Fire Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  He climbed up the hill by himself, and Kyja wandered over to join Marcus. “Thanks for defending me back there,” she said.

  Marcus shrugged. “It was dumb. I shouldn’t have let the Master’s words get to me.”

  “True,” Kyja said. Marcus gave her a look that said he hadn’t expected her to agree. “But it was still sweet.”

  “You were pretty good with your sword back there,” Marcus said.

  “And you were pretty good with your magic. We made a great team.”

  “Move along,” a pair of dark wizards said, jabbing them in the back with their staffs.

  Marcus and Kyja hurried to catch up with the others. At the top of the hill, the Thrathkin S’Bae formed them into a line. The Summoner landed at the base of the hill, and Kyja remembered the time it had plucked her off the wall of Icehold. She wondered if it remembered that time too.

  “Face the Master,” one of the Thrathkin S’Bae ordered. “Do not drop your heads or look away in any fashion. Disobedience is punishable by death.”

  Was this how the rest of their lives would be—taking orders from the Dark Circle? She had to live this way, but that didn’t mean Marcus did. She edged up to him and whispered, “I can push you back to Earth.”

  “Would you come with me?” he asked.

  She thought for a moment. “The Dark Circle might take it out on the rest of the group.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Once they force open the gate, there won’t be any escape from them on Earth or Farworld.”

  Below, the Master lined up Tide, Nizgar-Gharat, Calem, and Chaos in front of the gate. “Behold!” he shouted, looking up the hill. “The beginning of a new world!”

  A world of terror, Kyja thought. A world of madness. Despite knowing that she and Marcus had tried their best, she felt guilty.

  Marcus watched the Master move each of the elementals into place at the circle. “How does it work?” he whispered to Master Therapass. “How do they open the gate?”

  The wizard shook his head. “I don’t know any more than you. I’m not sure my brother knows either. But you can be sure he won’t quit until he figures it out.”

  From where they stood, it was hard to make out what the dark wizard was saying, but it looked like he was instructing each elemental on what to do. Marcus found himself both terrified and fascinated. Opening a doorway would give the Master more power. But after all this time, Marcus wanted to see what the drift would look like—how it worked.

  Chaos was the first to act. He held out his arms, and a line of fire traced the symbol in his quadrant then rushed to the middle of the circle.

  Nizgar-Gharat went next. Marcus watched a dark line fill the symbol for land magic, and meet fire in the middle. For a moment, the land magic seemed about to put out the fire, and the two elementals shouted something at each other. But the Master quickly quieted them.

  Tide went next, then Calem. Lines of water, land, air, and fire magic met in the middle of the circle. Marcus leaned forward with anticipation.

  Nothing happened.

  “What’s going on?” Kyja asked. “Why isn’t it opening?”

  Master Therapass shook his head. “Combining magic is a difficult task at the best of times, and elementals of different types do not typically work well together. Remember what I said long ago about fire and water magic?”

  Marcus remembered the wizard explaining how two powerful forms of magic could offset each other, like a bucket of water dousing a candle.

  “More magic!” the Master shouted, and the lines on the circle flashed brighter. Intent on what was happening below, the Thrathkin S’Bae moved down the hill and closer to the action.

  The Master held up his staff, and a low whine came from the gate. Blue, brown, silver, and orange pulsed to the sound.

  “Something’s happening,” Kyja whispered.

  At the center of the circle, all four colors wound themselves into a thick, black vine stretching high into the air. The whining grew louder, and the ground began to vibrate.

  Standing on the circle, Calem appeared to try to move away, but the master pointed his staff at the air elemental, and Calem’s head snapped up—his spine bowed as if someone were stretching him backward over a barrel.

  Divum smirked. “I wonder if he’s questioning his choice to join the Master now.”

  Power filled the air, and the entire dark army moved toward the circle. Marcus felt the hair on the backs of his arms and neck stand straight up.

