Chapter 20
My bedroom was down one of the corridors that was spinning faster than the center of the coach. The idea was that, during this time of emergency, we could get a full eight hours sleep in almost no time at all by sleeping in doubly compressed time like our cared-fors. The room was already lit with a couple of lights made for me by Davy’s design. I was touched, and almost embarrassed to see my bed. With a canopy covered with pictures of people singing and playing musical instruments, it was even grander than the bed Kenter had made for me in the choristers’ loft. I wondered if Kenter had somehow managed to make it in spite of his sickness. I found out later that Rosalind had done it with her brother’s help. I didn’t get much chance to enjoy it that night. I was sound asleep before I had time to think of undressing or even crawling in under the sheets.
I woke up some hours later to a tickling sensation. It was Simon walking on top of me. I scooped the cat into my arms, slid out of bed, and left my room to see if anything was going on. I stumbled into the living room, having forgotten about the movement of the corridors and its rooms. Rosalind was playing her keyboard. Master Terman and Mirry were playing their harps, Pollo was studying a scroll, and Maranissa was placing a large pot of porridge on the table. Next to the pot was a large piece of driftwood.
“Want to practice the healing chant before breakfast?” Pollo asked.
“Sure.”
“Don’t let him keep you hungry for long,” Maranissa warned me.
“I won’t.”
“Here is Master Terman’s reconstruction of the healing chant,” said Pollo as he showed me the scroll.
I looked at the music and listened to Pollo sing the chant through while Rosalind accompanied him on her keyboard. Pollo’s voice sounded so rich compared to mine that, once again, I couldn’t understand how my singing could possibly be more effective than his at creating the medicine to cure the strangling pestilence. But then, there were spells Pollo could cast by singing that I couldn’t do. Feeling self-conscious about my own vocal qualities, I sang the healing chant as best I could. To my surprise, I could sing as much of the chant as I’d learned at Master Terman’s apartment with very few mistakes. Pollo went over the first part of the chant a couple more times until I had it down pat. Then he worked me through the two-and-a-half lines that were new to me. They were pretty hard, but Rosalind helped out with some suggestions as to how to use my voice to make it do what it had to do. By the time I got the last line right, everybody else was sitting at the dining table and Maranissa was yelling at me and Pollo and Rosalind to join them.
While we ate, Charles showed me his copy of the spells he’d studied in the Archives of Gifted Lore. He also told me that the piece of driftwood was the piece of our wrecked ship that had carried me to Mirry and Maranissa.
“You see,” Masteress Goldenaro explained, “just as a separated body part of a person wants to be united to the rest of the body, and a part of a person’s soul wants to be united to the rest of the soul, so one part of a torn-up ship wants to be united to the rest of the ship.”
“Maybe that’s what a phantom limb is all about,” I suggested.
“What’s that?” asked Mirry.
“My dad told once that people who get an arm or a leg amputated, still feel that arm or leg, even though it’s no longer there.”
“Sounds like what I’m talking about right enough,” Charles agreed.
“By this principle, a part of a musical tune wants to be united with the rest of the tune,” said Pollo. “That’s why Master Terman’s spell worked in getting back the portions of the healing chant that were ripped away from the inscription.”
“By the same principle,” Maranissa added, “one ingredient in a recipe wishes to be united with the other ingredients in the same recipe.”
“When the ship broke up,” Masteress Goldenaro continued, “Masteress Oldham’s soul, which she had put into the boat, was split up as well.”
“And I take it, each part of her soul wants to find the other parts,” I said.
“You’ve got it,” said Charles.
“Since your Gifted Singing was a major ingredient of the ship,” said Pollo. “We need your singing to make the spell work to bring the parts of the ship and Masteress Oldham’s soul back together.
“But you helped make the ship with your singing,” I said to Pollo.
“I did,” Pollo replied. “For that reason, the spell will also require the singing of Charles and myself along with yours. Since we aimed the ship at Mirry and Denny, Mirry can also add his voice to our singing spell.”
