Keeper of the Books (Keeper of the Books, Book 1)

by Jason D. Morrow

  “Justice.” Levi began pacing back and forth, tapping the barrel of his pistol against the brim of his hat. “Now, my fight is not with you, but you’ve fallen into this little situation on your own.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “You’re going to take me to Tel Haven,” Levi said. “On the way, you’re going to tell me everything there is to know about the world of Galamore. And you’re going to help me start my little investigation on how to find the man I’m looking for.”

  “I don’t like going into Tel Haven,” Vincent the Burglar said.

  “What are the better chances?” Levi asked. “Me putting a bullet through your heart right now, or you taking me to Tel Haven?”

  “Honestly? I would almost say the bullet to the heart.” Levi immediately lowered his gun and aimed it at Vincent’s chest. Vincent shut his eyes tightly and held up both of his hands. “No! No! I was just sayin’! I was just sayin’! I didn’t mean it!”

  “You’re dumber than I thought,” Levi said. “Your tongue will get you killed.”

  “It’s not my tongue I fear,” he answered.

  “What’ll it be?” Levi asked. “You gonna help me? Or you gonna die?”

  Vincent stared at him for a long moment. Maybe he was thinking about ways to escape, or perhaps even a way to kill Levi. But Levi was making it apparent that Vincent had very few options left.

  “I don’t wanna leave until sunup,” Vincent said.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because by the time we get to Tel Haven, the city will be at its busiest time. Lots of commotion.”

  “All right,” Levi said, “but I warn you, I’m a light sleeper, and I sleep with my finger on the trigger. If you so much as twitch in the middle of the night, I’ll blow your head clean off.”

  Vincent snarled at him. The man wouldn’t try anything. It didn’t seem that he had anything more than a knife and a rifle, which Levi would relieve him of in a moment.

  Levi felt that this was a pretty good start to his time in Galamore. By the next day, he would know all that he needed to know about the world to survive. Then, with any luck, he would have a lead on the whereabouts of Nathaniel Cole. And once he found him, he was going to kill him.

  Nate

  Autumn, 903 A.O.M.

  Smoke puffed out through the chimney softly and quietly, disturbing nothing and no one within the forest. The cabin that breathed the smoke almost seemed to blend with the woods around it, its brown logs and thatched roof barely recognizable from the orange and brown leaves that populated the trees behind it.

  Nate couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason he felt anxious. Sure, the entire Crimson Army was looking for them, and they hadn’t killed Ranger Devlin Mannix when they probably should have. The man was more than likely free of his bonds and off telling the other Rangers of Nate’s failure. Nate didn’t know how good their tracking skills would be, so there was always a chance that the soldiers were on their trail.

  Marum didn’t seem to think so. She would travel through creeks whenever she found them, trying to keep from leaving tracks, but Nate wasn’t convinced. When she thought it was safe enough she would go by the road which was filled with tracks that could have been left by anyone. Nate had done his fair share of throwing off bounty hunters and the like, and he approved of Marum’s method. Still, it was never a sure thing.

  He also didn’t like not knowing what or who awaited him within that log cabin. He didn’t doubt that the dwellers were friendly enough, but the problem was that Nate wasn’t friendly. Sure, he could feign friendliness anytime he needed to, but a perceptive man might quickly notice that Nate wasn’t possessed with the utmost integrity.

  Nate held tightly to the Ranger’s rifle in his hands. It was a fine piece of metal and wood, perfectly weighted from end to end, and Nate wondered how much money he could fetch for it. Quite a lot, he was sure. He figured he would hold on to it even though it felt silly to carry it when he already had two perfectly good firearms. He felt the same about the Ranger’s saber tucked away in a sheath on the saddle. He doubted the saber’s usefulness, but knew it might make for a good trade later.

  Their destination was a quaint homestead with a short wooden fence around it. Chickens populated the yard, pecking the ground for insects and seeds. Up on the hill a ways behind the house was a small barn and another fenced-in area with a horse that stood as still as a statue.

