Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (30 page)

Human, We have only heard the music you play in your head or sing from your throat. It is a treat for Us to hear the music played on the gold snake. The snakes say it makes them feel ticklish to see a snake fingered like that, even if it is only a gold one.

"Actually," I say to Ourself, "the flute is actually a golden reed, rather than a golden snake. A bit of a true reed is still used, on the mouthpiece. It vibrates, creating the sound."

Our stalky grasses giggle with embarrassed pleasure. They are used to hearing the praises sung of snakes, and mirnie, and trees---of everyone but themselves. Their discovery that their worthiness has been so beautifully appreciated by humans is a joy none of Us will forget.

We feel Ourself blending consciousness with Our Great Self, Ipernia. Saemunsil reminds Us that She has told Us about flutes several times and is glad that now that We see one We feel closer to the human shades. Munzfarheekam thanks Us for the two new monsters, the assitaur and the demon. Kiappia, Our Twin Sister, wishes to let humans return to the Stone School soon if Ourself, Zollocco, will consent. Yes, Our Beloved Zollocco does consent.

The Forests---the Selves, the Spirits, the Shades, the Souls, the Atman, the All feel the entities of the two humans placed amidst Zollocco; and listen to the flute's notes melodiously shape and define the sound waves of the night's air. That human who came to join the Solar Systems Imenkapur lifts her voice in song, joining the flute in transforming the patterns of vibrations of the world. Priest and priestess, old one and young one, man of this universe and woman of elsewhere, join Ipernia, Imenkapur,and the Many Dimensions in the One through the presence of music. The Spheres turn.

At last the priest grew too sleepy to play any more, and I yawned more verses than I sang. When I said good-night to the priest and nipped into the dark of the woods, the priest's eyebrows rose in astonishment. Not even Holy Ones stay alone in the Forests of Ipernia. This is a predilection of my own.

The next morning I awoke in my robe-hammock hung high in the limbs of the massive oak to something prodding me. I looked down. It was the priest poking me with a stick and telling me to get up---the Realm of Circle would be forming soon and we must hurry there. When he was sure I was awake, he trotted off to the module. I went to the pond, washed my robe and hung it to dry, bathed, ate some kelp, dressed and donned my already dry robe. Then I went to meet the priest at the module.

"Shall we be going?" he said.
"Yes, let's."

The priest set the dials of the transporter. I put my hand on the wand, as was necessary to be transported, and the priest flicked the last switch.

We stood in the center of the Ninety-Nine. Men and women of all ages, they wore the robe of the Blue Dawn and the purple belt that I had only ever seen on the priest, my friend, and on the old man who had told me about the Realm of Circle when I was in Oasis. Each of the Ninety-Nine had their hoods pulled up so far I could not see their faces. The voices of the Ninety-Nine alone indicated their gender and age. Each of them sat behind an ornately carved wooden desk. These desks were adjoined, and formed three concentric circles around us. The priest and I were, in effect, in the middle of an amphitheater. The floor of the room was raked so that we looked up at the seated Holy Folk ringing us. A figure stood who held a long thin staff. The Holy One tapped this staff three times on the floor making the room reverberate with the sound.

