Land Keep

by J. Scott Savage

  Taking a deep breath, Kyja made a fist, raised her arm, and pounded on the left door. Instantly a booming voice answered.

  “Who wishes to enter Land Keep?”

  Kyja smirked at Marcus and answered, “Kyja, Marcus, and Riph Raph.”

  “What do you seek?” the voice echoed off the tunnel walls.

  Kyja glanced back at Marcus and mouthed, “Land elementals?”

  Marcus gave a quick bob of his head.

  “We seek to meet with the land elementals,” she answered. When there was no response, she added, “We’re trying to save Farworld from the Dark Circle.”

  “You may not enter,” the voice said.

  “What?” Marcus barked. “That’s—ruff—crazy! What do you mean we can’t enter?”

  Kyja frowned and put a finger to her lips. “I’m sorry to bother you. I’m sure you’re really busy, and all that. But if we could just take a minute or two of your time, we’d really appreciate it.”

  “What do you seek?” the voice repeated.

  Kyja raised her hands in a what-now? gesture.

  Marcus coughed to clear his voice. “We seek to meet with the land elementals.”

  There was no response.

  “To get, um, their help in opening a drift,” he added.

  “You may not enter,” the voice said.

  “Why not?” Kyja asked. But the voice didn’t answer.

  “Maybe it’s some kind of puzzle,” Marcus said. “What would you come to Land Keep to seek?”

  “Land magic?” Kyja suggested.

  “Great idea!” Marcus said. “We come seeking land magic.”

  “You may not enter.”

  “This is—bark—stupid,” Marcus said.

  “We come seeking tasty fish,” Riph Raph tried.

  “You may not enter.”

  “We come seeking help?” Kyja said.

  “You may not enter.”

  It’s like we’re stuck in some kind of loop, Marcus thought. For the next ten minutes, they tried answering everything they could think of. Safety, protection, help, assistance, directions, training, food, the way to open the door. All of their tries resulted in the same response. It was maddening, and time was running out on his dog charm. Marcus began to grow desperate with each new failure. Were the harbingers nearby waiting for him to turn back to a human so they could attack?

  “There has to be something we’re missing,” Kyja said as she and Marcus huddled a few feet from the door.

  “But what?” he asked. Both looked back at the entrance.

  “If only there were some kind of instructions,” Kyja said.

  “That would kind of defeat the—bark—purpose of the secret, wouldn’t it?”

  “But why have a secret at all?” Kyja slapped her palm against the cold floor. “None of this makes sense. Why have a hidden staircase if the harbingers bring everyone who enters the swamp here anyway? And why have a doorway into Land Keep at all if the harbingers won’t let anyone go through it? There has to be something obvious. Something we’re missing.”

  “I don’t—” Marcus jerked his head around and looked back into the tunnel.

  “What is it?” Kyja asked following his gaze.

  “I’m not sure,” Marcus said. “I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. But when I looked, there was nothing.”

  He sniffed the air. There was no smell, and yet . . . Again he thought he saw movement. But when he turned, the hallway was empty. “Maybe we’d better go back.”

  “Okay.” Kyja nodded. “We can try again later, after the charm has a chance to recharge.”

  Marcus took a step then yipped in fear. His body tingled all over, and suddenly the harbingers started to reappear, blinking in and out like the picture on a bad television. “It’s too late!” he shouted. “I’m changing back.”

  “Run!” Kyja screamed. He’d never make it. He wasn’t sure the harbingers could see him yet, but they seemed to sense something. There were at least three fading in and out of view with each tremor of his body. But more were coming down the hallway toward them.

  “We’ve got—arf—to get in that door,” he cried as his body began to shudder.

  “Let us in! Please.” Kyja pounded on the door. “You have to help us.”

  “What do you seek?” The voice was exactly the same, as if something terrible wasn’t about to happen just outside the door.

