Keeper of Myths

by Jasmine Richards

  The crater gave another shudder and Buzz was thrown to the ground. He lay there for a moment, his head ringing. The vibrations of the ground went straight through him, wave after wave, like the sea, unending. Mary had become a force of nature.

  “Eh, brother, don’t sleep on the job. Get me out of here,” Ayiyi yelled. “Before another tree drops on my head.”

  Dora was making scared little snorting sounds but hadn’t galloped away.

  Buzz flipped himself onto his hands and knees and crawled back over to the spider. He grabbed the tree and lifted, feeling a surge of strength in his hands. He threw the trunk to one side.

  Ayiyi lay quite still.

  “Hey, you all right?” Buzz asked.

  Ayiyi nodded. “Just nice to have breath in my chest again.” He flexed his legs gingerly. “But something needs to be done about that girl. She’s out of control.”

  Buzz looked over at Mary. Her eyes were still closed. She was completely lost in the power of the belt.

  Another fierce tremor went through the crater, toppling more trees. Soft, round fruits that looked a bit like plums scattered as the trees hit the ground.

  Buzz picked one up. It was mushy in his hands.

  “Wakey, wakey, Mary,” he said softly, and calling on the strength of his armlets, he hurled the fruit at her.

  He missed.

  “Come on, you’ve got to do better than that,” Ayiyi complained. “You’re relying too much on the armlets. They give you strength, but the rest is up to you.”

  Buzz remembered how he’d thrown his phone at the feathered dragon. I managed to find my target then and that was before the armlets.

  He threw another piece of fruit. He missed again.

  Mate, you’re overthinking it. You gotta kind of squint at it and then lob it. The words were Sam’s. They were a memory. He’d say this whenever they played basketball. It’d been a while since they’d done that.

  Buzz narrowed his eyes and lobbed another piece of fruit at Mary. It hit her on the shoulder with a wet squelching sound.

  “Bull’s-eye,” Ayiyi crowed.

  “Gross!” Buzz heard Mary cry. Her eyes were open and she was blinking furiously.

  The tremors had stopped entirely, and the belt no longer glowed. She was looking down at the boars, still trapped in the mound she had created, like she wasn’t sure how it had happened.

  Buzz swiftly clambered onto Dora, and Ayiyi slipped on behind him. They cantered over to Mary. The boars began to thrash even more wildly as they came closer, but they could not free themselves.

  Wisely, Dora still gave them a wide berth. Mary looked down at them and then pointed to the squished-up fruit on her top. “I’m guessing this is your doing?”

  “I didn’t know how else to stop you,” Buzz confessed.

  Mary scrubbed at her face. “I glad you did. Thanks, Buzz. I don’t think I could have stopped myself. The belt was too powerful. It felt too good.”

  She urged Skip down the mound, careful to avoid the trapped boars.

  “How did you even get the belt to work?” Buzz asked as Mary drew up alongside him.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” she admitted. “I was trapped and needed a way out, and the next moment, the belt had taken over. It was like I knew how to access its power, or at least some part of me did.”

  “Gu did say the belt held the power of iron ore,” Buzz reminded her. “I guess that means it can control the earth.”

  “But who’s controlling me?” Mary asked. “I’m sure Hel helped me activate the belt. She must have been there. Steering me.”

  “Did you feel her?”

  Mary shook her head.

  “So maybe it was just your instinct and not the goddess,” Buzz said. “You should trust it. It saved you.”

  Mary ducked her head and then looked behind her at the boars as Dora and Skip galloped across the interior of the crater. “Do you think they’ll be all right?”

  “You really care?” Buzz asked.

  “We came into their territory, Buzz, not the other way around. We were warned.”

  Buzz felt the weight of someone’s gaze on him. He looked up and saw Priparchis staring down at them from the rim of the crater. The god’s blue eyes were still piercing, even from this distance, and Buzz could feel their judgment. “They’ll be fine,” Buzz said. “Priparchis will make sure of that.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Riddles

  As they finally reached the top of the crater, they were greeted by the wisdom path, which stretched out before them. Black stone slabs stood regally alongside the path as it curved steeply up the mountainside. The peak looked close, and although the summit was thick with white mist, Buzz could see the shadow of something behind it—a temple just visible. The Keeper of Myths. She was not far away.

