The Keeper (The Endless Chronicles Book 1)

by Nikki Mccormack

  Behind the demon, two Endless were already charging up the path with weapons drawn. The beast twitched back its pointed ears and lashed out with two of its many barbed tails. The barbs found their marks and the two men dropped like stones.

  The Keeper almost stepped back, but Deynas caught her arm, reminding her that back wasn’t an option. He shoved her forward, over toward the stone table and drew his staff. The demon tracked her movement with its blazing eyes. It wanted her. The Blooded Women had sent it to kill the host and force the Keeper back to them.

  “Run!”

  She heard Deynas shout and saw more Endless trying to come up the path, Naago among them, but the lashing tails kept them back. She stood her ground. The beast snarled and lunged at her, but before it reached her, something else slammed into her from the side, throwing her to the ground. The beast hit the stone table with enough force to break it in two and send one of the halves flying over the cliff.

  Deynas jumped up off her and stood over her, facing the demon as it spun back around.

  “Get away,” she warned. “It wants me. Let it have me and it will leave.”

  “I can’t do that.” Deynas lowered his stance, readying his weapon.

  The demon lunged. The staff blade sank into its chest, but didn’t slow it. It slammed into Deynas, throwing him to the ground and landing on top of him beside her. The beast drew its head back, opening dripping mandibles wide in preparation for a strike that would finish its opponent.

  Death is not mine to deal.

  The Keeper looked at Deynas lying trapped beneath the beast. Could she watch him die?

  Reaching out, she grabbed the demons leg with her right hand and passed the pain of hundreds of deaths into the beast all at once. It threw its head up, emitting an earsplitting howl that filled the air with crushing sound pressure, then it shuddered and collapsed, blood running from its nose and ears.

  The Keeper got unsteadily to her feet while Naago and two other warriors pulled Deynas out from under the beast. His left shoulder was dislocated. Between the three of them, they managed to hold him down and shift it back into place. He made a dreadful choking sound, but didn’t cry out. She winced in sympathy and pulled up her hood that had fallen back when he knocked her out of the demon’s path.

  Several Endless had gathered around the two dead men on the path and someone barked out an order for flyers to go down and find the remains of those thrown off the cliff.

  The call to keep came then and she let herself be seen by all of them. Most of them knelt and began speaking the Keeper’s chant.

  Naago came to stand beside her, staring at the dead demon.

  “How did you do that?”

  “I gave it the pain of too many deaths all at once.” She started to reach her right hand out to the fallen demon and he grabbed her other arm, pulling her back.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This creature was the last of its kind. It must be kept.”

  Deynas, up on one knee and holding his arm, his face twisted in a pained grimace, was watching them now.

  Naago shook his head, keeping his voice low. “You can’t. If you receive the spirit, you take in the pain of its death, correct?”

  She nodded.

  “So you get back all the death pain you used to kill it?”

  “Yes.”

  He held fast to her arm. “Wouldn’t that kill you?”

  “It might kill this host.”

  “Then you couldn’t punish those responsible,” he answered, apparently hoping to talk her out of doing what she had to do.

  “This creature chose to ally itself to the Blooded Women. I killed it in self-defense, for it would have killed this flesh had I not. There is no one to punish. Still, it must be kept.”

  “No.”

  She looked at the hand still holding her arm then met his eyes. “I cannot deny the call to keep. If you won’t let go willingly, I have the power to make you.”

  He held on. The call was insistent. She passed a flash of intense pain into Naago and he jerked his hand away as if burned. Argus trembled within her, afraid of what it would mean to take back all that pain, but the Endless woman didn’t try to stop her, perhaps understanding that there was no choice. She stepped close to the demon and set her right hand upon the soft fur that covered its thick hide. Its spirit rose up instantly, blazing with crimson light, fierce even in death.

  She closed her eyes and bowed her head. Come to me and you shall be remembered.

  The demon’s spirit consented and a storm of pain and emotion poured into her. So much pain from so many deaths burning through her mind, spirit, and flesh until she couldn’t see or feel or hear anything else. She cried out, the Endless woman’s voice screaming into the night while their shared body convulsed with agony. The pain and everything else ended in blackness.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Deynas struggled to his feet, a deep pain flaring in his injured shoulder and along several bruised ribs. Kochan had arrived on the plateau and took immediate charge, directing a group to take the dead to the temple and ordering the few others to return to their huts for now. Naago, meanwhile, knelt alongside the Keeper and pressed his fingers into her neck, searching for a pulse.

  Kochan walked up behind him and glanced down at the still figure, then sucked in a sharp breath. “Argus-ra.”

  Deynas stepped up next to the startled master. “Is she alive?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Naago’s voice was tight, choked with emotion and Deynas wondered, not for the first time, how intimate the man’s relationship with the Keeper was. The way they’d argued the day they all fled the city he might have suspected they were lovers if she were only an Endless woman, but one didn’t fornicate with such a being as the Keeper, did they?

  Naago adjusted his fingers against her neck and checked again.

