The Keeper

by David Baldacci

  The mixing and grinding and cutting and stirring were exhausting. When I poured in the jabbit venom, a huge ball of smoke shot up from the pot I was using to hold the potion. Luckily, I got out of the way in time. When the smoke hit the ceiling, a hole opened up there, which I quickly repaired with my wand.

  Now the mixture had to stew for a bit. Then I would add the blood of the garm, a handful of something called tendrils of tawny, which looked like frozen worms, and a small jar of liquid labeled PETRIROOT PUSCLES.

  I would rather die than drink this mess. Eternal youth couldn’t be worth it.

  Twenty slivers after that would come the Breath of a Dominici. If Delph managed to find it somehow.

  I turned and looked at Archie, who was staring across the room at me.

  I pulled up a chair and sat across from him.

  “If I let you speak, will you promise not to scream foul things at me?” He looked surly but slowly nodded. I did the reverse spell but kept my wand ready.

  “I know you set the jabbit and garm on me. And then you were going to kill me. Why?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “Not to me, it’s not.”

  “Well, then you’re clearly not very bright. You’ll probably perish in the First Circle.”

  “Maybe I will. But at least I’m going to try.”

  “Exactly,” he roared. “For eight hundred bloody sessions, my dear mum has been saying that no one can cross this place. No one! We sacrificed our lives for that. When I learned what you were going to do and that the old bat was going to help you do it, I thought she must be mad. I took the elixir and then threw the rest away.”

  “But why couldn’t she make more?” I asked.

  “Because I cast a befuddlement hex on her.”

  “So you wanted her to die.”

  He screamed, “I wanted to make sure that you did not cross the Quag!” He grew silent and drew several deep breaths. “And over eight hundred sessions is long enough to live, don’t you think?” he added quietly.

  A minute later, Delph came charging in with Seamus in his wake.

  “Do you have it? The Breath of a Dominici?”

  “I don’t but Seamus here does.”

  I looked at the hob. “Seamus? How can you have it?”

  “Ms. Prine sent me out for it, before she became, well, old.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a long-stemmed flower that had a bloodred bloom as large as my fist.

  “That’s it? A flower?”

  He wrinkled his nose at my abrupt comment. “Well, it might be just a flower, but the only place it grows is in a nest of vipers that don’t much like to part with it.”

  “So how did you manage it, then?” I asked.

  “The vipers don’t much like fire either, do they?” His face crinkled into a smile. “So’s a little blue ball of it just happened to fall into their midsts and then it just happened to become a big blue ball of flames that they wanted no part of.”

  “Brilliant, Seamus, absolutely brilliant. Well done.”

  Looking happy with my praise, he handed over the flower. I put my nose close to it, took a whiff and nearly gagged. It smelled like slep dung.

  “Holy Steeples,” I said, rubbing my nose.

  “Aye, you don’t want to stick your nose in that thing,” Delph said. “Seamus says it reeks.”

  “Thanks, Delph,” I replied crossly. “Next time, why don’t you tell me something like that before I do it?”

  I cut up the flower petals according to the parchment, waited five slivers and then threw it into the steaming pot. The resulting smell was beyond horrid.

  “Bloody Hel,” exclaimed Delph, lifting his shirt to cover his face. Seamus had run from the room. Harry Two put his paws over his snout. But I had to stir the thing in precise motions, so I stood there, two fingers pinching my nose, my eyes running with the stink of it. A few slivers later, it was done. I poured a flask of it, corked it and then we bolted down the hall and into Astrea’s room. She was so small and frail-looking now that I feared she was already dead.

  “Astrea, I’ve got it, the youth elixir.”

  She made no response.

  We tiptoed over to the bed and looked down at her. She had faded incredibly fast. Her hair was stark white, her skin translucent and covered with large spots, and her features elongated and craggy.

  “How do we do this?” I asked Delph.

  “When I was little and me dad wanted to get some medicine in me, he just opened my mouth, pinched me nose and poured it in.”

