Water Keep

by J. Scott Savage

Go, Marcus mouthed.

  The hunter shook his head—his dark eyes filled with horror.

  Marcus’s head slammed against the stone floor, and the world went gray around him.

  “Go!” he cried with the last of his strength.

  Suddenly he felt a hand close around his wrist. He looked up to see Rhaidnan clutching the struggling Kyja in one arm and pulling Marcus with the other. He didn’t know how the hunter still had the strength, but his face was set in grim determination. “For Char and the kids,” Rhaidnan growled.

  The unmakers cried out with rage, and although the pain still racked his body, Marcus felt it lessen slightly with distance.

  “An opening!” Rhaidnan cried as they rounded a bend.

  Marcus turned his head and saw a flash of clear blue sky.

  Behind them, the sound of the unmakers drew closer. But now the smell of fresh air was strong.

  The hunter gave a final lunge, and Marcus squinted at the bright light all around him.

  “We made—” Rhaidnan began to shout, but all at once his words cut off, and Marcus felt the grip on his wrist relax.

  Marcus turned to see what Rhaidnan was looking at, and his muscles went limp. They were outside the caverns, but the passageway they’d followed ended less than a dozen feet from the cave entrance in a sheer cliff that dropped thousands of feet.

  Behind them, the sounds of the unmakers were unmistakable. In front of them was a drop that could only mean their deaths. As if that were not enough, he turned to the right and saw a creature that could only exist in nightmares.

  Floating in the air less than a hundred feet from the edge of the cliff was a huge, fur-covered beast. Its silver head was easily as big as the cab of a semi and filled with sharp teeth. A ridge of bony horns taller than Rhaidnan crowned its enormous head, and its long neck stretched back to a body with six sets of legs ending in wicked talons. Wings that seemed to stretch forever beat the air in wide, ground-shaking strokes.

  “No-o-o-o,” the hunter moaned. His legs seemed to give out beneath him, and he dropped to the ground, still clutching Kyja in his arms.

  The creature stretched its jaws wide, gave out an air-shattering roar, and sent a stream of icy-blue breath directly at the trio.

  Chapter 49

  The Frost Pinnois

  The cone of frigid breath passed close enough to Marcus’s head to raise crystals of ice on the tips of his hair. But as it passed harmlessly over him, he heard a roar of pain come from the cavern behind, and his feeling of being drained disappeared at once.

  “Down!” a voice shouted.

  Marcus looked up in time to see a small, blue head rise into the air above the furry beast. It was dwarfed by the silver creature, but Marcus recognized it immediately. It was Riph Raph.

  “Cover your heads,” the skyte cried.

  Without any further warning, the giant winged creature flew over them directly at the cave’s opening. Marcus pressed his face to the ground—tucking his head under his arm as the air buffeted him from all sides. Beside him, Rhaidnan did the same, protecting Kyja with his body.

  Marcus peeked through his fingers and watched the silver beast turn in midair. Its long tail—studded with sharp, blue spikes—swung in a wide arc, slashing a deep gash into the side of the mountain. Dirt, rock, and snow cascaded downward in an enormous cloud of debris.

  Dumbstruck, Marcus waved the dust away from his face. The cave opening was gone—as completely buried as if it had never existed. For a moment he thought he saw a bent figure climb from the pile of rocks and snow, and his stomach froze. But when he looked again, the rocky shelf was empty, and he realized nothing could have escaped.

  “That should hold them,” the creature said, landing on an outward-jutting spire of rock. It shook its long tail, sending a spray of dirt and snow out over the side of the cliff. “Foul creatures. Perhaps I’ll come back later and dig them out. It would give me a great deal of pleasure to hunt them down one by one.”

  “Then you’re not going to . . . kill us?” Marcus asked, a tremor in his voice.

  As the creature cocked its head and scratched behind its ear with one of its six legs, Marcus realized that what he had taken for fur was actually a thick coat of fine, tiny ice crystals. The ice covered the creature from the tip of its tail all the way up to a narrow beard growing from the end of its chin. After a closer look, the spikes on its tail seemed to be deadly-sharp icicles.

