The Cinnabar Box (Guardians of the Earth)

by ILIL ARBEL

  “Thank you, Shape-Changer. I wish we had your relatives in my reality.”

  “We could come back. If you really want us, and try to create the right conditions, we can do what your aunt does for the extinct animal zoo – we can be brought by you, without acting ourselves, into the future. I have talked about it with Senior Witch Yolanda – we can do so much good in your reality. The real problem will be food – we have certain requirements for plants that do not exist in your time.”

  “Plants! Aunt Yolanda thinks I should specialize in plants in my Wicca studies. Oh, how I hope I can help you come to us, Shape-Changer. I will study so hard, I will do anything. We must, we must find Aunt Yolanda.”

  “In the morning, we will go to my place of work and try to get in touch with some of my colleagues. You will love meeting them, anyway.”

  Chapter 7

  Thick vegetation hid the cave opening from view. Shape-Changer moved the vines and Donna squeezed through the narrow entrance into a large, airy chamber. A shaft of light filtered through a crack in the rock ceiling, illuminating the cave with cool, silvery radiance. The light bounced from the clean, dry ground and the large rocks that served as desks, shelves and chairs. Crystals of various sizes and colors, bundles of sticks and twigs, and little leather bags that smelled so good they had to contain herbs, were neatly arranged on the rocks. Donna stared with awe at an egg-shaped, transparent rock crystal. So this is how it all started, she thought. Natural crystals, probably found in streams and lakes. The thought made her realize that this was as close to living the ancient history of Wicca as she could ever get.

  “I suppose you use these crystals for your work?” she asked.

  “Yes, the stream nearby yields many crystals, well-rounded and polished. I will give you one and teach you how to gaze into it. There is nothing magical about the stones themselves, Donna. It’s just how you use them, concentrate on them. You could even gaze into a pool of water and achieve the same results. Nevertheless, I am not sure where you will land in your travels, so you might as well have a serviceable crystal on hand.”

  He picked the egg-sized crystal and gave it to Donna; it fitted perfectly in the palm of her hand, smooth and comforting. Funny how Wicca tools always felt so right, she thought. The same thing happened when Aunt Yolanda gave her the locket, and even when she first touched the Cinnabar box. “Thank you, Shape-Changer,” she said softly. “This will be my crystal if I ever manage to become a true Wicca, and I will keep it forever.”

  Shape-Changer smiled. She loved to see his rare smile, temporarily removing the sadness from his fathomless dark eyes. Why was he so sad, she thought. Loneliness? Even though he certainly belonged to a different species, his people loved and appreciated him. Too much knowledge of the future? Too much understanding? Perhaps too much responsibility? That must be it. Responsibility can really wear you down … She tried to shake off the feeling of her own burden, and managed to fight the tears away.

  “Here, you’ll need a leather pouch to protect it,” said Shape-Changer. She could tell he tried to pretend not to notice her momentary distress. “Now let’s go into the inner chamber.” They moved deeper into the cave, and entered an immense room through an almost invisible opening in the back wall. The room contained an indoor lake, surrounded by a wide stone ledge. The angle of the light, coming from an unseen source, inflamed the water and the air itself with iridescent, radiant blue tints, as if the entire room was cut from a giant blue jewel. The light darted and danced like a million tiny mice over the water and on the walls.

  Shape-Changer took a small flute out of the his pouch and started playing a haunting, sweet melody that whispered and echoed like the wind in the reeds of a mountain lake. Donna sat frozen in absolute silence, totally immersed in the sound. Even the lemur did not move. The music seemed to hypnotize him.

  Shape-Changer played for about ten minutes, when suddenly a bubble floated to the surface of the lake. It looked like a soap bubble, pink and blue and green, and grew slowly and steadily. Something moved inside, or on the surface, Donna couldn’t tell with the constantly darting lights. Then, a second bubble popped to the surface and started growing. Shape-Changer played on. The bubbles continued growing and floated a little above the water and back into it, gently bumping into each other.

