The Keeper

Quadraginta sex: Vanished

The sun rose, much to my relief. As soon as we cleared about a half mile of forest, we saw it.

The mountain that Delph and I had seen on our very first night in the Quag — which seemed a century ago now — rose above us, far closer than it ever had been before. The land at the foot of the mountain rose swiftly, forming spiny ridges. These ridges, like the backs of serpents, with deep valleys in between, grew steeper and steeper until they ran smack into the face of the mountain.

I eyed Delph. “Seems like we go over the mountain.”

He nodded, his gaze taking in all points. While the mountain still looked blue and stripped of foliage, from our vantage point, we could see the ridges leading up to it were lushly encased in green. However, there was nothing beautiful about this place. After all we had been through, I saw only the stark possibility of death.

We reached the spiny ridge in the middle and started to head up. The going was rough. The trees and other foliage were densely packed and the incline swiftly became steep. The footing was not so good either, and we each took tumbles several times. But we kept going.

Lackland had to use his sword, and Delph his ax, to cut a way through. I finally ended up using my wand to blast a path. Then we arrived at the end and looked down into a broad, flat valley nearly a mile across. I glanced to my right and left. The path had just ended in a sheer rock cliff! There was no way to keep going up.

Delph stood next to me and peered into the valley. He said, “Guess we go down, eh?”

“I can use Destin to take you down one by one,” I said. “You first?” I asked Lackland. I knew he was not so keen on flying and would want to get it over with.

He sheathed his sword and tightened the grip on his tuck. “Right,” he said, his face already turning gray and his brow sweaty.

I had him hold on to the leather straps on my back. I counted to three and then we leapt. Well, I leapt and dragged a squirmy, heavy Lackland along with me. I had to dodge past tree canopies, but we landed safely and Lackland gratefully placed his feet back on solid ground.

I flew back up for Petra and then Delph.

Harry Two was the last to come down with me. When we alighted, I unhooked him from his harness and looked around.

There was no one there.

“Delph?”

Harry Two yipped and started sniffing around.

“Petra? Lackland? If this is some sort of jolly on your part...” But I knew it wasn’t. They would never do something like that. Harry Two and I raced here and there, exploring behind trees and dense foliage, but there was not one sign of them.

My belly burned with anxiety. Then I had a sudden thought. I raised my wand and said, “Rejoinda, Delph.” I prepared to duck when his large body came flying at me, but it didn’t. Everything around us remained still and quiet.

I attempted the same spell with Lackland and Petra. Nothing.

“Crystilado magnifica.”

All that got me was a close-up of trees with not one living thing in or around them. I looked down at Harry Two, cold dread invading every part of my body. We were alone. I had no idea what to do. I had never felt so frantic. I rushed around screaming their names. I was a mad female, all reason struck clean from me.

Then another thought filled me with fresh panic.

This was the place of lost souls. Silenus had said that the physical could be separated from the soul, though an evil person’s soul would remain evil, whether it had a body attached to it or not. Had they been taken and their souls removed? If so, where were their bodies?

Stop it, Vega.

I was acting as if it was certain they were dead. I couldn’t think that way. I had to find them. And I would.

“Come on, Harry Two,” I screamed.

He jumped into his harness and I sprang into the air. We soared along and I did long banking movements to the right and left as I kept my gaze below, looking for any sign of my companions. I saw nothing and my spirits plummeted and my nerves once more threatened to run away with me. The longer they were gone, the more it seemed they would be gone forever. I could barely breathe. I was so scared, I couldn’t even cry. It was like I had been struck by the same spell I had used to freeze the jabbit back at Astrea’s.

As I looked up, I saw it materializing. At first I thought it was another storm blowing up because I had been flying for so long. Only it wasn’t a storm. I would have preferred a storm, actually.

The sky was suddenly blackened with flying things. As one drew close to me, I could see that it looked like an inficio, only far smaller, about the size of Harry Two. But there must have been thousands of them. And they were all bearing down on us with clawed wings and screeching cries.

I went into a dive. I could feel my canine’s rigid body against my chest. I could sense the things right behind me. I even felt the tugs on my cloak as one grabbed it with its claws. I sped up and disappeared through a canopy of leaves. I was praying the creatures would not follow us down here.

My prayers were not answered.

I zoomed along the ground with the swarms closing in.

I pointed my wand behind me and cried out, “Engulfiado.”

A surge of water shot out and as I looked back, I saw it slam into the wall of creatures, knocking many of them down and scattering the rest.

But I knew they would regroup and be after us again.

Up ahead I saw it. I had no other choice.

I pointed my wand at the huge double doors of the massive stone building that had just appeared in my line of vision.

