Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2)

by Garrett Robinson

  My words caught in my throat. It seemed like all breath had left my body.

  Not a wife. But I knew what it was like to lose someone. To have them there, and then one day…simply gone. Never to be spoken to again. Never to offer a kind word, or one of encouragement.

  Why tell me, then? I said.

  I thought you all knew, said Meridia, her voice sickly sweet. How could you not?

  Sarah must have read something in my face. “Blade, what is it?” she said. “Terrence what?”

  I swallowed hard. “Terrence…Terrence could come here. What if he comes to the mountain? What would the dragons think of us then?”

  Her brow furrowed, and she cocked her head at me. For a sickening second I thought she wouldn’t buy it.

  “I don’t know. It might work for us, actually. They might be convinced that they’ve got to help us if they see how immediate Terrence’s threat is.”

  “Oh,” I said stupidly. “Right. I didn’t think of that. Never mind, then.”

  I smiled and turned away. Years of learning how to lie to my dad, my teachers and anyone else I wanted to suddenly become useful. Sarah only looked at me for a moment more before turning away.

  As if on cue, the stone door rumbled and began to swing open. Tess stepped out, looking timidly at the rest of us.

  “Tess!” I leapt to my feet. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” said Tess with a small shrug.

  “I will speak with you next, Keeper of Fire,” said Redwing. “Come.”

  I took the excuse to walk up to Tess and inspect her from a closer distance. “Seriously, you’re fine?”

  “Sure,” said Tess. “She just asked me questions. A lot of questions. But it’s okay. Really. Nothing happened.”

  I glanced over her head at Redwing. Her amber eyes never left me.

  “Okay,” I said. I wanted to give her a hug, but somehow I couldn’t bring my arms to do it. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

  She gave me a small smile, and I walked past her into the chamber.

  Redwing lifted a massive claw and used it to swing the stone door shut. It gave a low boom as it settled into place. Then Redwing placed herself in the nest at the back of the room.

  “Sit on the floor if you like,” she said.

  “Thanks, but I’ll stand,” I said. My words were short, clipped. I’d keep them that way the whole time, I decided.

  “What do you name yourself?” began Redwing.

  “My name is Blade. Blade Frederickson,” I added, just in case omitting my last name counted as a lie or something.

  “How many summers have you seen, Blade Frederickson?” she said.

  I glowered. “Does it matter?”

  “It might.”

  “Eighteen,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Why, dragons have scarcely learned to speak by eighteen!” said Redwing in amazement. “Though of course, the oratory skills of humans have thus far failed to impress me. Very well. What is your exact connection to the Keeper of Mind?”

  The question stunned me, though it shouldn’t have after the spectacle I made of myself earlier.

  “Um…I don’t know exactly what answer you’re expecting,” I said. It was the quickest response I could think of that wasn’t an answer, but wasn’t a lie, either.

  “Are you comrades in arms? Friends? Something more?” Her lips peeled back from her fangs. It didn’t look like a friendly smile.

  “I don’t know exactly how I feel about her,” I said slowly. “Other than that I like her very much. More than any of the others.”

  “More than your other friends?”

  “I don’t have other friends,” I said shortly. “Any of the others could tell you that.”

  “Very well,” said Redwing, giving a sigh that made the floor shake beneath my feet. “From where do you hail?”

  I shrugged. “Here in Midrealm, I live in the city of Morrowdust.”

  “But you do not come from there?”

  “No. When the Realm Keepers sleep, we go to—”

  She cut me off with a snap of her jaw. “Yes, yes, the Keeper of Mind already explained this to me. Very well.”

  She settled herself deeper in her nest, and her eyes narrowed to slits.

  Uh-oh, I thought, bracing myself.

  “What happened to the Realm Keepers who came before you six?”

  My gut began to roil.

  You cannot lie to her, said Meridia in my mind. She will know if you do. She will find out.

  I thought you said to keep it to myself, I said harshly.

