Keeper of the Realms

by Marcus Alexander

  Unaware of the insights unfolding inside Charlie’s head, Marsila continued. ‘So tell me, Charlie, what do we do if one idea doesn’t work out the way we’d hoped?’

  ‘Try another one?’ suggested Charlie.

  ‘Too right we do. So let’s not give up now. Let’s get down there and try –’

  Marsila’s eyes suddenly grew wide. Charlie’s pendant was glowing.

  ‘Hey, take a look!’ called E’Jaaz. ‘Something’s happening.’

  Charlie and Marsila turned to look at where E’Jaaz was indicating. His outstretched finger pointed not at the shadow but rather at the fabric of the mountaintop. It was changing. Parts of it were becoming translucent, allowing the sunlight to travel through it. Startled, they looked down at their feet to discover that all of a sudden they seemed to be standing on nothing.

  ‘Bleurgh,’ said Charlie as she found herself fighting vertigo.

  Crouching, she reached beneath her feet and was reassured when her hands touched something. It felt like glass. Feeling it helped settle her stomach. Kneeling down, she could see through the floor to the rest of the mountain. It was an odd change but also quite a subtle one. Not all of the mountain had become translucent; in fact, it looked like only a small portion of it had and that the changes had merely altered its outline a little.

  Some sixth sense caused her to stare at the shadow below. The subtle changes of the mountain had had a drastic effect on what she saw.

  ‘The Serpent’s Tail!’ said Charlie. A smile of delight broke across her face.

  E’Jaaz and Marsila spun round.

  ‘Well, I’ll be …’ said E’Jaaz. ‘Those sneaky Winged Ones.’

  ‘They tampered with a whole mountain just to tweak a shadow,’ said Marsila in something that was part statement, part expression of disbelief.

  The shadow weaved like a child’s drawing of a slithering snake’s tail and ended in an arrowhead.

  And in the middle of this arrowhead was a large temple. Oddly, the building seemed to ripple with motion although shadow and distance made it impossible to decipher any detail.

  E’Jaaz squirmed to one side so he could pull a compact telescope from his pocket. Holding it to his eye, he took stock of the temple.

  ‘Crack my Realm,’ he cursed.

  ‘What? What is it?’ asked Charlie.

  E’Jaaz silently passed her the telescope.

  ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ said Charlie when she looked through the lens.

  The temple was heaving with Stoman soldiers, Shades, Rhinospiders and Stonesingers.

  25

  Hummingbird

  ‘A garrison?’ cursed Marsila. ‘They chose the very temple we need to visit as a place to garrison their troops? What kind of luck is that? Pfft!’

  Growling with barely constrained rage, she flung a stone at the offending temple and watched miserably as it plummeted towards the earth. Fortunately it fell short of its mark and none of the Stomen seemed to notice.

  E’Jaaz and Charlie joined her in staring at their goal. They too had long faces and even though they had both wrapped themselves in their travel blankets the cold and altitude were grinding them down and adding to the misery of the moment. E’Jaaz’s nose had started bleeding again and Charlie’s headache had grown to the point where it felt as though her skull was being bludgeoned by a sledgehammer.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ suggested E’Jaaz. ‘We’ve seen all that we need to and staying up here isn’t doing us any favours.’

  ‘Agreed,’ growled Marsila. Disappointment and anger were still very evident upon her face. ‘Triad up.’

  Charlie gasped as she felt her Will lurch, proving difficult to hold. By the look of concentration on E’Jaaz’s face, he too appeared to momentarily struggle. Wiping blood from his nose, he dug a little deeper, then held up glowing hands to merge his Will with Marsila’s. They looked at her expectantly.

  ‘It’s – er … it’s …’ began Charlie, still struggling. She was shocked to realize that beneath her headache and beneath the cold she was more fatigued than ever before.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Marsila, ‘I’ve got it.’

  Grunting, she tore open a Portal by herself. It wasn’t big by any means but was far larger than E’Jaaz or Charlie would have managed by themselves. It seemed that at present Marsila was the strongest of the three.

  The Portal led back to their campsite on the small island. The return to lower altitude and the warmth of midday sun felt like a blessing. Shedding their blankets and loosening collars, all three of them slumped around the Alavisian firepit.

