Water Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  “That’s right,” Master Therapass said. “You wanted to help him.”

  All at once the image disappeared and was replaced by a silver nothingness that Marcus at first thought was empty.

  “No,” Kyja said, shaking her head. And again louder, “No!”

  Marcus leaned closer to the aptura discerna and realized the window wasn’t quite empty. In the middle of the nothingness, something small and white hung suspended. He leaned closer still, and a cold bead of sweat rolled down the middle of his back.

  Floating like a ship in an endless sea of silvery clouds was a figure. It hung, unmoving, its arms and legs bent, and its hands clenched as though gripping a chair that wasn’t there. Its eyes were closed, and its features were so small as to be impossible to make out. But he had no question who it was.

  Himself.

  Chapter 31

  The Best of Intentions

  Kyja pulled back from the aptura discerna, her face bathed in sweat. The swirling silver clouds gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, even after she looked up from the window. Watching the other images was slightly disorienting, but none of them made her feel the way the nothingness had—as if human eyes weren’t meant to see that shapeless mist.

  “Where is that place?” she asked Master Therapass. “And how can Marcus be here and there at the same time?”

  The wizard brushed his hand over the aptura discerna, and the window returned to its previous stained-glass appearance. “Part of Marcus is here. Your desire to save him from almost certain death appears to have forged a link between the two of you. You summoned him here using that link. But you couldn’t bring him all the way across—the Scales of Order wouldn’t allow it. Another part of him is trapped between our two worlds.”

  He looked at Kyja and chuckled. “You asked me back in the tower if I thought you had magic, little one. That you were able to summon even a part of Marcus shows magic greater than any I have ever seen. Magic I don’t even pretend to understand.”

  “Is that why he’s sick?” she asked. “Because part of him is stuck between worlds?” They both turned to Marcus, whose face looked pale and drawn. His eyes—underscored by dark circles which hadn’t been there an hour earlier—roved wearily between the wizard and Kyja.

  Master Therapass nodded. “I believe it is. I returned to Terra ne Staric for two reasons. One I won’t discuss with you at this time. The other was to uncover everything I could find on portals.”

  The wizard picked up the fragile-looking scroll and unrolled it again, tugging at the end of his beard as he studied it. Kyja leaned over his shoulder, but the words on the parchment were written in a language she couldn’t read.

  “It appears that being in two places at once is draining you,” The wizard said. “Only half of your body is eating. Only half of your body is breathing. The nourishment from the Weather Guardians seems to have helped, but I can only surmise that ultimately your body will fail if this goes on much longer.”

  “We have to bring the rest of him here,” Kyja said, her eyes shining. She reached for the aptura discerna, but Master Therapass touched her hand.

  She looked up at his grave face. “What are we waiting for? Just tell me what to do.”

  “It’s not that simple,” he said, running his fingers down the tip of his beard.

  “Of course it is. You said he can’t stay in two places, so I need to bring him all the way here.” She clutched her amulet in her hands and stared into the aptura discerna, focusing her concentration on the memory of Marcus as she’d seen him floating in the silver mist. She didn’t care how sick looking at the nothingness made her feel, the idea of a part of Marcus trapped there made her feel even worse. She would get him out. She could feel the power to do it burning inside her.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “Use your wand to make the colors go away. I can bring him here. I know I can.”

  “This is not the way,” Master Therapass said. He took her chin in his fingertips and tilted her head until her eager, green eyes were looking into his solemn, brown ones. “There are certain laws that all elements must obey. When we use magic, we ask the elements to voluntarily aid us. To ignore those laws is to force the elements to obey us. That is the way of black magic. It is the way of the Dark Circle, and it will corrupt, even if you use it with the best of intentions.”

  “What are we supposed to do? Just leave him there?” Kyja pulled away from the wizard.

  But Marcus was nodding, understanding clear in his eyes. “You have to send me back, don’t you?”

  “No.” Kyja glared at him. “You can’t go back. What about the snake man—Bonesplinter? What if he’s still looking for you? Who will protect you?”

