Miraculum

by Steph Post

  Hayden almost stood up and whooped in excitement, but he caught himself before waking Ruby. Just because he’d discovered the code didn’t mean he was any closer to understanding the book. Or Daniel. With the copy of the cipher in hand, however, he thought he had a chance. He still couldn’t read Latin, but he could read the annotations, and those had to be just as important as the original text. He opened the book and stretched out the first section, starting on a block of penciled symbols in the upper left corner. Like a Masonic pigpen cipher, the letters were laid out in different grids, with each part of the grid breaking off into a symbol that corresponded to a letter. After staring at the grids long enough, Hayden realized they were six different variations on the Maltese cross, with a simple cross mark standing in for the letter N. In using the cipher, the triangles, arrows and diamonds became letters and, put together, they became words and sentences. It took Hayden a while to get the hang of it, but soon he had his first translation: WHITBY ABBEY NORTHUMBRIA POSSIBLY BEDE SEVENTH CENTURY. Hayden had no idea what that was supposed to mean, except that The Book of Knowns was old. Very old. Not as old as the first book, with the blood and stains and human skin parchment, but still pretty damn ancient. Hayden scanned over the section pulled out across the table. It had maybe twenty annotations, some of which could have been at least five hundred symbols long. It would take him all night just to translate the first section. And there were twelve sections after it. Hayden put his head in his hands. It was too much. It would take too long. He pushed the pencil, paper and cipher away from him and leaned back in the chair. He braced himself with his palms against the edge of the table and looked hard at the creased length of vellum. There had to be another way than starting at the beginning.

  Hayden stared at the section in a bleary daze. The script, even in this early part of the book, had been inked beautifully. The letters were all either in black, red, or black surrounded with tiny red dots. The rows of text were perfectly straight and in some parts of the book, Hayden had been able to see the faint lines underneath the letters, guiding the scribe’s hand. Though Hayden had been concentrating on deciphering the text, he was most fascinated by the artwork that took up almost as much space as the words. In the first section, the drawings mostly depicted strange animals. Birds with long necks and human arms and legs. Hares playing pipes or pushing wheelbarrows along the branches of a tree as if it were a road. Deer with their antlers on fire. In a way, the images reminded him of the dream world he had painted on the ceiling of Ruby’s wagon with the fish made out of stars. Hayden frowned as he remembered that the painting had been consumed by the fire. So, too, had all of the murals on the sides of the truck wagons. And the people who had slept behind his murals every night, some for years and years, they were gone as well. Daniel had destroyed them all.

  Hayden pulled out another section, and then another. The artwork became intricate and the scenes more complex as time had passed. There were images of kings, maidens and dancing skeletons. The landscapes behind the figures were detailed, with trees, gardens, hills and castle walls depicted under blue starry skies. The pictures were more realistic as they became more polished, but still there were oddities. A woman with bat wings trapped inside a bottle with a gaggle of men holding books and standing around her. A great sea monster with a swallowed ship visible in its belly, the sailors’ eyes and mouths open in torment as they clung to the rigging beneath the creature’s spine. Without understanding the accompanying text, Hayden could only guess at the stories these images illustrated.

  “What the hell is that supposed to be?”

  Hayden started, his heart pounding furiously in his chest. He had been so absorbed in the book that he hadn’t heard Ruby get out of bed and come over to him. Hayden rubbed his face and stood up, stretching his back out. He’d been hunched over in the chair for hours. Ruby was still pointing at one of the images and Hayden glanced over at it as he lit yet another cigarette.

  “I think it’s a snail.”

  “It looks like it has a sword. And is fighting a man. How can a snail have a sword?”

  Hayden waved out the match and tossed it into the overflowing ashtray. He shook his head.

  “That book makes anything you’ve ever seen in a sideshow look dull.”

  Ruby leaned on the table and flipped over some of the extended sections.

  “This is incredible, really. Can you read any of it?”

  “No. It’s Latin, I think. But I did figure this out.”

  Hayden showed her the page of cipher and the penciled notes throughout the book.

  “This is like a maze, Ruby. We don’t even know what we’re looking for. I bet some scholar somewhere spent his whole life trying to figure this book out and maybe got nowhere. And here I’m trying to do it in a night.”

  Ruby held the page with the cipher code in her hands.

  “But if the key translates to English, why wouldn’t whoever made it, and made the notes in the book, just have written in English? What was the point of writing in code?”

  Hayden took the paper from her.

  “I guess whoever made this didn’t want anyone else to know what the notes said? I couldn’t tell you, Ruby. This book is like one of these.”

  Hayden pointed to a drawing of an ouroboros at the top of one of the sections.

  “It’s like a snake eating its own tail, a never-ending mystery. Even if we had all the time in the world, I don’t think we could solve it.”

  “And we don’t have all the time in the world.”

  “No.”

  Ruby sat down in the chair and turned over another section. Hayden walked to the wall next to the bed and leaned his back against it, shutting his eyes. He heard Ruby rustle another page.

  “What’s wrong with this picture?”

  Hayden didn’t bother to open his eyes; frustration had given way to exhaustion.

  “I have no idea, Ruby.”

