The Golden Acorn - Catherine Cooper [31]
Some of this was starting to make sense to Jack.
‘So what happened to the cauldron plates after you got hit on the head?’
‘I don’t know. The soldiers left me for dead and I would have been if Nora hadn’t found me. She saw the Sacred Grove burning and knew there was a problem. The only way she could save my life was to transform me into something else, something which could support the little strength I had left. There wasn’t time for complicated rituals. She did what she could and transformed me into a raven. I’ve been like this ever since. So you see, it’s my fault the cauldron plates were lost and without them the portal has remained closed.’
Jack didn’t know what to say. Nothing could change what had happened but he wanted Camelin to know how sorry he was.
‘You know I’ll do anything I can to help,’ Jack said in a very solemn voice.
‘I know that now. I wouldn’t have told you any of this if I didn’t think you were the only one who could help us. They were bad times when the Romans started killing the Druids. Most of them fled to Mona, you know. It’s called Anglesey now. It was a big mistake; they got massacred there.’
‘Wasn’t there anything Nora could have done?’
‘Nora and Gwillam, the High Druid, had a plan. Anyone who wanted to would be sent into Annwn for safety. They could have come back to Earth once the danger was passed. When I got to the shrine Gwillam was already dead. I took the plate from the well and ran as fast as I could towards Glasruhen but that’s when the soldiers caught me. I felt the blow on the back of my head and the rest is just a blank.’
Camelin paused for breath.
‘That’s why you’re so important. We need you to go back into the past with me, find out what happened to the plates and recover them. Only then will we be able to remake the cauldron and return to Annwn. We’ve been waiting all this time to find the right person.’
‘Arrana said Nora would die soon if she doesn’t get back to Annwn.’
‘Nora can only make the elixir she needs from the leaves of the Crochan tree which grows in Annwn. It’s why she’s lived so long. The elixir extended the Druids’ lives so they could tend the trees and live as long as the Hamadryads in the forests. She gave me some of it when she transformed me.’
‘Are you going to live forever?’
‘Only if I stay as a raven. I can transform back into a boy again in Annwn. Then I’ll be just like you, but we’re all in trouble if we can’t find the cauldron plates in time.’
‘Couldn’t the trees have told Nora what happened?’
‘The Romans set fire to the groves. Fire traumatises trees and the ones that survived didn’t remember anything except the flames.’
‘Why couldn’t you go through the window in time on your own and look for the missing cauldron plates?’
‘The window is high above Glasruhen Hill. To break through the thin veil between the present and the past we must travel towards each other at the same speed. We’ll only have a split second to fly past each other at the exact place where the window opens. It’s not something I could do on my own. For this to work we had to find a boy, born in the right place, at the right time and who is the same age as I was when it happened… and that’s you.’
Jack was feeling excited and also a bit scared. Nora was right when she’d said he would see and hear some strange things. He hadn’t realised, until now, that so much depended on him.
‘If all this works and we get through the window do you know how long we’ll be gone?’
‘A fraction of a second in real time, I think!’
‘So