“Is there a particular song or chant that we have to sing?” I asked.
“We only have to sing what we sang when we made the ship,” said Charles.
“What we are depending on is the desire of each note we sang at that time to be united to all the other notes we sang then,” Pollo explained.
“I have no idea what I sang when we made that boat,” I said.
“Search your memory and see what you can find,” said Pollo. “Your musical memory is at least as good as mine.”
I was still amazed that a boy who could sing as well as Pollo thought my singing was any good.
As soon as we finished breakfast, we went to work. With Rosalind’s help, Pollo drilled me and Charles and Mirry in the willow and water modes that we’d used before. Then he worked on recall. To my surprise, quite a lot of what I sang when we made the boat came back to me, or so it seemed. Unfortunately, this was something we couldn’t fully work out beforehand, as we had to save our singing for actually creating the spell. When we’d done all the practicing we could do, I made the rounds of all the patients and sang for them to strengthen them while they waited to be cured. I stayed with my father as long as I could and just about squeezed the blood out of his hand while I was at it.
“You will find—Masteress—Oldham,” my father gasped. “She will—help you find—the blossom.”
“I know she will, Dad,” I replied, my heart breaking in pieces. The whole idea of reassembling a person whose soul has been split for several days was pretty scary.
When I’d finished my rounds, Masteress Goldenaro, Pollo, Maranissa, Lucy, Mirry and Charles, scroll in hand, were standing at the door, waiting for me.
“Ready?” Pollo asked me.
“Yea.”
“Let me tie all of you together,” said Lucy. “This is what you guys should have done when you went out in your boat before.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Lucy cast a short spell that produced a flaming rope, much like the rope the apprentices had used on me to imprison me at the academy. She tied all of us together with the rope so that we looked like a group of mountain climbers. I was wishing that the mission ahead of us was going to be as easy as climbing a mountain. The rest of the company gathered round us to wish us well.
“Remember,” said Masteress Goldenaro, “the greater the necessity and the greater the devotion and love, the greater your chances of accomplishing your goal.”
Then she gave each of us a hug, and I got the longest hug of all.
“Brace yourselves,” Lucy told us, “and remember to keep a grip on the handles on the coach as you move up to the drivers’ seat.”
Then Lucy flung open the door and the chill of the etheric fog hit me in the face and froze my bones. There was a warm spot on one arm, however, thanks to Simon. It was a good thing that Lucy had tied us together or I’d have been a goner before the mission even started. I failed to grasp the nearest handle outside the door and I had a horribly scary moment of dangling in nothingness until Lucy and Pollo pulled me in. It was quite a relief to sit down next to Mirry in the middle of the driver’s seat. At first, it hadn’t looked big enough for all of us, but the seat seemed to expand to make room for all of us. Right in front of us, the two horses were snorting, stomping their hoofs on the cloud, and flapping their wings majestically.
“Are we anywhere in particular now?” I asked.
“No,” said Charles, “we aren’t anywhere now. That makes it easier to head for somewhere or someone.”
Charles unrolled his scroll. Maranissa brought out from under her cape an enormous pot that seemed much too big for her to carry. Then she pulled out the piece of driftwood and dropped it into the pot. Masteress Goldenaro created some more rope and lashed the pot to the coach and to us. Mirry took out his harp.
“Mirry, can you play the radical chord for the mixed mode we’ll be singing?” Pollo asked.
“Of course.”
Mirry played a series of chords.
“I’ll start us off,” said Pollo. “The rest of you come in when you can. Open yourselves to your memories of what you sang before. If the notes we sing yearn for the rest of the notes as much as I think they will, the music will fall into place if we don’t force it.”
“And remember, don’t let anything that comes along distract you,” Masteress Goldenaro warned. “Nothing is real except for what is in our minds and hearts.”
“But Masteress Oldham is real isn’t she?” I asked.
