Water Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  A moment later, he unlocked the door to his cage and climbed out. From all around the van he could hear the sound of angry voices and honking horns. Marcus looked at the unconscious Thrathkin S’Bae and realized he could kill him right now. If he couldn’t do it with his bare hands, he could at least do it with magic.

  But then he remembered Kyja. Where was she? Had the Dark Circle captured her? When he closed his eyes, the ropes were still gone. What did that mean?

  “Kyja!” he screamed inside his head. “Kyja! Where are you?”

  For a moment nothing happened. Then . . . he felt . . . something. Was it her? Had she heard him? There was the smallest tug at his stomach. It was her.

  Pull me over! He silently shouted. The next second, he felt the inside-out feeling, and he was tumbling.

  Before his feet even landed, he looked around. The entire plain was flattened, as though a giant hand had pressed every blade of grass to the ground. A strange mist was breaking up, and a layer of brown water flowed sluggishly across the grass toward the lake. A few feet away, Marcus saw Riph Raph blinking and shaking his head. Muddy sheets flew from his wings as he slowly flapped them.

  “Where’s Kyja?” Marcus shouted. “Is she all right?”

  “I’m here,” a voice called.

  Marcus turned, and his heart leapt. It was Kyja. She was sopping wet, her hair plastered to her scalp in a soggy mess, and she was walking with a limp. But somehow she was alive.

  Marcus clawed his way across the muddy ground until he and Kyja were only inches apart. “Are you okay?” he asked, searching her for some sign of injury.

  “I think so.” She nodded, brushing a damp strand of hair from her cheek.

  “The Summoner?” Marcus asked. “Where is it?”

  Kyja shrugged. “Everything happened so fast.”

  Then they heard a familiar voice.

  “It’s all right,” Cascade said. “You’re safe.”

  Chapter 63

  Dawn Chimes

  Tell me again about the part where you spit on the Summoner.” Marcus was disappointed he’d missed all the excitement.

  Kyja blushed. “I don’t know if I really spat. It was more like some saliva flew out of my mouth.”

  “No. It was definitely spit,” Riph Raph said. “A big, wet one right in the middle of the Summoner’s face.”

  Marcus burst into laughter, and Kyja turned an even deeper shade of red. The three of them were sitting around a small, clear table inside Water Keep, ravenously eating their first good meal in what seemed like ages. Nearby, Raindrop, Mist, Morning Dew, and Cascade watched them with expressions ranging from amusement to complete confusion.

  Lifting his half-full water glass, Marcus turned to Cascade. “Show me again how to do that spell.” Ever since he’d learned the Fontasians were masters of water magic, Marcus had been pestering them to teach him.

  Cascade shook his white hair out of his eyes and smiled indulgently. “It’s not a matter of how so much as what and why. Once you learn to communicate clearly to the element what you are trying to accomplish and why you want to do it, the rest is simple.”

  The Fontasian held out his right hand, and a slim rod that looked like cut glass but was actually made of water emerged from between his fingers. He pointed the rod at Marcus’s glass. Slowly the water rose out of the glass and formed itself into the shape of a tiny figure.

  “Look, Riph Raph, it’s you!” Kyja said, clapping her hands. The little water skyte Cascade had created flapped its wings and flew gracefully through the air, circling Kyja’s head and darting playfully toward the real Riph Raph before dropping back into Marcus’s glass with a splash.

  “Awesome! Let me try,” Marcus said. He gave an envious glance toward Cascade’s wand, but the Fontasian shook his head, and the clear rod disappeared from his fingers.

  “A wand won’t help you until you develop a better understanding of magic,” Cascade said.

  Marcus nodded. “I know, I know. Master Therapass told me. I was just hoping.” At the mention of the wizard’s name, the room grew silent for a moment. Marcus and Kyja had been surprised to learn that the water elementals had no clue what had become of Master Therapass. Although they’d searched for him, there was no sign from any of their sources.

