The Keeper

by David Baldacci

  Petra held out her arm and a half dozen cucos alighted there. She smiled as the illumination swept over her. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this good.”

  I had to smile, for I felt the exact same way. It was as though the full power and goodness of the sun had come to defeat the darkness.

  Holding up a cucos, I looked at Eris. “Trouble and strife will not trouble my life.” I couldn’t help but grin as Eris waved a fat fist at me and then vanished.

  We went back and collected the others. I ferried them up to the top of the outcrop and then down the other side. When they saw the clouds of cucos, both Lackland and Delph became giddy little males, running after the small bursts of light and letting the creatures collect on their shoulders and even their heads.

  Delph said, “Never thought I’d have any fun in this place.”

  With the cucos providing light, we made good progress and then stopped to make camp. As we sat around, eating our meal, I more fully recounted for the others what had happened with Eris. Petra enthusiastically joined in and gave me so many compliments that it got to be quite embarrassing.

  Delph and Lackland laughed heartily when I mimed Eris’s angry exit.

  Then I heard them coming.

  I screamed, “Jabbits!”

  The ground was actually shaking; the hisses pierced our ears. And then there were the shrieks, which could rob anyone of the last vestiges of both sanity and courage.

  “What the Hel is a jabbit?” yelled Lackland. He drew his sword and stood his ground. I couldn’t say I liked the bloke all that much, but I would never question his courage.

  Petra grabbed her crossbow and Delph his ax. Harry Two, as usual, was by my side. The ground was shaking so badly now that I figured there were a hundred or so of the things charging us. I squinted ahead, and though the land was flat and open, I could see nothing.

  I called out, “Crystilado magnifica.”

  I really wished I hadn’t.

  On the positive side, it wasn’t a hundred jabbits. It was only one.

  On the negative side, this particular jabbit was larger than a colossal.

  The jabbit had reared up right in front of us. A hundred feet high it was, with so many serpent heads along its vast trunk that it would have been impossible to count, certainly in the time we had left to live. It was like a venomous tree with a thousand deadly branches, all of which could move with terrifying speed.

  I glanced at Lackland and saw that all the color had drained from his face. He raised his sword, but I could tell by his expression that he knew it was like waving a flower in front of an army of alectos.

  I saw the ax whiz past me and strike the jabbit. I looked at Delph. He had heaved the thing with all his strength. It had barely cut the serpent’s thick trunk.

  Then, it struck.

  “Embattlemento!” I cried out.

  The jabbit had lunged at Delph, who had fallen backward. The serpent crashed into my spell shield, but it was so huge that it pushed the shield back and into Lackland, who was nearest to it. There was an almighty explosion and Lackland lay senseless on the ground. The jabbit reared up, saw me and struck again.

  “Pass-pusay,” I said, tapping my wand against my leg.

  The creature slammed into the spot where I had just been, burrowing a hole five feet deep.

  Petra came running up and fired an arrow into one of the serpent’s eyes. The only problem was, it had hundreds of others.

  Harry Two sank his teeth into the tail of the monster. Luckily, Delph was up again and raced forward and pulled my canine away before one of the heads struck out to bite Harry Two. Its slashing tail hit Delph hard and he went flying through the air with Harry Two gripped in his arms. They both landed with a thud a good hundred feet away.

  I pointed my wand. “Impacto!”

  The jabbit was so large that my spell did nothing but crush two of the heads on its lower trunk. When it came out of the hole and turned to me, I could tell that its fury held no boundaries. It struck. But I was gone again. It slammed into the ground once more. It rose again, only a bit dazed this time.

  This strategy recalled to me what I had done against my opponents in the Duelum back in Wormwood. I would use the creature’s fury and strength against it.

  Three more times it struck, and each time, I was gone a moment before impact. The thing rose up the last time, swaying and woozy. We faced off. Hundreds of eyes looked at me. I stared back at it, suddenly not nearly as afraid as I had been. I might just win this fight.