  You cannot fail to answer her. Answer her here, or answer her before the Council. At least you may still spare Barius his anguish. She will not confide in him, nor in the other Realm Keepers.

  “Is there a problem?” said Redwing. Her tone was delicate, but there was a hunger in her gaze that was unmistakable.

  I steeled myself. “One of the Realm Keepers before us was Terrence. He turned to Chaos and killed the others. Then he used some kind of dark magic to raise one of them from the dead. She fights on his side now. Like a zombie, or something. I’m not sure.”

  Redwing studied my face for a long, painful moment. Slowly, her lips drew back over her teeth. A smile. And not one I was happy to see.

  “Thank you, Keeper of Fire. That will be all.”

  “Now hold on,” I said. “I know what you’re thinking, and—”

  “You may leave,” hissed Redwing.

  “If you could just listen to—”

  “Go!” roared Redwing. She leapt up and past me, seizing the door in her claw and throwing it open.

  And suddenly I saw what would happen. She would take this to the Council. She would see us in a lie. And I would tell the Council that what I said was the truth, and what Tess said was what she believed to be the truth. Redwing would look like an idiot. And we’d win.

  I almost smiled, but I was able to keep myself under control.

  Hanging my head as if in defeat, I stormed out of the room and to the others, ignoring their looks of confusion.

  Now, to make this perfect, all I had to do was figure out a way to keep Barius from finding out about it. But I could do it. I was Blade Frederickson. The Keeper of Fire.

  A DOUBLE LIFE

  SARAH

  I CAME AWAKE, AND IT took me a few seconds before the mattress beneath me told me that I was on Earth.

  I sat up, putting a hand to my forehead. That wasn’t good. I couldn’t start mixing up Earth and Midrealm. They were different worlds, with different priorities.

  I needed to get my head out of our situation at Wyrmspire. I needed to spend today decompressing, clearing my mind so when we went in for the Council meeting tomorrow I could focus on it.

  I got out of bed and sat at my computer. For lack of anything better to do, I logged in to Facebook. There were a few notifications. Not as many as I thought there should be, considering how long it had been since I’d last logged in. But in a way, it made sense. If I wasn’t around and posting and talking to people, why would I expect them to be talking back?

  The status box sat there, empty. What’s on your mind?

  I clicked on it and typed.

  Too many things at once. I wish I could get a day off every once in a while.

  I posted it and closed my browser. My eyes flew to my email icon and the little red number attached to it: 257. I never checked my email any more.

  I definitely wasn’t going to start now. I tore my eyes away from the little red number and began to get ready for school.

  My mind and body both felt numb as I showered, got dressed and found my mom in the kitchen. She tried to chat a bit, but it was like her words were background fuzz. I answered in single words, and soon she fell silent.

  Half an hour later, she dropped me off in front of school, and I made my way in through the wide front doors. The halls were sparsely populated; despite my crazy schedule recently, I still almost always made it to school before most people.


  The sharp clack of an adult’s shoes on linoleum got my attention for a moment. I looked up to see Principal Jones.

  “Good morning, Sarah,” he said with a smile. “How are you?”

  “Fine, thank you,” I said, trying to smile back.

  “How are plans for the pep rally going?”

  Panic. My stomach leapt into my throat, and I had to blink a few times before I could answer. “Sorry?”

  “The pep rally? Tomorrow?” His brow furrowed. “Don’t tell me you didn’t get the email? It was sent out two weeks ago.”

  “Oh, of course,” I said, shaking my head. My mind whirled as I tried to figure a way out of this. “Sorry. My mind’s a mess this morning. The email. Of course. Yes, plans are rolling forward. It should be…very peppy.” A desperate, nearly insane grin plastered itself on my face.

  His face softened. “Ah, excellent. I imagine the cheer squad’s performance will be something to see.”

  “Of course,” I said immediately. “They’re super energized, since they haven’t been able to perform without the sports seasons starting yet. They’re all fired up!” I couldn’t wipe my stupid grin off my face.

