The Keeper

by David Baldacci

  But finally, I had to open my eyes. I looked down and froze. It wasn’t just that trees were bent over. It wasn’t that rock was smashed flat. It wasn’t that the fire had been quashed.

  Truly, all of those things happened.

  But something else happened too.

  The entire Blue Mountain was gone. It was laid flat as the palm of my hand. There was nothing left. And not only were the flames extinguished, but there was not even a wisp of smoke left. The air was as clear as I had ever seen it.

  And I had a bird’s-eye view of this, because I was nearly a mile high. It had nothing to do with Destin because all the others were up there with me. Delph, Lackland, Petra and Harry Two. We were all suspended in the sky as though ropes from above had glided down and encircled us. Next to us our tucks floated in the air.

  Everything in the path of the Finn’s third knot of power was gone. As far as the eye could see ahead, there was nothing. It was like someone had rolled up the Fifth Circle and taken it away.

  And then, as quickly as the mighty wind had come, it left us.

  And we started to fall as though the ropes from above had been severed.

  I confess to having been in a trance as I watched everything below us vanquished. But now, as we plummeted to our deaths, the trance ended.

  I flipped over in the air, shot to my left, grabbed Harry Two and buckled him in. The others were below me, falling fast. I pointed my head down and shot toward Delph, who was nearest. I pointed my wand and cried out, “Lassado.”

  I roped him in and, without missing a beat, zoomed toward Petra and did the same with her. Now only Lackland was left to save. I turned in midair and accelerated toward him.

  As I drew nearer, I saw it from the corner of my eye.

  A bolt of fire. How could that be? I turned.

  Asurter had risen from the flattened earth. How he could have survived the wall of fire and the third knot of the Finn was inexplicable to me. Yet he had suffered, for though he was still a giant, he was no longer aflame. He was but a charred ruin.

  But he had some fire left in him and had just hurled it directly at us. I screamed out, “Embattlemento.”

  The bolt of fire hit my shield and exploded. Then I pointed my wand at Asurter and said, “Impacto.”

  Asurter was blasted into a thousand fragments and was no more.

  It was then that I heard the scream and turned back.

  In time to see a flailing Lackland strike the ground with an almighty thud.

  And then he lay still.

  I pointed myself straight down and raced to the dirt, hitting so hard that we all tumbled down. I ran with Harry Two still buckled to my chest and reached Lackland before the others had regained their footing.

  I knelt down next to him. His body looked crushed, but he was still alive.

  He looked up at me and a strange smile played over his lips.

  “We done good, eh?” he managed to mumble.

  My hands fished through my pockets for the Adder Stone.

  “Just hang on, Lack.”

  “Done good, eh,” he said again, more weakly.

  “Just hang on.”

  “Done good,” he whispered.

  I found the Stone and held it over him. “It’ll be okay.”

  “Done … eh?” He closed his eyes.

  I wished good thoughts, the best I ever had. I waved the Stone over and over his broken body. I kept doing it even as Delph and Petra ran up and knelt down next to us.

  “Lack!” said a stunned Petra.

  “It’ll be okay,” I snapped. “I’ve got the Stone.”

  Delph looked down at Lackland and then gripped my shoulder. “Vega Jane.”

  “It’ll be okay,” I said, tears starting to fall down my face.

  “Vega Jane,” he said softly.

  “It’ll … it’ll … the Stone.”

  Good thoughts, Vega. Lack, you’ll be okay. Almost there.

  I didn’t see Petra reach down and use her hand to close Lackland’s eyes.

  I didn’t see Delph take the Stone from my hand.

  I didn’t see Harry Two lie down next to Lackland and nudge his hand with his snout. I didn’t see any of this because I had closed my eyes. I had closed my eyes because I knew if I kept them open a second longer, I would never move from this spot ever again. That I would just die right here.

  Right next to Lackland. Who had just died.

  The Stone could not bring back the dead. I knew that. I had always known that.

  I felt Delph gently help me to my feet and turn me away from the body.

  “We’ll take care-a it, Vega Jane. It’ll be okay.”

  I went and sat on the ground, my back to them, as they dug the hole and laid Lackland Cyphers into it. Harry Two sat next to me. His snout nudged my hand, but for the first time ever, I did not pet him when he did so.

  The sacrifice that everyone had warned me about had just come in the form of a mortal blow to one of us. Death was all around here. But we had always managed to just skirt it. I had known the odds of all of us getting through the Quag were abysmally small. Astrea had told me that. But she needn’t have.

  I had not known Lackland long. But I had known him long enough.

  And his loss ate at me in the way that such a loss always does. In a way that such a loss always should.

  When the last bit of dirt had covered his remains, Delph and Petra rejoined me. “ ’Tis done,” said Delph quietly. “ ’Tis done.”

  I opened my eyes at last and looked up at him. Tears stained his face. I looked at Petra and saw the same there.

  I looked back at the mound of dirt. I rose and walked over to it and looked down. I pointed my wand, and a chunk of charred wood flew forward and planted itself at the head of the mound. Using my wand as an ink stick, I wrote the words on the wood.