  When each reached the size of a small car, Shape-Changer stopped playing and got up. One bubble drifted onto the ledge and stabilized there. It began to evaporate, to thin out, and suddenly it was no longer there. In its place stood a tall, red-bearded, middle-aged man, dressed like a Viking. His piercing blue eyes matched the cave’s light. He seemed immensely strong, not only physically, but as if incredible power emanated from him. Donna sensed these waves of energy enveloping him like electricity.

  The Viking said something incomprehensible to Shape-Changer, looked at Donna thoughtfully, and did an elaborate pattern of movement with his hands, as if conducting an orchestra. When he spoke again, Donna understood every word.

  “Shape-Changer, my old friend,” said the Viking. “So good to see you. And you too, girl. I see you now understand my speech perfectly. Good.”

  “Thank you for responding to my call, Vainamoinen,” said Shape-Changer. “Donna, meet the grandest Sound Magic wizard of them all. Throughout time, in all realities, there has never been one greater than Vainamoinen. He is from your reality, born in Finland only a few centuries before your time. People come to him from all over the universe to have him control the oceans and the storms.” The Viking bowed and laughed.

  “Not exactly,” he said. “I assume you called Taliesin as well, and you are just humoring me with these compliments?”

  Shape-Changer smiled. “Of course I called him, but I am not humoring you. Taliesin is the master of a different song.”

  The second bubble evaporated, and a young man, wearing ancient Celtic clothes and carrying a small harp, materialized on the ledge. Donna gasped. She had never seen such a handsome man – not in the movies, not in rock groups, nowhere. He was of middle height, athletic, and as graceful as a cat. Everything about him was perfect – the dark blond hair, the classical features, and the golden tanned skin, almost the same color of his hair. He also looked at Donna and made the same pattern with his hands before starting to talk. His hands were beautiful, strong, and with the long fingers of the musician. She could no longer control her curiosity.

  “How do you make me understand you?” she asked.

  “We rearrange a few sound patterns in your brain,” said Vainamoinen. “It won’t hurt you, and you will always be able to understand our languages. We could make ourselves understand your language, but we shouldn’t, because we come from a reality which is in your past. It’s the Wicca Code –”

  “More codes, rules, and regulations,” said Donna wearily. “So you won’t be able to help me, either.”

  “The Code is essential,” said Taliesin, speaking for the first time with a low, magnificent voice that reverberated like music. “Have you ever heard about the butterfly effect?”

  “Yes, yes, a million times,” said Donna impatiently. “But I worry about my aunt, and a whole planet is drying up, and the Vizier is growing more powerful every day, and sometimes you must break a few rules if you want to achieve something!”

  “No, not these rules,” said Vainamoinen sternly. “Your needs are true and important. But the Vizier thinks his rules are true and important, too. The Code is the only thing that can keep magic under control. Look what happened when the Vizier broke it – a planet was destroyed.”

  “Allow me to introduce Taliesin,” said Shape-Changer. “The greatest singer of all time. His songs move the water, the earth, the fire, and the air …”

  “Stop that, you old fool,” said Taliesin, smiling, his teeth flashing white against the golden skin. His eyes were green, a deep dark green like the pine forests. Donna decided she could just see him as the lead singer in a really good band. “You sing in a group, or solo? What kind of music?” she ask
ed excitedly, for a moment forgetting her troubles.

  “No, no, nothing like that, I am a magician. My magic is accomplished with song,” explained Taliesin. When he wasn’t smiling his eyes expressed infinite sadness, as deep as Shape-Changer’s. Why were these powerful beings so depressed, thought Donna irritably. They could achieve so much, but they just stand there and do nothing, with all their stupid rules!

  “It’s all Sound Magic,” said Shape-Changer. “That’s why I called these two – they understand the Vizier’s Sound Magic better than anyone.”

  “It’s really simple,” said Vainamoinen. “We, the Finnish magicians, for instance, have power over the oceans. We ride whalebones instead of ships, and make good time doing it, too. We control the winds and the waves with our song.”

  “You help sailors?” asked Donna.

  “Yes, of course,” said Vainamoinen. “When seafaring merchants want to insure a safe trip, they come to us. Any careful, intelligent captain wouldn’t take the risk of organizing a trip without some magic. The least he could do is to buy a Wind Rope from a reputable wizard before setting out. He’d hire a magician to go with him, if the trip is really dangerous.”