  Skip gingerly put his front hooves on the steep mountain path but immediately began to slip and scrabble to stay upright.

  Mary drew him back. “Careful, Skip.”

  Dora was shaking her head. “I think this is where we will have to leave you, boy and girl rider,” she said. “We can’t climb that path, as much as we’d like to.”

  “Wait!” Skip said. “Maybe we can try and—”

  “You’ve both been amazing,” Mary interrupted. “And we thank you for that.” She reached out and stroked their shaggy manes. “But we’re not going to risk your lives any more than we have already.”

  Buzz felt a flicker of annoyance. Mary was right. But why did she always feel the need to take charge?

  Buzz dismounted and rubbed Dora’s neck as Ayiyi got down as well. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”

  The horse gave a wheezing laugh. “This is the most fun this old nag has had for years. Thank you.” She butted her head gently against Skip’s side. “Come on. Time for us to go.”

  Mary got down and hugged both horses. “We’ll miss you. Make sure you avoid those giants and those boars, okay?”

  “We’ll take the long way around.” Dora looked over at Ayiyi. “You look after them,” she said.

  “As much as they’ll let me,” the spider replied.

  “I guess that will have to do.” Dora didn’t sound that impressed. “Come now, Skip.” The horses turned and walked back down the winding trail. Before long, the path curved and took them out of sight completely.

  “And then there were three,” Mary murmured.

  “Not for long,” Buzz said. “Come on—the sooner we find the Keeper of Myths, the sooner we find Sam.”

  They climbed the path, Ayiyi scuttling along easily while Buzz and Mary puffed and panted with every step up the mountainside. Buzz focused on keeping his feet moving, one after the other, as they climbed the steep trail, passing the stone slabs as they went. But his legs were tired, and his thigh still ached from where he’d injured it on the side of the gorge. He no longer bothered to check where the Keeper’s temple was, as it never seemed to get any closer.

  His fingers went to the armlets; he touched the cold metal. If he just called on the armlets’ powers, he’d have the strength to bound up this mountain in no time at all.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Mary said. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. “We need to save the magic for when we really need it, or it will take us over.”

  “But we do need it,” Buzz said. “We’re running out of time, and we’re not getting any closer to that blasted summit.”

  “Wait a second.” Mary stopped. “You know what? We’re not getting closer, are we? Something’s not right here.”

  Ayiyi scuttled over to them. “Eh! It took you a long time to figure that one out. Thought you’d never look up from your feet.” He gave a cackling laugh. “You need to look ahead to get ahead, dum-dums.”

  “Honestly, Ayiyi, you could have given us a clue.” Mary scanned the path carefully as she moved forward.

  “Why didn’t you tell us we were missing something?” Buzz demanded. “And don’t call us dum-dums.”

&n
bsp; Ayiyi was laughing, wiping the tears from his many eyes. “This is the wisdom path, dum-dum. I can’t tell you what to do or you’ll never get to where you need to get to.”

  “Then what exactly is the point of you being here?” Buzz asked.

  “I’m your companion,” Ayiyi said. “I thought I was your friend.”

  “Well, you thought wrong. All you do is laugh at us and tell silly stories, and then you end up needing to be saved. You’re a waste of space.”

  Ayiyi’s shoulders slumped. “Oh, I see. I’ll go then, shall I? If I’m so useless.”

  “Yep, you do that. Crawl back to whatever hole you came from.”

  “Farewell then, brother.” The spider sniffed and then turned around and began to drag his eight legs back down the path. He glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”

  “Perhaps.” Buzz turned his back on the spider. He knew he was being harsh, but he couldn’t stop himself.

  “Hey, Buzz, you need to come and see this.” Mary was a little bit farther along the path.

