The Specter Key (16 page)

He suddenly noticed a small pedestal with a metal plaque in the shadow of the ship. The words were hard to read in the dark, so he drew out his mother’s wand.

“
Obro litighe
,” he said, and from the end of the wand came a tiny glowing orb of light, detaching and floating in front of Bran’s head. It cast a dim white glow across the words on the plaque, and Bran read:

The Ship of Pythagorus Fearum

“Fearum?” Bran said, giving a small laugh.

At that sound there came a deep, rumbling noise, breaking his concentration on the glowing orb so that it vanished. He was again engulfed in the shadow of the ship, and the noise stopped, though it echoed up the giant room. Bran could not move, the sound having shaken the very floor itself, and he looked up to the ship again, feeling that it had come from its direction.

He started to slide away slowly, and he heard another sound. The ship seemed to rock slightly, then stop again.

The noises seemed to have come from a gaping hole in the side of the ship far above his head. There were many holes in the ship on that side, all so dark that he could not see within. Still, Bran’s curiosity got the better of him, so he moved a cautious step closer, trying to peer deeper into the dark.

“Hello?” Bran said. “Is that you, Gary?”

He heard another soft rumble that died out once more. Bran started to take slow paces backward, getting a very bad feeling under his skin. He heard something moving about inside the ship, and it began to shake and tremble slightly against the cords. Bran took another step, not letting his eyes leave it.

“I can come back later,” Bran said quickly, and he was turning to dash for the hall when there came a giant roar that filled the room. From every hole in the ship burst forth black tentacles, shooting out toward Bran. He shouted and started to run, but the tentacles caught him by the leg, grabbing him and pulling back. He dropped the wand when he was slammed against the hard floor. Then the tentacle lifted him high into the air, and the room filled with the violent roar of a beast.

The Revdoora

Nim saw Bran being lifted by the tentacles, and she bit the creature, but it swatted her away angrily, and she tumbled across the room and out of sight.

“Nim!” Bran shouted as he flew through the air, the tentacles snaking around his waist and neck and arms, slinging him toward the ship. Through the high, gaping hole he saw a giant, black, dripping mouth and behind it a dozen glassy black eyes filled with hunger. There were no teeth in the mouth, just a gaping throat from which came another startling roar that blew his hair like wind.

“Feiro!” Bran shouted, fire launching from his palm toward the mouth of the beast. The fire sprayed into its mouth, but the beast shook Bran so that the magic was broken and roared again in pain and anger. The tentacles of the beast tightened so that Bran could barely breathe.

Nim came back again, trying to find a place to attack but spiraling as she was pushed away. The beast pulled Bran closer, and Bran struggled to regain his senses, to do anything to fight as he saw its mouth gaping before him.

“What’s all this noise?” came the roaring voice of a man. In an instant, the creature stopped its movement, so that Bran was held high above the ground in its grasp. Bran managed to open his eyes and saw that someone was standing at eye level with him on one of the balconies, holding a glowing lantern.

The man appeared to be in his late thirties, with short, dark hair and a few days’ stubble on his chin, already going gray. His nose was broken slightly, but Bran might not have noticed except for the lantern throwing such deep shadows on his face. Being so far under water, one might have expected the man’s skin to be pale, but he appeared healthy, despite the circles under his eyes and the wrinkles around the edges of his face.

“Who are you?” he demanded, gesturing at Bran with the lantern. Bran coughed; he couldn’t draw in enough air to breathe, much less answer. The man narrowed his eyes.

“Answer me!” he shouted.

“Wait,” Bran said, breathing hard. “I was sent here to meet Gary.”

“Well, that’s me,” the man with the lantern said. “But you should know visitors are unwelcome here.”

The tentacles of the beast tightened even further at Gary’s words, as if in anticipation.

“No, please,” Bran said. “I’ve got a note from Adi. Look, it’s in my pocket.”

“My sister?” Gary replied, lifting the lantern higher. “What of her?”

“The note,” Bran said, sliding one arm free and drawing it out of his pocket. He held it out in Gary’s direction.

“Open it yourself,” Gary commanded. “Read it to me.”

“I can’t, the seal can only be broken by you,” Bran said, insisting with the letter. Gary seemed unsure, but finally he beckoned the creature closer. Gary snatched the letter and drew back a few steps from Bran, opening the seal effortlessly and unfolding the paper.

He began to read it with anger in his eyes, but as he scanned down the page, his expression changed. Before he had even reached the bottom, his hands began to tremble. Bran didn’t know whether to read Gary’s reaction as fear or anger.

“Oh no,” Gary whispered, turning the page to read the back. “Oh no, no, no. No, Adi.”

He looked up at Bran again. His face had changed so drastically that Bran was shocked. Gary’s eyes had become filled with such agony, it was like he had been stabbed through the heart with a knife. He studied Bran’s face and shakily folded the letter, returning it to the envelope.

