Treasurekeeper

by Ripley Harper

  “My theory?”

  He smiles at my bewilderment. “At the time of your last visit, you told us that the Order of Keepers has been blind and mistaken and that their methods have been damaging and wrong. You had a new theory entirely: that the trueborn should embrace their humanity rather than deny it.”

  I frown. “When did this happen?”

  “Time means less to me now than it once did, but I believe it could not have been much more than twenty years ago. In your spiritform you were a waterdragon then, beautiful beyond belief and powerful enough to twist the mighty Amazon River around your wrist like a bracelet.”

  I shake my head, unable to recall such a memory. “As I am now, it is difficult for me to keep track of all my lives.”

  “Then why don’t we leave this place behind for a while? This conversation will be so much easier once we free ourselves from the sweet mortal chains of skin and flesh and blood.”

  I hesitate.

  “My sister. You are the last of us, and our only hope. I could never do you harm. Look into my spiritfire and see me.”

  I gasp as he lowers his defenses. His inner blaze is so dazzlingly complicated, so wondrously intricate, so rich with the unequaled glory and magnificence of my kind, that my eyes fill with involuntary tears.

  I take his hand.

  I allow my spirit to soar free.

  *

  “My sister, you know I have nothing but the greatest respect for you. Out of all of us, you have played the cleverest game by far. But the strategy you are pursuing now has become too risky.”

  “I have always played a risky game.”

  “We might lose it all.”

  “I am the last piece still standing. You need to trust my judgment.”

  “I do. But right now the odds are stacked against you. The reaping cannot be too far off.”

  “The risk has not changed, nor have the odds. It just seems more perilous now because we’re closer to the endgame.”

  “You’re right. We’re out of time. Which means that you cannot leave the girl free of your presence any longer. It has become too dangerous.”

  “She will be free of my presence for as long as she chooses. I have told you that before.”

  “That was then, this is now.”

  “I was right then, and I am right now.”

  “The girl is becoming a danger to you. To us all! Why can’t you see it?”

  “I cannot see what is not true.”

  “Her humanity makes you weak.”

  “It is exactly what makes me strong.”

  “She offered her life to a slayer!”

  “Who, because of that very humanity, could not raise a hand against her.”

  “We shared our blood and our souls with humans, and it cost us everything.”

  “There was no other choice. You know that as well as I do.”

  “But to be hunted by our own children!”

  “The hunter is about to become the hunted. They will realize their mistake soon enough.”

  “I do not share your optimism.”

  “None of you ever did, my brother. None of you ever did.”

  *

  I wake up under a thatched roof, in an open-air cabin made from gleaming bamboo. The room itself is large and because there’s no glass in the huge wrap-around “windows”, the forest outside merges seamlessly with the room inside to pull me into the dizzying, delightful glory of the living green—

  “No!” Gunn grabs my face between his hands. “We’ve already lost too much time. You need to stay with me now. Focus.”

  “I can’t help it. Everything is alive, and burning, and calling out to me. I don’t know how to stop it!”

  He pulls my face closer to his, until our foreheads are almost touching. “I know it’s difficult. But if you don’t control your reaction, you’ll be pushed so far into your magic that you’ll lose yourself forever.”

  I feel the truth of his words vibrating through me. Right now, his eyes are the only things anchoring me to this world. His eyes, and the warmth of his hands on my face. I grab his wrists, clinging on for dear life. “How do I control it? The whole world is on fire!”

  “Remember how you shielded yourself at the trial?”

  “It almost broke me, Gunn.”

  “You’re much stronger now, and nobody is actively trying to smash your defenses. Just try. Come on. I know you can do it.”

  I close my eyes, imagining my power as a thick cloak insulating me from the siren call of all the lifemagic around me.

  It only takes a moment.

  When I open my eyes again, the fires are gone.

  I release a slow breath, let go of his hands, pull back, look around.

  Outside, there are treetops stretching for miles. There are blue skies above and tangles of dense growth below, and not much else. The world looks green and exotic and a little bit scary. But that’s it.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I think so.”

  He relaxes, sits back a little.

  “How long was I out for this time?”

  “Almost four days. It’s Tuesday morning.”

  “Why so long?”

  “What do you remember?”

  I think back. “I remember that weird journey under Jonathan’s Enthrallment spell. I remember getting off a boat and suddenly realizing that I’m in a rainforest. Everything was alive, and burning, and so beautiful. And there was a man and a woman…” I close my eyes, trying to focus on the memory. “They were both very powerful but he was different, unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how to describe it. I think he might have taken me to some other dimension or something. It was like a dream: everything was completely strange and yet totally familiar. We had this long conversation—” I open my eyes as realization dawns. “Wait a minute. Is he like me?”

  “In a way, yes. The Green Lady’s father is a trueborn son, the last of the Ninth. Can you remember what you talked about?”

  “While we were in that other place?” I think back. “No. It’s all gone.”

  “And before that? You were speaking Portuguese very rapidly and I couldn’t follow.”

  “I spoke Portuguese?”

  “You did.”

  “That’s so weird.” (My Spanish isn’t too bad, but I’ve never spoken a word of Portuguese in my life.)