  “I’ll protect myself,” Marcus said. “I’ve done it before.”

  Master Therapass placed his hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “The part of you that is trapped between worlds will go with you once you return to Earth, and you should recover quickly.”

  “And then what?” Kyja asked, seething. “You said yourself he can’t save Farworld if he’s not here.”

  “I’ll do everything I can to find a way to return you to Earth, Kyja, and to bring Marcus here,” the wizard said. “That you came so close gives me hope it can be done. But for now . . .”

  “No.” She folded her arms across her chest and scowled. “I won’t do it. Do we even know where he’ll end up if I send him back? What if I return him to Bonesplinter? What if I drop him off a cliff?”

  Master Therapass opened his mouth, but it was Marcus who answered.

  “I know you don’t want to send me back to Earth. And I don’t want to go. You’re the first real friend I’ve ever had. But part of me is dying. I can feel it.” He touched his hand to his chest.

  He turned to Master Therapass. “If I go back to Earth, will my arm and leg still work?”

  The wizard frowned. “I think not.”

  “That’s it, then,” said Kyja. “He can’t go. It wouldn’t be safe.”

  Marcus touched her shoulder, his eyes meeting hers. “We have to.”

  Kyja glared at Marcus and Master Therapass, her chin quivering. This wasn’t right. What was the point of bringing Marcus here, only to turn around and send him back? But what choice did she have? If she were a wizard, she’d find a different way. If only she could do real magic. If only. It was the story of her life.

  “Fine,” she snapped, feeling Master Therapass had let her down. “I’ll do it.”

  Kyja refused to meet the wizard’s eyes as he touched his wand to the aptura discerna. Instead, she focused on the swirl of colors—trying to keep the tears that burned in her eyes from sliding down her cheeks.

  “Just like before,” Master Therapass said. “Remember, you’re doing this for Marcus. To help him.”

  Kyja blinked her eyes as a warm tear dripped past her nose. It wasn’t fair. Marcus shouldn’t have to go, and she shouldn’t have to send him.

  A hand closed around hers. Surprised, she looked up to see tears in Marcus’s eyes as well as he knelt beside her. “Take care of Riph Raph,” he said, forcing a grin. “I think he’s going to miss me the most.”

  “He’ll miss calling you names.” Kyja reached up to brush away her tears and suddenly hiccupped, giving both of them an unexpected case of the giggles.

  “Concentrate,” Master Therapass warned. “Sending him back may not be as easy as summoning him.”

  Marcus gave her hand a final squeeze before letting go. “Try not to drop me in a stream this time,” he said with a trace of a smile, and Kyja bit her lip, torn between laughing and crying.

  Focusing on the aptura discerna, she reminded herself she was doing this for Marcus’s good. For a moment, the window remained clouded.

  “Search your heart,” Master Therapass whispered.

  Kyja remembered how she’d felt when she saw the snake trying to kill Marcus. How desperately she wanted to help when he was trapped in the mimicker’s net. How awful she felt when she thought the
Fallen Ones were going to get him.

  The aptura discerna cleared, and she saw the silver sea again, with Marcus floating in the middle. Staring at his limp figure trapped in the center of the nothingness, she knew she had to get him out of there.

  Summon him, a voice said. She tried to look away from the aptura discerna to see who had spoken, but the swirling silver mist held her eyes locked on it.

  Rescue him. The voice spoke again, and this time she wondered if it was actually coming from inside her own head. Master Therapass doesn’t know everything. He said so himself. Bring Marcus to you and protect him.

  Protect him? How could she protect him? It was only luck that had brought them to the Westland Woods without being killed by the creatures of night or eaten by the mimicker.

  You have magic. Magic greater than Marcus’s. Greater than the wizard’s. But you’re afraid to use it. The silver mist spun and swirled before her like a great, unfocused eye, and Kyja felt something move inside her. Something she’d never experienced before. Something that felt almost like . . . magic?

