Farouk’s grip on the bars went slack. He dropped his arms and fell back into his chair. “No, no, no.”
“Who’s she? Are you referring to Brune?” Eustace asked.
“No I just came from the infirmary,” Gerdie said. “Brune’s still unconscious…and all green and veiny.” She fell quiet, her brown eyes filling with what looked like regret.
“Don’t worry, Gerdie. If there’s one thing I know about Brune, it’s that she’s a survivor,” Fate assured her.
“I’m confident we’ll find a cure for the infection,” Eustace added. “Steve and I have been looking into it since her arrival. For now though, I’d appreciate knowing what’s so urgent.”
“The best way to fill you in is to show you.” Fate walked over to Farouk’s cage. She held out the ring. “I presume you’ve got some sort of way to play a telepathicgram projector for everyone in the room.”
Narrowing his gleaming fox eyes, Farouk snatched the projector ring from her. “You guesstimate correctly.” He plugged the ring into a slot on his control panel.
A shower of fine mist formed over the center of their meeting table as the image of the three-eyed seer, Vasha, flickered into view. Her dry voice filled the sanctuary and everyone stood perfectly still, their minds held hostage to the unfolding story of the Keep’s origins.
When Vasha’s narration brought them to the birth of the chaos god, Fate edged away from the table, though this did nothing to block the intensity of the images gripping her mind. Once again, she witnessed the entity’s churning mass of darkness swarm over the Keep, breaking through the force field and merging with the High Priestess. She shivered as the dark power transformed the woman into the fierce, black-eyed Kaliena she’d come to fear.
The pounding of her heart increased when Wodrid invaded the scene. His trespass and the evolution of his warped relationship with the vicious woman, who was his jailor, made Fate nauseous. She feared Wodrid every bit as much as she feared Kaliena.
He too was closing in. Everything was converging. She could feel it.
As Vasha’s voice faded with the last of her story, the words were nothing more than noise to Fate. She’d turned her attention to the others. The same terror she felt was written plainly on their faces.
Vasha’s sad face flickered away as the misty screen evaporated. Silence descended upon the room, but only for a few precious seconds. Suddenly, everyone was talking at once, panic in their voices as the volume rose to shouts.
Jessie slammed her sword down onto the table with a loud crack. “Chill out, you guys, and listen up. Fate has a plan.”
The others fell quiet, though stiff with tension and doomed expressions.
Fate looked at Jessie, speechless and petrified. What plan was she talking about? This was a meeting to figure out what to do next. “Uh…the way I see it, we’re going to need a lot more help than what we’ve got here at this table.”
Darcy snorted. “You think?”
Fate ignored her. “We need to find someone whose power is equal to Kaliena’s and–”
Darcy laughed. The nervous laugh of someone about to lose it. “Good luck with that.”
Jessie shook her sword at her. “Stop it, you’re not helping.”
“Oh really? And how do you propose to help? By getting yourself maimed or killed like Mason and Lincoln?” Darcy was shaking, her eyes wild with terror.
Eustace moved in next to Darcy. “I know you’re afraid, but we have to remain calm and keep our–”
Darcy burst into tears, pounding her fists against his chest. Eustace took the beating until she collapsed against him. Placing his arms around her, he gave Fate an awkward nod to continue.
“As I was saying…” Feeling guilty, Fate trailed off. She was beginning to see why Brune had appeared so callous. As much as she hated it, the task had fallen to her to put the suffering of others aside in an effort to maintain some semblance of order. “We need help, and I know where to find it.”
Farouk worriedly stroked the end of his tail. “This is the first I’m hearing of this. Why have you not conversilized with me about this before?”
“I’m doing it now.”
Distrust glinted in Farouk’s eyes. “Who is this omnivasive being you think will save us?”
“He’s a druid who’s been marked with the Elder race runes.”
Farouk’s eyes widened. “The runes of giants were gifted to a human?”
