The Riddles of Epsilon by Christine Morton-Shaw Read Free Book Online Page B

room—in this attic room—and made him spill his inkpot. So if he did, why can’t I?
    E: You will. In a fortnight. At the Greet. Maybe even before that.
    JESS: You’ll be at the Greet?
    E: I’ll be around. You will see me. You will see a friendly enemy. You will see a hostile friend. You must not get them mixed up.
    JESS: Oh, gawd—more riddles. Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?
    E: Hidden things need a place to hide.
    JESS: Why? I mean, why all the secrecy? Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?
    E: Don’t forget—there are others watching, waiting, listening in all the time. They want to solve all this, too. That’s why I can only tell it to you piece by piece. They might find one piece of it, or a few pieces, but they must not find the whole. So we have to keep things hidden.
    JESS: And that reminds me— who hid the bucket?
    E: Sebastian, of course. He buried it.
    JESS: Why?
    E: Because he got scared.
    JESS: What of?
    E: Of you, mostly.
    JESS: Look, Epsilon. I am asking you really nicely. Please, please tell me—what is going on? What’s so important about the bucket? Where did it come from? Why did it have your name carved on it?
    E: Because I made it. And signed it.
    JESS: You made the bucket?
    E: I made it out of special wood—bog oak. There’s a lot of it lying about here. It’s ancient—that’s the important thing. Ancient materials have always been used on this island. A message from something ancient about something ancient.
    JESS: What on earth is bog oak?
    E: Bog oak is wood that has been covered in peat. It preserves it. It lies there for centuries—whole tree trunks, whole stumps. It carves well. And if you’re going to make a special bucket, you might as well use a special wood.
    JESS: A special bucket?
    E: Part of my job is to guide you. I tried to guide Sebastian, too. So I implanted the symbols into something I knew he’d use, down at the cottage. He spent whole days down there, hot thirsty days—I knew he’d drink from the well. I hoped he would find the symbols.
    JESS: The symbols that were reflected onto my bedroom wall? About “a mirrored dream” and “a followed sound”?
    E: The very same.
    JESS: And did he find them?
    E: Not at first. At first he just played with the bucket. He sailed little paper boats in it. Kept his pet frog in it—that sort of thing. This was when he’d first met me, when he’d first found the cottage.
    JESS: And then?
    E: And then he started dreaming about you. He started getting the messages. He saw the symbols, just like you did, reflected from the bucket. He got scared. Even of me. For a time, he just hid everything to do with all this. Hid everything, in all sorts of places.
    JESS: Hang on—reflected on his bedroom wall by what? How can anything reflect from solid wood?
    E: I keep telling you. You are not dealing with something that follows the rules of this earth. It was more a matter of time. It was time for the message to be seen. So—you saw it. Both of you.
    JESS: But then he got scared? And buried the bucket? Why didn’t you just dig it up again, if you knew I needed to see it?
    E: Because there was no need. I knew that whoever carried on his search—his work—would find it anyway. Once power comes to the surface, there is no stopping it. But I gave you a bit of help. I carved the arrow into the wall.
    JESS: Don’t tell me—you also rocked the rocking chair to make me run out of the cottage and down the garden. You scared me half to death!
    E: Of course I did.
    JESS: And the symbols? The symbols on the volcano stone—the doorstep? Did you carve those, too?
    E: Yes.
    JESS: To leave a code, to help me decipher the symbols?
    E: Yes.
    JESS: So why volcanic glass?
    E: I told you—I am not from your time. I deal with ancient things. Things that have been around since time began. I like to