“Masteress Oldham is real in our minds and hearts,” said Masteress Goldenaro. “Through our minds and hearts, she will become real once more within herself.”
We were silent for an anxious moment, then Pollo punctured the gloom with the supporting pattern of notes he sang when we built the boat. The two flying horses took off at full gallop and pulled us through the clouds. I came in with my water-willow song as best I could remember it. The time of worrying was past. I had no brainpower to spare for anything except singing. The flying horses gathered up more speed until I felt we were going faster than the frighteningly chilly wind. Maranissa and Masteress Goldenaro worked their spell to create a greenish cloud of flame over the pot. A shadow appeared out of the mist and floated over the pot. Somehow, this piece of ship made me feel that Masteress Oldham was closer to us. I sang even harder, willing for the piece of our ship to come closer and fall into the pot. Maranissa and Masteress Goldenaro made the flame to rise a bit higher. It caught the piece of ship and pulled it into the pot. Feeling much encouraged, and starting to think our goal was all but achieved, I really cut loose with my singing.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown, you stole my son!” yelled Mirry’s mother.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown, you pestilenced all the boys in my choir!” Master Lesentrange yelled.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown, you pestilenced fourteen members of the Guild of Gifted Archivists!” cried Master Fintchel.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown, you attacked and destroyed the central mansion of the Scarlet Clan!” cried Master Scarlet.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown, you attacked the Scarlets!” yelled Howard.
“We tried to stop him, but we couldn’t!” added Charna.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown, you have pestilenced all other members of my guild except me,” Daryl accused me. “I’m sure you are trying to infect me as well.”
“I thought you believed me!” I cried to Daryl.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Brown is judged blameworthy of causing and sustaining the destructive warfare between the Amber and Scarlet Clans,” declared the Master Superior Judge from the Guild of Gifted Judges.
“I did not cause the feud!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
I threw my fists at the faces of my accusers, but they all eluded me.
“We know you didn’t,” said Mirry, giving my shoulder a hard shake.
“Nathaniel,” said Masteress Goldenaro, “Please remember that these accusations are not real.”
“But they are real,” I protested. “They’re real accusations.”
“They’re false. Forget them,” said Maranissa. “Get back to singing, or we’ll never find Masteress Oldham.”
I felt like wallowing in shame and self-pity for being taken in by the illusions when I should have known better, but I knew there wasn’t time for that. I listened to the other boys’ singing to get my bearings, then came in again with my song. Almost instantly, I felt a lot better. I could still hear loud murmurings of accusations, but I drowned them out with my voice. A large shadow curled about Maranissa’s pot like a puff of smoke, then dropped in. Another shadow followed soon after. This time, the shadow looked like it was fighting a tug of war with itself. Masteress Goldenaro and Maranissa looked at each other with some concern. Simon squirmed fretfully up and down my right side. My singing faltered, but I picked it up again, and focused hard on Masteress Oldham. Suddenly, the struggle, whatever it was, stopped and the shadow became a dark puff of smoke that floated peacefully into the pot.
“Have we got all of her?” Maranissa asked Charles.
“I’ll cast out my finding spell once more to make sure,” he replied.
We all renewed our singing as Charles cast his spell. After some time, one very small dark cloud in the shape of a sizeable bird came and fluttered down into the pot. We sang on for a good while longer, but nothing else came along.
“Time to go back inside,” Masteress Goldenaro finally announced. “If anything seems to be missing after we draw her back together, we’ll come back out.”
That was good news for me; I was pretty tired of singing, and this murky a non-place was terribly unnerving. Maranissa tucked the pot back under her cape as if it were just a cup or a small bowl. I still couldn’t get used to that sort of thing. Climbing back into the coach was as hairy as climbing out of it, but we all made it.
“How did you do?” Master Terman asked us eagerly as soon as we were all inside.
“I think we did pretty well,” said Charles.
