Evanescent (38 page)

“Thandiwe told me when you were taken from us,” she whispered, her voice almost silent.

“She saw it?” Maya’s voice was barely a whisper, as she started to realize that all Truth Seekers controlled the information given to those unborn to the Circle. At first, Ava had thought the Minoans were different from the Council, mainly because there were many things they spoke about openly. But then the Truth Seekers justified their lies with their path, to control the information until they were absolutely sure. This was to protect the young minds, and manipulate the unborn Circle members to follow the prophecy.

“Yes, Thandiwe’s foreseeing abilities spiked at moments, and she could seek certain people’s path on will.”

“So the Change is making her stronger, like it did for Ava, and for you during your Change,” Kronan said to Maya. “I can only suspect this is a key aspect of those connected to the Circle.”

“Still,” Maya retorted irritably, “You didn’t think of telling me the moment I came back, or at least the moment I regained my cognitive abilities?”

“You were in no state to carry such burdens on your shoulders. I didn’t want to give you false hope,” Kronan explained.

“False hope?” Maya shrieked. “Burden! If there is any chance, any chance at all, my mother can come back to us, I need to know. I’ve lost friends, a father, and a brother to this war.”

“He is not your brother,” Kronan reminded her.

“Anaya knows what I mean by that. He. Was. Our. Brother. We lost him, but he was part of the family once. He was as much her son, as I am her daughter. It kills her to know the son she raised, strayed. And, I was supposed to help her get him back.”

“What are you saying?” Anaya’s voice a soft, incredulous, whisper.

I could hear the entire conversation from where I was sitting, it was unbelievable. Ava had abilities before, but being able to hear them from the edge of the village was extraordinary. My body and mind as a clone was perfectly designed to harness abilities, to magnify them if you will. Amplifier; this is what I am. The truth of my existence is a rotten one. Troy had told Ava once that we created our own destinies, and I remember it as if he had said it to me. I smiled to myself.
Perhaps I am something special after all?
And, if Ava’s white divinity power is that of a mind-shifter, my mind-shift is so much stronger, my abilities have no boundaries as an amplifier to it. I could turn minds if I wanted to. I smirked to myself, bending my back and stretching my body out over the yellow stone beneath me. My feet dangled from the edge of the canyon meeting the spray of the falls below, and as it dampened my face I tasted it on my lips. I could even smell a chill rising up in the air, like a cold front heading toward the Zulu kingdom. But to my skin, I had no such luxury of feel. Over the gushing below from the waterfall, my hearing floated, and it was almost as if I could see the sound waves travel through the air, different sounds making different colors, vibrations dancing like tiny rain drops over water. The breeze’s vibrations a crisp, milky-white; it was flowing, twisting and turning around trees, washing over the leaves with a subtle rustling. One would never have thought that only hours ago there had been a huge storm compared to the calm blanketing the entire Zulu islands. I followed the green pattern of insects’ songs into the evening sky. A purple sky bled to dark teal, illuminating the three aqua-powdered moons, their golden rays slicing through a fluff of clouds. It was a start of something great for my last night on Poseidon. The storm had cleared, and the sky had never looked so promising. I followed the hard, blue spikes of the obvious heated discussion happening somewhere. I zoomed my eyes on the energy lines of that specific conversation, wondering what I might pick up. I followed the line with my eyes over the clearing, then through the thicket of trees untouched by the tornado earlier, and carried on over the golden grasslands. Then, using my mind’s eye followed the line where my eyes could reach no more.

“Stop wallowing over it.” I heard it, as clear as if I had picked up a communication device and plugged it right into my brain.

“Yes, we have no way of getting messages from the caves, but if they are in danger, trust me, Ash and Twitch would have found a way to tell us. And soon we will hear from Greg on that ship.”

“Why do we have to get stuck in this war? We have our own to protect. You really believe this prophecy thing? We were doing just fine until she got in the way.”

“I believe anything Troy tells me,” Dave said matter-of-factly.

“You sound like you love him,” Robert uttered with a snicker.

“You’re saying you don’t? After everything he has done for us?”

“No, I don’t doubt him, it’s her I don’t trust.”

“I know what you are saying, but you’re not thinking clearly. I told you not to down that mead,” David joked.

“It was not mine that was the problem, it was that second cup of beer I had.”

“Or, maybe the third,” David said, on a laugh. “The Zulus know how to brew alcohol don’t they?” He chuckled.

“It’s not funny,” Robert moaned.

“No, its not. Look, I know you think you love this gorgeous, fiery, redheaded girl and maybe she loves you too, but right now – like you said – we get our own. She will be there when all of this is over. That is the only way to be with her, you know that.”

“Are you sure they cannot trace them in those caves?”

“Kronan assured us,” David said.

“Well, I guess it’s set in stone then.” Robert was being sarcastic.

