Fire Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  That made even more sense when he considered Zhethar’s comments. Marcus had thought that the frost pinnois had been trying to keep from telling where they really were. But now Marcus was beginning to believe that Zhethar had not only been told to forget where he had gone, but that maybe magic had been used on him too—to erase his memory.

  If that was the case, then someone had been planning on sending them here all along. And unless he was mistaken, that someone could only be the wizard.

  “Do you think Master Therapass would intentionally lie to us?” He was talking mostly to himself, but Riph Raph nodded so vigorously, his ears flapped up and down like wings.

  “I say, never trust anyone who can turn into a wolf. Especially a wolf with sharp teeth that could eat a skyte in one mouthful.”

  “But why would he lie to us?” Marcus asked. The answer came to him before the words had left his mouth. “He wanted to get us out of the dungeon.”

  So this was what, a trick? What about Land Keep? Something was going on that he didn’t understand, and he now wished that he’d asked more questions instead of jumping as soon as the wizard had mentioned finding Kyja. But time was running out, and sitting in the dungeon wouldn’t get them any closer to bringing her back.

  “Look at that,” Riph Raph said, staring straight ahead.

  Startled out of his thoughts, Marcus glanced up the hill. Not a hundred yards away, the sides of the canyon, which had been drawing closer and closer together, met completely in a high, stone wall—a dead end. Running straight down the center of the cliff was a huge waterfall.

  “Very pretty,” Riph Raph said. “What do you want to do next? How about a picnic?”

  Why would Master Therapass send them all the way here to see a waterfall? As they approached the falls, Marcus kept waiting for Chance to turn around. But the stallion walked straight toward the water. Soon they were close enough that he could feel cold mist on his face.

  Marcus stared at the waterfall. Something wasn’t right. All at once the narrow walls of the canyon began to feel like a trap. He yanked the reins, doing his best to get the horse to turn away from the falls. But Chance kept plodding straight forward, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for a horse to walk into a waterfall.

  “No offense,” Riph Raph said as Chance stepped into the pool at the base of the pounding water, “but skytes do not swim. We don’t even like to bathe. It’s one of those things—fire, and water, water and—”

  They were almost to the falls now, and it was next to impossible to hear Riph Raph. The roar of the water was so loud that—

  “That’s it!” Marcus yelled. “The sound of the water! We should have been able to hear a waterfall this big for miles. But we didn’t notice it until we were nearly on top of it.” And how could a waterfall this big fill only a babbling brook that ran down the canyon?

  “I. Have. No. Idea. What. You’re. Saying,” Riph Raph wailed. “But I’m not going into that.” Riph Raph tried to fly away, but Marcus caught him.

  “Hang on,” he shouted, tucking the skyte under his arm. “I don’t think—”

  Then they were entering the waterfall. Marcus ducked, bracing himself for the pounding water, but it never came. One moment they were walking through a pool that nearly reached the horse’s belly, and the next, they were in the middle of a grassy meadow.

  “Don’t let me drown,” Riph Raph squawked before opening his eyes. He blinked twice and craned his neck. “Where’d the water go?”

  Marcus looked behind him. The pool and waterfall were gone. The sound and mist had disappeared too. It had all been a trick. In place of the waterfall was only a narrow entrance and a couple of stone pillars.

  “That was funny.” A little girl’s voice giggled, and Marcus turned to find Morning Dew grinning up at him. The Fontasian’s long, green hair flowed over her shoulders like strands of seaweed. Cascade, Mist, and Rain Drop were there was well.

  “A particularly effective illusion,” Cascade said, with his usual serious expression.

  “Don’t get all big-headed on us,” said a swirl of brightly colored birds that could only be Divum, one of the two air elementals Marcus and Kyja had met in Air Keep. “After all, it was only water. I could have made it look like falling diamonds or frogs, or tinkling silver bells.”

  Cascade wrinkled his forehead. “And how would falling silver bells have created an effective cloak for the entrance?”