“I think we did extremely well,” Maranissa corrected him.
“I feel deep success in my bones,” said Masteress Goldenaro, “success beyond what we imagine has been accomplished.”
“Nathaniel’s singing was so awe-striking, I’ll bet he brought back everybody who’s ever gotten lost in the etheric mist,” Mirry boasted.
“I’m not so sure we want everyone who’s been lost out there,” said Master McDermott.
“All I can say is that I’m awfully glad somebody rescued me out of that stuff when I was lost,” said Mirry as he clapped a firm hand on my shoulder.
Maranissa placed the pot in the middle of the living room and we all gathered eagerly around it.
“Nathaniel, I hope you aren’t tired of singing,” said Charles.
“I am,” I replied. “Why?”
“Because I think you’re the one who has to sing to get Masteress Oldham to rise up out of the pot. Maranissa, Lucy, Masteress Goldenaro and I will cast our spells, but we’ll need your singing to make them work.”
“I’m not too tired for that,” I said. “What should I sing this time? Should I just make something up?”
“I’ll have to teach you the Human Soul Integration Chant,” said Rosalind.
That sounded pretty overwhelming, but I didn’t say so. I was willing to do a lot more than that to save Masteress Oldham. Rosalind went straight to work on teaching me the chant. It was another doozy, but Rosalind and Pollo, between them, knew how to get me to sing it right. Maranissa was kind enough to serve us all some sandwiches to give me a bit of a break. The thing that was most stressful about learning the chant was that I was terribly impatient to finish getting Masteress Oldham back, and the suspense of whether or not we could manage it was just about killing me. The anxious faces all around me made me feel all the rushed. Fortunately, Pollo and Rosalind knew how to be patient and the way they spoke to me when they corrected me and explained how to get it right was soothing.
Finally, the moment I’d been waiting for arrived. We all gathered round the pot once more. Simon climbed out of my cape and sat in my lap. I took a deep breath. When Rosalind smiled encouragingly, I sang the opening line of the chant. Strange swirls of smoke curled up out of the pot as I sang. I thought I saw a pair of eyes, then a nose, then a pair of eyes, and then a mouth. I wasn’t sure if I was getting the result we wanted or not, but I kept on singing. Everybody waited with bated breath as I finished the chant. After that, there was nothing for me to do except listen to my rapid heart beat. Simon swished his tail back and forth, knowing that something was about to happen.
And it did. A human face emerged in the smoke, but it wasn’t Masteress Oldham’s! It looked more like a man, a man with sharp eyes and a pointed nose. Several people gasped with anxiety.
“Masteress Oldham!” Preston called out.
“Masteress Oldham!” Lucy called out.
“Masteress Oldham!” Master McDermott called out.
“Masteress Oldham emerge from the smoke!” Masteress Goldenaro commanded in a ringing voice that must have carried to every parallel world.
I looked to the others for an indication of whether or not I should call out to her, too. Preston nodded to me. The man rising up in the pot let out a silent roar that crawled up my spine.
“Masteress Oldham!” I cried.
Nothing. So I sang her name to the opening notes of the Human Soul Integration Chant.
“Masteress Oldham!”
Finally, pair of green eyes appeared, and then a beak. It was Natasha! The owl stared at me with that look of hers. Hoping it would make things better instead of worse, I went up to the owl and poised by hand to scratch her breast. Simon squirmed, but he didn’t jump out of the crook in my arm. Masteress Goldenaro nodded. I gave Natasha a good scratch. When the owl had had enough, she spread her wings and flew upward. As she did so, she pulled Masteress Oldham out of the pot. When Masteress Oldham’s arms appeared, Master McDermott and Masteress Goldenaro gently pulled her out of the pot, but along with her came the other man, wearing a jet black cape.
“I’m free! I’m free!” the strange man cried as he danced about the room and bounced off the walls in his excitement and flung his cape in all directions. “At last I am free to exact all the vengeance do to me!”