“It can’t be,” Gary’s voice cracked once. “You’re Emry and Thomas’s son.” If the room had been deathly still before, the silence had dropped even deeper, so that even the creature made no sound.

“I am,” Bran replied. “I’m Bran Hambric.”

Gary flinched at this but tried to hide it.

“Put him down,” he ordered the creature. The creature hesitated, and Gary straightened up.

“Put the boy down this
very instant!
” he shouted, so filled with rage that the end came out as a mad scream. The beast immediately deposited Bran over the railing and onto the balcony at Gary’s feet, and Bran rolled over dizzily. Gary stood over him, nervously holding the lantern out and extending his hand.

“I’m Gary,” he said. “I apologize so sincerely, Bran. I really do. Maven has lived in that ship since I got it, and I can’t get her out without wrecking the whole thing.”

“I’m all right,” Bran said, getting to his feet. Nim was at his side in an instant, clinging to his shirt in fear. Bran went to the balcony edge and, spotting the wand, held his hand out, and it flashed through the air into his palm.

“I thought I was gone for sure,” Bran said. Gary shook his head.

“You’re alive at least,” he replied. “I haven’t welcomed a visitor here in a great time. And even you, Bran…even you, being the first after so long?” Gary shook his head. “I never thought my sister would do such a thing to me.”

Bran did not understand what Gary was talking about, so he just nodded.

“She told you about the key, then?” Bran said. Gary looked up at him.

“Some,” he said. “Not very much. I still don’t understand why she would send you to me, considering our circumstances.”

Gary gestured around the room, as if Bran should know something. Gary glanced at Nim for a second and then pointed ahead with the lantern.

“No matter, we can speak of this in my office,” he muttered. He started up the balcony, and Bran followed with Nim on his shoulder, their steps taking them higher up. The beast drew back into the ship dejectedly, its tentacles slithering inward once more until it had disappeared entirely and gave a low grumble in disgust at losing a good meal.

As they continued up, lit by the candles and Gary’s lantern, Bran saw that these halls had no glass displays but instead had hooks spaced evenly every few inches. On each hook was a different key: car keys, house keys, skeleton keys; keys that were worn and keys that had been polished; some worth nothing and others inset with tiny jewels. They passed so many keys that Bran felt it would have taken a lifetime to amass them all, and yet every space seemed to be filled.

Gary led Bran through another long, carpeted hallway, with more keys on those walls as well. The house seemed to continue off in winding directions, like tunnels through an old hill. It had to have taken years to build, and Bran realized with amazement that he was still actually under the water, and far above his head somewhere was an island.

Many doors later, the hallway opened into a larger, circular room. It wasn’t very wide in circumference, but the ceiling domed high above Bran’s head. Messy furniture spread across the floor in a disorganized manner in front of a great, wooden desk at the end of the room. There was a gigantic brick fireplace to Bran’s right that crackled with flames, its mantle the shape of stone beasts like the ones at the gate. Bookshelves lined the walls around and above the doorway. But the most startling feature was behind the desk: a wall made entirely of glass.

The candlelight reflected in it, but Bran could see tiny glimpses of fish swimming by and little glimmers of color. It took his breath away, and again, he thought that Astara would have loved it. Thinking of her brought him back to reality, and he saw that Gary was watching him from behind the desk.

“Sit down?” Gary offered, his voice shaking. Bran nodded, and Gary rubbed his hands together nervously and then sat himself. He got up again, though, and went to a side table and began to pour two glasses of water. Bran noticed there was a small, open bird cage hanging to the left of the desk. Inside was a crow, with the darkest black feathers and the harshest expression its face, standing still and stately, its beak a solid, reflective silver that caught light. The bird sat in the exact center of his tiny cage, head held high as if looking down upon Bran for being such a loathsome mortal that was hardly worthy of being in his presence. The bird’s eyes narrowed.

“Escrow!” it shrieked suddenly, in the loudest, shrillest of voices, making Bran jump.

“Quiet down,” Gary ordered, pouring the water. “He’s an honored guest.”

“Unwelcome!” it said, louder. “Unwelcome here!”

It spread its wings and flapped at Bran, as if to shoo him away.

“Hush, Escrow!” Gary hissed, waving his hand. “He has an invitation.”

“Lies!” Escrow screamed. “Salty, salty lies!”

Escrow went on mumbling to himself and glaring at Bran, turning disgustedly until he was facing the window.

“Here, have something,” Gary said, returning with the cups. “You’ve probably been traveling a while, I suppose?”

“I have,” Bran said, drinking it down. “It’s been a long trip.”

“Hopefully I can make it worth your time,” Gary said. “I haven’t had visitors in a very long while. Even my sister…you know, I have no contact with the outside. The fact that she would send you here, of all places, still confuses me.”