“Ingressio.”

The doors sprang open. I looked back. The swirl of foul creatures was feet from us. I could see their razor-sharp claws and beaks and the murderous looks in their eyes.

Harry Two and I zipped through the doors. Pointing my wand behind me again, I cried out, “Securius.”

The doors slammed shut and bolted.

A split second later, I could hear hundreds of thuds against the thickened doors as the clawed creatures slammed into the wood. But, thankfully, the doors held.

I landed and let Harry Two out of his harness. My chest heaving, I watched the doors just as I had back at Stacks in Wormwood when the pair of jabbits was after me. That door had not opened. It didn’t look like these would either.

But those foul things out there, had they attacked Delph and the others? Had they carried them away somewhere to... to... I couldn’t think it. I felt the tears now rush to my eyes. It felt like my heart had been ripped clean from me.

I managed to regain a bit of calm and looked around. The place reminded me of Stacks with its high ceilings, stone stairs, white marble balustrades and arched columns leading into other rooms. I started up the stairs to see what was on the second level, when I heard it.

“May I help you?”

Halfway up the stairs, I whirled around, trying to locate the source of the words. My gaze had passed over a corner on the first floor. But then I came back to it as the, well, whatever it was, moved out into the open where I could see it clearly.

The figure was really just an outline. The light coming in through the high windows shone right through it, as with the wendigo.

“May I help you?” the figure said again.

I slowly walked back down the stairs and stopped as the thing glided over to me. Yes, it was gliding, not walking.

When it drew close enough, I could see that it was the image of a tall male bent with age. He had on boots and a long robe open in the front. With a thrill I saw the image of the three hooks imprinted across the breastplate he wore.

“I’m looking for my friends,” I said quickly. “There were three of them. They just vanished. I’m very worried. Please, can you help me?”

“Three friends vanished?” he said. “Dear me, that is not good. I am sorry.”

He looked me up and down and then gazed for a moment at Harry Two.

“I haven’t seen a canine in ages,” he said. He reached down to pet Harry Two, but his hand passed right through my canine. I saw Harry Two shiver slightly.

“Blast,” said the male. “I forgot about that. Oh, well.”

“Who are you?” I asked. I also wanted to ask what was he.

“My name is or was Jasper Jane.”

I nearly fell over. And I would have but I was apparently frozen to the spot.

“Well, I’m Vega Jane,” I managed to say.

He looked at me curiously. “We share a surname. Do I know you?”

“I doubt it.” I paused and then continued. “I saw your grave,” I said slowly. “At the Wolvercote Cemetery.”

“My body is buried at Wolvercote. But my soul is not. My soul is right here in front of you. ’Tis all I have left.”

My eyes widened. “How do you separate your soul from your body?”

“There are two ways of doing so. For me, I did so because my body was dying but I did not want to fully perish. Thus, using magic I removed my soul before my physical self breathed its last.”

“You said there was another way?”

“Yes. But I do not wish to describe it. It is too horrible.”

He suddenly saw the ring on my finger. “Where did you get that?” he exclaimed.

“It belonged to my grandfather. What does it mean?” I asked. “The mark?”

“It is our Trinity. Our mantra: Peace. Hope. Freedom. Precisely in that order.”

“Look, I need to find my friends. Every sliver that passes—” I gulped.

“I’m not sure I can help you, not sure at all. You see, it’s really not my place to help those trying to pass through here.”

“I know that! But Astrea changed her mind. She trained me up to escape here. To take up the fight once more against the Maladons.”

This all came out in a torrent. He looked stricken.

“Astrea? I... Helped you to leave here? Fight again? I can scarcely believe it.”

In my mind I searched for something that would make him see that he had to help me. I held up my wand. “And this was given to me by another ancestor, Alice Adronis. She told me I had to survive. To fight. You have to see the truth, Jasper, don’t you?”

Jasper was now staring at me, openmouthed. His hand ran up and down the symbol of the three hooks on his breastplate. “See what?” he said breathlessly.

“Eight centuries is bloody long enough to hide. And the Maladons will find us. They will. If they’re truly as evil as everyone says, they will never stop looking. Well, I would rather come out of hiding and take the fight to them!”

He looked down at my wand. “Alice... Alice gave you that?”

“It was her Elemental. And now it’s my wand. It has a strand of her hair embedded in it.”

“Alice was the most courageous of us all.” He slumped to the floor and sat there cross-legged. “This is quite astonishing,” he said. “Quite. We had our plan, you see. And...”

“And you carried it out very well. But it’s over now. It’s over!”

“How came you here, to my castle?” he said sharply.

