The Keeper Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy

by JA Andrews

  “If they do, we can’t figure out how. We’ve set them against trunks, put them in bundles of branches, covered them with leaves, dug holes for their feet near the roots. As far as we can tell, they can’t commune with the trees at all.” He tugged at the end of his beard. “And I think they’re starving. They’re not growing right. Their cheeks are thin.” He looked at them all nervously. “You wouldn’t believe how irritable they are.”

  “What do dwarf babies eat?” Roan asked.

  “Mutton,” Douglon answered as though it were the most obvious answer in the world. “We need to find a way to feed them quickly. The world isn’t sturdy enough to handle them if they go out looking for food.” He turned toward the thin trail leading away from the clearing. “C’mon. We need to move if we’re going to reach the grove by sundown.”

  “We have half the day,” Will said.

  “It gets dark in here early.”

  “Why is it so dark?” Sini asked.

  “The elves are doing it. As they get more agitated, the forest is growing darker.” He squinted up at the bright canopy. “They’re doing something to the leaves. Or the trees are imitating them, or something. We should hurry—I don’t like Rass there alone.”

  With that, he trudged off into the woods. Exchanging wary glances with the others, Sini followed. No one spoke as they walked into the gloom. The tree trunks rose around them like tall, brooding figures. The leaves above them were such a dark green they were almost blue. Not a cheerful blue. The sort of blue reserved for shadows and caverns and foreboding places.

  The wind outside didn't reach them under the canopy, but the branches swayed wildly. A sharp hiss came from somewhere above them. Sini snapped her gaze up, catching a flicker of movement among the leaves. Whatever it was disappeared into the gloom.

  “Is that you, Tessian?” Douglon called out, holding his hands out in a placating manner. “It’s all right boy, these are friends. They knew your mother.”

  “We did?” Will asked quietly.

  “It’s what they call Ayda. We’re not entirely sure how they know about her, but they do. It took us a while to figure out who they were talking about.”

  “They were only born last week, but they talk?" asked Will.

  Douglon nodded. A hostile chittering came from high in the trees.

  “No need for that boy,” the dwarf said sternly. “They’re here to help.”

  “That didn’t sound like words,” Roan pointed out from close behind Sini. “Do they speak intelligibly?”

  “Occasionally.”

  “I think we understood the gist of it,” Sini said, pressing her shoulder against her horse.

  The group moved forward again, and Sini caught bits of movement in the trees around them, disappearing before she got a good look. Sini cast out, feeling the huge presence of the trees. The further into the forest they walked, the more vibrant the vitalle was in the trunks around them. They crossed a thin stream and the air vibrated with energy. Sini didn’t even need to cast out to feel the life in the forest now. Her skin tingled with it, vitalle thrilled along her fingertips.

  Last time she was here, Evangeline had told Sini the trees were mourning. They were certainly not mourning any longer. But whatever they were doing was unsettling. The branches above them no longer thrashed in the wind. Leaves shivered and shook, but it felt more like the trees’ doing than the wind’s.

  Sini glanced back at Roan, who was looking stone-faced into the forest, his fingers twitching toward the hilt of his sword.

  “Here’s the grove,” Douglon called out from ahead of her, walking out into a clearing. The others followed, and Sini stepped into welcome sunlight.

  The Elder Grove had changed, as well. She took only a single step into it before she stopped. The ring of huge trees Gustav and his dragon had felled still lay sprawled out from the center of the wide clearing. Their roots still pointed into the air, but moss had begun to grow over them, blending the trees into the ground.

  The raw gashes the dragon had left in the ground when he tore them down had smoothed over. Grass grew everywhere, blanketing what had once looked like scarred earth with a soft rug of green.

  Half of the roots of the fallen tree were still anchored in the ground, so a large portion of each tree still grew. There were bare and dry limbs, but they were surrounded by thick, living branches. The new growth from the prostrate trees had all turned upwards at the ends, reaching for the sky, giving the impression that the entire grove was reaching upward.

