The Keeper (The Endless Chronicles Book 1)

by Nikki Mccormack

  Deynas stalked over to Naago and watched him shove things around the hatch for a few seconds. The other Endless did nothing to acknowledge him, which only served to make him more cross.

  “You told Kochan to convince me to stay in the village, didn’t you?”

  Naago glanced sideways at him, his pale eyes narrowing a fraction. “You’re injured.”

  “Don’t give me that shit.” So much for calm and rational. Ah well, he’d never been much of a diplomat anyway. “You didn’t do it out of concern for me. You did it to get the Keeper away from me.”

  On the far side of Naago’s craft, Settek sat on the wing of his flyer, watching them with a bemused smirk. At least someone was enjoying the morning.

  Naago faced Deynas. “What if I did? It’s obvious that having you around is making things more difficult for her.”

  “What things would those be? The decision to kill Argus perhaps? I can’t say I feel too bad about making that harder for her.”

  Naago clenched his jaw. The muscles twitched. He turned back to the hatch.

  Deynas reached out and slammed it shut, narrowly missing the other man’s hand. “What gives you the right to make decisions on her behalf?”

  Naago spun to face him again, one hand sinking toward his sword hilt. Anger flushed his features. “She isn’t Argus!”

  A flare of pain in his shoulder prompted Deynas to take a step back, wary of the confrontation growing physical in his current condition. He struggled to achieve some level of calm. “I know that. Believe me, I do. But Argus is still there and I can’t turn my back on her.” Not again. “Why do you care so much, anyway? What is she to you but a fascinating puzzle?”

  Naago deflated then, all the anger draining away, seeming to leech his energy out with it. “She’s something… someone completely different,” he muttered. “An Endless woman, and yet not. Someone who never knew my ra’sen. Someone I could touch who didn’t make me think of her.”

  Touch? Deynas bit back a flare of jealous temper, trying hard not to become caught up on that one word. It was clear from the sorrow that gave sudden age to Naago’s face that the ra’sen he spoke of was no longer alive. Deynas could think of nothing to say short of several cruel remarks fueled by senseless jealousy, so he said nothing.

  Settek stood and tossed his head, the bright sunlight giving life to his flame-colored mane, then bared his pointed teeth in a grin. “If you’re not going to entertain me with a duel, perhaps we could get moving. It would be a shame if the Keeper returned to find us loitering in the same place she left us, no closer to any answers.”

  Naago and Deynas locked eyes for a moment, sharing the same thought. Would the Keeper return this time? That uncertainty made their disagreement feel petty. Besides, they were bickering over a woman who was much more than just a woman and whom neither of them could truly have. It was an inane argument.

  Deynas turned away and stalked to his flyer. It was past time to move on.

  •

  It was well after dark when they reached the city. Even at this hour, the lingering heat from the day was enough to keep them sweating, all except Settek whose demon blood gave him a higher tolerance to such temperatures. With both Naago and Settek there, it was a cinch to gain admission through one of the illegal Undercity portals. Deynas and Naago donned hooded jackets before venturing out in the streets. The city enforcers were still likely to be watching for Deynas and they had no way to know if Naago might have been spotted leaving the city with him. Until they reached Kato, they were better off staying hidden.

  Settek took them to a secured garage he frequented to park the flyers. Traveling on foot would draw less attention, though it would take a little longer, especially on the route they took. The tall crossbreed knew the back alleys, rooftop walks and hidden corridors of the Undercity better, it seemed, than most knew the hallways in their own homes. Deynas questioned that intimate knowledge while following Settek down a damp hidden corridor infested with black rats and well-fed blood grubs.

  The crossbreed paused and grinned at him. “Father always knows when I’m up to something. Occasionally, if I’m planning something that’s going to draw too much attention, he sends his guards to intervene. The only way I can get away with anything worthwhile is by staying a step ahead of his guards. I’ve invested so much time finding hidden ways around the city that the simple act of driving his guards crazy trying to find me is sometimes more fun than whatever I else I might be trying to get away with.”

