The Search for Truth (21 page)

“Why didn't he just destroy them?” Bethany asked.

“Probably too greedy,” Erec said. “Seems like all these old sorcerers were. Maybe he wanted to use them for something.”

“Or maybe he couldn't destroy them,” Jack added.

They read for a while longer before Bethany said, “Erec, you've got no choice about taking us with you. It's impossible otherwise. The only people who have succeeded have been in groups, the larger the better.”

Erec found that same information in several places, then he dropped his head into his hands. This was not the news he wanted. He was going to have to take along a bunch of people to help him. If he put Bethany in danger another time he'd never forgive himself. But then again, the Awen had been collected before. It was not
deadly, he hoped. At least it was possible, unlike getting the Twrch Trwyth from Olwen Cullwich or hooking the Awen to it. Maybe it wouldn't be too dangerous after all.

“The druid dumped the first Awen on an island called Avalon, near England,” Bethany read. “And the Path of Wonder starts there.”

“No problem, then,” Erec said. “We'll just have to find Avalon.”

 

Jam fitted them all with backpacks, slipping the Serving Tray into Erec's. “I do wish I could come help you, young sir.”

Erec studied him a moment. “You are coming, Jam. That is, if you're sure you're up for more danger.”

Jam's eyes lit up. At the same time, Bethany and Jack looked uneasy.

“Are you getting rid of one of us?” Bethany asked.

“No. We're all going together.”

“I thought you couldn't do that,” Jack said. “You can only have two other people on your quest.”

Erec said with confidence, “This isn't my quest yet. I'm sure of it. It's just getting things ready for my quest. I could have ten people help me with this. So far I've really done the quests alone, anyway. At least the parts that mattered, that made the Amulet of Virtues light up.” He thought a moment. “Well, except for the second quest. Aoquesth did that one with me.”

He grimaced. “It's all messed up now, anyway. King Piter's triplets were really supposed to do these quests, if only they were alive. I still don't get why I was chosen. And where those other two are who should be helping. I can't be in charge of all three kingdoms myself.”

“Well, if you get one throne, and Balor and Damon Stain take the other two,” Bethany said, “then try and get Alypium if you can.”

Jack laughed. “If Damon Stain becomes king of Aorth, I'm moving for sure.”

A silence settled over them as they thought about the Stains taking over. “Why am I doing this?” Erec asked. “Even if I do become king, the other two thrones are open for the taking. I don't see how that will help anything.”

“Well,” Bethany said, “we'll just have to find the other two rightful rulers…wherever they are.”

The idea was wonderful, having two other people to shoulder his burden. But it also sounded impossible. It was easier to think about the task at hand. “It seems like the more people helping with the Awen the better. It's a shame Oscar can't come. Think Melody would want to join us?”

Melody Avery had been Bethany's roommate during the contests in Alypium last summer. Bethany was still friends with her, and she lived in the apprentice boardinghouse in Alypium. Bethany's eyes lit up. “That would be great! I'll go find her. She'll be in Paisley Park now with her tutor.” Then her eyes narrowed. “You better not be trying to lose me. Leave without me and you're dead, buster.”

Erec held his hands up in protest, then Bethany took off. “So?” he said to Jam and Jack. “Ready to leave without her?”

They looked at him quizzically, and he smirked. “Just kidding,” he said.

 

Bethany and Melody met Erec, Jam, and Jack in a sitting room near the west wing Port-O-Door. Melody smiled shyly, her tight black curls draping around her dark brown face. “I swore her to secrecy,” Bethany said. “She won't tell Oscar or anyone else that you're here or where we're going. Her tutor gave her time off, and nobody else will know.”

“Thanks for asking me, guys,” Melody said. “I'm ready for some adventure.”

“Cool.” Erec nodded.

Jam handed Melody her own backpack and put one on himself. Then he passed out winter parkas, scarves, and gloves to everyone. Typical Jam, Erec thought. Prepared for everything. They crowded into the vestibule of the Port-O-Door and searched the Upper Earth map of Great Britain for Avalon.

