David Baldacci - The Keeper

Absolutely nothing happened. The ball continued to reside firmly in Astrea’s hand. I stared openmouthed at her, but she didn’t seem surprised at all.

“It was only your first attempt.”

“But I did it before,” I said in more of a whine than I intended.

Archie said, “Well, actually, you nearly crushed us all with that bookcase, luv. Mum got the book.”

I gave him a surly look before saying, “Can I try again?”

Astrea nodded and said, “You will try many times, I daresay.”

Thirty-seven attempts later, the little ball flew to me and fit snugly into my quivering hand. I wasn’t expecting it because I had pretty much concluded by the eighteenth attempt that I was never going to be a proper sorceress and maybe Delph and I should return to Wormwood and beg for our jobs back.

It didn’t sink in that I had succeeded until Delph clapped me on the back so hard I very nearly toppled over.

“You did it, Vega Jane. You did it.”

He picked me up off the floor and crushed me in his embrace. When he made no sign of freeing me, Astrea said, “Um, Delph, it would be good if we can move on, which will require you of course TO LET HER GO.”

Blushing madly, Delph dropped me on the floor.

Astrea’s focused expression had not changed. “Let’s do it again, shall we?”

My enthusiasm faded because from her serious look, I understood exactly what she meant. Being able to retrieve a little ball on my thirty-seventh attempt was hardly going to get us through the Quag. But I couldn’t help but smile inwardly. I had performed wand magic after all. Maybe I could be this sorceress thingy!

I pursed my lips, focused my MBS, and said the incantation as I slowly and deliberately moved my wand.

The ball came to me fourteen times in a row. It was only then, when seeing it in the palm of my hand wasn’t nearly as exciting as it had been the first few times, that Astrea said, “Let’s move on, then.” She motioned to Archie. “I’ll need your help to demonstrate this one, dear.”

Archie nodded and slipped from his cloak pocket a long, thin reedlike piece of what looked to be blackened wood. He saw me eyeing it and said, “My dad gave this to me when I was far younger than you.”

“With a bit of him in it?” I said.

Archie nodded. “A tooth. If you look close, you can see just a hint of it near the handle. Family history has my mum knocking my dad’s tooth out over a wee argument, and he decided to save the tooth for passing a wand down.”

“It wasn’t like that, Archie,” said Astrea firmly, two splotches of color on her cheeks. “Your father had a toothache and wanted some relief. That is all.” Astrea cleared her throat and moved to the center of the room before pointing with her wand once more at the blackboard. “Do you recall the incantation I used when the bookcase came flying?”

Surprisingly, Delph spoke up. “ Embattlemento ,” he said quickly before gazing around and looking stunned that the correct answer had come out of his mouth.

“Precisely,” said Astrea, eyeing him closely. “It is a defensive blocking spell used to protect oneself from harm. We will demonstrate.”

She motioned to Archie. “On the count of three.”

“Which curse, Mum?” he asked.

“Oh, whatever you like, Archie, dear. Surprise me.”

Blimey! It was like they were discussing what tea they wanted to drink.

They simultaneously raised their wands.

She said, “One, two, three.”

Archie said, “ Injurio, ” and whipped his wand at her. What looked to be a skylight spear burst from its tip.

At the same instant, Astrea slashed her wand in front of her from right to left and said, “ Embattlemento .”

The blast of light hit an invisible barrier conjured in front of her and ricocheted off, ripping a hole in the ceiling.

Delph, Harry Two and I had dropped flat to the floor. We looked up to see the gaping hole in the wood.

Astrea pointed her wand upward and calmly said, “ Eraisio .”

The hole vanished.

We rose on trembling legs and stared at the pair.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for that one,” I said.

“Which is why we will begin with this.” She took the ball from her cloak pocket. “I will throw this at you. You conjure your barrier with the incantation. The sweep of the wand is from left to right, the movement sharp and clean. Make yourself believe that the ball will injure you.”

“Okay, but your movement was right to left ,” I corrected.

Her eyes twinkled. “I’m glad you were paying attention.”

I readied myself while Delph, Harry Two and Archie took collective steps back. Even though it was just a ball, I guess they were recalling the bookcase fiasco.

“On the count of three,” said Astrea. “One, two, three.”

She heaved the ball right at my head with great force.

I swept the air with my wand and said, “ Embattlemento .”

The ball bounced off my conjured wall so hard that Astrea had to duck as it hurtled back at her. When she straightened, she looked at me in some amazement.

“That was quite good, Vega. Quite good indeed.”

I couldn’t hide my smile. But I could hide the fact that I had pictured in my mind a jabbit coming at me instead of the ball.

Yet I had done it. On my first try. I wanted to scream with joy. Until the next four times, when the ball hit me full in the face. We worked at it for a long while until every third time my conjured wall held.

“That is good enough for now. Let’s move on to something a bit more serious.” She pointed her wand at a corner of the room, gave it a flick and said, “ Golem Masquerado .”

There appeared a large male. I was shocked at first, but then I could see that he was made of clay. I had used that material back at Stacks.

“Why do we need that?” I asked.

“I would much prefer you practice on something non-living,” said Astrea.

My smile faded as, without warning or preamble, she made a downward slashing motion with her wand and hissed, “ Jagada! ”

The clay male was suddenly covered in cuts. Had it been a real person, he would have been bleeding from innumerable wounds.

I stared from the slashed clay male to Astrea.

This is what she had done to me before. She knew it. And she knew that I knew it.

“Not pleasant,” she said grimly.

“You want me to do that?” I asked, my voice tremulous.

“Do you want to do it?” she shot back.

I looked at the clay figure and imagined it to be Delph or Harry Two instead.

I looked back at Astrea. “Not now.”

She looked at me for a long moment. “Then let’s move outside.”

As we trooped down the hall, Archie came up behind me and whispered in my ear. “It’s okay, Vega. Most of us couldn’t have done that our first time. In fact, some could never achieve it.”

“Why is that?” I whispered back.

“You have to really want to hurt someone.”

“Well, your mum seems to have no problem with it.”

“She was in a war , Vega. She’s killed before. And she’s had eight hundred sessions to brood. It gets to you, doesn’t it?”

We exited the cottage and passed through the green dome.

Archie stretched his arms and looked to the sky. “Been ages since I’ve been out of the cottage. Just breathe in that air.”

“How long ago did you stop taking the elixir?” I asked.

“The light you showed up on our doorstep.”

I was stunned. “You mean you age that quickly?”

“You age pretty much right away when the effects of the potion wear off. It just takes a bit of time before you actually die.”