  Marum allowed their steed to slow as they came up to the house. She took a deep breath as she lifted a leg over the horse’s neck and slid to the ground.

  “It’s been many years since I’ve been here,” she said, seemingly to herself.

  “You sure your friends are still here?” Nate asked.

  “I doubt they have left,” she answered.

  Before Nate could reply, the front door to the cabin burst open and an older-looking gentleman came out excitedly.

  “Marum? Marum is that you?”

  “Alban!” Marum exclaimed.

  “By golly, it’s good to see you!” The man ran from the front porch, his arms outstretched and a wide smile across his face.

  The gray elf and man hugged each other tightly and Nate got the sense that this meeting was long overdue.

  Alban’s white hair stuck out in every direction. His clothes were loose on his body, his pants held up by a pair of ragged suspenders. He wore spectacles at the end of his long, slender nose and tilted his head forward to get a better look at Marum’s face.

  He held Marum out with both arms, staring at her with a look on his face that showed true worry. “You weren’t followed, were you?”

  “No,” she said. “We are safe.”

  “But they are after you,” he said. “No doubt they are after you.” The man’s eyes began to water and he immediately rubbed at them. “We had heard that they captured you. We hadn’t heard much more than that.” He swallowed. “You know I couldn’t have done anything…”

  “It’s all right,” Marum said.

  “Well,” Nate said as he slid off the side of the horse, “if you had taken the notion to do anything today, it would have been too late. Marum was scheduled to be executed this morning.”

  This was the first time Alban looked at Nate. “Are you speaking the truth?”

  He nodded. “There’s nothing truer.”

  Alban’s wet eyes were wide when he looked back at Marum. “I had no idea! On what charges did they capture you?”

  “That I am my brother’s sister,” she said. She motioned to Nate. “This man saved my life, Alban. I was wondering if the two of us could stay for a little while until we figured out our next move.”

  Alban’s eyes darted back to Nate. His bushy eyebrows fell down over his eyes, casting a disapproving shadow over them. “I don’t know this man. Who are you?”

  “The name’s Nathaniel Cole,” he answered.

  “Where do you come from, Nathaniel Cole?”

  “Texas.”

  Alban shook his head. “Never heard of it.”

  “I’m pretty new to Galamore myself.”

  “Nathaniel is new around here,” Marum said. “I don’t know much about him, but I know that I can trust him. He saved my life, Alban. The two of us will be here a couple of days at the most. You know I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t a matter of life and death.”

  “You know I don’t have a problem with you staying, Marum. It’s just…” Alban sighed again and moved past Marum to stand in front of Nate.

  Nate towered over him, but he wasn’t trying to intimidate the man. The thought of a hot meal and a sip of liquor sounded wonderful. He wasn’t about to do something that might steal away that prospect.

  “I’m gonna let you stay,” Alban said, “but you need to know that my daughter, Rachel, lives with me. She’s up at the barn right now.”

  “Okay,” Nate said, shifting his weight.

  “I will let you in on good faith that you will be a respectable houseguest.”

  Nate sw
allowed.

  “My daughter is very beautiful. If you so much as look at her in a way I don’t like, I will cut off your manhood and feed it to the pigs, do you understand?”

  Nate didn’t take too well to threats, but in the case of a man’s daughter, he supposed he understood. He decided to take the advice in stride. A slight grin formed at the edge of his mouth. “I’ll abide by whatever rules you’ve set in place.”

  Alban stared at Nate for a long while as if to study him or to make sure that the words Nate had said were the truth. Finally, the man smiled and slapped Nate on the shoulder. “You two must be hungry! I’ll prepare mutton stew!”

  As they walked toward the cabin, Nate’s eyes fell on the barn in the distance. It was a brave move, but he did it simply to remind himself to be extra respectful once he got inside. Nate was afraid of nobody, but he knew a father’s wrath when it came to his daughters.