  “What do you want me to say?” Kyja screamed at the door, pounding her hands against its relentless surface. “You’re all a bunch of fakes with your pictures and maps and stars. You pretend that you care, but you don’t.”

  Marcus fell onto his side, his legs kicking and his body shivering uncontrollably. More harbingers were coming, staying in focus longer and looking in his direction.

  Pictures, he thought. The answer has to have something to do with the pictures. They reminded him of the kinds of things you saw in museums and books. The kinds of things you saw in—

  He had it. The kinds of things you saw in school! That’s what the pictures and maps reminded him of. They reminded him of school. And why did you go to school?

  “To learn!” he shouted. “We’re here to learn.”

  At once, the stone doors groaned and began to swing inward. Dust swirled about the entrance, as though the doors hadn’t been opened in hundreds of years. At the same time, Marcus’s body gave one last convulsive heave, and he was human again.

  As one, the harbingers turned toward him, their teeth clacking in unison. “Kill, kill, kill.”

  “No.” Marcus raised his staff to try and block the falling claws, and something grabbed him from behind.

  “Come on,” Kyja sobbed. “Get through the door.”

  Marcus pushed his feet against the stone floor as Kyja tugged at him. A razor-sharp talon swung toward his neck as Kyja gave a hard tug. The claw struck, and for a moment he thought it had imbedded itself in his neck. Then the ribbon dropped to the floor—sliced as cleanly as if it had been cut with a pair of scissors—and he was rolling through the doorway.

  Chapter 23

  Knowledge

  Even after the doors had closed, Kyja and Marcus lay on the ground, panting and staring at the entrance—waiting for the harbingers to find a way through. It wasn’t until several minutes had passed, and they realized they were really safe, that they turned and saw what was behind them.

  “A tree,” Kyja said, her voice filled with wonder.

  “A supercomputer,” Marcus said at the same time.

  They looked at one another and then turned again to gape up at the majestic edifice in front of them. At the center of the room, two planes of silver-tinted glass as wide as city streets spiraled about each other, rising into the air like great, twin staircases that rose so high Kyja couldn’t see the top. Starting about fifty feet up, ramps of the same silvery substance arched out from the central pillar, splitting and re-splitting into walkways—the smallest of which looked barely wide enough for two people to stand side by side. They really did seem like branches of an enormous glass tree, even more so because each branch ended in what appeared to be thick bunches of golden leaves.

  Beneath the tree, sparks of yellow and blue light raced across the gleaming black floor, curved up the spirals like shooting stars, and flowed out onto the branches until they disappeared into one group of leaves or another.

  “It’s like electricity or data or something,” Marcus whispered, watching the sparks flow up the tree.

  Having seen Water Keep, with its graceful floating towers and fountains, Kyja had expected Land Keep to be similar. But this didn’t look like a city at all. Unlike the buildings of the water elementals, which were constantly in motion, seemingly about to change with the whim of every wave, this had a feeling of permanence—as if it had grown over thousands of years instead of being built at all.

  She searched the immense space for some sign of houses, but the tree seemed to be the only structure. Was it a city, then? Was this w
here the land elementals lived? Other than the lights, she couldn’t see anything moving along any of the walkways.

  “Where is everyone?” Marcus asked, echoing her thoughts.

  “Look up there.” Riph Raph pointed his tail at something bright and glittering floating down from the branches of the tree. At first Kyja thought it was one of the leaves, but as it came closer, she realized it was a cloud of shiny, gold particles.

  “It looks like fairy dust,” Marcus said under his breath.

  The cloud stopped a few feet in front of them. Rotating slowly in the air, the particles swirled in a pattern that looked a little like a shimmering, tilted, figure eight.

  “What information may I help you locate?” asked a tinkling voice.

  “Are you a land elemental?” Marcus asked.

  The cloud flashed briefly. “I am a knowledge illuminator. What information may I help you locate?”

  Remembering their experience at the door, Kyja wondered if this was another trick. Choosing her words carefully, she said, “I’d like to find information about the location of the land elementals, please.”