  ‘More problems,’ said Marsila. ‘And fewer options.’ She looked to E’Jaaz. ‘You know my style. I like to tackle problems head on but it’s plain to see that we don’t have the strength to force our way into such a mess. You’re the devious one, how would you go about getting into that temple in one piece?’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t have chosen the word “devious” to describe my finer qualities,’ said E’Jaaz. He tried to muster a dashing smile but the look was spoiled somewhat by the dried blood crusting his upper lip. ‘I like to think that I’m more of a mischievous man than a devious man.’

  ‘Well, that’s a shame,’ retorted Marsila, ‘because what we need right now is a devious individual to find a way to sneak us inside.’

  An uncomfortable silence settled across the campsite. Sleepiness was not only making them irritable but making it hard for them to see a way round their problems. Charlie was suffering worse than either of the other two. Having finally reached her limit, her eyes were drooping and her head kept bobbing forward as sleep tried to overcome her.

  ‘The Hummingbird Strategy,’ said E’Jaaz after a few moments of thought.

  ‘What was that?’ asked Marsila. ‘The Hummingbird Strategy? Sounds like something used in a board game.’

  ‘It is,’ admitted E’Jaaz, ‘but it’s also a strategy that can be used in espionage, economics and warfare. The legendary general Kirack the Breaker used the Hummingbird –’

  ‘We don’t have time for history lessons!’ snapped Marsila. ‘Stop warbling and get to the meat of the matter.’

  ‘All right,’ said E’Jaaz. ‘The Hummingbird Strategy was developed after a monk, studying the ways of nature, saw how a hummingbird managed to tease bees away from their hive with deceptive offerings of flowers and while the beehive was left relatively unguarded the hummingbird would swoop in to steal the honey.’

  ‘I’m going to disregard what I know of honeybees and pretend that what you just said made sense –’

  ‘All stories become embellished with the passing of time,’ murmured E’Jaaz with a roguish shrug.

  ‘– and assume that you’re using this analogy with some kind of intelligent intent. I’m also going to assume that we’re to take the role of the hummingbird and that the temple garrison will be the beehive.’

  ‘Bees and honey,’ slurred Charlie as her head lolled forward once again. Snapping awake with a grunt, she sat up straighter and tried to pretend that she hadn’t just fallen asleep.

  ‘What,’ continued Marsila, ‘are you intending we use as the bait to lure out the Stomen? I’m assuming it’s not going to be flowers?’

  ‘I’m intending to use ourselves as bait. But to do so successfully we’re going to have to wait until darkness.’

  ‘You know we can’t afford to wait until dark,’ protested Marsila. ‘Sylvaris needs us now.’

  ‘I know they need us. The whole of Bellania needs us, but we are forced to work with the tools we have at hand –’ E’Jaaz raised his eyebrows in Charlie’s direction – ‘and our tools at hand are a little sleepy at the moment.’

  ‘Hey, I heard that!’ said Charlie, but the other two ignored her.

  ‘All of us are tired,’ continued E’Jaaz, ‘and we both know that it will take us several days of rest to fully recover. Pressing on now would be a foolish, possibly fatal mistake. What I strongly suggest we do is take the hours of
daylight we have left to rest and recoup what strength we can, then take action tonight when we can better put the Hummingbird Strategy to use.’

  ‘But why darkness?’ insisted Marsila.

  ‘So we can entice the Stomen with the correct bait,’ explained E’Jaaz. ‘I appreciate that you are keen to press on but unless you have a better option I would counsel that we go with a ruse that lessens the number of foes we have to face.’

  ‘And you think this will keep the Delightful Brothers off our backs?’

  ‘Sweet Realms, I sincerely hope so,’ said E’Jaaz. ‘Even if we do recover a glimmer of strength by tonight there’s no way we could face their Stowyrms.’

  Something about that last sentence plucked at Charlie’s mind … something about the Stowyrms. ‘Nibbler!’ she said and stood bolt upright, only to sway sleepily from side to side. ‘We forgot to get Nibbler back!’

  ‘You,’ said Marsila, ‘are not going anywhere. If you try to do anything in that state you’ll probably cause more mischief than good. Stay here and I’ll go and fetch that scoundrel of a Hatchling.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ said E’Jaaz.

