The Keeper

Viginti unus: The Sign

I didn’t mean to intrude upon her. But I simply walked in and there was Astrea looking at her Seer-See. In the image was Morrigone, still looking bedraggled. She was waving her hands around as she had done when performing magic. I didn’t know what she was doing until Astrea waved her wand over the image and it rippled as though someone had tossed a handful of pebbles in a bucket of water.

Morrigone nodded and lowered her hands.

Now I understood.

They were communicating. And then I knew that Morrigone must have told Astrea all about me and to be on the lookout. That I could do a bit of magic, that I had learned some of the truth about Wormwood and that I had escaped from Morrigone and Wormwood. My anger at Astrea increased a thousandfold. She had led me right into her trap.

The next thing I knew, Astrea had turned and was looking up at me, her wand uncomfortably pointed in my general direction.

“What are you doing here?” she asked sharply.

“You said I could go where I wanted in here,” I said innocently. “So did you have a nice little chat with dear Morrigone?” I said acidly.

With a flick of her wand the images were gone and the wood was now simply wood once more.

Astrea and I locked gazes.

“You really should keep your nose out of things that do not concern you,” she said in a tone that managed to send chills up my spine.

However, I stiffened my resolve and snapped, “Well, it is my business if the consequences will affect me. And Wormwood. It might not be your home, but it is mine. Did you know that bloody King Thorne intended to invade and destroy Wormwood? Do you even care?”

“I would not have allowed—”

“Bollocks!” I shouted out. “You don’t care!”

“I would remind you—”

But I was not to be denied my say. “You may be safe under your emerald dome; not everyone has that opportunity, Mighty Keeper of the Quag.”

“You are safe here,” she retorted.

“Not by my choosing,” I shot back. I had anticipated her response. “And I did not enter the Quag to be safe. Only a fool would do that. And I’m no fool.”

The door was thrown open and Delph and Harry Two appeared. Behind them I could see Seamus’s huge eyes peering at me.

They came fully into the room and Delph shut the door.

“Everything okay?” he said nervously.

“No, everything is not okay,” I barked, keeping my eyes on Astrea.

“You’re acting very foolishly, Vega,” she said darkly.

“Oh, so it’s foolish in your eyes to care what happens to others? I suppose you didn’t care when Alice Adronis died in battle, then? I did. I cared. I was there. I guess you were already in your hidey-hole here by then, were you?”

“Better to hide than die!” she retorted.

“Better to fight and die than live as a coward!” I screamed in her smug face.

“Fight!” She chortled. “You wouldn’t last a sliver.”

“I can fight!”

“You are nothing! Even your grandfather understood that. It’s why he didn’t bother with the likes of you. He left you behind. Where you belong!”

I pointed a finger right in her face. “I am more than you will ever be, you insufferable cow!”

Her wand moved so fast I barely followed the motion. She said something I couldn’t quite catch and then I was catapulted across the room, slammed against the wall and fell to the floor, bleeding from innumerable slashes and cuts all over my body.

“Vega Jane,” screamed Delph as he raced over and knelt next to me. He looked up furiously at Astrea. “What did you do to her? What!”

Harry Two barked and growled and looked like he was about to attack her.

Delph held my head up. “Vega, the Adder Stone, where is it? In your pockets?”

I was in so much pain that I couldn’t tell him that the Stone was back in my room. I could see my blood pooling on the floor. I felt sick and light-headed.

Delph screamed at Astrea. “Help her!”

“Madame Prine,” said Seamus in a pleading voice.

Through my half-closed eyes I could see the horror-stricken look on Astrea’s face. To her credit she seemed unable to comprehend what she had done to me.

“Help her!” yelled Delph. “Please.”

But then something happened inside of me that I couldn’t fathom. It came from a place apparently so deep inside me that I had never before visited it. I had no idea it was even there. The pain was gone. My head cleared. Everything I had been feeling, all the anger and loathing, seemed as nothing to what was now swelling inside of me. It was as though I was no longer myself. I was someone else.

I easily threw Delph aside, rose on steady legs, waved my arms and screamed, “You will not beat me!”

Waves of light came out of my hands and exploded across the room. Everything seemed to have slowed down such that I could see exactly what was happening although it was occurring at tremendous velocity.

Astrea was lifted off the floor and thrown across the entire width of the room. She crashed into the wall and slid down battered and bruised, her wand falling from her fingers.

The vortex of light waves emanating from my hands engulfed Delph, Harry Two and Seamus. They were blown off their feet, sailed across the room and landed hard against the wall, crumpling to the floor. Every stick of furniture in the room, including the Seer-See, was blasted into smithereens. Wood and glass swirled around the room like confetti.

