by Tom Hoffman
Morthram shrugged. “I sent spheres in here, too. I thought we should err on the side of caution.”
They hurried through the lab and opened the doors to the shaping machine room. Bartholomew gasped. Hundreds of shapers lay on the floor barely breathing. The ferillium crystal was radiating and pulsing with a brilliant living orange fire, light and shadow dancing wildly about the room. The crystal was absorbing all the shaping power and energy of the shapers, leaving them nearly lifeless.
“None of them have masks on, so why didn’t they destroy the machine?” Bartholomew held out a paw and shot a flaming red bolt of light at the infernal machine. The blazing beam of light twisted and veered over to the crystal and was sucked into it, causing the ferillium to flare and glow brilliantly. He turned to Oliver. “Destroy the crystal with the vaporizer gun!”
Oliver pressed the green button on the glass weapon, firing directly at the crystal. The ferillium crystal absorbed the gun’s energy and flared brightly.
Bartholomew felt himself weakening. The crystal was draining his life force.
He heard someone whisper his name. It was Clara. She was sitting up against a wall, using all the strength she had left to stay conscious. He ran to her and took her paw. “Clara, it’s me.”
“Bartholomew, I’m so sorry I asked you to come here. You can’t stay. It will be all right. We will find each other as we always do.” She squeezed his paw gently.
“No! I won’t let this happen. I won’t!”
He heard a voice in his head.
“Clara’s thought.”
Bartholomew looked desperately at Clara. “Hold on.” He staggered towards the ferillium crystal, his legs barely able to carry him. When he touched the crystal it felt as if a huge paw had reached inside his chest and was tearing out the very core of his being. He watched in horror as the life force streamed out of him into the crystal. It would be only moments until he fell. He wrapped one arm around the crystal and picked it up.
Morthram cried out, “What are you doing? The crystal will kill you! We have to leave. I can still save Clara.” Oliver was slumped down on the floor.
Bartholomew looked back at Clara and time stopped. They spoke silently, just as they had in their dreams.
“Don’t do it, Bartholomew, not for me. Save yourself.”
“I have no choice. I have loved you always. I can’t let you go. I can’t.”
Clara’s head slowly fell forward.
Bartholomew slid his paw inside the shaper mask containing Clara’s thought. He rippled for a moment and was gone.
Chapter 30
Bruno Rabbit
“Ah, there it is. This really is an amazing crystal. I’ve never seen one this big. The Elders will be pleased. So, all’s well that ends well, right?”
Bartholomew was barely conscious. He cracked his eyes open at the sound of the vaguely familiar voice. He tried to focus but couldn’t, and closed his eyes again.
“Give it a little time and you’ll feel better. Ha! Give it a little time? We’re on the Isle of Mandora? Nothing funnier than a time joke on Mandora.”
Who was this? Bartholomew was beginning to feel a little stronger, as though his life force was returning. This time he managed to open his eyes and focus them. He was looking at a tall rabbit wearing a long green cloak with a hood pulled over his head.
“Who are you? I know your voice from somewhere.”
“Indeed you do. I believe you know me as the Great Tree.”
“You’re the Great Tree?”
“Well, that’s the name I gave the Tree of Eyes. It suited their needs more than my real name, Bruno Rabbit.”
“What are you doing here? Why hasn’t the crystal killed me?”
“Ah, yes. I suppose you would be curious about that. All part of the Elders’ plan, of course. The ferillium crystal does not absorb energy in a timeless environment. The moment you chose to sacrifice your life was the moment you saved it. Rather funny when you think about it.”
Bartholomew stared blankly at Bruno Rabbit. “Funny?”
“Mmm...perhaps funny was not the most appropriate word. I suppose ironic would have been a better choice.”
“Is Clara...”
“She’s fine. When you took the crystal their power began to replenish itself, just as yours is doing now. I have told Clara you are fine, so no need to worry about that.”