“Cardiff, Oxford, Birmingham, Sheffield. I don't see an Avalon here,” Jack said.

“It's an island,” Jam said, scanning the ocean. “But I can't find it on this.”

“You won't find it on the map,” a bouncy voice piped up behind them. The Hermit was dressed in a thick down coat that went down to his sandaled feet, and his head was topped with a red stocking cap. Erec had not seen him enter the vestibule. Everybody scooted aside and let him through to the map. He touched a spot on the Isle of Man, a small island nestled among Northern Ireland, the North of England, and Scotland. Then he moved their Port-O-Door to a small secluded spot in the north of the island, past the town of Cranstal.

Cold air blasted them as they walked out onto a rocky beach. Their Port-O-Door had shrunk to fit into a boulder near the base of some cliffs that hung overhead. In the distance, icicles sparkled on the naked tree branches in a nearby glen. Beyond, on a heath, the purple moor grass, heathers, and gorse tossing in the wind had turned gray from the cold. A skylark twittered and a seagull swooped by, impervious to the cold.

The ocean before them swelled and sank against the rocks in a fierce rhythm, roaring like a tyrant as it came in. The dusky gray sky seemed immense. Erec shivered under his parka. It had been a while since he had experienced cold weather, and it actually seemed nice, at least with the stark ocean before him.

The Hermit motioned for them to follow him to the water's
edge. He closed his eyes and held a long stick in front of him with both hands. An eerie melody spilled from his lips over the roar of the waves. “
Am gáeth tar na bhfarraige. Am tuile os chinn maighe. Am dord na daíthbhe.
I am a wind across the sea. I am a flood across the plain. I am the roar of the tides.” His voice rang starkly among the pounding waves. The melody sounded foreign, something from an alien world. He paused, and waves drizzled the noise of a thousand tiny, tinkling shells.

The Hermit struck another haunting chord.
“Óig dar mhuir, mile laoch líonfas ler. Barca breaga bruigfidid.
Let these youths float across your ocean, thy thousand heroes fill your sea. Bring your magic ships to moor.”

In the distance, a hazy image appeared. It resembled a boat and a cloud at the same time. Erec thought it was the sea mist, but as it approached it looked like a ghost ship. Wispy figures manned the deck and brought the vessel onto the pebbled beach without a sound.

Erec and his friends followed the Hermit up a plank of blurred wood. Although Erec could see the water right through it, the boat felt firm beneath his feet. Everybody was quiet and somber as the boat left the shore. Cold mist shrouded their faces as they sped away. Soon they could not see the island they came from, only swirls of white and the sea below. The figures steering their vessel were as hard to make out up close as they had been from shore. Erec chose not to look at the—they just made him nervous.

Bethany wrapped her arms tightly around herself, shivering, and Jam's teeth chattered. Only the Hermit looked confident and serene.

Soon a wooded island loomed into view. It was gorgeous, with lush ferns and tangled arbors beyond the small sandy beach. They headed down the plank onto the shore. Erec turned to wave thanks, but the boat had vanished.

“Is this Avalon?” Erec asked.

“It is.” The Hermit nodded. “You will want to find the druids' cave in the center of the island. They will help you find your way.”

“You're not coming with us?” Jack asked.

“Yes, of course,” the Hermit answered with a grin, perfectly aware that his answer could be taken either way.

“Do you mean—?” Jack swung around to ask him, but the Hermit had vanished.

B
ETHANY SAID, “THAT'S
just the way he is. He'll be around when we need him.”

They trudged through thickets, shoving their way through ice-covered heather, bilberry, and gorse. After pushing through a stand of prickly pines, they found themselves in a forest of massive oak trees. Gray sky peeked through the bare branches as they walked in silence, scarves around their faces. While everyone else's feet sank into
the dead leaves and small patches of snow, Erec's Sneakers did not make a single footprint.