“Yes. I’ve seen him summon the ocean to drive a monster into the ground and drown it. He invoked a storm to contain a war goddess of wind and lightning, and embedded her into rock with a tornado. He called on fire to kill a sorceress and–”
Farouk dropped his tail and shook his hands to stop her. “I know how the Elder race runes work. How do you hypotheculate his powers over the elements will work here in space? The Keep is not a planet, it’s a machine.”
“There’s air,” Fate pointed out. “And some of the vaults are made of earth, trees and plants. Even water.”
“That may be, but in relation to what a planet can furnishforth, there are few elements to work with here,” Farouk argued.
Panic beat in Fate’s chest. Why was he being so obstinate? Was he going to stop her from leaving? No, she refused to let anything get in the way of returning to Finn and freeing him. She’d fulfilled her duties as Keep Guardian and she’d chosen her proxy. Jessie was an excellent replacement. Besides, she had every intention of bringing Finn back to help. She’d never leave her loved ones to fend for themselves.
“What’s this druid’s name? How do we know we can trust him?” Steve seemed every bit as intent as Farouk to meddle with her plans.
Fate looked at him with sudden anger. “Does it matter?”
Steve’s dark brows formed a scowl. “As a matter of fact, it does. Not all druids are pure with The Order. Some lean toward the dark side.”
“Who made you the druid expert?”
Steve squeezed his walking cane, twisting the glossy black wood until it squeaked against his leather gloves. Fate wondered why he was still wearing his meticulous warlock costume when everyone else had cast their costumes aside. Did he not have an identity of his own?
“I’m more of an expert on druids than you are.” Steve’s tone seemed carefully controlled. “While you’ve been out there, I’ve been in the library soaking in as much knowledge as I can. To be helpful, of course.”
“Good on you,” Fate conceded. “But you’re going to have to trust me on this. I know this druid personally. We’ve been through a lot together and he laid down his life for me. More than once.” She swallowed the hard lump forming in her throat and forced back the tears burning behind her eyes. “I trust him completely.”
“I’m aware of the situation. Fate filled me in earlier,” Eustace added, much to Farouk’s obvious surprise and annoyance. “If my daughter trusts this man, who has proven himself time and again, then I trust her judgment, one hundred percent.”
Fate swelled with renewed strength. She wanted to give her dad a huge hug, but Darcy was in the way. She looked at Steve. “I get where you’re coming from, but you can put the books away on this one. You won’t find this druid in any of them.”
Steve opened his mouth to continue the argument, but Farouk cut in. “I cannot allow you to leave your post. You’ve sworn an oath to protect the Keep.”
“Unless I appoint a proxy.”
Farouk’s ears stood straight. “You know about that?”
“Mhmm. It took a lot of digging through the archives, but Gerdie found it.”
Gerdie lifted her chin and stood on her tiptoes in attempt to gain a few inches. “Yup, and it was almost like someone tried to bury the only copy of the original Guardian Handbook by filing it under Arcane Magic. Strangely enough, the stuff about appointing a proxy is gone from the…What was it, the 493rd edition of the handbook you gave Fate?”
Farouk stood still, his furry face stuck in a disgruntled expression. “Who did you appointinate? Brune is
destructalized for the moment, so it isn’t her.”
Fate slung her arm over Jessie’s shoulder. “Meet your new Keep Guardian in waiting.”
“B-but, she’s not from the Inkwell line.” Farouk’s mouth hung open.
Gerdie leaned on the table and kicked her feet behind her as she stared at Farouk. “She doesn’t have to be. Another lie you handed down through the years.”
Farouk stuck his tiny fists on his hips and frowned. “Excuse me? I was never the handbook’s author. That credit goes to Elspeth Inkwell, the first Keep Guardian. She wrote the rules and stipulangments for her descendages. Every guardian since then has added her successes and failures to help guide and alertisize her successors. If something was elimified, it was by one of them along the way.”
“Probably Brune,” Gerdie muttered.
“Wouldn’t put it past her,” Fate agreed.
Farouk was quiet. His blank expression said it all. He didn’t have one solid reason to keep Fate from leaving. She’d covered all her bases.