“You said it was part of the Elders’ plan, but they’re gone, so how could–”
“They are most certainly not gone, my friend. They still live in cities they created out there in the shimmering sea. Cities your eyes cannot yet see. When you’re feeling stronger I’ll show them to you. One of the Elders needed a large ferillium crystal for a project he’s working on. He was the one who started the chain of events which would bring this crystal to the Isle of Mandora. That was almost one hundred of your years ago.”
“He waited one hundred years for the crystal?”
“Oh, good heavens no. That would be silly. Time is quite different in the cities of the Elders. For each day there, almost one hundred years passes in your world. When the Elder realized he needed a large ferillium crystal, he started the chain of events you have recently become so fascinated with. For him, the crystal arrived the next day.”
It was almost too much for Bartholomew to process. “How do you know the Elders?”
Bruno was staring out across the sea. “They came to me. With all due modesty, I am the most powerful shaper in this world, but I have kept to myself most of my life. I learned a long time ago that rabbits fear the unknown, and fear anyone who is too different. I moved to the mountains and was living a solitary life when the Elders contacted me. They asked me to come and live with them in the City of Mandora. We have a surprising number of things in common, not to mention all the wondrous knowledge they will share with me. You don’t know it, but you walked past my home once. Or more accurately, you went flying past in a wildly out of control duplonium wagon.”
“Pterosaur Valley. You were the one who shot out the blue beam and saved us from the pterosaurs!”
“Guilty as charged.”
“You shaped the pterosaurs? They were only illusions?”
Bruno hesitated, carefully phrasing his answer.
“You are the only one who can know this. Well, other than Clara. The pterosaurs are not illusions. They are real living creatures, no different from you or me. I created them.”
Bartholomew looked at Bruno in disbelief. “You created life?”
Bruno laughed. “In the same way your parents did.” He laughed again. “Now that I’ve said it out loud, I realize that’s a rather embarrassing analogy. I didn’t create life, but I did place a small amount of my own life force into another physical body. In this case I transferred some of my life force into the form of a pterosaur which I had shaped. It’s like lighting one candle with another that is already lit. No creature in our universe can create life, and yet every day billions of new lives are formed.”
Bartholomew stood up. He was feeling much better now, almost normal.
“What about the Tree of Eyes?”
“My creation also. There was a time in my life when I was filled with a terrible loneliness. Until I met the Elders I had no one to talk to about the things which were important to me, the very definition of loneliness. I wanted to create a creature which would never experience that feeling. The Tree of Eyes will never know loneliness. It has someone to talk to every moment of every day.”
“I mean no disrespect, but why did you create the Tree of Eyes to be so... oh, I don’t exactly know how to put it...”
“Irritating and infuriating?”
“Yes, something like that.”
“How about ‘universally disliked by the few rabbits who have met it’?”
“How did you know about that?”
“I’m afraid there never was a Dr. Mazlow. His journal was a little shaping project of my own to lead you to the Tree of Eyes. To answer your question,
the Tree of Eyes will live to be many thousands of years old. It is very young now, and has the irritating sense of humor of a five year old bunny and the shaping skills of a ruby ring. Twelve hundred years from now its wisdom will prevent the annihilation of your planet.”
“What about when I heard the word Clara in the night?”
“Me again. Many of the clues you found were from me, many from the Elders. The Golden Sword was their idea, along with your unusual loss of hope in the swamp. There were far greater forces at work here also, part of the Infinite Chain, but they are well beyond your current level of understanding.”
“Suppose I had just walked out of the shaping machine room? Suppose I had decided not to sacrifice myself?”
“If you know enough of the variables, the correct outcome can be predicted. The Elders are seldom wrong, but they do make mistakes. The treatment of the rabbits in the Ferillium mine was not part of their plan. It was supposed to be a well run commercial enterprise. The Elders are truly sorry for that. It never should have happened.”
Bartholomew nodded. “It wasn’t really their fault. It was the fault of creatures filled with greed and a lust for power – creatures like King Oberon, Mr. Ferillium and the brutal Grymmorian guards.”