  Inside the circle of roots, the newer trees still stood. Raised out of the earth by Ayda in her fury, they were as terrifying as they’d been the first time Sini saw them. Her memories didn’t do justice to the sharpness of the red thorns or the jaggedness of the leaves. Like the rest of the Greenwood, under the vicious canopy of those trees, the trunks stood in an unnatural darkness.

  But it was more than the sight that stopped her. The air thrummed with energy. It had been growing steadily stronger until the air pressed on her from all sides, tingling against her skin. Her scalp prickled with it. A soft buzzing started in her ears. Tickles of vitalle danced across her hands and neck and face

  “Wait here,” Douglon said unnecessarily. Everyone else had stopped as well. “Let me make sure it’s not too crazy inside the Vigilants.”

  “The Vigilants?” Alaric asked.

  Douglon motioned up to the trees. “Rass named them.” He glanced around. “She’s named about everything…” He slipped in between two of the trunks, turning sideways and ducking his head to avoid thorns.

  A part of Sini longed to go in after him, to feel the sunfire like she had long ago. To feel again how she’d felt healing Goven. But the viciousness of the trees and the frantic feel of the forest held her back.

  Sini led her horse closer to the others. Alaric and Will stood looking warily around them. “Can you feel this?”

  Will spared her a glance before looking back at the trees. “Feel what?”

  “The vitalle.”

  “It’s always more awake here,” Alaric said. “I don’t know how.”

  “No,” Sini said. “Last time it was more awake. Now it’s…”

  Will turned a worried look toward her. “It’s what?”

  “Cast out,” she said.

  “I have been. There’s at least two dozen little elves in the treetops.”

  Sini shook her head. “Not that, can’t you feel it? In the air?”

  Alaric leaned around Will, uneasy. “What are you feeling?”

  The energy pressed in at her even stronger and she squeezed her eyes shut against it. “There’s so much…” Vitalle traced flickering lines across her hands. Sini held them out, her palms up, the blue flame resting in one. She spread her fingers and arcs of pink jumped between them.

  Will focused on Talen for a moment. “Why don’t you scout around above the trees?” The little hawk soared up into the sky.

  Sini rippled her fingers and the light flashed. “It’s looking for somewhere to go. Like lightning in a storm,” she explained, knowing they couldn’t see the vitalle.

  Alaric watched her with a troubled expression. “Like lightning?”

  A sharp crack sounded from one of the nearby treetops. The leaves rustled. Hisses filled the air.

  “We should not be here,” Roan said quietly.

  “I’m inclined to agree,” Will said, turning slowly to watch as many trees as he could.

  “The elves don’t attack visitors,” Alaric said in an unconvincing voice. “A sharp trill came from a nearby tree. It was echoed from another. And another.

  Sini held the blue flame in her hand up higher, showing it to the creatures in the shadowed tops of all the trees nearby. Roan hurriedly did the same.

  “Douglon?” Alaric called. “It’s getting a little tense out here.”

  A flash of motion in the nearest tree caught Sini’s eye and she whirled toward it.

  With a shriek, a small figure no larger than a two-year-old
child leapt out of the tree. Sini caught a glint of wild eyes and white claws before it crashed into Roan.

  Chapter Twenty

  Roan staggered back into his horse, shoving back at the little creature clinging to his chest and screeching.

  The little elf had a shock of short white hair, spiked out in all directions. Sini lunged over and grabbed at the elf’s arm, trying to pry it off Roan while it strained and snapped its teeth near his neck. The little elf’s arm was thin, with hard, stringy muscles, and its skin was oddly dry. The moment Sini touched it vitalle seeped out of her hand into it.

  The elf ignored her entirely, flinging itself at Roan with everything it could muster. Its face was gaunt, its eyes wide and bulging, its cheeks sunken. Roan managed to get the creature at arm’s length, but it merely turned to scratching and biting at his arms.

  In a breath a half dozen more hurtled down from the trees, landing on the others. A screeching flash of coppery skin slammed into Sini’s shoulder. She grabbed its skinny torso. Tiny bony fingers clamped into her hair. Nails dug into the back of her scalp and yanked her head backwards. The little elf screamed a sound of pure hatred and slammed its head into Sini’s temple. The grove spun for a moment as another hand scraped across just below her neck, sharp nails scratching her skin and clenching her shirt.

