David Baldacci - The Keeper

“Astrea?” I prompted.

With a jolt she came back to us. She coughed and then stared directly at me. “The Blue Range is the last obstacle before the end.” Again, she stopped.

I said in an encouraging manner, “And it’s mountainous with deeply carved valleys? And...? What else?”

She shook her head slightly as though attempting to dislodge a very disturbing memory. “That is all I can tell you. I do not know what dwells there.”

“But you said that you created the Quag?”

“I created parts of it. The Blue Range was not one of those parts.”

“Well, who created it, then?”

“A fellow named Jasper. His full name was Jasper Jane.”

My head snapped up so fast it hurt my neck. “Jasper JANE?”

She nodded slowly. “Your ancestor many times removed. He crafted the Blue Range. He was an immensely talented sorcerer with a flair for the dark sphere.”

“The dark sphere?” I said, slightly repulsed by saying the words.

“It is what we call that haven of our magical minds that holds sinister thoughts and impulses. Our kind has them. But we can control them, whereas they predominate with the Maladons. Jasper was a curious hybrid of our two races.”

“You think he might have been evil?” I said, horrified by the thought.

She shook her head emphatically. “Oh, no, he fought valiantly on our side, and his knowledge of dark sorcery made him a particularly efficient combatant. He created the last and, I would have to say, most difficult circle.”

“And he never told you anything that was in it?” I asked in a breathless tone.

She brooded over this, then said, “He told me one thing, right before he died.”

“What?” I said, in a near gasp.

“He told me it was meant to be the land of the lost souls. And that was all he would say on the subject. A curious male. He was a loner; he kept himself to himself.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, thinking that I was a loner too, really. But I couldn’t be part evil, could I?

“I suppose it means that once you enter it, you will be lost there for all time. And when your physical body perishes and falls to dust, your imprisonment will not be over. It will really just be commencing for your soul, Vega, for your soul can live forever.”

I felt crushed by this. “Does that mean that all of this is for naught?”

I looked over my shoulder at Archie. He sat with his gaze downcast. I looked back at Astrea and got quite a shock. She seemed to have aged a hundred sessions. The youth elixir! She had stopped taking it!

“I wish I could help you more,” she said. “But it is what it is.”

Then she rose on unsteady legs and left us.

When the door closed, I glanced back at Archie. “Why is she doing this?”

He shrugged and said unhelpfully, “She doesn’t really confide in me, Vega. She thinks I’m too young to understand.” He gave a rueful laugh and then fell silent.

I looked at Delph. “She’s stopped taking the elixir. She’s going to die soon.”

He took this in and said, “We can’t let her do that, Vega Jane.”

I stood. “We won’t, Delph. Come on.”

We followed Astrea’s slow treads down the hall and watched her open the door and go inside. A few moments later, I was knocking on that same door.

“Please go away,” she said from inside the room.

“We’d like to talk to you,” I answered.

“I have talked enough. Please go away.”

“We’ll stay here for as long as it takes.”

The door slowly swung open.

I had never been in Astrea’s room. As I glanced around, I was struck at how barren and empty it looked. I had expected a haven of comfort and clutter.

Astrea was in the bed with the covers pulled up high to her rapidly softening chin.

I sat in the rickety chair next to the bed while Delph stood next to me. She didn’t look at us. She simply stared at the ceiling.

“Well? What is it?” she said.

The ancientness of her voice was painful. As powerful as the elixir was, its effects wore off rapidly.

I glanced down at her. “We need you.”

“I have instructed you as best I can. Now it is up to you.”

“But we’re not ready.” I glanced at Delph. He shook his head in agreement.

She glanced at me. It wasn’t a harsh look. She let out a long breath. “Do you know why we build walls? Either real ones or ones simply in our minds?”

I mulled this over. “To keep folks in or out,” I said at last.

“We build walls because we are afraid. We do not like change. We do not like it when others who do not look or think like us come along and try and change things. Thus we run from it. Or, even worse, attack it.”

I thought back to my time in Wormwood. I had seen that very thing.

“It was awful, really, what we did to all of you,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

“You... you took away our... history,” I mumbled.

She lifted herself up on the pillows. “We took away your identities . It was as bad, actually, as anything the Maladons could have done to you. I see that now.”

“They would have killed all of you.”

“We also took your lives, and then merely required that you keep on living.”

“But you’re letting me cross the Quag. You’re giving me a chance to make things right.”

She lifted a hand and touched my cheek. “I did that for one reason only, Vega.” She drew in a long, painful breath. “Because You Will Not Be Beaten.”

Her hand fell away.

Tears filled my eyes. “But we still need you, Astrea. I need you.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “The youth elixir has been exhausted. Archie took the last of it. And I was so busy teaching you that I waited too long to get more. I am not up to dealing with the needed ingredients.”

I saw that befuddled expression on her features once more. She gripped her head. “It’s not... pleasant,” she said. “Aging this quickly.”

“If you tell me how to get the ingredients, I will make the elixir.”

Her face took on the expression of awful sadness. She looked over my shoulder. I turned to see who was there. It was Archie. He stood there seemingly frozen.

When I turned back around, her eyes were closed and she was apparently asleep. But from under her eyelids I saw a tear emerge and trickle down her now heavily wrinkled cheek. I gently shook her by the shoulder, but she didn’t wake. I shook her harder. I gripped her face and spoke very close to her ear, trying to rouse her. But it didn’t work.

I raced over to Archie. “Can you make the elixir?”

“No. She never taught me. And truth is, I’m a complete muddle with potions.”

I ran out into the hall with Delph hard on my heels. But I had no idea where I was going. I just wanted to be doing... something. Delph hooked me by the arm. “Wait, Vega Jane,” he said. “What are the ingredients?”

I hesitated and then decided it would be best just to tell him.

“Two important ones are the venom from a jabbit and the blood of a garm. But we don’t have to hunt them. They’re in two rooms of the cottage.”

A long sliver of silence passed until it was ended by Delph’s shouting, “There’s a bloody jabbit AND a garm in here somewhere?”

“I know which rooms,” I added in what I hoped was a calm, helpful tone.

This only made him look as if he would be sick to his stomach. “You... you KNOW!”

“I can get the blood and venom. You need to search through Astrea’s desk to find the rest of what we’ll need and how to make it.”

I took out my wand and ran down the hall. A few moments later, I was in the kitchen. I sorted through the cupboard until I found a small metal bowl and a glass bottle. I pocketed them, turned and ran back out.