  He hurried to her side.

  “Where’s Ayiyi?” she asked. “He’ll like this.”

  “He wandered off. Think he saw a bug he liked the look of.” The lie fell easily from Buzz’s lips. “What have you found?”

  “There’s a riddle carved into this stele,” she said, pointing to one of the slabs. “Think you can solve it?”

  “‘My first is in earthward but not in hard-hearted,’” Buzz read out. The riddle continued:

  My second is in helps but not in spell.

  My third is in devoid but not in divide.

  My fourth is in toughness but not in unsought.

  My fifth is in solve but not in sole.

  My sixth is in raider but not in raid.

  My seventh is in unstressed but not in untested.

  He shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

  Mary was grinning at him. “Lucky you’ve got me, then, even if you don’t appreciate it. Each part of this riddle is trying to get you to identify a letter.” She pointed to the first line. “You see the words earthward and hard-hearted? They both have exactly the same letters except for the letter w.”

  Buzz studied the next line. “Okay, so the answer to the second line must be h.”

  “Exactly,” Mary said. “And the answer to the third line is o.”

  “‘Who,’” Buzz said. He scanned the other lines. “‘Whoever.’ Once you work out all the letters, it spells out ‘whoever.’”

  The stele flashed once as if to say, Well done.

  “Quick work,” Mary said.

  “Well, we did have a lot of practice solving riddles when we were looking for the runes,” Buzz reminded her.

  “I remember. We made a great team.” Mary’s voice almost sounded wistful.

  Buzz felt something twist in his chest but ignored it and looked up ahead. “So do you think there is a riddle on each of these slabs?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Mary said. “There’s a pattern. Look, the next stele is over there. It was blank but now it has words on it. We needed to be looking ahead this whole time. Ayiyi was right.” She looked over her shoulder. “I hope he catches up with us soon.”

  “Come on,” Buzz said. “Let’s not waste any more time.”

  They raced over to the next slab. “The answer is ‘tells,’” Mary said after studying the stele for less than a minute. It flashed once in response.

  “The answer is ‘the,’ Buzz said when faced with the third stone slab. This stele flashed, too.

  They stopped in front of the fourth stele. Buzz saw right away that the riddle was different from the first three.

  I can bore or amuse.

  I can teach or entertain.

  I can be long.

  I can be tall.

  I can be true, I can be false,

  I can be about nothing at all.

  “I can’t work this one out.” Mary chewed her lip. “Where’s Ayiyi? He must have finished hunting for bugs by now. We need his help.”

  “Won’t I do?” Buzz raised an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t mean it like that, Buzz,” Mary said. “I’m just saying Ayiyi has a way with words. He’s always telling stories and singing songs. Haven’t you noticed?”

  “Of course I’ve noticed. It’s really irritating.” Buzz wrinkled his nose. “He’s gone now, though.”

  Mary stared at him. “Gone?”

  Buzz scrubbed at his face. The armlets were cool against his cheeks. “I kinda lost my temper with him and told him to go, and so he did.”

  Mary sighed. “Dum-dum. We could use him now, couldn’t we? Do you think he’s coming back?”

  Buzz shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” He looked up at the stele. “Let’s get on with this riddle.”

  “Okay, we don’t really have any other choice, do we?” Mary sounded unhappy. “‘I can bore or amuse. I can teach or entertain,’” she read out.

  “It sounds a bit like my teachers,” Buzz said.

  “But would you ever describe your teachers as being long?” Mary questioned. “Or of being about nothing at all?”

  “No, not even Theo would say that,” Buzz admitted. “The only thing this is describing is one of Ayiyi’s stories.”

  Mary grabbed his hand. “That’s it.” Her eyes were wide behind her glasses. “The answer is ‘story.’ It can be long, it can be tall. It can be about anything at all.” The stele flashed at them, letting them know they were right.

