Water Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  He took her hand again. But this time it wasn’t to pull her away. When she looked at him, he smiled a crooked grin. “You might just be the craziest person I’ve ever known, but you’re also the bravest.”

  She licked her lips and he noticed that even though her expression was firm, her chin was trembling. “Does that mean you’ll come with me?”

  It felt like the most foolhardy thing he’d ever done, and it would undoubtedly mean both their deaths. But he bobbed his head. “As long as you’ll let me.”

  Chapter 59

  Rescue

  Do you have any idea how you intend to rescue her?” Marcus asked as the two of them walked toward Water Keep.

  Kyja’s smile lit up her entire face. “I was hoping you’d come up with something.”

  She burst into such infectious laughter that he couldn’t help joining her. It was a wonderful sound. If he was going to die, he wouldn’t mind if this was the last sound he ever heard.

  “I guess a frontal assault is out,” he said. And they started giggling all over again.

  “You’re both crazy,” Riph Raph muttered under his breath.

  Marcus cupped his hand over his eyes against the sun. They were close enough now to see the individual creatures of the Dark Circle’s army, but not yet close enough to make out what they were.

  “It would be nice if we could come up with some kind of diversion,” he said, glancing in Riph Raph’s direction.

  Riph Raph scowled. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “Maybe we could negotiate,” Kyja said. “Give them something they want for something we want.”

  “The only thing they want is us.”

  “Good point.”

  “If we get any closer,” the skyte said, “one of them is bound to see us.”

  “That’s it!” Kyja said. “Marcus, your invisibility spell. If you make us invisible, we can walk right in and rescue her.”

  Marcus shook his head, his hair flopping back and forth. “I’m not sure it would work against something as powerful as the Summoner.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Kyja said.

  “But . . .” Marcus ran his fingers through his hair as an idea occurred to him. It was crazy, and it almost surely wouldn’t work. But what if it did?

  He turned to Kyja and told her what he was thinking. Halfway through, Riph Raph began shaking his pointy blue head. “It has no chance,” he said, wagging his ears. “You’ll just get us caught.”

  But Kyja listened carefully. “Are you sure we can do that?” she asked.

  “No,” he replied. “But unless you can think of anything else, it’s our only chance.”

  Riph Raph snapped his beak. “You’ll get us all killed.”

  “If you have another idea, tell me now,” Marcus said.

  The skyte dug his talons into the ground, but he said nothing.

  “Okay, then.” Marcus looked at Kyja. “Are you in?”

  “Yes,” Kyja said at once. She turned to Riph Raph. “You don’t have to come with us.”

  “I’m coming,” the skyte said, then glared at Marcus. “But only because I have nothing better to do.”

  * * *

  Half an hour later, Marcus lay flat on his stomach beside Kyja and Riph Raph in the grass outside Water Keep. The skin on the back of his neck and head tightened against his skull—as if his scalp wanted to crawl away every bit as much as he did.

  From this close, the Fallen Ones were no longer just shapes. They were a horde of nightmare creatures filling the horizon. It was as if a window had opened into every bad dream he’d ever had. Spiders taller than a horse rose on long, stilt-like legs, single eyes on wavering stalks rising out of each of their hairy bodies. Snakes boasted two heads and dozens of sharp fangs. Other creatures stood on two legs like men, but had the heads of wild animals or appeared as huge, furry balls with teeth and stingers jutting out all over. And standing among them, hundreds of the undead.

  Their smell was clear too—dank and marshy, like something that had just climbed out of the grave. Under the smell of their corruption was something more threatening. It smelled wild and dangerous. Marcus thought it might be the smell of hunger.

  Pressed to the ground, Kyja looked scared. “We are doing the right thing, aren’t we?” she whispered.

  “I think it’s a little late to change our minds now,” Marcus said. “I don’t think we could make it out of here without being seen even if we wanted to.” It was amazing they’d been able to get as close as they had. If the Dark Circle’s attention hadn’t been focused on the walls of Water Keep, they would have been spotted long before.

