The Wind Rose

by B. Roman

  David laughs at both of them, happily accepting a plate of that luscious chocolate cake for himself.

  The table setting is as splendid as Ishtar's home, a far cry from the underground cave he lived in when the Island was one of darkness and treachery.

  Here on the reinvigorated island, David is happy. He feels a peacefulness that he doesn't feel in Port Avalon. Here, directions are clear and uncomplicated, the purpose is pure, the choices are distinct. At home, life is too complex, too many shades of gray, the line between right and wrong is blurred, even eradicated.

  “I feel more like me here, like I have some connection to everything and everyone.”

  “Indeed you do,” Ishtar tells him. “It's where you can be your true self, be with people who have loved and cherished you throughout many lifetimes. In fact, someone else is here that you will be happy to see.”

  “Saliana?” David looks around for her, hoping to see her lovely face, to hear her voice again. How he wished that he had told her the last time that he loved her, before he went home to Port Avalon. Maybe now he can rekindle their relationship and take it to a new level.

  But instead of Saliana, the one who stands before him is the woman who has had the most important and enduring impact on his life.

  “Saliana is on her way,” the woman says, “But I wanted to greet you first.” Bianca takes a seat at the dinner table next to David.

  Bianca is there! In the Kingdom of Light. In Ishtar's house, at his table. David is speechless and emotional.

  “Mom.” he whispers.

  Bianca puts a finger to her lips, indicating that David not say this aloud. Then she kisses him gently on his cheek.

  “You never knew this,” Ishtar says, “but Bianca is my wife. Saliana's mother.”

  David is dumbfounded. “Your wife? Saliana's – “

  The fact that Bianca is Saliana's mother has profound implications for David. He looked upon this woman as a mother figure – his own mother, reincarnate – but that would make him Saliana's – brother? So much for things being simpler here than at home.

  Something even more astonishing occurs to David. “But why weren't you all together on the Island? Why was Bianca on Coronadus?”

  “You recall what was happening on the Island before you came,” Ishtar says.

  “You mean Jaycina and her plan to take control of everything and everyone?”

  Ishtar nods. “It wasn't the Island of Darkness then. It was just our island, one I envisioned would become a mecca of learning and healing and advanced technology. Jaycina desperately wanted to own my plans, my designs, and all the precious energy resources. I couldn't let that happen, so my family and I had to escape. We took only our most essential belongings, then we burned down our house. I let Jaycina believe that everything she coveted was in it.”

  “We almost got completely away,” Bianca interjects, “but there was an unexpected earthquake. Deep crevices in the earth split in a bizarre pattern right under our feet. I was caught on one side, Ishtar and Dorinda were on the other side. We were completely separated from one another.”

  “But what about Saliana? What happened to her?”

  “I had stumbled on the path and almost fell through a hole in the ground,” Saliana explains, now coming forth to join the trio and accepting a cup of tea from Dorinda.

  She is even more beautiful than I remembered, David thinks. Her hair is still a cascade of golden curls, her eyes clear and penetrating, her voice a lilting warmth. His heart quivers at the sight of her, but his stomach turns over at the revelation that they may be related somehow.

  “I held onto a tree root and screamed for Mother or Father to help me,” Saliana continues her story, “but they couldn't reach me. After the earth stopped shaking, we were all alive but completely apart. There was no way either of them could get to me. Then I heard them.”

  “Who?”

  “Jaycina's sentries. They wanted all of us, but I was the only one within their grasp. They rescued me only to imprison me in the Palace Tower. You know the rest.”

  “How could I forget,” David says, as all the pictures of those days on the Island of Darkness flash across his mind like a movie. “And I know that Ishtar and Dorinda took refuge in a secluded cave. But, Bianca, how did you get from the Island to Coronadus?”

  “I'm not really certain,” Bianca replies. “I wanted so much to be with my husband and my daughter, but I couldn't transcend that split. I even tried to transport myself to their side using the Wind Rose - “

  “The Wind Rose!” David exclaims. “You had it?”

  “Yes, David. It was the Wind Rose that took me to Coronadus, to another point in time. But I lost it somewhere along the way. It was as though there was an interruption in the sequence of energy systems.”

  “But it was there, in the shop in Coronadus,” David reminds her. “I found it by – not by accident, right?”

  “Yes. Not by accident. When you chose the Wind Rose for your souvenir it was destiny, and I knew that through our meeting I would be reunited with my family.”

  Other: In the past and present, in the heavens and on earth, in time and space…and in his mother's heart…

  David tries to absorb all of this new information, feeling some of it resonate with familiarity, but it hurts his brain. Bianca had once told him that some things are beyond our current level of understanding. We need more data, more proof, more experience before we can bring it all into a cohesive awareness. So far, the ability to completely understand his relationship to these three people is beyond him. The mystical experiences, his encounters with people, places and things from other times, other dimensions are things he just can't quite wrap his mind around. The metaphysical aspect, the karmic connections, the intertwining of lives and destinies are still too complex to grasp. It was all a chain reaction – his experiments with the Singer, the appearance of the Moon Singer, his arrival on the Island.

