Auchinmurn Isle
Present Day
‘Enough moping around,’ Renard said briskly, setting a brown leather satchel on the table. ‘We need a plan.’
As he opened the satchel’s buckles, Em could see a handful of silver medallions inside, a stack of letters tied with twine and the opening page from The Book of Beasts in its Plexiglas sleeve.
Renard took two coins from the bag and slid them across the table, one to Zach and one to Em. Em turned hers over in her hand, recognizing the white peryton on one side and the etching of the silver helix on the other. She thought about her ghostly visitor again now that she knew who he was.
Simon took over the conversation. ‘In our research, we have discovered that the black and white perytons are the Protectors of these islands. They appear whenever a descendant of the First Animare calls for help.’
‘So they’re like the island’s avatars?’ signed Zach.
‘Exactly.’ Simon picked up the coin in front of his son. ‘We’ve always known that this peryton was a symbol of the Animare.’ He tapped the tiny peryton on the medallion. ‘Until recently, we always assumed that the etching on the back, the helix, was the Guardian symbol.’
‘And now?’ asked Em, studying the silver helix on the back of her coin, rubbing her thumb over the etching.
‘Now that we know the stories of Hollow Earth are in fact true,’ Simon continued, ‘we think the helix means something quite different.’
‘What?’
‘It once stood for the monastic Order of Era Mina, representing both Animare and Guardian,’ Renard said. ‘But now we think it has something to do with time. How we perceive it, how we measure it. The shape suggests time is not linear, as we generally perceive it to be – one event after another, creating ripples of complex causes and effects, measured as seconds, then minutes, accumulating into hours and days and so on. We think this represents the fact that Hollow Earth exists outside the normal way we measure time. It is eternal.’
The quote etched on the woodcut that Arthur Summers sent them right before his death jolted into Em’s mind.
To our sons and daughters. May you never forget imagination is the real and the eternal. This is Hollow Earth.
If time was a series of overlapping circles as Renard described, it was exactly like the great gyroscope of beasts they had just seen spinning over Era Mina. Real and eternal. If it was true, Hollow Earth existed outside time.
More understanding surged through Em. The quote had never been just about the place where the beasts of the ancient stories and myths had been imprisoned. It was also about those who must protect Hollow Earth with their imaginations. The sons and daughters of the island’s first defenders, through all of time. Countless individuals down the generations. Renard and Jeannie.
Em and Matt.
‘Years ago, Em,’ said Vaughn, pulling her attention back to the conversation, ‘your dad found a coin similar to these, but with a black peryton on the reverse. I think that discovery set him and his mother Henrietta on their quest to find and open Hollow Earth.’
Simon passed two mugs of hot chocolate to Zach and Em. Em sipped the rich creamy drink, letting it soothe her. Fresh ideas shifted and settled in her head.
‘Do you know where Hollow Earth is, Grandpa?’ she asked.
‘It lies beneath and between the two islands, in a supernatural hollow at the centre of the earth.’
I knew it!
Zach arched his eyebrows at Em. You did not.
Renard slipped the page of The Book of Beasts out of the satchel. ‘In ancient times, the monks of Era Mina began this book to bind the beasts in Hollow Earth, lock them away forever. Albion is said to live there with them, guarding them. Only direct descendants of Albion can open Hollow Earth again.’
‘One to use the sacred bone quill Dad stole from the monks to draw the beasts out again,’ Em guessed. ‘And the other to keep their emotions steady and controlled as they do it. Right?’
Renard nodded.
Sandie paled. ‘Malcolm is a Guardian descendant of Albion. He only needs The Book of Beasts, the bone quill, and an Animare?’
Vaughn swore loudly and got up from the table. Em jumped from her chair.
Take it easy, Em…
‘Mum!’ Em was barely able to hear Zach’s voice through the drumming in her head. ‘Matt’s the Animare. Dad already has the bone quill. If he finds The Book of Beasts, all he has to do is inspirit Matt to do what he wants. Then he’ll have everything he needs.’