David Baldacci - The Keeper

“Yes. My mate, Thomas, and I came to live here with our sons and daughters.” She paused and for the first time I could see her features soften, just a tiny bit. “Thomas never did take the elixir. He was the first of us to go. After Archie passes, it will just be me.”

“Why do you do it? Stay here?”

Her eyes flashed. “It’s my duty, Vega. I gave an oath as Keeper and I mean to keep it.”

She rose, came around the desk and stood next to me. I tried to imagine her as more than eight centuries old, older than poor dying Archie, but I couldn’t.

“How much did you know about your grandfather?” she asked.

“He was very nice. But stubborn too.”

“He is far more than that. He is an Excalibur.”

“A what?”

“Those who are born with their magical powers intact and an innate and profound knowledge and understanding of our real history embedded in their minds. They are terribly rare, but he was one of them.”

“My grandfather left Wormwood.”

“I know he did.”

“And you couldn’t stop him?”

“Excaliburs do not carry a sign on their foreheads proclaiming them as such. It was only after he left that we truly became aware of what he was and could do.”

“So you saw this, what, through your Seer-See?”

“Yes.”

I felt my anger rising. “Then I suppose you saw Morrigone blast me with a blue light, and Delph with a red light that turned his mind to mush and left him jargoled for ten long sessions!” My voice and fury rose as I spoke. “You saw all that, did you?”

“I did,” she replied calmly, which made me even more furious.

“She argued with my grandfather. She wanted him to stay.”

“Doubtless she did. But against a true Excalibur, she was but nothing.”

I stood. “And did you see my parents disappear in a ball of flames? Did you see me crying my heart out? Did you see that, Astrea bloody Prine?!”

Her gaze never wavered. “I did, Vega. I did indeed.”

“Well, good for you. I hope you enjoyed it, because I sure as Hel didn’t!”

I was halfway to the door when she called out.

“Do you know where they went, Vega?”

I slowly turned and looked at her questioningly. “No, I don’t.”

She scrutinized me closely before saying, “Let’s apply a bit of logic, shall we? If they’re not in Wormwood and they’re not in the Quag?”

“They’re beyond the Quag,” I said.

“Yes.”

“So why can my grandfather leave Wormwood without ever stepping one foot into the Quag like I have to?”

“Leaving Wormwood and bypassing the Quag would have been easy enough for someone like him.”

“And my parents? I suppose they made the decision to leave me?”

“No, Virgil summoned them.”

“ Summoned them? Why?”

“Did he never talk to you about it?” she said fiercely. “Tell me the truth!”

“No, never,” I said, taken aback by her harsh tone. Was she as nutters as Thorne?

“You do not know of his plans? Tell me if you do. Tell me!”

I took a step back, for her face had twisted into a furious mass. I thought for a moment that she was going to attack me.

“I have never heard from my grandfather since he left,” I said calmly. “And he never told me anything about any plans. All he ever told me was... that he loved me.”

This was a lie of course. My grandfather had actually told me something about Wormwood. He had said that the most bitterly awful place of all is one that Wugmorts don’t know is as wrong as wrong can possibly be. I had no idea what he was talking about then. But now I believed that I did.

Her expression became normal once more and she sat behind her desk and steepled her hands in front of her. “I think that is enough for one night. At next light, we will fetch your friend. And then all will be right again.”

She smiled at me in a way that made my skin crawl.

I walked slowly back to my room, wondering who I really was and concluding that I was nothing. If Astrea was right, my grandfather had been able to leave Wormwood because he was magical, this Excalibur thing in fact. And he had summoned my parents to join him, which showed that he could bring others to him if he so desired. But he hadn’t summoned me. He had left me behind, in Wormwood. He apparently considered me of no importance whatsoever.

So no matter whether I made it through the Quag or died here, I was nothing. Sometimes the truth helps. Sometimes it hurts.

And sometimes it destroys you.

Despite not wanting to, I slept like a stone. I was finally awoken by something tugging at my sleeve. At first, I didn’t focus on what it was. Then, with a start, I bolted straight up. Harry Two let out a yip and leapt off the bed.

I was eye to eye with... Seamus. His bulbous eyeballs seemed horrifically huge.

“Bloody Hel! What are you doing here?” I gasped, holding my chest.

“Came to fetch you to eat. Madame Prine asked me to.”

I composed myself. “You were taken care of last night?”

“Fed like a king, mead to drink and a soft bed.”

“I’ll be along. I need to get dressed.”

He shuffled off and I slowly pulled on my clothes.

Then it struck me. Vega, you git!

I rushed out of my room with Harry Two at my heels. I found the kitchen by following the smell of food. Seamus and Astrea were already there. He was standing next to a large round, wooden table, while she was standing in front of an enormous and ancient blackened stove where several fat pots sat bubbling and two skillets were sizzling.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Astrea said to me.

“I am. And I’m sure Delph must be famished.”

She shot me a glance. “I suppose you would like to break bread together?”

“I would, yes, please. I really, really would.”

“Well, then let’s be off,” she said decisively.

She moved so quickly that Harry Two and I barely had time to react. A cloak appeared out of thin air and settled neatly around her shoulders as she headed down the hall. We hurried after her, with Seamus bringing up the rear.

The front door opened of its own accord and we all passed through it. The green dome remained over the cottage although through it I could see that the sky was now clear and bright. She passed through the emerald wall and we scurried after her.

She took out of her cloak pocket something that looked like a shiny stick and pointed it at the sky. Her lips moved, though I couldn’t hear the words coming out of her mouth. A few moments later, soaring across the clear sky was Delph, still asleep and still inside the web that Astrea had configured last night. He settled gently upon the ground in front of us, curled up and snoring. Astrea gave a final wave of the stick, and the web, which I could see as a number of lines of vivid lights, disappeared. As we watched, Delph started to wake up, stretched, yawned, opened his eyes and...

“Holy Steeples!” he screamed as he jumped nearly three feet in the air before landing upright, his body contorted into the sophisticated fighting stance I had seen him employ in the Duelum.

“Delph!” I cried out and launched myself at him, squeezing him tightly.

But Delph, while he hugged me back, was still staring warily at Astrea and he was still fairly in his fighting stance despite our hugs.

“It’s okay, Delph,” I said. “This is Astrea Prine.”

Delph was obviously mightily confused by what was happening. Well, I knew what would take his mind off that. I said, “Are you hungry? We’re about to take a meal in Astrea’s cottage.”

As I knew he would, Delph focused very quickly.

“Well, that sounds all right, then, eh?” he said, straightening up and dropping his fighting stance.