  Sini squeezed her eyes shut against the spinning grove. She wrapped both hands around the elf’s chest and shoved the creature out to arms’ length. The elf didn’t let go, and its fingers wrenched Sini’s head to the side.

  Sini let out a cry of pain that was lost in the shrieks of elves and the shouts of her companions. Beside her, Alaric fought with a scrambling mass of greenish elf he had driven to arms’ length while another clawed at his legs. Will managed to toss one elf off. It landed on all fours, still hissing. Two more climbed up the back of his legs. Roan finally got his white elf grasped solidly in one hand and was reaching for his sword when a dozen more dropped out of the trees and rushed for them.

  “No weapons!” Douglon bellowed, running out from between the Vigilants. “Do not draw that sword, boy! They’ll go crazy!”

  “This isn’t crazy?” Sini cried, scrambling away from one near her feet.

  “This is nothing!” Rass called, rushing out behind Douglon. Her hair was disheveled, and there were long red scratches crisscrossing her arms and legs. She ran to Will, pulling at an elf that clung to his legs.

  Douglon pulled one off Alaric’s leg. “Stand down, you stupid creatures!” he hollered at them. The horde of tiny elves paid no attention. The one in his arms slashed toward his face and Douglon gave it a thunderous look. “Derien, calm down!”

  The elf Sini was holding grabbed at her wrist, and the skin where they connected burst into pain. Sini let out a yell and tried to pull away, but the elf’s grip was too strong.

  A wave of weakness passed over her, and Sini stumbled to her knees.

  Vitalle. The elf was sucking energy out of her so fast Sini could barely breathe. This wasn’t painless sunfire, the elf was sucking out her life.

  She reached for the sunlight.

  The energy of the grove rushed into her with a ferocity that sent her reeling. A sound like raging wind filled her ears. Her skin hummed. Energy shot from the ground into her knees. Her arms and neck and back drew sunfire in faster than she ever had before. The pain in her wrist was so excruciating, it took a moment to realize the little elf had calmed.

  Its gaze was glued to Sini’s wrist, its face transformed into a look of pure bliss.

  It was a girl, Sini realized in a detached sort of way, with beautiful copper skin and wide green eyes flecked with gold.

  Around her the sounds of struggle worked past the noise in Sini’s head. “Vitalle!” she yelled to Alaric and Will. “They need vitalle!”

  The copper elf loosened her grip and raised a sweet gaze to Sini’s face. “Give them to me!” Sini called. “They’re starving!”

  Roan was the first to move, dragging the three elves that were attacking him over to Sini. A rush of pain lanced through her when he pressed the two that were on his legs against her back. It only took a heartbeat before they flung themselves off Roan and onto Sini.

  The pain grew where they touched her, and where Sini touched the ground. It was the grove itself—the vitalle from the grass and the trees pouring into her—that burned. Gritting her teeth, she closed herself off to the energy streaming into her from the ground. It shoved against her knees, but she kept it out, letting only the sunfire pour onto her and through her.

  The little copper elf chattered loudly, jumping and slapping her hands together. The chaos of elves around them turned like a school of fish and focused on her. They collapsed toward Sini, tiny hands scrambling to touch some part of her body. The pain faded as the forest’s vitalle was cut off. The sunfire filled her and streamed out effortlessly into the elves.

  Even kneeling the elves only came up to her chest, and Sini reached her hands up above them toward the sky, drawing in everything she could, feeling it rush into her arms, her face, her neck, seeping out of her into the clamoring elves.

  The ones who couldn’t reach her scrambled over the ones who could. Sini had a vague impression of Will and Alaric nearby, drawing vitalle from the ground in thin streams.

  The energy flowing through her was more than she’d ever channeled. Tenfold more than when she’d healed Goven. She could feel the hands of the elves grabbing on tightly, loosening as they were fed, falling off to be replaced by more. Their screeching and scrambling were a distant tumult past the rushing river of vitalle.