  “It gets weirder. We seem to be the only people in this village. The Green Lady sent everyone else away after they kneeled before you on that first night.”

  “Really?” I feel my heart sinking. “I made everyone kneel before me? Again?”

  “As far as I could tell they did it voluntarily. You certainly didn’t use your dragonvoice.”

  Well, there’s that, I guess.

  I look around me at the strange new place I find myself in, trying to make sense of what’s happened. Everything in the cabin looks fresh and new and gleaming, as if this is one of those crazy expensive eco-lodges aimed at rich tourists. Jonathan probably feels right at home.

  “So what? Is it only the four of us living here now?”

  “The two of us.” He pulls his lips into a thin, hard line. “The Green Lady took Jonathan and Zig prisoner.”

  “What?”

  “I convinced her not to execute them while you were in your resting state. But things are a bit more complicated than we anticipated.”

  Chapter 8

  The Green Lady’s secret forest home is nothing less than an exquisite little village of interlinked houses, which blend so seamlessly into its surroundings that a casual observer might easily miss it. Set against the spectacular backdrop of the deepest rainforest, the brilliantly designed thatched huts have all been built on stilts to accommodate the rising water levels of the wet season, which means that most houses nestle so harmoniously into the endless canopy of trees that they almost disappear into the surrounding green. Lush walking paths connect the huts to each other, with carefully crafted wooden steps leading up into the trees. The interiors ar
e rustic and peaceful but also surprisingly elegant, and most rooms have private balconies that offer spectacular views of the surrounding forest and its wildlife.

  From the unpublished memoirs of Isabella Roy, Official Red Clan Ambassador (2003 – 2015).

  I spend the rest of the day exploring my new surroundings while we wait for the Green Lady’s summons. There’s not much else I can do without forcing a confrontation and, to be honest, I’m not too worried about either Zig or Jonathan—–if anyone can look after themselves it’s those two.

  At first being outside is a bit tricky because the abundance of life keeps triggering my firemagic, but I soon learn to shield myself so effectively that I almost forget I’m doing it after a while. Gunn refuses to leave my side for a moment, as diligent as ever in his duty as my keeper, but it’s soon clear he’s still so angry that he can hardly bring himself to say a civil word to me.

  Whatever. He can stew in it for all I care.

  I’m done trying to please him.

  We walk through the forest on beautifully designed curved wooden walkways. Everything is tasteful and esthetically pleasing and weirdly perfect—–the hammocks, the copper lanterns, the carefully placed benches—–and the further we walk, the stranger it all begins to seem to me.

  “This place is pretty unbelievable,” I say as we pass an exquisite statue of what looks like a panther on the prowl. “Not at all what I expected.”

  “What did you expect?”

  “I’m not sure. But definitely something more… basic.”

  “You mean chickens in dirt streets and clothes drying on trees and dilapidated houses sinking into the river?”

  I stop. “Are you trying to be offensive?”

  “You’re the one who thinks an Amazonian village must be ‘basic’.”

  “Get over yourself, okay? You know exactly what I mean. The Green Lady is supposed to be this fierce, anti-capitalist eco-warrior type, and now I find Egyptian cotton on her beds and Chanel shower gel in her bathrooms? What’s that all about?”

  He narrows his eyes but he doesn’t say anything, obviously still too pissed at me to discuss any topic like a reasonable person.

  “Oh, is this how it’s going to be now? Really?”

  A stony silence.

  “Not everything is about you, you know. Jeez, Gunn, do you really think I asked Zig to kill me because I wanted to make you look like an incompetent keeper?”

  I watch his face go white. “Because that’s all I care about, of course.”

  “Exactly,” I say, perversely pleased at having touched a nerve.

  “Exactly.”

  In the afternoon we have lunch (neatly set out for us on welcoming picnic tables in the central clearing in the middle of the village) and then we head towards the river, walking in silence. It’s weird to have Gunn being so mean and cold towards me, but at the same time it feels so great to be in this magical place, a billion miles away from that creepy Pendragon compound and all its dark secrets, that I don’t allow his attitude to upset me too much.

  Around us the air is humming with the chirps and squawks of birds and insects, and at a stage I see a couple of monkeys in the trees above us, one of which throws a twig at me before hastily scampering off. I laugh up at Gunn, forgetting for a moment that he’s my keeper and not my friend anymore.

  But then I see his face, and I swallow the rest of my laughter.

  When we reach the river, I stare into its muddy depths for a long time, hypnotized. Over lunch, Gunn explained that this is really just a stream feeding into one of the smaller tributaries that make up the mighty Amazon, but it’s still the biggest damn river I’ve ever seen. It’s beautiful too, fast-flowing and ever-changing and brimming with life: fish and insects and frogs and reptiles and—–oh! —–an otter, right here in front of me. From where I’m standing, on a neatly built little platform overlooking the river, I can smell the mud and the moisture and the call of the water in front of me is so sweet that I find myself clenching my hands, the longing to immerse myself in its depths a physical ache that claws at me from the inside—–

  “Jess!” Gunn’s hand on my shoulder pulls me back from the brink. “Shield yourself. Do it now.”

