The Book of Magic (15 page)

Brynchilla (Waterroot)

Here is
Avalon
's realm of water, where the smallest rivulets gleam with pure
élano
bubbling up from the depths of the Great Tree, and the largest rivers flash with currents of bright color destined for the Rainbow Seas. Everywhere in this realm is the sound of water—from the thunderous White Geyser of Crystillia to the melodious rainfall of the Sea of Spray. Many a bard has sung ballads about the Wellspring of Mist, the watery Willow Lands, or the magical reflections of the Pool of Stars, yet these are but a few drops in an ocean of marvels. Waterroot's creatures range from the joyous bubblefish, who live only as long as a single heartbeat, to the wrathful water dragons such as
Hargol
—who, when angered, breathe torrents of blue-tinted ice. Phosphorescence sparkles in the churning currents and the wakes of elven ships, whose sails are made from woven fronds of elbrankelp. Even the trees of this realm speak of water: Branwenna trees are so fluid that, when their bark is cut open, their liquid wood can be poured.

El Urien (Woodroot)

The forests of El Urien, the westernmost root-realm in
Avalon,
hold trees of every description, along with glades of infinite tranquillity. So it is no surprise that the realm's name means
deepest forest
in the wood elves' language. Here a traveler can find magical harmóna trees, whose wood vibrates melodiously with every breath of wind; lilac elms, whose boughs produce many sensuous aromas; and the rare Shomorra tree, which grows a different kind of fruit on every branch. This realm's most famous tree, however, is Elna Lebram, an ancient beech tree where the elves have buried their most revered bards and scholars, including the elder historian
Tressimir
. In addition to the wood elves, who live in elaborate tree houses, the forest is home to millions of
faeries
—mist faeries, moss faeries, star-flower faeries, and more. It is also home to innumerable kinds of food, including pears, tangerines, walnuts, spicy pepperroot, cherries, plums, almonds, and larkon fruit (whose taste, the wizard
Merlin
once declared, is like "liquid sunshine"). Woodroot is the chosen realm of the famous gardener and teacher
Belamir,
who lives in the walled village of Prosperity. Somewhere in the dense woods lives another person, equally famous though far more mysterious: the
Lady of the Lake
.

Holosarr

Although it rests high above the roots and trunk of the
Great Tree,
Holosarr is
Avalon
's lowest branch, far below the
stars
. In fact, the name Holosarr is the Taliwonn people's term for
lowest realm
, since they have long been unaware of the root-realms below. (Hence the Taliwonn craftsman
Palimyst'
s astonishment when he first encountered
Tamwyn
.
)
Much of inner Holosarr, the region nearest the trunk of the Tree, is lined with long, narrow valleys divided by rocky ridges. Outer Holosarr, by contrast, is spotted with countless lakes of such clarity that they magnify the images of the stars. Because they also act like prisms, these lakes are called Starlight's Palette. In this realm live the Taliwonn people—immense, hunchbacked creatures who move with surprising grace despite the fact that each has only one leg.
Drumalings
also reside here, making any travel dangerous. High above soar colorful birds whose wingfeathers flash in the starlight, while bizarre insects fly nearer to the ground.

Lastrael (Shadowroot)

This is
Avalon
's realm of eternal night. There is no dawn; there are no
stars
. In Shadowroot, light is an extremely rare phenomenon—to be deeply cherished or greatly despised, depending on one's view. Yet even in the unrelenting darkness, as the old elf
Grikkolo
would have pointed out, there are wonders of richness and subtlety. The
museos,
whose heartrending music touches any listener, originate from this realm. So does ravenvine, which produces intense heat but no flames when burned. In the Vale of Echoes, a single footfall can sound like an army on the march; a single drop of rain, like an endless cascade. For a time, there was also a great city founded by
fire angels,
the ancestors of
Gwirion:
Dianarra, the City of Light, which hosted music and stories from many distant lands. The city flourished, adding radiant colors to the night, until a different form of darkness descended—the darkness of intolerance and fear.

Malóch (Mudroot)

The brown plains of this realm seem dreary and lifeless at first, since they contain mostly vast stretches of mud. Yet this mud, rich with sacred
élano,
holds extraordinary life-giving qualities. The elusive mudmakers who live in this region, including
Aelonnia of Isenwy,
wield magic that came from
Merlin
. They have long used this power to form new creatures from the mud—and the results range from enormous elephaunts to tiny, glowing
light flyers
. The Secret Spring of
Halaad,
full of élano, also bubbles out of these plains. But there is danger and brutality here as well, especially from the gnomes who live in underground tunnels. To the north, Mudroot erupts with greenery in the jungles of Africqua. Yet here again, surprising beauty exists alongside danger, since the haunts of marsh ghouls are not far away. Perhaps nowhere else in
Avalon
are there contrasts so dramatic as in Mudroot—so it may be fitting that this realm, so rich with new life, is also the scene of terrible slaughter in the climactic Battle of Isenwy.

Merlin's Knothole

"Window to the Stars" is what
Gwirion
called this place—Nuada Ildana in the
Ayanowyn
tongue. As he explained to
Tamwyn,
"It is an actual opening in the trunk of the
Great Tree
—where the
stars,
not
élano,
are the source of light." The Knothole lies at the highest starward point of the
Middle Realm
. Because it juts out from the trunk of the Tree, people—including
Ethaun
—can walk there, just as they do on the root-realms below or the branches above. Most remarkable of all, from this place one can easily view the branches . . . and all that lies beyond. When Tamwyn finally arrives there, he will see all these things, as well as one more thing that he did not expect to find.

