What is the solution to _Helium Dream and the Lost Heart_ by Dan James?

[ Editor: mailed to the treasure list by Mark Parry, introduced as "the
solution to Dan James' first book".  The text is written in the first
person by the book's author. ]

HELIUM DREAM and the Lost Heart

* THE FULL SOLUTION *

The solution to the puzzle begins at the point where Carly enters the
land of reflections. On the page with all the flying fragments, Carly's
reflection specifically stated that she must not let go of her hand, or
she'll immediately return to the real world. In the picture Carly's
reflection's right hand is holding Carly's left hand. In the next but
one picture, they've already changed hands! I was amazed that of the
hundreds of people who wrote to me, only 2 people noticed!!

So what about the hands? Well in the very next picture, the Mirror
Man's cottage it is quite plain that they have actually broken hands,
which makes a mockery of the golden rule set by Carly's reflection. She
is standing by the door, while Carly is writing the letter 'A' on the
window with her finger.  This was a bold enough and illogical enough
discrepancy to be a starting point, the area between Carly and her
reflection is vitally important.

On the window there are three objects. A prism, a flower and a dice.
The prism represents the splitting of white light into it's component
spectrum colours. There are: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo
and Violet.  There are only two places in the book that these colours
are seen together in specific, very clearly defined and inherently
connected groups (except Indigo - as it's the most ambiguous of the
seven colours, I left it out). The first is the gemstones on the actual
heart itself, which also reflect light like a prism (this is the
picture where the Mirror Man is handing the golden heart to Carly). And
the second is in the flowers throughout the book. (Look at the fruit
bowl for instance: all the colours except blue and red).

On the heart there are six gemstones, or more importantly, six
Birthstones.  If you place each birthstone in its correct month of the
year, you would have a correct order of colours. i.e., the Garnet,
which is orange, belongs to the month of January - so orange is the
first colour!

Now you should have six colours, in their correct orders, and this
completes part one of the puzzle. The second stage of the puzzle
concerns the second object on the window sill - the Rose. The flowers
throughout the book stand out, and are very much to the fore in the
relevant picture. If you apply each colour from the birthstones to each
coloured flower, you can count up the flowers in their correct order.
i.e. the first colour is orange, and as there is only one orange flower
(that's the Rose), the first number must be one.  Each of the
birthstones has its corresponding flower. The names and colours of the
remaining six flowers are as follows:

January   - Garnet   - Orange - Rose              - 1 (flower head/s)
February  - Amethyst - Violet - Sweet Violet      - 2    "      "
May       - Emerald  - Green  - Lords and Ladies  - 6
July      - Ruby     - Red    - Scarlet Pimpernel - 4
September - Sapphire - Blue   - Spring Gentian    - 5
November  - Topaz    - Yellow - Primrose          - 1

There are only two difficulties with counting the flowers. Firstly, of
all flower heads, including parts, should be counted. Secondly, although
there are three green looking plants (Dandelion, Hoary Plantain, and
Lords and Ladies). Only one actually has green flowers, and only one is
in flower. This is confirmed in the fact that the Emerald (Green), is
square and not oval like the other stones on the heart.

Now, you should have the right six figure map Grid Reference, 126 451.
The only thing you need now are the two letters that always precede a
six figure National grid reference. To find these, there are no less
than three ways. If you count up all the white flowers, you'll see there
is 34, which is the atomic number for Selenium, which has the chemical
symbol SE. You'll also find 34 if you add up the numbers either side of
the hands on the clock face (11 + 12, + 5 + 6). The last way is to look
very carefully at the names of the flowers, and see which two letters
are the only two (and there are only two), that are repeated (SE).

The last object on the window sill is a dice. This along with the other
dice hidden in the grass in the picture where Carly is flying through
the air, only confirm that you are looking for six digits, or more
accurately, two sets of three digits. The first being an Easting, and
the second being a Northing on the right 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey map
(map 104).

You should now have the full six figure National Grid Reference (SE 126
451) which will lead you to the right spot, 'The Twelve Apostles' stone
circle.  You would then have seen the second connection with the
Grandfather clock face in the Mirror Man's cottage (12 numbers). The
hands on which are pointing Magnetic North, indicate a point between two
stones, where you should dig.

The first small casket (not the heart) was between these two stones,
and when the simple code inside was deciphered, you would then have been
able to locate and unearth the Lost Heart, which lay silent and still
one pace north of a rock which was split almost exactly in two, close by
top of Ilkley rags on the same moor.

The Red-Herrings

There were two intentional 'red herrings'. The first was the
swallowtail butterfly on the cover to make you think of the 'Fens' area,
which is the butterflies only UK habitat. The second was the hidden
letters throughout the book which spell out 'ET IN ARCADIA EGO'. This
relates to the paintings by Nicholas Poussin (behind the Mirror Man's
head), and only served to encourage your thoughts on Rennes-Le-Chateaux
in France, and the mystery of the hidden treasure there. There was one
uncanny problem with this one, there is a stone monument in Shugborough
Hall Staffs., which is an exact copy of the Poussin painting, except in
incredibly it's in Mirror Image!! and I didn't even know of it's
existence! Volume 25 of the current Encyclopaedia Britannica has a
picture of the 'impossible shape' (under 'Number').

[ Editor: the table above lists the six birthstone months, not "the
remaining six flowers"; the numbers in its last column give the grid
reference 126 451. ]

-- Mark Parry <MParry@mertcplc.demon.co.uk>