I turned and helped Xavyr climb aboard. “Are you okay?”
“Never better.” He flashed me a grin, and I realized that he’d actually had fun wrestling a giant lake monster. Kellan would have acted the same way. Kellan. We were so close. Every cell of my being hummed with it. Please let him be okay, I whispered in my head, over and over.
The air shimmered and a huge structure came into view right before us. One moment all I saw was horizon, and the next we were deposited at the feet of a palatial dwelling that sat directly on the water. Despite a lack of land beneath it, the building didn’t rock on the water in the least. I seriously doubted it was moored to the floor of the lake, however deep down that was. Here in the Timekeeper’s realm, laws of physics weren’t a thing.
It was solid white marble, so pure it was nearly blinding. All one story, though quite large, sprawling over the water like a giant lily pad. Around the perimeter of the structure a tangle of white roses hung unanchored in the air. Not just the roses were white, but also the vines on which they grew and the enormous thorns that protruded from them. The thorns adorned not only the vines but spiked out from the centers of the flowers themselves. It was beautiful and oh so dangerous, classic Timekeeper. A greeting and a threat.
The monster deposited us right at the front and I realized that it was no accident that Xavyr had won the skirmish with it so easily. We were puppets here in the Timekeeper’s realm. Nothing happened without his consent. In a realm of raw creation, we were simply at the whim of his imagination.
The Ferryman tied the raft to a marble post at the entrance, which was a small and fairly unadorned arch and the only gap in the white rose forest. Xavyr was the first to step off onto the white stone, pausing for an instant as if wondering whether the whole thing was a mirage. I followed him, Sabin and Rorie right behind me. My fox had vanished. The Ferryman was last and he paused. I thought for a moment that he would stay with his raft, but then he followed.
“It’s been ages since I left my station,” he said as he joined us on the stone pathway.
I imagined what that would be like, decades upon decades, perhaps centuries upon centuries, always on a raft no more than four hundred feet square, ushering travelers back and forth to their destinations. It made me want to give the Ferryman a hug.
The path we walked led straight up to a set of huge round doors, also made of marble. A slightly pitched roof sat over the top of it. This seemed the only entrance in or out. No windows were to be seen. It was all clean lines and simple elegance except for the carved pillars here and there that supported the roof. These depicted all sorts of creatures and follies, none of which looked pleasant. I caught a glimpse of a screaming child and a demon cutting the head off of a deer and I turned away with a shiver.
As we approached, the doors opened soundlessly, rotating inwards. Though no hinges could be seen, they pivoted from the apex of the circle so that when fully open they looked like two eyes bisected down the middle.
The room that greeted us on the other side was blood red from top to bottom. The lush carpet on the floor was red, the silk-papered walls were red, the mosaic ceiling also red. Several velvet chairs and a loveseat dotted the room, also red, including the legs. In the far corner, a lacquered red grand piano was being played by a small, impish creature that was crimson from its bare toes to the curls and horns that crowned its head.
We continued on, through the large red room to a door on the opposite end. Xavyr reached it first and hauled it open, whereupon we all stopped and stared.
A maze of stone staircases hung before us in a dim room lit with floating lanterns. They criss-crossed the space, some rising up further than my eyes could follow, some spiraling around, some going up and then down and then up again. They moved, too, slowly spinning in place and passing each other like lazy Sunday drivers. There was no floor, just a black chasm before our feet. On the opposite side of the huge room I could see another door, but I had no idea how to reach it.
I doubted the obvious would work, but I tried anyway. I summoned the Call, with the door on the other side of the room as my target. As suspected, I got nothing in response. Seeing the look of concentration on Sabin’s face, I could tell she was trying, too. After several moments she groaned in frustration, her eyes narrowing as she watched the moving staircases.
“Follow me,” the Ferryman intoned, and he stepped onto one of the passing staircases.