As the group walked toward the center of the small island, Erec began to feel irate. He could not put a finger on why, but for some reason he was annoyed with everyone. Bethany shot him a foul-tempered glance. How dare she! Erec raged inside. He went out of his way to let her come here, and this was how she repaid him? By being snooty? Even Jam wore a look of long-suffering annoyance. Erec rolled his eyes. Why did he bother with these jokers? He should have come alone, like he'd planned. Or, even better, not even bothered with this stupid quest. How come it always had to be him dealing with everything? What did he get out of it?

Soon they found a cave entrance in the side of a steep hill. After sneering at his freezing friends, Erec walked right in. Why bother knocking, he thought. After coming all this way, whoever was here had better see him, and now. The group pushed their way in after him, jostling one another and trading dirty looks.

A boy wearing a long gray robe over a floor-length brown tunic appeared with a huge oak staff in his hand. He looked like he was about sixteen. Soft brown hair tumbled around his face, but his bright blue eyes were narrow slits. “America. Alypium. Aorth.” He scanned the crowd. “Who said you could barge into my home? You think it's a tourist trap? Get your ugly mugs out of here and go back home.” He pointed out of the cave with a scowl.

Rage overtook Erec, making him forget he had been annoyed with his friends. All his frustration spilled out onto this rude boy. “This is the thanks we get? We came all the way out here to do something good, to help people. Something important. Not that you would understand anything about that, living in some cave.”

“Out!” the boy shouted. “That's it. Out of here. Now.” He started herding them out the door with his staff.

But a boy with sandy blond hair rushed into the room at the front of the cave, screaming at him. “You idiot! Is this how you treat our guests? You never do anything right. Can't you be nice for once?” He hopped on his feet, fists clenched, looking ready to spring.

This shifted the brown-haired boy's concentration away from Erec and his friends. He threw his staff to the floor. “That's it, Dagda. I'm not taking any more of your garbage. You don't know your own head from a can of rotten potatoes.” He shoved Dagda, hard, and the two fell to the floor, tumbling over each other, fighting.

As their fists flew, it took everything that Erec had not to join in kicking or pounding one or the other of the boys. He didn't even know who he was siding with, they both made him so angry. Jam was clenching his fists too, and Jack looked fierce.

Bethany ran over and kicked the blond boy in his side. “Get up!” she shrieked. “You nasty jerks, treating each other like this when we're standing here. We've come a very long way, and we don't need this.”

The two boys rose and looked down at her menacingly, clenching their fists. “Who are you to come into our home, shout at us, and kick me?” Dagda, the blond boy, said.

Erec stepped in front of Bethany. “If you have something to say to her, you better say it to me.” He wanted to fight these rude strangers, even though it occurred to him it wasn't the right thing to do.

“Gladly.” The dark-haired boy raised a fist.

But then a girl's voice shouted from the cave entrance. “Look at you, Lugh. Nasty as ever.” A beautiful girl stood, hands on hips, her gleaming long red hair blowing in the wind.

The boys looked at her bitterly. Even Erec felt angry at her, although he was not sure why. “We sent you away, Brigid,” Lugh, the dark-haired boy, said. “You're not welcome here anymore.”

“You sent Dagda away last week, and now look at him.” Brigid pointed at the blond boy.

Everyone turned to look at Dagda, who faced the crowd, seething like a cornered animal. He pointed at Erec's group. “Let's get rid of them first, then we'll talk about it.”

“No,” Brigid said. “I want to hear why they came.” She glared at Dagda, then looked at Erec as if challenging him to come up with something good.

Erec tried to collect himself before speaking. This was going terribly. He would try to explain that they were supposed to get the help of the druids to find the Awen. And then he would tell them that if they were the druids, he was terribly disappointed and would give up now rather than have to deal with them one more minute…. No, that wasn't right.

