Inked (The Ink Keepers Book 1)

by N. I. Rojas

  Kyra saw them stupefied with something that had fallen from Mackenzie’s clothes. One of the nymphs took the apparatus lying on the floor. Mackenzie’s PCS was now on, displaying colored lights, making high noises. How did it work when Mackenzie never charged the battery?

  Trying to call for Mackenzie, Kyra was deafened. What a terrible way to communicate the nymphs have! Noises, hoarseness, everything a mess, but very understandable to them.

  Dismounting Shimmerhorn once again, Kyra crawled slyly towards where Mackenzie laid captive. Probably, the nymphs would notice her any moment, and although she wished to hurry, deep inside she knew she needed to proceed cautiously.

  “Shh.” -She tried to calm Mackenzie, who was trying to rush her even with his mouth all covered up. - “I’m here!”

  Finally, Kyra got close to Mackenzie, managing to remove the sticky web from his mouth to let him breathe. One of the nymphs discovered Kyra freeing Mackenzie and with supernatural speed came closer to her. Opening the mouth, the nymph displayed sharp piranha-like teeth all over the mouth.

  A bright light blinded them that precise moment. The stream of light was so powerful that smashed a nymph against a tree. With that fall, the nymph revealed an ink stained body under its translucent cloak. Kyra covered her eyes, but the light was so beautiful she remembered it from one of her dreams. Soon, she acknowledged that the light was coming from Shimmerhorn’s horn. Kyra felt the Graphylux now shuddering close to her skin, still hidden by the waist of the pants.

  “This thing is impossible to fight. I’ll die before it breaks.” -Mackenzie complained with his head red because of so much blood. That gave Kyra the only idea to go to the other side.

  “Are you ready to create magic, pen?” -Kyra asked with a valiant smile in her face.

  “What are you thinking? This will never work. I’m not strong enough to make them all do what you want for long.” -The Graphylux argued with worried voice.

  “At most a minute… that’s all the time we need.” -Kyra opened her backpack to use the Inkling’s ink she had saved but the small vial was broken, crushed against the bottom of the backpack. - “What are we going to do now?” -She said when she finally dared to look out of her backpack.

  “This won’t last, you know. I cannot create a bridge or even a tree trunk so long to cross the other side without the Ink. But we must try if you wish.”

  Shimmerhorn broke the web keeping Mackenzie prisoner, leaving him to fall to the floor. When Mackenzie managed to stand up, grabbing the unicorn by the neck and hugging him hard. Shimmerhorn’s magical horn shone, giving Kyra enough time to write the exact words to bewitch the nymphs and make them create a bridge to cross to Mount Grimm.

  The chase ended while one by one the nymphs worked together in creating the web, launching it as fat French braids, creating a bridge big and strong to resist their weight.

  It was time to run.

  Chapter 19: A pure soul’s sacrifice

  Monday evening

  Everything started shaking as they tried to cross the sticky white bridge, running in a haste. Nothing was appreciable underneath them. An endless hole full of bad ink covered acres around them, and probably a few kilometers deep. Mackenzie held Kyra strongly, and the Graphylux was hidden in her backpack for the moment. The tiny trail of mist was barely visible now as night was falling fast over them.

  Shimmerhorn’s frightened whinny called Kyra’s attention. The unicorn was slipping, his hooves failing to step firmly. Kyra tried to reach Shimmerhorn, her dreamt pet, but the mountains shook merciless. The bridge swayed wildly from side to side, giving the first indications that it was about to break. The magic was seconds away of ending, the spell of words just a memory contained in Kyra’s dull skin.

  One of the nymphs was getting closer to Shimmerhorn, following him through the sticky bridge. Mackenzie pulled Kyra with him, flying high resisting her weight, both landing in the other side while the bridge collapsed with the unicorn still trying to cross it.

  “Shimmerhorn!” -Kyra yelled the name while searching for him in the blackness of that infinite hole. She saw her unicorn falling while all she could do was yell his name, cry fat tears and curse the first moment she set foot in that place.

