The Keeper (19 page)

W
E SAT BEFORE
the blackboard for long periods of time. I also practiced my spells and incantations, and performed reverse curses when Astrea tried to attack me. I could tell that she always held back some. But as the time passed, I could also discern that she didn’t have to hold back quite as much. What I had found, to my pleasant surprise, was that in combat I had certain instincts that served me well. I could adapt after sizing up my opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. I was quick on my feet, both literally and in my mind. I had done the same thing in the Duelum back in Wormwood on my way to becoming champion.

She also made me work through mazes she conjured inside the cottage. I had great difficulty in doing so, and often resorted to the
Confuso, recuso
spell. But Delph was never at a loss and was able to get us out of every single maze that Astrea created. Yet I wasn’t overly worried. So long as I had the spell, no maze could defeat us.

Over tea in the library, Archie told us that he had once thought of venturing across the Quag.

“Why?” mumbled Delph, his mouth full of biscuit.

“Well, mate,” began Archie, “when you’ve lived in the same cottage with the same person for hundreds of sessions, it gets to you. You want to try something different, don’t you? A breath of fresh air.”

“I’m not sure I’d call the Quag a breath of fresh air,” I said.

“Well, anyway, it didn’t happen.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“My mum found out about my plan and put a stop to it.”

“How? You can do magic too,” said Delph.

Archie’s expression became forlorn. “Yes, but I’m not as good as she is. She’d win every duel, hands down.”

“But she wants to help us get across the Quag,” I noted.

“Bloody ironic, ask me,” said Archie.

A
FTER OUR LESSONS
were finished each light, Delph worked on maps tracing routes and learning everything he possibly could to help us. And I practiced my spells and incantations over and over. At night, Delph and I would study, talking back and forth as we sat in the book-laden library. My notebook was full with what Astrea had taught us, and the margins were heavily cluttered with additional thoughts. I’m sure that Delph’s looked the same. Most nights we fell asleep in our chairs, our parchment upon our chests, and Harry Two snoring on the floor next to us.

We were told that the Second Circle was known as the Withering Heath. It was not any sort of heath with which I was familiar. Instead, it was a vast forest with trees so densely set side by side that Astrea said it was sometimes difficult to breathe. This circle had such creatures as the deadly and quite mad lycans, which I had glimpsed through the Seer-See, and the hyperbores, which were blue and could fly, and might be an ally or an enemy. Astrea also impressed upon us that the Second Circle was full of depression and that if we allowed it, that feeling would come to dominate.

The Third Circle was the Erida Wilderness, which was actually the opposite of what I thought a wilderness should be. Astrea had said, “It’s a vast flat expanse that stretches seemingly forever. And jabbits and cucos inhabit the Third Circle.”

I well knew what jabbits were. But I had never heard of cucos.

“They will provide light in the gloom, when you might very well need it,” she said. “And, as I previously mentioned, there is the unicorn, whose horn will defeat all poisons.”

Delph and I had looked at each other. I said, “How do you get the horn?”

“There are two ways. One, you simply kill the unicorn and take it.”

I didn’t much like that way. “And the other?”

“You convince the beast to freely give it.”

“How?”

“That, you will have to figure out for yourself when the time is right.”

“But how do we figure it out?” I asked.

She had given me a disdainful look. “Not everything can be learned safely in a classroom, Vega. Education is not so neat and tidy.” She lifted her hand and pointed to the wall. “Out there is where you will learn your most valuable lessons. If you survive them, that is.” She paused and said, “There is another creature which dwells there, called Eris. He has one duty in life, to cause trouble and strife. He will do you mischief if you let him.”

“How do we defeat him?” Delph asked.

“You must learn to trust your instincts. That is the only way.”

I had looked at my ink stick as though hoping it would write down a far better answer of its own accord, but it didn’t. Lately, lessons were not going as well as they might. I was looking for precise answers and she was giving us “instincts.”

The Fourth Circle, we learned, was dominated by the Obolus River. I had sat up straight when she mentioned this. I remembered seeing the long, squiggly waterway and what looked to be a small boat upon it.

“Rubez is the boat’s pilot. He will carry you across the river, for a price.”

“What is the price?” I asked.

“The pilot is the one who sets it. You will have to ask him.”

“And what exactly is Rubez? A male?”

“Not exactly,” she answered. And I thought she might have shivered. “The river holds perils of which I am not familiar, but they are perils nonetheless.”

“How do we avoid them?” I asked.

“Stay
out
of the water” was her ready reply.

N
EXT LIGHT, WE
walked into the classroom to find Archie there but not Astrea.

“Where is she?” I asked, setting my bound parchment on my desk.

Archie said, “She’ll be along. Just finishing up some things for this lesson, I reckon.”

“The Fifth Circle,” said Delph. “That’s what we have left. The last one.”

