“I've never heard of a Geshlaman migrating to Gaia. You said she's part Rose lineage? Perhaps the Geshlamans have initiated a new seeding program on Gaia. I will ask Father. It's possible. It may be a strategy devised to quicken the cycle shift.”
Jonah sighs. “So that's true, too? A cycle shift?”
Izn's green eyes blaze. “I will tell you a mystery, Jonah of Gaia.” He gazes across the plains at the amethyst mountains. “Purity descends to experience light and dark. Bound by your own creations, you are links on a long chain. To break the bonds, you must become strings of pearls.
“A blacksmith is hammering out the chain over hot coals, spitting red and yellow fire. The blacksmith's wife is a weaver, sitting on a beach at a loom, spinning silver thread.
“Ocean waves are washing over the children of the blacksmith and weaver…clams grinding pearls in the sands of time. A storm is brewing. Soon the winds of mind will sweep a wave higher than the world, over the clams. Perfected pearls will sweep free of open shells. Closed shells will be swept down to a vortex to emerge on a new beach. Perfected pearls will pile up on a shore where a tailor sits, singing, with the spool of silver thread spun by the weaver. A silversmith is working over a blue flame, perfecting a silver needle for the tailor to string the pearls.”
Izn shifts his emerald gaze on Jonah.
“The blacksmith is your will, the weaver, your mind. The waters of experience gyrate over the sands of time, creating pearls in clam shells, your bodies. When the pearl—your soul—is perfected, it is strung with other pearls in community. Pearls yet to be perfected are swept down to another blacksmith's forge on a new shore of experience. His wife will be there, weaving.”
After a long moment of silence, Jonah says, “Is this some kind of cosmic kindergarten?”
A pearl drops on his head and bounces on the grass. “Ouch.” He rubs his pate.
“Probably at least junior high.”
“Izn…pearls on strings? I'm supposed to relate that to my life on Earth?”
“Gaia is the forge of life. It's the birthplace of Humaniel, Jonah.”
“Humaniel?”
“See those life forms?” He sweeps his hand, taking in the gardens. “All are facets of one living system, as all worlds are facets of the Unisphere. We are all together becoming. Humaniel is a name for the human becoming. It will happen on Gaia. You are the focal point of creation. The tip of the arrow in flight.”
A monarch butterfly falls to the ground…and breaks. Jonah laughs, picks up a shard of orange-colored glass.
“Izn…”
Grinning, the boy shrugs. “A prank.”
Now Jonah's attention is captured by a commotion up the emerald mountain. A monster…an immense stingray with human arms and legs is paddling the air, headed for the cave.
“Oh, no….” Izn covers his face with a hand. Shielding her eyes from the sun, Sova stares at the monster a moment, then resumes spading.
Jonah can't look away.
Soldiers! A platoon of archers appears at the top of the emerald mountain…cat men dressed in shiny black bodysuits. All have silver bows and arrows, and all are taking aim at the stingray monster, flying in descent toward the camp. The archers let the arrows fly. Just before the arrows strike the monster, the stingray puffs in a shower of sparks. A naked, tawny-skinned girl about eight years old runs down the path, her yellow hair flying. On the run, she grabs fistfuls of air—sparks fly from her hands.
Breathlessly, she runs into the cave. The instant she enters the cave, the archers fade from view and the arrows break up and sizzle, raining down sparks.
Panting, the naked girl plops down on a pile of reeds. Her tawny skin glistens with sweat.
“Pyra,” Izn informs, wearily. “I think she aspires to be a warrior. Why she came to Emray to practice warrior arts…who can understand?”
“So everything here is not as copacetic as it appears.”
“I would not deceive you to believe Emray is a perfect world. Life is dynamic. Challenges exist at every level into infinity.”
By the time they enter the cave, Pyra is seated at the loom, weaving reeds into black fabric. She is now dressed in the family black, but her hair is blue. Jonah reckons if she can shift into a crow, a hummingbird, a stingray, she can easily do up her hair blue.
She casts a daring look at her brother, ignores Jonah.
“May our mothers in heaven protect you,” Izn says.
She smiles a Mona Lisa smile.