  But now the army of horribly-mutated creatures was restless. They paced back and forth, growling and snapping at each other. At the front of their ranks, the Summoner roared with displeasure. It shook Dew’s cage with one gleaming talon, shouting, “Give me the children or she dies!”

  Marcus took a deep breath and tried to keep his hands from trembling. “If we’re going to do this, we’d better try now, before it’s too late.” He glanced at Kyja and Riph Raph, wondering if it was the last time he’d ever see his friends alive.

  “Wait.” Kyja grabbed him by the arm. “It wasn’t fair of me to force you into this. If you want to leave, I’ll understand. If you use your invisibility, there’s a good chance you can get away.”

  “Finally she sees reason,” Riph Raph muttered.

  “What about you?” Marcus asked.

  Kyja shook her head. “I have to stay.”

  Even though Marcus wanted nothing more than to put as much distance as possible between them and the Dark Circle, he shook his head. “You were right. You have been all along. I just didn’t see it at first.” He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

  “I don’t know if all this stuff about us saving our worlds is true or not. But if it is, we can’t pick and choose who we save. The woman in that car with the baby and Kathleen and Jerrick on the bus—isn’t saving them just as important as creating a drift?”

  Kyja nodded, her clear eyes shining. “Morning Dew is part of this world.”

  “Right,” Marcus said. “If we’re going to save Farworld, we might as well start with her.”

  He slowly rose to his hands and knees and set his staff aside—knowing it would only slow him down for what he had in mind. Somehow this time, the idea of crawling didn’t bother him as much as it had in the past. Then, because he knew he’d probably back out if he gave it anymore thought, he squeezed Kyja’s hand, whispered, “Good luck,” and burst up out of the grass, screaming as loudly as he could.

  For a moment, the Fallen Ones seemed frozen by Marcus’s unexpected appearance. They watched as he raced toward them with an awkward-yet-speedy lurching crawl, shouting at the top of his lungs.

  The Summoner turned, still clutching Dew’s cage in its long, black talons. For a moment Marcus locked eyes with the huge, winged serpent, and his blood froze. What was he doing here? The Dark Circle was invincible. The world darkened around him, and he felt his lungs constrict. Despair filled his heart, and he started to raise his hands in surrender. The Summoner’s eyes gleamed with triumph.

  “Don’t give up,” a voice whispered from behind him. Marcus tried to turn, but his eyes were locked on the Summoner’s.

  “You’re stronger than them,” the voice called again, and it was as if a warm summer breeze blew across the back of his neck, loosing the Summoner’s grip on his mind. “Don’t let it scare you.”

  All at once Marcus remembered where he was and what he was doing. He recalled Kyja’s words to him in the desert. By ourselves maybe we aren’t much. But together . . .

  He could still feel the dark creature trying to steal away his will, but now he steeled himself against it. Slowly he clenched his raised hands into fists. Pumping them over his head, he gave his best war whoop. “Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo!” and forced his gaze away.

  “Get him,” the Summoner bellowed. Flinging Dew’s cage aside, the creature sp
read its long, bony wings and rose into the air.

  Instantly Marcus cut to the right. The army of creatures—spurred to action by the call of their master—surged toward him. Despite the fear that tried to suck the energy from his arms and legs, Marcus charged forward.

  At the front of the pack, the blood-thirsty, eight-legged dogs bounded toward Marcus, barking and snapping, white foam dripping from their mouths. A pair of two-headed snakes rushed close behind. As they slithered toward him, Marcus could hear them hissing, “Marcus-s-s-s, Marcus-s-s-s.”

  From the corner of his eye, he saw a figure in a dark robe raise its forked staff. A flash of blue lightning barely sailed over his head. Marcus put on a burst of speed, scrambling for all he was worth, but suddenly a long-legged spider rose up out of the ground. Its oozing fangs gaped open as it reared in front of him.

  Marcus tried to turn, but he slipped in the wet grass and tumbled head over heels. The dogs doubled their pace. As one, they launched themselves in the air. Marcus ducked away from their gnashing teeth, but it was too late. Behind him the spider reached out to spear him with one of its long, hairy legs.

  Somewhere nearby, the Summoner howled in victory.

