The Keep

by Bella Forrest

  It was hard to imagine what Caius would have looked like when he was younger; he looked like the kind of man who had always been old, though he must have had youth on his side at one point.

  “I imagine that’s probably why she hasn’t ceased her little breakthrough attempts. She thinks she can make me do as she pleases, but I’m afraid she is in for a rude awakening,” Caius remarked, surprising Alex.

  “Wait, you already knew we were in Kingstone?”

  Caius shrugged casually. “I told you, I don’t like to get involved—as long as nobody escapes and nobody begins to suspect I’m not what I say I am, I’m happy. Plus, no one can accuse me of not doing my job if I do it just well enough. Well, nobody but my brother, but as long as he gets to say his piece and do some suitably terrible things, it’ll keep him away for a while… Fear is a powerful tool. Never forget that,” he said with grim sincerity. “Though I wonder now what I should do with you… seeing as you’ve spoiled my rule of ‘nobody escapes.’” The joke worried Alex for a second before he realized it wasn’t coldly meant. Alex had to remember this wasn’t Julius he was speaking to.

  Suddenly, a horrible thought came to him.

  “Does Julius know about me?” he asked, the fear of such a thing dawning on him.

  The old man shook his head slowly. “If he did, you wouldn’t be here now,” he insisted, and Alex did not doubt the truth in those words. “If Alypia and Virgil know what you are, I presume they intend to tie a little bow around you and give you to him as a gift. If you have escaped her clutches, as it appears you have, I would imagine the shame is currently keeping her from telling her father. He can’t abide failures. Either that, or she is still intent on serving you up on a silver platter. My money is on the latter, or perhaps a mixture of the two,” he mused.

  Alex shuddered at the thought of being handed over like a piece of meat to that awful man. “I think I’d rather have neither.”

  “And who could blame you! It’s far better you put as much distance between yourself and her as possible.” The old man smiled wearily.

  He seemed jaded by the system that manipulated them all, and Alex could understand why, especially given Caius’s age and the injury that seemed to plague him. His was gait labored and his figure stooped, forcing him to lean heavily against the silver-topped cane whenever he was required to stand and walk. Without the stoop and the cane, Alex wondered if Caius might have stood as tall and proud as Julius. As it was, the old man seemed to be a victim of time, and the ache of old wounds; he definitely wasn’t sipping from any youth serum. Alex figured it would be rude to guess his age, but he knew the old man must be far older than he appeared, given what Alex knew about mages and how their magic extended their lives. Remembering the mention of Caius being several hundred years old, Alex assumed the man was in the realm of ancient. He realized that also meant Julius must be too, though that particular royal must certainly be in possession of some potent youth serum, now that Alex pictured the two old brothers side by side.

  Another thought sprang to his mind. “What you said before… That means you were around during the great battles, right?”

  Caius nodded slowly. “I was.”

  “Did you get to meet any of the Spellbreaker warriors, when you found your great love?” he pressed, not knowing if it was too sensitive a subject for the old man.

  “I did. She moved in impressive circles, my beloved Guinevere.” Caius smiled sadly. “Love is the most precious of things, my boy… Never forget that. They write a million stories, a million poems, a million songs about it, and they do so for a reason. They do it to replicate a secret feeling that so few get to hold onto forever, and it can only be shattered by death, if the feeling is true. If you find it, don’t let it go,” he said, his mind evidently distracted, though his knowing glance toward Ellabell, still sleeping soundly, made Alex’s cheeks flush with sudden heat.

  “So you met some of them? The Spellbreakers?” Alex asked quickly, wanting to change the subject.

  “Would you like to hear some tales of the most fearsome of them all—the great Leander Wyvern?” Caius asked, an amused smile upon his face.

  Alex nodded. “I would.”

  “The tales I could tell of that man,” Caius chuckled, making Alex wonder what all these stories were that kept being deemed too inappropriate for his ears. After all, he wasn’t twelve. “But we’ll start with the one concerning you, shall we?”

