Fire Keep

by J. Scott Savage

“Did that go according to plan?” Riph Raph asked, nursing a badly sprained tail. They were back in the cabin, each of them banged up and bruised.

  “I told you before; I didn’t have a plan,” Marcus said, holding a wet cloth to his eye. “I assumed the point of this quest was to show what we’d learned from the last one.”

  “I think we can safely conclude that that’s not the case,” Kyja said. She turned a carving knife left and right, wincing at the reflection of an egg-sized lump on her forehead. “Are you sure you can’t heal this? It looks like I have a second nose.”

  “Sorry,” Marcus said. “Land magic doesn’t have any healing spells. At least none I’ve learned.”

  Kyja sighed and put down the knife. They’d searched the entire house, but found no weapons to fight a dragon with. Which made sense. If the people who had lived here owned weapons that could have destroyed a dragon, they’d still be here.

  “What kinds of things can you do with land magic?” she asked. There had to be something they could cast that would give them an advantage.

  Marcus sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Digging holes. Filling up holes. Moving rocks and stuff. Seeing through the eyes of plants and animals.”

  “Seal its cave off,” Riph Raph said. “We could suffocate it.”

  “I don’t have that kind of power,” Marcus said. “That little avalanche was pretty much the limit of my abilities, and it barely gave us enough time to escape.”

  “Besides,” Kyja said. “Suffocating the dragon would kill the family, too.”

  Marcus found a couple of apples under the table and offered one to Kyja. She shook her head. “Ever since I died, I’m not hungry.”

  Marcus took a bite of his and wiped juice from his chin. “If you’re already dead, how did you almost die when you got stabbed?”

  Kyja shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about that ever since it happened. I shouldn’t have been able to get stabbed any more than I should have this lump on my head. I think this is all some kind of illusion.”

  Riph Raph licked his bent tail and sniffed. “Feels real to me.”

  “What about that seeing thing?” Kyja asked. “Is there any way you could look through the dragon’s eyes and get an idea of what’s going on in its lair? Or maybe look through one of the family members’ eyes?”

  “I’m pretty sure dragons are immune to magic,” Marcus said. “Even if they weren’t, that wouldn’t work. Plants are easy. But Lanctrus-Darnoc said that you can only see through the eyes of animals who have had a profound influence on your life.”

  Kyja got up and began looking through the belongings of the family who had lived in the cabin. She found a big bed and a little bed. Clothing in adult sizes and a child’s sizes. Adult books and children’s stories. All of the items were pointed reminders that a family needed help, and they had no way to give it.

  “You said that water elementals are known for logic and reason. What are land elementals known for?”

  Marcus lay back on the floor, resting his head in his hands. “Having giant wings and arguing with each other.” He laughed. “I don’t know. Wisdom, I guess. Learning things and teaching them to others. They have this huge library in Land Keep with, like, every book in the world.”

  “Books?” Kyja went back to the stack of thick leather volumes she’d glanced at earlier. Was there a chance one of those might help? She skimmed through each of the titles. She found books about trapping, skinning, and cooking. She opened one on mining, and the pages flipped to a section covered with handwritten notes.

  “Look at this,” she said, studying the pages. “It says that the cave where the dragon lives used to be a gold mine. According to these notes, the people who lived here have been exploring the mine for a while. They discovered several air vents leading into the mountain.”

  Marcus pushed himself to his feet and limped to her side. He studied the pages over Kyja’s shoulder. “Air vents won’t help us. See, the miners were hoping to use the vents to get into the cave. But the openings are too small to climb through.”

  “They’re too small for us,” Kyja said. “But not for Riph Raph.”

  “Maybe negotiating wasn’t such a bad idea,” Riph Raph said. “We probably got off on the wrong talon last time.”

  Marcus sat with his eyes closed. “Be quiet and let me concentrate.” Seeing through the eyes of plants had been easy, but seeing through the eyes of an animal was proving to be much more complicated. It was like trying to make his way through a maze with millions of possible doors. Every time he thought he was getting close, he’d take a wrong turn and end up having to start over.