  The creature opened its enormous mouth in a wide grin, revealing all its teeth. “Kill you? Not today. I’ve already eaten my quota of humans for the week.”

  Marcus gasped, and Rhaidnan’s face paled visibly.

  “It’s a joke,” Riph Raph said, fluttering his wings as he landed beside Kyja. “Zhethar doesn’t eat humans.” He glanced up into the creature’s gaping mouth, unsure. “You don’t, do you?”

  The silver beast only blinked its large, fathomless eyes.

  Marcus sat up gingerly. He was covered in a layer of dirt and snow, and his muscles ached. But at least he was alive. Nearby, Kyja was rubbing her eyes and looking around in a daze, as if unsure of how she’d come to be there. Rhaidnan stood protectively at their sides, his right hand clasping and unclasping at his hip where he might have normally carried a sword.

  “Are you a dragon?” Marcus asked, trying to hide his nervousness.

  “A dragon?” The creature gouged its rocky perch with a set of glimmering claws and swished its tail disdainfully. “Silly little fire- breathing lizards who are entirely too full of themselves.”

  Marcus glanced at Riph Raph, who wisely kept his thoughts to himself for once.

  “I am Zhethar, a pinnois—a frost pinnois, to be precise. Noblest of all flying creatures. Long before dragons took to the sky, the pinnois ruled the heavens.” It shook its head, fluffing itself until Marcus thought it resembled nothing more than a giant, frozen pincushion.

  Finally having regained her bearings, Kyja picked up Riph Raph and hugged him tightly to her chest. “How did you ever find us?” she asked the skyte.

  Riph Raph raised his floppy ears and spread his wings. “It was really quite simple. As soon as I saw you were captured, I devised a plan to break you out from the unmakers. Of course, I knew you would—”

  His story was interrupted by a pointed cough from the frost pinnois, and Riph Raph quickly glanced over his shoulder. “Well, I was working on coming up with a plan, when Zhethar arrived looking for you. And together . . .” he glanced up at the pinnois, who nodded, before continuing. “Together, we found the opening of the unmakers’ lair.”

  Kyja scratched Riph Raph behind the ears, and he arched his back with pleasure. “I’m glad you did. ” She looked up at Zhethar. “But how could you possibly have come looking for us? You don’t even know who we are.”

  “On the contrary,” the pinnois said, with an air of great formality, “I know exactly who you are, Kyja. I also know your friend Marcus and your companion Riph Raph. I was sent to find you by the Fontasians.”

  “The Fontasians?” Marcus asked. It sounded sort of like an all-girl rock band.

  Zhethar nodded. “You may know them better as water elementals.”

  * * *

  For a moment no one said a word. Then Marcus and Kyja began babbling over the top of each other.

  “Water elementals?”

  “From Water Keep?”

  “Can you take us there?”

  “Have you seen Master Therapass?”

  Zhethar waved a long-taloned foot. “Now, now. One question at a time, children.”

  “Go ahead,” Marcus said to Kyja.

  “How could the water elementals possibly know about us?” she asked.

  “The Fontasians see everything,” the pinnois said. “They have eyes in every river, stream, and lake. Every puddle is a messenger. Even the drops of rain and morning dew whisper back to them what they see. They’ve known about you since you first started out on your quest. As a creature of frozen water, they sent me to find
you.”

  “What about Master Therapass?” Marcus asked. “The wizard. Do you know where he is? If he’s safe?”

  Zhethar shook his bearded face. “The Fontasians said nothing about a wizard. I was sent to retrieve the two of you and your skyte. Now I suppose I’ll have to bring your friend as well.”

  Rhaidnan stood up straight. “These water elementals. What do they want with us?”

  “Nothing,” Zhethar said, as if it should have been clear. “They want nothing to do with you.”

  Marcus scratched his head. “But if the water elem—I mean the Fontasians want nothing to do with us, why did they send you to bring us to Water Keep?”

  The pinnois rolled its huge eyes. “Did I say anything about taking you to Water Keep? The Fontasians did not send me to bring you to them. They sent me to take you back to Terra ne Staric. They heard of your quest and refuse to meet with you.”