  “What’s a Wind Rope?”

  “It looks like a simple sailor’s rope, but the wizard ties three knots in it and sings over them. The knots preserve the original sound waves. During the trip, if the captain needs a steady breeze, he unties the first knot. The second knot produces a strong wind. The captain always hopes he would never have to untie the third knot. Only in a great emergency, such as meeting pirates, he would risk the third knot – and create a violent storm.”

  “Vainamoinen’s power, Donna, is so incredible, because his parents were not entirely human but partly entities of air and water,” said Shape-Changer. “He controls these elements, as well as the land. His song drives the icy oceans to storms, moves earth, grows plants. Vainamoinen can sing objects that did not exist into being, and make existing objects disappear. He once sang an entire forest to the ground so that his people could grow barley on the land instead.”

  “And for all my power, Shape-Changer, I cannot help Yolanda,” said Vainamoinen, his strong voice suddenly breaking. “Nor can I do anything for Great River.” He banged his hand on a rock, so powerfully that Donna expected the rock to split. The rock remained unharmed, but the pain of the blow did not make Vainamoinen even flinch. He turned abruptly and strode out of the cave, and his anger lingered in the cave like a wave of electricity.

  “Let me talk to him,” said Shape-Changer gently. “He is very upset, naturally. But I am sure that when the four of us think calmly together we will find a solution …” He turned and followed Vainamoinen.

  Donna stared after them, shocked by Vainamoinen’s revelation.

  “He knows my aunt,” she whispered.

  Taliesin sat next to her on the ledge and threw a small stone into the water. For a few minutes, he silently watched the rings expanding on the surface.

  “Vainamoinen and your aunt are great friends, Donna,” he finally said. “They met a long time ago, on an expedition they organized to collect sea birds of a species that Vainamoinen was concerned about and Senior Witch Yolanda decided to protect in her zoo. They spend much time together.”

  “And yet he won’t help her.”

  “He simply can’t, Donna. The stronger you are, the more you must observe the rules. It’s one thing if a trainee breaks a little rule here and there. But if someone as powerful as Vainamoinen meddles with the Code, the reverberations he unleashes will last for centuries. Think of what the Vizier had done. Incidentally, Vainamoinen knows the Vizier very well, they studied together on an accursed island where the Vizier now lives –”

  “The Wizards’ School? Really? I went there to look for my aunt.”

  Taliesin looked at her with new respect. “You went there? You actually went to the Wizards’ School? It’s incredibly dangerous.”

  “I met the Vizier there, and escaped just in time with my friends,” said Donna, shuddering with the memory. “He started Sound Magic that created a tornado.”

  “You have courage,” said Taliesin softly. “You will be a great Wicca some day.”

  “If my aunt survives to teach me,” said Donna. She felt tears come into her eyes, softly but irresistibly, and could not stop them. Terror, disappointment, pain, all came together and she sobbed helplessly. Taliesin took her hand gently.

  “Cry, Donna. Cry. It will cleanse your heart and make you brave and strong again. Just cry.” He held her hand tenderly, looking at her with infinite compassion. She cried until she could no longer cry.

  “Donna, if your aunt does not survive, one of us will teach you. We will not allow your talent to go to waste,” said Taliesin. “But I am sure she will come back.”

  “I don’t know if I can face it without her, to tell you the truth … Taliesin, may I ask you something now? Something sort of personal?” she finally asked, sniffling and exhausted.

  “Certainly.”

  “Why are you so sad? Why is Shape-Changer so sad?”

  “Shape-Changer is sad because he knows about the end of his species. Knowing too much is a great burden. As for me, I am not sure why I am sad. This is my curse, my entire life I have been like that, and I suspect it may be a sickness. Some say it is because of the circumstances of my birth. The legends about my mother and myself are both frightening and sad, and I don’t even know if they are true.”

  “Why don’t you ask your mother if the legends are true?”