  Then the wretched beast did something that totally surprised me.

  It went after Lackland, now just struggling to his feet.

  “No!” I cried out.

  Lackland screamed and threw his sword at the thing, but it merely bounced off.

  I called out, “Rejoinda, Lackland.”

  Lackland flew toward me just as the jabbit attacked.

  Lackland shouted as he sailed right into me, or he would have if I hadn’t ducked. I stood straight again and decided that enough was enough. I marshaled every ounce of mind, body and spirit that I could, pointed my wand and said quite firmly, “Rigamorte.”

  The black light hit the enormous serpent smack in the chest as it turned to face me. For a long moment, it just swayed there, back and forth like the pendulum in a case clock. For one terrifying moment, I thought that my killing spell had not worked. And if this most powerful incantation had failed, then I knew I could not defeat the thing.

  The next moment, I shouted out, “Pass-pusay,” and tapped my leg with my wand once more.

  The spot where I had just been standing was crushed by the falling dead jabbit. The force with which it hit the ground knocked me off my feet and my wand sailed away.

  I rolled over and found myself next to Lackland.

  “Sorry, I had to do that,” I said as I sat up.

  That’s when I noticed that his eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow. And one side of his face was red and swollen. And then I saw the gash in his skin, where a drop of yellow liquid sat next to it.

  The jabbit’s venom. When Lackland had flown past the thing. It must have … bitten him.

  I squatted down next to him. “Lackland? Lack, can you hear me?”

  I touched his hand. It was growing cold.

  I was in a daze; this couldn’t be. Then my senses cleared. The Adder Stone! I reached in my pocket for it. There was nothing there. Delph! I had given it to him.

  “Delph!” I screamed. I looked over and saw a dazed Delph stagger up, but then he fell over again. “Delph, I need the Stone. Now!” I said, “Rejoinda, Stone,” but then I realized I didn’t have my wand.

  I saw Delph push himself to his feet and put his hands in his pockets. Then he dropped to his knees and started to paw through the ground with his hands. He had evidently lost the Stone.

  Petra raced over and knelt next to me. She gripped Lackland’s hand. “Lack? Lack, hang on. Hang on!” She looked at me and said frantically, “Can’t you help him?”

  I didn’t understand. The bite of a jabbit instantly killed. But then I looked at his wound. It was not two bite marks representing twin fangs. It was a slash. He must have hurtled by the serpent, and one of the vile thing’s fangs must have scratched Lackland’s face somehow. As I watched horrified, the yellow liquid riding on his face was absorbed into his skin.

  “NO!” I screamed, but I was too late.

  Lackland started writhing and convulsing. And then, even more terrifying, he grew still, his breathing slowed, dangerously so. His eyelids started to flutter.

  “Lack!” cried out Petra. “No!”

  Fighting back tears, I looked wildly around for something, anything, to save him. Only I had nothing. Nothing. Where was my wand? The Stone? The fingers of my right hand started tingling. As if by its own volition, my hand reached into my cloak pocket.

  I pulled it out.

  The silver horn of the unicorn.

  Without thinking, I pressed it against Lackland’
s wounded face.

  The solid horn liquefied and was absorbed, like the venom, right into Lackland’s skin. Then, with a gasp and shudder, he sat straight up so fast, our heads nearly collided. I jumped back. He looked at me; his eyes seemed to wobble in their sockets.

  He said woozily, “What happened, Vega? Did we kill the thing, eh?”

  Petra screamed and hugged him so hard, he fell back over.

  I could think of nothing else but to throw myself on top and hug both of them.

  When we all sat up, I saw that Lackland’s face was still scarred and swollen. Delph came racing over with Harry Two.

  “Found it,” he said, holding up the Stone. He handed it to me along with my wand that he had obviously also found. I waved the Stone over Lackland’s face. While the skin healed some, it was still bad-looking.

