The Keeper (15 page)

I
COULD NOT SLEEP
that night. I tossed and turned and squirmed and dreamed. Finally, in a cold sweat, I rose, dressed and went outside and sat on the stone slab by the door with Harry Two and stared up at the emerald dome and beyond that to the sky over the Quag. This coming light, Astrea said, we would start our training. I had no idea what that would entail and it was a bit unnerving. Well, more than a bit actually.

As I sat with Harry Two, the door opened and there was Delph in his long nightshirt. He didn’t look like he had slept either. In his bare feet, he sat down next to me.

“Like old times,” he said. “When we were up your tree.”

Though that wasn’t very far in the past, it seemed so long ago that I could barely remember it.

“Yeah,” I said absently, still staring at the dome.

“You said Astrea wants us to go across this place now.”

“She wants us to fight.”

“These Maladon blokes?”

“Right.”

“But we don’t know nuthin’ ’bout ’em.”

“I guess that will be part of the training, Delph.”

He looked down, his brow creased with concern and his expression one of frustration. “But I ain’t magical, Vega Jane. What you did, blasting everything like that, I can’t do that. You know I can’t.”

I took his hand. “What I know, Daniel Delphia, is that you and I are in this together. We were separated once. And we will never be separated again. I can’t do this without you. You know that, don’t you? You must.”

“That female from the past said it was you what got to survive, right? Well, I ’spect she knew what she was saying. So, if it comes to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you do. And I mean
whatever
it takes!”

I felt swells of cold dread filling me. I looked at Harry Two. He reached out a paw and placed it squarely on my shoulder. The look on his face was somehow perfectly clear to me.

I will die for you too.

That look seized me with terror. I glanced over at Delph and then back at Harry Two.
If they died for me? No, what if they died
because
of me?

W
E FELL ASLEEP
on the stone and were roused only when Astrea appeared at the door and called to us. We put on our clothes, ate our breakfast and assembled in the library.

“What will the training consist of?” I asked.

“Learning magic.”

“But that means a wand.”

“Indeed it does.”

“Where did you get yours?”

“It was given to me by my father.”

“Where did he get it?”

“He took a bit of himself and formed my wand by the proper incantation and passed it down to me. It is how such things are done in our world. It gives a connectivity among families that is largely unbreakable. In this way I have the full force and power of all my ancestors.”

“He took a bit of
himself
?” I repeated.

“Blimey! What bit would that be?” said Delph, voicing what I was thinking.

Astrea said, “His blood. That is often used. You can see the hardened drops of it embedded in the base here.”

She looked at Delph. “Have you ever done anything magical, Delph?”

Delph gaped at her for a long moment. “I’m not magical,” he finally said, as though it should have been obvious.

“And you base this conclusion upon what precisely?”

“That I ain’t never done ruddy magic, that’s what.”

“Neither had Vega Jane, until the opportunity presented itself,” she retorted.

Delph said, “Well, I’ve never done magic, though I’ve been in situations where I wish I could’ve done. So’s that means I’m just a big lug.”

“You’re
not
a big lug, Delph. I’d be dead back at Thorne’s but for you. You think of things I never could. And you’re strong and so very brave.”

“Shall we commence?” interjected Astrea.

At that moment the door opened and I nearly fell out of my chair.

A young male, not much older than us, stood there. He was dressed oddly in a long nightshirt with his bare calves and feet visible. His face was unlined by care or worry and his dark hair was long and swept helter-skelter over his head. His eyes were so dazzling blue they seemed like ice chips reflected against a cloudless sky.

I saw Delph looking at him, as puzzled as I was.

“Archie!”

I turned to look back at Astrea, who had called out the name. She had risen from her chair and was staring goggle-eyed at the fellow.

Archie?
I thought. But Archie was in bed, ancient and dying. Then it hit me.

“You took the youth elixir,” I blurted out.

Archie smiled and strode forward. He was far taller than his mother, but not so tall as I was. And of course he was much shorter than Delph.

“Correct, I partook of the elixir of youth,” he conceded.

His speech was oddly formal and his tone that of a much older male. Which made sense since a bit ago he had been very ancient indeed.

He stretched like a cat and then shivered. “Feels absolutely splendid. Far better than lying in bed, gasping for air.”

“What in the world made you do it?” This query came from Astrea, who was still staring at her son.

In answer, Archie pointed at me. “She was my motivation.”

“Me?” I said, bewildered.

He nodded. “Mum sat with me last night. Don’t think she expected me to last much longer. And she told me that she was training you to take up the fight once more. I wanted to help you!”

“Thanks, Archie,” I said, giving him an appreciative smile. Then I turned to face Astrea. “But we have a problem.”

“Such as?”

“I have no wand. Without one I can’t do magic.”

Archie said, “She clearly has a practical mind, Mum.”

It was disconcerting having Archie call her that, when she looked not that much older than he was.

She glanced down at my pocket. “What about the Elemental?”

“What about it?”

“Take it out.”

I pulled my glove out and started to put it on.

But she stopped me. “There’s no need for that, Vega.”