  The whining sound grew louder still as the black vine thickened into a pillar of solid magic that rose high into the sky. The clouds seemed to be affected too, swirling around the pillar like a tornado about to touch down.

  “Harder!” the Master shouted, and the entire circle began to pulse. Orange, brown, blue, and silver lit the Master’s face, giving the wizard the appearance of an insane clown. All of the elementals writhed in their spots on the gate.

  The sound grew louder and more high-pitched. Cracks spread across the ground as the land vibrated. It was happening. Darkness now made up nearly half of the circle. The colored lines flashed so brightly that Marcus had to shade his eyes. He started forward with the rest of the dark army, but Master Therapass grabbed him by the shoulder.

  “Get down,” the wizard said to Marcus and Kyja. “Put your hands over your heads and press your faces to the ground.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Everyone get down. Take cover.”

  Hand in hand, Marcus and Kyja lay face down on the ground, with Riph Raph tucked between them. Magma knelt over them, shielding their bodies. The wizards and elementals flattened themselves against the hard-packed dirt.

  The whining reached a pitch that sounded like a drill about to snap its bit.

  “What’s happening?” Marcus shouted, cheek pressed to the ground.

  Even though Master Therapass was right beside him, he could barely hear the wizard over the shrill scream. “They’re pushing the gate too hard. There’s too much magic going in. With no way for it to escape—”

  The twilight sky, which had been a purplish-gray suddenly flashed white—as though a thousand lightning bolts had struck at the same place. Marcus squeezed his eyes shut against the glare, but he could still see the image imprinted on the insides of his lids.

  At the same time, the ground rolled like a ship on a raging ocean. Marcus and Kyja were flung upward, and it was only the weight of the fire elemental that kept them from being tossed like a rock from a slingshot.

  Explosions and screams filled the air. The ground continued to shake, and lights flashed. Chunks of rock and dirt flew into the air, and the ground felt like part of the hillside had broken completely away. As the quake went on and on, Marcus began to wonder if it would ever stop, or if Farworld was shaking itself to pieces.

  At last the rumbling slowed, then shuddered to a halt. The screams stopped, and Marcus opened his eyes. The sky had taken on a strange, greenish-yellow hue, as if the very atmosphere had been bruised. His ears rang, and his head throbbed.

  Kyja released his hand and shakily stood up. “Look,” she said. “Look what happened.”

  Marcus pushed himself to his knees. Despite the fact that the ground had stopped shaking, his body still swayed. He couldn’t be seeing what he thought he was. He rubbed his eyes, but the view remained the same.

  All of the colors were gone, along with the black pillar that had reached up to the sky. The gate looked exactly as it had before, with no sign of change or damage. But everything around it had been flattened. The entire army of the Dark Circle had been completely destroyed.

  38: Water, Land, Air, and Fire

  All around, people were bleeding and grasping limbs twisted at odd angles. Wizards had been thrown as far as a hundred feet or more from their original positions, and several had been hit by flying rock and debris.

  Cascade and Master Therapass hurried from one person to the next, healing the most grievous injuries, and moving on. Marcus realized that he should be
doing the same. His staff was nowhere to be found, so he asked Kyja to help him move around the hill.

  Together they began tracking down the hurt, often by the sounds of their moans or screaming, and doing what they could to help. Riph Raph flew about the hill, finding supplies and scouting for more injured. Kyja had the perfect bedside manner, encouraging everyone as she tore sheets of cloth, tied bandages, and cleaned wounds.

  “It’s okay,” she said to a woman whose arm had nearly been torn off by a flying branch. “You make dresses don’t you?”

  “That’s right,” the woman said, her face pale and clammy.

  “You do amazing work. I saw one of your gowns in a shop window.” Kyja comforted the woman, as Marcus stopped the bleeding and carefully reattached the limb.

  “Really?” the woman asked, perking up.

  “It was green with puffy sleeves. You’ll be making them again in no time.” Kyja pointed at the woman’s arm.