We had to move quickly to all get on the same staircase. Xavyr was last, making it only by an impressive leap from the doorway of the red room. The staircase we stood on rose up, and the Ferryman climbed it calmly as if we weren’t suspended over a bottomless chasm. My boots scuffled more than once on the stone and I tried not to look down.
The staircase we rode swung away from the door on the opposite side and the Ferryman stepped off onto another passing set of steps. This one went down and then back up in a zigzag. By the time Rorie and Sabin had jumped over to it, it was a good ten feet below me. My stomach climbed into my throat and I jumped, forcing myself to keep my eyes open. Missing my landing meant plunging into the darkness below. I fell, hitting the stairs at an awkward angle. My ankle turned and I teetered on the edge of the stone stairs. Blackness called to me from below, an almost tangible force reaching up to suck at my feet.
As I started to topple off the edge, Xavyr landed next to me and grabbed my arm, and we hurried to catch up with the others. After a dozen steps down into the dark, the staircase rose again. It was dizzying. I kept my eyes on the Ferryman, his blue eyes glowing like a beacon. After several moves to different staircases, we approached the door we sought, and the Ferryman said, “Be ready!”
He hopped off into the doorway, followed by Rorie and Sabin. Xavyr and I jumped off together as the stairs abruptly shifted away from our landing spot. My heels hung off the edge of the doorway and I could feel gravity pulling me backward. Sabin grabbed my arm and pulled us inside.
“How did you do that?” I asked the Ferryman breathlessly.
“Finding doorways is my specialty,” he said with a shrug.
I turned my focus to what lay ahead. Before us stretched not so much a room as a landscape. No walls or ceiling could be seen. Not so much a floor either, as what expanded before our feet was a swirling universe, stars and colored clouds and flashes of lightning. Across the vast space rose rock formations, some red buttes like you might see in a desert, some black and molten like volcanic rock with spouts of red lava pouring from them as tea is poured from a pot. Overhead, the sky was a dull rust color studded with a single huge moon, blood red in color. Snow, or something that looked like snow, drifted down from the sky, pooling in certain spots. Forests of black flowers sprung up here and there, orchids and pitcher flowers and fly traps, things that grow in a witch’s garden, and adjacent to each of these there sprawled a white lion with small feathery wings folded against its sides.
Across the bizarre dreamscape, far in the distance, I saw a large throne and a figure sitting in it.
“Kellan,” I said, hoping it was him with every ounce of my being. I began to jog across the dreamscape, leaving colored footprints across the galaxy in my wake.
Whoever sat in the throne was some ways off, a quarter mile perhaps, but clearly framed by two large red rock formations. Snow swirled around me as I moved, and when I passed too close to one of the lions they roared a warning. As I drew closer, I was able to make out details of the person sitting on the great chair. Black hair, moon-pale skin. It was Kellan, I was sure of it. But where was the Timekeeper?
I reached the throne, which appeared to be made of huge dragonfly wings, silvery and rainbow iridescent. There were no courtiers, no attendants, only Kellan. He sat very tall in the chair and watched without emotion as we approached. I wanted to run to him, to crush him against me. My heart thrummed in my chest and relief rushed through me. He was alive. The Call had made me worry for nothing. He was here, and he seemed unharmed.
But something in his gaze made m
e pause. “Kellan,” I said breathlessly. “Are you okay?”
Kellan’s gaze swept over me and the others, resting for a moment on each of us. He cocked his head to the side as his pewter eyes met mine, as if perplexed.
“Kellan?” Sabin asked. Her voice shook.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my heart going still. “Where is the Timekeeper?”
The man that I loved smiled slightly, as if I was mad. “Do you not know in whose domain you travel? You seek the Timekeeper, and you have found him. I am the Timekeeper.”
Chapter Seventeen
My blood turned to ice as I regarded Kellan, or the being that looked like Kellan. I spoke carefully, though everything inside of me wanted to scream. “If you’re the Timekeeper, then where is Kellan?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said the creature with a laugh.
“Do you recognize me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“I recognize all beings,” said the thing in the dragonfly chair. “I see into every mind, watch your dreams, tip-toe in your shadow. I know all.”