  Other: The mystery is infinitely deep and the desire for answers will open a Pandora's Box of trouble as well as a treasure chest of good fortune…

  Suddenly, David remembers something. Had he known what he was doing when he invoked the power of the Star of David that first time, he would have sailed the Moon Singer into a Kingdom of Light instead of an Island of Darkness. All the troubles, misery and suffering that plagued Ishtar's family and the Islanders would never have happened.

  “The earthquake,” David chastises himself, “happened when I used the Star of David to ignite the Singer. I was the reason. My foolish experiment interrupted your lives.”

  “Yes,” Ishtar concedes. “That's how you got to the Island. But remember what else I told you, that we merely had an inter-dimensional collision causing all of our destinies to become intertwined. It was accidental on your part, but also meant to be. Your first karmic lesson was with Saliana and I. In rescuing us, you helped rescue your own family from their dilemmas.”

  Other: … the fairy tale daydreams have served their purpose…

  “But I wasn't finished.”

  “That's right, David,” Bianca says. “Your next karmic lesson was your encounter with me on Coronadus.”

  Other:…his mother's heart is now wide open to embrace and guide his path to discovery…

  “To resolve my conflicted feelings about my mother, my anger over her dying.”

  “Yes. And so that I would be able to return to my family, and here to my home.”

  “And still I'm not finished,” David says with exasperation. “Why am I here now?”

  Ishtar laughs heartily. “Well, you brought yourself here this time, willingly. So, you tell us.”

  David smiles back, slightly embarrassed. “I'm not sure. I wanted to escape the chaos happening at home. As usual.”

  Other:…he is ready to delve into more complex questions and deal with answers that may shock and surprise him…

  “Well, let's explore the Island,” Ishtar invites him, “and perhaps you will find the answer.”


  Twenty

  Standing majestically on the highest hill of the Island, is the Prism Palace, the shimmering vision he remembers. It appears to be a crystal of monolithic proportions, deceptively transparent, with near-blinding refractions of light that obscure its interior from view. Angular and defined, a geometric puzzle with smooth and seamless interlocking pieces, the palace is comprised of a tetragon on the left, a trigonal on the right, and a hexagonal center that towers over all.

  He is compelled to run to its threshold, just as he did that first time, to let the Celestial rainbows of color wash over him, embrace him, consume him. But David also recalls that the Palace interior was a labyrinth of peril from which he had to rescue Saliana who was cruelly imprisoned in the Tower, and escape the clutches of the evil Jaycina.

  Jaycina, David learns, no longer inhabits the Prism Palace as High Priestess. With her metamorphosis from malevolent temptress into a benevolent matriarch, Jaycina's mission was finished and she moved on to another time and place. David believes that Jaycina's spirit embodies Janice Cole who, herself, had a transformation from being an accommodating subordinate to that rat Nathan Fischbacher, to the courageous and astute woman who beat Nathan at his own game and saved Cole Shipping.

  Ishtar and David tour the miraculous new city, one that Ishtar had envisioned, and then finally manifested. The architecture of every structure that Ishtar designed and built is spectacular, and David marvels at the temples of Science and Nature, Medicine and Healing, and Humanistic Understanding. But his favorite is the Temple of Music and Miracles, once the ominous Prism Palace. It is where Saliana studies with the Temple's music master, Rami.

  “This is amazing,” David remarks. “Here you have an entire temple devoted to music and yet in Coronadus where Rami lived there was no music at all let alone a Temple for it.”

  “You are correct,” Ishtar concurs. “I'm sure if you think about it for a moment, you can figure out why.”

  “Me? Figure it out? Uh - well, can you give me a hint?”

  “All right,” Ishtar agrees. “You remember how enthralled you were with Saliana's song -”

  “Yes, that beautiful song about the Moon Singer. It was the first sound I had heard since before I went deaf. It was as though an angel was calling me and I followed it to the Island.”

  “Well, it was Rami who programmed Saliana's song with secret musical codes that correlate to the codes in the Rose Crystal Pendant. This is why her music has miraculous healing power and why your sister was able to rise out of her wheelchair and walk.”

  “Because Saliana gave me the Rose Crystal to bring home for Sally,” David concludes. “And…oh, no…because I had the Rose Crystal, there could be no Temple of Music here.”

  David is distraught, to think that, again, he was the cause of Ishtar's loss. First his experiments with crystals caused an earthquake that separated Ishtar and his wife, and then his taking the Rose Crystal home with him also meant he was taking away all music from Coronadus.

  “But now we have it back again,” Ishtar tells him soothingly.

  “But how?” David asks, confused. “The Rose Crystal is missing. My father accidentally gave it away.”

  “Your father didn't really give it away, David. I took it back.” Again, Saliana appears as if from nowhere.

  David turns sharply at the sound of her voice. “You did? Why, Saliana? Why would you do that to Sally?”

  Twenty-one

  “The Rose Crystal was created to heal and to sustain life through its music, but right now it is troubled,” Saliana explains, now joining David and Ishtar on their walkabout. “It is picking up damaging vibrations in the atmosphere of your Port Avalon, and that's what interfered with Sally's recovery. I couldn't take the chance that the codes would be broken or discovered by someone who had ill motives.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There are things happening in your home town that are disruptive - the fighting, the prejudice, the environmental problems, the erratic weather changes, the fear of an Apocalypse. They all point to a breakdown in Universal Law, especially the laws of music.”