  And that’s what we ended up doing. I got the contents of the flask down Astrea’s throat, and then stepped back. At first, there was nothing and my spirits plummeted to my boots. Then she gave an almighty gag, sat straight up in the bed, and her eyes opened. And, as though the sessions were being peeled away like the skin of an onion, all the elements of old age gave way. Her hair darkened, her skin grew firm, the features shortened and tightened, the body filled out. It was like I was watching her entire life in reverse.

  Finally, she sat there looking as she had before.

  She drew a long breath. “Thank you,” she said. And in her voice I could tell that she knew exactly what had happened.

  “Where is my son?” she asked wearily.

  “We have him tied up. He used a befuddlement hex on you. And he tried to kill me.”

  She nodded slowly and rose from her bed. “It’s entirely my fault,” she said. “How did you manage the potion?”

  “Seamus got the Breath of a Dominici. The rest of the ingredients were here.”

  “But surely the garm and jabbit?” she began.

  Delph answered. “Vega Jane got those all right. They were no match for her, even when Archie let them loose on her.”

  “Archie let them loose?” she exclaimed. But then her expression calmed. “Of course. He would have been jealous. And confused. And angry.”

  I said, “I had to kill the garm. It was going to kill Harry Two. So I killed it. And I had no problem doing so,” I added firmly.

  Astrea looked at me pointedly. “I see, Vega. I see.”

  And I could tell that she really did see.

  She patted my arm. “In bad times, wisdom is so often born, Vega. Now I need to go and see Archie.”

  THE DOOR OPENED a bit later and Astrea appeared. When I saw an unbound Archie behind her, I leapt off the bed and pulled my wand.

  “There is no need, Vega,” she said, her voice strong and firm.

  I looked at Archie. His features were docile, ambivalent even.

  “What happened to him?” I asked.

  She drew close to me. “The Subservio spell. He is quite harmless now. But I did speak with him before I did the incantation. I tried to make him see my side of things. But I’m not sure we’re there yet.”

  “About the Fifth Circle,” I began. “Since Archie placed a befuddlement hex on you, you didn’t tell us all you knew of it.”

  “Oh, but I did tell you everything I know of it. Not even my Seer-See will allow me to glimpse the Fifth Circle.“

  “Blimey,” muttered Delph.

  “Now it is time for you to be on your way,” she said.

  “On our way … where?” I asked warily.

  “To cross the Five Circles of course,” she said.

  “What, now? Right now?” exclaimed Delph.

  “But you need to know that escaping from here will come with a price.”

  I shook my head. “A price?”

  “To put it simply, escaping the Quag means imprisonment forever.”

  I shot Delph a glance just at the same moment he looked at me.

  I turned back to Astrea in time to see her wave her wand.

  “Good luck,” she said.

  I felt my eyes roll back in my head.

  And then everything went black.

  WOTCHA, VEGA JANE?”

  I opened my eyes and glanced up. Delph was looking straight down at me.

  “You okay, Vega Jane?” he said a
nxiously.

  I automatically nodded, though I didn’t know if I was actually okay or not. I sat up slowly, trying to gather my wits. Harry Two put out a paw and gently touched my arm as if to make sure I really was all right.

  I looked around. “Where are we?”

  “Dunno for sure, but I figure right close to the Mycanmoor.”

  “How can you tell?” I asked.

  “Over there,” he said, pointing to the right.

  I squinted and in the darkness I could make out a high wall.

  “The maze,” I said, glancing at him.

  “What I figger. Yeah.”

  My temper flared. “Why would she do this, Delph? Just send us here with no warning a’tall?”

  “Dunno, Vega Jane. Suppose she had her reasons.”

  Cataclysmic thoughts suddenly hit me. Our things? My wand! The Adder Stone. Destin. I looked wildly around and let out a breath of relief when I saw our tucks sitting side by side. I opened them and saw neat bundles of food and jugs of water. I looked down. The leather harness was strapped to my torso. On my thumb was my grandfather’s ring. I lifted my cloak. Destin was around my waist. I felt in the cloak pocket and my hand closed around first the Stone and then my wand. I took out the latter and gripped it loosely. I could feel it instantly become a part of me. I had done it so many times now that it felt natural and right.

