The Daykeeper's Grimoire

by Christy Raedeke

  Then it hits me: my Discovery Fantasy has come true. I have been discovered.

  Not by some talent agent or art critic, but by the universe. I gasp at the enormity of this thought, and the saying Be Careful What You Wish For comes immediately to mind. I finally accept the full weight of it: this is my path. And my future lies in a state of pure potential.

  I touch a cut on my wrist from the lava cave, already working hard to close itself up. We are wondrous beings, aren’t we?

  When we arrive at the castle, I go straight to the kitchen and give Mrs. Findlay a big hug. Then Mr. Papers hops up and I squeeze him probably harder than I should squeeze a 65-year-old monkey. He takes my earlobe in his fingers and rubs it a little. I make a promise to never leave him again.

  I want to go straight to my room and see if I have email from Amisi and Chantrea and check what the latest news is on the event, but Mrs. Findlay motions to the table, laid out with sticky buns and eggs and thick-cut bacon, and says, “Eat, Mac Firelands, eat!” Mr. Papers scoots up right beside me on the bench and Mrs. Findlay doesn’t even get mad.

  “We missed you, little one,” Mrs. Findlay says.

  “I missed you guys, too,” I say. “I mean, it was so great to hang out with Justine and all, but I’m really happy to be back.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Dad says as he pats my hand.

  “So where are Tenzo and Uncle Li?” I ask.

  “Oh, they were both on the train with us to Edinburgh,” Mom answers. “We parted ways at the airport.”

  I think I must have misheard. “Wait, you mean Tenzo is gone, not Uncle Li?”

  “Yes, Li is gone; he had some sort of emergency and had to leave,” Dad says.

  I can’t hide the fact that I’m stunned by this news.

  “I think he left a note in your room,” Dad adds.

  “But where did he go?” I ask, my voice cracking.

  “I’m not sure,” Mom says, looking over at Dad. “Angus, did he tell you?”

  Dad shakes his head. “No, he just said an international client of his had an issue and needed him right away.”

  I finish breakfast quickly so I can go see the note for myself.

  Searching my room turns up nothing but Tenzo’s business card with, “Well done! Call or email anytime, day or night. I am at your service,” written on the back in small, precise handwriting. I even look under the bed and in the bathroom and all through my desk drawers.

  Then Mr. Papers hops over to me holding the key to the chamber. Of course! Uncle Li would leave his note in the chamber so my parents could not find it.

  I put Mr. Papers on my shoulder and slide open the panel. It seems like months since I was last here, so much has happened. As soon as I turn on the light, I see an envelope sitting on the side table. I pick it up and am immediately filled with a feeling of dread.

  I sit down on the fainting couch, and pull the letter from the envelope.

  Dear Caity,

  I suppose you are wondering why I left, and why I have taken the Sanskrit books. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to explain. I know you will feel gravely betrayed, and rightly so. But nothing is as it seems. The Way of Heaven plays no favorites; it is always on the side of the good.

  At this time, all I can say is that each one of us has our own path to walk, and however dark it may seem, this is the way of my path. I am deeply sorry that it interferes with yours.

  Always, Uncle Li

  He’s left and taken the books?

  I reread it three times looking for something new each time; it’s just not sinking in that Uncle Li would steal the Sanskrit books from me! What’s this garbage about “the way of heaven plays no favorites”? If he were on the side of the good he’d be here now, with the books, helping me figure all this out! Why would a close family friend, a man I have known all my life, someone who promised to help me and protect me, do this?

  I lie on the fainting couch for a long time trying to think it all through, going over every step we made together, but nothing leads me to believe he would do this. What could be so important that it could make him betray me? And where would he go? Not back to his home in the states, or I could easily find him. Maybe back to his family in Shanghai? He has clients all over the world. He could be anywhere.

  I don’t realize I’m even crying until Mr. Papers’ small hand wipes away a tear. I scratch him behind the ears and say, “Where would he go?”

  Immediately, Mr. Papers goes to my desk and gets a piece of origami paper that he folds into the shape of a cave. Inside of it he puts my rabbit-ear key.

  “Oh my god, you’re right! Of course. He’s gone back to the Dunhuang Caves, the archives where this all began!”

  Hearing some commotion outside, I look out and see Thomas raking the gravel in the big circular drive. I’m so relieved to see that he is okay and run downstairs to talk to him.

  “You’re okay!” I say as I give him a huge hug.

  “Aye,” he says, looking around to make sure we are alone. “Now I am.”

  “What happened? How did Donald end up with us?”

  “Where is he now, lassie? Did he hurt you at all?”

  “No, we were able to keep him down. But what did he do to you?”