"Does the One in question stand before us?" demanded the single standing figure.
"She does," answered the entire body in unison.
"I understand she would not Speak for Grace. Who shall Speak for her?" continued the commanding figure.
A Holy One stood as with the difficulty of years. "I shall," he said, and I recognized his voice as the old priest who was bereaved of his grand-son. He was the one who had told me about the Realm of Circle and the time of Ninety-Nine. "During my search for members of the Blue Dawn, I met many of that sect willing and eager to Speak for Grace. This priestess was the only One willing to wear a silent robe of compassion. She kept to her compassionate vow, even at risk to herself." The old priest remained standing.
The figure with the staff spoke again, "Who else shall Speak for her?"
Another figure stood, a gauntlet of the Wild Rain covered one hand, "A fellow to me by my membership in the Wild Rain did bring to me a zitam. He said to me, `Here is a Zitam that we must find a home for. A priestess of the Blue Dawn did free this zitam and all of the zitam caged aboard the Know-All. This priestess did also free Holy Folk who were held captive on that same Toelakhan Museum. Canst thou complete that good priestess's work by helping this zitam to a new home?’ I was glad to do so; so I am glad to speak."
"Who else shall Speak for this One?" demanded the figure with the staff.
Yet another Holy one stood. A series of pins set in a circle on her shoulder glittered. "A sister of my Sorceries of the desert world Aridia sent a message to me upon her death through the secret magic of our art. She told me that not only did this One brave the sorceress's spider, not only did this One reunite a ruptured family and work to heal the ailing labor of a Sister of my Sorceries, but she spoke with birds and the birds were content to do her will!"
"Who else shall Speak for this One? None else? Sir and Member of the Blue Dawn, Holy One found in the Member of the Blue Dawn, did this priestess enter the Sacred Grove of the Forest Zollocco?"
The priest at my side called out in a strong voice, "She did, indeed. As we, those found within the Realm of Circle have faced ourselves within the sacred groves of other Forests, so did she face the magic of a sacred grove."
The figure with the staff urged, "Now tell us of what thou didst perceive of the trial of this priestess."
The priest beside me said, "This priestess did enter the orchard, which is the Forest Zollocco's sacred grove, without mishap or trial. She did follow the path that leads nowhere, and then she did step unfaltering into the wild heart of the orchard. A most beauteous silver pear appeared on a branch of the most stunted and deformed of all the orchard's trees. This priestess did reach and take that brilliant fruit and ate of it. Immediately she was engulfed within a large dark sphere, so dark was its interior that it out-did the vacuum of space in its blackness. Within this sphere, this priestess shone, like this moon on which we stand does shine upon the face of Ipernia. This sphere, as dark as the very depths of night, lifted gently to the level of orchard's tree tops, the priestess erstwhile within. She looked up, and then did stretch up her hands, and was showered by flecks of golden light that appeared above her in the dark sphere. At last when the shower of golden light ceased, she lowered her arms and shone with the gold light she had absorbed. All the light she had received she radiated out again into the dark of the sphere. As the sphere brightened with golden radiance, it lowered to the ground and faded away. The priestess stepped forth and returned to the path."
The figure with the staff said, "We have heard thy tale, and yet too few do Speak for this priestess. Not enough has been heard for us to re-forge the Realm of Circle with this One."
The priest at my side spoke again, "But hear my words, for I do speak for this priestess, not just as witness to her ordeal, but as an observer of her affinity with the Forest Zollocco. This priestess, alone of all Holy ones, was allowed by Zollocco to hunt Forest creatures for food and to sleep by herself at night in the depths of Zollocco. Well do we all know such things are unheard of, until now."
The authoritative figure with the staff replied, "We must ask the Forest World Ipernia if this priestess is the One who brings this inharmonious time of Ninety-Nine to a close and completes the Realm of Circle." Then she rapped with her staff twice more, the sound again reverberating thunderously.
On hearing the rap of the staff, the three standing Holy Folk seated themselves, and the priest at my side hurried up one of the three narrow aisles between the desks and seated himself at one of the empty desks. The figure with the staff seated herself at her desk. From where I stood, in the center of the three concentric rings of beautifully carved wooden desks, I could see a single grain of wood glowing on the desk of the old priest I had met in Oasis. On the desks on either side of his, a single grain of wood was also growing into a thin, glowing, white line. A line spread from desk top to disk top. A, thin, luminescent circle was being drawn along the desk tops of the inner circle. The glowing circle on the inner circle became complete. On the outer circle of desks, too, a full circle was made by a glowing grain of wood which threaded from desk top to desk top. The same phenomenon started to happen to the middle ring of desks. The excitement in the room was climbing. A quarter circle, a semi-circle, a three-quarter circle, a circle---and yet a circle not quite complete glowed on the middle row's wooden desk tops.
One chair in the middle ring of desks was empty. The desk at which an empty chair was placed held no portion of the glowing thread. I walked up the aisle and sat down in that chair at that desk---and upon my doing so a single grain of wood glowed. The three circles were complete. I was within the Realm of Circle. The time of Ninety-Nine was at end. The balance of Imenkapur was restored.