And then, as quickly as it happened, it was over.

I stood in the middle of the room, my wounds healed, my hands now at my sides. I gazed around at the devastation I had involuntarily wrought.

“Delph, Harry Two!” I screamed.

I was at their side in moments. I gripped Delph’s arm and Harry Two’s front paw. “Tell me you’re okay. Tell me, please. Oh my holy Steeples, what have I done?”

Tears poured down my face until first Delph and then Harry Two stirred.

My canine licked my face, and Delph gripped my arm, his smile crooked, but leaving me vastly relieved. I helped them up.

“Cor blimey!” exclaimed Delph. “Where did THAT come from?”

Tears still sliding down my cheeks, I said, “I don’t know. I just don’t know, Delph.”

I turned to see Astrea still lying on the floor, but conscious. She was staring up at me with emotions so complex flitting across her face I had no way of interpreting them.

She slowly rose, as did Seamus across the room.

Astrea took a few halting steps forward, her gaze never once leaving my face.

I walked over to her so that we stood toe-to-toe.

I was determined to let her speak first.

“How did you do that?” she demanded.

“I can fight,” I said quietly. “All I need is the chance.”

Her face sagged and I saw her eyes blink rapidly. Her free hand went to her trembling mouth. And before I could get out another word, she had rushed from the room. We heard her clattering down the hall.

I raced after her, but she was already out of sight.

She wasn’t in her room. She wasn’t in any room of the cottage to which I had access.

I finally found her outside. She was over by the dome, sitting on a large rock, her wand held loosely in her hand.

I slowly walked up to her and sat on the ground next to her.

She had heard me approach but didn’t look at me.

I said, “I hope I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t intend to.”

“You very clearly did,” she replied calmly. “But then I certainly hurt you first.”

“It just came upon me,” I said slowly. “I still don’t understand it.”

Our gazes fixed on each other. “Don’t you, Vega? Well, I understand it quite clearly.”

A few slivers passed before she spoke again.

“I do care, Vega. I care very much. I have spent the last eight hundred sessions of my life caring about others.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

“Do you know why I’m so small even though I take the elixir?”

I shook my head. “I just assumed that you were always short.”

“I was nearly as tall as Alice once.”

“What happened?” I said in a perplexed tone.

“Eight centuries of responsibility have literally weighed me down, Vega. And taking the elixir, while it gives one life, robs you of other things, important things.”

“Like what?”

“Perhaps compassion. Perhaps understanding of others’ points of view. Perhaps things that I need more than ever right now.”

I said nothing because I sensed that she just needed to get this out.

“And I also know that one can reasonably dispute my methods, even my goal, as you did.”

“But I did it in the wrong way. I shouldn’t have used the words I did.”

“You were actually quite eloquent, Vega. Perhaps more than you know. And my words to you were equally harsh.”

She gazed up at the sky again.

The next words I said, though, got her full and rapt attention.

“The Maladons?”

She turned to look at me. “Archie told you?”

I nodded.

“Yes, the bloody Maladons.”

She said the word as though it were the most disgusting one ever conceived.

“They are powerful, I take it.”

“Yes, so much so that they destroyed us and everything we believed in. Utterly and completely.”

“Maybe not so completely,” I replied.

She gazed at me. And I thought I saw just a hint of a smile.

“What can be done?” I asked.

She considered this query for a bit. “You said you want to fight?”

“Yes.”

She looked back at the cottage. “What you did in there, Vega?”

“I don’t know how I did it.”

“Doesn’t matter. You did it; that’s what counts.”

“Well, my grandfather is an Excalibur. And you said that power follows the line.”

“It is actually more than that. Much more.” She turned on the rock to face me and her tone became quite deliberate. “An Excalibur is born with everything he or she will ever have in the way of power. That made your grandfather very mighty indeed. But there is a greater power even than that.”

“What?” I said breathlessly.

“For those who are not so powerful when young but grow into more formidable power as they become older. With such power so deeply rooted in them that they can sometimes perform large feats of magic without a wand. Without actually uttering a spell. You have no idea how remarkable that is. I think that you are one of those. And they are even rarer than the Excaliburs. They are so rare, in fact, that we do not even have a name for them. Perhaps I will commence calling such a phenomenon... Vega.”

With that, Astrea fell silent and I could think of nothing else to say. I thought we would simply sit together under a beautifully clear sky, apparently contemplating the absolute worst of futures. I was about to be gobsmacked as I never had been in my life.

“If you want to cross the Quag and take up the fight once more, you will need to be trained up,” she said. “We will commence at next light.”

Before I could say anything, she rose and walked back to the cottage, leaving me sitting there, alone.