  “I need you to help me,” he told the skyte. “You have to guide me to your eyes.”

  “No thanks,” Riph Raph said. “We skytes don’t like things inside us unless we ate them. Why don’t you try looking through the eyes of a bird or a bug?”

  Marcus ground his teeth. “I told you, it has to be something I’ve been influenced by. And a bug won’t help us. I need something that can go down the air shaft and free the family.”

  “There are so many problems with that plan,” Riph Raph said, counting them off on his talons. “One, I don’t want anyone or anything in my head. It gives me the jim-jams. Two, I am not going into a dragon’s lair. No way, no how. Three, no. Just, no.” He put his wings over his head and shuddered.

  Kyja scratched the skyte behind his ears. “Marcus promised he would create a distraction once you’re inside.”

  “And if the dragon doesn’t get distracted?” Riph Raph asked. “You two are safe out here, and I get cooked.”

  “What do you want to do instead?” Marcus asked, slamming his fist against his leg. “Leave them to die?”

  “I thought you said you trusted each other,” Kyja said. “You both took chances to save me.”

  Marcus and Riph Raph looked at each other.

  “I trust Riph Raph as much as anyone I know,” Marcus said.

  The skyte waggled his ears. Kyja waited. “Fine,” the skyte said. “I trust him.”

  Kyja nodded. “From what you two told me about land elementals, it seems like there is something else they must have in common besides wisdom and learning. Can you imagine how much trust it would take to commit to spend the rest of your life attached to another creature? It’s the same kind of trust family members need to have in one another.”

  “You don’t have to let me look through your eyes,” Marcus said. “I trust that you’ll get to the family. We can work out a signal, or a count, or something.”

  “No, I’ll let you see through my eyes.” The skyte sighed. “But if that dragon singes a single one of my scales, I’m holding both of you personally responsible.”

  Marcus closed his eyes and again tried to find his way to seeing through Riph Raph. This time it was like having a friend take his hand and guide him through the maze’s twists and turns. A moment later, the world came into sharp focus.

  “Wow!” He gasped. “I’ve never seen things so clearly before. Even water vision didn’t have this kind of detail.” He opened his eyes but continued to see through the skyte.

  “Of course,” Riph Raph said. “Skytes have the greatest eyesight of any creature who soars above the ground.”

  Marcus had gotten used to Riph Raph’s constant boasting. But this time he thought the skyte’s claim might actually be true. “Remember,” he said, “once you find the family, wait for our diversion. Then free them and find a way to get them out of the cave entrance.”

  As Riph Raph soared into the sky, Marcus felt his stomach lurch. Trees, rocks, and grass raced by below him in detail great enough that he could see a furry, white creature peek out from beneath a rock, a tiny purple flower nod in the wind, and a pine cone drop from a tree branch then bounce its way to the ground. What must it have be like to spend every second of every day with this kind of sensory input?

  “Is he there yet?” Kyja asked.

  “He’s spotted the air shaft,” Marcus said. “
He’s going down now.”

  The sky disappeared and, he found himself in a dark tunnel. Even with the skyte’s keen vision, it was difficult to make anything out. Riph Raph glanced up toward the opening, and Marcus whispered, “Don’t give up.”

  “What’s he doing?” Kyja asked, squeezing his hand.

  With his vision coming through Riph Raph’s eyes, Marcus couldn’t see her, or anything around him. He would be completely reliant on Kyja to guide him when the time came for him to do his part.

  Marcus held his breath. Riph Raph glanced toward the light above him one more time, then began crawling down the tunnel. “He’s doing it,” Marcus said. “He’s going in.”

  For several minutes, he couldn’t see anything at all. It was a strange sensation to see no light or color, despite the fact that his eyes were open, and he knew that it was the middle of the day—a small taste of what it must feel like to be blind. He spotted a glow ahead.