  They raced from the stele and swiftly solved the next two riddles. The low shape of the temple could be seen more clearly now behind the thick mist, but as they came to the last stone slab, Buzz saw that the path had run out. There was only air and cloud between where they stood on a rocky ledge and where the Keeper’s temple waited for them on the other side of the fog-filled abyss.

  “How are we going to get to the temple?” Buzz asked. “There’s no path.”

  “I don’t know,” Mary said. “But I think the answer has to do with this stele. I just don’t understand why no words are appearing on it.”

  “Okay, let’s try to finish the sentence we’ve put together so far from the clues,” Buzz said.

  Mary pushed her glasses up her nose. “‘Whoever tells the story holds the . . .”

  “Key,” Buzz said.

  The stele remained blank.

  “The secret?” Mary asked hopefully.

  Still the stele remained blank.

  “This is crazy,” Mary said. “What hope do we have of solving a blank riddle? It’s not fair.”

  “Hope is the power to see light even in the darkness,” Buzz murmured, Ayiyi’s words from the canyon coming back to him then. “Hope is the power to find an answer when there appears to be none.” Buzz looked at the stele. “The answer is ‘power,’” he whispered. “Whoever tells the story holds the power.”

  Buzz knew what he had to do. He clenched his fist and punched the stone. The sound of cracking filled the air and the stele crumbled. As it did so, the fragments of rock flew up in an arch and knit together to form a narrow bridge that stretched out to where the temple waited on the other side.

  “How did you know what the answer was?” Mary asked as Buzz stepped onto the stone bridge that now stretched across the sky.

  “It doesn’t matter now.” He held out a hand. “Be careful, this stone is slippery.”

  They inched along the length of the bridge, and beneath it, Buzz saw only clouds. He decided that looking forward rather than down definitely made the most sense.

  They stepped off the bridge and arrived in front of the temple.

  “Wait.” Mary’s voice was full of amazement. “I don’t think this is mist.”

  Buzz reached out. She was right. The substance around them was thick and sticky.

  He tore into it, grabbing handfuls at a time. Mary did the same. White tendrils clung to their fingers, but still they grabbed and pulled and tore, and soon they had created a hole
big enough for them both to wriggle through.

  Within the white cocoon, the air was very still and quiet, but there was a golden light all around them. Ahead stood a dome-shaped edifice made out of some kind of multicolored brick, with eight channels leading from it. The channels were filled with light—light that seemed to pulse with the same golden glow as the steles that had lined the wisdom path.

  “This is it,” Buzz said. “The Keeper’s temple.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Mary said. “Everything we need to know to save Sam—to save all of us—is in there.”

  They took a step toward the temple, but Buzz stopped when he heard a crunching sound underfoot. Looking down, he saw that the floor was lined with what appeared to be the torn pages of books. He bent down and scooped up a page. The script on the page was in a language he did not understand, but it was beautifully drawn.

  They resumed their walking, and soon they were almost at the door of the temple. Buzz could see now that the building was not made out of bricks at all, but rather books—books that shimmered. Some big and some small. Some thin and some fat. Some new and some old. They were piled one on top of the other, so high that Buzz had to tip his head all the way back to be able to see the smooth, rounded pinnacle of the building.

  Stairs made of yet more books led up to the arched doorway, and the door itself—which was made of something like thick, aged papyrus—stood ajar.

  They climbed the stairs of books and entered the temple.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Keeper of Myths

  It was dark. Buzz’s eyes ached as he tried to search out any pinprick of light. In the darkness he could hear a low swell of voices, but it was as if they were coming from underwater.

  A beam of light cut across the dark and then widened so that the whole room was illuminated.

  Buzz looked over to see Mary holding her watch aloft and light flooding from it.

  They were in a sparsely furnished room. One wall had shelves full of stone tablets, a simple-looking table with an inkwell stood in the middle of the chamber, and the edges of the room were lined with freestanding mirrors. Looking closely at the mirrors, Buzz saw that many of them were dark or clouded with age and showed no reflection at all. Low voices seemed to come from each one, and the words rolled and tumbled over one another so that all Buzz could hear was noise.