The door to the room opened and Astrea stepped through. At first I couldn’t think what was wrong. But then it struck me. She looked older. Her dark hair had some white in it around the roots. Her face was a little heavier, a bit saggy.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

She nodded curtly before striding up to the blackboard.

She took out her wand and tapped it against the board as Delph and I quickly took our seats. Harry Two also sat up and came to attention.

“The Fifth Circle,” she said in a weak voice.

I waited for her to conjure something on the board, but instead, Astrea sat down at her desk and clasped her hands in front of her. She said, “It is called the Blue Range. My term for it anyway. It is mountainous. It has deeply carved valleys.” She stopped speaking and her gaze took on a glassy expression, as though she were looking so far into the distance that her eyes had failed her.

“Astrea?” I prompted.

With a jolt she came back to us. She coughed and then stared directly at me. “The Blue Range is the last obstacle before the end.” Again, she stopped.

I said in an encouraging manner, “And it’s mountainous with deeply carved valleys? And … ? What else?”

She shook her head slightly as though attempting to dislodge a very disturbing memory. “That is all I can tell you. I do not know what dwells there.”

“But you said that you created the Quag?”

“I created
parts
of it. The Blue Range was not one of those parts.”

“Well, who created it, then?”

“A fellow named Jasper. His full name was Jasper Jane.”

My head snapped up so fast it hurt my neck. “Jasper JANE?”

She nodded slowly. “Your ancestor many times removed. He crafted the Blue Range. He was an immensely talented sorcerer with a flair for the dark sphere.”

“The dark sphere?” I said, slightly repulsed by saying the words.

“It is what we call that haven of our magical minds that holds sinister thoughts and impulses. Our kind has them. But we can control them, whereas they predominate with the Maladons. Jasper was a curious hybrid of our two races.”

“You think he might have been evil?” I said, horrified by the thought.

She shook her head emphatically. “Oh, no, he fought valiantly on our side, and his knowledge of dark sorcery made him a particularly efficient combatant. He created the last and, I would have to say, most difficult circle.”

“And he never told you anything that was in it?” I asked in a breathless tone.

She brooded over this, then said, “He told me one thing, right before he died.”

“What?” I said, in a near gasp.

“He told me it was meant to be the land of the lost souls. And that was all he would say on the subject. A curious male. He was a loner; he kept himself to himself.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, thinking that I was a loner too, really. But I couldn’t be part evil, could I?

“I suppose it means that once you enter it, you will be lost there for all time. And when your physical body perishes and falls to dust, your imprisonment will not be over. It will really just be commencing for your soul, Vega, for your soul can live forever.”

I felt crushed by this. “Does that mean that all of this is for naught?”

I looked over my shoulder at Archie. He sat with his gaze downcast. I looked back at Astrea and got quite a shock. She seemed to have aged a hundred sessions. The youth elixir! She had stopped taking it!

“I wish I could help you more,” she said. “But it is what it is.”

Then she rose on unsteady legs and left us.

When the door closed, I glanced back at Archie. “Why is she doing this?”

He shrugged and said unhelpfully, “She doesn’t really confide in me, Vega. She thinks I’m too
young
to understand.” He gave a rueful laugh and then fell silent.

I looked at Delph. “She’s stopped taking the elixir. She’s going to die soon.”

He took this in and said, “We can’t let her do that, Vega Jane.”

I stood. “We won’t, Delph. Come on.”

W
E FOLLOWED
A
STREA’S
slow treads down the hall and watched her open the door and go inside. A few moments later, I was knocking on that same door.

“Please go away,” she said from inside the room.

“We’d like to talk to you,” I answered.

“I have talked enough. Please go away.”

“We’ll stay here for as long as it takes.”

The door slowly swung open.

I had never been in Astrea’s room. As I glanced around, I was struck at how barren and empty it looked. I had expected a haven of comfort and clutter.

Astrea was in the bed with the covers pulled up high to her rapidly softening chin.

I sat in the rickety chair next to the bed while Delph stood next to me. She didn’t look at us. She simply stared at the ceiling.

“Well? What is it?” she said.

The ancientness of her voice was painful. As powerful as the elixir was, its effects wore off rapidly.

I glanced down at her. “We need you.”

“I have instructed you as best I can. Now it is up to you.”

“But we’re not ready.” I glanced at Delph. He shook his head in agreement.

She glanced at me. It wasn’t a harsh look. She let out a long breath. “Do you know why we build walls? Either real ones or ones simply in our minds?”

I mulled this over. “To keep folks in or out,” I said at last.

“We build walls because we are afraid. We do not like change. We do not like it when others who do not look or think like us come along and try and change things. Thus we run from it. Or, even worse, attack it.”

I thought back to my time in Wormwood. I had seen that very thing.

