anyone could want,” I said. “You’re the best friend I could want. I’m really sorry, Shona. Please give me a chance to be a better best friend again. Please.”
Shona looked at me for what felt like hours. It was probably only half a minute, but it was long enough for me to imagine my future without her, and I didn’t like what I saw.
I felt the pinprick of a tear starting to form behind my eye when she suddenly shook her head, smiled at me, and held her arms out. “Come here, you silly saltfish,” she said, and I swam over to her, hugging her as tightly as I could.
“I’m sorry, Shona,” I said again. “I really am.”