  “I can’t. I can’t really speak to her, Donna. She is a wonderful, strong sorceress, but everyone is a little afraid of her, even her own son! I love her and she loves me, but we are not close and we don’t talk about things like that.”

  “Wow,” said Donna. “This is exactly the same problem I have with my own mother! Who would have thought that a strong magician like you could have trouble with any relationship?”

  “My mother is stronger, I guess. And anyway you can be a strong Wicca and still remain very human, and sad, and scared, and lonely. I suffer from the sadness all the time. I consulted the healers, but all they suggested was bleeding me or feeding me Belladonna! It’s stupid – bleeding makes you weak and Belladonna makes you sleepy, and neither will cure the sadness.”

  “Belladonna is a poisonous plant,” said Donna resolutely. “You shouldn’t touch it. And bleeding is so old-fashioned! But of course you are from my past … wait a minute. Did any healer suggest St. John’s Wort?”

  “The little flower? What can it do?”

  “In my reality doctors – or healers, as you call them – have discovered that it can lift the sadness, or as we call it, depression. As far as I know, no one used this herb in the past.”

  “How come you know so much about herbal healing, Donna?”

  “I just love plants, I guess, and have studied them since I was a little girl. Aunt Yolanda thinks this will be my Wicca specialty.”

  “Can you get St. John’s Wort medicine for me? I really want to try it,” said Taliesin enthusiastically.

  Donna suddenly laughed, a little bitterly. “Yes, sure, if we meet again. But do you realize I have just prescribed a medication to one of the most powerful wizards of all time? I am nothing next to you. I am nobody, I am not even half-trained.”

  “You may not be trained yet, but that does not take away your natural talent,” said Taliesin. “Why do you have so little confidence in yourself?”

  “Because I am ugly,” said Donna simply. She couldn’t believe she told that to a total stranger, but he already seemed to be an old friend, somehow.

  “Ugly? How can you say that?” asked Taliesin, visibly surprised.

  “You don’t think I am ugly?”

  “You still have to grow, of course,” said Taliesin thoughtfully, looking at her critically, his head tilted to one side. “You are not quite finished. But do remember, I am a wizard. So I see much more than your current shape – I see your essence
, and you are extremely beautiful. There is a song in your essence that is right and true.”

  “I wish I could see this essence,” sighed Donna. “All I know is this image in the mirror, fat and fuzzy-haired, and my complexion is a mess, and I don’t like myself in any glasses, no matter how beautiful the frames are, and –”

  “Stop,” said Taliesin gently. “I see that shape and beauty mean a lot to you. For you, I will break a Wicca rule. A small and harmless one, and it will make you happy. Just don’t tell anyone, particularly Vainamoinen. He is so strict!”

  From inside his shirt he took a small mirror made of polished metal. “Look into the mirror, Donna, concentrate and don’t blink too much. I will do the rest.”

  She stared into the mirror. Slowly, an image formed itself in the middle. A young woman sat in the grass, her back toward Donna. She had wonderful, long auburn hair. Donna jumped.

  “Aunt Yolanda!”

  “No. Look some more, Donna.”

  The image rotated and Donna saw the woman’s face. This was not Aunt Yolanda, but she resembled her a great deal. An incredible, too wonderful to believe sort of suspicion crept into Donna’s mind.

  “Could this be me in the future? Am I going to look like Aunt Yolanda?” she whispered.

  “Allow me to introduce Donna, twenty-one years old,” said Taliesin, laughing. “And why wouldn’t you resemble your aunt? I saw the family resemblance as soon as I met you.”

  “Wow,” said Donna weakly. “I can’t believe this. When does the change take place?”

  “What change?” said Taliesin innocently. They both laughed.

  “I just have to see myself at different stages,” said Donna excitedly. “At twenty-one I have no braces, no glasses, I am slim, my skin seems perfect, my hair is long – and it’s auburn! I am in heaven!”

  “Well, I rather like your current red hair, but you can have it your way,” said Taliesin. “You could start growing your hair now. I can teach you how to bend your mind around little things like overweight and bad skin and correct them. And you should certainly strengthen your eyes – not for beauty, there is nothing ugly about wearing glasses, but for health.”