Secrets of Tamarind by Nadia Aguiar

Author:Nadia Aguiar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Chapter Thirteen

A Breakthrough • Alone for the First Time • Thirstier and Thirstier • Pillars of Unnatural Light • The Little Blue Door

Simon woke to the sound of creeping over leaves and opened his eyes to a colorful parade of newborn slugs flowing out of the deep pools. The stilt-legged birds walked around the shallows, their long necks curved, feasting on the unlucky ones that did not make it out in time, but such a horde kept coming that hundreds still escaped. A lime green fuzz of moss was sprouting from the smooth bark of the trees. Bright-colored mushrooms grew before Simon’s eyes and the plants that looked like sea fans sprang once again from the crannies. The previous night seemed almost like a dream. Simon opened his backpack and took out one of the weird fruits to see it in the light of day. Its silver sheen had dulled, but otherwise it had not changed from the night before. He returned it to his bag. He refilled his canteen from one of the pools, but all the fruit had been burned off the trees so his stomach went empty.

He figured out his bearings as best he could and set out. When he had been walking for half an hour he stopped and looked over his shoulder to see that the oasis had sprung back to life. A verdant green mist seemed to hover on the plain and as he watched, it expanded like a cloud—a cool breath of life on the barren yellow sands. The next time he glanced over his shoulder it was gone from sight and the hot, sandy void spread all around him.

* * *

Simon had expected to come across people before now, but he hadn’t seen a soul. Even the Red Coral Project had not infiltrated this deeply into the island. It seemed that no one at all was there. It struck him that this might be the first time he had ever been alone, completely, entirely alone, in his whole life. He realized that he had rarely ever been without Maya. Growing up on the boat together they had always been a team. When they had been to Tamarind the first time, Simon had been only nine years old. He had been frightened at times—many times, in fact. But Maya had been in charge, really. Even after they moved in with Granny Pearl and they had been separated in school, she was never farther away than a few classroom doors. As much as she infuriated him sometimes, underneath everything he knew that she was one of the few people who really loved and understood him—look at everything they had been through together. Now he was on his own and lost. Not only that, but he had the ophallagraphs and he was responsible for figuring them out and for getting them all home safely.

Simon thought about his friends at the boatyard at home and the boat they had spent months working on. It had taken

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