  The light filled her, swept her up in its purity and warmth, its vastness. This was life. Good and whole. No weakness, no sickness or hunger. Just light and life. Her hands glowed with a warm golden light. The skin on her fingers blurred into brightness like the edge of a candle flame, yearning to spread out, to soar into the sky. Luminous, weightless, and free.

  Free.

  Her skin softened, brightened, stretched toward the sunfire. It was so close. She ached to become a part of something so glorious. The golden glow on her hands grew brighter, burning along her skin with warmth and wholeness.

  Dimly, she felt the number of hands on her dwindle and the pressure of the energy lessened. The light lessened as well, and Sini grabbed at it, panicked at the thought of it leaving. Her body was jostled, and she lost her hold. Exhaustion rolled over her and the light fled.

  Awareness of the grove flooded into her. A crowd of tiny elves clustered around her, sitting or climbing sleepily over one other. The rushing in her ears was replaced by the sound of the elves’ chatter.

  The little copper elf sat in front of Sini, looking up into her face. When Sini met her gaze, the little elf smiled a wide, toothless grin and scrambled up onto Sini’s lap. With a huge yawn, she snuggled into her.

  Sini numbly wrapped her arms around the little creature and sank over to sit on the ground. Her fingers on the elf’s back were glowing with a golden glow. She squeezed her eyes shut against the sight. Everything was so dark and weak. Her own flesh dim and heavy. Sharp cuts stung on her arms and across the back of her neck. She breathed in deeply, letting the lifeless air fill her lungs.

  The grove was so much quieter. She left her eyes closed, listening to the normal peaceful sounds of the forest. The air was empty, lighter. No vitalle pressed against her. She could still feel the towering energy of the elven trees, but they seemed content.

  The yearning for the light squeezed her heart, and a sense of enormous loss fell over her. She understood Chesavia’s words.

  For one glorious moment I wanted to join it. To let myself transform into light. To be vast and alive and free…Here, in the darkness where my skin is just skin, and my flesh merely mortal, trapped in one moment and one weakened form, my soul aches at my choice.

  “Sini?” Will asked quietly.

  She cracked her eyes to find him kneeling next to her, his hand outstretched toward her shoulder, his face worried. She glanc
ed at her fingers, but they were only flesh and blood. She gave him a weak smile. “I know what they were hungry for.”

  “Are you all right?” He touched Sini’s shoulder tentatively as though he expected to be shocked.

  Alaric looked at her with something akin to awe. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I’ve never read about anything like that. How did you—? Where did you get—?” He stopped and looked to Will for help.

  Will let out an exhausted laugh. “Alaric, I get the feeling someday you and I are going to be remembered only as ‘those two Keepers who brought the legendary Keeper Sini back to Queensland.’”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Legendary Keeper Sini.

  The words echoed in her head hollowly. The sunfire danced on the treetops and she itched to drag her fingers through the light, to feel the warmth pour through her skin again.

  “Sini,” Alaric said cautiously, “why aren’t you dead?”

  Sini felt oddly detached from them, her mind stunned from the absence of the light.

  Roan picked his way through the elves to Sini, looking down at her with a cross between shock and concern. “Are you…hurt?”

  “I’m fine.” She wasn’t fine, not exactly.

  “You should be dead,” Will agreed. “Why were your hands glowing?”

  His words caught her attention. “You saw that?” He and Alaric stood waiting. But she had no words to explain what had just happened. “The elves needed a lot of vitalle.”

  “We noticed,” Will said.

  She had glowed. A cold fear cut through her. She had glowed and her hands had blurred as though…as though they were turning into light. She swallowed down the horror that rose from the idea.

  Sini shook her head and looked at the people around her. Despite her fear, she couldn’t quite banish the strange longing for the light.

  “They needed more vitalle than anyone should rightly be able to give them.” Alaric turned to Will. “How many did you feed?”

  “Two.” Will held out his hands and showed a bright red blister spreading across each palm. “And I was terrified another would touch me.” He glanced to a wide patch of dead grass that he’d pulled all the vitalle from. “Sorry, Rass.”