Dave seemed to calm Robert down, because the high spikes their voices had emitted earlier, slowed down. I rocked my feet over the edge, reveling in my abilities, my toes would probably be freezing right now, but sometimes it was great to not feel anything. I felt almost free.
It was wonderful that I had come out here to be alone,
I thought. I could test my abilities as amplifier, figure out who I was and what I wanted without the push and pull of readers and givers. I gave Dave and Robert the slip, and wondered why it was sometimes so easy? Why I hadn’t seen it before? In my attempted sneakiness, the desperation of fleeing was so great that perhaps in trying to be unnoticed, I really was. Maybe I was pushing things into their minds. I crossed my arms behind my neck, bending one knee to rest my foot on the shiny stone beneath me. The night’s glow lit up the bright specks in the rock, causing a soft white hue around me. I really was enjoying my last night as Ava. Once more, I freed my mind of all her memories; they held me back. I would get exactly what I wanted. I was gaining enough familiarity through studying everything and everyone around me, to shift any situation my way. My body and mind were at its strongest. My smirk grew. I crossed my leg over the raised one, gently swinging my foot through the air, focusing on the movement of air around it – testing my theory as an amplified mind-shifter, forcing my skin to feel something. I held on to the pendant that housed purification properties. Somehow, the spell had harnessed some of Troy’s mojo and captured it in the pendant. I wondered if I believed hard enough, could I feel the breeze, or even the damp I could smell in the air if I’d bring my own skin to life? Just before the blood-shift there was the slight sensation of feeling on my skin. I was sure it was all in my mind. I lay there in total bliss, and directed my hearing back to Anaya and Maya arguing. Yes, I was a little too excited about their relationship taking strain; of the boys starting to falter in their faith, and of Thandiwe being occupied by her condition. These were all the things I could use.

This time, it was easier to tune into Maya’s frequency.

I heard her voice, a little tenser and more pinched than before. “Ava was right. I know exactly how she must feel. I am bitter I let it happen for so long. Keeping things from someone to protect them, makes you a liar. You guys taught me that. You are not protecting me at all, you are protecting yourselves. All of you, hiding behind the prophecy like it’s the only sure thing!”

“Maya,” Kronan warned her.

“Don’t get me started on you. You, Kronan, are the biggest fraud of us all. You have the most to gain from this. You think that because you save lives, this will cleanse you of your broken blood.”

He laughed.

So did I, out loud, trying to imagine his face right now.

“What are you doing?”

My connection was shattered. My eyes shot open. Troy stood above me, scrutinizing my entire being. I swallowed. “I was just…”

He cut me off. “What, plotting your take over? Or, were you listening in on someone’s private conversation?”

“What?” I sat up. “It’s not any different to reading someone’s private thoughts.”

“Yes, it is. Your intentions make the difference.” He smirked, raising an eyebrow.

“Where have you been?” I asked, crossing my legs, all innocent like.

He sat down on the rock beside me, and I was shocked at his sudden change of heart.

“None of your business!” he snapped, resting his arms over his raised knees. His back and shoulders slumped back, like the very air was something holding him up.

“Why are you here?” I asked. “You obviously still hate me.”

“While you seem to give everyone the slip, I know you too well. Do you really think I am going to leave you on your own?”

“Yeah,” I said, pulling on the pendant and enchanted silver chain around my neck, like it was handcuffs chaining me to a wall.

There was a silence as he seemed to soak up the magnificent perfect scenery around us. The rush of the water carried down the ravine.

“If you mess this up for me…”

“I know. You will kill me,” I said into the night.

He tilted his head forward, smirked into the gap between his chest and legs. “No. I will keep you alive, so you can watch everything move forward without you.”

“You really hate me that much?”

“I don’t. That would mean I feel something for you.”

I studied him.
He thinks he is so strong, some tough guy.
I had broken those walls before, and I would again.

“I am just here to make sure you do not go back on your word.” He shrugged.

My mouth pulled tight, the same time my chest did. “As you said, I have nothing here, I’d rather die.”

“That’s the problem,” he said, bluntly.

“I am not going to kill myself, if that’s what you’re thinking. I am not Ava.”

He snapped his venomous angry stare at me. “You’d better remember that when you try to steal her life from her. Also, what Ava did, should not be judged by anyone.”

“I wasn’t…”

“Don’t finish that sentence, don’t you ever lie again. I want to trust you, so it will be better for you this way.”

“You mean, easier for you.”

“That, too.”

I looked down at my fingers, twirling the small plants between the crack in the rock beside me. He was showing me vulnerability. So, there were two signs right there in front of me. I just had to push the odds in my favor. He either didn’t care at all, he didn’t want to owe me anything – or, he did care, he was starting to like that he wasn’t bound by anything when he was around me. He could just be himself with me, the girl who mirrored the one he cared for. A replica of the girl he wanted so badly, a girl he would kill and torture for.

“What are you really doing here, Troy?”

“I don’t know.”

“You can’t stay away, can you?”

The silence between us drew our eyes to one another. We stared at each other, the moons perfectly illuminating our features. The sky was a thick, deep azure, velvet curtain, dotted and streaked with glowing stars. Trees rustled behind us, the wind pushed through the grasslands in a soft swoosh.

“I look at you, and I see her.” He stood, welcoming the spray from over the cliff.

“You blame me for this.” It wasn’t a question. I stood, lifting the golden material from the ground. I held it bundled up in front of me. I turned to look down at the sharp rocks and white gushing waters, the mist and spray painted the darkness in a white glow from below the cliff, as if we were drifting on clouds. Moonbeams danced in the water, shimmering fragments were swallowed by the river’s bend in the distance.

He turned to me, hands finding my bare arms. Gently, he stroked them to life. All feeling on my skin erupted into gooseflesh rolling over my entire body, and in between. His fingers trailed the edge of my dress front, down into the cleavage below. They rested there, almost touching my skin. I felt like something inside me was about to erupt and swallow me whole. He lifted my chin with his fingers, the gentleness left me shuddering inside.