  The woman looked down and her eyes went wide as she saw that the wound was completely healed. “Thank you,” she said, hugging Marcus and Kyja. “Come by my shop when this is over and I’ll make you anything you want.”

  They found a wizard with a deep gash above one eye cowering on the ground. “It’s all right,” Kyja said, taking his hand. “They’re gone. The entire dark army has been destroyed.”

  The man clasped her hand with shaking fingers. “Is it true?”

  She helped him stand so he could see for himself, and the man wept with joy.

  Marcus, who had never healed so many people at one time, was beginning to feel faint, so Riph Raph flew off to get him some food. Each wizard they healed began healing others, and soon everyone still alive was at least stable.

  Looking at the number of bodies no longer moving, though, Marcus felt sickened and shocked by how many of his friends and neighbors hadn’t survived. Thousands of bodies from both sides lay scattered across the field beneath a lingering cloud of yellow-gray smoke. Both good and evil looked the same in death.

  “Victory has come at a terrible cost,” a voice said from beside him. Marcus turned to find Divum there. She was dressed in all black, and he had never seen the Aerisian looking so somber.

  Kyja wiped her eyes. “I didn’t want them to die for us.”

  “They didn’t die for you,” Cascade said. “They died for what they believed in, and so that others could continue to have the freedom to choose their own beliefs.”

  Magma rested his mace on his shoulder and surveyed the damage. “Until this day, I had no idea humans could be so . . . heroic.”

  “For years to come, stories will be told of the sacrifices made here,” Lanctrus-Darnoc said.

  Marcus looked up at the fox and boar. “Tide, Calem, and the other elementals. Are they . . . ?”

  “Destroyed,” Lanctrus said with a nod. “They were at the center of the explosion. I believe the force of dark magic flowing through them was the catalyst that set it all off.”

  Kyja touched the land elementals’ wing. “Master Therapass said that if dark magic opened the gate, all of the elementals would be destroyed. But you’re all still here.”

  Master Therapass limped up the hill to them. He had deep-purple bags under his eyes, and his skin had a glossy sheen Marcus didn’t like the look of. But the wizard also looked satisfied.

  “They did not open the gate. The power is still there.” He looked at Marcus, Kyja, and the elementals. I believe that task is now up to you.”

  Kyja stood at the edge of the great white seal, afraid to actually step onto it. They had worked so long to get here—to reach this moment—that she felt a sort of superstitious dread. As if the moment she set foot on the gate, something terrible would happen to destroy everything they’d worked for.

  “Why did the others explode when they tried to open it?” she asked.

  Master Therapass shook his head. “What they were doing wasn’t working. I don’t know why, exactly. But instead of backing off, my brother kept driving them, kept pushing—until something snapped.”

  “Like an engine running at high speed until it throws a piston,” Marcus said. When the others stared at him, he shrugged and smiled. “Earth analogy.”

  Kyja looked at the wizards gathered around them. “Shouldn’t they move away? In case it . . . happens again?”

  The wizard shook his head. “They were using dark magic in an attempt to force the doorway open. My brother has always been convinced that the best way to get what you want is to take it—to push and push until it is yours. Light magic doesn’t work that way. I can’t say if you’ll be able to open the gate any more than they did. But I am quite sure that there will not be another explosion.”

  “I agree,” Divum said. “Us being here now, this way, feels right to me.”

  Kyja nodded. This was it, then—the time to finish the quest Master Therapass had told them about so long ago, when she and Marcus barely knew each other.

  She lifted one foot to step onto the gate, but Marcus grabbed her hand. “Wait.”

  Kyja, Master Therapass, and the elementals turned to look at him. Leaning on his staff, he licked his lips. “What if we don’t open it?”

  Kyja didn’t understand. “You mean, what if we can’t?”

  He shook his head. “Think about it. The Dark Circle is gone. Even if there are a few Thrathkin S’Bae remaining somewhere, they’ll scatter now that the Master is gone. There’s no one left for us to fight. What if we left the gate alone?”