Mezzo

May 22, 2037
Dear Katie,

Mike and I were so excited to hear that we are to become an uncle and aunt! I am writing to try to persuade you to please come and live here! I don't know why Mom and Dad preferred to move to the city after their lovely house in the mountains had to be sacrificed. We just love living here in Grandma's house. We bought the house next door (that fat lady Mom told us such stories about moved away a year ago) and we have built a gorgeous solarium connecting the two houses. We have enough plants in the solarium to provide both houses with enough oxygen so that we don't have to wear oxygen masks inside. Can you imagine that? It is pure heaven. Wouldn't you rather raise a baby in a house where you don't have to worry about it suffocating? The thought of my little niece---I'm sure it's going to be a girl--sleeping under an oxygen tent just makes me shudder.

We are taking good care of this little woods here. That big Church that had razed part of the woods when Mom was a kid has been sacrificed and is now supplanted by an orchard. The dead end street that was two houses down from Grandma's house (I still think of this as Grandma's house) has been sacrificed with its four houses so that is all new tree growth, too. And---this is hard to believe---we can go outside without oxygen masks here, as long as it is for a short period of time and we don't do any real exertion. Mike says the chemical oxygen production is going steadily along. The pond that entire street was sacrificed for has been enlarged, and the fish we stocked it with are surviving and reproducing. You won't feel so depressed and frightened about the survival of the world if you lived here surrounded by beautiful trees and ponds. The town's well water is clean again, and the oil and salt have been flushed out.

Oh, I didn't tell you where we got the plants for our solarium. Well, you probably saw on the news when the sea finally reclaimed parts of Boston. (The Customs Tower and Faneuil Hall are waterfront buildings again.) Most of the buildings of the financial district are gone. The national guard had evacuated that part of town, people had been leaving it in a panic for the two months prior to the evacuation, and the national guard kept it sealed off since nobody knew for sure when the sea would come surging in on it. Well, I got to thinking of the story Mom told us about how she used to temp in those office buildings before she met Dad, and that on one of her jobs, the vice-president went through the office and made a big show of throwing all the potted plants away in contempt, and now what those plants would be worth! Anyway, I got to thinking that if one office had lots of plants surely other offices would be decorated with plants. So, I suggested to my boss that we go through those empty buildings and rescue the plants.

Well, my boss got on the phone to the State Police, and the next thing you know, we were allotted two trucks and a little bus for the dozen of us or so who were willing to go into that dangerous place and retrieve the plants. Well, we found so many plants, albeit in pretty sick shape, that we not only filled up both trucks, but we tied them to the roofs of the trucks and the bus, and we each held plants on our laps as we rode home. We used drapes from the building as tarps to protect the plants from the radiation. It was so much fun, you wouldn't believe it. We divided up the plants among the group of us. Mike and I have been awarded a document of safety so our house, that is the two adjoined, will never have to be sacrificed. We argued that Mom and Dad volunteered the sacrifice of their house, and that your house was also sacrificed, and that we needed to provide our family with some sense of security, so we got it.

Are you convinced now? Oh, do come!
Love, Your Sister

P.S.: Here is that weird document I found boxed in a strange metallic, ionized container when I was cleaning out that room with the green eagle-print wallpaper. I'm pretty sure that canister wasn't there when I first looked over the house when Grandma died. Remember Mom telling us how bizarre it was when her older sister supposedly spontaneously combusted? Her sister had gone to bed one night and hadn't come down the next morning. A neighbor had called the family and said there was a fire in the upstairs, a fire of blue flame. When grandma and the rest of the family rushed upstairs, there was no fire, and our aunt, mom's sister, was gone. Remember mom said, "It was as though she had vanished from the face of the Earth..."