The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente [56]
“What is the Elixir of Death?” asked September, running her fingers along several strange instruments: a scalpel with a bit of mercury clinging to it, scissors with a great mass of golden hair caught in the shears, a jar full of thick liquid that shifted back and forth from yellow to red.
Citrinitas brightened, if that was possible. She clutched her three-fingered hands to her breast. “Oh, nothing could be more fascinating! The Elixir of Life, as you will certainly know, is produced via the Chymical Wedding, a most secret process. The resulting stuff makes one immortal. The Elixir of Death, more rare by far, returns the dead to life. I expect you’ve heard the tale of the boy and the wolf? No? Well, it was terrible, the boy’s brothers betrayed him and cut him all up, but his friend the wolf got himself a vial of the water of Death and fixed him right up. It’s quite a famous story. Death herself produces the Elixir, when she is moved to weep--not a frequent occurrence, I assure you! I am trying to synthesize it from less…esoteric ingredients.”
“And the casket in the Worsted Wood? Where does that fit in to all these strange studies?” said September shrewdly.
“Well,” said Rubedo uncertainly. “The Worsted Wood lies at the heart of the Autumn country. None of us go in. The geese here, they migrate each evening, and one of them said a girl was on her way who would want to enter the wood, and we felt sorry for her.”
“You are certainly welcome to, though none of us can truly recommend it,” rushed Doctor Fallow. “We confess--we made the casket. One of my undergraduate projects, I’m afraid! Quite a long time ago. you’re the first to show any interest in it since, oh, since Queen Mallow claimed her sword here, I expect.”
September started. “It’s Queen Mallow’s sword?”
“No, no, I didn’t say that, did I, girl? I said she claimed it. You can’t claim something that’s already yours, if it’s yours it’s yours, eh? The casket is really quite clever. I received first marks for it. How shall I explain? It is both empty and full, until one opens it. For when a box is shut, you cannot tell what it might contain, so you might as well say it contains everything, because, really, it could contain anything, see? But when you open it, you affect what is inside. Observing something changes it, that’s a law, nothing to be done. Oh, you’ll see in the morning! How splendid you will find it!”
“But September,” said Citrinitas sadly, “these sorts of things, well…they’re always guarded, aren’t they? It might be best to enroll with us now and worry about the casket when you’ve progressed in your studies a bit.”
“I can’t! I haven’t time, I must open the casket tomorrow, or I shan’t have time to get back before the Marquess has my head!”
“September,” whispered Saturday.
“Perhaps you’d like to decide on your class schedule now, then? I have room in my morning Hermetics lecture, and I expect Citrinitas will be happy to get you up to speed in Elemental Affinities.”
“September!” Saturday said, more loudly, but the spriggans were exclaiming and pulling at her, and she could not hear him.
“We’ve even a free space on the squash team! How fortunate!” cried Rubedo, clapping his ruddy hands.
“September!” wailed Saturday, tugging at her sleeve. Finally, she turned to him, flustered by all the yelling.
“What?” she said, shaken.
“Your hair is turning red,” Saturday said softly, embarrassed to have all the attention suddenly on him.
September looked down at her long, dark hair. One curl had indeed turned blazing scarlet, terribly bright against the rest of her. She touched it, amazed, and as her fingers brushed the red lock, it broke off and drifted off on an unseen wind, for all the world like an autumn leaf wafting away.
#
Chapter XII: Thy Mother’s Sword
In Which September Enters the Worsted Wood, Loses All Her Hair, Meets Her