The Last Keeper's Daughter

by Rebecca Trogner

  “The Archives.” Meirta wiped a tear from her cheek. “The artifacts.” She looked to Merlin. “Mathers?”

  “This was foreseen.” Merlin smiled. “We made arrangements.”

  “The Elder could come back?” Hunter asked.

  “His presence has not been felt for days.” Merlin placed his hand on the table and leaned forward.

  “Then who’s in charge?” Hunter already knew the answer, he felt it in his gut, but he had to ask. The Elder was gone. Yes, he knew it was true. He’d known on the plane that the Elder was dying, but not how he knew. The knowledge was there, but he didn’t understand its source. He looked at Lily, so very much like the Elder in looks, and wondered again if he was the only one that thought she resembled Huthwiat.

  “We, the vampires, have taken charge.” The king didn’t look too happy about it.

  “How do the Others feel about that?” Hunter wondered if anyone would mourn Huthwiat.

  “It is the most logical solution for now.” Meirta didn’t sound happy either.

  “How could Huthwiat be dead?” Again, Hunter asked no one in particular.

  “He gave you his true name.” The king’s gaze narrowed into a cobra’s stare.

  “I guess.”

  “You and Meirta will take up permanent residence within my court. Merlin will take care of any needs you may have.”

  Hunter hadn’t expected that. Actually, he hadn’t thought through the ramifications of Huthwiat’s disappearance.

  “And what if I don’t want to be here?”

  It was clear that the king had other things weighing on his mind. He gave Hunter a half glance and lifted one shoulder. “You are no prisoner. I will accept whatever you decide.” He walked over to stand behind Lily’s chair.

  Hunter mulled that. He watched as the king whispered something to Lily. His fingers ran down her arm, like one would stroke a treasured cat. She didn’t recoil or show any sign that she knew he was there. He followed her eyes to the television screen. What was she looking at so fixedly?

  “There.” Lily pointed towards the screen.

  Merlin used the remote to freeze the picture.

  “He’s there.” She said it like a child seeing Santa. Then he saw what she was looking at. There, in the crowd, looking like he was staring straight at them, was the man that they were looking for. The man in Lily’s visions.

  “Press the record button; it should record back to when you turned on the television,” Hunter said.

  “I know.” Merlin sounded slightly annoyed.

  “Play it back until he first appears.” Hunter looked to Lily. “Was he always there?”

  They all watched as the young man wove his way through the crowd. He went as far as the police line would let him, staring at where the building once stood. Then he looked into the camera, almost like he knew they were watching.

  “We know he’s not a ghost.” Actually, everyone else seemed to know it wasn’t a ghost, but Hunter had thought it a possibility. He went to the screen. “You can see how the people around him react to his movements. He’s clearly there.” The man was dressed in jeans and a white shirt, nothing out of the ordinary.

  They all watched as he stood there looking into the camera. Then he turned and walked away.

  Krieger was on his mobile and from the tone of his voice, giving orders. He was speaking in a language Hunter didn’t recognize. Hunter turned back to the screen. He took control of the remote from Merlin, and now hit the pause button. “We always recorded the bystanders at a crime scene. Criminals sometimes enjoy seeing their work appreciated,” Hunter explained.

  “You think the beautiful man did this?” Lily shook her head. “He would never do this.”

  Hunter watched Krieger disconnect his call and give her an unreadable look. “Why do you say that?”

  She turned around in her chair to face Krieger. “I know it. He didn’t do this. He’s lost.”

  Hunter went back to the beginning again, carefully cataloging the faces in the crowd. Then he rewound to look at the buildings, windows, rooftops, etc. That’s when he saw it, staring down from the top of an adjacent building. The cameraman had panned down, way down into the hole, and then let his lens roam up the building, probably to give the viewer perspective. “What the fuck is that?”

  “The revenant,” the king said.