“Well then, you can tell us where Kellan is,” said Rorie, who I hadn’t realized was standing directly to my right.
“I think this Kellan is a figment of your imagination.” The being smirked down at us. “I’m afraid you’ve traveled all this way for nothing.”
Rage, hot and molten, sparked through my veins. I felt the answering call of the Artifex in my core. “Only the Timekeeper would say such a twisted, bullshit line as that. What have you done with Kellan?”
“Ah, ah.” The creature wagged a finger back and forth at me. It smiled with Kellan’s perfect pink lips. “People only yell when they feel powerless.”
“I am far from powerless,” I growled. “And you will soon see that if you don’t quit messing around.” From within me, the Artifex surged, a wave of heat that took my breath away.
“You know, you really shouldn’t play with things you don’t understand,” the Kellan-thing said.
I forced myself to look deep into those familiar eyes. “Tell us where Kellan is. And tell us now.”
“You’re looking right at him,” said a voice behind me.
I spun, as did the others. Walking across the stars toward us, twirling its bronze scepter with dark crystals at each end, was the Timekeeper. At least, it looked like the Timekeeper. Ghost-pale skin, silver hair. Large, black eyes. Androgynous.
“I’m afraid,” said the Timekeeper in a musical voice, “That dear Kellan has gone quite mad.”
“What did you do to him?” I demanded.
The Timekeeper looked affronted. “What makes you think, dear Evryn, that I had anything to do with it? You’re the one who abandoned him down here.”
“I did not abandon him. You stabbed me and sent me to the realm of Death.”
“Which achieved exactly what you desired: a reunion with mommy dearest and the disarming of the Artifex.” The Timekeeper twirled its scepter and arched a pencil-thin brow.
“Disarming of the Artifex? Are you fucking kidding me?”
The Timekeeper shrugged. “The weapon that was before is no longer. It’s now entirely within your control.”
“You should have told me it would go into me.” I was so angry I was shaking. “That’s kind of an important detail. I wanted it completely destroyed, not transferred into a different vessel.”
Next to me, Rorie stiffened, and I could feel his eyes on me.
“The Artifex that was before is destroyed. What lives inside you is something different. Something evolved.”
I wanted to scream, to throw something. The Artifex flared in my chest. Xavyr stepped up next to me and squeezed my hand. He was right—I had to stay calm or things were going to get ugly.
“Did you really expect no trickery from me?” The Timekeeper asked with a smirk. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Fine then,” I said. “You got what you wanted. Now you’ve driven Kellan mad. But we’re here to take him back home. And you also kept something that belonged to me: one of the stag’s horns.”
“So, you want Kellan, the horn, and to get out of here scotch free. Is that right?”
“You’ve summed it up well,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. The Artifex was still simmering in my gut, but at the moment it remained in check.
“You’re just going to go out into the world, a ticking bomb waiting to go off?”
I froze. “What else am I supposed to do? I have to live with what you did to me.”
The Timekeeper smiled. “If you really loved Kellan and your fellow Hunters, not to mention having compassion for the rest of the known realms, you’d stay down here with me.”
“What, so I can be driven out of my mind as well? I don’t think so.”
“Heroes are the ones willing to make the big sacrifice, Evryn.” The Timekeeper put on a mock frown. “They do what has to be done. You can’t just waltz out there and endanger the rest of the beings that live outside of my realm. It’s awfully selfish, don’t you think?”
“It kind of has a point, Evr,” Sabin said.
“Of course you would say that,” I snapped. Rorie was staying strangely silent, especially considering he’d just found out I was the Artifex. I looked up at him. “What about you? I’m sure you’re with Sabin on this one.”
“No, I’m not,” Rorie said. “If the Timekeeper wants you to stay down here, there’s a reason for that, and we don’t want to find out what that reason is.”
I blinked up at him in surprise but he stared back impassively. I missed the jovial Rorie who smiled all the time.
