The Keeper

by David Baldacci

  “Better to hide than die!” she retorted.

  “Better to fight and die than live as a coward!” I screamed in her smug face.

  “Fight!” She chortled. “You wouldn’t last a sliver.”

  “I can fight!”

  “You are nothing! Even your grandfather understood that. It’s why he didn’t bother with the likes of you. He left you behind. Where you belong!”

  I pointed a finger right in her face. “I am more than you will ever be, you insufferable cow!”

  Her wand moved so fast I barely followed the motion. She said something I couldn’t quite catch and then I was catapulted across the room, slammed against the wall and fell to the floor, bleeding from innumerable slashes and cuts all over my body.

  “Vega Jane,” screamed Delph as he raced over and knelt next to me. He looked up furiously at Astrea. “What did you do to her? What!”

  Harry Two barked and growled and looked like he was about to attack her.

  Delph held my head up. “Vega, the Adder Stone, where is it? In your pockets?”

  I was in so much pain that I couldn’t tell him that the Stone was back in my room. I could see my blood pooling on the floor. I felt sick and light-headed.

  Delph screamed at Astrea. “Help her!”

  “Madame Prine,” said Seamus in a pleading voice.

  Through my half-closed eyes I could see the horror-stricken look on Astrea’s face. To her credit she seemed unable to comprehend what she had done to me.

  “Help her!” yelled Delph. “Please.”

  But then something happened inside of me that I couldn’t fathom. It came from a place apparently so deep inside me that I had never before visited it. I had no idea it was even there. The pain was gone. My head cleared. Everything I had been feeling, all the anger and loathing, seemed as nothing to what was now swelling inside of me. It was as though I was no longer myself. I was someone else.

  I easily threw Delph aside, rose on steady legs, waved my arms and screamed, “You will not beat me!”

  Waves of light came out of my hands and exploded across the room. Everything seemed to have slowed down such that I could see exactly what was happening although it was occurring at tremendous velocity.

  Astrea was lifted off the floor and thrown across the entire width of the room. She crashed into the wall and slid down battered and bruised, her wand falling from her fingers.

  The vortex of light waves emanating from my hands engulfed Delph, Harry Two and Seamus. They were blown off their feet, sailed across the room and landed hard against the wall, crumpling to the floor. Every stick of furniture in the room, including the Seer-See, was blasted into smithereens. Wood and glass swirled around the room like confetti.

  And then, as quickly as it happened, it was over.

  I stood in the middle of the room, my wounds healed, my hands now at my sides. I gazed around at the devastation I had involuntarily wrought.

  “Delph, Harry Two!” I screamed.

  I was at their side in moments. I gripped Delph’s arm and Harry Two’s front paw. “Tell me you’re okay. Tell me, please. Oh my holy Steeples, what have I done?”

  Tears poured down my face until first Delph and then Harry Two stirred.

  My canine licked my face, and Delph gripped my arm, his smile crooked, but leaving me vastly relieved. I helped them up.

  “Cor blimey!” exclaimed Delph. “Where did THAT come from?”

  Tears still sliding down my cheeks, I said, “I don’t know. I just don’t know, Delph.”

  I turned to see Astrea still lying on the floor, but conscious. She was staring up at me with emotions so complex flitting across her face I had no way of interpreting them.

  She slowly rose, as did Seamus across the room.

  Astrea took a few halting steps forward, her gaze never once leaving my face.

  I walked over to her so that we stood toe-to-toe.

  I was determined to let her speak first.

  “How did you do that?” she demanded.

  “I can fight,” I said quietly. “All I need is the chance.”

  Her face sagged and I saw her eyes blink rapidly. Her free hand went to her trembling mouth. And before I could get out another word, she had rushed from the room. We heard her clattering down the hall.

  I raced after her, but she was already out of sight.

  She wasn’t in her room. She wasn’t in any room of the cottage to which I had access.

  I finally found her outside. She was over by the dome, sitting on a large rock, her wand held loosely in her hand.

  I slowly walked up to her and sat on the ground next to her.

  She had heard me approach but didn’t look at me.

  I said, “I hope I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t intend to.”

  “You very clearly did,” she replied calmly. “But then I certainly hurt you first.”

  “It just came upon me,” I said slowly. “I still don’t understand it.”

  Our gazes fixed on each other. “Don’t you, Vega? Well, I understand it quite clearly.”

  A few slivers passed before she spoke again.

  “I do care, Vega. I care very much. I have spent the last eight hundred sessions of my life caring about others.”

  “I know,” I said quietly.

  “Do you know why I’m so small even though I take the elixir?”

  I shook my head. “I just assumed that you were always short.”

  “I was nearly as tall as Alice once.”

  “What happened?” I said in a perplexed tone.

  “Eight centuries of responsibility have literally weighed me down, Vega. And taking the elixir, while it gives one life, robs you of other things, important things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Perhaps compassion. Perhaps understanding of others’ points of view. Perhaps things that I need more than ever right now.”

  I said nothing because I sensed that she just needed to get this out.