  Concentrating his will on the glass before him, Marcus reminded himself to think about what and why. Although he understood casting a spell didn’t require him to say anything out loud, he still found it easier to focus his thoughts by creating little rhymes.

  Shining water clear and bright, turn yourself into a skyte.

  The water rose from his glass.

  “You’re doing it!” Kyja shouted.

  He was doing it. His skyte wasn’t quite as perfect as Cascade’s—the wings looked more like blobs, and the head wobbled strangely to the left—but it rose into the air and stayed there.

  “Is that supposed to be me?” Riph Raph snorted. “It looks more like a wilted pickle.”

  Grimacing, Marcus tried to fly the water skyte onto the real skyte’s head. Instead, the water lost its shape and splashed on the tabletop, soaking the front of Marcus’s shirt and pants.

  “You got the what, but not the why,” Cascade said with a chuckle. “Elements won’t obey you on a whim. And revenge is one of the least effective whys.”

  “Maybe you should change him into a fish again. He’s already wet,” Kyja joked.

  Kyja turned to Morning Dew. “I never heard how the Summoner captured you in the first place. Did you go outside the walls?”

  Dew shook her head. “We’re not supposed to leave the city. It was the strangest thing. I was inside the walls looking out, when all at once, I found myself outside. And then the cage closed around me, and I couldn’t escape.”

  Marcus wondered if she was telling the whole truth or just trying not to get in trouble. “If you can’t leave the city, how did you rescue Kyja?” he asked, trying to mop his pants with a cloth napkin.

  “Under . . . normal circumstances we . . . would not have—that is . . .” Cascade stammered.

  “I told them if they didn’t come outside with me, I’d tell everyone they were a bunch of scared little fish,” said Dew, with a mischievous grin.

  Cascade’s face tightened. “You freed one of us. We helped you. It seemed only . . . just.”

  “You might start to care about others if you don’t watch out,” Kyja teased.

  “What will you do now?” Dew asked.

  Though the Fontasians had offered to let them stay as long as they wanted, Marcus and Kyja could tell that having humans in their city made the water elementals very uncomfortable. And besides, they needed to leave soon before the Dark Circle could send another army to replace the one the Fontasians had defeated.

  Marcus glanced at Kyja. “I guess we’ll go looking for the other elementals.”

  “But how?” Kyja asked. “You can’t stay here much longer. You’re already starting to look sick again. And I can’t stay on Ert for more than a few days at a time.”

  Marcus nodded. He was starting to get the dull pounding in his head again. “Then we’ll just have to jump back and forth together. A few days on Earth for me. Then a few days here for you. One way or another, we’ll find the others.” The Fontasians still hadn’t actually agreed to help create a drift, but hopefully Marcus could convince them if he and Kyja found the other three elementals and got them to join.

  “You don’t have any idea where we might find them, do you?” Kyja asked the Fontasians.

  The water elementals shuffled about with surprising awkwardness for such graceful creatures. Finally Cascade spoke up. “This is a rather uncomfortable thing you ask of us. Elementals prefer to be left to themselves. Prying into another’s affairs is highly discouraged. It could cause certain . . . unpleasantness . . . if they were to discover we told you of their whereabouts.”

  Kyja waited silently.

  Cascade coughed into his hand. “Perhaps if you traveled west to the Noble
River and followed it south until it meets the Sea of Eternal Sorrows . . .” He let his words drift away.

  “Thank you,” Kyja said. “If we find anything there, we won’t mention you told us.”

  As Kyja leaned back in her chair, the sleeves of her robe pulled up enough to reveal the deep scratches on her arms from the Summoner’s claws. All at once Marcus was struck by the realization of how close she had come to death and the memory of his inability to help her.

  “When I woke up in the back of Bonesplinter’s van and realized I couldn’t pull you over, I thought . . .” His voice cracked, and he looked quickly away. He couldn’t tell her how scared he’d felt, how alone.

  “I’m fine,” Kyja said, reaching out to squeeze his hand. Then she did something that surprised both of them. She leaned across the table and kissed him on the cheek.