“Evryn is not staying here,” Xavyr said, addressing the Timekeeper. “I am her protector, and I’m taking her out of this place. We’ll find another way to control the Artifex.”
“You really do have all the boys wrapped around your finger, don’t you?” The Timekeeper grinned at me wickedly. “Kellan might not be so happy about this new toy when—if—he comes out of his mind melt.”
“This is my bodyguard, you asshat,” I snarled. “And if you’re not going to stop us, we’re going now.”
“Why would I stop you?” The Timekeeper said. It did a little jig and twisted around, tossing its scepter into the air and catching it again. “I don’t really want you to stay with me. For one, you’re boring. But more importantly, I want the Artifex out in the realms to wreak havoc. It’s just as good as me being foot loose and fancy free, out there causing chaos and destruction. In essence, you’re the one who’s really become the Timekeeper, not Kellan.”
“I am the Timekeeper!” Kellan shrieked, his eyes wild.
Tears fogged my throat and burned in the corners of my eyes. The Timekeeper was right. If I were a stronger person, I’d stay here, safe in a prison where I couldn’t hurt anyone. But there had to be another way. A way to return Kellan to himself, and a way to keep me from going sonic.
“We’ll figure something out,” I said in a half whisper.
“Of course,” said the Timekeeper, “You’d better hope you can get out of here. What with that block on your Rai and all.”
I stared down at my wrist in horror to see that it had begun to glow a dull red. The Council had locked it again.
“Do not worry about traveling between realms, Evryn,” the Ferryman said in his deep voice. “I will handle that.”
“Well, time’s a wasting, you lot,” the Timekeeper said jovially. “Best be on your way.”
“You’re forgetting the horn,” I said.
“I most certainly am not,” the Timekeeper said. “It’s just that I have no intention of returning it to you. I found it, and it’s mine now.”
I clamped my jaw shut. Getting Kellan back was the important thing. Everything else could slide.
I walked up to the iridescent throne. “We’re leaving now, Kellan. It’s time to go.”
He looked down at me imperiously. “This is my domain. I shall not depart from it.”
Xavyr strode
past me toward Kellan, who shrunk back in his chair and tried to swat him away. With two quick stabbing motions near Kellan’s neck, he was unconscious.
“My, but you are handy,” the Timekeeper said with a low whistle.
Rorie walked over and slung Kellan over his shoulder. Sabin led the way, turning and walking back over the dream-like landscape. I was the last to go, though Xavyr and the Ferryman hovered a few feet away.
I looked at the Timekeeper. “Why did you make Soo Kai promise to bring you the Artifex if you knew that I would become the Artifex?”
The Timekeeper smiled. “Insurance, perhaps, in case it didn’t work out as I thought it might. After all, if it weren’t for the bit of stag’s horn in your chest, you wouldn’t still be alive.” It paused and grinned as I reflexively ran my hand over the shiny scar on my chest. “Or maybe our deal had a clause, and she has to provide me another favor if she can’t produce the Artifex. A favor of my choosing.”
My eyes widened. “What favor?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, now would we?” And the Timekeeper twirled its crystal-capped scepter in the air and laughed, a sound which felt like shiny new nails scraping across my skin.
I turned, feeling sick to my stomach, and followed the others. Lightning flashed beneath my feet and snow sprinkled down from above. We had Kellan, but he was so broken I didn’t know if he’d ever truly be Kellan again. And within me, the Artifex felt my anguish and it burned, slow and patient.
“So, what’s the plan?” Sabin asked when we made it back to the raft. She was looking at Kellan’s slack face from where he hung unceremoniously over Rorie’s shoulder and it seemed she might cry.
“I only know one person who might be able to reverse what’s happened to Kellan,” Xavyr said. “He’s a mage, and he lives in Xayl, the realm of the magic folk.”
“Can you get us there?” I asked the Ferryman.
The Ferryman snorted derisively. “There is no place to which I cannot travel.”
“Good to hear it,” I said.
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