  Deynas held his breath, as if breathing would chase away any delicate hold she might still have on life. It would be so much better if she were dead. This madness would end for all of them and Argus would be free of her prison in the only way she could be free now. If it was better though, why did it hurt so much to face that possibility?

  “Wait. It’s faint, but she’s still alive.”

  Deynas let his breath out in a soft exhale, trying to reconcile a sting of disappointment with his substantial relief.

  Kochan gave him a stern look and extended one finger to point at the Keeper. “I get the feeling you already knew about this.”

  Deynas nodded. There was no point denying it now.

  “You will explain this, but bring her to the temple first and, in the name of The Undying, make sure you cover her face. We don’t need more commotion.”

  Naago lifted her and Deynas pulled the hood of her cloak back up, positioning it so that her face once again vanished in shadow.

  Settek trotted up to the plateau then and Kochan gave him a harsh scowl. “I believe I told you to stay in the temple.”

  A wave of bronze rippled through the crossbreed’s expressive mane. Now that Deynas thought about it, it wasn’t so hard to believe that he was Kato’s son. They were both magnificent, although Settek’s changing color in his mane appeared to be something he had little control over.

  Settek ignored the master and turned to Deynas. “You look in pain. Do you need help walking?”

  The offer surprised Deynas and irritated him a little. He wanted to keep hating Settek the way he couldn’t manage to hate the Keeper. Why did everyone keep trying to undermine his rage? He took a few steps and shook his head. “No, but I wouldn’t mind if you got my staff.”

  Settek walked over to the demon and pulled on the staff. It took him three tries to wrench it free of the beast’s chest. He gave Deynas an appreciative look. “Impressive strike.”

  “Not impressive enough,” Deynas muttered.

  Kochan finally left off scowling at the crossbreed and turned toward the temple. “Bring her.”

  They took the
Keeper to the private quarters in the lower part of the temple and laid her on a bed in the room next to the one the elders had assigned to Settek. Most of the rooms served as housing for the injured or sick and their caretakers when their condition was too dire for their families to manage their care at home. A few rooms were kept ready for the use of elders during long nights of ritual like this one when there were dead to tend to. With the Table of Returning destroyed, they would have more work than usual preparing for the sending of those who had died that night.

  Deynas found himself standing between Naago and Settek watching through a blur of physical and emotional exhaustion and pain while Kochan checked the Keeper’s vital signs. Throughout the process, the master paused many times, often becoming lost for a few seconds in the familiarity of her face.

  “What happened to her up there?” He asked after shaking himself out of one of those moments.

  Naago spoke before Deynas could gather his thoughts, explaining that the Keeper absorbed the pain of every kept creature’s death when she absorbed their spirit. She had passed the pain of many of those deaths into the demon, enough pain to kill it. Unfortunately, because she had to keep the demon, she had no choice but to take back all of that pain the same way she had dealt it.

  Deynas stared into the face of the woman he had loved, trying hard to remember that she was no longer that woman. She was something else. And yet…

  Enough pain to kill a greater demon plus the pain of that demon’s death. That she lived at all was impressive and she had done it to stop the demon from killing him. He had tried to protect her, something he probably shouldn’t have done in the first place, and ended up the one who needed saving. Why had she bothered? Why not let the demon kill him?

  She had no injuries he could treat so Kochan ushered them out into an adjacent room where they could keep an eye on her while they sat and talked. The master positioned himself in the chair with the best view of the unconscious Keeper.

  “The only thing we can do for her is let her rest. While she is doing that, perhaps one of you would care to explain why the Keeper looks like our Argus-ra.”

  Deynas sipped at a brew one of the elders had brought down for him to ease his pain then nodded to Naago. “You know better than I.” Besides, he was too tired, sore and unsettled to try to explain what little he did know and he was likely to learn more about their relationship by listening to Naago talk about her.

  “I still don’t know exactly what the Keeper is,” Naago began, leaning forward in his seat to rest his elbows on his knees. The position allowed him to see the still figure in the next room, which Deynas suspected was no accident. “From talking to her, I know the Keeper, whatever she or it is, requires a host. She told me that the Blooded Women choose that host and somehow move the Keeper into it. She said they tend to take Endless because of their longevity and resistance to spirit corruption. In this case, they used your Endless warrior, Argus-ra, when she was captured in the city during the takeover.”

  “But why did she come here? Does it have something to do with that demon?”

  Naago glanced from Kochan to Deynas then his gaze shifted to Settek and stalled there.

  The half-demon moved to the edge of his seat. “Do you wish me to leave?”

  Naago nodded. “Perhaps that would be best.”

  The crossbreeds jaw tightened and his mane darkened again, but he stood. “I’ll be upstairs.”

  “Thank you.” Deynas uttered the words without thinking and cringed inwardly at the icy look Kochan gave him. The master may have allowed Settek to be a bearer at the Keeper’s behest, but he hadn’t forgotten that he was half-demon.

  Settek glanced down at Deynas, the fire in his gold eyes cooling. He bobbed his head once in a slight nod and left them. Deynas turned back to Naago, pretending not to notice Kochan’s displeasure.