Then Erec's mother's voice echoed through the cave. “Hi, sweetie! Just checking up on you, dear. Everything okay?”

Nobody but Erec could hear her, so they all looked at him, surprised, when he shouted, “You again? Just leave me alone! I can't get two things done here without you bothering me.” He fumed. “After how miserable you made my life, changing my looks, not telling me who my father is, or anything about my birth mother, and making all my old friends forget I existed, you think you'd cut me a break. But no, you just keep right on messing me up.”

June's voice was shaky. “Sorry, then. If that's how you feel, I'll talk to you another time.”

“It is how I feel. Go away.”

Everyone snarled at Erec, but Bethany waved it off. “Ignore him,” she said. “He's an idiot.”

Jam finally provided the introductions. Each word sounded controlled and difficult. “We just need to find the Awen and take them away from you.” Even though Jam tried his best, his words came out sounding negative. Erec waited for them to start fighting with Jam.

But the three kids in the cave looked stunned. Lugh dropped to the ground and hugged his knees to his chest. Brigid approached and looked at them curiously. “You'll take them?”

Erec glared at her. Why was she looking at him like he was some specimen? “Steal them from you,” he corrected. He wanted to make her angry, for some reason.

But instead she backed up, as if afraid, and hugged herself against the cave wall.

“They can't do it,” Dagda spat. “Look at 'em. Bunch a' idiots.”

“Shut up, Dagda,” Brigid whispered harshly. “Not now.” Then she pointed down the tunnel that led deeper into the cave. “Get away, Dagda, Lugh. You'll ruin it. Go. Let me help them.”

“Shut up, Brigid,” Lugh said. “Don't tell me what to do.”

They started to fight again, but Jam snarled, “We need to take your Awen away from you. Will you
find
it within yourselves to help us?”

Lugh stood and began to wildly wave his arms in circles, what looked like a desperate pantomime. Erec was annoyed, but Lugh and Brigid fell quiet. “Backward,” he finally said. “Opposites. It's
not
okay to talk in opposites, that's
not
the way this will work. Get it?”

“Duh,” Erec said. “Then don't talk in opposites. Why would you want to anyway?” He turned to his friends to laugh at Lugh for being so stupid. But his friends only threw him back mean looks, which made him feel worse.

“
You're
being stupid, Erec.” Bethany said. “He's trying to give us a clue. If you had half a brain cell, you'd figure that out.”

Lugh smirked at Erec and continued. “You are not Erec.” He pointed at Erec. “This is not a cave.” He gestured around the cave.

Okay, Erec thought. I got it. Let's get on with this dumb game.

But Lugh seemed less annoying as he spoke. “You are
not
welcome here, and we do not want to help you. We absolutely don't want you
to take the Awen, and we won't show you where the Path of Wonder is. If you choose to get the Awen, we will make it as difficult as we can, and will certainly not reward you.”

So, they wanted to help. That calmed Erec down a bit. Everyone looked more relaxed.

“Why do you have to talk in opposites?” Erec asked. “Are you stupid or something?” He wasn't sure why he threw that last bit in, except that it seemed to be the case.

A room full of angry eyes shot at Erec. The response he got filled him with rage. How dare they judge him like that?

With obvious effort, Lugh continued, speaking again in opposites. “I do
not
talk in opposites, because it does not help communicate here. If I did speak in opposites, everybody would be very angry with me.” He took a breath, concentrating. “The Awen here is weak. It did not put a curse on us. The Awen on Avalon is not called ‘Harmony.' It did not destroy our harmony.

“We cannot trick it for a while by speaking in opposites. Otherwise the Awen makes us helpful and nice.”

His voice calmed Erec, like a warm blanket on a cold day. Why had he sounded so shrill before?

Bethany took a stab at it. “My name is not Bethany Cleary. We are not here to take your Awen. We don't want it.” She looked satisfied. Erec was glad she sounded like herself again, and he wanted to give her a hug.

