Chapters 13-16

One of the best feelings is when you have a good book in your hands and you completely melt within the pages, between every word and sentence, every illustrated phrase and piece of imagery, until you are completely enwrapped by its warmth and comfort like a blanket. As I slip into Wreathenwold, I am greeted with the familiar personalities of Benjamiah and Elizabella, who are planning their swift and secret break into the Magimmaculum. This cathedral size of an establishment is where colour traders come to meet, barter and trade colour of almost anything they can extract it from in Wreathenwold. Colour is in the sky, the clouds, its on houses and buildings, its on people and in their eyes. The most valuable element in Wreathenwold is colour and individuals will sell it for currency, even if it means giving away their eye colour. Many of the disadvantaged and poverty stricken families and children of Wreathenwold trade their eye colour so that they can earn some currency for food, housing and necessities. These individuals also often find themselves working for the wealthy colour traders at the Magimmaculums, whose figures are adorned in priceless colours and the trading rooms they converse in are decorated in colours that have been extracted from neighbourhoods and people. When the colour is taken from a house, a street or part of a person, only a grey and colourless appearance remains. The value that is given to colour in this story world continues to compile for me a list of things that the people of Wreathenwold hold dearly and use differently then how they would be viewed or used in the real world. This growing list of things that Wreathenwold has different beliefs and uses for are promises, secrets and now colour. In the real world, or the world Benjamiah comes from, they do not sell or trade colour in the way Wreathenwold does. Colour is a prize, a treasure, a display of wealth, something that can be extracted and given or taken away using a special tool called the spectractor. Elizabella tells Benjamiah that they need to hide their eyes with magical classes that make their eyes look like they have already sold their colour when entering the Magimmaculum, otherwise all the hungry and greedy colour traders will be prowling to have them. I enjoy the way the story details and values different elements like colour and reconceptualizes its meaning and how it is used by the characters. I believe that colour in Wreathenwold is so valuable to those individuals who want to take advantage of others, like the colour traders, because it is their way of gaining power and control. Those individuals who want to keep the colour of their eyes, or their businesses and villages are fighting for something much more than power and currency, they are fighting for their humanity, their home and parts of what makes them who they are.

After retrieving Edwid’s second whisperwick from the wealthiest and cruelest colour trader of Wreathenwold known as the Viper, Benjamiah and Elizabella have now become the most wanted children in Wreathenwold in turn. They make it out of the Magimmaculum with Edwid’s second message delivered to them by opening the whisperwick and listening to its secret illuminating from the candlelight. The children’s bond has grown ever stronger after their dangerous journey into the nightmarish halls of the colour trader’s meeting place. A new character has also been introduced and his name is Manfred Tarr. The name is very fitting for his character, as his clothes and hair are the colour of black tar, save for the red rose attached to the collar around his neck. He helped the children escape being noticed by the Viper in her suite and has now mysteriously reappeared to them in a new part of Wreathenwold. Altough he dresses darkly and is mysterious in the way he talks and asks questions to the children without really giving anything away about himself, I believe he may be a good person and wants to help the children. He claims to be a colour trader, but I think this is only a disguising persona to hide his real self and intentions. Who he is and what he wants is still to be determined, but there is an inkling that he may be connected to the children’s whole story and the kidnapping of Edwid somehow, either in a good or bad way. Also, it doesn’t help that Ariadne trembles at the sight of him, as if she knows him personally and is giving a warning that the children should be scared of him.

The children make there way to the House of Mapmakers after listening to Manfred’s advice, with Ariadne directing their path. They are in search for the location of the third whisperwick and are hoping to find answers by reviewing the literature and maps the Mapmakers protect and preserve. Within the Company, all the Mapmakers are in disarray and all of their records scattered and disordered. They were searching for Ariadne, the magical red string that can lead anyone anywhere in and around Wreathenwold, and she happened to be tucked away inside of Elizabella’s pocket. The children could not give Ariadne away, for she was too important in finding Edwid and she could also very well help Benjamiah return home to his world. The scenes that unfolded in the House of Mapmakers was truly joyful and filled me with laughter, especially when Ariadne got loose and Benjamiah had to snatch her back and pop the string in his mouth for hiding and safekeeping, before any of the Mapmakers noticed. When the children learn about where the next whisperwick is hidden, they discover that it is the perfect place to hide the lantern and also a place no child should ever visit. Within the dark and cavernous realm of the Sunken Wood, there is tale of a monster that comes in the form of a Raven. This creature feeds on children and harbours all things that shine in its nest. Benjamiah and Elizabella, along with their poppets Nuisance, Emba and of course their leader Ariadne, set out to the Sunken Wood and travel down into the murky and decaying forest of the Raven’s encampment. All the trees, forest floor and stone that is depicted inside the Wood seem to be sinking in on itself from destruction and abandonment. The Raven occupies this cavern, a home to “fallen trees doused in lichen, monstrous bonewood trees spearing into the sky and out of sight, their trunks as wide as town houses” (Lees 249). I love the detailing of the bonewood trees in this scene, as they are vastly different from the bonewood trees back at Elizabella’s street and everywhere else in Wreathenwold. Bonewood trees are earthly and mysterious, but these ones give an achy feeling, like they are sick and sheltering an enshrouded darkness. Some of the most gripping and intense scenes follow after the children’s slow decent inside. They are being watched by the Raven, who lures them through children’s voices and screams that beckons them to it. Even though their battle against the Raven and escape from the Sunken Wood leaves them with only scrapes and bruises, I fear that this is not the last monster they will have to face, but it is truly the first that appears.

I love learning about how poppets work in the story and with the characters and the connections a dollcaster has with their poppet. These dolls that can take the form of any creature or thing the dollcaster imagines are beautiful to read about. Each poppet is unique, just like how every man, woman and child in Wreathenwold are unique. The colour of poppets cannot be physically extracted and their soul is part of the person who wields them and their essence of aether. I am growing very fond of Benjamiah and Nuisance’s interactions. Benjamiah is feeling closer to him than ever before and is starting to think that the poppet may really belong to him. I have a theory about how Nuisance came to Benjamiah in his world and their connection to each other. I learned during the children’s conversation in a horse drawn carriage as they were travelling to the Sunken Wood that Elizabella’s father has a brother who she or Edwid never met. This moment got me thinking about when Hansel first saw Benjamiah while out looking for Edwid. He was staring at him meaningfully as if he recognized him. Hansel also owns a bookshop called Follynook and Benjamiah felt at home there because he lives in his own father’s bookshop back in his world. These are parallels that create this feeling of connection between Benjamiah’s father and Hansel, two men with a passion for stories and books, love for their children and dollcasting abilities. Perhaps Nuisance is so connected to Benjamiah because he was originally his father’s poppet and maybe the doll was left behind with Hansel when Benjamiah’s father came to the otherside of Wreathenwold, Benjamiah’s world. When Edwid went missing, maybe Hansel knew a way to send Nuisance through the different realms, right into Benjamiah’s family bookshop, hoping to reconnect with his brother, only he connected with his nephew Benjamiah instead. Hansel made a promise to Benjamiah that he would help get him back home and in Wreathenwold, promises are more than just spoken words, they are a physical bond that ties people together through love and friendship. I believe Hansel will deliver his promise and if he is Benjamiah’s uncle, the more special his promise will become.