  Chapter 50

  City Walls

  Come along.” The frost pinnois climbed down from its perch and lowered its wing to the ground. “Get on my back. Wrap your cloaks tightly about you—and hurry. I’m afraid it’s going to be a bit of a cold ride, but we’ve got to be moving if you want to reach home before sunset.”

  Rhaidnan began to crawl up onto the long, icy wing, but Marcus and Kyja met eyes quickly before turning as one toward Zhethar.

  “We’re not going anywhere with you,” Kyja said, folding her arms across her chest.

  “Pardon me?” Zhethar asked, tilting his silvery head.

  “We’re not turning back,” Marcus said.

  The pinnois rubbed the top of its head with one leg in a surprisingly human expression of confusion. “I’m afraid you don’t understand. You have no choice in the matter. The Fontasians knew you had come all this way on a pointless errand. They sent me to take you back to your home.”

  “Then you’ve wasted your time,” Marcus said. “Thanks for rescuing us. I’m sure Rhaidnan will appreciate a ride back to his wife and family. But we are going to Water Keep.”

  Rhaidnan stopped halfway up the pinnois’s wing. Zhethar looked from Marcus and Kyja to the sheer drop-off. “This is foolish. You’ll never find the Fontasians on your own. And even if you did, they won’t meet with you.”

  Kyja turned her back on the pinnois, and Marcus did the same. “Good-bye,” she said, waving over her shoulder. “Tell Char hi for me.”

  Rhaidnan shrugged his shoulders at Zhethar before climbing back down. “I’m with them.”

  The pinnois stomped two of its huge feet, rattling the ledge. “I’m taking you back to Terra ne Staric, whether you like it or not.”

  Marcus turned slowly, his blue eyes glittering, and set his staff in the snowy ground. “That might not be as easy as you think.”

  Kyja stood beside him, resting one hand on his shoulder. A moment later, Rhaidnan joined them, his calloused hands closed into fists. Riph Raph looked from the furious black eyes of the frost pinnois to Kyja and Marcus’s determined faces, before gulping and flying across to land on Kyja’s shoulder.

  Zhethar bared his glittering teeth in a menacing-looking grin. “And how do you propose to get off this cliff on your own?”

  Kyja and Marcus examined their surroundings. The cave entrance was now impassably buried beneath snow and rock. And even if it wasn’t, the unmakers were still inside somewhere. Marcus edged toward the drop-off. His stomach turned somersaults as he looked out over the sheer cliff that fell straight down into empty space.

  “Maybe we should reconsider,” Riph Raph said, eyeing the pinnois, as it lashed its long tail angrily back and forth, sending snow and rock over the edge of the cliff.

  But Kyja—who had been exploring the side of the mountain close to where Marcus thought he’d seen movement earlier—pointed out a small crevice in the rock. “Over here,” she called. “It’s a trail.”

  “Trail” is too strong of a word, Marcus thought as he walked up beside her. No more than a foot and a half wide, the tiny lip of rock she pointed at was covered with a treacherous layer of snow and ice. It led out of sight around a ridge of bare rock. But who knew if it even went any farther.

  Before he could voice his concerns, though, Kyja was stepping out onto the ledge. “Follow me,” she said, as if they were heading out for a summer picnic—as if she didn’t have a clue that the first big gust of wind could pluck her from the side of the mountain and send her plummeting to her death.

  For the first time since he’d met her, Marcus seriously considered not following her lead. The ledge was bad enough for someone with two good legs. But with his staff, he’d be lucky to make it ten feet before his strength gave out. But when she turned back to look at him, and he saw the confidence in her dark-green eyes, he found himself edging along behind her. Before he had gone two steps, a strong hand clamped onto his left arm, helping him keep his balance, and he turned to see Rhaidnan standing beside him.

  “Piece of cake,” the hunter said.

  Back on the cliff, Zhethar bared his teeth and gave an air-shattering growl. His claws ripped at the rock and ice. Marcus was sure they were goners. He knew he didn’t have enough magic to stop a twig if the Pinnois attacked.

  “Stop!” the pinnois blurted at last.

  “You’ll take us to Water Keep?” Kyja asked.

  “No. I can’t. But you’ll never make it down the side of the mountain alive.”