“It was awful, really, what we did to all of you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

“You … you took away our … history,” I mumbled.

She lifted herself up on the pillows. “We took away your
identities
. It was as bad, actually, as anything the Maladons could have done to you. I see that now.”

“They would have killed all of you.”

“We also took your lives, and then
merely
required that you keep on living.”

“But you’re letting me cross the Quag. You’re giving me a chance to make things right.”

She lifted a hand and touched my cheek. “I did that for one reason only, Vega.” She drew in a long, painful breath. “Because You Will Not Be Beaten.”

Her hand fell away.

Tears filled my eyes. “But we still need you, Astrea.
I
need you.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “The youth elixir has been exhausted. Archie took the last of it. And I was so busy teaching you that I waited too long to get more. I am not up to dealing with the needed ingredients.”

I saw that befuddled expression on her features once more. She gripped her head. “It’s not … pleasant,” she said. “Aging this quickly.”

“If you tell me how to get the ingredients, I will make the elixir.”

Her face took on the expression of awful sadness. She looked over my shoulder. I turned to see who was there. It was Archie. He stood there seemingly frozen.

When I turned back around, her eyes were closed and she was apparently asleep. But from under her eyelids I saw a tear emerge and trickle down her now heavily wrinkled cheek. I gently shook her by the shoulder, but she didn’t wake. I shook her harder. I gripped her face and spoke very close to her ear, trying to rouse her. But it didn’t work.

I raced over to Archie. “Can you make the elixir?”

“No. She never taught me. And truth is, I’m a complete muddle with potions.”

I ran out into the hall with Delph hard on my heels. But I had no idea where I was going. I just wanted to be doing … something. Delph hooked me by the arm. “Wait, Vega Jane,” he said. “What are the ingredients?”

I hesitated and then decided it would be best just to tell him.

“Two important ones are the venom from a jabbit and the blood of a garm. But we don’t have to hunt them. They’re in two rooms of the cottage.”

A long sliver of silence passed until it was ended by Delph’s shouting, “There’s a bloody jabbit AND a garm in here somewhere?”

“I know which rooms,” I added in what I hoped was a calm, helpful tone.

This only made him look as if he would be sick to his stomach. “You … you KNOW!”

“I can get the blood and venom. You need to search through Astrea’s desk to find the rest of what we’ll need and how to make it.”

I took out my wand and ran down the hall. A few moments later, I was in the kitchen. I sorted through the cupboard until I found a small metal bowl and a glass bottle. I pocketed them, turned and ran back out.

Down the hall I stopped at the door with the little mark on it. The jabbit, I knew, was behind this portal, trapped in his cage of light.

I raised my wand, made the three parallel strokes with it and said, “
Crystilado magnifica
.”

Instantly, the image of the jabbit appeared directly in front of me. I knew it was coming, but it still took all of my willpower not to scream.

Okay, I thought. The thing is in there
. But wait, how was I going to get in the door? It would shout “GO AWAY!
”

Then I forced myself to calm down. Astrea had taught me that one. I tapped the door’s lock with my wand and said, “
Ingressio
.”

The door immediately swung inward.

I stepped forward into the room, my wand at the ready.

The jabbit was across the space, curled up, its multiple heads lowered, all the awful eyes closed. It was asleep. All around it I could see the lights of its cage swirling. The jabbit was a truly enormous serpent, thick as a tree trunk, with two hundred and fifty venomous heads running the length of its body. It was the most fiercesome beast in all of Wormwood. And yet there were even more terrifying ones out there in the Quag.

I had a plan. I didn’t know if it would work, but I was going to try. I raised my wand, pointing it at the body of the giant serpent.

I flicked my wand and said, “
Paralycto
.”

The spell I cast hit the wall of light and rebounded. I ducked just in time and it flew over me and hit the opposite wall with a crash.

When I rose, I knew that my spell could not get past the lighted cage. This was a problem. When I heard multiple hisses, I knew I had another problem.

I turned to look. The jabbit was awake now and five hundred eyes were upon me, each of them filled with malice. I swallowed, and it seemed most of my courage drained with it. Now I would have to undo the cage,
then
cast the spell. But that would free the jabbit, at least momentarily. And I knew better than most how quickly they struck. However, unless I did this, Astrea was going to die.

I decided to act fast because the longer I waited, the more time the jabbit had to fully awaken. As I looked at the serpent, something remarkable happened. I grew calm. I don’t know why, but I felt a confidence I had no reason to have. I pointed my wand at the bars of light and, focusing my MBS, said, “
Eraisio
.”

The light bars instantly vanished.

I could tell the serpent was not yet fully aware that it was free.

Seizing this opportunity, I pointed my wand once more and said, “
Paralycto
.”

It was truly remarkable to see such a gigantic creature become instantly frozen. It had reared up right before the spell struck, but now its hundreds of eyes were glazed over and its fangs were conveniently bared.