  “What about your father?” Kyja asked. “Isn’t he trying to get the power?”

  “He’ll probably end up destroying himself the same way the Dark Circle did. Now that we know how to enter the realm of shadows, we can keep an eye on him. Why risk trying to open the gate ourselves when we don’t really have to?”

  “Turnip Head has a point,” Riph Raph said. “And that’s a pretty rare thing. Maybe we should listen to him.”

  Master Therapass dropped to one knee in front of Marcus. “You’ve worked too hard to stop now. What is it? What are you afraid of? Are you still concerned about the origin of your mark? Because by now—”

  “No,” Kyja said, suddenly understanding. “It’s what the woman in the mist told us, isn’t it?”

  Marcus stared at his feet and nodded.

  Master Therapass scratched his beard. “The woman in the mist?”

  Until this moment, Kyja had completely forgotten about the woman’s words. But now that she remembered, her heart began to pound. “She was one of the four—the beings who asked us questions when we were opening the gate to Fire Keep. Marcus asked her what would happen if we created a drift and went through. She said that the doorway would only open once, and that what goes through can’t return. If Marcus and I go to our own worlds, we’ll never see each other again. I’ll go to Earth and never see Riph Raph or any of you.”

  “You didn’t tell me this,” Master Therapass said. “Who were these four? Can you trust them?”

  Marcus nodded slowly, looking a little sick. “I think they may be the ones who created the elements in the first place. The ones who locked Fire Keep and Air Keep.”

  Magma glowered. Divum and Cascade looked distinctly uncomfortable. Lanctrus and Darnoc whispered back and forth.

  “Here’s the thing, Kyja,” Marcus said. “I’ve nearly lost you twice, and I don’t want to take that chance again. If we don’t open the drift, I’ll never be able to come here completely, and you won’t be able to stay in Farworld. But with the potion Master Therapass made, we can stay longer than before.”

  “And maybe we could find a way to stop your father, and then we can live in the realm of shadows,” Kyja said. “Like your parents did.” That wouldn’t be so bad. There was no rule that said they had to open the gate as soon as they’d freed the elementals. If it looked like anything bad would happen, they could always do it later. Maybe much, much later, when they were older than Master Therapass.

  “I know you two want to stay together,” th
e wizard said, laying his hands on their heads. “And I can’t say that I blame you. You share a bond I’ve never seen the likes of. I still don’t understand how you were able to pull Marcus here from Earth in the first place, little one. But I think you both know that this is not something we can put off. Fire Keep was opened for a reason. Until the drift is opened and the prophecy fulfilled, Earth and Farworld will never be safe. It’s time for you to do what you know you must, even if it means never seeing each other again.”

  Marcus sighed and stared at the ground.

  Kyja wiped away a stray tear.

  Riph Raph swished his tail angrily. “Well, this stinks!”

  “You know what we have to do,” Kyja said.

  Marcus nodded. “I guess I knew it all along. I just . . . I’m going to miss you so much.”

  Kyja pulled him into her arms, and for several minutes, they hugged silently while everyone else found something to look at. Sniffs and choking gasps could be heard through the group of wizards and warriors.

  At last, Marcus pulled away. He wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Are you ready to do this?”

  “I guess so,” Kyja said, trying to smile.

  Hand in hand, they led the elementals to the gateway. Each of them took their place on the symbol representing his or her magic while Marcus, Kyja, and Riph Raph stood at the center of the circle, where the image of the two creatures remained locked in deadly combat.

  “Remember to take it slow,” Master Therapass said. “Feel your way.”

  Kyja took one long last look around, wanting to lock Farworld into her memories in case she never saw it again. She gave Riph Raph a hug. “Take care of Marcus for me.”

  Riph Raph nodded his head and glistening tears dripped from his big golden eyes. “I’ll n-never for-for . . .” The skyte couldn’t finish what he was trying to say and instead tucked his head under one wing.