  Rachel was every bit as beautiful as her father claimed, and when she walked into the cabin, Nate found himself stumbling upward from his seat at the table and taking off his hat out of respect. Rachel didn’t look at him at first, instead she screamed out her surprise and delight as she and Marum embraced tightly. Questions flew through the air so fast that Nate couldn’t really keep up with their talk. That and he didn’t much care for rehashing conversations. Still, he stood next to the table until Marum finally turned to him and told her his name.

  “He’s the one who saved my life,” Marum said.

  “How do you do, ma’am?”

  “I’ll take no ma’am from you,” Rachel said with a bright smile. “Anyone who has saved my dear sister’s life is a close friend. Call me Rachel.”

  “Will do, ma’am,” Nate said, trying to keep himself from grimacing.

  Rachel laughed at him in response.

  As the three of them sat at the table while Alban prepared the mutton, Nate couldn’t help but look all around the cabin. The place was small, but cozy.

  The table where they sat was in the middle of the room and the kitchen area was directly across from Nate. Behind him at the other end of the room next to the fireplace was a large, cushioned chair that was placed next to a floor-to-ceiling bookcase, filled with books of all shapes and colors, some of them on their sides, some standing straight up.

  There were three bedrooms in the house, all the doors closed off from the main room. Nate wondered where he would be allowed to sleep tonight.

  Marum sat to Nate’s left and across from him was Rachel, staring intently at Marum as she recounted the events that brought them here. Alban turned his head slightly from the billowing steam of mutton stew to try and catch everything that was said, occasionally asking Marum to repeat herself.

  It was difficult for Nate to keep his eyes averted from Rachel. She was indeed a beautiful creature. Nate had rarely seen a woman so pretty in all his life. Her long golden hair stopped at the middle of her back. Her bright eyes gave the appearance of being green, but upon closer inspection (though he was trying not to make closer inspections), he noticed that they were actually blue with yellow flecks. What Nate liked most was her smile as she talked with Marum. It was the kind of smile a man didn’t forget, something so perfect and so vibrant that it melted his insides with every flash.

  He looked away from her and up at Alban, suddenly thankful for the man’s warning. Had he not threatened Nate with castration, he might find himself throwing out a flirtatious comment or two, making himself look like a fool.

  When the conversation steered to Nate, he wasn’t sure what to say. Rachel asked him how he had found himself in the cell next to Marum and the room fell silent in wait for his response.

  Nate scratched the back of his head, unsure of what he was supposed to say. Would it make sense to these people that he was here because of a book from a different place? A different world perhaps? He expected to be put on the spot like this, but that didn’t mean he had thought of a good way to respond. There wasn’t really a believable lie he could think of in the moment that would make any sense other than that he had been hired to get Marum out of there and that he had broken in somehow. Besides, he didn’t think Marum would play along with the lie. She seemed awfully close to these people.

  “I don’t know,” Nate responded. “I woke up there.”

  Rachel’s eyebrows went in two different direction and Alban turned to look at him. “What did you say? Not sure I heard you right.”

  “I said I woke up there.”

  Rachel shook her head. “Fully armed? The cell was unlocked?”

  “That’s right,” Nate said.

  Alban came to the table with hot steaming bowls in his hands and set them in front of Marum and Nate. The smell made Nate’s mouth water and he didn’t wait for Rachel to get hers or for Alban to sit before digging in ravenously. The broth burned his tongue as he shoved the spoon in his mouth, but he didn’t care.

  “There has to be something else to this story,” Alban said, graciously ignoring Nate’s rudeness.

  Nate sat up from his stew and sighed deeply as he chewed the fat from a piece of meat.

  “It was as if he just appeared out of thin air,” Marum added.

  “It’s a strange thing, ain’t it?” Nate said, taking another bite from the stew.

  “It’s only strange to the people it perplexes,” Alban said. “Such as myself. I have no idea how a man might simply appear out of thin air, unless of course that man is a Sentinel.”

  “A Sentinel?” Nate asked.