  The cloud flashed again, and Kyja and Marcus found themselves gliding toward the base of the tree. “Whoaaaa!” Marcus called, holding out his arms. “It’s like one of those moving walkways they have at the airport.”

  Kyja didn’t know what a moving walkway was, but something seemed to push them forward, or maybe the ground itself was moving. As they reached the tree and began to ascend one of the two spirals, air blew past her face, but there was no other sense of movement—none of the friction she would expect to feel sliding across the surface of the ramp, and no sign that the floor was moving. It was a little like flying, except that her feet were still touching the floor. Whatever it was, her immunity to magic didn’t seem to affect it.

  “Look at me,” Marcus said, turning sideways and holding out one arm. “I’m surfing.”

  Kyja didn’t know what surfing was either, but she smiled a little, allowing herself to enjoy the ride as they circled around and around. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

  “Not scared of heights, are you?” Marcus asked as, about a third of the way up the tree, they glided off the main ramp and onto one of the narrower walkways.

  She was scared of heights, and looking down at the black floor far below—with no barriers between her and a fall of at least a hundred feet—made her step back from the edge of the walkway. A moment later, they slid onto a flat, round platform and came to a stop. Lying on a dais at the center of the platform was one of the golden leaves. It was much bigger and thicker than it had looked from below. In fact, now that she was up close, it looked more like a stack of leaves. A stack of thin flat leaves pressed together like—

  “It’s a book,” she said, lifting up the cover. She looked up at the tree and suddenly felt a little woozy. How many leaves were there? On this platform alone there had to be at least several thousand. And on the entire tree? Millions—maybe hundreds of millions. Hundreds of millions of golden leaves, and each one a book?

  “This is a library, isn’t it? This whole thing is a giant library.”

  The golden cloud flashed. “This is Land Keep, the repository of all knowledge.”

  All knowledge. Kyja’s head spun. She’d seen libraries, of course. The tower in Terra ne Staric had the best library in all of Westland. But compared to this, it was nothing.

  “Look at this,” Marcus said, pointing at the first page of the book. “It says that Land Keep was created by the land elementals as a way to share everything they’d learned with the rest of the world.”

  Kyja looked where Marcus was pointing and read along. There was a great deal of information on how every new piece of data was collected, gathered, and catalogued to be shared with anyone seeking knowledge. Turning the pages, she saw several diagrams of how the library was laid out.

  “The flashes of light,” Kyja said. “That’s information being fed directly into the books. Everything new that happens is updated immediately. It comes right from the land itself, from the plants, and animals, and—”

  “This doesn’t make sense,” Marcus said, flipping the page. “Isn’t that the staircase you came down?” he jabbed a diagram with his finger, and the image suddenly came to life. A miniature spiral staircase rose from the page carrying people down to the tunnel below, the same way Marcus and Kyja were carried up in the tree.

  “Where’s the muddy pit?” Kyja asked. She turned the page, erasing the staircase, and another image appeared. It showed a group of fairies leading people down the tunnel and into Land Keep. In the picture, the open area which now housed all the people captured from the swamp was filled with men and women, boys and girls. The room had beautiful gardens and flowing streams. Everyone was reading and studying from the big, gold books.

  Marcus pointed to the caption under the picture. “This says harbingers are little fairy creatures. That’s a lie! Harbingers look nothing like that.”

  “Is the book wrong?” Kyja asked the knowledge illuminator. “Or did the harbingers turn into monsters somehow?”

  The cloud flashed, and the pages flipped to the back of the book.

  Marcus scanned the page. “They didn’t change on their own. The Dark Circle changed them. According to this, the Dark Circle corrupted the harbingers, blasted the exit tunnel, and filled the pit with mud over a thousand years ago. By turning the harbingers into monsters, they made sure people would stay out of the swamp.”

  “They didn’t want anyone to enter the library,” Kyja said.

