AMANI: Reveal (19 page)

Amya Priam

Not a single person—or Rascal—attacked us during the night, but Karl still decided that we would not go to Bishop’s on foot or using Madame M.’s car. “Prevention,” he kept repeating, followed by Samera’s eager nodding. Our Dimension had become too unpredictable to wander around.
              We thought we’d try and catch Hibiscus before her first class, which meant we needed to leave around ten. When everyone was ready, we Traveled to the Yellow Dimension, where the sun was blazing against our winter coats, and Karl reminded us to remain vigilant.
              Children of every age and race performed their tasks, accompanied by critters, while singing and dancing. Five Banimos, baby gorillas with owl wings, helped a bunch of twelve-year-old teenagers build a tent, using white leaves called peliolites.
              Our arrival distracted one of the boys, who then fell off the top of the tent into a large basket full of peliolites. Afraid he’d been hurt, I made a step forward in his direction, but he instantly burst out laughing and started throwing leaves into the air.
              The nearest Banimo, however, did not find the situation funny at all. It actually looked angry, brandishing its fists at us and howling, until it got to the kid, who was now on his feet. The Banimo examined him, making sure he hadn’t broken anything. A piercing noise came out of its mouth before it grabbed the boy by his shirt and flew him back to the top of the tent-frame.
              A little to their left was a colorful mushroom and vegetable field, where children were collecting their food for the day, helped by a few speedy Frapidors. I had never seen a Frapidor from up close, but every time they nervously raised their heads from the ground, where they detected food with their pig noses, I could discern their rabbit-shaped bodies. Some had white fur, others brown or red. But then they disappeared again under the high plants, only to pop up several inches ahead, their Labrador ears aligned on their heads, skimming the perimeter for any threat.
              “Let’s go,” I heard Samera say. “We can either walk in the direction of the university or use a Benny.”
              Children in Yellow had created their own dialect to facilitate conversations with toddlers. Samera had told me during our month spent at HQ that the kids had found out what the babies wanted when they screamed words like “bada” or “bou” and had created the Takku language, in which “bada” meant “eat” and “bou,” “drink.” A Benny was the Takku word for a giraffe.
              I had used a Benny only once in my life, and I was far from eager to resume the experience.
              “In this weather,” I said as we all removed our coats, “I don’t mind walking.”
              And walk we did, but we soon realized our attire was slowing us down. We’d all put on our warmest clothes in anticipation of snow during the day—except for Xander, who didn’t feel the cold as much since he’d transformed into a Rascal. But it must have been ninety degrees out there and even though we stopped at a waterfall to drink and wash the sweat off our faces, everyone but Karl was thinking of going back to Amani—or any other Dimension for that matter—for the rest of the way.
              Bracing the changing weather in Red would have been fine by me, though Mr. Jensen believed there were too many people in Red, which would increase our chances of getting lost or even attacked.
              The dead woman found in front of Madame M.’s had apparently cultivated his paranoia.
              “I am not putting you in danger just because we did not consider the weather difference before we left the house,” he told me. “We can make the necessary adjustments tomorrow.”
              We passed a group of Bennies racing each other with riders on their back, and children running after them, cheering and laughing.
              “Unless we borrow a Benny, we might not make it back, Dad,” Sam moaned. “Just think how hot it’s going to be when we have to climb this hill!”
              The discussion dropped as we turned around the corner of a very small multicolored forest and came face to face with overcrowding, dark rock fragments perpendicular to the ground. The stones must have been twenty feet high by three feet large, and extended more than a mile on each side.
              Xander frowned. “How did we not see those coming?”
              “Crags,” Sam said. “And the biggest I’ve ever seen. Only visible to humans from a small distance. I read in a book that the rocks are somehow alive… We can’t go through it, Dad! We don’t know what’s in there. And we’re currently parallel to the ocean in Blue, so it’s either Red or—”
              I did not hear the rest of her sentence. Nor did I wait for Karl’s answer, because a loud, acute scream echoed from the depth of the rocks and I identified the voice immediately.
              My sister’s.
              Without warning, my legs started running at such a fast pace, neither Xander nor Karl could stop me. The second I entered the Crags, however, the screams stopped and I realized what I’d just done. 
              Although it
had
sounded exactly like her, there was a very slim chance that my sister was here… I had to go back.
              But as I turned around, Samera, Xander, and Mr. Jensen vanished and more stones replaced them. I could not see the forest, nor anything that resembled the space I’d been standing in a minute before. It was like I’d been transported into the middle of the Crags.
              Disoriented, I started to panic. How was I going to find my way out of here? And, recalling the bemoths hiding in the Caves in Red, what sort of creature was going to turn up to attack me?
                “Hey!” I shouted, thinking that maybe, just maybe, my friends were not that far. Nothing happened. “GUYS!” I tried again, shivering.
              Perhaps it was because of the shadows produced by the towering stones, or perhaps it was merely fear, but the air was much colder than it had been moments ago. I put my coat back on and made a few tentative steps in one direction—
              I was almost frightened to death when I saw Xander appear before my eyes, followed closely by Karl and Samera.               “Amya!” my best friend cried. “What were you thinking? We have to get back; didn’t you hear us?”
              Although relieved, I frowned at her question. “You disappeared! I couldn’t hear anything, Sam.”
              “How come…” She never finished her sentence. Karl set his hand on her shoulder, forcing her to turn around and observe our surroundings. “But… We were just there…” She pointed to where she and the others had just emerged. “Dad, what’s going on?”
              Mr. Jensen was tense, looking around for possible threats. He pulled his coop-hole out of his pocket and shook his head at the screen. “No signal. Samera, open the curtains. Now.”