Fate grabbed her aeronaut pack and hoisted it over her shoulders. “Now that everything’s settled, I’ll be off. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can get back.”
Farouk tucked his nose against his shoulder and didn’t look at her. His reaction surprised her. The sudden pang of guilt she felt surprised her even more. “Jessie’s already taken the proxy oath, so you’ll need to initiate her while I’m away.” She watched him, hoping he’d stop avoiding her gaze. “She’ll do a good job.”
Jessie saluted Farouk. “You bet. I won’t let you down.”
Staring at the floor, Farouk gave them the slightest nod.
Feeling like a heel, Fate turned to tighten the straps of her aeronaut pack, telling herself she was doing the right thing. Her motives might feel selfish, but in the end, they would benefit everyone.
Eustace stepped in beside her and held out a folded piece of paper. “You’ll be needing this. It’s an invocation for summoning the Green Man. This will put the nature spirit under your command without any backlash. The invocation’s safe and ironclad. I double-checked. Oh, and I researched the portal. It’s a circle of standing stones. That’s how the druids traveled between sacred places. You may have to go from one to another, but you’ll eventually arrive within the circle of stones surrounding the giant oak.”
Fate stood on tiptoe and gave him a hug. “Thanks, Dad.”
Eustace lingered a moment, holding her tight before letting go, his eyes misty. “Anything for my Doodles.”
Fate gulped back a surge of tears. She hated seeing so much worry in her father’s eyes. Worse yet, she hated being the cause for that worry.
Gerdie marched over to Fate. “Don’t stop until you get Finn out. Bring him back. We need him. We need you both.”
“I will,” Fate promised.
“And don’t go getting distracted with a bunch of kissing and–”
“Jess!” Fate cut in, her face growing warm as she glanced at Eustace.
He cleared his throat, grabbing at his tie as if he’d eaten something horrible. “Well, yes, that would be much appreciated.”
Fate shot Jessie a heated look.
“Gerdie said it best.” Jessie winked back at her. “Get yourselves back here before everything goes sideways.”
“Roger that.” Fate walked over to the breaching door and hit the button. As the door spiraled open, she started the motor of her aeronaut pack. The whir of the wings stirred the air as she turned to look at them one last time. If she stayed a second longer, she feared she’d never go. It hurt to leave them.
Fate forced a cavalier smile. “See you in a jiff.” Waving goodbye, she jumped into space and flew in the direction her heart most yearned to go.
To Finn.
42
Where Are You?
FINN BURST THROUGH THE front entrance of the bookstore and stopped just within the double doors. Much had changed since he’d last been there. Gone were the thick layers of dust and darkness. Lights illuminated the rustic interior, bathing the reading corners and bookshelves lining the brick walls with inviting warmth. The building emanated an underlying tone of strong magic that hadn’t been present before.
He stepped over to the nearest bookcase, grabbed a book and cracked it open. The pages didn’t crumble. The book was whole and intact. The last time he’d been there all the books had been moldering. He remembered burning some of them in a metal waste bin to keep warm.
“Fate?” His heart pounded in his ears as he waited for a response. Panic crept in. How much time had passed? Was he too late? Surely she was there. The place looked open for business. She’d said her grandmother had left it to her. “Hello?”
He walked through the center of the bookstore, heading toward the staircase, where the Book of Fables had rested against the wall. It was gone. Fate had told him the giant book was the bookstore’s sign. Finn turned and ran back through the front doors, bumping into Sithias just as he was entering the building.
“Did you find her?” Sithias asked.
Finn brushed past him, checking the outside of the building again. He hadn’t paid attention to the exterior on his way in. Sure enough, the carved, wooden book with its gold-leaf letters and tarnished lock was anchored to the brick on the topmost part of the wall. It even looked like someone had touched up the flourishes and letters spelling, Bookstore, with new paint. Confusion set in. What was going on?
“Is she in there?” Sithias pressed.