Izn removes a ladle at the side of the copper-silver pot and stirs the porridgelike contents. The aroma stirs hunger in Jonah. Izn lifts the ladle, tastes the pale-green gook, offers it to Jonah.
“Poison!” the girl says.
“Pyra…” Izn shakes his head.
“Girls are the same on Gaia,” Jonah says, and accepts the ladle. The gook tastes like coconut laced with citrus. He wants to learn everything about Emray, the food they eat—do they have sex, and women give birth, same as Earthlings? Do they join with other clans for meetings, celebrations, debates? Do they war? Do they barter food, tools, information? How do they master their magical arts? But it's time to meet with Mehuki.
As if reading him, Izn asks, “If I were to visit one family habitat on Gaia, out on a desert, removed from your cities, how much would I learn about the activities and culture of all Gaians, in one afternoon?”
“About as much as I'm learning here.”
“You will remember little. It will seem like a hazy dream, quickly evaporating.”
Under the pearl tree Izn told Jonah he couldn't find his way back to Gaia without something Mehuki would give him. Show respect for the old man, Izn warned. Mehuki was of the old school of sages, venerable men and women who prepared the ground for the magical arts the younger generations now practice.
“Father had a very different vision of his role. He thought he would perform as a sage in the high councils, but destiny placed him here to impart to voyagers. I think he realizes his value, but he is stubborn. He feels he missed his highest calling. So he rails at visitors as evidences of his failure to achieve his dream.” The boy chuckles. “None of us can escape who we are. And in the secret places in our hearts, we don't really want to escape.”
“So why do we fight it?” Jonah says, thinking that Mehuki sounds very human.
“Pride and paradox. We think we should direct our own lives. We are dynamically inclined to forge our individual wills, but the principles of community are the crux of survival. To tell you more would be to confuse you with the esoterica of Ps and Qs. You are here to gain a clear perspective of your role on Gaia.”
“Didn't know that I had anything as important as a perspective. I'm just an ordinary man, Izn.”
“That's a perspective.”
Izn picks up a lantern by a handle woven from the good necessity stalk. The lantern appears to be a glass shell with no wick or oil.
The boy blows into it; it fills with bright yellow light. Grinning, he gestures at Jonah to follow him down the tunnel into the cave.
“Be good,” Jonah says to Pyra as he enters the tunnel.
“Before we meet with Father, there is something I want to show you.”
The lantern shines brightly on the emerald walls as they walk about sixty feet into the cool, narrow interior. At the first fork in the tunnel, Izn turns left, and Jonah follows. Presently they walk out to a ledge overlooking a cavern as large as an auditorium.
The cavern is filled with misty blue light. Jonah sees blocks of crystal stones the size of beds. Ghostly people are lying on the blocks of crystal. Surrounding each are Emrayans, he assumes. They appear to be ministering to the ghosts, like priests or healers. They're chanting softly, manipulating the air above the ghosts, moving their hands over them.
“Our healing center,” Izn informs.
“A hospital inside your mountain…but are those people on stone beds?”
“Gaians in stress. Some are undergoing surgical procedures on Gaia, others are
recovering from illnesses, some are stressed, or grieving.”
“They look like ghosts.”
“Projections. It's one of the ways we interact with you.”
The boy's expression is beatific.
“Do you work as a healer, Izn?”
He shakes his head. “I don't have the heart for it, as you say on Gaia. Death is a natural transition from one plane to another, but when a Gaian dies, I feel pain and I don't process it well. We all have our strengths and weaknesses….”
They pass three more forks in the tunnel leading to mysterious depths, before they reach a great room filled with lavender light from a source Jonah cannot identify.
Mehuki is seated in the center of the room on an intricately carved wooden thronelike chair. Jonah doubts a magician made the chair; it looks the work of a master craftsman. In front of Mehuki on the dirt is a big black crystal emanating a greenish gold aura. Along the curving cave wall behind the old man are wooden shelves full of books. Do they have printing presses?
“May I?” Jonah points at the books. Izn nods. His father sits, scowling, his gnarled hands resting on his knees.
