David Baldacci - The Keeper

“Astrea, I’ve got it, the youth elixir.”

She made no response.

We tiptoed over to the bed and looked down at her. She had faded incredibly fast. Her hair was stark white, her skin translucent and covered with large spots, and her features elongated and craggy.

“How do we do this?” I asked Delph.

“When I was little and me dad wanted to get some medicine in me, he just opened my mouth, pinched me nose and poured it in.”

And that’s what we ended up doing. I got the contents of the flask down Astrea’s throat, and then stepped back. At first, there was nothing and my spirits plummeted to my boots. Then she gave an almighty gag, sat straight up in the bed, and her eyes opened. And, as though the sessions were being peeled away like the skin of an onion, all the elements of old age gave way. Her hair darkened, her skin grew firm, the features shortened and tightened, the body filled out. It was like I was watching her entire life in reverse.

Finally, she sat there looking as she had before.

She drew a long breath. “Thank you,” she said. And in her voice I could tell that she knew exactly what had happened.

“Where is my son?” she asked wearily.

“We have him tied up. He used a befuddlement hex on you. And he tried to kill me.”

She nodded slowly and rose from her bed. “It’s entirely my fault,” she said. “How did you manage the potion?”

“Seamus got the Breath of a Dominici. The rest of the ingredients were here.”

“But surely the garm and jabbit?” she began.

Delph answered. “Vega Jane got those all right. They were no match for her, even when Archie let them loose on her.”

“Archie let them loose?” she exclaimed. But then her expression calmed. “Of course. He would have been jealous. And confused. And angry.”

I said, “I had to kill the garm. It was going to kill Harry Two. So I killed it. And I had no problem doing so,” I added firmly.

Astrea looked at me pointedly. “I see, Vega. I see.”

And I could tell that she really did see.

She patted my arm. “In bad times, wisdom is so often born, Vega. Now I need to go and see Archie.”

The door opened a bit later and Astrea appeared. When I saw an unbound Archie behind her, I leapt off the bed and pulled my wand.

“There is no need, Vega,” she said, her voice strong and firm.

I looked at Archie. His features were docile, ambivalent even.

“What happened to him?” I asked.

She drew close to me. “The Subservio spell. He is quite harmless now. But I did speak with him before I did the incantation. I tried to make him see my side of things. But I’m not sure we’re there yet.”

“About the Fifth Circle,” I began. “Since Archie placed a befuddlement hex on you, you didn’t tell us all you knew of it.”

“Oh, but I did tell you everything I know of it. Not even my Seer-See will allow me to glimpse the Fifth Circle.“

“Blimey,” muttered Delph.

“Now it is time for you to be on your way,” she said.

“On our way... where?” I asked warily.

“To cross the Five Circles of course,” she said.

“What, now? Right now?” exclaimed Delph.

“But you need to know that escaping from here will come with a price.”

I shook my head. “A price?”

“To put it simply, escaping the Quag means imprisonment forever.”

I shot Delph a glance just at the same moment he looked at me.

I turned back to Astrea in time to see her wave her wand.

“Good luck,” she said.

I felt my eyes roll back in my head.

And then everything went black.

“Wotcha, Vega Jane?”

I opened my eyes and glanced up. Delph was looking straight down at me.

“You okay, Vega Jane?” he said anxiously.

I automatically nodded, though I didn’t know if I was actually okay or not. I sat up slowly, trying to gather my wits. Harry Two put out a paw and gently touched my arm as if to make sure I really was all right.

I looked around. “Where are we?”

“Dunno for sure, but I figure right close to the Mycanmoor.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“Over there,” he said, pointing to the right.

I squinted and in the darkness I could make out a high wall.

“The maze,” I said, glancing at him.

“What I figger. Yeah.”

My temper flared. “Why would she do this, Delph? Just send us here with no warning a’tall?”

“Dunno, Vega Jane. Suppose she had her reasons.”

Cataclysmic thoughts suddenly hit me. Our things? My wand! The Adder Stone. Destin. I looked wildly around and let out a breath of relief when I saw our tucks sitting side by side. I opened them and saw neat bundles of food and jugs of water. I looked down. The leather harness was strapped to my torso. On my thumb was my grandfather’s ring. I lifted my cloak. Destin was around my waist. I felt in the cloak pocket and my hand closed around first the Stone and then my wand. I took out the latter and gripped it loosely. I could feel it instantly become a part of me. I had done it so many times now that it felt natural and right.

“Do you think we have to be in the maze for the counterspell to work?” I asked.

Why hadn’t I thought to ask Astrea that? There were suddenly hundreds of queries to which I was sure I needed answers to survive.

“Might help to find the entrance before we do,” Delph replied.

We shouldered our tucks and started forward.

I pointed my wand up ahead and said, “ Illumina .”

A bead of light shot out of my wand and hurtled toward the dark shapes that we took to be the wall of the maze, where it lit up everything in front of us.

An instant later, Delph and I could hear hooves smacking the ground and wings flapping and sharp cries of unknown creatures. I held my wand at the ready, unsure if I was about to encounter an army of hideous beasts. I hadn’t practiced such an eventuality with Astrea, and I doubted my ability to fight off a mass attack.

Thankfully, the sounds and chatter died down and were replaced by quiet.

I looked over at Delph. “Actually, I think I liked the noise better,” he said.

I agreed with him. It might have been only the weaker creatures that had fled the light. The ones that could kill us might be just ahead, waiting.

We moved forward, my gaze darting in all directions. I took a mental tally of my emotions for the signs of the wendigo — vague terror coupled with something else’s memories. But my thoughts, terrifying though they were, all seemed to be my own.

“Vega Jane, how about you use your wand to see what’s up ahead, eh?”

“Good idea.” I pointed my wand, made the proper motion and said, “ Crystilado magnifica .”

Now directly in front of us was an enormous wall. A battlement, Astrea had called it. And it was made entirely of bones. It made the wall back at Thorne’s look puny by comparison. “I think we found the maze.”

“And there’s the entrance, I reckon,” he said, pointing to a dark, oval shape.

We marched on, drawing closer and closer to this image.

Before we got to the wall, we encountered a large wrought-iron gate that suddenly appeared in front of us. Written out in scroll were the words Wolvercote Cemetery .

“She didn’t mention a cemetery, did she?” I said. He shook his head.

Delph peered through the gate. “It’s a graveyard in there all right,” he exclaimed. He pushed on the gate, but it would not open.

I tapped the lock with my wand and said, “ Ingressio .”

The huge gate swung back.

We passed through with Harry Two bringing up the rear.

We came to the first row of graves.