  “I didn’t say it would have been effective,” Divum said with a laugh, which sent the tiny birds fluttering. “But it certainly would have been amusing. I’d have given anything to see the look on their faces when they discovered the canyon ended in a wall of bells.”

  A shadow dropped over the two of them, and Marcus looked up in time to see a huge creature land softly to his right. It was half boar and half fox, with wings like the world’s biggest butterfly

  “I find your sense of humor to be more than a little warped,” the fox said.

  “On the other hand,” said, the boar, “I don’t know that I could stand living with the complete lack of humor the Fontasian displays.”

  Marcus nearly jumped off Chance’s saddle with excitement. “Lanctrus-Darnoc! I was afraid I’d never see you two again. What happened in the cave of the Unmakers?”

  “It’s a story we will tell you all about,” the fox and boar said at the same time.

  Marcus couldn’t believe it—all of the elementals were back together. “I thought you elementals didn’t—”

  “Get along?” finished a familiar voice. “Trust me; they don’t. They’ve been bickering ever since they arrived.”

  It took Marcus a moment to make out the long-haired man standing in the shade of a nearby tree, but when he did, he scrambled off Chance’s back and nearly fell as he threw his arms around the tall man. “Graehl! When you didn’t come back from the Windlash Mountains, I thought something must have . . .” He pressed his lips together, unable to say anything more.

  They were all back together—and safe. If only Kyja could see this. At the thought of her, he remembered why he was there and looked quickly around. “Where are Master Therapass and Tankum? We’re supposed to be going to Land Keep. We need to find a way to bring—”

  All at once, he remembered that Graehl had left before Kyja . . . Marcus dropped his head. “I have to tell you something.”

  “I know,” Graehl said, hugging Marcus tightly against his chest. “I heard all about it. I also heard it wasn’t your fault.” He waited for Marcus to catch his breath before holding him at arm’s length and looking into his eyes. “There’s a lot we must tell you. Therapass and Tankum should be here soon. But first, let’s get you fed.” He nodded toward the passage Marcus had come through. “Besides, the guards get nervous when we stand too close to the entrance.”

  Marcus turned to follow Graehl’s gaze and realized that what he had taken for stone pillars were actually living statues of warriors. Each of them held his weapons at the ready as though prepared for an imminent attack.

  5: A Strange Warning

  Marcus hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he smelled meat and vegetables bubbling in the big stone pot and watched Graehl dish up steaming piles of boiled potatoes and baby peas with onions. Whipping up a meal with magic would be quicker, but even the best spells couldn’t quite match the smell of freshly cooked food.

  Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t eaten anything but prison food for two weeks. Maybe it was that he’d exercised more today than in the last ten days combined. Or maybe it was the fresh mountain air. Whatever it was, he ate two helpings of potatoes, three big piles of peas, and two helpings of meat, soaking up the last of the gravy with his fourth piece of bread.

  Even Riph Raph appeared impressed. “My stomach hurts just watching you eat,” he said, spearing a pea with one talon.

  Graehl rocked back in his chair, carving a stick into what looked like a flute, and watched them eat.

  When Marcus finally felt like
he couldn’t eat another bite, he leaned against the log wall of the cabin pulled his bad leg onto the bench, and took a deep breath. “How long has this place been here?”

  The valley had nine log buildings, a fresh-water spring, and was surrounded on all sides by steep rock cliffs. It clearly wasn’t something that had been set up recently.

  Graehl stabbed the knife he’d been carving with into the table and shrugged. “No idea. I didn’t know it was here myself until Therapass gave me directions a week ago.”

  “A week?” Marcus sat up. “You’ve been here that long?”

  “More or less. The elementals were already setting up the protections when I arrived. It’s some pretty impressive magic. From above, all of this looks like nothing but a bunch of forest. As you saw yourself, even if you walk right up to it, you don’t see anything but a waterfall. By the time you’re that close, the guards are aware of your approach. It would be all but impossible to attack unless you knew exactly where you were going.”