A scan of titles confirms what Jonah suspected. It would have surprised him to see books in English. And yet their alphabet seems to be English. He mouths the titles of three books, “Tek Gno Men Questo, Ant Egni Oakum, Torroqua Jem Fean…”
His gaze falls on a book with the image of a rose on the spine. He pulls it out, flips it open. His heart thumps madly. A book of symbols, like the ones Zion showed him. The symbols are not printed, they are quilled. He stares at the thick papery cover of the book, a dark blue color with a rose trailing the left side along the narrow spine.
Zynnwxatu Roq is the title…a Star of David symbol between the two words. The author's name is…
Jonah's knees buckle. Izn braces him. “Take it easy, Friend.”
Jonah taps a tremulous finger on the book cover. “Zinestar. I'm sure this is by the woman I'm in love with…calls herself Zion Rose…says she came from Geshlama….”
“Calm, Jonah. She probably quilled this before she migrated to Geshlama. Looks like Zalos literature. Father—?”
The old man does not turn his head, but nods slightly.
“She recorded some symbols like this, but said she couldn't transcribe them without her indigo veil.”
“That's it. She will translate this on Gaia.”
“But she doesn't have her indigo veil….” Jonah can't let it drop. He's too shaken. “Zinestar…so close to Zion…what does Zine mean?”
Izn seems reluctant to indulge the question but finally says, “The author lived nine lives on Zalos. The Z is an N turned sideways. The author migrated northeast of Zalos—that's the Z/N plus I migrates NE of Zalos, destination, Geshlama.”
“And then goes to Gaia, and Zine becomes Zion?”
“ZI plus O and N for orchestration and navigation. Her migration was a purposeful mission.”
“Plus Rose…”
“Her orientation. What does a rose symbolize on Gaia?”
Jonah's arms are tingling. “Love…”
Izn slides the book back into position on the shelf, and leads Jonah over to an ample tree stump, facing Mehuki and apparently the translator stone. He notices more shelves on the walls opposite the library. These contain an array of musical instruments—violin, guitar, banjo, trumpet, flute, tambourine, cymbals, drum….
Izn settles on a stump in the shadows to the right of Jonah. Mehuki waves his hand over the sparkling black stone on the dirt floor between them, and the greenish gold light intensifies. He sits tall, hands resting on knees.
“So, Jonah of Gaia. Now we talk compatibility. You come to Emray innocent. Your mind is virgin. Your soul you seek. What do want of Mehuki?”
“I want to go home, Sir.”
“New world coming. Maybe you cannot survive on new world. Maybe you are a clam closed.”
“Would I be here if that were the case?”
Mehuki's green eyes blaze; he strokes his chin.
“You are hard case.”
“How so?”
“You wish to become but do not want to open. A pearl does not come out of closed clam.”
“All I can tell you is—I really want to go home. I have a daughter there, Coral Kay. My aunt, Triss, just came to live with us…and there's a woman I love. Zion Rose. I belong with them.”
“This Rose woman is from Geshlama.”
“She wrote that book over there—”
Mehuki waves him silent.
“This Rose woman needs a man.”
“That's what I'm saying.”
“Where is hair?”
Jonah runs his hand over his head. “I don't know. I had a full head of hair when I left Gaia.”
“A man cannot keep his hair wants to be man of Rose-Geshlama woman?”
Jonah hears Izn snicker in the shadows.
“I love her,” Jonah says grittily. “I love my daughter and aunt. I'm man enough for them all.”
“The Rose selects you?”
“If you want the truth, she scares me. One night she makes love to me, the next day she doesn't remember it. She has these symbols, like in that book…denies she made them. Hid them away, but she told me she needed her indigo veil to translate them. Except she forgets that, too, along with making love to me. It hurts. But I want to help her.”
“You declared?”
Jonah thinks about that for a moment. “Uh, I declared I would help her fulfill her mission.”
“You know not what you declare to help a Rose-Indigo Veil. Your mind must expand. But you have a child's heart.”
“That's not a bad thing, is it?”
“You must be man becoming.”
“Grow up, huh?” He swipes at a tear.
“Love is quieted in service to Q.”