“I was chased by flocks of very lethal flying creatures.”

“Oh, yes, the dreads,” he said absently.

“The what?”

“The dreads. My creation. If they followed you here, they’ll be waiting just outside. If you attempt to leave, they will cut you and your canine to pieces. They never give up once they have prey at hand. Dreadful things, hence the name.”

My patience was exhausted. “Fine. If you won’t help me, I’ll find my friends by myself.” I turned and started to walk off.

“But the dreads!”

I turned and shouted, “I don’t care. I can fly, so I have a chance. And they’re my friends. I will die for them. And if you won’t help me, then go to bloody Hel!”

As soon as I finished speaking, he vanished.

Good riddance.

We rushed from the room and reentered the main hall. I stared at the double doors where the dreads, according to Jasper, still lurked. So I knew this was probably the end.

I knelt down and hugged Harry Two, pushing my face into his fur, breathing in his scent. “I love you, Harry Two. Thank you so much for all you’ve done for me.” He licked my face, and in those wonderful mismatched eyes, I could see that my canine was more than ready to stand by my side, and die with me.

I rose, my wand clutched in my hand. But before I could mouth my incantation, the huge front doors burst open. I was sure the opening would be filled with dreads coming to tear us to pieces. But there was nothing there.

I ducked when something flew past me.

It was Jasper. On a flying steed. It was as transparent as he.

He looked back and motioned for me to join him.

I hooked Harry Two into the harness, leapt into the air and followed Jasper out.

Catching up to him, we flew side by side over the darkened landscapes below. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“To find your friends.”

“Does this mean you’re going to help me?”

“Obviously.” He glanced at me in concern. “You’re clearly magical, but you’re not, well, slow, are you?”

“Do you really think I could have gotten this far if I was ‘slow’?”

“No, I suppose not.”

I looked around. “If I fly too long, a storm will come out to stop me.”

“Not so long as you’re with me.”

“You can do that?”

“This is the Fifth Circle. I created it. So I can do almost anything. Almost.”

We soared for a long time. Below us the night turned to light and then back to night and then back to light even though I knew that could not be possible. It was all so surreal that after a while I just accepted it and it no longer bothered me.

“There,” said Jasper, and he started to rapidly descend.

I followed him downward and we touched the ground about a sliver later.

“Take out your wand, Vega.”

I immediately did so. Jasper Jane had not struck me as someone easily cowed. But he looked nervous now. Yet, I thought with some measure of pride — we were family after all — that he also looked quite determined.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“There,” he said, pointing ahead.

I could just make it out amid a sea of trees.

It looked like Steeples back in Wormwood, only it was made of the blackest wood I had ever seen. It of course had a steeple and long glass windows. But on the glass were pictures of the most horrible creatures I hoped never to see. And whereas my Steeples had a cross on top, this one had something else. It grew more distinct as we neared the structure. I recoiled in horror when I saw that it was a body split in half.

“What is... this place?” I said.

“This is the Temple of the Soul Takers. Their leader is the high priest Bezil,” said Jasper. “A truly evil creature.”

“But hold on, you created all of this! Which means you created him.”

“My job was to prevent escape from here and also entry into here,” said Jasper. “I could not do so without conjuring dark forces powerful enough to achieve both goals. Once created, these species evolved. They have had eight centuries to turn even more diabolical. They forcibly split the souls from the bodies of those unfortunate enough to cross their path, devouring the latter to nourish themselves and then turning the souls loose to wander aimlessly. That is the second way to sever your soul from your body.”

“How did you think of such a thing?”

He looked at me. “I based it on the Maladons.”

The horror of this left me speechless.

He said, “Your friends are assuredly in there. If you wish to leave them to their fate, let me know now and we can turn back.” As he finished speaking, he watched me so closely it reminded me of the way Astrea would look at me. There was a definite air of appraisal in his features.

“I already told you. I am not leaving my friends.”

“Capital,” said Jasper.

“But how do we defeat these blokes?”

“I can do nothing to them,” he said.

“What? Then why did you come?”

“To show you the way. It will be up to you to defeat them.”

My spirits sank. “Can you at least give me advice on how to do so?”

“You need to trust your instincts, Vega. And your heart. That did not serve our lot particularly well against the Maladons, but that is not to say we should not trust our heart. After all, it is the one thing we have that the Maladons do not. Good luck.”

“Wait, I have one more question.”

He looked at me expectantly.

“Why did you change your mind?”

“If I trusted one ‘soul’ in my life, it was Alice Adronis. If she wanted you to survive to take up the fight once more, then I will not stand in your way.”

And with a slight pop, Jasper Jane was gone.