              Sam stretched her shaky hand out, but it looked as though she couldn’t grab anything. “Dad…”
              “Okay. That’s okay,” Mr. Jensen said. “This doesn’t mean anything. We can still find a way out.”
              As he said those words, the chirping sound of a bird was heard at a distance, sending a cold shiver skimming down my spine.
              “Holy moly—”
              We all glanced in the same direction Sam was looking. Another chirp echoed through the dark stones, and a bird—half bird, half woman—materialized above the Crags. “RUN!” Samera shouted before she grabbed my arm and sprinted forward, Xander and Karl behind us. 
              The deeper we went into the Crags, however, the darker it became, as if the stones had grown so tall they blocked the sun completely. But none of us dared stop.
              It was difficult to know which direction to take, constantly dodging from left to right amid the stone walls. We ran like this for what seemed like half an hour, until I couldn’t take it anymore. Gasping for breath, I held out my hand and asked for a break.
              “Please,” I repeated when Sam opened her mouth to argue. “We can’t just—run forever,” I said, bending on my knees.
              Besides, the chirping had stopped, and whatever creature had made this sound didn’t seem to have followed us.
              “What was that?” Xander asked Mr. Jensen.
              “I’m afraid I know about as much as you do.”
              “That’s not entirely true,” Sam snapped at her father, her eyes wary. “You once told me never to listen to sounds coming from the Crags. Was that what you meant? Do you know what causes the voices?”
              “Of course not,” her father replied gently. “No one’s ever dared enter the Crags to find out, and you know that. And those who did inadvertently listen to the voices never came back.”
              “Is that what I heard?” I said. “Did the bird imitate my sister’s voice?”
              Samera stared at me. “I don’t know. I didn’t hear your sister. It was someone else. But I knew the screams weren’t real.”
              “Who did you hear, then?” I asked, though I suspected it had been Joshua.
              “It doesn’t matter. We should have warned you guys. I didn’t think we’d run into Crags today. I just didn’t think…” She turned to Xander. “How did
you
know it was fake? How come you didn’t go running after the voice?”
              Xander looked uncomfortable. “Because it was from a person who was standing right beside me,” he replied, avoiding my eyes. “But then she was gone.”
              “And I assume the second you enter the Crags, there is no way out. Or you simply don’t see it. It was odd, watching you scream as though you couldn’t see us,” Sam told me. “We could still see you all along, you know. We kept urging you to come back but you didn’t seem to hear.” She shivered. “We should’ve stayed in Amani,” she then added stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest.
              “This attitude is not going to help us, Samy,” Karl chastised. “We need to think of a plan.”
              Before any of us could reply, there was another unexpected trilling sound, and the bird-woman emerged from behind a Crag, circled around us, and landed gracefully in front of Xander and me. I let out a yelp and impulsively threw myself into Xander’s arms, while Karl took out a gun he’d smuggled in his winter coat and pointed it at the creature.
              “
Qui est là?
Pourquoi courez-vous?
” the feminine face said in French before it let out a high-pitched noise.
              “We don’t mean to disturb you,” Karl said, his voice quivering slightly. “Sam, tell this—her—that we don’t want any trouble.”
              Samera was dazed, unable to make out one single sentence.
              “Intruders speaks English,” the thing said with an accent that wasn’t French at all. Was it Russian? Greek? I couldn’t tell. “Intruders wants to die?”
              “No! No. We got lost, that’s all,” Karl continued.
              “You is not like others,” the bird mused, folding her wings behind her back. “You runs. Why does you run?”
              Samera turned to Xander and me and whispered, “The kids in Yellow come into the Crags when their Amani-selves die. Maybe it eats them once they’re—”
              “I DOESN’T EAT!” the bird abruptly howled, her wings spreading menacingly like a dark-blue velveteen sculpture. “I DOESN’T EAT NO CHILDREN!”
              “Sorry,” Karl hurried. “She didn’t mean that—”
              “
Oui
,
oui
, she did. But I is only a carrier. I carries children to Eury. Then I carries stones to rightful space.”
              I had no idea what she was talking about, but Karl didn’t wait to find out. “We are looking for a way out. Would you be kind enough to show it to us? We wouldn’t want to bother you any further.”
              “We wouldn’t want to bother you any further,” the bird repeated in Michelle’s voice, which made Karl flinch.
              “Why are you doing that?”
              “Why are you doing that?” she said mockingly, using my own voice.
              “Okay, that’s enough!”
              “Okay, that’s enough!” she mimicked as though it were Delilah speaking.
              Karl held his gun pointing directly at the bird-woman. “Repeat after me one more time and I—”
              She had just opened her mouth when Samera threw herself in front of her father. “This isn’t funny anymore,” she affirmed. Then she added something in French that I couldn’t understand, which finally rendered the bird quiet.
              “Intruders asks for my help,” the woman said before she deliberated for a few seconds, moving her head from left to right in sporadic motions. “
D’accord
. I is going to help you. I is the only person who knows the exit.”
              “What’s the catch?” Xander asked, his eyes full of suspicion.
              “You is clever boy,” the bird replied, smiling deceitfully before she let out another sharp cry. “You is right. Takes my claw. Each of you.”
              “Wait, you don’t mean you’ll carry all of us—”
              Suddenly angry, the bird-woman spread her wings wide open and jumped high up above the stones, crying out an excruciating sound that I was certain would damage my ears for good.
              “INTRUDERS DOESN’T LISTEN!” she shouted in a sharp voice that did not sound human anymore. She kept circling above our heads like a vulture. “INTRUDERS WILL DIE IF THEY DOESN’T LISTEN!”
              “All right! We’re sorry!” Karl called out. “We won’t ask any more questions if you help us.”