  They watched as the revenant leaned over the edge of the building next to what had been the Foundation. It wasn’t perfectly clear, the cameraman wasn’t trying to focus on it, and probably never saw it. It was a nightmare, bald, emaciated, with large eyes. Its malformed arm reached for the edge, and then it was gone.

  “Could the man in your vision and that thing be working together?”

  “No!” Lily yelled. It was the loudest he’d ever heard her voice. “No.” She grabbed the king’s arm. “He wouldn’t do anything to harm anyone. You believe me, don’t you?”

  “Lily, we don’t know that,” the king said. “I have men there. They will report back what they find.”

  “Your men, you won’t let them hurt him?” Lily asked.

  “I must attend to business,” the king said to everyone. He leaned down and whispered something to Lily, and then disappeared.

  Would he ever get used to the fluidity and speed of the vampires’ movements? Probably not.

  Merlin metaphorically took up the baton dropped by the king’s sudden departure, and started the night’s investigation. “Walter’s libraries have been relocated here. We thought it was too risky leaving them at Waverly.”

  Merlin turned towards a doorway that Hunter had not noticed. It was very ordinary, which made it look extraordinary in this place. The height of the door was maybe eight feet, very short compared to the rest of the compound. He watched as Merlin turned the brass knob. With a whoosh came the smell of ozone. Merlin flipped on the light switch and the fluorescent lighting above activated with a pop, pop, pop.

  When Hunter was around thirteen, his mother had taken him to the Library of Congress. He remembered the sharp contrast between the ornately decorated public areas and the newer, almost industrial sections that were housed underneath. This room reminded him of those back rooms. Lined up perpendicular to the walls were bookcases, bolted into the floor and secured into the ceiling. He couldn’t tell how many of them there were in the room, they seemed to go on forever. In the middle of the floor were tables, chairs and reading lamps.

  Merlin looked at him and smiled. “Eventually these will all be filled. To my knowledge you are the only human given access to such knowledge. How does it make you feel?”

  He twisted the ring the Elder had given him. His hand was tingling. “It makes me feel old.”

  Merlin nodded. “Miss?” He motioned to Lily. “It is as we found it.” He pointed to a book on the table.

  She slowly turned it over in her hands.

  “Your father showed this copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to the king the night he flew to England. Inside were some drawings and notes.” Merlin pointed towards the back of the book. “I noticed that a few pages are missing.”

  “I thought my home was guarded,” Lily said, frowning. “How could anyone get in there?”

  Liam stepped forward. “My men have not encountered anyone.”

  “Who knows when the pages were ripped out? It could have been done by your father,” Hunter said.

  “Why?” She looked so innocent.

  “Who knows? People do things all the time that make sense only to them. Maybe he thought they’d be useful. Maybe he burned them. Maybe they were torn out years ago. Maybe we’ll never know.”

  This was the part of his job that civilians never understood. They thought everything could be mapped out, but it couldn’t, because life involved randomness and chance.

  She took it as well as most people, and turned back to the book, fanning through the pages. “I need to study this. It might take a while.”

  Liam sat down between her and the door.

/>   “When you’re ready, I’ll be right outside,” Merlin said.

  Hunter and Meirta followed him out to the banquet hall.

  “Merlin,” Hunter said. “If you catch the revenant, what will you do with it?”

  Merlin moved his eyes to Lily and then back. “He will be questioned.”

  Hunter knew he was gauging his words. What he meant was that the revenant would be interrogated, or worse. “Will they bring him here?”

  “Here, you are mad. No.”

  “What about the man?”

  Noncommittally, Merlin shrugged.

  Something outside in the garden caught Hunter’s eye. He looked, couldn’t believe what he had just seen, and blinked. When he opened up his eyes again they were still there. Three gigantic men – he was using that term loosely – with arms the size of tree trunks, and bodies that looked hewn from stone, stood waiting outside. Tusk-like teeth protruded from their lower jaws. A thick ridge rested above their deep set eyes which burned like red embers.

  “Ah, good, they’ve arrived.” Merlin smiled and walked out the French doors.