  Marcus turned to the last page. “The Keepers of the Balance discovered the harbingers two hundred years ago and turned the library into a prison.”

  “Why would the land elementals allow that?” Kyja turned to the knowledge illuminator. “And where is everyone else?”

  “There are no others seeking knowledge at this time,” the cloud answered.

  “No one?” Marcus said. “This is kind of creepy, like walking through a closed amusement park.”

  “When was the last time someone came seeking knowledge?” Kyja asked.

  “Before yourselves, the last knowledge seeker arrived one thousand twenty years, seven months, six days, and two hours ago.”

  Marcus whistled. “Holy cow!”

  “But what about the land elementals?” Kyja asked. “They must show up to make sure everything’s running all right.”

  The glowing cloud blinked off and on, blinked again, and a third time. At last the knowledge illuminator said. “The record of the last land elementals in Land Keep dates three thousand, six hundred seventy-seven years, three months, twelve days, and nineteen hours ago. There have been no land elementals here since that time.”

  Chapter 24

  The Doors of Eternity

  That can’t be!” Kyja said. “Yeah, what do you mean?” Marcus demanded of the cloud, slamming the book closed. “Where did they go?”

  “I’m sorry. That information is not accessible.”

  “Are you saying the information isn’t somewhere in one of these books?” Kyja asked. “Or that you won’t show us where it is?”

  The knowledge illuminator flashed. “I am unable to locate the information you requested within my base of knowledge.”

  “Sounds slippery to me,” Riph Raph said.

  “Does it matter?” Marcus looked at the millions of books spread around them. “Even if it is here, we could search for years and not find the right book on our own.”

  “Is there any kind of index?” Kyja asked the cloud. “A place we could look up what’s in all of these books?”

  “I am a knowledge illuminator. That is my function,” the cloud said. “What information do you seek?”

  Marcus rolled his eyes. This was going nowhere fast.

  Apparently Kyja wasn’t ready to give up. “Are there other knowledge illuminators besides you?”

  “There are as many knowledge illuminators as are needed to serve
the seekers of knowledge,” the cloud said.

  “Do any of the others have access you don’t? Is it possible one of them could tell us where the land elementals went?”

  “All knowledge illuminators share the same knowledge base.”

  Marcus rubbed a hand across his forehead; it came away damp with sweat. He was starting to run a fever. “We have to find a way out of here,” he said to Kyja. “I’ve got to get back to Earth soon, and you look even more tired than I feel.”

  “How do we get out of Land Keep?” Kyja asked.

  “There are three exits from Land Keep,” the cloud said. “The first is the doorway through which you entered.”

  “No thanks,” Marcus said.

  “What about the second?” Kyja asked.

  “The second exit is through the doors of eternity.”

  “That sounds interesting,” Marcus said. Suddenly an idea occurred to him. “When the last land elementals left, which exit did they take?”

  He was sure that information would be “inaccessible” as well. But the cloud said, “The last land elementals left through the doors of eternity.”

  “Perfect!” Marcus punched a fist in the air. “Take us there.”

  Instantly, the book they’d been reading flew back to join the others, and they were whisked backed down the narrow walkway.

  “Where do the doors of eternity lead?” Kyja asked, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead.

  “I’m sorry,” the cloud answered. “That information is inaccessible.”

  “Figures,” Marcus said. “But who cares where the door goes as long as it gets us to the land elementals? I say we try it.”

  Kyja ran the tip of her tongue across her lips. “I don’t know. The doors of eternity sounds sort of ominous.”

  “Marcus wants to see what’s through the doors,” Riph Raph said. “How about he goes first, and comes back and tells us how eternity was?”

  “I’m not saying any of us should go alone,” Kyja said. “I’m just saying we might want to use a little caution.”

  The walkway they were on joined with the main spiral, and once more they glided up into the tree. Soon, they were so high that the view to the ground was completely blocked by walkways and leaves.