Fire Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  “Can I help you with that?” Kyja asked. She reached down and casually unwound the wire from the skyte’s body. “You should be careful where you fly.”

  “How did you do that?” Riph Raph asked, stretching his wings.

  Marcus pulled at his own wire, and the bindings immediately tightened.

  Kyja leaned down and studied the silver loops. “How did this happen?” She slid a finger under the wire, and it all simply fell from his wrists and ankles. She touched his withered arm gently. “Did the wire do this to you?”

  Marcus and Riph Raph stared at her.

  She shifted from one foot to the other. “Why are you two looking at me that way?”

  “You really don’t know who we are, do you?” Marcus asked.

  She pointed to a small pile of what looked like broken glass. “The fire burned my memories.”

  Marcus looked from the glass to her with his heart lodged in his throat. To have come all this way, to have worked so hard to find her, only to discover that she didn’t remember him was almost like losing her all over.

  She must have seen at least part of his thoughts on his face, because her chin quivered and her eyes misted over. “I’m s-s-sorry. I wish I could remember who you are.”

  “No.” Marcus pulled her down and hugged her with both his good arm and bad one. “Don’t do that,” he said, although he could feel tears streaming down his own face. For the next few minutes, all of them shook with crying. Even Riph Raph dripped great salty drops onto the floor.

  At last, Kyja pulled back and wiped the sleeve of her gown across her eyes. “You were my friends, weren’t you?”

  “We are your friends.” Marcus sniffed, trying to get himself under control. “We’ve been looking for you since the day you . . .”

  “Died?” she finished. When he nodded, she studied him with her deep-green eyes. “The fire elementals said that everyone in Fire Keep was sent here because we were killed by the person we loved the most. Is that true? Is that how I died?”

  Marcus couldn’t bear to look at her. He studied the indentation on his wrist where the wire had dug into his skin. “Yeah. It is. There was this poison drink at a big dinner and—”

  She put a hand to his mouth. “No. I don’t want to know. I was hoping it wasn’t true. But since it is, that’s a memory I don’t want back. It would hurt too much.”

  Marcus glanced at Riph Raph, but the skyte appeared to be intently studying something on the ground. “Listen, the important thing is that we need to get you back to your body before it’s too late.”

  She smiled a little as if he’d made some kind of joke. “How can I go back to my body if I’m dead?”

  He tugged at the collar of his robe. The situation was complicated. “Okay, here’s the thing. We—that is, you and me—”

  “And me,” Riph Raph said, flapping over to join them. “I’ve been part of this from the beginning. You could call me the brains of the operation.”

  Kyja smiled and nodded.

  “The three of us,” Marcus corrected, “are trying to save Earth and Farworld from being destroyed. At first, we thought we had to save them both from the Dark Circle. But now I think it might actually be my father we have to protect them from. Anyway, to do that, we need to create a drift between the two worlds, which sounded a lot easier when Master Therapass told us about it than it really is.”

  Kyja nodded uncertainly. “Um . . .”

  “You’re making it too complicated,” Riph Raph said. “All you need to know is that first, we went to the water elementals, where Marcus got turned into a fish. Then we went to find a land elemental, but it turned out that there is no such thing as a land elemental because there are only land elementals. After that, we went to the air elementals and almost got killed by a giant pair of frozen teeth. Get it?”

  Kyja bit her lower lip and shook her head. “Could you tell me what a Farworld is?”

  Riph Raph flicked his tail. “This is gonna take a while.”

  “Okay,” Marcus said. “Let’s take this all the way back to the beginning. First of all, your name is Kyja.”

  “I like Turnip,” she said.

  He sighed. “It all started when I was at a boys’ school and got in trouble for fighting.” He told her about the dreams he’d had on Earth and continued on to how she’d pulled him to Farworld the first time, where he’d fainted after hearing a horse tell a joke.