  “And I also know that one can reasonably dispute my methods, even my goal, as you did.”

  “But I did it in the wrong way. I shouldn’t have used the words I did.”

  “You were actually quite eloquent, Vega. Perhaps more than you know. And my words to you were equally harsh.”

  She gazed up at the sky again.

  The next words I said, though, got her full and rapt attention.

  “The Maladons?”

  She turned to look at me. “Archie told you?”

  I nodded.

  “Yes, the bloody Maladons.”

  She said the word as though it were the most disgusting one ever conceived.

  “They are powerful, I take it.”

  “Yes, so much so that they destroyed us and everything we believed in. Utterly and completely.”

  “Maybe not so completely,” I replied.

  She gazed at me. And I thought I saw just a hint of a smile.

  “What can be done?” I asked.

  She considered this query for a bit. “You said you want to fight?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked back at the cottage. “What you did in there, Vega?”

  “I don’t know how I did it.”

  “Doesn’t matter. You did it; that’s what counts.”

  “Well, my grandfather is an Excalibur. And you said that power follows the line.”

  “It is actually more than that. Much more.” She turned on the rock to face me and her tone became quite deliberate. “An Excalibur is born with everything he or she will ever have in the way of power. That made your grandfather very mighty indeed. But there is a greater power even than that.”

  “What?” I said breathlessly.

  “For those who are not so powerful when young but grow into more formidable power as they become older. With such power so deeply rooted in them that they can sometimes perform large feats of magic without a wand. Without actually uttering a spell. You have no idea how remarkable that is. I think that you are one of those. And th
ey are even rarer than the Excaliburs. They are so rare, in fact, that we do not even have a name for them. Perhaps I will commence calling such a phenomenon … Vega.”

  With that, Astrea fell silent and I could think of nothing else to say. I thought we would simply sit together under a beautifully clear sky, apparently contemplating the absolute worst of futures. I was about to be gobsmacked as I never had been in my life.

  “If you want to cross the Quag and take up the fight once more, you will need to be trained up,” she said. “We will commence at next light.”

  Before I could say anything, she rose and walked back to the cottage, leaving me sitting there, alone.

  I COULD NOT SLEEP that night. I tossed and turned and squirmed and dreamed. Finally, in a cold sweat, I rose, dressed and went outside and sat on the stone slab by the door with Harry Two and stared up at the emerald dome and beyond that to the sky over the Quag. This coming light, Astrea said, we would start our training. I had no idea what that would entail and it was a bit unnerving. Well, more than a bit actually. As I sat with Harry Two, the door opened and there was Delph in his long nightshirt. He didn’t look like he had slept either. In his bare feet, he sat down next to me.

  “Like old times,” he said. “When we were up your tree.”

  Though that wasn’t very far in the past, it seemed so long ago that I could barely remember it.

  “Yeah,” I said absently, still staring at the dome.

  “You said Astrea wants us to go across this place now.”

  “She wants us to fight.”

  “These Maladon blokes?”

  “Right.”

  “But we don’t know nuthin’ ’bout ’em.”

  “I guess that will be part of the training, Delph.”

  He looked down, his brow creased with concern and his expression one of frustration. “But I ain’t magical, Vega Jane. What you did, blasting everything like that, I can’t do that. You know I can’t.”

  I took his hand. “What I know, Daniel Delphia, is that you and I are in this together. We were separated once. And we will never be separated again. I can’t do this without you. You know that, don’t you? You must.”

  “That female from the past said it was you what got to survive, right? Well, I ’spect she knew what she was saying. So, if it comes to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you do. And I mean whatever it takes!”

  I felt swells of cold dread filling me. I looked at Harry Two. He reached out a paw and placed it squarely on my shoulder. The look on his face was somehow perfectly clear to me.

  I will die for you too.

  That look seized me with terror. I glanced over at Delph and then back at Harry Two. If they died for me? No, what if they died because of me?

  WE FELL ASLEEP on the stone and were roused only when Astrea appeared at the door and called to us. We put on our clothes, ate our breakfast and assembled in the library.

  “What will the training consist of?” I asked.

  “Learning magic.”

  “But that means a wand.”

  “Indeed it does.”

  “Where did you get yours?”

  “It was given to me by my father.”

  “Where did he get it?”

  “He took a bit of himself and formed my wand by the proper incantation and passed it down to me. It is how such things are done in our world. It gives a connectivity among families that is largely unbreakable. In this way I have the full force and power of all my ancestors.”

  “He took a bit of himself?” I repeated.

  “Blimey! What bit would that be?” said Delph, voicing what I was thinking.

  Astrea said, “His blood. That is often used. You can see the hardened drops of it embedded in the base here.”

  She looked at Delph. “Have you ever done anything magical, Delph?”

  Delph gaped at her for a long moment. “I’m not magical,” he finally said, as though it should have been obvious.

  “And you base this conclusion upon what precisely?”

  “That I ain’t never done ruddy magic, that’s what.”

  “Neither had Vega Jane, until the opportunity presented itself,” she retorted.