  “Perhaps you would get in less trouble if you spent less time in the city.”

  Settek nudged a plump rat that was sniffing at his toe out of the way and continued walking. “Where would I go? The desert is good for racing, but has little else to offer. The nearest city of any size is Ginakwa and the gods that run that place are too damned restrictive. You can’t even carry a weapon within the inner city walls. Demons aren’t allowed in the inner city at all and anyone with demon blood has to serve a two-week probationary period in the outer city before they can be admitted. They even detain most humans, unless they have the precious blood of The Undying in them.” He rolled his eyes.

  Deynas couldn’t hold that against him. Becoming one of the unwelcome ones gave him a new insight into how damaging such restrictions could be. However, the last part wasn’t so true in Ginakwa anymore. Endless could enter inner Ginakwa, but they were encouraged to wrap up business and move on quickly in an effort to maintain peaceful relations with the new owners of this metropolis. Deynas didn’t bother to correct Settek on the subject. His stomach turned when the tail end of a bloated blood grub burst under his heel and he was busy trying not to be sick. The copper stench of warm blood that wafted up didn’t help matters.

  He swallowed hard and tried to focus on their conversation. “Perhaps you could go train in an Endless village. Refine your combat skills.”

  Naago snorted. “Without the Keeper there speaking in his defense, they would never allow a crossbreed to stay in one of the villages, much less train there.”

  “True, but he is part Endless. Perhaps it’s time we opened our minds and our borders a little.”

  Settek gave Deynas a measuring look when he turned sideways to move through a narrower opening leading out to a dim alley. “Perhaps it is. There are more like me than your elders would care to admit, the offspring of Endless who found love in a demon’s embrace. The blood of The Undying doesn’t dilute, not through the many generations that separate you from the first Endless or through the introduction of demon blood in the mix. It always runs strong and true.”

  Deynas glanced over his shoulder at Naago. “Is that right?”

  The other man nodded distractedly, watching his footsteps. With the lingering smell of burst blood grub still thick in his nose, Deynas turned his attention to the ground as well.

  One of the rats scurrying past had a human finger gripped between his teeth, probably a leaving found in one of the fighting ring drainage channels. Several of its opportunistic brethren gave chase, squeaking excitedly. More rats gathered around a chunk of unidentifiable flesh that pulsated with blood grubs and reeked of decay. It was becoming debatable whether the risk of stepping on another ripe grub might be worth not having to look at the floor of the snug alleyway.

  After almost an hour spent in grimy, rank smelling alleys and hidden passages, the back door of Kato’s hotel was a welcome sight. They kept their faces hidden and let Settek take the lead. The door guard let them through, scowling at their dark hoods, and directed them to the office above The Firelight to find the warlord.

  The gambling den was in full swing and there were no less than five of the large centipede-like hypnotists moving around the building. Now that Deynas thought about it, though it was almost too loud inside to think, they were probably more effective crowd control than any of the burly guards. If someone got out of line, they could hypnotize the troublemaker into behaving and continue to profit from their patronage. It wasn’t the most honest way to o
perate, but an honest business wouldn’t last long in the Undercity.

  Kato stood behind his desk, watching the door as if he had expected them, which he probably had. Settek strode boldly into the room. Naago and Deynas stopped inside the door and inclined their heads to the magnificent warlord. Kato glanced over their heads and the door slid shut behind them, then he turned his gold eyes on Settek. Now that Deynas knew they were related, it was remarkable how obvious the similarities were.

  “Did you present yourself as a bearer for the girl?”

  Settek’s brilliant mane dimmed a shade and he bowed his head. “I did, Father. I would not have been allowed, however, had the Keeper not intervened on my behalf.”

  Kato’s eyes flashed. “The Keeper spoke for you? Perhaps she is beginning to connect with some of her own memories through the Endless woman. That’s promising.”