  “There’s nothing you can do.” -Mackenzie told her, extending his hand to help Kyra. He was far from reality. There was something she could do; she could try to save Shimmerhorn if she acted fast. She took the Graphylux and thought of something to write. While she tore the fabric of her blouse to write on her other arm, a fire so terrible started in the depths where Shimmerhorn was falling.

  Kyra’s pain was harrowing. Mackenzie took her into his arms, feeling someone else’s sorrow as his own for the first time, as he had been victim of such pain of losing his only friend. His poor SunFish! That Wizard was the one to blame for Kyra’s pain as well.

  The last rays of sun started to disappear behind Mount Grimm, the mountain just before their eyes, and the trail left by Incantatrix was just a thin thread of smoke, blurred between branches and flowers and the fog of the cold night in the mountain.

  “We must continue, Kyra. You cannot help him. He’s gone.” -Mackenzie said trying to force her to her feet.

  She needed to do something. Something so meaningful to preserve Shimmerhorn alive in Alter Land although his death. He saw the bright in her eyes, a light beyond the tears. An idea was born in Kyra’s mind.

  “What you need?”- Mackenzie asked her, willing to give everything as long as he could continue walking to break his spell of eternal youth and rescue Sirina.

  “Something to write in.” -She said. - “I’m out of paper and I cannot write myself with these shaky hands.”

  “Something to write in, then.” -Mackenzie pulled his shirt off. Kyra looked at him, embarrassed. His chest was soft yet strong, his well-defined teen muscles visible under his baby skin. Kyra tried to look somewhere else, but it was hard not to look at Mackenzie, to his translucent tanned skin. - “Well, write.! -Mackenzie said with a grin in his lips. Aware of the effect he had caused on Kyra, he couldn’t deny he was enjoying the nervousness reflected in her innocent eyes. - “But make a good tattoo of it. Make it magical!”

  She extended her hand, the one that wasn’t holding the Graphylux. A grin was drawn on his baby face, confident that Kyra felt something for him too. He turned around, offering his back as blackboard for the perennial message. Kyra’s hand came closer to Mackenzie’s back. She fought the impulse of caressing his skin, although it was an easy task, having him so close now. Finally, she chose to write, as it was the only right thing to do.

  Shimmerhorn’s soul left his body seconds before starting to fall. His body poured so much life in Alter Land’s deepest corners, causing a powerful blaze. The purest of all souls rose high to the sky, to dance among stars, embellishing the world as shining pearl, casting a rain from which giant white roses bloom every darkle.

  Just below Kyra’s verse, a tiny drop of ink fell. Kyra feared she had damaged the stanza, and stained Mackenzie’s soft skin for nothing. But soon a flower blossomed from that droplet, as hundreds of white giant roses were growing from the huge hole in which Shimmerhorn had fallen. Everything was now covered in beautiful blooms, shimmering with magic and imitating Shimmerhorn’s horn opal glow. Kyra and Mackenzie stood there, watching the beautiful glitter cover the place, a silky blanket of magical petals, emanating its own light, as powerful as the sun. They could have sworn they saw glitters flying from and to the sky, dancing with the air, twirling around in a hue of mist and delicate rainbows.

  “Let’s go.” -Mackenzie said, breaking the silence and carrying Kyra as a baby between his arms. He flew high, not as fast as he had wished, but better than both walking at her pace. - “You have turned me into a book for your own!”

  Kyra blushed madly. Mackenzie made her feel so different, yet she knew she didn’t have to make a great effort to be in any other way because he saw her just the way she was, and he seemed to like it.

>   “Better the horse than your father, right?” -The Graphylux managed to say from inside Kyra’s backpack. - “What do you think, un-aging boy?”

  Mackenzie didn’t answer, not because he wasn’t listening, but because he was blaming himself already for what was about to happen.

  “What do you mean, pen?” -Kyra asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

  “I was wondering if we’ll be able to rescue the good dentist. I never electrocuted him; you know. Although he wasn’t the Keeper, he was kind to me. I sensed the good inside him. I just hope we can save him.” -The Graphylux said with true honesty. - “But if you’re asking about the un-aging part… then I’m not the right guy to tell you.”