  ‘Pfft,’ said Marsila, ‘you’re in almost as bad a shape as Charlie. No, you stay here, keep an eye on our sleepy Keeper, and I’ll be back in a minute.’

  Muttering to herself, Marsila created a Portal and disappeared through it.

  Charlie rubbed at her eyes, then tried to focus on E’Jaaz. It wasn’t easy as everything seemed to be blurred.

  ‘Is she always so …’

  ‘Determined?’ suggested E’Jaaz.

  ‘… tough,’ finished Charlie.

  ‘Yes,’ said E’Jaaz after some thought. ‘Yes, she is. She’s known for it. Famous for it, in fact. They say she wasn’t always that way but her past is marred by tragedy. Her twin sister was killed by a Shade when she was a young teenager, near your age in fact.’

  ‘Really?’ said Charlie. Her heart gave a lurch. Ever since her parents had been taken from her she knew what that kind of loss felt like. It had been one of her driving forces; it had shaped her, in fact. Made her stronger, harder … and, truth be told, it had made her a touch darker too.

  ‘Really,’ confirmed E’Jaaz. ‘It changed her from a bright and happy girl to the tough cookie that we know and love today. Sound like anyone familiar?’

  He smiled and chucked a fake punch to Charlie’s chin. She grinned back at him.

  ‘No matter how hard the task, Marsila always gets the job done. I realize she can seem a bit harsh but you need to know that she’s counted amongst the best of us. Next to your parents, she and Azariah were the Keepers that the Jade Circle relied on the most. And as dangerous as she is, I’d do almost anything to get that dance with her. Tough and beautiful ladies like Marsila truly are one in a million, wouldn’t you say, Charlie?’

  Expecting a response but getting none, he turned round to find that Charlie’s head was bowing forward again, her chin nearly touching her chest.

  The rumble of her snoring soon filled their small campsite.

  26

  The Last Dinner

  The scent of grilled fish woke Charlie. Grinding her knuckles into the corners of her eyes, she let loose a yawn that would have shamed a hippopotamus and staggered upright.

  ‘Wheurffag’wan?’ She shut her mouth, swallowed and tried again. ‘What’s going on?’ She looked up at the darkening sky in shock. ‘How long have I been asleep?’

  ‘Long enough for us to wonder whether you’ve got some kind of demon stuck in your throat or if you had to practise really hard to become so talented at snoring,’ said E’Jaaz.

  Charlie was too concerned over lost time to scowl at his attempt at humour.

  ‘We let you sleep as long as we could,’ said Marsila. ‘More than any of us; you needed it the most.’ Seeing that Charlie was starting to blush, she added, ‘Don’t worry, we all took turns to catch a nap so don’t beat yourself up over it.’

  ‘What about Sylvaris?’ asked Charlie. ‘Have we left it too late?’

  ‘Time is still pressing,’ admitted Marsila, ‘but we believe that waiting for darkness was the right move to make.’

  Feeling something prod her shoulder, she turned round to find Nibbler trying to grin at her while simultaneously swallowing a large haunch of meat. Held towards her in one of his paws was a plate spilling over with cooked fish, more jerritots and a salad of golden leaves. The aroma wafting off it was enough to set Charlie’s stomach growling.

  ‘And we caught plenty of rabbit too,’ said Nibbler once he had managed to swallow his mouthful.

  ‘You’re OK?’ asked Charlie. ‘You didn’t have any trouble with Stix and Stones?’

  ‘Not really,’ said Nibbler. ‘They were getting used to the lightning and the flame and I thought maybe they were bored, so to keep them occupied I started throwing dung at them and calling them names. Stix got so annoyed I thought he was going to burst all the blood vessels in his face.’

  ‘Dung?’ said Charlie, once her brain had digested the image of Nibbler catcalling at the Delightful Brothers and throwing muck at them from above. ‘Where did you get dung from? And do I really want to know the answer to that?’

  ‘Well, I thought about slinging mud at them from the river but when I came down I scared off a load of long-necked shirasheer. They left a lot of dung about … and it really smelt.’

  ‘Please,’ began Charlie, ‘please tell me you didn’t pick it up with the same paws that just held my dinner?’