  Rachel and Alban stared at Nate with pause. Rachel cleared her throat. “You don’t know what a Sentinel is?”

  Nate shrugged and lifted the bowl to his mouth. He knew it wasn’t proper, but he was so hungry that it didn’t matter. He gulped down the broth despite the heat. When he was finished, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and held the bowl out toward Rachel. “Get me more of that stew and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  Rachel squinted at him, clearly not impressed with their new guest. Her newfound abhorrence wore no mask as she stood from the table to serve him.

  Nate then looked at Alban who had a smile etched across his face. He seemed too interested in this new mystery to care about Nate’s brash behavior. “You have whiskey?” Nate asked.

  Marum looked at Nate disapprovingly this time, but he didn’t look back at her.

  Alban’s smile widened. “Of course!” He turned to Rachel. “Bring the bottle, our guest is thirsty!”

  Rachel was no longer her bubbly self and was not keen on the idea of having Nate in her home, he could tell. She set the bowl in front of Nate with a splash, then nearly slammed the dark bottle of whiskey on the table in front of him. She then brought enough glasses to the table for everyone to drink, though only Alban and Nate took one.

  Alban poured a little into a glass for Nate and then poured a tiny bit for himself. He scooted the glass across the table and Nate took it happily, knowing full well he was going to need a lot more than a splash.

  Alban raised his glass in the air, looking at Nate and Marum. “To newfound freedom!”

  “Here, here,” Nate said before knocking back the drink. It burned his throat, but not enough to send him coughing. He set the glass in front of him and took it upon himself to refill it. He didn’t stop until the glass was more than halfway full.

  Rachel’s eyebrows went up at the sight, but she politely said nothing.

  Seeing her expression, Nate smiled and shook his head. “You’ll forgive me, but I haven’t had a good drink in two solid days. It’s starting to get to me.”

  “Great,” Rachel said.

  “So,” Nate said, taking another swig and looking toward Alban. He was already starting to feel more loose. “What is a Sentinel? I mean, I know what the word means, but you seemed to indicate it was something more.”

  “They can use magic,” Alban answered.

  Nate pushed out his lower lip and nodded. “Of course. Magic. Why not?”

  “There are five Sentinels,” Alba
n said. He took such a small sip from his whiskey that Nate wondered if the man even tasted it. “They make up the League of Sentinels. They watch over the land, using their powers to keep Galamore held together.”

  “So, they are like a bunch of wizards or something?” Nate said.

  “Sure,” Alban answered. “A kind of wizard, yes.”

  Nate’s eyes fell on Rachel again. Perhaps it was the whiskey that gave him courage, but he allowed his stare to linger. He figured she wasn’t too much younger than he, maybe about twenty-five or six. As curious as he was about these Sentinels, Nate was more interested in Rachel’s story. Why hadn’t she been married yet? Where was her mother? Why’d she still live with her father?

  “Seems to me,” Nate said, “if these Sentinels were worried about holding a place together, they might think about having more than five people.”

  Alban shrugged. “It is what it is.” He took another sip and then looked up. “Now, about this business of appearing in the jail cell next to Marum.”

  “What about it?” Nate asked.

  “How did you do it?”

  Nate finished off his glass and filled it up again, much to the disapproving looks of Rachel and Marum. The glass was full this time and some of the excess whiskey slithered down the side. Nate brought the glass to his mouth and licked it away.

  Rachel stared at him with a curled lip.

  Nate took another gulp and shook his head as the liquid burned all the way down. “This stuff is better than what we’ve got back home.” He smiled when he noticed all of them staring at him. “Ya’ll don’t understand,” he said. “It’s been a long week.” He knew he was going to need the whiskey to make it through the rest of this conversation.

  “No,” Rachel said, “I think I understand completely.”

  Nate ignored her judgmental tone and got right to the point. “I found a book,” he said, looking at Alban who was still sipping at his first helping of soup. “Not here in Galamore, but from where I’ve been traveling. A place called Texas.”

  “I’ve never heard of this place,” Alban said.