The Great Tree of Avalon by T. A. Barron

Author:T. A. Barron [Barron, T. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780399237638
Amazon: 0399237631
Publisher: Philomel
Published: 2004-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

19 • The Smell of Resins

Green flames burst over Brionna and Shim, crackling with heat and light. And Mystery.

Suddenly the two travelers were gone. Incinerated, but not burned. Swallowed, but not destroyed. For they had plunged deep inside the veins of the living, breathing Tree of Avalon.

The last thing Brionna remembered, as she entered the portal, was that loud crackle of flames. She knew, in that instant, she had disappeared not just from that particular spot in Woodroot’s forest, but in a deeper sense, from herself. As pulsing rivers of green light swept her away, she joined with the Great Tree—body, mind, and spirit. If she still existed at all now, it was merely as part of Avalon’s breath and blood.

Downward she fell—downward and inward. Deeper and deeper, farther and farther. She had entered the Great Tree as utterly, as seamlessly, as the tiniest drop of water, the slightest grain of soil, the smallest spark of light.

A smell, rich and resinous, overwhelmed her. It was the smell of the forest glade, the sprouting seed, the woodland mushroom, the moist banks of a rill. It blended fallen leaves and tiny shoots, old fur and newborn skin, warm bark and feathers floating on a breeze. This was the smell, she knew, of élano: the essential, life-giving sap of the Tree.

The pulsing rivers carried her, pulled her, and held her all the while. All this without motion, at least not physical motion. For now Brionna’s whole being had merged into Avalon, just as a breath merges into the breather. She was both at once—air and lungs; blood and veins; heart and soul.

She was inside the Tree.

She was part of the Tree.

She was the Tree.

Down, down, down she flowed, moving ever deeper, always surrounded by that resinous smell. Green lights flashed, then dimmed, then flashed again. Rays of dark red and deep brown sparkled, then vanished. Spots of yellow appeared, fluttering like a flock of butterflies, before dissolving into the ever-flowing green.

Everywhere she heard a sound: heaving, surging, coursing without end—the sound of light and soil and air uniting. The sound of life first sprouting, and growing, and finally dying, only to renew itself and sprout again. Branches reach skyward—stretch, bend, or break—but the breathing continues, the breathing goes on. Again and again, again and again. For every creature, for every time.

All at once, the resinous smell intensified. Brionna felt a sudden sense of herself return, a self she had long ago forgotten. And even more strongly, she felt a pang, an ache, deeper than just her body or mind—an ache of loss for what she had been, of sorrow for what she was leaving behind.

A green light was growing. Right in front of her it swelled and shimmered, crackling loudly. So loudly that she had to strain to hear the sound of breathing, her own and Avalon’s.

Flames! She toppled headfirst through the portal, along with Shim. For a few seconds she lay there, facedown in the black soil that had been charred by countless seasons of fire, unsure just where—and who—she was.

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