“Maya,” I whisper.
It takes me a few moments to figure out why Maya would be the answer to my question. I eventually remember what Sash once told me about her extraordinary sense of awareness. It makes perfect sense.
“She can press her palm to the ground and tell you what any person in the Delta is feeling,” Sash once said.
Maya felt my physical pain when I wiped out at the blockade that killed Beck. She sensed the Watcher’s death when Balt killed him during the attack near the bridge. What she felt from a man being murdered was so strong that she started screaming from the horrifying experience. I don’t know the distance that her powers of perception reach, but maybe she can sense Tela somewhere in the Barrens.
“Thank you,” I say to the water.
I turn away and take a few steps towards the side of the Pool. When there’s a splash in the water behind me, I stop. My first thought is that someone else came inside, so I glance around the cavern. The tunnel and circular walkway are empty, and the cave is vacant of any sound other than dripping water. As I look at the center of the Pool again, another image waves into view.
I’m confused by what I see since it seems to have nothing to do with the reason I’m here. Sash and I are standing in front of each other, but we’re twelve years old. It must be the first time I came to Krymzyn—except one detail is different. We’re at the bottom of the Empty Hill, not the top where we actually met.
The light around us darkens and the clouds churn into motion. As raindrops begin to fall, the glaring branches of Ovin’s tree whip through the dark behind us. In my first visit to this world, Tork came to us before Darkness fell, and I returned to Earth soon after. What I see in the water never happened.
With raindrops pelting our heads, Sash and I clench each other in a hug. Her face looks so sad that it knots my insides. It’s like watching two kids who’ve been best friends for years and years saying goodbye to each other because one is moving away.
In the distant sky, two of the gray billows spread apart. Through a tiny crack that opens between the clouds, a single ray of blazing white shoots straight at Sash’s head. As a snow-white halo radiates around her hair, the image of me leans back to look at her face. In a blinding flash, the scene disappears. I stare at the blank surface of water, wondering what I just saw.
“Why did you show that to me?” I ask.
The Pool remains perfectly still, nothing but a mirror of silvery-blue. I step out of the water, put my clothes on, and leave the cavern.
As I descend the winding path on the side of the Mount, I replay the last scene that I saw over and over in my mind. Why would the Pool show that to me? As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with finding Tela.
When I reach the narrow road at the bottom of the path, I decide I’ll ask Sash about it later. I return my thoughts to planning how to search for Tela.
Wanting to get back to the Delta as quickly as I can, I run down the road towards the gate. As I pass by the clearing where the Constructs work, someone calls out my name. I halt and turn to the meadow to see Wren jogging in my direction. After he stops at the edge of the road, he nervously fidgets with his belt and looks around us.
“Hi, Wren,” I say.
He finally locks his eyes on mine. “I finished the soccer goals. I just wanted to let you know.”
“I’ll get them some other time,” I say. “I have a lot on my mind right now.”
“I also . . .” He pauses for a second. “Nuar told me what happened. I asked why I hadn’t seen Tela . . . you and Tela on the Mount.”
I almost can’t look him in the eyes because of the guilt flooding through me. I’ve seen how enamored Wren is with Tela, and he’s obviously concerned about her. I try to console myself with the thought that any physical desires that developed between Tela and me in the cave were spawned by the wild sap and nothing else. But Wren is a friend. I feel like I betrayed him. The least I can do now is provide him with some hope.
“Tela’s alive,” I say. “The Pool just showed me that.”
“Do you know where she is?” he asks.
“No, but we’ll find her,” I answer with a lot more confidence in my voice than I actually have in my statement.
“I hope so. If there’s anything I can do to help or anything you need, please let me know.”
“Thanks, Wren. I will.”
He bows to me and then returns to the clearing. A renewed sense of urgency to find Tela rattles my nerves. Her mind is clouded by a narcissistic, self-destructive delirium that she has no way of dealing with. I was able to pull myself out of the stupor, but I had years of growing up in a world where we learn self-restraint over negative emotions. I should have been able to suppress them. I should have been able to think clearly for both of us. When she needed me the most, I let Tela down.
Chapter 27
I race back to the Delta and go straight to Home. Soon after I summon Sash and Larn, they soar to the meadow from different directions.
“Tela’s alive,” I say as soon as they stop in front of me. “I saw her in the Pool.”
Larn blows out a long sigh of relief. “Did it show you anything