  Hunter knew he had an absurd smile on his face. He watched in fascination and horror as they shook hands in greeting. Softly, because everything around here seemed to have bat hearing, he asked, “What are they?”

  “Unseens.” Meirta smiled. “Dragon Men.”

  He was wondering what the Dragon Women looked like. Meirta didn’t even look at him, but answered his thought.

  “They mate with human women.”

  He couldn’t help but ask, “How do they get anyone to have sex with them?” Lookers they were not.

  He’d said it too loud. The Dragon Man standing closest to the windows, to the left of their leader, looked at him. Flames shot out of his eyes. Hunter swallowed hard and quickly looked away.

  Lily must have heard the commotion; she stood to his right looking at the new arrivals. Without a word, she turned around and went back to the king’s archives.

  “This is good,” Liam said.

  “Very good,” Meirta agreed, and touched Hunter’s arm. “There are many kinds of Unseen. The king has offered them all a place at court.”

  “Why?” Hunter couldn’t take his eyes off them. “Didn’t they have a place before?”

  “They lived in their own way. Now they must choose sides. All the Others feel it.”

  He read between the lines. “You’re telling me that there will be more arriving? How will they stay undetected by the humans?” He’d done it again, referred to ‘the humans’ like he wasn’t one.

  Liam smiled, his sharp teeth gleaming in the firelight. “You have no need to worry. We’ve survived centuries concealing ourselves from the humans. Even if they do see, they deny their own eyes.”

  It was obvious from their body language that the Dragon Men were happy to be here. Two royal guards came from the house and Merlin pointed off to the west. They all turned, except for Merlin, and walked out of sight.

  “Drago’s whole tribe is here. The Unseens have heard the king’s call.” Merlin sounded very pleased as he walked back inside. “An Ancient has awakened from his long slumber and will be arriving soon.”

  Hunter was a heartbeat from asking about the Ancient when Lily yelled out for Merlin.

  “Miss,” Merlin answered.

  They walked in to find her pointing to a page in the book which was propped up on a stand. “I’ve seen that before.”

  Hunter stepped closer. The page was full of what looked like gibberish to him, doodle type drawings, things scrawled in bad handwriting all over the page.

  “What?” Hunter asked.

  She pointed to a box.

  Now that he knew it was there it did sort of stick out. The box was drawn very precisely, maybe with a ruler, because its lines were perfectly straight, as opposed to everything else on the page.

  Lily glanced up at Merlin and Liam. “Have you seen it before?”

  Hunter watched as Liam stepped forward while Merlin did not.

  “No,” Liam said.

  “I can’t deal with anymore dismembered bodies,” Hunter blurted out.

  Merlin laughed. “It was brought over with the books. You’ll find no corpse inside.”

  “There’s something about it,” Lily said each word slowly.

  Hunter felt that prickly feeling, his copper sense. Lily was straining to remember. It didn’t take a genius to see that. It was almost painful to watch her.

  Liam moved to her side.

  “I will get the king,” Merlin said.

  “No, just bring me the box.” Lily sounded too weary for one so young.

  Merlin walked down the row of shelves until he turned left and disappeared but for the sound of his shoe heels. It took a few minutes until he reappeared with a small box. Hunter knew why Merlin had laughed at his worry about a body being inside.

  “It’s quite fortuitous we brought this back with us,” Merlin said, carrying the box in the palm of his hand. “If it hadn’t been on Walter’s work table we would have left it behind.” The drawing had been large and detailed – Hunter had thought it would be the size of the strong box. It was a cube measuring about five inches. His mother had been a collector of trinket boxes made in Japan immediately following World War II, then known as Occupied Japan. He was tempted to flip it over to see if it was stamped. It was poorly made of wood and painted an unattractive black. The lacquer had chipped and yellowed in places. The design painted around the box matched the drawing in the book, a red dragon with its long tail circling the box.

  Hunter took a deep breath and concentrated on the rest of the room instead of grabbing the box and opening it. Merlin watched Lily intently. Liam slowly scanned the room. Meirta looked bored. Lily was utterly fixated on the box.

