Amerie spent the next day at school listlessly. She had written the date in her exercise book wrong twice. She sighed and crossed it out yet again, rewriting the correct date.
Friday 5th September.
There was only one day left to go. Amerie’s stomach churned each time she thought about it. She had to do something, but what could she do? Nothing whilst she was at school, anyway. She dropped her pen uselessly, before picking it up again.
Her eyes flitted to Jack’s seat. She felt with a pang how stupid she had been to care about what the others had said about her. Did it even matter if she was weird if she could save people?
“Amerie?” asked Mr. Martin.
Amerie was startled out of her reverie, “Sorry, I don’t know the answer.”
“I was calling the register.” He rolled his eyes and marked her in.
The class snickered, but it didn’t bother Amerie. She realised that they were all just children. Children who would make mistakes, grow, make some more mistakes, and grow up some more. But if she didn’t act quickly, Jack and the other kidnapped would never have that chance.
At home, Amerie couldn’t concentrate on her homework. At dinner, she excused herself saying that she had a headache. She said goodnight and shut herself in her room. She spun on her chair, going through all of her options.
Grandmother Lyndzei had said she shouldn’t approach Cedrych directly, as he was still powerful. In a sense, Amerie agreed with her. If King Cedrych got her too, she wouldn’t be able to help anyone. But if she didn’t do anything, four children would be found dead by tomorrow morning.
Amerie searched and scanned her mind to find some type of loophole, but there was nothing. Last night Grandmother Lyndzei hadn’t been able to think of anything either. Come on, Amerie. There must be something. Maybe she could stop the tree surgeons somehow? No, that was a dead end. Amerie wasn’t allowed in the forest anyway. Her parents would figure out why she was going out so early on a Saturday. No one would believe the truth when there was a clearly very empty hollow in front of them. She would be written off as a tree-hugger and pushed aside.
She wrenched her hair in exasperation. Frustration chalked up her throat, her ears ached with suppressed tears.
Tears.
Amerie felt a sense of deja-vu. A sense of something that she had felt in her pulse, her veins, her heart.
“When you feel your tears
Cry them here.”
Her mind was flooded with the voice that she had heard at the lake, on the first day at the star realm. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten all about it, but the memory had resurfaced at just the right time. It wasn’t a solution, but it was a lead.
Amerie almost climbed out of the window immediately but remembered how chilly it had been walking back home last night without a jumper. She pulled it on, but then paused again. Her intuition told her to plan more carefully. Amerie hurriedly plumped up her duvet with clothes, slung on her small rucksack, and slipped into the night.
Even in the dark, the water of the lake was so clear and still that its depths shone like black glass in the starlight. Amerie knelt down and watched her woeful expression.
“You said to come here when I felt like crying...so here I am.” Amerie was tempted to think she sounded stupid, but the new and stronger part of her knew that wouldn’t help her.
“It’s because I’m afraid. Maybe someone braver than me would be able to face this head-on, maybe someone smarter than me would figure out a way around all of this. But I’m just me. Those poor lost children...they need someone better to save them.”
A small ripple appeared on the surface. Amerie realised that one of her tears had fallen into the lake. She watched as every edge of the ripple met with every edge of the lake.
Amerie was mesmerised. The lake was illuminated by light from deep within, like an eruption of golden lava. She stood up as the water lifted itself higher and higher. Amerie reached out her hand just to see if it was real.
As soon as she touched it, the water encompassed her in its cool flame. Amerie was stunned as she realised she didn’t have to hold her breath, nor had she gotten wet. She felt herself descend into the impossible depths of the lake.
But she was not afraid. The water was a lamp and lit her way.
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