  I used my wand on him and the healing spell improved his face even more, though it was still scarred some.

  I said, “Don’t worry, Lackland, we’ll get you back to your handsome self.”

  He laughed. “Badge of honor, way I see it. Besides, a male can be too pretty, eh, Pet?”

  She smiled and held up her damaged hand. “How about a female, Lack? Eh?”

  “Go on with you, but it’s right better than being dead, I can tell you that.”

  “Har,” said Delph as a finishing point. We all grinned.

  I stood. “I think the Fourth Circle beckons,” I said, full of confidence now.

  I should not have sounded so gleeful.

  The Fourth Circle was where I was going to die.

  THE LAND IN the Fourth Circle was curious — flat in spots, rising in others. We could make out crags of rocks and spiny ridges leading into the sky. Overhead were no stars, no Noc. I led us by the light of my wand.

  We walked as far as we could and then made camp near a stand of tall willow trees. I was on the lookout for the slender thread of the Obolus River, which I knew ran through here, but I never caught sight of it.

  We ate and Lackland offered to take the first watch.

  Petra and Delph quickly fell asleep but, as usual, I found I could not, at least not right away.

  I reached in my tuck and pulled out the map of the Quag that Quentin Herms had left me at my tree back in Wormwood and that I had reproduced on parchment.

  There were some points about it that were right, spot-on actually. But many more were absolutely wrong. I thought back to the sequence of events that had led up to this map being in my possession. I had been in my tree when I heard the baying of the attack canines. I had seen Quentin going into the Quag. I had then gone to work at Stacks only to find a message from Quentin telling me to go to my tree that night. There I found that an extra board had been nailed into the trunk, behind which I had found the map.

  I sat up. But the extra board had not been on my tree when I saw Quentin fleeing into the Quag. So he had to have come back out of the Quag and nailed the board there sometime later, but before I returned to it that night.

  Then I wondered something that I never had before. Why had the Council been hunting Quentin down? Something must have triggered it. We had been told later that Quentin had broken laws but we were never told which laws. And Morrigone and Thansius had never really spoken about the matter to me.

  I reached in my pocket and pulled out my grandfather’s ring. It had been found in Quentin’s cottage, so presumably my grandfather had given it to him. But why had he not given it to my father, his only son?

  What quality did Quentin possess that would have made my grandfather give him the ring instead? Was he simply a messenger, getting to me things that I would need? Was he doing my grandfather’s bidding somehow? If so, why?

  I pulled out the parchment, tapped it with my wand and said, “Silenus?”

  His image appeared instantly on the paper.

  “Where are you now?” he asked somberly.

  “The Fourth Circle.”

  “The Obolus River.”

  I nodded. “And Rubez the pilot. What can you tell me about him?”

  “Nothing, I’m afraid.”

  “Astrea said that he will demand payment to take us across the river, but she didn’t say what it would be.”

  “I have of course never taken the journey, and have no scraps of knowledge from anyone who has.”

  “Wonderful,” I muttered. “Does the river take us to the Fifth and last Circle?”

  He shook his head again. “Alas, ’tis shrouded in mystery.”

  “But there is a river, so I would imagine that there might be some water dwellers in it.”

  “I would not be surprised if there were.”

  “Hence the boat with Rubez to safely cross it,” I noted.

  “I would imagine that safe passage across the Obolus would involve more than simply coin for a seat.”

  “What, then?” I asked.

  “It may very well cost more than you are willing to give, Vega. And then it will be up to you to decide. Such is the way of this place. It often demands more than one is either willing or able to give.”

  And with that ominous comment Silenus was gone.

  I slowly put the pages away in my cloak. What would I be unwilling to give up in order to cross the Obolus?

  Petra had the last watch. I waited a few slivers after she left to take up her post, and, making sure that Delph and Lackland were asleep, I drew closer to Petra’s tuck. I knew what I was doing was in many ways wrong. But it was also what I needed to do right now.