  Here lies Lackland Cyphers, a good friend to the end.

  Then I placed a shield spell over the mound to keep his final resting place safe.

  I turned and looked ahead. With a mountain no longer in the way, our path was quite straightforward now. Though nothing was quite as straightforward as it appeared, was it? Certainly not in this place.

  I grabbed my tuck from where it had fallen to the ground, and hoisted it.

  I passed by Delph, Petra and Harry Two.

  I was changed now. I was different. I could feel it in every crevice of my being. I had been the leader. Yet a reluctant, hesitant, unsure one. Then I had grown more confident, piling victory on top of victory. Thorne and the circles. Now something else had happened. Something catastrophic.

  One of the ones I had led, who had trusted me to get him through this safely, now lay dead. Yes, I was changed, completely. And forever.

  With my wand in hand, I led the way once more.

  To the end.

  To the bloody, bloody end.

  I SENSED THAT I could now take to the air if I wanted to without the threat of a storm rising to stop me. But even with that, I decided that we would walk through the last bit of the Quag. For some reason, it just seemed like the right thing to do. So on we marched.

  Delph and Petra had not attempted to talk to me after burying Lackland. I appreciated this, because had I been faster, there would be five of us nearing the end of this journey, not four. It was my fault and mine alone that he was dead. Just like Duf Delphia’s legs. I had failed.

  I glanced down at my hand when it started to burn.

  I stood there paralyzed when I saw it.

  On the back of my right hand something was materializing.

  My hand started to shake so badly that I dropped my wand. I had to hold my burning hand with the other one. Then the pain shot straight up my arm and I dropped to the ground, screaming. I rolled and thrashed. When I felt something grab me, I kicked and punched to make it let go.

  I opened my eyes and saw that Delph and Petra had taken hold of me, trying to calm me, trying to see what was wrong. And then, just like that, the pain was gone. My hand a
nd arm felt normal.

  Delph cried out, “Bloody Hel, Vega Jane, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  I slowly sat up and looked down at my hand where a moment before it had felt like a garm had bitten down on it.

  “Holy Steeples,” cried out Delph when he saw it.

  “What is that thing?” exclaimed Petra.

  On the back of my hand were the three hooks. The symbol of Peace. Hope. Freedom.

  It was on my grandfather’s hand. Now it was on mine.

  And this was not ink that could be easily erased. I knew it was burned into me, probably from the inside out. I knew somehow that I would have this mark until my life was over.

  I rose on shaky legs and retrieved my wand where it had fallen.

  “It’s just a mark,” I said calmly, though I felt anything but.

  “But, Vega Jane —” began Delph.

  “I’m fine!” I barked, and then said in a normal tone, “I’m fine. Did you expect that I would escape this place without some sort of scar? Both of you have yours. And Harry Two.” I tried to say this in a joking way, but I knew my tone rang hollow. This was not a normal scar or wound. This was something more. Far more.

  I felt like I had just been branded. And I’d had no say in the matter at all. I hated this place. I truly hated every square inch of it.

  “Let’s get on,” I said. “Let’s just finish this.”

  FOR THREE LIGHTS we walked across a vast plain. It was inconceivable to me that a majestic mountain had rested here for over eight centuries until it was toppled by a peg of unknotted rope, leaving only flatness in its wake.

  On the fourth light, I slowed when I saw it just up ahead.

  A shimmering glare, as though light was being reflected off something.

  As we drew closer, our pace slowed even more. After all we had endured, I did not want to rush headlong into something that would leave us paces short of our goal.

  “What do you reckon that is?” asked Delph, at last breaking the silence that hung over us like a funeral pall.

  I gazed at the shimmer but could not answer him. As darkness started to fall, the shimmer did not diminish. The light hitting it thus was not coming from the sky.

  As we grew closer the answer struck me.

  The light was coming from the other side.

  Which meant, I realized with a thrill, that we had, at last, reached the end of the Quag.

  I glanced at Petra and then looked at her wand. She nodded and gripped it tightly.

  “Loosely,” I murmured. “ ’Tis a part of you now, Petra.”

  I saw her fingers loosen around the wand’s base.

  She stole a glance at me and in that look I realized she had something on her mind. I moved over to her and looked at her expectantly.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Lack,” she said.

  “It was my fault,” I said. “I’m the leader.”

  “No,” she snapped. “It was my fault.”

  “What!”

  “You were saving us from that flame bloke. I had my wand. I could have saved him.” She looked at her boots. “But I didn’t. I froze. I bloody well froze. And now he’s dead. Because of me.”

  She sat down on the ground and started to sob. Delph looked over at us anxiously, but I waved him off. I sat next to Petra, trying to think of something, anything, to make her feel better.

  “Do you know why I came into this place?” I said at last.

  Her weeping slowed and she said hesitantly, “To escape, get out.”

  “No. I just wanted to know the truth. Where I lived, there was no truth. I wanted to find it in here.”

  She looked up at me. “Why is the truth so important?”

  “It’s the most important thing of all, Petra. Without it, we don’t matter. Nothing matters.”

