David Baldacci - The Keeper

He said this so casually that I could only stare.

“Well, I’m glad you decided not to die.”

He smiled. “Me too, Vega. Me too.”

Astrea raised her wand, gave it three parallel flicks and said, “ Crystilado magnifica .”

Three feet away from us appeared an amaroc bounding through the fields, evidently in pursuit of prey. It was so close that I could see the red eyes, huge chest, bared, yellowed fangs and the cold breath bursting from its nostrils.

Delph screamed and jumped back. I yelled and pulled my wand, about to will it to full Elemental status so I could hurl it at the beast.

But Astrea held up her hand. “The amaroc is many miles distant. This spell allows you to see things far away as if they were very close. A useful device in the Quag, don’t you think?”

As I stared at the amaroc I said, “Very useful indeed.”

She waved her hand once more and the image vanished. She pointed toward where a forest was located.

“Now you try.”

I raised my wand, gave it the requisite three flicks and said, “ Crystilado magnifica .”

It was as though we were in the forest. I could see everything. Everything!

As I watched, a deer came soaring into view. I had loved to watch them from atop my tree as they ran through the woods back in Wormwood. I grinned at Delph but faltered when his reciprocal smile turned to a look of horror.

I whipped back around and stared at the deer once more.

From out of nowhere a ghastly, quasi-transparent creature had appeared. With astonishing speed and unerring accuracy, it had plunged right at the beautiful deer, catching it in its ethereal grasp. The deer looked as stunned as I felt. Here it was running blithely along...

Then... then it was torn to shreds. And the thing consumed it. I tried to turn away, but something grabbed me by the shoulder and held me in place.

I looked around to see Astrea there, holding me, making me watch.

I turned back around. And the most astonishing thing happened. The monster that had killed the poor deer had become... the deer, albeit a ghostly, filmy white version of it.

Astrea waved her wand, said, “ Finit ,” and the entire image disappeared. She turned to me and said, “That was a wendigo. A malevolent spirit that can possess whatever it devours. Creatures such as this lie between you and your destination at the end of the Quag.”

My voice shaky, I said, “And you helped create all these horrible things.”

She looked taken aback by my comment, which, I had to admit, had been somewhat accusatory. “Not all of them, no. But by conjuring what we did, we laid the foundation for these creatures to spawn even greater horrors than the originals. The effects of magic can often be unpredictable, Vega. You must come to understand that.”

“And do you think it was all worth it?” I asked in a firmer voice.

“The answer to that is still to be written,” she replied just as firmly.

The time raced by as my education continued. My true education.

By saying the phrase “ Pass-pusay ” and tapping my wand against my right leg, I had disappeared from the room we were in and transported myself to the hallway outside. I don’t know how I did it or why I had traveled to that particular spot, but Astrea was very encouraged that I had accomplished this on only my fourth attempt. I had even worked out some reverse curses with a degree of success. But I had also very nearly drowned poor Delph by miscasting the confounded spell Engulfiado.

I now lay exhausted on my bed. It didn’t seem that saying words and waving a little stick around could be tiring, but it actually involved far more than that. This mind, body and spirit requirement was much harder than laboring at Stacks.

Someone knocked on my door and I wearily raised my head. “Yes?”

“It’s Delph, Vega Jane. Can I come in?”

“Give me a mo’. I’m not decent.” I jumped up, threw on my cloak and then opened the door.

“You look... very, um, decent ,” he said shyly.

“Thanks, Delph. But how can you tell? Your eyes are closed.”

He opened them just a bit as though to test whether I was truly decent. Then he opened them fully.

“Now, what was it you wanted?”

He took the chair next to my bed while I perched on the corner of the mattress. He was curling and uncurling his large hands, something I knew he did when he was both nervous and upset.

“Just say it, Delph.”

He nodded. “The thing is, Vega Jane, the thing is...” He stopped, stood and started to pace. Harry Two and I swiveled our heads back and forth as he did so, following his long gait as he crisscrossed the room. He whirled around, looked at me and said, “I... can’t... do... this magic. So what bloody good am I to you?”

“What good are you to me? You’re joking, right?”

He made a huge muscle with his arm, but it wasn’t intended as a show of strength, a fact made clear by his next words. Pointing at it, he said, “This is all I have. I’m strong in Wormwood, pretty much none stronger. But here I’m a bloody weakling, Vega Jane. I can’t help you. And if I can’t help you, I’ll end up hurting you.”

He suddenly slumped to the floor and just sat there looking spent.

As though he could sense Delph’s pain and anxiety, Harry Two used his snout to lift Delph’s hand and perhaps his spirits. As Delph stroked Harry Two, I said, “Okay, Delph, let’s say you can’t do magic and I can.”

“ ’Cause it’s the truth!” he said fiercely.

“But I’m just learning how to do this. You saw that.”

“What I saw, Vega Jane, was a sorceress or whatever you want to call yourself, getting better and better. You’ll soon have the stroke of this magic stuff.”

“And do you really think all you have to offer are muscles?”

He looked surprised by this comment. “Eh? What else, then? All I got.”

“So it wasn’t you who came up with the strategy for me to win the Duelum?”

“Who cares about the damn Duelum? Ain’t you been listening? I can’t do magic.”

I rushed over and seized his shoulder. “Neither one of us came into the Quag thinking we could do magic. But we still came here. And you know why we did.”

I grew silent because I wanted to hear him say it. I wanted to know, for certain, that he wanted it as much as I did.

He said, “To find the truth.”

I nodded and let go of him. “That’s right. Maybe I’ll be a good sorceress and maybe I won’t. Maybe you’ll never be able to do magic, I don’t know. I don’t know much about anything in this place because it’s so unknowable ! But that won’t stop us from finding answers, Delph. And if we die trying, well, I’d rather that than live a life that’s not even my own.”

Delph slowly nodded and said, “Okay, Vega Jane. Okay.”

“So are we good?” I asked, peering at him closely.

“We’re good,” he said with a smile.

More time passed and my lessons continued unabated. I muttered so many incantations that it seemed I could recall none. I made intricate moves with my wand. I employed my mind, body and spirit together in ways I couldn’t have even fathomed before. And it was all done under the strict tutelage of Astrea Prine. She seemed to enjoy the role of teacher far more than jailer.

I had my share of victories and a nearly equal number of total disasters.

One terrifying moment had come when I directed a curse at the clay male.

“ Jagada ,” I called out, whipping my wand at the target, but my enthusiasm had led to a momentum in my arm that badly threw off my aim. My curse hit poor Archie and he started to bleed from gashes all up and down his legs.