  She liked the story of how they’d battled the Mimicker. But when he got to the part where Master Therapass had told them of their true origins, she stopped him. “Do I know who my parents are? Do I have brothers or sisters? Any relatives at all?”

  He couldn’t stand to see pain in her eyes, but he couldn’t lie to her either. “No.”

  “And I never had any magic?”

  He studied a fold in his robe.

  “What about potions or charms?”

  Marcus shook his head. “Magic doesn’t work on you. You’re immune to it because you’re from Earth. I think that’s why you were able to take off our wires. But you’re really smart.”

  “And you’re a great sword fighter,” Riph Raph said. “Plus you tell good jokes, and you’re an amazing snail rider.”

  Kyja forced a smile, but Marcus could tell she was fighting not to cry again.

  “We’re your family. Me and Riph Raph. Master Therapass and Tankum.” He reached out and took her hand. “You’re the nicest person I know.” He went on to tell her about all of the people he’d watched her help in their time together.

  By the time he finished, she sighed. “Well at least it’s good to know I don’t steal from babies or kill old ladies.”

  Marcus laughed. “Not that I’m aware of. But I’ve only known you the last three years.”

  That won him a real smile.

  Quickly he and Riph Raph caught her up on the rest of their adventures, stopping only when she insisted that she didn’t want to know how she’d died.

  “Anyway,” he finished, “right now your body is in a glass coffin waiting for you to be put back into it.”

  She nodded. “And we would do this . . . how?”

  “You push me back to Terra ne Staric, and then I yank on the rope, pulling you behind me, and bam, you’re alive again.”

  “But I don’t know where Terra ne Staric is. I don’t know where Farworld is.”

  Marcus scratched his head. He hadn’t thought of that. “I’ll describe it to you, and you do your best. If we’re off by a little, you can pull me back and try again.”

  The plan was cut and dried to him, but she didn’t seem convinced. “I don’t know . . .”

  “He’s not very good with explanations,” Riph Raph said. “Let me try. You push him back to Terra ne Staric, and he pulls you over, and you get put back in your body, and bam, you’re alive.”

  Marcus glared at him. “All you did was repeat what I said.”

  “But I said it so much better. Skytes are great at explaining things. We’re known as the explainers of the sky.”

  Marcus balled up the coil of silver wire and threw it at him. “You aren’t known as anything of the kind.”

  Kyja stepped between them. “You both did an excellent job of explaining. And I thank you.” Marcus and Riph Raph gave each other dirty looks. “But didn’t you tell me,” Kyja continued, “that we decided for me to come here to free the fire elementals?”

  “Technically, you chose that,” Marcus said. “We weren’t exactly included in the decision. Besides, that was before any of us understood how dangerous it would be for you to come here.”

  “All right,” she said. “Then I choose not to leave here.”

  Marcus stared at her. She wanted to stay?

  Riph Raph spread his wings like a professor about to give a speech. “I think that what Turni—that is, Marcus—failed to point out is that if you don’t go back now, you might not be able to return to your body at all.”

  Marcus opened his mouth, but Kyja stopped him. “I understand
that part. But unless I’m mistaken, once we leave here, we might not be able to come back.”

  “Well . . .” Marcus began.

  “I’m not . . .” Riph Raph sputtered. “That is . . .”

  Kyja set her jaw in the way Marcus was all too familiar with. She might have lost her memories, but she hadn’t lost her stubborn streak. “Do you or do you not have magic?” she asked.

  “I do,” Marcus said.

  “And unless we open the gates to Fire Keep, the Pyrinths won’t be able to help us, which means that we can’t open a drift, which means that Farworld and Earth will both still be in danger.”

  “But if we don’t get you home immediately, you will be in danger,” Marcus said. “And right now, I care about you more than anyone or anything.”

  She smiled, and his heart sang. “That is so nice.” Her smile disappeared. “But I’m not going back until we open the gates.”