  Alex’s eyes went wide. “You know that story?”

  “Know it? My boy, I was there.”

  “You were there?” Alex whispered, barely able to contain his emotion.

  Caius smiled with compassion. “I played a small part in the survival of his child, and so, I suppose… the survival of you.”

  Chapter 19

  “Before all of this existed the way it does now,” Caius began, gesturing around, “I met Leander at many underground gatherings, where sympathizers would meet in secret with the Spellbreakers, to show our support and to come up with ways of foiling my brother’s plans. We shared information and tried to devise a way of healing the rift between our two races, to fight for equality, the way my father had fought for such a thing. But I think we all knew it was too wide a conflict to traverse, even then.” He sighed wearily, a haunted expression lingering for a moment.

  “But it was at one of these that I met Leander, and he was aware I stood with them as a Spellbreaker sympathizer and avid supporter. Being who I am, that was something of a rarity, and it intrigued Leander. His curiosity led to a friendship, which prevailed even though my brother forced me to fight on the opposite side, utterly against my will. I ran onto the fields I was pushed onto, went through the motions, conjured shields and tried not to die… It was my duty to be seen, but I only took wounds; I did not give them.” He smiled wryly, gesturing to the injured leg stretched out stiffly in front of him. “In all the wars, I don’t believe I killed a single Spellbreaker.”

  “You were wounded?” Alex asked solemnly.

  Caius nodded. “A particularly nasty bone-shattering spell caught me in the knee. It hasn’t been the same since. But it was nothing compared to what others suffered.”

  Alex could see the strain on Caius’s face as he gathered his memories. A thousand ghosts shifted behind the old man’s golden eyes, clearly troubling him even now, after so many years. Alex almost felt bad about wanting to know more, staying silent until Caius was ready to speak again. He sipped tea from the china cup still clutched in his hands. It tasted of lemon, ginger, and cloves, the combination filling his nostrils with a rich, heavily spiced scent as the liquid trickled down the back of his throat, now less than lukewarm.

  Visibly rallying himself, Caius continued. “A short while before that harrowing final day upon the Fields of Sorrow… Do you know of them?”

  Alex nodded. “I do.”

  “Good… Where was I? Ah, yes, a few weeks prior to that awful day, a letter from Leander arrived at my door, requesting that I help hide the woman he loved… A non-magical woman, from an ordinary town not too far from where I was staying. I can still remember her—one of the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen, excluding my beloved, of course. The kind of woman you’d do anything for. At the time, I was a sucker for love. I had a secret love of my own, after all. Leander and I had a lot in common. He was willing to do whatever it took for the cause.” He paused again, with a heavy sigh. “I agreed to help, naturally, and squirrelled the woman away, somewhere she’d be safe, somewhere they’d never find her. As a royal, I could get her places other mages could not. I never revealed the secret of her whereabouts, nor did I tell a soul about the baby, though they tried their very best to get me to spill my guts, my dear brother and his cronies.” He grinned, but there was sadness in it. Alex realized it must be hard, to live so long, to know so much, and to lose so many.

  “Strike two?” Alex asked.

  Caius nodded. “Strike two, certainly. They didn’t even know about the boy’s existence until mu
ch later, and I only found out a few decades ago that they had finally gotten close to tracking down the descendants of that child… and now you are here.” He leveled his gaze at Alex. “In truth, I never thought I’d see one like you again. It is an honor to meet you. Though, as you already know, you are not entirely unique in this world. There is perhaps one story sadder than the one written by your ancestors.”

  The only person Alex thought Caius could be talking about was the Head. Though he understood the Head’s existence was somewhat spurned, he could not imagine anyone feeling sympathy for the skeletal creature. And yet there was a note of benevolence in Caius’s voice.

  “Virgil?” Alex asked, the name still strange on his tongue.