  “I have a theory,” Naago said when Settek was gone and he had their attention again. “From what I understand, usually the host is dormant and the Keeper is in full control. In this case, Argus hasn’t been overly cooperative. I suspect that, at least initially, this might have been because the fragment of her umahk-ra that exists in Deynas kept her connected to the world outside of her body. The Keeper allowed Argus’s umahk-ra to move outside her flesh when I was with her many nights ago, so now a fragment exists in me as well. Perhaps being around the two of us and the fragments that anchor her to the world outside her body has allowed Argus to gain strength. The Keeper is aware of what’s happening. She said she should let the Blooded Women find her a new host, but I think Argus is making it difficult for her.”

  Deynas took a deep breath and winced at the pain in his ribs. They both watched him with varying degrees of concern. He took another drink of the bitter painkilling brew before speaking, giving the flare of pain time to abate.

  “Up on the plateau she told me the demon was after her. That it would leave if we let it have her. Do you think the Blooded Women could have sent it?”

  Naago chewed his lip for a minute and Deynas drank more while he watched the man think things through.

  Finally, the pale eyes lit. “You said she was hurt when she arrived here last night?”

  Deynas nodded.

  Kochan’s expression soured as they revealed more of what they’d kept from him. Having been banished once already, Deynas found it hard generate much concern over the master’s irritation. What was he going to do, double banish him?

  Naago’s focus was entirely on Deynas now. “When she left us in the desert, she intended to go back to the Blooded Women and let them move her to a new host. Maybe they tried to, but she, or Argus, changed her mind so she fled from them when you provided her an escape route.”

  A flicker of alarm danced through his nerves. “If that’s true, then the Blooded Women may be trying to get her back. We’ve already lost five people. We need to move her away from the village before they come up with something worse than that last demon.”

  Kochan held up a hand to catch their attention. “You can’t move her yet. As weak as she is, it would probably kill her. You need to let her rest until morning if she lives that long. If not, and if I understand the two of you correctly, then it won’t matter anymore. Argus will be truly dead and the Keeper will be gone.”

  Silence hung heavily on them for a moment and they avoided each other’s eyes. Deynas suspected they all had the same thought. Kill her and the threat would go away. In her current state, it wouldn’t take much.

  No one said it aloud.

  Naago leaned back in his chair after a minute, his gaze narrowing in on Kochan. “You studied many of the tomes in the Endless archives. Do you remember coming across the title Umahk-ra-sehndo?”

  “No. It doesn’t sound familiar.”

  “The Keeper was with me when the wind spirit you sent delivered its message. It called her by that title.”

  Deynas also sat back, the brew relaxing his muscles while his thoughts danced around wildly in his head. They had been traveling together before Naago came to the village the first time. The thought sent a spear of jealousy through him. He shoved it aside. She isn’t Argus. “It named her in the Voice of The Undying.”

  Naago nodded significantly.

  “That is very curious.” Kochan rubbed his chin, heavy layers of braids waving with the motion of his head. “If we had access to the archives, there are several tomes I can think of that might provide more insight, but we can’t get to them.”

  Naago drew the ever-present flask out of his pocket and took a long draw then handed it to Kochan who accepted it readily enough.

  Deynas raised his brows inquisitively. “Don’t you ever run out of that stuff?”

  “Not if I can help it.” Naago took the flask back from Kochan and passed it to him.

  “I don’t know that you should mix something that strong with the painkillers,” Kochan warned.

  Deynas shrugged and took a swig then passed it back.

  Naago accepted it and took another
drink before resting it on his thigh. “Why can’t we get to the tomes?”

  “Perhaps you’ve forgotten that the archives are in what they now call the Halls of the Blooded,” Deynas remarked sourly.

  “There has to be a way to get in there.” Naago took another long drink then began to chew thoughtfully at his lip again.

  “My father might know a way.”

  They all glanced up as Settek strode into the room.

  He shrugged off their scowls. “Sorry to intrude. I needed something from my pack and happened to overhear.”

  Naago capped the flask and held it up, raising an eyebrow to Settek. The crossbreed nodded and held up a clawed hand, catching it easily when Naago tossed it over. He took a deep draw before tossing it back.

  Deynas started to shake his head at the crossbreed, stopping quickly when the room began to spin. Perhaps adding the alcohol on top of the painkillers and the drinks he’d had with dinner hadn’t been the best idea. He managed to focus on Settek with some difficulty. “You know your father is a demon, right?”

  Settek grinned and sat down, apparently not needing anything from his pack as badly as he thought. “If you’d set your species prejudice aside and think about what else he is, you might understand why I say that. First, he’s an Undercity warlord. He liked the status quo before the Endless were ousted. Second, he loved an Endless woman who died in the takeover. He might be more willing to help than you think.”

  “Not for free,” Naago remarked caustically.

  Settek lifted his broad shoulders in another shrug. “Nothing’s free in the Undercity, but you two already knew that.”

  Naago glowered a warning at the crossbreed.

  Deynas picked up the brew to finish it off. His coordination failed him and the contents spilled down the front of his shirt.

  “Shit!” He snapped to his feet only to have his legs give out.