The Keeper Chronicles: The Complete Trilogy

by JA Andrews

  Behind her came the sound of a deep, rending crack.

  She spun back around as the main tower of the Stronghold, in a slow, ponderous movement, tilted. A wide crack formed between it and the library.

  The breath rushed out of her lungs. She stretched her glowing hand out toward the twins kneeling next to each other on their high balcony as though the sunlight could catch them.

  With a sound like a mountain crumbling, the tower leaned.

  The twins clung together, burying their faces in each other’s shoulders.

  The tall white tower pitched to the side. Sini screamed as the stones slipped apart, crashing to the earth one after another with a deafening roar.

  A cloud of dirt and debris enveloped her in darkness.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The collapse of the tower shook the valley and Sini fell to her knees. The ground trembled as though the earth might split apart. A cloud of dust shot out from the tower and pelted her with tiny fragments of rock. She twisted away and buried her face in her arms until the ground stilled.

  Her arms still glowed almost all the way to her elbows, pulsing with her heartbeat. Her fingers shone bright enough they were hard to look at.

  Multiple Keepers cast out at once and the waves rolled in through her from all sides. Sini pressed herself smaller, not casting out, wishing she couldn’t feel what they were going to discover. Bright points of vitalle glowed around her where the others sat or crouched in the wake of the collapse. But the tower itself was completely dark. Not one wave found any life amid the rubble.

  Roan called her from somewhere nearby. She curled up tighter, leaning forward over her knees, her eyes pressed closed. Her arms felt too warm, and she couldn’t block the memory of the twins clinging to each other. She felt like a tiny pebble sinking in a vast ocean.

  “Sini!” Roan called again, closer this time. He dropped to the ground in front of her. “Sini?” His voice rose with fear. “Are you hurt?”

  She kept her face down, but shook her head. He shifted to sit beside her.

  Roan’s arm wrapped around her and she drew in a gasping breath. She felt the hard ground beneath her and the dust in her mouth. The sunfire worked its way through the hazy air and rested gently on the back of her neck. Her next breath caught and came out as a whimper and Roan’s arm tightened around her shoulders. She leaned into him and wept.

  It was Gerone who finally roused her.

  “Rett is injured,” the old man said gently. “He needs your help. As do that dwarf and the human woman, and Mikal.”

  She lifted her head and blinked into the brightness. Her eyes stung with dust. She sat with her back to the tower, facing toward the forest at the southern end of the valley. Smoke poured out of it in more places than she could count.

  Numbly she turned and Roan loosened his arm around her shoulder.

  It was almost too much to take in. The valley was in ruins. Every building was crushed or burning. Trees were knocked down, stone walls tumbled into the grass.

  And the tower—only the first floor still stood, its walls cut off jaggedly. The rest was a trail of white stones flung across the valley floor.

  The brown stone library was the only thing undisturbed. The three stories of it that stood above ground were unharmed. The portion of the white wall where the Stronghold had connected to it was still intact. The whole library was covered with a layer of dust, and chunks of rock had rolled down the arched roof to gather at the edges. But it was intact.

  Slowly she noticed the others. Alaric and Will stood together near the fallen tower. Douglon, his head and arms bloody, held Avina by the rock wall they’d hidden behind. Sora sat next to him, her arm bloody, pressing something to Rett’s head. It came away bright red.

  The sight cut through her shock and she tried to push herself up, but her limbs felt weak and she sank back down.

  “Do you need help?” Roan asked.

  She shook her head. “Just give me a moment.” The sun was still high in the sky over the valley. It felt wrong that it had barely moved from when they’d run into the valley. She hesitated, thinking of how brightly her arms had glowed, but she wouldn’t need a lot of sunfire for this. Turning her face toward the sunfire, she let it warm her, strengthening her arms and legs, letting the goodness of it ease the ache in her chest.

  Bracing herself on Roan, she stood and moved over to Rett. He lay on the ground with his eyes closed, his face pale. A gash ran across his forehead, and he had several cuts on his arms. Sini knelt down next to him and put her hand on his cheek, funneling sunfire into him. The wound started to close and Rett opened his eyes.

  His face split into a wide smile at the sight of her. “Happy you’re back, Sini” he said, letting his eyes slip closed again.

  “Rett threw himself in front of the dragon’s tail,” Sora said, “keeping us from the worst of the blow.”

  Beyond Rett’s cuts he had a burn on one arm and his ribs were badly bruised, but nothing was broken. Sini focused on the others, healing gashes, reducing swelling where they’d been hit with rocks. The burns were harder to help, but they kept her mind focused on the simple task of moving the warm sunfire.

  When she was done, she finally turned to face the tower. A pang of guilt washed over her at the destruction. How could she have let Lukas find out where this valley was? The white tower strewn across the ground felt like a dream she couldn’t quite understand.

  The loneliness of the library standing amid the rubble pierced her.

  Drawn by the rightness of the library amidst the wrongness of the rest of the ruins, she left Will and Alaric and fled the destruction through the same little door the Shield had run out when they arrived. The dry, papery smell of the books almost undid her. It smelled like home, like family and peace, like an afternoon of studying. The serenity of the library might have been on the other side of the world from all the destruction outside.