  Now it was Marcus’s turn to blush. He could feel his face turning a bright shade of plum. Quickly he placed a hand over his mouth and gave an obvious yawn. “Well, we’d better get some sleep if we’re going to leave in the morning.”

  “Right,” Kyja said at once. Neither of them looked at each other, but Riph Raph watched them both with an amused look in his eyes.

  Once Cascade had shown them to their beds, Marcus found himself unable to fall asleep. His body was bone weary—the last time he’d rested was briefly in the unmakers’ cell. But his mind wouldn’t seem to shut down. He tried to blame it on the pulsing blue and green walls, but the truth was, he couldn’t stop thinking about Kyja.

  He’d never had a girl kiss him before, and thinking about it made him feel both hot and cold at the same time. But even more than the kiss, the fact that he’d made his first true friend filled him with an excitement that burned like a flame in his chest.

  He thought about Kyja’s fear that she had no magic. Didn’t she realize that without her, they never could have made it as far as they had? Cascade could say whatever he wanted, but the truth was, the water elementals would never have come to Kyja’s aid if she hadn’t decided to rescue Dew first. Did her ability to help people and to show them how to help each other have something to do with her magic?

  What good was the ability to stop a stick from hitting you in the head compared to that?

  With those thoughts, he drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  What felt like only an hour later, Cascade was pulling him awake.

  “What time is it?” he asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

  “It’s nearly dawn,” the Fontasian said. “You need to leave early, before the Dark Circle sends another army.”

  “Right, right.” Marcus scrambled from the bed and pulled on his shoes. Outside the room, Kyja and Riph Raph were already waiting.

  “This way,” Cascade said, leading them to a blob. When the Fontasian touched the blob, it showed an image of Lake Aeternus. Its gentle waves were still black this early in the morning.

  Before entering the blob, Marcus paused. “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he said to the Fontasian. “I can float here in the city—almost like being underwater. But I can breathe, too.” He gestured at the hallway and the surrounding space. “Is this water or air?”

  “Yes,” Cascade said, and without any further explanation, walked through the blob.

  Marcus turned to Kyja, hoping she understood, but she only shrugged her shoulders and followed Cascade.

  Marcus stood a moment longer before entering the blob, relishing the feeling of standing. How would it feel to be able to stand all the time? Even outside Water Keep? He’d give anything to find out. Well, almost anything.

  With a sigh, he stepped through the blob and felt his weight return. It wasn’t quite as bad as he’d expected, though. His leg seemed a little stronger. And his hand felt as if it was able to open a little farther. Maybe that meant Farworld was a little closer to healing. Still, it was a relief when Cascade handed him his walking staff.

  “I found this outside the city,” the Fontasian said.

  At the edge of the Lake, Cascade stopped beside a small sailboat and ran his hand across the smooth hull. “If you’re determined to keep looking for the rest of the elementals, the quickest way to get started is by water. And after what happened here, the Dark Circle may think twice before getting anywhere near Lake Aeternus.”

  “But I don’t know how to sail,” Marcus said. He turned to Kyja. “Do you?”

  Kyja shook her head.

  “That’s all right,” Cascade said. “I do.”

  “What?” Marcus asked, not sure he’d heard right.

  “You’re coming with us?” Kyja asked, not bothering to try and hide her delight.

  “I believe you have set an impossible quest for yourselves. We elementals do not have the will or perhaps even the capacity to work together.” The Fontasian tossed a rock into the water and watched as the ripples circled outward. I can’t promise to stay for long. But I’ll join you for a time, if only to satisfy my curiosity.”

  “Does Tide know?” Marcus asked. It hadn’t been lost on him that Tide was the only one of the city’s leaders that hadn’t joined him and Kyja for dinner.

  “No,” the Fontasian said. “I thought it was better not to tell him. He seemed quite upset that we rescued you at all.”

  “Won’t he be even more upset when he finds out you’ve left?”

  “Furious,” Cascade agreed. “There’s even a chance he won’t let me back in when I return.”