  That’s it, the voice urged. Feel your magic. Feel its power within you. Bring him to you and protect him.

  Far off, she thought she could hear another voice calling to her. But it was so distant, she couldn’t make out the words. Out of the mist dropped the golden rope she’d used to pull Marcus across the first time. She imagined her hand reaching forward and grasping it. All it would take was one tug.

  Pull, the voice cried with an insistence that was irresistible. Pull now. In her hands, the amulet burned.

  As Kyja began to pull on the rope, she thought she felt the ground tremble beneath her. In the aptura discerna, Marcus opened his eyes. But it wasn’t gratitude she saw on his face, it was terror. All at once, she remembered Master Therapass’s words. To ignore those laws is to force the elements to obey us . . . it will corrupt, even if you use it with the best of intentions . . . that is the way of the Dark Circle.

  “No!” she screamed, and instead of pulling, she gritted her teeth and pushed at Marcus as hard as she could.

  The aptura discerna flashed red, and Kyja was thrown backward onto the ground. There was a roaring in her ears, and she tasted blood in her mouth. Opening her eyes, she saw Master Therapass leaning over her, worry painted across his face.

  “Did I . . .” She tried to sit up and everything started to spin. “Did I send him?”

  “No,” said a voice that she recognized immediately as Marcus’s. “I’m still here.”

  Chapter 32

  Y’sdine’s Feint

  Let me try again.” Kyja was sitting on a root, rubbing her forehead. Her tongue throbbed where she’d bitten it, but the bloody taste was gone from her mouth.

  “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.” Master Therapass looked pale and worried. The aptura discerna had disappeared back into his robe.

  “I wasn’t expecting anything to be in there,” she said, getting up and pacing across the clearing. “This time I’ll be prepared.”

  “It’s not that,” the wizard said, raising a stern finger. “Whatever you heard was waiting for you. It knew where Marcus was, and it knew you would come for him. If you had given in and succeeded in summoning Marcus completely to Farworld, both of you would have been corrupted; your presence would be welcomed only by the Dark Circle. The Fallen Ones tried to trick you and failed. Who knows what they might try next time.”

  Marcus had been leaning his head against one of the Weather Guardian’s roots, drinking the sap through a small, straw-like tube. He sat up, looking a little better. “What choice do we have?” he asked.

  Master Therapass turned a small, colored stone in his hand. “For the moment, we wait.”

  “Wait?” Kyja asked, feeling her frustration boiling over. “First you tell me I have no choice but to send Marcus to Ert at once. Now you want to wait. What’s the point?”

  Master Therapass shook the sleeve of his robe, and more of the colored stones fell into his palm. Ignoring Kyja’s angry stare, he spread the stones onto the root in a circle, alternating green and red. “Have you ever played Trill Stones, Marcus?”

  Kyja snorted. She couldn’t believe Master Therapass wanted to play games while Marcus might be dying. But Marcus moved beside the wizard to take a closer look.

  “Kyja beats me as this game regularly,” the wizard said. “But perhaps I’d have a better chance with someone a little less experienced.”

  Marcus rubbed his cheek absently. “It almost seems like I’ve seen this before.”

  “Really?” Master Therapass tilted his head. “The rules are actually quite simple. There are twenty-four playing pieces—twelve red and twelve green. The board consists of twelve concentric circles.” As he waved his hand over the stones, twelve circles glowed just above the root in the same colors as the stones. “The goal is to get two of your stones into the center circle.”

  “Make him go first,” Kyja said, taking an interest in spite of herself. Trill Stones was her favorite game. “The key to winning is waiting for him to—”

  “—reveal his strategy,” Marcus finished.

  Kyja and Master Therapass both blinked in surprise. “You have played before then?” the wizard asked.

  “Not that I remember, exactly,” Marcus scratched the side of his head. “But I think maybe Elder Ephraim might have taught it to me when I was little.”

  “The man who rescued you on Ert?” Kyja asked.

  Marcus nodded. “But that isn’t possible, is it?” he asked Master Therapass.