  Marcus took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “I know spells that can make you do what I say.” Actually, he had no idea how to cast such spells, and if he did, they were probably dark magic. But she didn’t need to know that.

  She smiled her sweet smile again. “Since I’m immune to magic, none of them would work on me, would they?”

  He turned to Riph Raph. “Tell her.”

  Riph Raph coughed into his wing. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but . . .”

  She patted him on the head. “I don’t remember rescuing you when you were a baby, but since I did, I’m sure that this one time, you’ll do what I ask.”

  Riph Raph gave Marcus a sheepish look and shrugged his wings. “Yes.”

  She wrapped her arms around both of them in a group hug. “Then it’s decided.”

  Marcus didn’t know what to say. Apparently losing her memory didn’t make her any less bossy. It didn’t appear that he had any choice. “Fine, but if we run into any kind of trouble at all . . .”

  “Perfect,” she said, helping him to his feet and walking him to the door. “The fire elementals said that we have to open a series of gates to set them free. I think this door is either one of the gates or it leads to them.” She pointed to the flaming symbol in the center of the black surface. “Do you know what that symbol means?”

  He nodded. “It’s the elemental sign for water.”

  “And can you open the door?”

  He looked at Riph Raph, still hoping to find a way to change her mind, but the skyte waggled his ears. “I think we’d better do what she says.”

  Marcus shook his head. It was great to be back with Kyja again, but that didn’t mean he’d let her push him around. “I’ll try. But first you have to promise me one thing.”

  She blinked her green eyes and waited.

  “Stop calling yourself Turnip. Your name is Kyja.”

  She flipped back her hair and smiled “I’ll think about it.”

  He grunted and faced the door. Since the symbol was water, water magic was probably needed to open it. He knew lots of water spells, but the easiest was a simple extinguishing spell. He called on the water elementals for help, then held out his hand. A splash of water put out the flaming symbol and the door swung open.

  “Great,” Kyja said. “Let’s go.”

  27: Not a Test

  A narrow trail on the other side of the door wound down into the darkness, lit only by the faintly luminescent blue moss on the stone walls.

  Kyja, she thought as she helped the boy along the trail. The name would take some getting used to, but she had to admit that it was probably a better name than Turnip. Other things would take a lot more getting used to.

  Like the fact that she was apparently quite close to the boy and the skyte.

  Not that she had anything against them. They both seemed nice enough, if a little bossy. It was just strange to have someone who claimed to know you so well when you couldn’t remember meeting them. Like playing a game of tag where you were blindfolded but everyone else could see.

  She thought she could trust them—they’d come to rescue her, hadn’t they? But a part of her couldn’t help questioning whether they were such good friends; how had they let her end up here in the first place? And their stories of jumping between worlds, fighting monsters, and solving quests was a little hard to take in.

  “Is everything okay?” the boy asked.

  Marcus, she reminded herself. His name was Marcus. And the skyte had the silly name of Riph Raph.

  “Yes. I was only . . .” She glanced into the descending tunnel. “I was wondering what’s down there.”

  “I’m hoping for bugs,” Riph Raph said, flying slightly above them in the tight passageway. “I’m starving.” Marcus had used water magic to heal the skyte’s wing, and he seemed as energetic as ever.

  "Bugs.” She glanced up at the ceiling and shivered.

  “In Land Keep, there were these things called Harbingers,” Marcus said. “They had super long claws, and they sang songs about death. They kidnapped me, but you couldn’t see them.”

  “Claws?” She shivered.

  “Those were nothing compared to the Frost Bite,” Riph Raph said. “Remember how it almost bit your leg off? That was amazing.”

  Marcus laughed, although Kyja didn’t see how that could be funny.

  “You never got to see the swimming monkeys that nearly drowned us,” Marcus said.

  “You think it’s funny that you’ve almost been killed?” Kyja stopped walking and stared at them.

  Marcus’s smile disappeared. “Well . . . it wasn’t funny at the time.”

