David Baldacci - The Keeper

I looked around at the peace and quiet of an early morning’s light. I got a running start and took to the air with Destin firmly around my waist. I kept my gaze swiveling back and forth both above and below, my wand at the ready.

A sudden gust of wind hit me and I went into a dive. I caught myself in plenty of time, at least a hundred feet up in the air. Righting myself, I looked ahead and paled. The clear sky had turned to a towering darkened mass. Jagged skylight spears were being cast out of the black clouds. Accompanying thunder-thrusts pierced my ears. I had no choice but to flee to the ground.

I landed hard and stumbled a bit before regaining my balance. I looked upward. The sky was once more crystal clear.

What the Hel?

I bent my knees and shot upward. I was immediately engulfed in horrendous wind and torrential rain. I was flipped and shoved all across the sky, the rain hitting me so hard it felt like whacks from a piece of wood. The water blasted in my eyes and down my throat, making me gag.

I shot downward and sprawled on the ground, soaked to the bone.

I rolled over and looked up once more. The sky was all blue again.

I twisted my hair, wringing the water out of it, and did the same with my clothes. When I looked to my right, I was so astonished I touched my arm to make sure I was still where I thought I was. Because it was me approaching me! Barely ten feet from me, it stopped and stared. Now, I’ve had experience with a maniack, a despicable creature-thing that can take the form of someone and then clutch on to you and make you relive your worst fears while it slowly crushes you to death. But I had never been confronted by, well, me.

Of course I knew it wasn’t me. It had to be some creature that was intending to do me harm. Well, I was prepared for that. I would just do something to scare it off. I raised my wand, pointed it at the creature, gave my wand a flick, kept my eyes on the thing’s right arm and said, “ Injurio .”

The pain was so immediate and so intense that I gasped, bent over and grabbed my right arm. That had really hurt. I must have done the spell wrong.

I pointed my wand at my arm and said, “ Eraisio .” The pain stopped.

I looked at the creature. It had drawn closer. It was my exact double. And now my fear was mounting. Though it had done nothing threatening, every instinct I had was telling me to be very afraid.

Focusing my mind, body and spirit, I pointed my wand at its leg, gave a slashing movement with my wand and said, “ Jagada .”

Four rips in my leg appeared and I howled in agony, dropped to the dirt and clutched my wounded limb. Tears in my eyes at the pain, I looked up to see the creature now standing barely a foot from me.

The thing’s mouth opened and I saw inside hideous rows of blackened, sharpened teeth. Then a tongue flicked out and licked my face. But it wasn’t a pleasant touch. I could instinctively tell it was tasting me. Blind with pain and fury and not wanting to be eaten, I raised my wand, gathered my hatred for the thing, focused my mind, body and spirit and screamed, “ Rig —”

I never finished because my voice was gone, which meant I couldn’t complete the spell. This thing must have done it. And without my voice, how could I stop it from eating me?

The thing opened its mouth wider. All I could see was this impossibly large black hole big enough to actually swallow me whole.

“ Impairio ,” a voice said.

A blindingly white light hit the thing full in the face. It instantly changed into a blackened husk that was all teeth and gnarled limbs with a single massive eye.

Then the same voice said sharply, “ Rigamorte .”

A coal-black beam shot out and hit the creature directly in the chest. It burst into a huge ball of smoke and then was gone.

I turned to see Astrea standing there, her wand still upraised. She looked down at me, pointed her wand at my leg and said quietly, “ Eraisio .”

My cuts instantly healed. I stood on shaky legs.

She pointed her wand at my face and said, “ Unmutado.”

“What was that thing?” I asked, my voice now returned.

She looked at where the creature had been. The grass underneath was burned.

“A dopplegang. A creature that can become whatever it sees. In this case it became you.”

“But when I tried to cast a spell on it, the spell hit me instead.”

“That’s the primary strength of the dopplegang. Its prey will strike out at the thing, never realizing that it is, in fact, attacking itself. The dopplegang will wait patiently for its prey to kill or incapacitate itself, and then it will eat the unfortunate one.”

“So when I tried to use the Rigamorte curse?”

“I stopped you. Because you would have killed yourself.”

“But how did you stop me?”

“ Mutado . A spell that takes your voice away. I just performed the reverse curse, which is why you can speak once more.”

“And you struck the dopplegang blind because if it can’t see, it can’t become something else? Meaning it reverts back to its true self?”

“And with that defense gone, I was able to kill it.” She added sternly, “You’re quite fortunate that I found your room empty and came looking for you.”

“I was flying around when a storm struck.”

“Of course it did.”

“Because the Quag doesn’t want me to fly over it?”

Her angry look faded. “Excellent, Vega. You are treating the place as a living, breathing, evolving organism, as well you should.” She looked at the spot where the dopplegang had been. “You actually learned a valuable lesson this light, Vega. You must be prepared for anything. I can teach you much, but I can’t teach you all that you will face in the Quag.” She pointed ahead with her wand. “The first of the Five Circles lies just out there. Destin’s flying ability will be limited from now on.”

“But not impossible?”

“No. But you should use it only in extreme circumstances. And even then the danger you’re fleeing may be as nothing to the peril you create by attempting to fly.” She looked pointedly at me. “But speaking frankly, please do not think that all three of you will make it through alive. The odds against that are so enormous as to approach the miraculous. And while I do obviously believe in magic, I do not and never have believed in miracles.”

She turned and walked off. But I stood there, as though rooted in the dirt of this awful place. I’m not sure the dopplegang could have hurt me any more than Astrea just had.

I sat in my seat and stared up at the blackboard. Delph sat to the left of me, while Harry Two was at my feet. He wasn’t dozing. My amazing canine was paying attention! Archie sat in the very back. At the head of the room and standing in front of the blackboard was Astrea, clothed in a long cloak.

She tapped her wand at the blackboard, and writing appeared on it. “The Quag, as I told you before, is divided into Five Circles.”

Delph had his ink stick poised over his parchment. It appeared to me that he was even more focused on this lesson than I was. And then it struck me why. He couldn’t do magic. But he could know the circles as well as anyone. That might prove important later on.

“The First Circle,” began Astrea, “is named the Mycanmoor.”

I flinched. The Mycanmoor had been mentioned on Quentin’s map.

“The Mycanmoor is a maze of startling complexity and populated with creatures that might well prove lethal in any encounter.”

“What is the maze made of?” I asked after I wrote all this down.

“It can be many and various. Thick, living hedges and forests of trees. Walls of stone so high you can’t see the tops of them. Vines of poisonous plants. Battlements of bones. And these elements can change on a whim.”