  He shakes his head. “Somehow Donald found out that I was going with you. After we had that conversation in the morning, I went about my day. Was out in the shed getting my clippers when suddenly I felt a pain in my shoulder. That’s the last thing I remember.”

  I gasp. “Did he shoot you?”

  “Only with a needle. Drugged me and left me there on the floor of the shed, then locked it. I didn’t come to until the next day.”

  Donald got what was coming to him on Easter Island.

  “And no one came looking for you?” I ask.

  “Nae, ’cause I’d told Mrs. Findlay and your folks that I was going to Edinburgh. No one even noticed I was gone. ’Twas not ’till I had the mind to turn off the fuses that Mrs. Findlay came to the shed.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “That I’d had too much whisky and slept there. By the time I got out, Alex was well on his way to meet up with you. I couldn’t have made the train or the flight to Easter Island.”

  “I think Donald tipped off the Fraternitas to where I was,” I tell him as I take a seat on a little stone bench. My whole body is numb and my brain is buzzing. “But you are not going to believe what else …”

  “What?”

  “Uncle Li. He betrayed us too,” I say. “He ran off with those old Sanskrit books.”

  Thomas shouts, “Egad!” He uses his hands to guide his body down to the bench like a blind person.

  “I’m so sorry I got him involved,” I say, putting my face in my hands. “It’s all my fault for being too scared to do this alone, but I trusted him! I mean, I’ve known him all my life …”

  “Do you think he’s working with Donald?” Thomas asks, looking out in the distance.

  “What? I hadn’t thought … Why do you think that?”

  “What’s been bothering me is how Donald would know that Li could read ancient Sanskrit, back when he locked you in.”

  My head starts to hurt like I’m chewing on tinfoil.

  “I should’ve suspected something—he was so cagey about what was in the books.

  He brushes the thought away with his hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out,” he says, without enough confidence to make me believe him.

  We sit silently for a few moments, both trying to make the pieces fit. I actually wish I could talk to Bolon right now.

  “Any idea where Li would go?” Thomas asks.

  “Mr. Papers thinks he’s gone to the Dunhuang Caves,” I reply. “To the archives.”

  Thomas tips his head back and looks at the sky. “Of course,” he says, “the archives.”

  We both turn toward the castle when we hear the sound of pebbles underfoot. Mom and Dad are walking toward us with a look I’ve never seen before—it’s like a terr
ifying mix of anger and sadness and horror. They must have found out. I am now their greatest disappointment.

  I brace myself for the worst as Mom sits next to me and puts her arm around me. “Caity honey,” she begins.

  I swallow hard.

  “We just got a call from San Francisco …” She stops and breaks down.

  “What?” I ask, now thinking the worst. “Is Justine okay?” I scream.

  “It’s not her, Caity. It’s the house,” Dad says, gently setting his hand on my shoulder. “It burned down last night. Honey, it’s … gone.”

  All I can manage to say is, “No, no, no, no, no!” before I can no longer talk.

  We’re all crying, even Thomas. He must know that the Fraternitas was behind it. After a few minutes Dad collects himself. “Mom and I have a lot of calls to make and a trip home to plan,” he says. “Do you want to come back to the office with us?”

  “I’ll be in a minute,” I say, forcing myself to breathe steadily.

  “We still have each other and that’s all that really matters,” Mom says, bending down to kiss the top of my head before turning to go back. She turns around and adds, “And this place.”

  Seeing them walk away, their heads hung, totally oblivious to why this was done, my shock and sadness turns to rage. I look at Thomas. His skin is the color of a heavy rain cloud.

  “They can’t take everything from me! We have to find Uncle Li and get what he’s stolen,” I say coldly. “We have to go to the Dunhuang Caves.”

  Thomas looks shocked. “Caity, I’m not sure—”

  “You know what today is?” I ask, interrupting him.

  “One Manik,” he replies.

  “Manik, the daylord of balancing freedom with security.”

  “And One, the pulse of force and possibility,” he adds.

  “I know I have to go to the Dunhuang Caves,” I say.

  “Aye,” he says, nodding his head and looking down as if he knows I’ll do it no matter what he says. And I will.

  A warm breeze blows by, carrying the scent of saltwater and grass. The loveliness of the smell makes the rage I’m feeling inside even uglier.

  Uncle Li is one of them.

  About the Author

  Christy Raedeke’s love of mysticism and thirst for ancient knowledge has led her around the world—trekking in the Himalayas, floating down the Ganges, cathedral hopping in Europe, studying feng shui in Kuala Lumpur, cloistering at a hermitage in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and looking for shaman among the Maya ruins of the Yucatan and Chiapas. She and her husband Scott currently live in Oregon with their young children.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title_Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Symbols

  About_the_Author