“She said you could help me,” Bran said. “That you were the only person who might know how to find the door this key goes to.”

“Well, I do know a thing or two about keys,” Gary said, and for the first time he gave a smile, though it was wry, and he seemed to be amused at something entirely different. Bran drew out the key and placed it gently onto the desk between them, and Gary’s smile disappeared.

“Oh,” he said. “This key.”

He seemed to say it as if he recognized the key, which was very surprising as it had been locked in the bank vault for years. He figured that Gary had seen so many keys in his life that he had to have come across one like it before.

“Do you mind if I…?” Gary said, reaching forward.

“Wait, I wouldn’t—” Bran tried to warn him, but Gary had already touched the key, which spit out a green shock.

“As I expected,” Gary said, unfazed. “Very smart. Can you hand it to me then?”

“What?” Bran said, blinking.

“Just give it to me,” Gary said. Bran did as he was told and cautiously held the key out, and Gary reached forward and took it right out of his hand.

“It didn’t hurt you,” Bran said.

“Of course,” Gary replied, turned the key over in his hands and studying the markings on its side. “It’s enchanted, so that it can only be given from one person to another willingly. If I had forced you at gunpoint for example, it wouldn’t have worked. It’s quite a magnificent safeguard. And it means your mother obviously intended it to go to you next, since she left it with you in the bank vault, and it doesn’t hurt you when you touch it.”

“How do you know about the bank vault?” Bran asked. Gary said nothing in reply. He examined the gem in the handle and kept turning it over. Bran felt a strange nervousness now that he wasn’t holding the key, as if there were danger in simply giving it to Gary. Gary put his mind to rest the next moment, however, when he passed it back.

“Fascinating,” was all Gary would say. “But I still don’t understand why you have come to me. It is very old. Finding the door to that key could be unwise—and could open something anew that is best left closed.”

Bran then began to tell Gary exactly why he had come there. Gary seemed fixated on the bank vault and had Bran return to it many times, asking him about his past. He was very curious about the wooden box itself, which was very strange, but when Bran told him about Astara, Gary’s eyes filled with tears.

“You poor boy,” Gary said, interrupting him. “I’m so sorry you lost her.”

“But I know she’s got to be alive,” Bran said. “She’s trying to tell me something. But I don’t even know where to begin, and I think finding the door to this key is the start.”

“I don’t think you want to find the door to this key, Bran,” Gary replied. His words took Bran by surprise.

“No, I do,” Bran insisted. “I’ve got to. I’ve come all this way—I have to find her.”

“She could very well be gone, Bran.” Gary shook his head. “This is dark magic, and a lot of it. You could get drawn into it just like she was.”

“I don’t really care now,” Bran said forcefully. “I’ve already made my choice. I want to get her back.”

Gary sighed. “Sometimes, Bran, it’s better to just let her go.”

“But I’m not going to,” Bran said. He couldn’t believe he was actually arguing this point with a man he had just met.

“I don’t understand,” Bran said. “Adi told me you could help. All I need is for you to tell me the door this key goes to, and I’ll be on my way. You’ll never have to see me again.”

Gary seemed to ponder this, folding his hands and looking across the desk at the key. His expression then turned darker, almost as if he had become angered and offended by some thought, and he sat up straighter.

“All right then,” Gary said gruffly. “I’ll do my part, and then you’re on your way, and I never have to see you again.”

“It’s a deal,” Bran said, arising. Gary’s face returned to the stony, emotionless expression it had before as he pushed past Bran roughly, as if eager to be rid of him. Gary unlocked a door opposite the fireplace, and it opened to a thin hallway. Bran and Nim followed him through.

The hallway sloped up a bit and ended in a circular room far smaller than the office. It had no windows and was littered around the edges with bits of machinery and trash. When Gary moved out of the way, Bran saw that sitting in the center of this room was a strange device. It appeared to be a solid, red wooden door. It was just sitting there, held in a metal frame, as if it was waiting to be installed. Beside it was a solid pedestal with wires running back and forth from the door to it and a clear bowl of water on top.

“As keys are my obsession,” Gary said, “I have created a great many inventions involving them. I assume this is the one my sister has sent you to make use of.”

He touched the door. “This device is my Revdoora—the only one in the world, and its deeper workings are many years older than you or this house. If anyone else was in possession of this device, the powers that be would demand it be removed and placed in some Mages Council vault. But as those powers have a very wise fear of me, it has been let alone for my own purposes.”

“What does it do?” Bran asked.

“Observe,” Gary said, drawing an ordinary house key from the pedestal and placing it into the bowl of water, where it sank to the bottom. He then reached forward and pulled the door open. To Bran’s surprise, the door opened to the entryway of a house he did not recognize. It was dark beyond the door, but he could see stairs and furniture and toys on the floor. He couldn’t resist taking a step closer, but before he could do anything, Gary slammed the door shut again.