“Tell me about this Q business.”
“Q queries are steppingstones. You make a path of stones of what you choose. Where your path goes, you learn. Maybe you abandon a path, set stones in different way. You know not your own map until you are done. Then you are old and wise and no one listens to you. You waste your life making a map no one will follow. Each journey goes nowhere for another. But all paths intercross. Only birds see all maps, looking down.”
Mehuki's eyes are shut. He rubs his temples. After a long moment, his eyes snap open.
“Joquimah!”
Jonah flashes on the crazy visitation of the purple owl, that name, Joquimah, smoky red in the air.
“Messenger under Qs and Mothers in Heaven!”
“I don't know,” Jonah says nervously. “All this stuff started happening after Zion came, so I figured—”
“Soul needs mind for voice. Do they war? Different language, mind and soul. Mind talks, soul sees, hears, and understands, but words are raindrops to ocean understanding. Mind rains, makes wind, makes rainbow, courts soul. Marry me, Soul. We make new water!”
Jonah thinks he gets it. Men are like minds, women are like souls. The women's libbers would blast him for being so gender specific, but no libbers on Emray, he thinks ruefully. Just men discussing important matters. Yeah, right—he catches that thought. Big shots discussing important matters while a junior warrioress at the front of the cave can amass a platoon of archers, make them pursue a chimera. Women are dangerous.
Archers…he remembers a fragment of a dream, or maybe a visitation….
“Mehuki…I feel sure Zion and I can bond and do the work of the Qs and our Mothers in Heaven…but there may be a complication. I think her coming to Gaia was a kind of mishap, and there are people on Geshlama who might try to bring her back. She's—Zion is not exactly grounded on Gaia. She's vulnerable—”
Mehuki's raised hand quiets Jonah. The old man shuts his eyes again. Frowning, he rubs both temples. It may be Jonah's imagination, driven by his desire for a positive response from Mehuki, but he thinks the greenish gold aura around the black stone is pulsating stronger now.
At last Me
huki opens his eyes.
“Book on Rose-Veil woman closed to Mehuki.”
“But she needs her indigo veil to translate the symbols—”
“Veil does not cross to Gaia,” he says sternly.
“But that book up there—” Jonah points. Maybe Izn was wrong, saying she will translate the symbols on Earth. But if that's her mission…
Mehuki taps his right temple. “See what veil is on Gaia.”
What does the veil symbolize, Jonah thinks. What is hidden? What is unknowable? The essence of what we are, and therefore, the nature of what we are becoming…but what does that have to do with Zion? Jonah shakes his head, as if these thoughts are annoying insects buzzing inside his brain.
From the shadows, Izn seems to pick up his anxiety.
“Father, I beg your patience. If Jonah takes music, won't that help?”
“Music your only hope, Jonah of Gaia.” With a huge sigh, the old man heaves up and walks over to the shelves containing the musical instruments. He takes his time, finally selecting a tambourine with bells around the rim like burnished grapes. He walks it over to Jonah.
“Rhythm music helps man becoming.”
“Thank you.” Jonah reaches out, but Mehuki swings the tambourine to his left.
“Trade for boots.”
“Okay…”
Sova and Pyra are nowhere in sight when Jonah and Izn return to the pearl tree. The sun blazes gold over the ruby, carnelian, and topaz mountains on the western horizon. The light around the pearl tree is coppery.
“I have a gift for you, Jonah of Gaia.”
Izn slips a necklace over his head. The string is woven stalk from the good necessity plant and the amulet is composed of a pink crystal, a pearl, a bluebird feather, and a chunk of amber containing…
“This amber…” Jonah rubs it between his fingers and thumb. “What are these little white things inside?”
Izn smiles slyly. “Magic. A gift from the fairies. You'll see.”
The rose quartz is for Jonah's heart, the pearl for his mind, the blue feather for his soul, and the amber represents faith.
Jonah feels close to tears. He never imagined he would feel such fondness for…an alien.
“And the tambourine shall guide you.” Izn smiles, but his expression is worried. “There is no way back to Gaia except by way of Morlwurl. I'm sorry.”
Jonah Page 19