  I pointed my wand at it and muttered, “Crystilado magnifica.”

  All the contents of her tuck were immediately magnified in front of me. I saw what I thought I would. My next incantation was spoken just as softly.

  “Rejoinda, wand.”

  The wand flew from the tuck and right into my hand. When it smacked against my skin, I realized — too late — that it might burn me. But it didn’t. Perhaps it would do so only if I tried to cast a spell with it.

  “Illumina.”

  With my own wand lighting Petra’s, I looked at it closely. It was made of wood far darker than mine. Technically, her uncle had not given this to Petra. Perhaps he would have, but he’d been killed before he could. She had simply taken it. But someone had given it to him. His father perhaps? I found what I was looking for on the base of the wand.

  It was a part of a fingernail. I could make it out clearly against the wood.

  Feeling a little guilty, I pocketed the wand, went back over to my bed and lay down. If Petra was my enemy, even though she had saved my life, I did not want her to possess a wand, a wand that could kill both me and Delph. But still, I did not feel good about it. There seemed to be no easy decisions in this place.

  I closed my eyes and fell asleep, unsure if what I had just done was right or not.

  PETRA ROUSED US when it was time to get up. This was a bit difficult to calculate since the sun didn’t rise here. I watched her closely as she gathered her tuck, but she never looked inside it. Thus, she was unaware her wand was gone.

  When she did become aware, I knew she would immediately suspect me. How could she not? I was the only one who knew about her magical past with her uncle. But she had not told me that she had the wand. Thus, I doubted she would confront me about it, at least not in front of Delph and Lackland. I could tell she did not want them to know her secret. It was a foul tactic I was playing on her, but right now I could not afford any more surprises.

  For three more lights and nights we rambled over the darkened landscape. One time we saw an inficio flying overhead and had to take cover in a cave. Another time, it was a pack of freks doing battle with a herd of creatures for which I had no name. The freks eventually won and lingered over the corpses constituting their spoils of victory. As they ate, we ran for it and were soon safely away.

  On the fourth night that I stood my watch on the edge of our campsite, I raised my wand and muttered, “Crystilado magnifica.” I had done this before with little result. This night was to be diffe
rent.

  Yet I never could have imagined that I would be seeing something like this.

  It wasn’t some creature way out there.

  It was Delph and Petra. For some reason my spell was showing me what was behind me rather than in front.

  They were very close to each other and were talking in low voices, so I could not hear. Over the last two lights and nights, I had seen them lingering together, whether it was when we were walking or sitting around our meager fire. They tended to sleep near each other as well.

  But this vision?

  I whirled around and quickly made my way back nearer the dying fire.

  I stopped and looked.

  Delph was waving the Adder Stone over Petra’s damaged hand. I knew he was thinking wonderful thoughts. And then she smiled and touched his cheek.

  I turned away and walked back to my original spot, my head lowered, my eyes on my dirty boots. Delph was my best friend. Friends did not act like that with anyone else. It wasn’t … it wasn’t …

  It wasn’t what, Vega?

  It wasn’t what you wanted to have happen?

  Well, it’s not your life. It’s Delph’s. If he likes Petra better than you, so be it.

  The next moment, I froze when I heard it.

  The sound of lapping water.

  I ran to tell the others.

  We hurried along, following the sound of water until we reached a clearing, and there it was.

  The Obolus River. It was long and snakelike, twisting and turning until it was out of sight at both ends. And it was wider than I would have thought. It was actually impossible to see to the other side. But I just knew on the other side was the Fifth, and last, Circle. The only thing between the last circle and us was this body of water.

  “Look there,” hissed Lackland, pointing to one side.

  To our left was an old wooden pier, listing back and forth on what I supposed were partially rotted support timbers sunken in the water.

  The wooden sign hung on a leaning post swung slowly in the breeze. Though we were some yards from it, the words were clear enough, even in the dark. In fact, the words seemed to glow red.