  “A strange fish indeed, that one,” said Caius, neither confirming nor denying the story was about him. “You see, Leander was always lauded as an errant Lothario, with countless women on his arm, but I truly believe he only had two loves over the span of his life—two that truly mattered to him. I know for certain he loved the non-magical woman who gave your ancestor life, but there was another too—the pang of a first love, that haunted him down the years. There is no escaping first love, you know. It is like a weed; no matter how you cut it away, it always returns, coiling around your heart.” He winked, causing Alex to shift uncomfortably once more, unable to glance down at the girl beneath the blankets. “Leander was no different. When he was younger, still a teenager, he met a young woman while vacationing in the ordinary, non-magical world. They met purely by chance, a true Romeo and Juliet story, and it led to a summer romance that never really went away. Unfortunately for Leander, the girl he fell for was none other than Venus, my brother’s wife.” He raised an eyebrow, letting the ties connect in Alex’s mind.

  “A mage?” Alex murmured, though the thought didn’t seem all that strange to him. After all, Ellabell was a mage.

  Caius nodded. “And not just any mage, but one betrothed to my brother. They loved a good betrothal, my mother and father, the old king and queen.”

  Alex wanted to ask if he’d been betrothed too, but Caius moved quickly on before he could open his mouth to inquire.

  “They met again during wartime. Venus saw him from a distance, swooping into battle on the back of his fearsome Thunderbird, and went in search of him that night. Under cover of darkness, she snuck into the Spellbreaker encampment… and that is how the world ended up with my dear hybrid nephew, Virgil.”

  Alex couldn’t wrap his head around what he was hearing. He had presumed the Head was probably the result of a tryst between a random Spellbreaker and a random mage, or even the end-product of an unknown, mystery mutation, but hearing the truth in Caius’s story made his brain hurt. Leander Wyvern was the Head’s father. Alex’s ancestor was the Head’s father… which meant Alex and Virgil were related in some strange, distant way. He wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or baffled. At that moment, he was both.

  “I can’t imagine anyone was very happy,” was about all he could muster as he tried to take it all in, working out the complex ties that bound everyone together.

  Caius shook his head. “Something of an understatement,” he chuckled, but again the smile did not reach his eyes. “Julius already despised Spellbreakers with every fiber of his being, and was naturally furious, calling her every name under the sun, threatening to have her torn apart by kelpies. I stepped in, for Leander and for my sister-in-law. I managed to persuade my brother not to execute Venus for treason—and he would have done so, believe me. There are a thousand different ways to torture a person, and Julius knows every single one of them. He was always a violent, spoiled child, and that volatility only grew as he did.” He pressed his lips together, as if remembering cruel memories.

  “I had to save Venus’s life. I fed him lies about what Leander had done, terrible lies I am almost too ashamed to admit, calling it a kidnapping instead of the love affair it actually was, so that Julius might take pity on his wife instead of punishing her. It was a long shot, given that my brother is not prone to pity of any kind. Fortunately, Venus is a woman of exquisite beauty and sharp mind, and he did not wish to give up the most precious jewel in his crown if he didn’t have to.”

  “So the plan worked?” Alex murmured.

  “It did indeed. Our woven lies tricked Julius just enough to shift the blame—a small mercy, but I knew I had to do it to save not only Venus’s life, but the life of her unborn child. Her only crime was falling in love with a Spellbreaker… I understood that feeling more than she knew, and though she has never thanked me for what I did, I know she was grateful,” Caius explained. “Nobody ever thought a baby would result from it, least of all her. Until then, it had been unheard of. I had certainly never heard of it happening, but when poor Virgil arrived, everybody knew he was different. It was obvious from the moment he was born. I thought Julius was going to drown him the moment he set eyes on the creature.”

  It angered Alex that he felt a small twinge of empathy toward the hooded being who had brought him nothing but misery since the moment he set foot in Spellshadow Manor. Surely, a bad past didn’t make up for being a bad person, but Alex couldn’t even be certain of that. The Head had done bad things, but perhaps he was only the result of an upbringing of hate and derision that had molded him into the cold being he was today—a creature that sought only to better his standing in a family that didn’t seem to want him, by doing their bidding as best as he could. Alex knew it didn’t absolve the Head, but it certainly put a few things into perspective.