Still, I walked toward it with great caution, hoping with each step that my spell would hold. I pulled the metal bowl from my cloak pocket and drew close to the nearest set of fangs.

I held the bowl under one of the open mouths, pointed my wand at the fangs and prepared to cast a spell that Astrea had taught me for drawing liquid from various objects like stones and trees, since we would need a source of water.

“
Springato erupticus
.”

A yellowish liquid poured from the fangs and collected in the bowl. It was amazing how much venom could come out of a single pair of fangs.

Once the bowl was fairly full, I pointed my wand at the fangs and muttered the reverse spell to stop the flow of venom.

I stepped back against the far wall, set the bowl down and prepared myself.

Two spells back-to-back.

MBS, MBS. Focus, Vega, focus.

I whipped my wand down the length of the serpent and said, “
Unparalycto
.”

The jabbit immediately came back to life. It fixed its gazes on me. I could see exactly what it was planning to do.

“
Incarcerata
.”

The jabbit struck at that instant. And slammed right into the white light bars that had reemerged around it. They held fast and the creature retreated into vast, windy coils, its fury evident in its hideous eyes and the angry twitches of its tree-trunk body.

I smiled. And then turned to pick up the bowl. I never got there.

The jabbit struck with the bloodcurdling shriek that I had always been told was the last thing you would ever hear.

“
Pass-pusay
,” I screamed, slapping my wand against my leg.

I was instantly on the other side of the room and the jabbit had slammed into the wall with its two hundred and fifty heads. The roof of the cottage shook with the impact, and a long crack appeared along the wall.

How the Hel had it escaped my cage of lights?

It turned and with a massive whip of its tail, it was charging straight at me. My thoughts turned back for an instant to Stacks, where a pair of jabbits had been hunting me down. I had escaped behind a little wooden door with a screaming Wug for a knob. There was no such escape now. No door, no screaming Wug.

The jabbit struck again.

“Embattlemento.”

The serpent hit the conjured wall with such force that the entire room shook. I fell back, but I quickly regrouped as the jabbit rebounded off my spell and was flung backward against the far wall of the room.

It was slow to shake off the impact.

I could hardly believe my eyes. I had
hurt
a jabbit.

Before it could attack once more, I shouted, “
Incarcerata
.”

The white bands shot from my wand and encircled the creature.

I prayed that it would hold this time. I stepped carefully around the jabbit as its five hundred eyes followed my every move. I slowly bent down, keeping my gaze on the thing, and picked up the bowl of venom.

Then I was out the door in a flash and closed and secured it behind me with a locking spell. Breathless, I hurried down the hall, where I nearly collided with Delph coming the other way. He was carrying an old journal.

“Found it,” he said. “The instructions for the elixir.”

“Brilliant!” I held up the bowl. “And I got the venom.”

“Bloody Hel,” he gushed, taking the bowl gingerly.

“And now for the garm.” I rushed down the hall to the other door that had told me, “GO AWAY!”

I cried out, “
Crystilado magnifica.
”

I blinked. “
Crystilado magnifica
,” I said again.

The room was empty. There was no garm in a white-light cage.

I heard the growl behind me. I didn’t even have time to turn.

I screamed. The garm roared.

I saw a flash of something and I was knocked heels over arse.

As I slid along the floor, I looked behind me.

The garm was on its hind legs, just about to expel a chest of flames that would burn me to cinder.

And there was Harry Two. He must have knocked me down.

He leapt directly at the beast and then the impossible happened. My canine clamped his strong jaws around the garm’s snout, forcing it shut. The garm screamed in fury, though the sound came out muffled because it could not open its mouth.

It flung itself around, slamming Harry Two into the wall. But still Harry Two hung on, even with his legs dangling uselessly and blood pouring from the side of his head. The garm reached up with its forelegs to rip Harry Two to pieces.

I had another vision. Of my first canine, Harry. He had also saved me from a garm and sacrificed his life in doing so. I had no intention of letting that happen again.

There was a powerful feeling surging through every bit of me. It wasn’t hatred. Or loathing. It was far more than that. I don’t believe there is even a word to adequately encompass it. I said it before I even realized saying it. It came out of my mouth with such force that it seemed the words alone could do what I wanted done.

I pointed my wand directly at the garm’s chest.

“Rigamorte!”

The black light hit the garm with such power that the many-tonned beast was lifted right off its clawed feet. Harry Two let go in midair and fell away from the hideous thing as the garm was flung along the hall, hit the wall and slumped down with an enormous, cottage-rattling thud. It was quite dead as it rolled over, its tongue hanging out, its bloody chest still. I sprinted down the hall and knelt next to Harry Two, who lay sprawled on the floor, his damaged legs useless, his head bleeding badly.