Middle Realm

This is the
Ayanowyn
people's name for the inner landscape of the trunk of the
Great Tree
. Through the center of this realm run the
Spiral Cascades,
which combine upward-flowing water, downward-moving light, and outward-drifting music. Emanating from the cascades are countless tunnels carved by water, gnawed by termites, or opened by the workings of
élano
. The radiance of this life-giving sap provides light to the Middle Realm, making its tunnels and caverns glow subtly. Many sections of the tunnels are decorated with spectacular murals, created by Ayanowyn storypainters, while others reveal colorful rings that hold the very memories of the Great Tree. High at the starward end of the realm is the Secret Stairway that leads to Nuada Ildana—Window to the Stars to the fire angels, and
Merlin
's
Knothole
to the lamed explorer
Krystallus
. From that high perch, one can see the branches of the Tree and, beyond, the
stars of Avalon
.

Olanabram (Stoneroot)

Of all the root-realms, Stoneroot has the brightest starlight. No one knows why that is so, just as no one knows why Stoneroot's rocks change color with every season. The high peaks in the north include
Hallia
's Peak, the tallest mountain in the Seven Realms and the only place where a traveler is high enough to see the lower reaches of
Avalon
's trunk. In central Stoneroot's farmlands, bells are everywhere—on barn doors, weather vanes, barrels of ale, newborn lambs, and people's clothing. That is why this region is often called "the land of bells." Stoneroot's plant life ranges from the ancient, twisted spruces of the Dun Tara snowfields to the small, rounded cupwyll plants that grow all year round in rushing streams. The Great Temple of the
Society of the Whole
is in this realm, in the center of the Drumadian compound. Bards sing that the temple's stones came from the famous stone circle of the
Dance of the Giants
in
Lost Fincayra,
brought to Avalon with the help of
Dagda
himself.

Portals

Discovered by the wood elf
Serella
in the Year of Avalon 51, magical portals provide a very swift—and very dangerous—mode of travel throughout the root-realms of
Avalon
. While portals take varied forms, and are found in many different settings, they are always marked by crackling green flames. From the entrance to a portal, a traveler can glimpse what lies behind the flames: pulsing rivers of light that can carry people to any of the Seven Realms (except, in recent times, to
Shadowroot,
whose only portal was destroyed during the civil war of the dark elves). Portals also lead to the mysterious Swaying Sea, which is neither a root nor a branch, and—as the explorer
Krystallus
discovered—deep into the trunk itself,
to
the Great Hall of the Heartwood.

Portalseeking requires total concentration. For portals magically disassemble travelers, carrying them through the innermost veins of the Great Tree, and then reassemble them as they arrive at their destination. Without clarity of mind, travelers might arrive somewhere else—or, even worse, might disintegrate completely, merging utterly into the Tree's
élano
. And some portals seem to have minds of their own, choosing random destinations for voyagers. All this makes traveling through portals a delicate and dangerous art. In the words of Serella, "Portalseeking is a difficult way to travel, yet an easy way to die."

Rahnawyn (Fireroot)

Fireroot is
Avalon
's realm of flaming ridges and charred rock, erupting volcanoes and plumes of sulfurous smoke. Most of this realm is red or orange; even its water is the color of rust. Ironwood trees, with fiber so hard they are fire resistant, flourish in the valleys. On the ridges of the Volcano Lands grow fire plants, shaped like ghoulish hands that grasp at the feet of passers by. Experienced travelers prize the honey of Fireroot's burning bees, which is always warm. (They work hard, however, to avoid the bees themselves, because their stings burn like hot coals.) Despite the harshness of the terrain, peculiar forms of wildlife abound. Salamanders enjoy lounging in flame vents, while oxen roam the Burnt Hills, always wary of fire dragons. Only one flower grows in this charred realm—firebloom, a small orange blossom that thrives on ground recently scorched by flames. The flamelon people are often, though not always, as fiery and volcanic as their homeland. They are industrious and inventive as well, with particular skill at crafting weapons of warfare. Most flamelons do not worship
Dagda
and
Lorilanda,
the great spirits of wisdom and rebirth who inspire many peoples throughout Avalon. Instead, they honor the wrathful spirit
Rhita Gawr,
seeing him not as a god of war, but as a force of creation that scours the land so that firebloom may flourish.

River of Time

A vague line of light in the sky, the River of Time is visible only from
Holosarr
or the higher branch-realms of
Avalon
. Like a luminous crack, or a seam in the fabric in the sky, it runs through the realm of the
stars
. In fact, the Taliwonn people of Holosarr have named it Cryll Onnawesh, which means
the seam in the tent of the sky.

As the Taliwonn craftsman
Palimyst
explained to
Tamwyn,
the River actually divides the two halves of time—past and future. Thus within the River itself, time always remains fixed in the present. Because of this, anyone who enters the River can move along its course, which passes near every star, traveling enormous distances in space while remaining in the present time. And if Avalon indeed lies between all the other worlds, connecting each of them, then the River of Time links these worlds in a surprising fashion: One could ride to anywhere in the universe—and never leave the present moment.