  He stood against the wall with the cigarette slowly burning between his fingers and felt a wave of sleep creeping toward him.

  “No, really, Hayden. There’s something wrong with this one.”

  Hayden sighed and only managed to mumble.

  “Have you seen the pictures in there? There’s something wrong with all of them. It’s like a dream. Or a nightmare.”

  Ruby was silent for a moment, but then the insistency in her voice forced Hayden to open his eyes.

  “No, this one is different. I’m telling you. Look at this.”

  Hayden pushed himself away from the wall in irritation. He’d been looking at the book for hours. If there was a picture different than the rest, he would have noticed it. Hayden looked over Ruby’s shoulder at the drawing she had her finger on.

  “It’s just a man. That’s nothing compared to most of them.”

  Ruby shook her head and jabbed at the page with her finger.

  “No, look at it. Not what it is, but how it’s been drawn. Half of the picture is missing. See? Look.”

  Ruby stood up so Hayden could take the chair and look closer at the image. He’d already glanced at it a dozen times. It was just a man, pointing up at an abstract design of black lines and red squiggles. There was nothing bizarre about it and so Hayden hadn’t paid it any attention. But now that he looked closer, he realized that Ruby was right. It did seem to be half-finished. The man only had one eye and many of the lines making up his figure had gaps in them. The lines and squiggles that the man was pointing to seemed arbitrary.

  “Eye!”

  Ruby pointed to a drawing in the opposite corner of the section. Hayden looked over at an image he’d previously thought was just a design. It was a scattering of red and black lines and dots that didn’t make up a picture. But Ruby was right. One of the marks could definitely be an eye, now that he was looking for it. He went back and forth between the two images, certain there was some sort of connection. Then it hit him.

  “Hold the book up to the light.”

  Ruby turned to him, confused.
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  “What?”

  Hayden stubbed out his cigarette in excitement.

  “Hold the book up. There, just like that.”

  Ruby lifted the book and Hayden folded the section in half in front of the lamp. He had been right. The two unfinished drawings completed one another and with the light coming through the vellum, the full image unveiled itself.

  “It’s him. Oh my God, Hayden, it’s him.”

  Ruby almost dropped the book and Hayden had to steady her hand to bring the image back into the light. He nodded.

  “It’s Daniel. It has to be. All those years ago. Wherever this book is from. And he was there.”

  It was clear now what the man in the first picture was pointing at. There was a hill before him and on the top of the hill was a tall, thin man with black hair and red eyes. With bones growing out of his back. Fire was coming out of his hands and streaming down the hill, enveloping tiny figures on horseback. The man on the hill was smiling.

  They carefully set the book back on the table and Hayden unfolded the section again. The Latin text next to the man pointing in the air had penciled notes beneath the lines. Hayden looked to Ruby, staring at him with wide eyes. He nodded to her slowly.

  “Give me some time.”

  Ruby went back to sit on the bed and left him alone. It took him the better part of an hour and when he was finished, he leaned back in the chair, stunned. He looked over his shoulder at Ruby, who had been sitting up in the bed, smoking and watching him the entire time. He gestured for her to come over and then pointed down at the page of text he’d laboriously written out on the pad of paper. Ruby chewed on her bottom lip.

  “Well?”

  Hayden wasn’t sure where to begin. He tapped the section from The Book of Knowns.

  “There’s two parts. The notes under the Latin text, that’s a direct translation I think. And then there’s this part over here.”

  He pointed to the annotation in the margin.

  “Whoever wrote the notes, the code, this is what they had to say about it. It’s the commentary.”

  Ruby nodded.

  “Start with the actual text from the book. What does it say?”

  Hayden turned back to the page he had copied out.

  “It’s sort of a story, I guess.”

  Hayden took a deep breath and began to read out loud, his voice shaking slightly.

  “This I did not hear, but saw with my own eyes. A man came to us, but he was no man. We welcomed him, but knew not why. A sleep had come upon us, but we did not sleep. We were ourselves and not ourselves.”

  “What does it mean?”

  Ruby looked at him questioningly, but Hayden shook his head and kept reading.

  “An army came to us. It came for the man. The man stood on the hilltop and fire came forth from his hands and ran down the hill like a river. There was a great storm of wind and fire. And then the army was no more. There were only ashes and bone.”

  Hayden paused, but didn’t look at Ruby. He didn’t want to see her face yet. He took another deep breath and finished.

  “The man left us and we awoke from the sleep. Some had forgotten him, but I had not. I knew. This man had been known to us in shadow before. We were the tricked ones. He was the trick. He will come again one day. He is known before and after in time.”

  Hayden slowly looked over. Ruby’s face was pale and her voice was a whisper.

  “When was this written?”

  “Let me read you the note from the margin.”

  Hayden turned back to the page.

  “Eleventh century sighting. Army could be Normans. Fire and wind from a man mimics ninth century destruction in Gwynedd. Also earlier with water in Halogaland. Earlier still with fire at Hadrian’s Wall. This is the one. The trick is real. No one will believe me. He is real. He will go on forever.”

  Hayden flipped the paper over. He couldn’t look at it any longer. It was finally Ruby who broke the silence.