  The demon’s words caught Deynas by surprise. They implied that he might know quite a lot about the Keeper. Deynas opened his mouth to question that and Kato held a palm out to silence him. Glorious color rippled over his arm with the movement. Obedience was inevitable. Deynas closed his mouth and waited.

  “Do you know why the Keeper was there?”

  Settek started to turn toward them for assistance, but Kato’s eyes narrowed and he shifted back to face his father. “As you suspected, she and her host seem to feel a connection with Naago-ra. However, the dead girl and Deynas-ra are from the same tribe as the host. From what I understand, they knew her well before the Blooded Women took her. I believe they’re the primary reason she was there.”

  Kato turned to Deynas and Naago now, bronze and red rippling over his scales as he moved. “And you two have come here to ask something of me.”

  Naago stepped forward. “We need to find a way into the Endless archives.”

  Kato’s gaze held Deynas for a moment, resting so heavy upon him that he had to fight not to sink to his knees before the warlord. Then those gold eyes released him and moved to Naago. “What do you hope to find there?”

  “When the Keeper was traveling with me, a wind spirit came with a message. He addressed her as Umahk-ra-sehndo in the Voice of The Undying. We want to find out more about this.”

  Kato nodded to the door behind them and it opened to admit Kaira. The voluptuous crossbreed brought potent sexual energy into the room, grinning unabashedly at Naago and Deynas each in turn. Naago let desire show through in his smile. Deynas offered a more formal nod, trying to ignore the effect her sumptuous curves had on him and she responded with a perfect teasing pout.

  “Kaira, my dear, please get some drinks for our guests. Add something a little extra for Deynas-ra. I sense that he is injured…” Kato leaned closer to Deynas and inhaled, “…from fighting greater demons, it would seem.”

  “Yes, Father.” She turned and swayed out. The door slid shut again behind her.

  Kato’s gaze lingered on the door for a moment, the gold warming a touch before he returned his attention to them. “You do not need your archives. Umahk-ra-sehndo means Spirit Keeper. It is what The Undying chose to call her when he made her.”

  The Undying made her? A shiver passed through Deynas.

  Naago swayed ever so slightly, then shook himself and walked to a chair to sit down, crossing his legs in the wide seat.

  It was Settek who put voice to what they were all thinking. “The Keeper was made?”

  “Yes. Created by The Undying and others. Several greater demons and gods banded together to create the Keeper. She was our answer to the problem of death, a being that would preserve certain spirits with the ultimate goal of bringing them back later, after we perfected the art of creating new flesh for them. Of course, we made certain that her creators would be among those kept, should the need arise. The Undying gave her life with his blood. She is his child, in a sense, and kin to the Endless. He meant for her to live with the Endless tribe in the village that became the ruins beneath us.”

  Deynas shook his head and Kato’s gold eyes regarded him with infectious serenity, encouraging him to speak his mind.

  “If that’s true, why don’t the tribes know more about her?”

  “The Endless tribe that built those ruins was killed off in their entirety by demons roughly fourteen hundred years ago. Much of their knowledge was lost with them.”

  Naago nodded, confirming the warlord’s words. “We know they existed, but we know almost nothing more than that about them.”

  Settek took a seat as the door opened and Kaira returned with a tray of drinks. She passed them around then took the last and sat next to her brother, curling her legs up into the chair like a little girl. Deynas took a swallow of his drink. Soothing warmth moved swept through him, concentrating at the worst of his injuries and easing the pain. Something this potent certainly wasn’t legal, but now didn’t seem a sensible time for embracing moral conceits. He took another long swallow.

  The door slid shut once more and Kato went on. “The Undying kept that tribe isolated from the others while we perfected the Keeper. Acting as the Keeper’s host was intended to be a position of great honor. The host and Keeper were meant to coexist within one body, two spirits living in harmony, a joining that proved strongest when the Endless woman was umahk-ra-en-mahde.”

  “Is the host always a woman?” Naago asked when Kato paused.