  Master Therapass must have started his plans to bring Marcus only a few days after Kyja’s funeral. Had he known then that Kyja wouldn’t be able to pull Marcus over? Graehl fiddled with something in his pocket and Marcus thought he saw a flash of gold.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  Graehl looked down and chuckled. “A good luck charm,” he said, shoving the item back into his pants pocket. “We can use all the good luck we can get.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Marcus asked. “Master Therapass must have told you something.”

  “Actually, he didn’t. Between you and me, I’ve never seen the wizard so secretive. I’d like to know what he’s up to myself.”

  Marcus couldn’t wait until Therapass and Tankum arrived. They had a lot of questions to answer. He noticed a fresh scar on the back of Graehl’s hand. “Did you get that exploring the Windlash Mountains?”

  Graehl’s eyes darkened as he flexed his fist open and closed. “It was terrible.”

  “Tell me about it,” Marcus said, leaning forward. “I mean, unless it’s too painful. Or a secret.”

  “It’s no secret. But it is painful.” Outside, the sun had almost completely disappeared behind the high cliffs. Graehl waved his wand, increasing the size of the fire in the stone fireplace and turning the flames from orange and red to a flickering blue green, which gave his face an almost sickly color. Graehl stared into the dancing colors and lines cut deep into the sides of his face. Marcus realized for the first time how much weight the man had lost and how old he looked.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” Marcus said.

  Graehl pulled his blade from the table and went back to carving. “The one thing Master Therapass did say is that we need to tell you as much as we can before he gets here. He gave us all a list. To prepare you.”

  “Prepare me for what?”

  “He didn’t say.” Graehl feathered a long strip of wood from his carving and flicked it into the fire. “I took twenty men with me into the mountains. Therapass had this idea that there was something we’d missed in or near the Unmakers cavern. He didn’t say what it was, only that he thought it might be important to the Dark Circle.

  “Frankly, I didn’t expect to find anything. I’d been through those caves more than anyone. Other than those disgusting creatures and their cages—but you know about those.”

  Marcus shivered. He and Kyja had nearly died in the Unmakers’ caverns. He’d never experienced worse pain than when the nearly invisible creatures fed on him, sucking out his emotions.

  Graehl turned the carving in his hands and grimaced. “Maybe I should have asked more questions before I left. Maybe I should have gone alone—done reconnaissance. But I was so sure I wouldn’t find anything. We walked straight into an ambush.”

  Marcus remembered the vision the air elementals had shown him and Kyja. “It was the creatures, wasn’t it? The things that looked like an octopus with wings.”

  “Don’t know what an octopus is. But they had wings, all right. And ten legs with poisonous stingers all up and down each one. And magic so powerful, they could rip open the mountains themselves.”

  Marcus didn’t want to ask the question, but he had to know. “How many of your men?”

  “Lost?” Graehl stared into the fire. “How many of my men did I lose? Fathers, sons, brothers, husbands.”

  Marcus opened his mouth to tell Graehl he didn’t need to go on. He knew the answer.

  “All twenty of them.” Graehl took a deep breath and tried to smile, but it came out looking like a snarl, a diagonal scar of pain across his face. “The worst part is, I don’t know what they died for. But there was something up there; why else would they have protected it like that? And where did those monsters come from? I’ve never seen anything like them.”

  “How did you get away?” Marcus asked.

  Graehl dropped his eyes. “I hid. Ran. Starved. Honestly, I’m not sure how I survived.”

  That made sense. What else could he have done? So why did Marcus have the feeling that Graehl wasn’t telling the whole truth?

  “Go talk to the Land Elementals,” Graehl said, sounding more like himself. “They can probably tell you more. They got farther than I did.”

  “Sure.” Marcus pushed his plate away. “You’ll let me know when Master Therapass gets here?”

  “Of course.” Graehl stood. “In the meantime, you and Riph Raph are bunking in the northernmost cabin. Up on the little rise by the trees.”

  When Marcus stepped outside, he was surprised to see how dark it had grown. Although it wasn’t that late, the walls acted as a natural barrier. Looking up into the sky was like looking up from the bottom of a well. Despite the protective spells around the settlement, the deep black sky was filled with thousands of pinprick stars.