  “It was kind of funny when the air elementals hit you in the head with that melon.” Riph Raph snickered. “

  Kyja couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. “Did I think it was funny?”

  “Actually,” Marcus said, “you were pretty mad at the air elementals. You got up in their faces and called them monsters.”

  “I did?”

  “Totally,” Riph Raph said. “You’re no one to mess with. Remember that time you spit in a Summoner’s face?”

  “No.” This was a side of herself she didn’t know at all. “So, I’m . . . brave?”

  “Heck yeah.” Marcus snorted. “One time you took on a bunch of undead with a sword. You were all ducking and slashing.” He turned to look at her. “Don’t you think you’re brave?”

  She hadn’t given the idea a lot of thought before. She knew she liked to help people. But sword fighting and spitting on monsters weren’t things she would have expected to find in her past.

  Marcus put a hand on her shoulder. “Why do you think you were so determined to go through the door?”

  “Because it was the right thing to do,” she answered at once. “The fire elementals need our help. And it sounds like the people of Earth and Farworld do too. I couldn’t give up when I knew something like that.”

  “Even though it was probably dangerous?”

  She tugged on a length of hair. “It’s not like I want to do anything dangerous. I definitely don’t see any of this as some kind of amazing adventure the way you two seem to. But if I have to take a risk to help the people who need us. . .” She stuck out her chin. “Then yes. I will face monsters or sword fights or—or —flying melons. Whatever it takes.”

  Marcus leaned forward and gave her an unexpected kiss on the nose. “That’s why we love you.”

  She felt heat spread all the way from the top of her head to her toes, and was glad for the darkness of the passageway.

  They’d been walking for what felt like thirty minutes, and Marcus found himself leaning more and more on Kyja as his leg got worse.

  They stopped to catch their breath. “Am I too heavy?”

  “No,” Kyja puffed. “Well, maybe a little. Do I always help you get around like this?”

  Marcus laughed. “More than I’d like to admit. You dragged me through a desert once, and you drove me across the country on a motorcycle—you probably don’t remember what a motorcycle is. But normally, I have
a stick or a staff or a pole to support myself with.”

  “We’ll try to find you one then,” she said. “Until we do, I don’t mind.”

  It was great to be back together again—even if he could tell that she didn’t completely trust everything they’d told her. Would he have acted any differently if it were him in her shoes? He tried to imagine Kyja and Riph Raph coming up to him at the old boys’ school and attempting to convince him they’d all been friends for years.

  “Hey,” Riph Raph called from ahead. “I found the end of the trail. And there’s fish!”

  Marcus glanced at Kyja. “We better catch up with him before he gets into trouble.”

  “Does he do that a lot?” Kyja asked as the two of them shuffled along again. “Get in trouble?

  “More than I’d like to think about.”

  They rounded a sharp turn and emerged in a large domed chamber. At the center of the room, a perfectly circular pool glowed the same blue as the walls.

  Riph Raph dove into the water and came out holding a green and gold fish. The fish’s scales shimmered as it flopped back and forth. Riph Raph threw back his head and gulped the fish down in one bite. “Delicious,” he called, going in for another.

  “Are you sure you should be eating those?” Kyja asked. She lowered Marcus to the ground, and the two of them knelt at the edge of the pool. “They could be poisonous.”

  “Skytes have stomachs of iron,” Riph Raph hooted, scooping up another fish.

  Marcus looked into the water, but it was impossible to see more than a foot or two down, past the hundreds of fish swimming lazily near the surface. He had no idea how deep the pool was, or what might be lurking near the bottom. “We may want to move back a little,” he said, remembering the frog-monkeys that had tried to drown him when he and Kyja had gone through the land-elemental tests.

  As though his voice had conjured up the very danger he had been remembering, bubbles started rising to the surface. Kyja leaned over the water, but Marcus quickly pulled her back.

  “Get out of there!” he called to Riph Raph. The skyte flew back to land behind Marcus and Kyja.