  “Excellent. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, if not sooner.” With a final nod of his head, he walked off down the hallway toward his office.

  I stalked off and rounded a corner, out of his line of sight. Then I turned and leaned my head into the lockers with a sharp crack.

  How could I be slipping this badly? How could I be neglecting my life on Earth so much? I wanted to have a future here, not just in Midrealm. I had responsibilities here, and while they might not have been of the world-saving variety, if I couldn’t keep things running smoothly, I could say good-bye to college and hello to some minimum wage job filing paperwork or making spreadsheets.

  I shuddered and pushed myself away from the lockers. I was not going to fail. I was not going to let myself get excluded from college, from a career and from the life I’d wanted ever since I was young enough to remember. That was that.

  I whirled on my heel and stalked toward the locker rooms by the gym. I had to put things in motion, and there wasn’t a whole lot of time before I’d have to get ready for class. I swept into the locker room like an inspecting general.

  There. That was what I needed. Six tall, lithe figures in white-and-green uniforms with no sleeves and short, pleated skirts.

  I walked right up to them, eyeing the blonde girl who stood in their center. Cheerleaders, like any alien society, have a very exact hierarchy and rules of conduct. There was no use trying to speak to the group. You talked to the leader if you wanted anything to get done. Their leader was a five-six, one hundred pound bleached blonde named Jessyca, but most people referred to her as “Jessyca-with-a-y.” Jessyca and I had never been friends, exactly, but until recently we hadn’t been enemies either. But ever since I’d gone on my sort-of-date with Kurt, I’d caught her ice blue eyes staring at me like she wished they had laser beams. By any normal standards, Kurt and Jessyca should have been going out, but that had never happened. I didn’t know why, but it was common knowledge around the school that she was infuriated about it. Any time Kurt did seem to like some girl or hang out with her a bit, that girl was Jessyca’s immediate and eternal enemy.

  When I was ten feet away, it was like I passed through some invisible barrier that marked their personal space. All six of their heads turned at once to stare at me, assessing me. Jessyca’s blue eyes fixed on mine and narrowed slightly.

  “Hey, girls,” I said, nodding as I came to a stop. No need to approach closer and risk spooking them. “Jessyca, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  Jessyca looked me up and down with a crooked smile. “What is it, Pres? Don’t tell me you’re here about the pep rally—we were all sure you’d completely forgotten.”

  The six of them giggled hysterically, all of them stopping at exactly the same time. I wondered briefly what kind of cheerleader boot camp they had to go through in order to develop that level of precision.

  “Oh, of course not,” I said quickly. “It’s just taken me a little bit to put all the pieces together.”

  “I hope you don’t think you can show up the day before and expect a full routine to be ready,” said Jessyca snidely. “Of course, it must be hard, making plans and organizing events when you’re…what’s the right word? Handicapped? Disabled?”

  I refused to let myself blush, glare or react in any way. Let her make fun of my “sleeping disorder.” Why should I care? I briefly imagined Jessyca taking my place the day we’d all gone to Midrelam, thrust into a battle between humans and Shadows, and suppressed a smile as I imagined her freaking out and breaking into a sobbing heap in the middle of the battlefield.

  I couldn’t rise to her bait. If I made the queen look weak in front of the hive, I’d be their enemy for life. But by hinting that I could make her look bad without doing it…

  “What do you mean?” I asked, widening my eyes. I tried my best to look shocked and affronted. “I thought you’d start working on a routine as soon as the email came out. No one told me I’d have to order everyone to do their parts. I’m just here to discuss the schedule—do you need me to pull you guys out of it?”

  The others cast sidelong glances at Jessyca. Her nostrils flared, but her face remained otherwise unchanged. “Of course not,” she snapped. “We’re always prepared. We could do two pep rallies a day, seven days a week. Even if we only get the schedule the day beforehand because someone else isn’t doing their job.”