  At ground level, there were two stories above her. She walked to the open center of the library and looked at the glass roof. It wasn’t even cracked. Dust and bits of rock coated it, blocking out the sunlight, leaving the library dull and gloomy. On the top floor she caught the glow of a candle. Her mind shut out thoughts of everything outside, as though none of it had happened. She walked along the railing, brushing her ring across every candle she found, leaving a path of golden light behind her. When she reached the top of the ramp, she found the Shield slumped in a chair at his table overflowing with notes about the library roof.

  She sat down next to him, looking him over to see if he was hurt.

  “I’m fine, my dear. Alaric tucked me into the tunnel where I managed to stay unconscious for most of the dangerous parts of the afternoon.”

  On top of all his notes sat a pile of 4 books, bound in matching dark leather. A fifth sat open before him. The Shield pushed it toward her.

  It was the twins’ writing. The page was half-filled and ended with their signatures and yesterday’s date. She sat forward to see it better. “Their book? They finished?”

  “Just yesterday. They wanted to be done before we needed to leave.” He held his hands gingerly and Sini caught sight of blisters on his palms.

  “I can help those…a little,” she offered.

  He shook his head. “They’ll heal in time.” He nodded toward the book. “You should read the dedication.”

  Sini turned to the front.

  To Sini, whom we love not for all the deeply appreciated healing, or your astounding power, but for the joy you brought us by deigning to breakfast every day with two old men. For brightening each day with your light. You were the granddaughter we never knew we needed, and we miss your presence more than you’ll ever know.

  Her throat tightened at the words. She felt like tears should fall, but everything still felt too unreal. She read the words again, trying to make them sink in. “I’m glad they finished,” she said finally.

  “So were they.”

  She closed the book. “We could
have come up through here to reach them.” She gestured around the library. “Even after the front doors of the tower were destroyed, we should have come through here.”

  “The twins had plenty of time to get down.” The Shield sank back in his chair. “They chose to stay up there and protect the rest of us. I think,”—he smiled the slightest bit—“they were enjoying themselves. It’s been a very long time since they were needed like that.”

  She ran her fingers over the words of the dedication. “I wish…” She closed the book and set the fifth and final volume of their book on Gringonn on top of the others. What did she wish? “I wish the tower had lasted a little longer.”

  “They would still be gone,” he said gently. “They were already weak, and they didn’t have the strength in them to do half of those shields without causing themselves irreparable damage. Even if the tower still stood, we’d have lost the twins today. They saved Gerone, Mikal and Will. They protected you and me and Alaric. And that’s just what I saw from the beginning. Without them there might not be a single Keeper alive right now. The dwarf and the humans would probably be dead as well.”

  “There’s a baby elf out there too.”

  The Shield’s bushy eyebrows rose. “Is there really?”

  “Will did see the whole thing,” Sini said thoughtfully, “so the twins are bound to be immortalized in a story.”

  The Shield smiled a tired smile. “As will we all, I’m sure. I hope he emphasizes my work on the library and minimizes the fact that I missed the rest of the fight.”

  “How did you know this?” She waved at the drawings strewn over the table. “How’d you know the roof would need help?”

  “She told me.” At Sini’s blank look he added, “The Stronghold.”

  She waited to see if he was making some sort of joke. “The Stronghold really talks to you?”

  “Not often. But sometimes.”

  “How…” The number of ways she could finish that question was almost paralyzing. “How did the Stronghold know the roof would need help?”

  “That is an excellent question. I have no idea what the answer is.”

  She stared at him. “The Stronghold has never talked to me.”

  He laughed. “When I was voted Shield, two things changed. First, the moment I stepped into the Stronghold she greeted me. Not with words, exactly. But she was welcoming all the same. Second, the Wellstone began to…pay attention to me. You saw how independent it is. But when I became Shield it knew. It…put itself under my control. Not completely, and often not in the most helpful ways, but I’d barely been able to direct it before.”

  Sini sat up. “The Wellstone! Is it gone?”

  “It’s fine,” he assured her. “It was flung out past the end of the rubble when the tower fell. It has rolled up against a tree.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Does the Wellstone talk to you too?”

  He let out a little, raspy laugh and shook his head. “I saw it fall.”

  She laughed, for the first time in what felt like days. It loosened something inside her.

  “I was by the tunnel, so I had a good view. I’m not certain it’s against a tree, but it did roll into that stand of oaks past the workshop—or where the workshop used to be.”

  They both sobered.

  “When I used the Wellstone,” she said, “I saw connections between different memories.”

  He raised a bushy eyebrow. “Did you? Not many do.”

  “How does it…” She cast about for the question she wanted to ask. “Is it intelligent?”

  The Shield rubbed his hand over his head. “I don’t think so. It organizes the memories, and that feels intelligent, but…it also might just be magic. The stones are created in the Greenwood and I don’t think anyone, maybe not even the elves, know how.” He sighed. “When I tried to find out anything about those swords through Chesavia, though, I didn’t have much luck. There are so many memories of her and about her. It was a bit like searching through the forest for a specific twig. Maybe if you try, you’ll have better luck.”