  Standing with his arms folded across his chest, staring up into the darkness, he tried to imagine what Kyja was seeing right now. Not stars—of that much he was sure. Was she alone? Afraid? Hurt? The idea that she might need him made him crazy. Why wasn’t she able to pull him over? What could be in Fire Keep that would stop her from reaching out to him?

  “We have to find her,” Riph Raph said from a nearby tree branch.

  “If I knew how to, I’d be there now,” Marcus said.

  Time was running out. He could feel it. For Kyja. For Farworld. For himself. No one had brought it up yet, but he couldn’t stay in Farworld much longer without jumping back to Earth. Even with Master Therapass’s potion, he could feel his body starting to sicken.

  If Kyja didn’t get back, if she couldn’t jump him back to Earth, he’d be dead in a less than a week.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go check out our room.” As they walked up the small rise toward the northernmost cabin, they passed at least a dozen guards. Most of them were stone warriors and wizards, but a few were soldiers he thought he recognized from Terra ne Staric.

  Riph Raph flapped ahead of him. “If it’s a bunk bed, I get the top. Skytes don’t sleep well in bottom bunks. They give us claustrophobia.”

  Marcus chuckled. “That’s fine. But if you wet the bed and it leaks on me, I’m making you sleep outside.”

  “Wet the bed?” Riph Raph glared at him. “Skytes do not wet the bed. It’s so unsanitary.”

  “That’s not what Kyja said,” Marcus teased. It had been too long since he and Riph Raph had really gone after each other, and he kind of missed the rivalry.

  “She did not,” Riph Raph squawked. “She would never.” He flew up to the cabin door and glanced back with a scandalized look on his little blue face. “She didn’t, did she?”

  Marcus tried to hide a smile. “I’m not sure. I’ll try to remember.” He pushed open the door. Sure enough, half of the small room was occupied by an old bunk bed with sagging mattresses.

  Riph Raph flew straight to the top bunk. “I’m not saying anything like that ever happened. But if it did, it would have been because I had a very bad bladder infection. Skytes are prone to bladder i
nfections.”

  “Uh-huh.” Marcus checked the drawers of the small dresser. Inside lay a number of robes—all his size—plus socks and underwear. Someone had not only been expecting him, but from the look of it they were also expecting him to stay several days. He clenched his jaw. He’d wasted enough time in the dungeon. He wouldn’t spend more time hiding here while Kyja was trapped in Fire Keep.

  Dropping onto his bed, he noticed something beneath the corner of the pillow. Pulling it out, he discovered a small, plain piece of paper. The paper was blank. He turned it over, but there was nothing on the back side, either. He nearly threw it away, when he noticed a red line on the front, where his thumb had been when he’d picked it up.

  Squinting at the paper, he touched his finger to the line. Immediately a second line appeared, curved and connected to the first one at the top and bottom. A letter D.

  He slid his finger to the right and more letters appeared as he touched them. O—N—’—T.

  Don’t.

  Quickly he ran his fingers across the rest of the page, and a message appeared as though written in magic ink.

  Don’t trust the wizard.

  He’s not telling you everything.

  Marcus touched the rest of the paper to see if there was more. But that was it; there was no signature. He flipped it over and tried the back. Nothing there, either.

  As he was trying to think what the message might mean and who had left it, the paper began to darken, first to brown, then black. The words disappeared, and a second later, the entire note turned to ash and crumbled in his hand.

  Don’t trust the wizard? What was that supposed to mean? It almost had to be referring to Master Therapass. What other wizard could it be? But who would tell him not to trust Master Therapass—and why?

  He thought about telling Riph Raph but decided to keep the note a secret for now. He had no idea who’d written it or what their motivations were, and until he did, there was no point in getting the skyte all worked up.

  Marcus turned off the lamp by the side of his bed and closed his eyes, but it was a long time before he finally drifted off. When he did, his sleep was filled with confusing and stressful dreams.