  ‘Uh? Oh no! Eeuck, I wouldn’t use my paws to pick up shirasheer poop. I kinda scooped it up with those wide Hooble leaves, which was great because I could carry a lot. Which made it really hard for Stix and Stones to dodge it all.’ He grinned at the memory. ‘And of course I washed my paws before dinner too.’

  Unable to stop herself, Charlie felt her mouth tug into a grin, which in turn grew into a chuckle. ‘Ah, Nibbler, you always know how to make me smile! My life would be slow and dull if you weren’t around.’

  She suddenly realized that not only was she able to laugh again but that her sleep had done her a world of good. There was no doubting that she was still deeply tired but her spirit had recovered and she felt far stronger than at any period over the last two days.

  ‘So,’ she said between mouthfuls, ‘what’s the plan? Weren’t we discussing something about a kingfisher?’

  E’Jaaz and Marsila looked puzzled.

  ‘Oh!’ snorted E’Jaaz once he had deciphered her wayward words. ‘You mean a hummingbird!’

  Charlie blinked, then recovered quickly enough to hide her embarrassment. ‘Kingfisher, hummingbird, they’re practically the same, right?’ There was silence around the campfire. ‘Er, OK, maybe they’re not. Um … so there was some mention of a hummingbird?’

  Always the gentleman, E’Jaaz ignored her blunder. ‘Yes, the Hummingbird Strategy is the ruse we will use on the Stomen when night falls. We have to clear that temple of as many of the enemy as possible. The fewer we have to face the better, and the Hummingbird Strategy will aid us towards that end.’

  ‘Sooo … what is this Hummingbird Strategy?’ asked Charlie. ‘It sounds all sorts of mysterious, but what exactly are we going to do?’

  ‘The Stomen and the Delightful Brothers know we’ve been checking the temples. They have, after all, done their best to block us all day long. So we’re going to amplify their impression of us.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘We’re going to lure them with decoys. If we open Portals to as many temples as possible in as little time as possible it should rile them no end. And to make sure we grab their attention, we’re going to let loose a flare in each temple. If we do this well enough, they’ll have to divide their forces if they intend to cover each location. And the more Stomen we divert from the garrison, the fewer we’ll have to deal with.’

  Marsila stirred. ‘I don’t like it that we’ve allowed so much time to slip through our fingers. And I don’t like to think
that Sylvaris might be fighting the enemy while we wait here but I agree with E’Jaaz. I think this ploy brings us the best chance of success.’

  Charlie dusted off her lap and stood tall. She was as ready as she was ever going to be. ‘So what are we waiting for? Let’s get on with it.’

  ‘Er, not yet, Charlie,’ said E’Jaaz (and he was decent enough to hide his smile behind his hand). ‘It’s not yet fully dark so let’s take this opportunity to rest and eat while we can.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Charlie. Feeling a bit silly, she sat back down.

  ‘If it means anything,’ said E’Jaaz, ‘I like your enthusiasm. Very invigorating.’

  Charlie blushed a little harder.

  ‘Stop teasing her, E’Jaaz,’ said Marsila. ‘And refill her plate. Eat up, Charlie. We don’t know when we’ll next have a chance to rest, so enjoy the moment if you can – it only gets harder from this point on.’

  27

  Beacons of Light

  E’Jaaz opened a Portal and together the three Keepers and Nibbler peered through it. It revealed a night-time landscape, dark and shadowy, and only thinly illuminated by the crescent moon and starry sky. The temples, however, were lit by torchlight and the reflected glow of enemy campfire.

  ‘Hmm,’ mused Marsila. ‘I think another Portal would be better. Try somewhere a little higher up the Winged Mount to see if that gives us a better vantage point.’

  E’Jaaz nodded. Closing the first, he opened another.

  ‘Better?’ he asked.

  ‘Much,’ agreed Marsila.

  Their small group passed through the Portal on to the sloping side of the Winged Mount. The wind at this higher altitude was stronger and the temperature cooler but what it offered in return was a better view of the temples below along with the added privacy and security they would need to carry out their plan. And at least, thought Charlie to herself, it’s nowhere near as cold as it was at the very peak.