  “What do you care?” Kyja asked, and Marcus thought he saw the same gleam in her eye that he’d seen when she was negotiating with the man in the pawn shop. “The only thing that matters to you is stopping us from reaching Water Keep. You should be glad if we fall. It would make your job that much easier.”

  “And have your deaths on my head?” Zethar scratched behind one ear, his cold eyes softening. “A frost pinnois is not a beast. We have feelings too. And we live much longer with those feelings than you humans.”

  “Well?” Kyja said, folding her arms. “If you won’t take us to Water Keep, you leave us no choice but to go on our own.” She turned as if to continue along the face of the cliff.

  “Fine!” the creature snarled. “Come back. I’ll take you to Water Keep. You can wait outside the gates until you all die of old age. It won’t do you any good. You’ll never get inside.”

  “Thank you,” Kyja said, flashing her brightest smile. “We accept.”

  * * *

  Lighting sizzled through the black clouds that had been growing thicker for the last half hour. Thunder rattled the air, making the pinnois’s ice crystals chatter and jangle against one another like the prisms of a chandelier.

  “The Fontasians are not happy,” Zhethar growled as he tilted his wings, dropping lower in the sky.

  Clutching his staff tightly, Marcus shifted and tried to get a peek over the side of pinnois’s body. But all he could make out was an occasional glimpse of flat bare ground through the silvery mist that beaded against his cheeks and forehead. Quickly he pulled his head back, tucking his face against his chest. All of their cloaks were damp from the thick fog, and their clothing crackled with ice wherever the material touched the pinnois’s body. Even Riph Raph was curled miserably into a teal-blue ball, his beak hidden beneath his tail and his breath rising in small, white puffs.

  “Are we close then?” Kyja asked through chattering teeth.

  In answer, the pinnois dropped completely out of the clouds, and for the first time Marcus could see the endless glimmering surface of Lake Aeternus. He’d never seen a body of water so large before. Like pictures of the ocean he’d studied on the pages of magazines, it seemed to stretch out endlessly. Waves rolled toward the shore in long, white-tipped lines as though some giant, unseen hand was running its fingers through the water.

  “Oh, look!” Kyja called out, raising her hand. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”

  Marcus followed her pointing finger, and his mouth dropped in wonderment.

  Ever since Olden had mentioned the water elementals, Marcus had
wondered what Water Keep might look like. He’d pictured everything from a bunch of transparent domes to an actual underwater city like the Disney movie with all the merpeople. But what he was looking at was so different from anything he’d ever imagined, it was hard for his mind to grasp it.

  All along, he’d assumed Water Keep would be under the water. And part of the city was under the water. At least he thought it was. Along the border of the lake—where land and water blurred together—he could just make out shapes beneath the lake’s choppy surface.

  But the city didn’t stop there. He could only catch glimpses through the mist, but it looked like as the waves met land, they rose up into fantastical towers and spiraling staircases. Narrow walkways arched high into the air on carved pillars. A moment later, the walkways and towers washed away as if they’d never existed. But with the next wave, they were back again.

  The buildings and arches glimmered in and out of focus as if they were made of nothing more substantial than soap bubbles. The only thing which remained solid was a thick, gray wall of mist which appeared to surround the city on all sides.

  Kneeling on the pinnois’s broad back between Marcus and Kyja, Rhaidnan swallowed. “I never would have thought such a place could exist.”

  “Look well,” Zhethar said, annoyance clear in his rumbling voice. “It’s the last time you’ll see inside those walls.”

  Riph Raph studied the city with a mischievous glint in his eyes, but Zhethar glared back at him as though reading the skyte’s mind. “Don’t think about it, insect. Even I can not fly inside. You would be swatted out of the air the moment you tried.”

  Kyja tucked Riph Raph beneath her arm. “Thank you for bringing us here.”

  The pinnois shook its massive head as it circled toward the ground. “I do you no favors. It is a long journey back to Terra ne Staric—one filled with greater dangers every passing day. And the Fontasians care nothing for the doings of humans. They will let you die outside the walls of their city without blinking an eye.”

  “If they don’t care about humans, why did they send you to get us in the first place?” Marcus asked.