  “Amazing! That's just what Dr. Ramirez says,” David tells her.

  “He's right,” Saliana agrees. “But he is not being completely truthful with you.”

  “Why? Why would he lie to me?”

  Rami, also appearing from no discernible place interjects, “I suspect that your Dr. Ramirez is creating the destructive musical vibrations.”

  David refuses to believe it. The professor has been acting strange lately, and that new composition that David downloaded from Dr. Ramirez's keyboard is wildly out of control. But his idol and mentor could not possibly create havoc in the world with the music he so loves. It must be a mistake.

  “Maybe he is doing it accidentally,” David suggests, “I mean there are only so many combinations of notes.”

  “Actually, musical variety is virtually infinite,” Rami corrects him. “There are strings, winds and percussion instruments all making their own unique sounds with the same notes. A middle C on a piano sounds very different from middle C on a violin. Then you have the unique tenor of an electronic synthesizer. Add to this the fact that more than one note and more than one instrument can be played at the same time, and qualities like pitch, timbre, loudness and duration all enter into the equation.”

  “I know it's a real long shot, but considering the law of averages, mathematically speaking, after all these years of creating music, couldn't someone just stumble upon the combination and not know it?”

  “It's possible. Remotely possible,” Rami concedes. “But if they did it unconsciously they would also unconsciously reject the patterns.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “It all comes down to intent,” Saliana explains. “When people create music, they have the intention of evoking a response, usually a pleasant or favorable one.”

  “Like romance or happy memories,” David submits. “But what about anger or power or control?”

  “People use music to do this, but they don't usually create it with this intention.”

  “But Hitler used the music Wagner created to stir up the German masses to Nazism,” David corrects Saliana.

  “Yes, but Wagner didn't create his music for this perverted purpose,” Rami corrects David. “His intention was to shock and provoke, yes, but to lift people up to a different way of thinking, to self-empowerment not self-destruction. I think whoever is writing the dissonant music in Port Avalon knows it can destroy, because that is his conscious intent.”

  “But why do you think it's Dr. Ramirez? What's his motive?”

  “Well, that's the question, isn't it?” Rami suggests. “What is his motive?”

  “Whatever it is, we've got to stop him,” David says, emphatically. “I'll just go tell him he has to stop, that he's hurting people and could destroy the entire town.”

  “I doubt he will be stopped that easily. We need to find out why he has turned his passion into a malevolent obsession. And when we do, his impulses will have to be reversed.”

  “Well, if we tell the authorities and he goes to jail, that will stop him!”

  “No, no. We can't make it public,” Rami warns. “If we do, there are others who would go to any lengths to have these codes, to hold the entire world hostage. No. No one must know what is happening.”

  Twenty-two

  “Rami, you went to extraordinary lengths to protect the Singer,” Ishtar says later, when the two of them meet alone, “nearly drowning to keep it safe. But now it must be returned to David. He needs it. Why are you so hesitant?”

  When Coronadus was destroyed by Bianca, in an effort to save the people she loved, Rami was washed out to sea in the tidal wave. Although David tried to rescue him, he couldn't, and Rami and the Singer disappeared beneath the turbulent water. Before he sank to the depths of the ocean, Rami promised David he would protect the sacred crystal just as David had to protect the Wind Rose.

  But
when David asked Rami where the Singer was and if he could have it back, Rami was evasive and told David that he will give it to him when the time is right.

  “I want him to use it right this time, when he returns home with it,” Rami insists to Ishtar. “He must realize the importance and the ramifications of his ownership of all three artifacts, especially the Singer.”

  “I believe David knows fully its importance,” Ishtar defends David.

  “But he must understand why he was given the power to sail the Moon Singer. He can't just continue to play around with crystals and grid patterns and accidentally fall into a solution,” Rami protests.

  “Well, it was no accident this time. He deliberately set out to conjure up the Moon Singer and come back here, not even knowing what his mission is.”

  “Yes, he had the intent,” Rami counters, “but it was still just luck that he entered the proper codes into his computer, even if they were in random sequence.”

  “On a subconscious level he knows them, or else how could he come up with them?” Ishtar is getting a bit perturbed at Rami's intransigence.

  “He must consciously know,” Rami says, more emphatic than ever. “Until he comes to a full realization, it's all luck and his karmic lessons will not come full circle.” “Then, show him his soul code,” Ishtar demands. “Part of his not knowing is your insistence he discover all for himself. It wouldn't hurt you to nudge things in his direction a bit. There is a lot at stake here.”

  “I don't know,” Rami hedges. “He may not be ready. He's just a boy.”

  “He is an extraordinary boy. He is ready,” Ishtar insists. “And he will get it.”

  “But will the people of Port Avalon get it?”

  Twenty-three

  As David and Saliana walk alone together in the magnificent gardens, catching up on old times and new, he talks about his hearing.