  “Then you can’t go,” Kyja said. “This is your home.”

  Cascade looked back at Water Keep and then out at the endless expanse of lake. “I’ve been trapped inside these walls too long. It’s time I experienced what is outside for myself, instead of seeing it only through streams and brooks. Besides,” he said, turning to Kyja. “I want to learn more of what you humans mean by this caring.”

  “Look.” Kyja pointed to the horizon, where the first orange hue of the sun was painting the dawn sky purple.

  “We need to go,” Cascade said, beginning to climb into the boat.

  “No,” Marcus said. “Wait just a minute. I want to hear the dawn chimes. Do you have them here?”

  “Of course.” Cascade nodded. “Dew waters them every morning.”

  Side by side, Marcus, Kyja, Riph Raph, and Cascade watched the tiny purple flowers rise from their hiding places as dawn stole over the world on silent footsteps.

  As sunlight hit them, first one and then another of the flowers opened their petals and broke into song. Watching them bob and weave like fairy princesses performing an unscripted ballet, he remembered the words of Master Therapass. Perhaps if you focus hard enough you’ll be able to understand some of it as well. He wished the wizard could be with them now, listening to the song by his side.

  Furrowing his brow, Marcus concentrated on the voices and attempted to understand their message. It was kind of like trying to unravel a single thread in an elaborate weave. But if he listened closely enough, he thought he could just make out—

  All at once, he gasped and jerked forward as though pulled by a string.

  “What’s wrong?” Kyja asked.

  “Shh,” Marcus whispered. Turning back to the flowers, he tried to catch the thread again. But it was too late. The flowers were already beginning to bow their heads, their voices fading. The words—if they had been there at all—were impossible to make out.

  “Let’s go,” he said and turned from the flowers toward the broad expanse of clear, blue water which lapped against the rocky shore. Leaning more heavily on his staff than he had a few minutes earlier, he limped to the boat where Cascade helped him climb up a short ramp onto the bobbing deck.

  “What did you hear back there?” Kyja asked as she joined him on the boat.

  “Nothing. Really,” he said. “Just wishful thinking.”

  Cascade took hold of the tiller, and the boat sprang to life, pulling smoothly away from the shore, though there was barely enough wind to ruffle the tall, white sails. Purposefully i
gnoring Kyja’s inquisitive glances, Marcus focused his eyes over the bow of the boat to the great blue emptiness beyond.

  Whatever the future held for them was ahead, not behind. They couldn’t afford to look back. Besides, there was no point in getting their hopes up. For all he knew, what he’d heard had been no more than insects humming in the grass, or the echo of the dawn chimes’ voices bouncing off the water. It was only that for a moment—no more than a second or two at the most—he could have sworn he’d heard another voice calling out to him just below the flowers’ song.

  It was crazy. No doubt the result of what he’d been thinking before the singing began. But for that one brief instant, the voice he thought he’d heard belonged to Master Therapass.

  Discussion Questions

  1. Marcus feels different from the other boys in his school because of his disabilities and because of the way he can grow dim and sense things before they happen. Kyja feels different because she can’t do magic. Has there ever been a time when you felt different? Does being different have to be a bad thing? How can being different be good?

  2. In chapter 8, Master Therapass tells Kyja, “The real power of magic lies within you. Who you are, what you do, and most importantly of all, what you may become.” What do you think he means? Do you think Kyja found any of her magic by the end of the book?

  3. In chapter 10, Kyja can’t see anything in the aptura discerna until she sets aside feelings of hurt, disappointment, and jealousy from her past. How can holding onto angry feelings from the past keep us from seeing things clearly in the present? How can you get over bad feelings even when the memories still might hurt?

  4. When Marcus guards the camp his first night in Farworld, Kyja warns him to keep the fire burning at all times and to wake her if he sees anything. Because he doesn’t take her warning seriously, they are nearly killed. Why do you think Marcus ignored Kyja’s advice? What might he have been trying to prove?