  “I think he’s almost there.” The glow grew brighter. It was a room, a huge cavern filled with piles of treasure, weapons, armor, shields, and . . . bones. Was it too late? Had the dragon eaten the family?

  Riph Raph looked left and spotted the dragon, who was searching suspiciously around the room as though he sensed someone nearby.

  “Now,” Marcus said, gripping Kyja’s hand. “Point me toward the cave entrance.”

  Taking Marcus’s shoulders, Kyja turned his body slightly to the left, and he held out his hands. He’d said that land magic was mostly good for things like digging and filling holes. That was true. But digging could be done quite rapidly. And when it was . . .

  A boom rattled the air, and Marcus felt the ground shake beneath him. He blasted another hole, and another. Boom. Boom.

  Kyja squeezed his hand. “That’s incredible.”

  Inside its lair, the dragon’s head spun around. It roared and shot a plume of flame toward the mouth of the cave.

  “It’s working,” Kyja said. “Here it comes.”

  Watching from Riph Raph’s eyes, Marcus saw the dragon disappear through the cave entrance. “Go,” he urged the skyte.

  Riph Raph launched himself out of the vent and soared around the dragon’s lair. The skyte darted around the cave, searching for the family. For a second, Marcus was afraid that the family really had been killed, but then he saw them in the back of the cavern, locked in a large cage. Riph Raph flew down and began working the lock with his talons as the family crowded around the door. The mother and father said something, but, with no sound, Marcus couldn’t tell what.

  The key now was to keep creating diversions. Marcus used every bit of land magic he knew—blasting holes, dropping rocks, creating walls of dirt.

  “Hurry,” he whispered.

  Kyja’s grip tightened until she was crushing Marcus’s fingers. “The dragon sees us. What do we do now?”

  Marcus hadn’t thought that far.

  “It’s coming!” Kyja yelled.

  Riph Raph had the cage open, and the family was climbing out. But escaping would take a couple of more minutes.

  A roar shook the air, and Marcus felt a blast of fire inches above his head.

  “Look out!” Kyja screamed.

  Marcus wanted to see what was happening, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the family until he knew they were safe. He had no way to fight the dragon, and they’d never be able to escape from it with him being unable to see and having a bad leg.

  Doing the only thing he could think of, Marcus dug a hole right under them. They fell through the air and hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of them

  “What are you doing?” Kyja shouted. “It’s right on top of us.”

  Marcus smelled the dragon’s sulfuric breath and gave them the only cover he was able to—piles of rock and dirt flew over them. He did his best to provide a little breathing space, but he wasn’t that skilled with land magic. Dirt filled his mouth, nose, and ears. He clung tight to Kyja, hoping she understood what he was doing.

  Over his head, the dragon’s roar shook the ground, and he could feel it clawing its way through the dirt and rocks toward them. The family was running for the entrance. They were almost free, but he had no idea what he’d do after they’d escaped. Rocks and dirt tumbled around him. Something banged against his head, and he instinctively pulled his vision back to his own eyes.

  The dragon was right above them, its razor teeth close enough to touch. It drew back its head, sucked in a breath, and blasted a wall of flame toward them. He dove on the top of Kyja, knowing it wouldn’t do any good, and—

  They stepped through a doorway into a crystal room.

  31: The Third Gate

  Kyja threw her hands up, waiting for the flames to turn her and Marcus to ash, before realizing that the dragon was gone. They were no longer in a hole covered with dirt. Her lumps and bruises had disappeared. They stood inside the door of a huge room with walls and a ceiling that glittered like ice.

  “I am so sorry,” Marcus said, throwing an arm around her. “I nearly got you killed. What was I thinking?”

  “Are you kidding?” Kyja squeezed Marcus in a bear hug so tight it made him gasp for breath. “You were amazing! I would never have thought to bury us in a hole. I’ll bet that stupid dragon had never seen anything like that in its life.”

