When we arrived, Elwood was not there but a very tall, skinny man. His gray hair was thick and wavy. His gray beard was meticulously trimmed into a point just below his chin where it met the “v” of his white, starched collar framed by the upturned collar of his coat. He was wearing a long black coat that came midway to his legs where it met his long boots. By today’s standards, he could pass for a well-researched steampunk dresser except I knew everything about him was authentic. He seemed to have bought his clothes the same time the house was built. He looked, well, Victorian.
“I heard from Elwood you are seeking information regarding the Obsidian Crown,” he said as he walked slowly to the cupboards with the jar specimens.
I wasn’t sure if that was a question or a statement but I thought someone should say something.
“Yes, we were wondering if you might tell us something about it. That is if you know...Mr. ...” I started slowly.
“I know of it. And I know of the prophecy. But why do you want to know?” he pressed, inclining his head towards us so that we could see his face.
“Well, we are researching for school...” Taylor began.
He narrowed his eyes as he stared directly at Taylor as she faltered. “No, child, we will not start this relationship with telling each other lies. Once again, why are you looking for the Crown?”
I decided it was time to come clean. I worked my way to the front and looked him squarely.
“I believe there are bad people trying to get the crown at any price including murdering me and my friends. I now believe that my parents were abducted and are being held hostage in a cave in Xana Mundi, possibly to exchange for the crown. We had the crown, I mean, I had the crown but it was stolen this morning. Now that they have what they want, I am worried about what they will do to my parents. I am already being accused of their murder so it would be very easy for them to just kill them and pin it on me. I want to find the crown so I can get my parents back,” I said in a strong, unwavering voice.
The man inclined his head into a slight nod to acknowledge that he understood my predicament. “Sir Arcturos is my name,” he said in the same monotonous voice he used before. He proceeded to go to the bookcases in the back. I thought, it looks like no one has touched those books in a century.
It jarred me when he looked at me and said, “Because no one has touched these books in over a century, emphasis on the “has”, well except for some curious students who stumbled upon them quite recently,” as a direct answer to my unspoken thought.
“I-I didn’t say anything,” I murmured.
“You didn’t have to. In fact, the only things touched here by human hands were by you two.”
Now I was freaking out. How did he know that we were here? What’s he going to do?
“Don’t worry. I’m not stingy with my things but you need to be careful about touching things from the other realms, especially those that you don’t fully understand. At the moment, I can tell, there are very many you do not understand. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” he said with an air of superiority.
“Maybe we should go,” Taylor said, visibly scared now.
Arcturos pointed at a book in the book and it pulled away from the shelf. The book floated from the bookcase towards us.
“I know, how clichéd; an old book of magic to help you out. So let me be clear: this is not an old book of magic. This is not one book. This is a collection of books on the history of the Old Dominion, its magic, and its people. Before everything is, the Old Dominion was. I believe this will help you. Read it. Learn it.”
The book landed gently a few inches from Hailey’s toes. She bent down to pick it up. The leather-bound book was encrusted with jewels. I was thinking the cover alone would bring a nice sum. I couldn’t imagine how much more valuable the content could be. Hailey was turning the book over and over again, in obvious awe of it.
It looked extremely valuable, but why give it to Hailey?
Again, without any verbal communication from me, he answered my comments. “It is of immeasurable value. If the Obsidian Crown was made to break a king, this book is the instruction manual on how to create a good one. You must bring this back once you have finished your mission. Because it’s Hailey that must be convinced.”
Hailey looked at Taylor and me wondering. I said, “I asked, why you?” She nodded in understanding. She looked at the tall apparition, slightly bowed her head in respect, and said. “Thank you, Sir Arcturos.” Taylor did the same.
The kindly face turned to us, and said, “Thank you, farewell, and good night!”
“Good night, Sir Arcturos,” I said.
Then like smoke, he vanished.
CHAPTER 15
The Book Of Lines
We walked out of the Black Rose and into the darkened parking lot.
“What was that all about? It was your idea to go to the Black Rose?” I snapped at Hailey.
“You were acting really strange in there, girl. What’s up?” added Taylor.
Hailey got in the car and put her seat belt on, still not saying anything. “Look it’s just hard for me, all this! None of this makes any logical sense. I feel like I’m losing myself in it!” Her voice cracked and I realized she was crying.
“I’m sorry, Hailey. I didn’t realize this is putting so much pressure on you. I’ve been very selfish,” I said.
“It’s not your fault. It’s just you guys don’t know me too well. My mom doesn’t know I’m here.”
“Hailey, no one knows we are here,” Taylor said in exasperation.
Hailey shook her head and wiped away her tears. “It’s nothing like that. I know my mother would not agree with this. Its not you, Monty, it’s because we’re dealing with supernatural stuff. When I was very young, our neighbors were very, very mean to us; egging the house, putting salt in our garden, making threatening phone calls in the night.” Her voice broke off into sobs.
“You don’t owe any explanation, Hailey. We accept you as you are,” I said, comforting her.