  The other girls’ eyes turned from Jessyca back to me, and six right eyebrows arched. I was shocked they didn’t all snap their fingers and shout, “Oh, burn!” in unison.

  That was okay. Let them have their “win.”

  “Great!” I said. “You’ll open up the show, then close us out. I assume you know what time it starts?”

  “Of course,” said Jessyca sullenly.

  “Great!” I repeated. “See you tomorrow!”

  I whirled and left the locker room, breathing a sigh of relief. I ripped open my phone and searched for the email with the schedule. Soon I had a brief outline of a plan. I’d have to talk to the team captains for the basketball and football teams. And I might have to talk to the soccer captain in case he was upset that we were using the field for football only. And I had to see who was the team mascot since Harold had graduated the year before. And maybe I should talk to the after-school choir club to see if they wanted to do a performance. And I’d definitely have to talk to the school band.

  I sighed again and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Give me dragons any day,” I muttered.

  For the second day in a row, I woke in Nightclaw’s nest, wrapped in my blanket and shivering against the cold mountain air blowing through the wide opening. Cara was already up. She’d thrown her blanket over me as I slept.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled as I sat up. I folded her blanket carefully and handed it to her.

  “Of course, my Lady,” she said. “Do you feel rested? You have not been spending as much time in True Earth as you are used to. It would not be well to have you all wearied if…”

  She paused and looked over her shoulder toward the door. I understood the words she didn’t want to say. In case we have to make an escape.

  “We’ll be fine, Cara,” I said gently. “And I’m plenty rested. I’m more worried about you. Are you all getting enough rest?” The Runegard had taken it upon themselves to stand guard in three shifts during the night. It meant they only got about six hours of sleep a night. Not the worst I’d seen them endure, but still not ideal if we ended up being here a few more days.

  Cara allowed herself a small smirk. “This is a holiday compared to the road, my Lady.”

  I saw Blade’s sleeping form laying nearby, and my mood soured. “Cara, were you able to talk to Samuel at all last night?”

  “I did,” said Cara, her mood darkening to match my own. “He knows nothing of what transpired in the audience with Redw
ing. Lord Blade has remained silent.”

  “I figured he would,” I said. “It was worth a shot.”

  She presented a metal plate from my bag. There was fresh meat on it: a gift from Blackscale, who had sent someone from his clan hunting for us.

  Cara’s brow furrowed. “Lady Sarah,” she began, speaking slowly. “I do not believe that Lord Blade would withhold anything from us that could prove a danger to the group. He has a…history with Greystone of that nature. He grows angry whenever the Watcher fails to inform you all of his plans, even if the Watcher believes he is doing the right thing. But if that is the case, what could he be hiding?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. I thought for a moment, my mind racing. “He won’t even talk about it. Not to me, not to anyone else. I asked Tess to talk to him, but she said he kept changing the subject. All I can think of is that he knows something that would hurt one of us—I mean a specific someone. He could be keeping silent to protect them.”

  “But who?” said Cara. “Lady Tess?”

  I nodded. “That’s what I would guess. Maybe Redwing told him something that Tess said during her audience. Maybe it was bad—something she’ll use against us in the Council. And Blade doesn’t want to tell us because he doesn’t want to get her in trouble.”

  “But then he would be putting you all in danger,” said Cara. “He would be risking your execution by the Council.”

  “Unless he has a plan to handle it, and he’s going to take care of it himself,” I said. “It might be something he’s planning to do in the Council, or even something he’ll do beforehand.”

  “What will you do, then?” said Cara. “How will you get him to tell you his plan? You could assure him that Lady Tess will face no punishment for what she may have done.”

  I sighed and looked at her with a shrug. “No, that won’t do it. He’s too stubborn. I think in the end I’m just going to have to trust him.”

  Cara blinked. “I’m sorry?”

  “Don’t look so surprised. Blade is smart, when he doesn’t let his emotions get in the way. If he has the time to think something through, he’s even smarter than I am. If he thinks he can handle whatever he’s sitting on, I think it’s worth letting him.”