Finn ran back inside, this time calling for Fate as he ran up the stairs, banging the doors open to one empty room after the other. He leapt down the staircase, stormed over to the storage room in the back, didn’t bother looking in the closet marked, Janitor, and pushed through the back door to have a look outside.
Nothing.
Disappointment caved in, knocking the energy out of him. Finn leaned against the wall for support, grabbing at the sharp ache in his chest. “Where are you?” he said to Fate, his voice hoarse with sorrow.
He staggered back inside, his feet dragging as he navigated the cluttered room. He slammed his knee against a box. Swearing under his breath, he pushed past the green velvet curtains. Sithias was behind the counter of the curved cashier’s desk when he came out of the storage room. He’d discarded the elderly age, robes and staff of Asclepius for a tall lanky man in his early thirties. Looking rather bookish, he was wearing round spectacles and wearing an argyle sweater vest over a starched white shirt with a bow tie.
“How can I help you?” Sithias grinned. “What genre might you be in the mood for?” He waved his long arm at a section of books. “We have the classics over here. Possibly something light, like A Midsummer’s Night Dream?” He paused to look at Finn’s grim expression. “Ew, I see that one touched a nerve. How about a mystery, we have the entire canon of Sherlock Holmes over here.”
“Why don’t you be him and figure out why Fate’s not here, and where she’s gone to?”
“Hmm, tempting, but I rather prefer this persona. I confess, I’ve been going through a bit of an identity crisis of late, and the role of a librarian fits me perfectly.” Sithias sighed as he glanced around at all the books. “Lock me up in here and throw away the key. As long as I’m surrounded by all these stories, I could live in thisss bookstore forever.”
“Are you listening to anything I’ve said? Fate’s not here,” Finn growled.
Sithias looked at him. “I heard you, sir. But you mustn’t lose hope now. She’s obviously been here.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well, for starters, the Book of Fables is here. I was there when she left with it. If the book’s here, she’s here. Maybe not specifically here in the bookstore, but at least we know she’s not somewhere across the universe. I mean, that would be ridiculous, now wouldn’t it?” Sithias smiled and rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you poke around with that keen sixth-sense of yours to locate her?”
Finn’s agitation eased. Sithias was making sense. He’d panicked
and lost all reason. “I’ll go outside and take a knee. While I’m poking around, you see if you can dig up any clues as to where she might’ve gone, like maybe her home address.”
“Will do,” Sithias called after him as Finn headed for the door.
Finn stopped when he reached the edge of the tulip field. He looked out over the strips of yellow flowers stretching in rows before him. The image of a little girl with a wild mop of auburn curls picking bouquets too big to carry flashed in his mind. Smiling at the thought, he kneeled and placed his palm on the grass. If there was any one place to connect with Fate, it was here, where her fondest memories were the most alive.
The link to Fate was instant. Heat streamed along his arm like wildfire and exploded in his chest. Stronger than anytime before, she swirled inside him, triggering every sense with the crackle of fire, the scent of cinnamon and briskness of crisp autumn air. She soaked into him, straight to the marrow of his bones, touching his soul with her very essence. Her love and longing matched his own.
“You’re here,” he whispered, his eyes closed as he watched the dancing sparks of her spirit with his inner vision. “But where exactly?”
He probed further, skimming across highways, farms and cities, questing for the bright beacon of her presence within the house she lived in. Doing his best to push his frustration aside, he searched beyond the immediate area, crossing mountain ranges, oceans, deserts and forests.
He closed his hand over the grass, pulling at the roots and biting down until his jaw hurt. “Where are you?”
Unwilling to give up, Finn searched every corner of the world, but with each passing moment, his spirits dampened. What was going on? Fate was obviously in this dimension or he wouldn’t be able to feel her. So where was she?
Was it possible she was somewhere other than Earth?
Finn pushed his senses beyond the planet, past the sun, the solar system and then the Milky Way, questing for the brilliant light of her spirit’s red-gold flame. The stars became a blur of streaking light as he shot across the universe.
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