  “Can you tell me, Mackenzie? What that means?” -She looked straight into Mackenzie’s eyes. Sadness was living into his now empty gaze. Silence reigned for a while.

  “There’s nothing to say.” -Mackenzie answered back. The boy that Kyra had turned into an open book minutes before was now a locked vault of terrible secrets.

  ******

  “Look!” -Mackenzie said, trying to keep his voice low. Kyra watched the place Mackenzie was pointing at. But it couldn’t be true. Just in front of them an enchanted castle rested, just as her father’s stories. Sitting in a high mountain, its towers scratching the night sky. Lights of all colors came out of every window, and the castle itself had a glow, like a ghost in a moonless night.

  Mackenzie descended and both set foot on the ground. Awestruck by the sight, all kind of thoughts paraded through Kyra’s mind. She started to run, thinking about finding her father, going back home, kissing Mackenzie. She managed to reach the front gate without any problem. A huge iron padlock was in her way. Cold to her touch, but also hot as written with fire.

  The key! They had found a key. Kyra searched for it inside her backpack. Her hope when she tried to insert the key was unnatural, until she noticed the key wouldn’t come inside the lock. It was just the wrong key. Or the wrong lock.

  Kyra kneeled in the floor, searching an indication in the book, an instruction to do a right move, but she just found a page with an exact picture of the castle that talked about the enchanted artifacts: a kiss, a heart, a soul, and the Ink, all of them conjured in the body of a young innocent witch raised among humans.

  “Interesting? Isn’t it? You cannot say I didn’t warn you. That simple sentence screams betrayal everywhere. Can you see the red alarms blinking now?” -The Graphylux asked when Kyra looked everywhere, searching for answers she didn’t find in the book. - “I told you about the boy. Incantatrix told you to keep him at distance, but you wanted to choose by yourself and now you fall into account we were telling the truth. You just trusted in the wrong guy.”

  Her heart didn’t want to believe. Her mind searched for an explanation. The Graphylux was right. Betrayal was claiming the moment. Disloyalty was embodied in Mackenzie’s soft baby face. The words, the touch, the holding hands, everything well designed by him to accomplish this moment.

  “Mackenzie! Why you did this to me?” -Kyra claimed, while sadness took possession of her trampled heart. - “You know my father isn’t here. That’s the reason why the key doesn’t fit… Am I right? The key belongs to where you’re keeping my father.” -Kyra deduced very mad. Tears ran down her face while she tried to tame the pain her heart was feeling. - “You betrayed me! This is a trap and you guided me to it. Everything inside a young witch raised among humans? That’s what you think I am… a witch? I’m not a witch; I have no magic other than this pen. I thought you were changing, but you’ll always be a child locked in that body. You’ll never grow!”

  Kyra started walking away from Mackenzie after spitting those words. She didn’t want to stop or slow the pace but she was still filling her backpack with all the things she had thrown while looking for the book.

  “You know nothing about me, Fairy Girl. I’ll grow sooner than what you think. I’ll do what it takes to end with this spell.” -He flew straight to Kyra, standing in her way. - “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “I see you did the job, un-aging boy! Come forward to perform the ritual to set you free.” -The Wizard said appearing from nowhere.

  “Where’s her father, Wizard? You have him, I’m sure. Send him home and I’ll do what you want.” -Mackenzie said.

  “We’re not bargaining, boy. Mines are orders that must be followed. Come on, you two lovebirds, come to visit my humble home.” -The gates and the castle doors opened ajar, making way for them to enter, but Kyra refused to take another step forward. The Wizard found her defiance entertained. - “I met your almost-dead friend in the forest, and I found myself in the obligation of saving him. This un-aging boy has the bad habit of killing his pets. Has he told you how he killed his fish just two days ago? No? Well, maybe you saw a demonstration when he let your horse die burnt. Good for me, anyway, that was the purest soul I could get. So… back to your friend.” -The Wizard waved a hand, forcing Kyra and Mackenzie to look back where none other than the giant wolf was standing, watching them as if it was dinner time. - “Attack.”