  “Did Virgil know who his father was?” Alex asked, feeling utterly overwhelmed by the news he was hearing.

  Caius shrugged. “I don’t believe so. As far as I know, it was a foul family secret, kept between only those who needed to know. Julius made sure he had the final word, mind you.” The old man’s voice was tight with anger. “When Leander was put up on the scaffold after being ambushed on the field of battle, it was Julius who chained him up, wanting to be the last thing Leander saw as he died beneath the magic of the firing squad. Julius told me that as he was fixing the chains in place on Leander’s wrists, he whispered that he would wipe any remnant of Leander from the face of the earth. That’s when Leander broke free from his chains and clawed at my brother’s neck, leaving deep scars. Did you notice that my brother was wearing a high collar?”

  Alex recalled the cream-colored military suit with the black epaulettes, realizing that the collar had indeed been a high one, hiding most of Julius’s neck from sight. He nodded.

  Caius smiled. “Well, that’s why. Julius managed to fight Leander off using a horrid spell that slowly flays flesh off bone, but the damage had been done. My brother threatened the life of Leander’s progeny, though we can never know if Leander knew of Virgil’s existence. After all, until then, it had been an impossibility.”

  “But did Julius even know about Leander’s non-magical mistress?” Alex asked.

  “The only thing we can presume is that it was this threat, regardless of which way it was understood by Leander, that made the warrior release the Great Evil upon the mages,” Caius said. “Julius’s total lack of remorse was the final straw, and the cruel sentiments against Spellbreakers among the mages. Leander wanted to punish Julius for the terrible things he had done, and for the total genocide he had wrought. He wanted to punish all mages for not standing up and refusing to abide by my brother’s whims and prejudices. Julius had rendered your race as close to extinct as it was possible to be, with one sole beacon left, bearing the torch for the Spellbreaker race. Leander couldn’t allow that to go unpunished, and though his chosen weapon was extreme, it was desperation that spurred your ancestor on—desperation and hatred for my brother, who stood before him and watched him die in the most painful way possible. I ask you, young Spellbreaker, what would you have done differently, in his shoes? I know I would have done precisely the same.”

  Alex wasn’t sure he could answer that. He tried to force down the rage he felt spiking up inside him, realizin
g who stood in that place now—in the place of that unborn child, with the weight of so much loss and destruction on their shoulders. The torch had been passed down the line, generation to generation, until it had fallen to his father.

  Now, he understood, that beacon is me.

  Chapter 20

  Alex was as mesmerized as he was appalled, to hear such a tale from someone who had lived through it. It was the kind of story he had never expected to uncover, with Elias gone from his life and all literature on the Spellbreakers beyond his reach, if such books even existed. To hear it from someone who had stood in the center of two warring factions, able to tell it from Leander’s perspective and from Julius’s, made it feel like so much more than a story remembered from years ago. Fed through the vessel of Caius, every aspect seemed more tangible, more real, even the parts he already knew.

  “A fair amount to take in, I know. You must forgive me—I do ramble on when given the opportunity. A solitary life is a lonely life, and I pounce on company when it arises.” Caius chuckled, draining the rest of the tea from his cup. For the first time, Alex noticed the blue pattern that snaked across the smooth porcelain, showing winged beasts and drooping willow trees.

  His own teacup remained half-full and stone-cold. There had been too much excitement and intrigue to find a moment to finish his tea, though he realized suddenly that his throat had become arid, as if he had hardly dared to gulp throughout Caius’s telling of the tale. Reluctantly, he drank what was left in his cup, letting it soothe his dry throat, though it had lost its flavor and its warmth.

  Even after everything he had been told, Alex still had questions, though he wasn’t sure how happy Caius would be about answering them. There were a few points along the way that had piqued Alex’s interest, and he just hoped the old man’s generosity would extend a little further.

  “That’s quite a story,” Alex murmured. “Forgive me for asking, but what happened to your great love?”