“You’re right, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less painful. The Elders have moved beyond behavior like that. It’s why they chose to leave your world and create their own, and why I am leaving. I have outgrown the lessons to be learned in your world. I won’t be coming back, and I will have no reason to. After one day in the City of Mandora, one hundred years will have passed in your world. Everyone I know will be gone.”
“You’re leaving now?”
“I will send you back to the Fortress of Elders before I go. I imagine Clara is quite eager to see you. She is more like you than you know. I would say more, but I will let Clara tell you the rest. There is something else I need to tell you before I go.”
Bruno pulled a gold ring off his paw and held it out for Bartholomew to see. “Do you like it?” It was a Guild ring with the image of an eye on it, but there was no stone in the center of the eye.
“You lost the stone?”
Bruno seemed to be quite tickled by Bartholomew’s question. He laughed loudly. “Yes, I did, in a manner of speaking.” Bartholomew didn’t quite understand the humor but laughed politely.
“Morthram is a wonderful rabbit and a masterful shaper. The world is a far better place with him in it, but there is much he does not know. That is to be expected. There are many things even the Elders do not know. Morthram doesn’t know this ring exists. There are not ten rings, there are eleven. You are looking at the Eleventh Ring.”
Bartholomew was mesmerized. The ring radiated a power he was not familiar with. “Eleven rings. But... where did this come from?”
“It is old. Bartholomew, the universe is old beyond our comprehension. Many civilizations and species have come and gone before us. We are not the first to be here, and others will follow us long after we are gone. This ring was ancient when the Elders found it. There is only one in any world, and it is worn by the most powerful shaper in that world. It is handed down from shaper to shaper.”
Bartholomew nodded slowly. “It’s an honor to see it, and a great honor to meet you.”
“Yes, yes, now hold out your paw.”
Bartholomew looked at Bruno curiously but extended his arm. His ruby ring vanished in a blink of light. Bruno slid the Eleventh Ring onto Bartholomew’s paw. “All hail the Eleventh Ring.”
Bartholomew was speechless.
Bruno continued, “You still have much to learn, but the day will come when you will be the most powerful shaper on Earth. The Eleventh Ring is more than just a symbol of power. It gives the wearer a set of unique shaping skills. One of them allows the transference of life force into another physical form, as I did with the Tree of Eyes and the pterosaurs. You must discover on your own what the other skills are. No one will know you wear the Eleventh Ring. They will see what they expect to see. When Morthram looks at your paw he will see a ruby Guild ring.”
“All I can do is thank you.”
“You can do far more than that. You can live the best life you can.” Bruno grinned and began twiddling his thumbs and whistling, as though he were waiting for something. “Notice anything different?”
Bartholomew looked confused. “What am I supposed to – whaaahhh!” He almost fell over backwards. Standing a mile or two past the island was an immense translucent city with hundreds of buildings, some close to a mile tall. “Where did that come from??”
“Ah, you have seen it then. You may thank the Eleventh Ring for that. You are looking at the City of Mandora, the first city built by the Elders, and my new home. Now, are you ready to go back and see Clara?”
“I am.”
“Oh, one very last thing. My home in Pterosaur Valley is yours now. It’s quite large and I think you will like it, although you may have a little trouble finding it. As long as you’re wearing the Eleventh Ring the pterosaurs will be as docile as little bunnies, so no more wild rides in duplonium wagons.” Bruno grinned and flicked his paw.
Bartholomew was standing next to King Oberon’s shaping machine.
Chapter 31
King Fendaron
There were at least a hundred shapers milling around the infernal machine, but it took Bartholomew only a moment to spot Clara. She was standing on the other side of the room holding Oliver’s paw and talking to Edmund. Bartholomew grinned like a ten year old bunny and crept over towards her, taking care not to be seen. Sneaking up behind her, he motioned for Oliver and Edmund not to give him away. He was just about to say, “Boo!” when she turned around and looked at him, shaking her head. “Did you really think I wouldn’t know you were there?”