  At the Wizard’s command, the giant wolf charged against Kyra and Mackenzie. The beast’s fangs were at full display, saliva coming out in cascades. Mackenzie reacted faster, grabbing Kyra by the hand, dragging her to the insides of the castle, far from the giant wolf and far from the escape.

  Kyra managed to walk away from Mackenzie. Not as much distance as she had wanted, but better than nothing.

  “What a way to win a girl’s heart you have! And then smash it as marshmallow pebbles from the dunes! I’m surprised and pleased, I must confess. You’ve done the right thing.” -The Wizard mumbled at Mackenzie just high enough for Kyra to listen as well.

  An electrifying feeling went through them as, astonished, they admired the insides of the castle. It was crowded with strange people, creatures of ink maybe, dancing in the main salon, which was no other place than a library. The walls were full of shelves towering to the high ceiling. Red wood as Kyra had never seen before. Red as love. Red as pain. Red as blood.

  “Like it?” -The Wizard asked Kyra with curiosity. - “Isn’t it incredible? Red Velvet wood! Impressive, I know. All the credit belongs to you, young witch. Just your mature imagination could create such an outstanding work of art. Edible art you think? You just perfected it, turning your dreams into realities in here. You’ll grow to be such a great writer!” -The Wizard made a pause while observing her with pitiful eyes. Then, he laughed. - “I take that back! You won’t live beyond this night.”

  Kyra’s ears were deaf to the Wizard’s threatening and praising words. Books were everywhere. Some of them Kyra knew, others were so rare she had never seen or heard about them in her whole life. Despite the danger, Kyra walked, rounding the people gathered there, ignorant of her presence.

  “Oh great. We’ll die in a bookshop.” -Mackenzie grunted sarcastically.

  “This is a library.” -Kyra corrected him with awe in her face. - “My father used to tell me stories about this castle. It’s supposed to contain what the people who enter loves the most. Everything depends on the thoughts and feelings.”

  Kyra couldn’t resist the desire to touch those books, to caress the hardback, to feel the softness of each page, as it was the only thing that could calm her when in stress. Mackenzie told her not to, but Kyra was stubborn enough to ignore him and proceeded. After all, what harm could she cause with just caressing one book? She extended her hand, keeping one or two feet of distance from the shelves.

  The crowd congregated in the huge dark saloon was nothing, just moths dancing around a fire, flies flying over a Venus Flytrap, nothing capable of breaking her concentration. She was blocking the noises, and the only thing she could hear was the sweet wind blowing softly. That brought a memory of one awesome morning when Kyra and her dad had made a camping in a deserted beach and at dawn they were both reading in the cold sand.

  She touched one of the books finally, one chosen randomly. Her index finger
softly caressed this old book bonded in black leather. The sudden sound of thousands of butterflies filled the air, hundreds of wings fluttering at the same time. Kyra looked around as tiny translucent wings were appearing in the salon, filling the space with its glow and delicacy. One of the butterflies stopped in Kyra’s hand, its tiny humanoid-face displaying worried emotion. The noise stopped and the crowd stood still, observing Kyra with surprise and fear, watching what she had done. She had to be the powerful witch, each one of them thought, because not a single soul had ever created such precious display of magic without a wand or magic artifact, but with just a single touch.

  “I was right about you.” -The Wizard said. His voice made Kyra stumble and crash into the bookshelf, knocking down at least a dozen books, bringing her to a reality she didn’t want to face. She was happy a second ago, immersed in a world she had chosen as her own, the world of books, her reality. She promised herself that if she was lucky enough to survive all this, she’ll occasionally read a fantasy book, to remind herself what she had gone through and still survived. - “Whoever brings the Young Witch to me will receive the award of freedom.” -The Wizard said opening his arms wide, and the crowd hastened to seize Kyra. She tried to run but they were everywhere. Strange people and strange creatures tried to capture her.