She took a sip from her water bottle and said, “No, you should know my secrets if we are to work together.” Then she continued, “She found out it was because my father descended from the Goodson’s of the Salem witch trials. The neighbhors were scared that I am a witch.” She paused, her voice breaking. I took out a box of tissues and handed it her.
“She didn’t want the stigma on me so she moved me here, where nobody knew us and no one cared about the witch trials. My mom became an atheist and swore off all talk of religion, or anything supernatural, including Santa Claus. You can just imagine the kind of Christmas I had as a child.” She tried to stifle a sob but it was clear that the memories of those bad Christmases still haunted her. “And then, there’s my dad. He moved from one cult to another until we never heard from him again. But, here I am, Hailey Goodson on a quest to find Xanas. I’m sorry if I was mean to you both but I was really hoping that we won’t find anything there. I feel like I’m betraying my mother’s sacrifice. And it’s tearing me up inside. I can’t do this.” She buried her face in her hands as she sobbed quietly.
We sat in silence for the rest of the drive. Neither Taylor nor I had the courage to push Hailey further that night.
The next morning, the buzzing of the clock on my bedside table jolted me awake. That momentary shock was enough to trick my mind into thinking that I was back in time when my life was normal. I thought I could smell pancakes and bacon like my mom used to make. But the blinking red letters of the digital display projected against my ceiling told me otherwise. It showed today’s time, date, and T minus 5. That brought me back to my harsh reality. Five days before I get arrested for my parent’s murder and my only hope of clearing my name rested on Hailey. Hailey, my best friend who, after what we found out last night, was the least likely candidate for doing any magic.
I got up and started to brush
my teeth. I placed some toothpaste on my electric toothbrush and stuck it in my mouth. I dreaded facing that day. I dreaded facing Hailey. How do I tell her that she was wasting precious time? That her studying that book was just about as futile as me reading a book on particle physics. That is if she was even able to bring herself up to open it. Unless we can find someone who actually has magic, it’s all just academic. I was about to wipe my face after brushing when I realized I hadn’t even turned the toothbrush on.
I was on the edge of losing it before I even got to school. It was all I could do to not pick a fight with the first person who wronged me that day. I got to my locker and saw Hailey was already standing there. She had bags under her eyes; her face was puffy and pasty-white. It was obvious she didn’t get any sleep at all.
”Hi, Hailey. How did it go last night?” I asked.
“Monty, I really want to help but I think Sir Arcturos made the wrong choice. I don’t do magic. I can’t do magic. Maybe we can go back there. Maybe talk with Elwood again,” she said, almost begging.
“Hailey, don’t give up so easily. I have to believe he gave it to you for a reason,” I said, controlling my temper.
“I can’t.”
I let out a long breath, releasing the tension on my back. “He gave you the book because he thinks you are the best person to open it. You are the key. And don’t say you haven’t done magic. You have. We brought someone back to life. We’ve traveled back in time. Those are no small feats.”
“I know but I wasn’t alone then. You were all with me. The doctor is a Xana. I have no powers. I never once thought that I had any contribution there at all,” she said meekly.
I was upset. Why did Sir Arcturos give this book to her? Why couldn’t Elwood just tell us what to do? It was infuraiting how they talk in riddles when we have very little time. But there is no point in throwing a tantrum. I need to keep it together.
“Why don’t we meet at the Glee Club room, second period? I think it’s vacant today,” I said.
“Thank you, Monty. You know I will do what I can,” Hailey said.
I nodded and left for my class, still annoyed that Sir Arcturos could have made such a blatant mistake.
Hailey was already the Glee Club room when I got there.
“Show me,” I said, barely able to keep the temper from showing. She pulled the book out from her backpack and handed it to me.
I looked it over. I couldn’t really read the title because there really was no title. Again, I was amazed at how the cover was just full of jewels of multiple colors. The stones were arranged in a pattern that converged in the middle of the book where a huge red stone was being held in place by chunky silver claws. The spine of the book was bound in leather and silver. There was chain that went from the spine to a page inside the book as a page marker. But we could not get to the page because the book was locked. The pages of the book were divided into sections using small metal plates. Each plate was secured into place by a round gemstone, which served as a lock on the side of the book.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any keys,” I said.
“Neither do, I,” Hailey said, frustrated.
I examined the locks more closely. I noticed the gems could be pushed sideways to reveal the same indented circle with a sharp tack in the middle like the Kerberian Box.
“Wait, I think I know how to open it,” I said.
Hailey came in closer to watch. I took a deep breath and pierced my thumb with the lock for the first section. Nothing happened. I wrapped my thumb with a napkin while waiting but still nothing happened.
“Let me try,” Hailey said.
She pierced her thumb with the tack. I heard a click and the first section of the book opened.
“Hailey, you did it!”
We opened it where the bookmark was located.
They just looked like straight lines for pages and pages. I really couldn’t make out what the lines were supposed to be. We grabbed a magnifying glass from the props box and looked into it. They looked like very tiny Cyrillic symbols. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight function. Still, they were unintelligible squiggles. I kept turning the pages.