  “They welcomed him, but knew not why. That’s what Pontilliar did. He hired Daniel, a man with no carnival experience, and could never explain to me why. Said he couldn’t remember when I asked him. And January. And Tom falling from the Wheel. Oh my God, how many other things. How many things did he do in the Star Light, even before the fire?”

  And finally Hayden knew. He understood. Hayden jumped up from the table, knocking the chair over.

  “Ruby! The day I felt I had to leave the carnival, I had words with Daniel. I don’t even know what we talked about, I couldn’t tell you, but it was heated and after I left him, I just knew I had to leave the Star Light, no matter what. That’s when I went and found you and told you I was going. The whole time I was gone, I felt as if I were in a fog. Every time I thought about coming back to you, I felt sick and this fever, this haze would come down over me.”

  Ruby frowned.

  “You think Daniel made you leave against your will?”

  Hayden picked up the chair and pushed it under the table.

  “I think he can get inside peoples’ heads. Make them do what he wants. Me. Pontilliar. Whoever. I think Daniel sent me away. I don’t know why, but he put it in my head to leave and I had to go. What if he’s like a snake oil man? A con man, but one who always makes his mark.”

  He watched Ruby taking it in, figuring it out. She had been with Daniel a week longer than he had. She’d most likely seen him do other things. Her lips parted slowly, but it took her a moment longer to speak. She seemed unsure of herself, not quite caught up in the excitement as much as he was.

  “But what do you think he is?”

  Hayden shrugged.

  “Hell, Ruby. I couldn’t tell you. Samuel was talking about demons. Ghosts. Other things I couldn’t understand. But who knows what Daniel really is.”

  Ruby was staring hard at the book on the table, but Hayden could tell her thoughts were elsewhere.

  “Come on, what are you thinking?”

  She crossed her arms.

  “Why say trick?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ruby shook her head.

  “The person who made the notes. They said the trick was real. And in the story it says the man was the trick. Why a trick? Why doesn’t it say destroyer? Or something like that? In this instance, Daniel took out a whole army. That’s more than just a trick.”

  Hayden’s eyes were burning. Now that he’d found Daniel in the book, his frenzy was ebbing. And the knowledge they had discovered was too much, too overwhelming, to even think about. All Hayden wanted to do now was sleep.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s not talking about a trick like we think of.”

  “Maybe it’s calling Daniel a trickster? Like one of those creatures who plays tricks on humans? In the fables and stories. Up in the mountains, people told tales of the Brer animals. And I’ve heard of Indians talking about Coyote and Raven tricking mankind. Destroying villages, causing fires and floods. But they were gods.”

  Hayden shrugged again.

  “Sure. I don’t think it matters what Daniel is exactly. We can call him a trickster. A god. A slick man in a suit who’s been around thousands of years. Whatever. The only thing that matters is what he can do. And what you’re going to do. Your tattoos might protect you from his fire or wind or whatever, but he can control peoples’ minds, Ruby. Control them. Like a puppeteer. I mean, we might just be better off running.”

  He could see it; she was thinking hard again. Remembering. He didn’t like the look on her face as she spoke.

  “Other people, yes. But I don’t think he can control me.”

  Hayden cocked his head.

  “You think your tattoos protect you from that, too? How do you know?”

  She spoke very slowly, as if choosing her words carefully. Hayden got the sense she was hiding something from him.

  “I think he might have tried. And I think it didn’t work. So, my mind is protected from him, too.”

  She didn’t offer any more and Hayden didn’t think
it was the right time to push her. He turned to look at the book on the table. He felt like he had found something tremendous, but didn’t know what to do with it. Suddenly, the weight of what Ruby wanted to do settled on him. It was impossible. If gods were even real, people didn’t go up against them. Hayden turned back to Ruby, but now her face was lit up, her eyes shining in the lamplight.

  “What is it?”

  Ruby licked her lips and looked up at him. She was so beautiful. And for a moment, with that crazed look on her face, so terrifying.

  “I know what we have to do.”

  Hayden shook his head.

  “Ruby. Just stop and think for a moment. Daniel burned up the carnival. Almost a thousand years ago, he took down an army. Who knows what he can do. Who knows how much destruction you might set off. Did you consider that?”

  The expression on Ruby’s face didn’t change.

  “Yes.”

  Hayden couldn’t stop himself. He had to make one last effort to pull her away from this madness.

  “Everyone in that carnival died but you. You do this, you go after him because you’re angry or you need revenge or whatever it is that’s driving you toward him, and you’re putting other people in danger. Your selfishness could get more people killed. Me. Did you think about that? And innocent people, who don’t need to get caught up in this. People like January. Think about it. You don’t have to do this.”

  He looked into her gray eyes, now burning silver. The crazed look had been replaced by one of resignation.

  “Yes, I do. And this isn’t what you think. I didn’t tell Samuel this, I’ve never told anyone this, but the woman who tattooed me, Madame Celeste, she said something else to me when she spoke about my Iku’anga. She said I had to create a Toenga Lespri.”

  Hayden was exasperated. He could tell Ruby wasn’t going to relent.