  I stood and held out my hand for her to take. “You saved my life back there. You saved all of our lives back there. That’s the truth. And now all we can do is keep going. That’s all. Lackland would certainly have wanted that. I think you know that.”

  She slowly reached out, took my hand and stood.

  We walked on, cautiously, every nerve and sense alert.

  Then we saw that the shimmer had turned into something more substantive.

  It was a wall. A bloody wall. Like back in Wormwood. Only this one was mostly transparent. But I knew it was also far more impenetrable than mere wood and straps.

  What had Astrea told me? I strained my mind to think back to her words as she lay dying in her bed.

  We build walls because we are afraid. We do not like change. We do not like it when others who do not look or think like us come along and try and change things. Thus we run from it. Or, even worse, attack it.

  With those words in mind, I took a step back. This wall had been built to do two things: keep us in and them out. It was a stake driven right between two races that had fought a war. One was in hiding. One was on the hunt.

  I had a sudden thought.

  Was my grandfather out there? My parents? How would I find them? How would we help do what needed to be done?

  I sat on my haunches and looked down at my wand.

  I had exhibited resources and a pluck in the Quag that had often astonished me. In the midst of the violence of things trying to kill me, I had risen to the challenge and, with the help of my friends, survived, defeating foes that in truth should have vanquished us with little trouble.

  Yet I also knew that I had never faced off with a fully trained Maladon who had grown up in the world of sorcery. And despite what Astrea had said about me having exceptional power, the truth was that I was young and inexperienced. And that could prove to be fatal at some point.

  Delph squatted on one side of me, and Petra on the other. They both looked at me questioningly.

  “What now, Vega Jane?” said Delph.

  I pointed my wand at the shimmer and invoked the magnification spell. However, the spell failed me as it had at the Soul Takers’ temple. All we saw was exactly what we could see with our eyes. The shimmer, which reflected back our images and present surroundings, like a vast looking glass.

  I pointed my wand at the shimmer and tried various spells. Petra joined me in the hope that our combined wands could accomplish what a single one could not.

  Nothing happened other than the spells hit the wall and then simply vanished. For one intensely uncomfortable moment, I imagined that we’d come all this way, fought this hard, lost one of our members, only to be forever forestalled by this last obstacle. If sorcery could not overcome it, if the limited spells that I knew could not touch it, then what the Hel had this journey been for?

  In my agitation, I kicked off and shot straight up higher, higher, as high as I had ever flown. And then I pointed my head forward and put on a burst of speed. I was repelled so fast when I hit the wall that I was tossed heels over elbows backward a good two hundred feet before regaining my equilibrium. I hovered there in the air. And then I looked down to see the others staring up at me.

  “Stand back,” I called down to them.

  I looked down at my wand, willed it to its full-size Elemental status, and hurled it at the wall. It glanced off, did a slow arc and flew back into my hand.

  The Elemental looked undamaged.

  But so did the wall.

  I had never known the Elemental to fail me. Yet it just had.

  I had no spells left to conjure. I had no weapons left to try against it. I had nothing left to throw at the bloody thing.

  I slowly headed back to the ground and simply stood there staring up at the wall, wondering what to do. How could I beat it? I had been faced with many such obstacles. I had overcome them all. Until now.

  I looked over at Delph and Petra. “Any ideas?” I said, readily conceding by my words that I was completely out of them. They shook their heads.

  I wished Lackland were here to give me Hel for not knowing what to do. I needed to hear his taunts. And while Alice Adronis thought I would
be the one to lead them in a renewed fight against the Maladons, I wouldn’t have followed myself to the High Street back in Wormwood.

  I had never felt such depression in all my life. I could barely breathe. I could barely think. And what I did think was all as wrong as wrong could possibly be, to use my grandfather’s words. When I looked over at Delph, I could tell he knew exactly what I was thinking. But right now, he could not help me, no matter how much he wanted to.

  Yet with all I was feeling, I had to smile when Harry Two licked my hand. I petted him. He licked some more. And then gripped my ring with his teeth. Then he sat back on his haunches and barked once.

  “Quiet down, Harry Two,” said Delph.

  But I put up my hand.

  “Wait, Delph. He’s trying to tell me something.”

  I looked at the ring and then I stared up at the wall.

  My grandfather had left the ring behind and it had eventually found its way to me. Jasper had said that the hooks represented our mantra, everything we stood for. That was a powerful symbol, perhaps more powerful than I knew.

  This ring could make me invisible. But could it do something else too?

  I took a few hesitant steps forward and then kept going until I was right up against the wall. I reached out with my hand and first placed the mark on my skin against the wall.

  I held my breath. Nothing happened.

  I looked back to see Petra and Delph staring at me like I was nutters.

  Then I turned back around and placed the ring against the wall.

  I started to hold my breath. But never got the chance.

  The wall instantly moved under my hand. It started to shimmer and wobble and pulse as if it had been turned into a liquid.

  And then a slice in the skin of the thing opened up. I put my hands on either side of this opening and pushed. It opened farther like I was parting a pair of curtains. I thrust myself through the opening and plunged onto the other side.