  “Do you think we have to be in the maze for the counterspell to work?” I asked.

  Why hadn’t I thought to ask Astrea that? There were suddenly hundreds of queries to which I was sure I needed answers to survive.

  “Might help to find the entrance before we do,” Delph replied.

  We shouldered our tucks and started forward.

  I pointed my wand up ahead and said, “Illumina.”

  A bead of light shot out of my wand and hurtled toward the dark shapes that we took to be the wall of the maze, where it lit up everything in front of us.

  An instant later, Delph and I could hear hooves smacking the ground and wings flapping and sharp cries of unknown creatures. I held my wand at the ready, unsure if I was about to encounter an army of hideous beasts. I hadn’t practiced such an eventuality with Astrea, and I doubted my ability to fight off a mass attack.

  Thankfully, the sounds and chatter died down and were replaced by quiet.

  I looked over at Delph. “Actually, I think I liked the noise better,” he said.

  I agreed with him. It might have been only the weaker creatures that had fled the light. The ones that could kill us might be just ahead, waiting.

  We moved forward, my gaze darting in all directions. I took a mental tally of my emotions for the signs of the wendigo — vague terror coupled with something else’s memories. But my thoughts, terrifying though they were, all seemed to be my own.

  “Vega Jane, how about you use your wand to see what’s up ahead, eh?”

  “Good idea.” I pointed my wand, made the proper motion and said, “Crystilado magnifica.”

  Now directly in front of us was an enormous wall. A battlement, Astrea had called it. And it was made entirely of bones. It made the wall back at Thorne’s look puny by comparison. “I think we found the maze.”

  “And there’s the entrance, I reckon,” he said, pointing to a dark, oval shape.

  We marched on, drawing closer and closer to this image.

  Before we got to the wall, we encountered a large wrought-iron gate that suddenly appeared in front of us. Written out in scroll were the words Wolvercote Cemetery.

  “She didn’t mention a cemetery, did she?” I said. He shook his head.

  Delph peered through the gate. “It’s a graveyard in there all right,” he exclaimed. He pushed on the gate, but it would not open.

  I tapped the lock with my wand and said, “Ingressio.”

  The huge gate swung back.

  We passed through with Harry Two bringing up the rear.

  We came to the first row of graves.

  “Look at the names on them, Delph,” I said as I eyed them.

  Mullins, Dinkins. And KRONE?

  Jurik Krone’s ancestors were buried here? They let anyone in here, didn’t they?

  Delph said, “Look, there’s a Picus and a Mulroney. And … and …”

  His voice trailed off and I could see why.

  The name on the lichen-stained gravestone was Barnabas Delphia.

  He read the epitaph out loud. “Barnabas Delphia, loving father and devoted husband to Lecretia.”

  “Did you ever hear of them from your father?” I asked.

  Delph shook his head. “Never. Not once. I can’t hardly believe I’m seeing it.”

  I left Delph standing there and moved down the row of graves. When I saw the name on the simple gravestone, I caught a breath and moved closer.

  ALICE ADRONIS, WARRIOR TO THE LAST BREATH

  I looked down at the sunken mound of dirt and then back at the leaning gravestone. I held my wand up high and gazed at it. Alice had given me the Elemental on a great battlefield far, far in the past. She had done so with her dying breath, telling me that I had to survive.

  I suddenly jerked because the wand had started to move in my hand. As I watched, shocked, it bent forward so that its point was directed at Alice’s grave.

  I didn’t understand for a moment, but then I did.

  The thing was bowing to her, its former mistress.

  I felt the tears cluster in my eyes. But I also, for the first time, felt a powerful connection between Alice and myself. Astrea had said that Alice and I could be related, and that was why the Elemental worked as a wand for me. As I looked down at that sunken mound of dirt, it occurred to me that I had a great deal to live up to. Alice had evidently thought that I needed to survive for an important reason. I hoped I was up to the challenge that the Quag was certainly going to present.