  Delph said, “Well, I’ve never done magic, though I’ve been in situations where I wish I could’ve done. So’s that means I’m just a big lug.”

  “You’re not a big lug, Delph. I’d be dead back at Thorne’s but for you. You think of things I never could. And you’re strong and so very brave.”

  “Shall we commence?” interjected Astrea.

  At that moment the door opened and I nearly fell out of my chair.

  A young male, not much older than us, stood there. He was dressed oddly in a long nightshirt with his bare calves and feet visible. His face was unlined by care or worry and his dark hair was long and swept helter-skelter over his head. His eyes were so dazzling blue they seemed like ice chips reflected against a cloudless sky.

  I saw Delph looking at him, as puzzled as I was.

  “Archie!”

  I turned to look back at Astrea, who had called out the name. She had risen from her chair and was staring goggle-eyed at the fellow.

  Archie? I thought. But Archie was in bed, ancient and dying. Then it hit me.

  “You took the youth elixir,” I blurted out.

  Archie smiled and strode forward. He was far taller than his mother, but not so tall as I was. And of course he was much shorter than Delph.

  “Correct, I partook of the elixir of youth,” he conceded.

  His speech was oddly formal and his tone that of a much older male. Which made sense since a bit ago he had been very ancient indeed.

  He stretched like a cat and then shivered. “Feels absolutely splendid. Far better than lying in bed, gasping for air.”

  “What in the world made you do it?” This query came from Astrea, who was still staring at her son.

  In answer, Archie pointed at me. “She was my motivation.”

  “Me?” I said, bewildered.

  He nodded. “Mum sat with me last night. Don’t think she expected me to last much longer. And she told me that she was training you to take up the fight once more. I wanted to help you!”

  “Thanks, Archie,” I said, giving him an appreciative smile. Then I turned to face Astrea. “But we have a problem.”

  “Such as?”

  “I have no wand. Without one I can’t do magic.”

  Archie said, “She clearly has a practical mind, Mum.”

  It was disconcerting having Archie call her that, when she looked not that much older than he was.

  She glanced down at my pocket. “What about the Elemental?”

  “What about it?”

  “Take it out.”

  I pulled my glove out and started to put it on.

  But she stopped me. “There’s no need for that, Vega.”

  “But Alice Adronis told me —”

  “I’m sure she did, but she was also in great distress when you met, and I doubt that she was thinking clearly. So just trust me. For I have given this much thought and believe I am correct. Just take it out with your bare hand.”

  Yet despite her words, I noted that she was keeping her wand at the ready.

  I cautiously slipped my hand into my pocket. My fingers inched closer to where the shrunken Elemental lay. My breathing got heavier and my heart started to beat faster. Alice had worn the glove. She had told me …

  I felt my fingers an inch from the wood of the Elemental. I looked first at Delph. He was staring dead at my pocket. I glanced at Astrea. She was looking not at the pocket of my cloak but directly at me.

  “Believe, Vega,” she said quietly.

  “Believe in what?” I asked, bewildered.

  “In yourself.”

  I caught my breath, swallowed a huge lump in my throat and decided that taking this slow was only making it worse; it was better to just get it over with. I thrust my hand forward and my fingers closed around the Elemental.


  I had closed my eyes at the moment of collision of flesh and wood. Now I opened them because nothing had happened. I drew the stick out and looked at it clutched in my hand. It looked tiny and impotent. I glanced at Astrea.

  She was staring at the thing as if it was a frozen serpent.

  “What?” I said.

  “I haven’t seen the Elemental for over eight hundred sessions,” she said, her voice both awed and sad. “I saw Alice hurl that at so many of our enemies.” She glanced up at me. “Would you, please?”

  I instinctively understood her. I willed the Elemental to its full, golden size. I held it up as though I was about to hurl it.

  Astrea took a step back, her eyes filling with tears as she stared at the Elemental. Then when she glanced at me, she did a double take.

  “What is it?” I said, glancing down at myself.

  “Nothing,” she whispered. “ ’Tis nothing. You just reminded me of … never mind. You can shrink it now.”

  I did so and said, “Now what?”

  “Tell it to lengthen to nine inches precisely.”

  I was surprised by this but conjured the thought and watched in satisfaction as the wood grew to what seemed the proper size.

  Astrea drew closer and examined my hand in relation to the Elemental. “Good, good. Yes, that will certainly do.”

  “Do for what?”

  She stepped back. “Now that will be your wand.”

  My face screwed up. “My wand? You just said that a wand had to be passed from a family member. And that it had to have something of that person inside it.”

  “And those conditions have been met here,” she replied.

  “How?” I exclaimed. “I got this from Alice Adronis on a battlefield hundreds of sessions before I was even born. She …”

  “She what?” interjected Astrea. “She couldn’t be related to you? She couldn’t have put something in the Elemental of herself?” She paused. “Wrong on both counts.”

  “That’s impossible!” I shot back.

  “Look at it. Look at it closely.”

  I stared at the Elemental. There was nothing to see. But then, then there was something. I bent my face nearer. It was a dark red line, like a thread weaving through the wood.