  Chapter 60

  The Plan

  ow!” Marcus shouted.

  Kyja popped out of the grass just in time to see the spider, dogs, and snakes launch themselves at Marcus. For a moment she was afraid she’d miscalculated. Why had he waited so long to shout? She closed her eyes, found Marcus in the between world, and pushed with all her might. Just as the dogs’ teeth clamped viciously shut, Marcus disappeared from view.

  Kyja burst from her hiding place. Ducking her head, she ran as hard as she could. Focused on the spot where Marcus had disappeared, none of the Fallen Ones noticed her as she raced silently through the knee-high grass, angling to the left away from the direction Marcus had gone.

  Flying low and behind her, Riph Raph counted just loudly enough for her to hear. “One . . . two . . . three . . .”

  In the distance, she could see Dew’s cage lying abandoned on its side, partially imbedded in the dirt. She couldn’t see whether Dew was moving or not.

  To her right, a Thrathkin S’Bae wheeled around. “There!” it shrieked, pointing its staff in her direction.

  Overhead, the Summoner’s howl of victory turned to rage. It thrust its diamond-shaped head toward Kyja. All around her, rocks appeared, whistling out of the sky and punching deep craters into the wet ground.

  “Turn!” Riph Raph called. Kyja cut to her right just as a rock bigger than she was tore a hole in the grass at her feet.

  With a high-pitched whine, three bristly black creatures, almost all teeth, cut through the grass. Kyja accelerated, but the creatures were too fast. They closed in on her, tearing a ragged path in the ground.

  “Fifteen!” Riph Raph counted. He flew toward the speeding creatures and launched a ball of blue flame.

  “E-e-e-e-e,” squealed the lead creature as Riph Raph’s flame struck home. It buried its burning body in the wet dirt, forcing the two behind it to go wide.

  “Eighteen,” Riph Raph shouted.

  Kyja dipped her head and ran for all she was worth as the two creatures raced toward her.

  “Nineteen!”

  She could hear the beasts right behind her. The ground shook beneath her feet, but she didn’t dare look back. Something tugged at the hem of her robe, and she stumbled.

  “Twenty!”

  “Where is he?” screamed Riph Raph as the bristled creatures pulled Kyja down.

  * * *

  “Nineteen,” Marcus counted, gasping for breath. He scrambled across a rain-wet Chicago street up onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing glittering shards of a broken bottle. It was night, and for the moment, at least, the street was empty.

  “Twenty.”

  He closed his eyes and looked for the golden ropes attached to Kyja and Riph Raph. For a terrible second he didn’t think they were going to be there. It’d never taken this long before. But then they were there, hanging, just as they always did, in the gray between-place.

  He tugged with all his strength, and Kyja and Riph Raph appeared at his side.

  “That was too close!” Riph Raph shouted. He had come through as a chameleon again this time, and his bulging eyes searched two directions at once.

  Marcus stared with horror at the shredded hem of Kyja’s robe as she got up from the wet sidewalk.

  “Are you—” he began, but Kyja cut him off with a wave of her hand.

  “I’m fine,” she puffed. “We have to go back before they catch on. Are you ready?”

  “Yeah.” Marcus’s chest was burning from his efforts in Farworld and the distance he’d covered on Earth since Kyja sent him over. But Kyja was right. The only way the plan would work was by keeping the Summoner and his army off-guard.

  Kyja closed her eyes, and instantly Marcus felt the stomach-churning sensation as she pushed herself back to Farworld, taking him and Riph Raph with her.

  As soon as Marcus felt the damp ground of Farworld under his knees, he started scrambling again. He didn’t look back, but he knew that behind him, Kyja and Riph Raph had hidden themselves below the top of the grass.

  The plan worked perfectly. Glancing to his right, he saw the confused Fallen Ones still nosing around the spot where Kyja had disappeared. A few of them had gone back to where Marcus had disappeared. But none of them were looking in the direction where Marcus was now.

  By hurrying as far up the street as he could after jumping to Earth, Marcus had changed the location he pulled Kyja and Riph Raph to by almost a hundred yards. So when Kyja sent them back to Farworld, they were also nearly a hundred yards away.