“Monty, wait,” Hailey said. “Look at the wall.” The writings were being projected on the wall in a larger size. I noticed that it was my flashlight causing the projection.
“But we still can’t read it!” I said, frustrated.
“Let me see the book.” Hailey pulled the book from me and pressed her wounded thumb against the page. “Ouch,” she said as she felt the sting of the papyrus on her wound.
“Hailey, the wall. It’s the book. It’s rewriting the line...into...English?” I said as the small swiggles we saw before started to move. Just like when the symbols on the Kerberian Box started to swim into clearer and sharper view, these did the same. The small wisps of smoke rearranged themselves into readable, understandable English words. I momentarily forgot all about being irritated.
“Ohh...wow,” Hailey said.
“Ha! We did it!” I said as we did a fist bump.
We flipped through the pages. It was hard to find things because there was no table of contents or index of any kind. It was just pages and pages of writing.
“Monty, why don’t you go to class and I will read on. There is no point in both of us missing classes.”
I agreed and left for my class, feeling better that we found a way to read the book.
“Miss Montserrat, Miss Montserrat!” boomed the voice of my math professor. “It would do you good to pay some attention when you are in class! For now, you are being summoned to the Professor Andrews’ office,” he said, waving a note in front of me.
“Did he say why?” I asked, worried.
“He is not in the habit of explaining himself to me. But when you get back I need you to go over isosceles triangles and its proofs, you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I said as I grabbed my things from my desk and slowly left the classroom.
“Pssssst! Pssst! Come here!” I could hear Hailey’s voice but I could not see her.
“What are you doing here? I need to go to—” I asked.
“That was me. Don’t worry about that. Let’s go!” she said as she dragged me by the hand.
“I found a lot of things in the book. I found something that had passages about a crown under “The Rise and Fall of the Magic Dynasties”, right after something called “The Old Dominion and the New Realms” after something called “Fundamental Studies on Thaumaturgy” and a few pages under the heading “The Trifama Act of the Higher and Lower Realms”. Towards the end, there was a page in metal embossed with a huge tree. It showed all big branches, a huge trunk that took up most of the page and the most roots were so finely and intricately carved into the metal but after that metal page, the rest of the sections of the book were locked. I tried to unlock the second section by pricking my thumb again but it didn’t open.” She stopped and took a deep breath.
“That’s interesting but did you find anything we can use?” I asked.
“Yes. The crown is connected to all the negative power in the world. Don’t ask me how the magic works but it can channel it a single point. It was given as punishment to the king of the Third Dynasty. The weight of the world was on his head because he decided to take upon himself to usurp all the three magical powers. An abomination to the natural order of things as agreed to by the three kings with the Tree of Knowledge,” she began again in rapid chatter.
“Huh? What? Slow down. Start from the beginning so I can keep up,” I said, while I picked up my backpack and swung it over my shoulder.
“Sorry, I’m just so excited. The book ...umm...of I don’t know what to call it, the book of lines,” she said, giddy with anticipation. “Wait, just wait.” She dragged me into an empty classroom and laid the book on the teacher’s table.
“You can
read it later but I want to tell you what I learned so far,” Hailey said. “In order to wield the power of the crown, first, you must be able to take it out of the Kerberian Box. Then, the crown must be given freely and the blood of whoever is carrying the box. This will protect the next bearer from harm if he tries to use it. If the bearer tries to use the crown without these conditions being met, then the bearer will be punished to carry the weight of the world instead of being able to use it on others. That’s why, back in the day, they had a whole ceremony called the Passing of the Crown. Apparently, it is witnessed by the whole kingdom to ensure that everything is above board.”
“That’s amazing! You got all that already?” I said. But something the back of my mind was bothering me about what she said. I just couldn’t place it.
“Yes! I did,” she answered with pride. “I wasn’t sure how I was doing it but the information seemed to just flow. I didn’t know I was going to be able to do it, you know. It’s seemed pretty difficult when we ... this morning...Hello! Are you still with me?” Hailey asked.
“Yes, it’s just that night when I was holding the box and we were debating about the power of the crown, I—Nevermind. Go on, what else?” I said as we gathered our things to walk to our classrooms.
“Maybe that’s why they tortured Dr. McFool, okay, McGrath, because she is the current bearer of the crown!” she said, regaining her previous bravado.
“Wait! What did you say?”
“I said, maybe that’s why they tortured Dr. McGrath, because she is the current bearer of the crown!” she repeated.
I raised my hand and she stopped talking. “Hailey, wh..what does that mean? Does that mean it’s over? We’ve lost? Are you saying they have the crown and the blood of the bearer? So, so now they won’t need anyone else. That my parents are...now expendable...that they could even possibly...be...? No, it can’t be!”
I couldn’t even let myself say the word. As if doing so could turn it into reality. I couldn’t hold it anymore.
The Obsidian Crown of the Lost Dominion Page 13