  The grave I saw next was that of my ancestor Jasper Jane, the creator of the Fifth Circle. His gravestone simply held his name with no accompanying description. A sorcerer steeped in dark magic, Astrea had said. I shivered when I thought about what he might have put in the final circle.

  The next two graves also captured my attention.

  Bastion Cadmus. His epitaph read THE ONE WHO LEADS US. The other gravestone read THE STRENGTH OF LOVE, THE FALLACY OF YOUTH. I could make neither head nor tail of that. The name on the gravestone was Uma Cadmus. I didn’t know if it was Bastion’s mate or perhaps his daughter.

  “Vega Jane!”

  I turned and saw Delph farther down another row of graves. He was frantically motioning for me to come. Harry Two and I raced over to where he stood.

  “Lookit that, Vega Jane,” he said.

  He was pointing at a number of graves.

  I read down the list of names. I exclaimed, “They’re all Prines. This is Astrea’s family.”

  “Too right. So if she knew about this place, why didn’t she tell us, eh?”

  “So what else hasn’t she told us?” I asked. My belly felt like it was full of ice.

  I was going to say something else, but I never got the chance.

  Something had reached up through the ground, grabbed my ankles and pulled me downward, through the dirt and below to where the dead lay.

  JUST AS I had in falling into Thorne’s labyrinth, I endured the sensation of plummeting a long way. However, this time I remembered I had on Destin and thus was able to lessen the impact when I hit bottom.

  I was up in an instant, my wand at the ready in the pitch-darkness.

  “Illumina,” I cried out.

  The place was instantly lit and I saw Delph and Harry Two slowly getting to their feet.

  “Are you okay, Delph?”

  He brushed off his clothes and nodded, though his face was ashen. I looked down at Harry Two. His hackles were up and his fangs were bared. I looked wildly around, certain that my canine had sensed danger coming.

  We were in a low, darkened tunnel with stone walls that were awash with age and slime. I looked in
one direction and saw a blank wall. At the other end of the tunnel was an opening. I looked at Delph to find him staring at the same spot.

  I glanced up expecting to see dirt above us, but there was only stone.

  “What grabbed us?” I said breathlessly. I looked down at my ankles. “That’s blood on my trousers,” I exclaimed. “But it’s not mine.”

  “Same with me,” said Delph, indicating his legs.

  I looked at Harry Two and saw red streaks on his forelegs.

  I once more gazed at the stone ceiling. “The graves are up there,” I said.

  “What’s below a grave?” asked Delph, miserably. “Nothin’ good, I wager.”

  “If something yanked us down here, it must still be around.”

  “And the only way out looks to be through there.” He pointed ahead.

  I squared my shoulders and tried to make myself feel confident and brave though I felt neither. I held my wand in front of me and marched toward the opening with Delph and Harry Two alongside me. We reached it and, deciding that waiting would just make it harder, I walked right through it.

  At first, there was nothing. Then there was something.

  Set into the walls were little beads of light that blinked on and off. For a moment, I thought they were pieces of glass or metal. But when I wandered closer to the wall, I leapt back in horror.

  They were eyes. Blinking eyes!

  I looked over at Delph. He was obviously stunned as well.

  As I looked again, I could tell there weren’t just eyes on the wall. There were mouths. They were opening and closing along with the eyes, but no words were coming out. It was as if they were silently screaming.

  I turned and ran.

  Right into him.

  He was a little taller than I was and so lean that he looked like bone with a bit of skin lying over it. Yet he was as hard as a tree, and I toppled over from the collision. My wand fell to the rock floor.

  He was dressed in a long coat of black, trousers and a slimy shirt. His face was as pale as goat’s milk. His beard was blacker than his coat and lay tightly to his face where his cheekbones protruded like hard nuts. A strip of black fuzz arched over his mouth, which was set in a grim line. He also had on black boots up to the knees.