  He checked the air for the Summoner, but the winged creature was nowhere in sight. There was a clear path between himself and Dew’s cage. He made a beeline for it and skidded to a halt in front

  of her. Morning Dew looked up with big, scared eyes.

  “Help me,” she cried, clutching at the cold bars. Marcus examined the cage. Just as he expected, it was locked. If only he had the time, he might be able to figure out how to unlock it with magic. But already the Dark Circle’s army was beginning to spread out. It wouldn’t be long before they discovered what he was up to.

  “You’re going to be all right,” Marcus said as Dew reached between the bars and touched his hand with her small, cold fingers. “As soon as I get you out of this cage,” Marcus said, “return to the city. Don’t stop, and don’t look back.”

  Dew nodded. “Thank you,” she said.

  Marcus wrapped his hands around the thick bars of the cage. They felt nasty and frigid in his grip.

  This was the last unsure part of the plan. Other than Marcus and Riph Raph, Kyja didn’t know how to send living things to Earth or back to Farworld. But objects had come across. The money, the trill stones, and the picture of Elder Ephraim had all made the jump. If he could manage to take the cage with him on the jump to Earth—and if Morning Dew stayed in Farworld—she would be free. They were big ifs: neither Marcus nor Kyja knew if he could take the cage across or how elementals might react to the jump. But it was too late to worry about that now.

  As soon as he grabbed hold of the cage, he felt Kyja push. At first he didn’t think he was going to be able to hang on. The cage twisted and bucked in his grip, resisting his efforts to take it with him. Marcus landed in the center of the street. Beside him, the oversized bird cage clanged to the asphalt, making a loud racket.

  “Keep it down out there!” someone shouted.

  Marcus checked the cage. It was empty.

  “Yes,” he said almost silently, pumping his fist in the air. Other than the taillights of a car in the distance, the street was empty. Closing his eyes, he reached out to take hold of the ropes to pull Kyja and Riph Raph to Earth.

  But before he could pull them, something slammed against the back of his head, and he collapsed to the street, unconscious.

  Chapter 61

 
Strange Weather

  Kyja peered above the top of the grass. As Marcus grabbed the bars of the cage, she held her breath. When he’d told her his idea, she’d known it was a good one. The plan could work, had to work. But what if the cage wouldn’t jump? Worse, what if Marcus couldn’t make the jump while he was holding it?

  Would he be willing to let go? To give it all up?

  Closing her eyes, Kyja saw Marcus’s other half hanging limply in the gray nothingness between here and Ert. His lifeless body shook and trembled in the between world. Please work, she whispered in her mind as she pushed. Doubling her effort, she shoved with all her strength, and Marcus’s body disappeared.

  When she opened her eyes, the cage was gone, and Dew was free. Like a shot, the water elemental raced for the walls of Water Keep. She was inside before the Fallen Ones even knew she was gone.

  A surge of joy welled up in Kyja’s chest. They’d done it!

  “She made it.” Kyja breathed a sigh of relief. As she turned toward Riph Raph, sharp, black claws closed around her waist, and an icy voice growled, “The game is over.”

  The claws yanked Kyja around, and she found herself staring into the cold, dead eyes of the Summoner.

  “Where is-s-s he?” the serpent hissed, lifting her off the ground. At its touch, Kyja felt her link to Marcus instantly vanish.

  She tried to swallow, but her throat was locked. Even if she’d wanted to speak, she couldn’t have. Her body went slack with fear. As the terrible creature pulled her close, she could smell the rotten-meat stink of its foul breath.

  Riph Raph lay crumpled on the ground, unmoving, his eyes closed.

  “Your lizard is dead,” the Summoner said, squeezing her until she felt like she was going to explode. “Give me the boy, and I’ll let you live.”

  Kyja found her voice. “No,” she squeaked.

  The talons bit into her sides like teeth, and the Summoner forced her to look into its eyes. Mind-numbing cold filled her body as the serpent’s dark pupils swirled before her. She struggled to turn away, but couldn’t move.