  Hunter waited, changed his stance, silently counted to ten, then twenty, and finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Would you like me to open it?”

  Merlin gave him an amused look. Hunter watched while he slowly and methodically unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves to his forearm. There were intricate tattoos covering his arms.

  The sorcerer reached out and let his hand hover directly over the box. Hunter ignored everything but the markings on Merlin’s arms. They were interwoven, maybe tribal, definitely not for decoration. For just a split second he saw what he thought was a tattoo of a serpent uncoil and slide down Merlin’s forearm towards his hand. Hunter blinked to clear his eyes.

  When he opened them Merlin had placed his arms behind his back and was giving him the amused look again. “There is nothing of harm inside. Open it, if you wish.”

  Lily looked at Hunter and nodded.

  The box was extremely light. Hunter bounced it in his hand and felt something shift inside. Someone had placed tape over the top to keep it from opening.

  “Should I pull it off?” He felt ridiculous asking but he knew the adhesive in the tape would destroy the paint.

  “Here.” Liam reached out his paw of a hand. With the other he pulled out a knife. It was military grade, blackened with no reflective surfaces, and the blade was sharpened above and below, partially serrated on the underside, and almost indestructible.

  It was delicate work, cutting the tape at the intersection of the lid, but Liam made short work of it and gave it back to him. Hunter looked at Lily, wondering if she’d like to do the honors.

  “Just open it,” she said quickly.

  The tape wasn’t needed. The box had swollen and he had to twist the lid back and forth a few times until it came off.

  “It’s just an old key.” He pulled it out by the attached red ribbon and held it up for everyone to see. He hadn’t known what to expect, but this wasn’t it.

  “A skeleton key,” Merlin corrected.

  Lily sat perfectly still, staring at the key as it dangled back and forth. Hunter placed it on the table and pushed it towards her. She jumped up and back, tipping over her chair.

  “Miss.” Merlin moved closer to her.
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br />   Had he missed something? Lily acted like he’d pulled out a venomous snake. Liam came up behind her just as her knees buckled.

  “What is it?” Liam asked.

  A gale of wind almost swept Hunter off his feet. When he looked up, he expected to see the king, and he did, but this time there was another vampire with him. Meirta was slowly filling him in on all the supernatural capabilities. He knew Krieger was attuned to Lily’s emotions and her fear had brought him here. Lily reminded him of a tiny planet that controlled a giant moon with her gravitational pull. Hunter watched them for a moment, and then moved his attention to the new vampire.

  Merlin was the first to say his name. “Lucien.” He gave him a small nod.

  “Sorcerer,” Lucien said. It was respectful, short, to the point.

  Hunter wouldn’t have pegged him for a Lucien. He was dressed conservatively, in dark slacks and a gray shirt, and even to Hunter’s unfashionable eye, the clothes were expensive. He was large and muscular like the king, maybe an inch shorter. His hair was dark and cut short. If he’d been less large, less rugged, he would have been considered handsome. Hunter’s mother’s phrase popped into his head – a man’s man is what she would have called him. Strapped to his back was a sword of some type. The leather of the sheath was oiled the dark rich color of coffee. Hunter could see the hilt behind his right shoulder. It shined like mercury, and almost seemed to move within its shape.

  Meirta bowed low and waited until Lucien addressed her before rising. “Little Minder, it’s good that you are here,” Lucien said in a half joking manner. “Some at Legacy were not so lucky.”

  So Hunter was right; he’d felt the king and Merlin were involved in the explosion. He’d been around them both long enough, and knew they thought strategically. They’d sensed the Elder’s power waning, and had taken action and stolen, saved – it depended on which side you were on – the contents of the Foundation.

  Lucien turned his attention Hunter’s way. “A full blooded human,” Lucien said, looking him over.

  He’d never seen eyes like Lucien’s before. They were black as coal, no differentiation between pupil and iris.