  A little nag of worry nipped at Sini. “Did you see all the memories I put in there?”

  “Most of them.” He smiled gently. “I see why you trusted Lukas. He took good care of you once.”

  She shook her head. “I should have listened to all of you.”

  “Not necessarily. Believing the best about someone is usually a good idea.”

  “Not in this case.”

  “I think it was.” He peered at her. “Even now, do you think he’s truly lost?”

  The anger at everything he did swelled in her, but she remembered how tortured he sounded as he used his magic on her. “I don’t know. I don’t think he necessarily wants to be doing it all, but he continues to choose it.”

  “A common enough trait.” He smiled weakly. “Thankfully most people who share it it don’t have access to a dragon.”

  She sank back in the chair. Lukas still had the dragon. Everything she’d tried to do had been useless. The valley was in ruins, the twins were gone, and Lukas still had his dragon. She wanted to be angry at him, furious for all the destruction he’d caused. But the truth of what had happened pushed up inside her until she thought she might be sick. She let her head fall back on the chair, closing her eyes. “I failed,” she said quietly. “He still has the dragon.”

  “A wounded dragon,” the Shield pointed out.

  The sense of defeat filled her until she could feel nothing else. “None of this is over.”

  “No,” The Shield’s voice was low. “Not yet.” He was quite a moment. “But we saved the books.”

  Sini cracked open her eyes to see the little bald man looking warmly at the bookshelves. He had always seemed like the perfect Keeper. He knew everything about everything, had read books from all over the world, always managed to have the right sort of advice. But today…

  “You used the essence of the dragon scale to strengthen the library.”

  At the hint of accusation in her voice the edge of his mouth quirked up.

  “I thought Keepers didn’t approve of using the essence of inanimate things,” she continued. “Alaric said it took a lot of practice. He strengthened a blade of grass for me and it took several minutes. But you…” She thought of him standing there, webs of light stretching out from him, covering the library. “You were amazing.”

  He straightened and beamed at her. “Thank you.”

  “That was more of a question than a compliment.”

  He grinned. “It has less to do with being amazing and more to do with being very old.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “How did you learn to do it?

  He lifted his eyes to the glass of the dust covered roof. “That is a long story. One for after all this is done, perhaps. But for now, you are right, none of this is over and Lukas still has a dragon.”

  She considered pushing him for the story, but he was right. There were more pressing things to discuss. “I think the sword is more of a problem than the dragon. Chesavia noted in her journal that the black sword seemed to exert a power over the warlord Naj. If Lukas found it when we had those reports of dragon sightings over the moors, that was right before the massacre in Gulfind at the gold mines.”

  The Shield considered the words. “There was definitely an escalation of his violence there.”

  She nodded and looked around the library. Even though everything looked perfectly familiar, something felt off.

  “It keeps changing,” the Shield said quietly.

  “What does?”

  “The way this place feels.”

  She looked at him sharply.

  “The first time I left the Stronghold, when I returned, it felt…wrong. It took me days to feel comfortable again, and even then, it was different. I never have been quite as at ease here as I was in my earliest days.”

  Sini sank back in her chair, her shoulders slumping forward. “I don’t want it to change.”

  “Sometimes change is good
. For instance, it shouldn’t be long until a new Keeper is discovered. And though every time I’m nervous that this next Keeper might not really fit with us, I have found each new one to be a joy. Each new Keeper changes this valley a little bit.”

  “Except some, who destroy it.”

  “It is not your fault that Lukas came. And in some ways, he is connected to this valley too. Had he stayed in Queensland he would have been brought here almost a decade before you were. Somehow it still feels a bit like he belongs, doesn’t it?”

  She thought of him standing atop the cliff, directing the dragon. Of his face as he clicked the collar around her neck. “Not anymore.”

  “Well then, I hope it brings you some peace to know that even though I have never felt quite as comfortable here as I did in the beginning, I love this place more every year.”

  “Even now that it’s ruined?”

  “It’s hardly ruined. The books are safe. The Wellstone is safe, and we lost no Keepers today that we haven’t already been preparing to lose.” He patted Sini’s hand. “Towers can be rebuilt, my dear.”

  The idea felt nearly impossible, but the Shield’s face was so hopeful she didn’t say anything. “I think I’ll go look for the Wellstone,” Sini said, pushing herself up from the table. “I’ll bring it back here to the library. It feels wrong just to let it lie outside somewhere. Besides, we all have plenty of new memories to add.”

  “I’ll come with you,” he said, hopping down out of his chair. “I just needed to come in here and assure myself that the dragon scale really strengthened the building enough. I needed to know it was all unharmed.”

  They stepped out into the bright afternoon and Sini let the sunfire warm her. The others rummaged at the sides of the crumbled tower, not accomplishing much of anything. The Shield walked along the white stones, stopping at a place that looked just like the rest of it. “Their bodies are under here. Almost on the ground, about ten paces in.”

  The group looked at the Shield with varying levels of disbelief until Alaric nodded and began shifting rocks. “They deserve a proper burial.”