  I close my eyes, concentrating. When I open them again, I’m standing on solid ground and the river is just a river.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “You need to be more careful.”

  “If only I’d been taught how to do this by someone who knew I’d need it someday.”

  He grits his teeth. “You know your mother made me—–”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  I wanted to sound dismissive but instead my voice comes out kind of pitiful. In the tense silence that follows, I blink rapidly while I take a few deep breaths. There’s no point in rehashing all of that again; the past is the past and there’s nothing anyone can do about it now.

  I should probably try to change the subject. “So what’s the Green Lady’s problem anyway?”

  He frowns. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, let’s start with the fact that she wants to execute Jonathan and Zig.”

  His frown deepens. “I’m not sure. She’s mad as hell but I don’t know why. She’s been refusing to see me.”

  “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  “I guess so.”

  By the time we receive the Green Lady’s summons, the sun has already set and the early evening is filled with the damp and sweetly rotten smells of the rainforest. A young boy, no older than ten, leads us to her, gesturing for us to follow and giggling all the way.

  The path he chooses is one so carefully hidden between shrubs and vines that Gunn and I completely missed it earlier, but now that the narrow walkway is beautifully lit from below it’s easy enough to follow. When the path ends, the boy takes my hand to lead me deeper into the forest. We walk through the trees, ducking under a few vines and then…

  “Oh!”

  The forest floor has become a carpet of stars.

  Stars above me. Stars below.

  My soul spinning through the universe.

  Gunn puts his hand on my shoulder. “Steady,” he says. “It’s an illusion, that’s all. You’re still here. You’re still you.”

  His words make it true.

  I draw in a long, shuddering breath. And now I can see it too: we’re standing on the edge of a large, still black pool that perfectly reflects the stars shining above us.

  The little boy giggles again, motioning for us to follow as he takes a couple of steps onto the carpet of stairs, literally walking on water.

  And then he’s gone, swallowed by the stars beneath his feet.

  I gasp out loud.

  “Clara always did have an over-developed sense for the dramatic,” Gunn says irritably. He peers into the water, then pulls me closer. His hand on my wrist is warm and gentle. “See that? There are hidden steps just under the water’s surface. Follow me.”

  I pull my hand loose. Then I walk behind him, careful to place my feet exactly where his had been. He’s right. This was carefully built.

  I follow Gunn further into the starry water, until we take that very last step and tumble into nothingness.

  It’s not nothingness.

  There’s a moment of wet discomfort as I fall through some kind of underwater trap into a net, then one of panic as I wildly swing from side to side, then one of relief when I finally feel dry, solid ground beneath my feet. And then one of the purest astonishment as I gape at my surroundings, unable to believe my eyes.

  We’re standing in what must be an underwater cave, an enormous cavern that glitters with millions of luminescent crystals like some spooky underground palace. In the eerie greenish light cast by the glowing ceiling, I can make out that the walls are a dusty shade of pink and that the water surrounding the cave’s floor, almost like a moat, has a bloody red tinge to it. Together with the spookily beautiful white formations twisting through the
darkness like clouds of smoke, the total effect is that of stepping straight into a Tim Burton movie, especially once I notice the soundtrack of squeaks and squeals made by the bats above.

  “What the hell…?” I look at Gunn, but for once he seems just as stunned as I am.

  There’s the slight echo of footsteps behind us.

  “Well, well. So this is what you look like, stripped of the shine.”

  I spin around to see the Green Lady stepping out from behind a massive crystal-like structure that glows with the same dusky pink glimmer as the cave walls. I recognize her immediately, even though I am a little thrown by her appearance. She’s wearing a simple long white dress accessorized with a strange necklace of teeth and feathers, and she’s petite to the point of being fragile: a bird-boned little slip of a thing with big dark eyes and smooth brown skin and shiny black hair.

  Could this delicate little forest fairy really be the same stunningly powerful woman who made such an impression on me that first night? The difference between her inner strength and her outward appearance is so jarring that I’m almost tempted to draw on my firemagic, just to make sure, but I decide not to risk it. This entire cave throbs with a weird and vaguely threatening energy, and every instinct is telling me that even the smallest spark of my firemagic might ignite something unstoppable.

  She walks closer until she’s right in front of me, and maybe just a couple of inches too far into my personal space. And then she just stands there.

  When the silence begins to stretch out too long, I smile awkwardly. Hi,” I say, my voice sounding hollow and too loud in this strange place. “I’m Jess.”

  She looks up at me with hard black eyes. “I know exactly who you are, daughter of the Tenth. But do you have any idea who I am?”

  I give Gunn a quick look while I take a small, surreptitious step backward. “Um. I believe you’re the Green Lady—–”

  “Please. That title is a joke. The Order of Keepers means nothing to me; it never has.” She speaks perfect American English, although the slightly unusual rhythm of her speech betrays just a hint of an accent. “The only thing I care about is this rainforest, and the Earthkeepers who live here, and you’ve brought an outcast and a slayer into our midst! To this place! My secret village! How dare you?”