  “Yes. The Keeper’s nature is female. We needed a being that would be naturally inclined to nurture and protect the kept spirits. She has her own thoughts and memories, but her only physical form without a host is as a seed meant to house her spirit and those she has kept. She is not designed to exist alone. When placed in a host, that seed expands throughout the body and over part of the flesh as the black roots you have both seen.”

  Naago nodded as if the answer was everything he expected. Deynas found himself wondering again how much of her skin those roots covered and exactly how much of them the other Endless man had seen.

  “When demons destroyed the original tribe, the Blooded Women stripped the Keeper’s spirit from her and imprisoned it. I’m unsure of the motive behind their actions. They may simply be trying to prevent the rebirth of the spirits she keeps or those controlling the Blooded Women may be looking for a way to use those spirits to strengthen their own the same way a spirit fragment strengthens the spirit of the umahk-ra-uden.” Kato gave Naago and Deynas both significant looks. Somehow, he knew that about them as well.

  “The Blooded Women take away her memories every time they move her to a new host and store them with her spirit so that they can manipulate her and make her believe this is how she is supposed to be. Sometimes those memories start to return to her and they have to move her again. This time, they made the rather significant mistake of placing her within an umahk-ra-en-mahde.”

  Deynas felt a little like a child newborn and ignorant of the world. It was an irritating sensation. “How do you know so much? How do you know what we are and what Argus is?”

  Kato didn’t acknowledge him this time. The warlord would only give them the answers he wanted them to have.

  “If The Undying created the Keeper, why would he allow demons to take control of her? Why hasn’t he done anything to stop this?” Naago asked.

  “Those are things we can discuss at another time. There are more important matters that require your attention now.” The warlord turned toward Deynas and held his hand out. Something dangled from one claw, sparkling in the light of the room. It was the chain with the god’s blood pendant. Deynas grabbed for it and Kato drew it back out of reach. “You gave her this?”

  Deynas forced his hand back to his side, his pulse pounding in his ears. The healing heat in his shoulder was like a small fire now, making him feel feverish. “How did you get that?”

  “Why did you give it to her?”

  “To protect her.”

  Kato’s expression was unreadable as stone, his body and the colors unchanging for the first time since Deynas met him. “To protect the Keeper or to protect the
Endless woman who is hosting her?”

  The gravity in the warlord’s tone told Deynas that the answer was of considerable importance to him. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a question he was keen to answer, nor could he see how it mattered. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to defy Kato. The Keeper and Argus existed in the same body. To protect one was to protect the other, wasn’t it?

  His face grew warm when he thought of her, the Keeper as she was now, Argus as she was then. It made very little difference how he thought of her and that surprised him.

  Kato shifted his folded wings. Color rippled through them, rich, comforting color.

  “Both,” Deynas answered.

  Kato held the pendant out to him again and he took it, the reassuring weight of the stone sliding into his palm as Kato released the chain. “She came here to give this to me because she knew you would come. I think her plan was to give herself to the Blooded Women.”

  Naago jumped up from the chair. “Where is she now?”

  “I sent her to find herself in the Halls of the Blooded beneath the ruins. She is Umahk-ra-sehndo’en-mahde now. She is as strong as she has ever been, but I don’t think she is confident enough yet to free her spirit alone. She will need help.”

  Deynas closed his fist around the pendant. “Then we have to go after her.”

  “Don’t fret. I didn’t tell her precisely how to get to what she is searching for, though she will be drawn there eventually. With you, I will send a guide. You have time to finish your drinks. You especially, Deynas-ra. No matter how much you care for her, you will be of no use to her if your injuries get you killed along the way.”

  As if of one mind, Deynas and Naago both slammed the remainder of their drinks.

  Settek chuckled and followed their example.

  Kaira shook her head at them and did the same.

  Naago put a hand on the arm of his chair and sank back into it. Deynas wavered on his feet as the room spun around him. He dropped into the nearest chair.