Bartholomew was unexpectedly flooded with a sea of emotions he had kept buried inside him since he was a bunny. He had no words. He put his arms around Clara and held her close to him. When Oliver finally spoke, Bartholomew had no idea how much time had passed.
“I believe you may be making Edmund slightly uncomfortable.”
“To the contrary, I am not uncomfortable in the least. I am curious, however, what it is they are doing. Is it a social convention of some kind? Would it be appropriate for me to put my arms around Clara also?”
Oliver rolled his eyes, then laughed. “Rabbitons.” He patted Edmund on the arm. “It’s called hugging. You have a lot to learn about rabbits, my tall silver friend.”
“Indeed I do. That is why I have decided to accompany you on your next adventure. As a scientist, you will be able to teach me all I need to know about your cultural conventions.”
“I could not ask for a better traveling companion, Edmund. When you are ready, our first adventure will be a journey to the utterly unique and universally disliked Tree of Eyes. You will not find a single mention of him in all your books, and you will be the first Rabbiton to set eyes on this astonishing creature.”
“I will be the first Rabbiton adventurer. Do you think I could wear some type of adventurer’s hat? I’ve always wanted to wear a hat.”
Bartholomew interrupted. “Would someone please tell me what happened after I left?”
Oliver jumped right in. “It was fantastic. Once the crystal was gone, the shapers’ powers quickly returned. Within half an hour everyone was at full power again, and sent all the sleeping guards back to cells in Malgraven Castle. We found Oberon hiding in the shaper machine control room. He was powerless without his guards, but he still threatened all of us, describing in rather graphic detail the grisly fates in store for each of us. Finally, Morthram put a sphere of silence around Oberon’s head so we wouldn’t have to listen to his raving. He’s resting quietly now in a cell on sub-level two, along with several of his advisors.”
Morthram’s voice boomed out from across the room. “Bartholomew!” He strode quickly through the crowd and threw his arms around Bartholomew. “Clara told me what happened with the crys
tal and that you were safe. How lucky we were the ferillium crystal didn’t absorb energy on the Isle of Mandora.”
“Lucky indeed.” Bartholomew made no mention of Bruno.
“And I see you’ve found Clara. It is an honor to stand before the two greatest shapers in all of Lapinor.”
Clara laughed. “It’s amazing how many shapers are here. Some of them have been frozen in time for well over twenty years. It’s going to take a while for them to become reacquainted with the world again. The Guild will no doubt be gaining many new members.”
Morthram clapped his paw to his forehead. “I almost forgot to tell you. I have received a message from Fen. The general council has removed King Oberon from power and there is a new King. Long live King Fendaron!”
“Who is King Fendaron?”
“None other than Fen himself, sole heir to the throne of Grymmore. Your vision about him was correct, Bartholomew. He will make an excellent King. He has already proclaimed shaping is both allowed and encouraged in Grymmore. He asked me to move to Malgraven Castle and be their first Guild Master. I think I’m going to do it. It will be a wonderful opportunity to teach the craft to new shapers. And being a rabbit, I am hoping my presence there will help diminish some of their fear of us. Of course, my absence will mean we’ll need a new Guild Master in Penrith. Does anyone know of a rabbit who wears a ruby ring and might be interested in such a position?” He looked pointedly at Bartholomew, but it was Clara who stepped forward.
“I would like that position. I spent most of my childhood being frightened and confused by my shaping abilities. I would like to help young shapers so they won’t have to suffer through a similar experience.”
“The job is yours. I don’t believe there is another shaper in Lapinor who is better suited for it.”
Bartholomew put his arms around Clara again. “Congratulations.”
Edmund whispered loudly to Oliver, “Why does he keep hugging her? Are you quite certain I should not be hugging someone?”
Clara laughed, breaking away from Bartholomew. “I would love a hug from you, Edmund.”