“Why don't you always talk in opposites then?” Jack asked. “Not smart enough?”

It took all of Erec's control not to pounce on Jack and fight him. Why did he bring Jack along, anyway? How stupid could he be not to speak in opposites, and rile everyone up?

“Do not talk in opposites,” Jam instructed him, “or we will not ignore you.”

Lugh said, “We
can
talk in opposites all the time. It is possible.” He shook his head. “We do not save it for important things.” He motioned to the cave floor and they sat in a circle. “But you can easily get the Awen. It is simple. How will you not do it?”

Erec thought a moment. Was Lugh saying that it would be too hard for them? He reached into his backpack and pulled out the singing crystal.

Lugh, Brigid, and Dagda grinned. Erec could feel the room lighten.

“That is not a singing crystal.” Dagda pointed. “You will not be able to collect the Awen with that.”

Brigid looked concerned. “Other people have not come with singing crystals and not taken the Awen. But the Awen never came back each time. And we want the Awen to return back here, and along the Path of Wonder where they do not lie now. It is very easy to keep the Awen from coming back here again.”

So, Erec thought, it was hard to keep the Awen from returning to where they started, even if they collected them with the singing crystal. “How can we not keep the Awen away from you forever?” he asked.

“I know.” Brigid shrugged.

Erec thought he might have the answer. The reason people had taken the Awen in the past, he supposed, was to hook it to the Twrch Trwyth and become all-powerful. They all had died in the process. But he was only doing it to complete his quest. So this time might be different. If he could do what he was supposed to do and live through it, the Awen could stay locked into the Twrch Trwyth forever to hold the Substance together on earth.

But who was he kidding? How could he do it if everyone else had failed? Most of them had been powerful sorcerers, and he could barely do any magic at all. Plus, the Twrch Trwyth was long gone.

“I know, too,” he said. “It's easy. I won't try, though. I won't give it my best shot.” A new thought came to him. “But there is not a chance that I'll have luck. The Fates are against me.”

The kids brightened at this news. “We won't tell you the way, then,” Brigid said. “The Path of Wonder is short. You must collect the Awen here first, and get them as you go out there, not as you come back.”

Dagda nodded, tossing his blond hair over his shoulder. “Take them as you go, not on your way back,” he agreed. “They are very easy to hold, so you want to carry them for as long as possible. And you want to keep as many of them with you as you can at the same time.”

Brigid said, “Don't find where they are on your way out along the Path of Wonder. They are easy to find, so learn where they are at the last minute.”

Bethany concentrated, getting the negatives straight in her mind. “We will not go. Should we not go now or not wait?”

“Don't go now,” Lugh said. “You want to stay here. It will help you to be here.”

Erec agreed with that statement. Being here was terrible. He could not wait to leave.

Brigid leaned forward. Her green eyes looked serious. She pointed around the room. “Be careless. The Awen are easy to carry. Each one will not impart on you its blessing. And when you hold it, the Awen will not have a much stronger effect on you.”

The idea of holding one of these things sounded awful. “You must have no clue where your Awen is here on the island?” he asked.

“We don't,” Lugh agreed. “Don't follow me. I can't show you now.”

With that backward invitation, they set off. They trooped after Lugh about ten minutes, breaking frozen branches along their
way. Erec's crystal began to hum like a tuning fork as they neared a bubbling stream. Lugh pointed down at a large rock. “It's not under there. Don't remember where we are.”

They all looked around, taking note of the scenery. Jam pulled a paper from one of the pockets of his formal black coat and jotted a note.

“Don't lift the rock,” Brigid said, pointing. “So you can't see what the Awen looks like.”

Erec took a deep breath and tilted the rock upward. His crystal rang in a grand sounding chord. Under the stone was a many-sided ball that glistened red. Black symbols were printed on each of its many faces.

“It's not a dodecahedron,” Brigid said. “It does not have twelve sides. Not a magical number.”

Erec recalled the twelve segments on his amulet and nodded.