  “I was pretty amazing too,” Riph Raph said. “Did you see the way I flew right past that dragon? I was like, ‘Please, you don’t scare me. You’re nothing but a big flying lizard.’ And he was like, ‘I’m getting out of here.’ Then I picked the lock on the cage—an impossible task if it wasn’t for my superb talent and brains. And the family was all, ‘You’re incredible. Thank you for saving us. What can we ever do to repay you?’ And I was all—”

  “You were both great,” Kyja said. “And we did it. We saved the family.”

  She looked slowly round the room they’d entered. It was like something out of a storybook. Glittering floors, beautiful pools with dancing fountains. The ceiling curved into a majestic dome, and glowing, pastel-colored globes lent the space a feeling of peace and tranquility.

  A thick mist coalesced before them until it formed the image of a beautiful woman. “Welcome,” she said.

  Kyja felt that she was in the presence of a higher being. She held out the sides of her gown and curtsied.

  Marcus must have felt the same way, because he bowed as low as he could while holding his staff. “We did it, Your Majesty,” Marcus said. “We saved the family. We passed the test.”

  “You need not address me as Your Majesty,” the woman said in a regal tone that made Kyja think of goddesses and queens. “It was not a test. Whether you succeeded in saving the family does not matter. What is important is what you learned in the attempt.”

  “Hang on,” Riph Raph said, perching on the edge of a fountain. “Are you saying that we risked our lives for nothing?”

  “Riph Raph,” Kyja scolded. Had the skyte always been this annoying? If so, how had they stayed friends all these years?

  Instead of being offended, the woman only smiled. “Life is full of trials. Sometimes you succeed. Other times, you fail. In the end, it is not the count of successes and failures you take with you, but the knowledge gained in the pursuit.”

  Marcus scratched his head. “Did any of that really happen? Did we save a family from a dragon? Or was it, like, some kind of super-realistic 3D movie?”

  The woman laughed, and overhead, the crystal globes tinkled in response. “You may choose to believe whatever you like.”

  “I believe I was the most heroic skyte in the history of skytes,” Riph Raph said. “And that’s saying something, because there have been some seriously heroic skytes.”

  The woman nodded, her eyes twinkling. “What did you learn?”

  Kyja thought carefully. She didn’t want to get her answer wrong. “I learned that working together is important. None of us could have accomplished what we did alone.”

  “I learned that logic and magic
aren’t the only way to solve a problem,” Marcus said. “If we hadn’t read the book and learned from other people’s experiences, we wouldn’t have come up with the plan we did.”

  “I learned that dragons have way too much treasure,” Riph Raph said. “Talk about greedy.”

  “Good lessons all,” the woman said. “They will serve you well in your ultimate quest. And now it is time for another lesson.” The mist the woman was made of began to thin. Looking at her was like looking at a slightly out of focus picture.

  “Wait,” Marcus said. “Before you go, have you been watching us too, while we’ve been trying to open the drift? Do you know about our quest to open a doorway between Farworld and Earth?”

  “I watch all.” The woman’s silver eyes glinted with hidden knowledge. “I know much.”

  Marcus stepped toward the mist, his hand wrapped around his staff. “I have a question. If we open the drift—when we open the drift—what happens next? Kyja can go to Earth, and I can come here, but does the door stay open? Can we always go back and forth through it? And what’s the danger we’re supposed to save our worlds from? What are we supposed to do? It seems like no one is willing to talk about what comes after.”

  “The doorway may open but once,” the woman said. She was so insubstantial now it was like looking at a painting that was almost completely washed away by the rain. “What goes through it may not return. If you open it, all will become clear.”

  “What does that mean?” Kyja asked. “Are you saying that if Marcus comes here and I go to Earth the drift will close? We’ll never see each other again? That’s not fair. How could you do that to us?” She hadn’t known the boy for long—at least not in her current memory—but already she couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from him forever.

  “All will become clear.” The woman was nothing but bits of washed out color. “Choose the right door,” she said as she disappeared, “and learn from your success. Choose the wrong door, and learn from your pain.”

  Ten shimmering doors appeared on the other side of the room, and the mist was gone.