  Instead of answering, the wizard moved one of his stones two circles in.

  “That’s called Tanjin’s Guard,” Kyja said, edging closer. “You can take his spot with your marker or move into the space behind him. But if you move next to him, he can take your stone.”

  For the next thirty minutes, Kyja guided Marcus through the game step by step. At first he made simple mistakes, but before long, he was attempting moves even Kyja hadn’t anticipated.

  “Perhaps I underestimated you,” Master Therapass said as he narrowly avoided a trap Marcus had set.

  “I think you did,” Marcus said. In a series of quick jumps, he took three of the wizard’s stones and landed his first stone into the middle circle.

  “Look out,” Kyja warned when she saw what Marcus was doing. But it was too late. On the wizard’s move, he jumped Marcus’s stone and set himself up to win on his next turn.

  Marcus stared at the board, dumbstruck. “I was so close,” he said, moving a stone that had no impact on the final outcome.

  “It’s Y’sdine’s feint,” Kyja said as Master Therapass moved his second stone into the center circle, winning the game. “I used it against him all the time until he figured it out.”

  “You waited for me to spring my trap, then used it against me.” Marcus shook his hair out of his eyes.

  Kyja sat up straight. “That’s why we’re waiting, isn’t it?” she blurted.

  Master Therapass took out his wand, and the stones neatly stacked themselves and dropped into a small leather bag which appeared in his other hand.

  Kyja tugged on the wizard’s sleeve. “It’s just like the game. You’re waiting to see what the Dark Circle’s going to do.” Once she realized what Master Therapass was up to, her impatience disappeared. But why couldn’t he have just told her?

  Master Therapass handed the bag to Marcus. “Take these to practice with. When you can beat Kyja, you’ll be good indeed.” The wizard’s eyes narrowed. “They may come in useful in other ways as well.”

  Marcus jiggled the bag of stones in his hands, making them clink softly together. “You think the Dark Circle was waiting for Kyja to send me back to Earth?”

  Kyja realized how late in the afternoon it was getting. The patch of sky overhead had gone from bright blue to purple.

  Master Therapass knuckled the small of his back and stood up to stretch. “It would explain why they haven’t attempted to pursue you into the forest.”
r />   Kyja rubbed her sore tongue against the inside of her cheek, remembering how she’d been thrown backward by whatever was in the aptura discerna. “What does it matter?” she asked, her earlier excitement disappearing. “As long as they’re waiting outside the forest and blocking me from sending Marcus back, we’re trapped.”

  “I wonder,” Marcus said, using a twig to doodle shapes in the dirt. “Can the Dark Circle create their own doorways like the one that sent me to Earth?”

  “No,” Master Therapass said, studying Marcus. “The portal I created for you uses white magic. The Dark Circle can only use black magic.”

  Marcus brushed away the shape he’d been drawing and started again. “Then where did Bonesplinter come from? I’m pretty sure he wasn’t born on Earth.”

  Master Therapass listened intently as Marcus told him about Bonesplinter and what he’d seen him do behind the school.

  “Of course,” the wizard said, when Marcus had finished. “Once they discovered where I’d sent you, they came up with a plan to destroy you. They must have created a drift.”

  “What’s a drift?” Kyja asked.

  Olden and the rest of the Weather Guardians had been so silent Kyja had almost forgotten they were there. But apparently they had been listening all along, because Olden unexpectedly piped up.

  “A drift is a passageway,” she said in her high, scratchy voice. “A passageway between worlds. Don’t they teach you children anything?”

  “A passageway between here and Earth?” Marcus asked, spinning around on the seat of his pants to face the tree.

  “No, silly boy,” Olden chirped. “Between here and your dusty britches.” The old tree cackled as if she’d told the funniest joke in the world.

  “That’s it then,” Kyja said. She broke into a wide grin. “All we need to do is find the drift. Marcus can come through it to Farworld, and . . .” She paused, her eyes lit with wonder. “And I could go back to Ert. Maybe I could even find my parents.”