“But Alice Adronis told me —”

“I’m sure she did, but she was also in great distress when you met, and I doubt that she was thinking clearly. So just trust me. For I have given this much thought and believe I am correct. Just take it out with your bare hand.”

Yet despite her words, I noted that she was keeping her wand at the ready.

I cautiously slipped my hand into my pocket. My fingers inched closer to where the shrunken Elemental lay. My breathing got heavier and my heart started to beat faster. Alice had worn the glove. She had told me …

I felt my fingers an inch from the wood of the Elemental. I looked first at Delph. He was staring dead at my pocket. I glanced at Astrea. She was looking not at the pocket of my cloak but directly at me.

“Believe, Vega,” she said quietly.

“Believe in what?” I asked, bewildered.

“In yourself.”

I caught my breath, swallowed a huge lump in my throat and decided that taking this slow was only making it worse; it was better to just get it over with. I thrust my hand forward and my fingers closed around the Elemental.

I had closed my eyes at the moment of collision of flesh and wood. Now I opened them because nothing had happened. I drew the stick out and looked at it clutched in my hand. It looked tiny and impotent. I glanced at Astrea.

She was staring at the thing as if it was a frozen serpent.

“What?” I said.

“I haven’t seen the Elemental for over eight hundred sessions,” she said, her voice both awed and sad. “I saw Alice hurl that at so many of our enemies.” She glanced up at me. “Would you, please?”

I instinctively understood her. I willed the Elemental to its full, golden size. I held it up as though I was about to hurl it.

Astrea took a step back, her eyes filling with tears as she stared at the Elemental. Then when she glanced at me, she did a double take.

“What is it?” I said, glancing down at myself.

“Nothing,” she whispered. “ ’Tis nothing. You just reminded me of … never mind. You can shrink it now.”

I did so and said, “Now what?”

“Tell it to lengthen to nine inches precisely.”

I was surprised by this but conjured the thought and watched in satisfaction as the wood grew to what seemed the proper size.

Astrea drew closer and examined my hand in relation to the Elemental. “Good, good. Yes, that will certainly do.”

“Do for what?”

She stepped back. “Now
that
will be your wand.”

My face screwed up. “My wand? You just said that a wand had to be passed from a family member. And that it had to have something of that person inside it.”

“And those conditions have been met here,” she replied.

“How?” I exclaimed. “I got this from Alice Adronis on a battlefield hundreds of sessions before I was even born. She …”

“She what?” interjected Astrea. “She couldn’t be related to you? She couldn’t have put something in the Elemental of herself?” She paused. “Wrong on both counts.”

“That’s impossible!” I shot back.

“Look at it. Look at it
closely
.”

I stared at the Elemental. There was nothing to see. But then, then there was something. I bent my face nearer. It was a dark red line, like a thread weaving through the wood.

Astrea said, “It’s a strand of her hair, Vega. Alice’s beautiful auburn hair.”

I looked up to see her watching me. “It can’t be.”

“A simple test will suffice.” She pointed at the wall of books. “The incantation is ‘
Rejoinda,
book.’ Roll the
r
and make a slow, deliberate back sweep with your wand toward you. And let your mind focus only on the book. Like this.”

She pointed her wand at the first bookcase, uttered the phrase “
Rejoinda,
book” and drew her wand slowly toward herself.

A book shot off the shelf and zoomed right into her hand.

She set it down and turned to me. “Now you do it.”

I looked down at the Elemental. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Place your thumb over the top of the wood and your index finger below. Let about six inches of the wand extend out from your hand. And not too tight a grip. It won’t slip.”

“Why not?”

“Because it has become a part of you now.”

I stared down at the thing, expecting to feel horrified. But I actually felt warm … and safe.

I glanced at Delph. He was staring at me. “You
can
do it, Vega Jane. You know you can. You’ve done things. THINGS! You can bloody well fetch a book.”

I turned back to look at Astrea.

“Just believe, Vega. As you did when you plucked the Elemental from your pocket without need of that glove.”

Well, she had me there. I
had
done that.

I took a deep breath, readied myself, looking at my hand, the books, the wand. Wand! Maybe I
could
do this.

I focused on one book in particular. I let my mind see only it. I said in a firm voice, “
Rejoinda,
book.”

I got the word right, rolling the
r
just as Astrea had, but in my excitement I snapped my hand and, with it, the wand toward me.

The entire bookcase flew from the wall and shot right at us, books cascading from it. I screamed and dove to the floor together with Delph and Archie.

“
Embattlemento
,” cried out Astrea.

I looked up in time to see the bookcase halt in midair as though it had hit something solid. Then it shot backward, settling neatly against the wall. All the fallen books picked themselves up and zipped back onto their original places on the shelves.

I slowly rose along with Delph and Archie. I gazed shamefacedly at first the bookcase and then Astrea, and then gazed ruefully down at the Elemental still clutched in my hand.

When I glanced up, Delph was staring at me with such astonishment that it was quite unsettling.

“I guess I’m not very good at magic,” I said miserably.

“On the contrary,” said Astrea, “you have surpassed my expectations. I believe that you can be a first-rate sorceress.”