The Keeper

Quadraginta novem: The Four Remaining

“Run, Vega Jane!” screamed Delph.

I could sense him beside me, tugging on my arm. But I didn’t look at him. I could hear over the roar of the mountain of fire heading our way that Lackland was fleeing down the side of the mountain, screaming for us to run as he went.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Petra on her knees, her head bowed, awaiting the end. At my feet was Harry Two. He was doing the same thing I was doing — staring at fiery death coming our way.

I looked at my wand and knew, despite its considerable power, that it would not be nearly enough. The flame from Asurter’s mouth had nearly buckled my shield spell. What was coming now was a million times more powerful. My Engulfiado spell would simply turn to mist in the face of it.

I had Destin around my waist, but I could not fly us high enough to escape the flames. And as I continued to watch, the most amazing thing happened to me.

My panic ceased and a peaceful calm took over. I don’t know if it was simply resignation that my life would be ending momentarily. Or something else entirely.

As Delph kept trying to pull me away, my feet seemed to become even more deeply rooted to this spot.

This was my last stand. I would die here. Or I would survive here. It would be one or the other. This I clearly understood.

I put my hand in my cloak pocket and withdrew the Finn. I don’t know what made me think of it, for many thoughts were flashing through my mind at that point.

I had retied the knots on the Finn. I looked down at it, unsure what would happen once I did what I planned to do.

I undid the first knot on the Finn.

The wall of flames hit Asurter’s shack and it evaporated into steam.

I undid the second knot on the Finn.

The wall hit Asurter and all one hundred feet of the bloke disappeared into nothing.

Now nothing stood between us and cremation.

“VEGA!” Delph screamed.

But I was not listening. I was watching our death coming at us with unfathomable speed and ferocity.

I undid the third and final knot of the Finn. It was the only one that had not been untied before. And when my fingers let go of the freed string, I wasn’t sure what was worse: the flames...

Or what I had just unleashed.

I was catapulted straight into the sky with such force that I could feel my lungs collapse, my brain spin and my clothes nearly rip from my body. The Finn had been wrenched from my grasp. The wind that was propelling me also shot outward like a titanic wave, and it hit the mighty wall of flames with a cataclysmic blow that I thought nothing could survive. Had I still been ground bound, I was sure I would have disintegrated from the effects of this collision beyond all collisions. It swept over the spot where I had been with such power that I had to close my eyes. I was afraid that my mind could not contain what I was seeing, that it would simply burst if I didn’t stop looking.

But finally, I had to open my eyes. I looked down and froze. It wasn’t just that trees were bent over. It wasn’t that rock was smashed flat. It wasn’t that the fire had been quashed.

Truly, all of those things happened.

But something else happened too.

The entire Blue Mountain was gone. It was laid flat as the palm of my hand. There was nothing left. And not only were the flames extinguished, but there was not even a wisp of smoke left. The air was as clear as I had ever seen it.

And I had a bird’s-eye view of this, because I was nearly a mile high. It had nothing to do with Destin because all the others were up there with me. Delph, Lackland, Petra and Harry Two. We were all suspended in the sky as though ropes from above had glided down and encircled us. Next to us our tucks floated in the air.

Everything in the path of the Finn’s third knot of power was gone. As far as the eye could see ahead, there was nothing. It was like someone had rolled up the Fifth Circle and taken it away.

And then, as quickly as the mighty wind had come, it left us.

And we started to fall as though the ropes from above had been severed.

I confess to having been in a trance as I watched everything below us vanquished. But now, as we plummeted to our deaths, the trance ended.

I flipped over in the air, shot to my left, grabbed Harry Two and buckled him in. The others were below me, falling fast. I pointed my head down and shot toward Delph, who was nearest. I pointed my wand and cried out, “Lassado.”

I roped him in and, without missing a beat, zoomed toward Petra and did the same with her. Now only Lackland was left to save. I turned in midair and accelerated toward him.

As I drew nearer, I saw it from the corner of my eye.

A bolt of fire. How could that be? I turned.

Asurter had risen from the flattened earth. How he could have survived the wall of fire and the third knot of the Finn was inexplicable to me. Yet he had suffered, for though he was still a giant, he was no longer aflame. He was but a charred ruin.

But he had some fire left in him and had just hurled it directly at us. I screamed out, “Embattlemento.”

The bolt of fire hit my shield and exploded. Then I pointed my wand at Asurter and said, “Impacto.”

Asurter was blasted into a thousand fragments and was no more.

It was then that I heard the scream and turned back.

In time to see a flailing Lackland strike the ground with an almighty thud.

And then he lay still.

I pointed myself straight down and raced to the dirt, hitting so hard that we all tumbled down. I ran with Harry Two still buckled to my chest and reached Lackland before the others had regained their footing.

I knelt down next to him. His body looked crushed, but he was still alive.

He looked up at me and a strange smile played over his lips.

“We done good, eh?” he managed to mumble.

My hands fished through my pockets for the Adder Stone.

“Just hang on, Lack.”

“Done good, eh,” he said again, more weakly.

“Just hang on.”

“Done good,” he whispered.

I found the Stone and held it over him. “It’ll be okay.”

“Done... eh?” He closed his eyes.

I wished good thoughts, the best I ever had. I waved the Stone over and over his broken body. I kept doing it even as Delph and Petra ran up and knelt down next to us.

“Lack!” said a stunned Petra.

“It’ll be okay,” I snapped. “I’ve got the Stone.”

Delph looked down at Lackland and then gripped my shoulder. “Vega Jane.”

“It’ll be okay,” I said, tears starting to fall down my face.

“Vega Jane,” he said softly.

“It’ll... it’ll... the Stone.”

Good thoughts, Vega. Lack, you’ll be okay. Almost there.

I didn’t see Petra reach down and use her hand to close Lackland’s eyes.

I didn’t see Delph take the Stone from my hand.

I didn’t see Harry Two lie down next to Lackland and nudge his hand with his snout. I didn’t see any of this because I had closed my eyes. I had closed my eyes because I knew if I kept them open a second longer, I would never move from this spot ever again. That I would just die right here.

Right next to Lackland. Who had just died.

The Stone could not bring back the dead. I knew that. I had always known that.

I felt Delph gently help me to my feet and turn me away from the body.

“We’ll take care-a it, Vega Jane. It’ll be okay.”

I went and sat on the ground, my back to them, as they dug the hole and laid Lackland Cyphers into it. Harry Two sat next to me. His snout nudged my hand, but for the first time ever, I did not pet him when he did so.

The sacrifice that everyone had warned me about had just come in the form of a mortal blow to one of us. Death was all around here. But we had always managed to just skirt it. I had known the odds of all of us getting through the Quag were abysmally small. Astrea had told me that. But she needn’t have.

I had not known Lackland long. But I had known him long enough.

And his loss ate at me in the way that such a loss always does. In a way that such a loss always should.

When the last bit of dirt had covered his remains, Delph and Petra rejoined me. “ ’Tis done,” said Delph quietly. “ ’Tis done.”

I opened my eyes at last and looked up at him. Tears stained his face. I looked at Petra and saw the same there.

I looked back at the mound of dirt. I rose and walked over to it and looked down. I pointed my wand, and a chunk of charred wood flew forward and planted itself at the head of the mound. Using my wand as an ink stick, I wrote the words on the wood.

Here lies Lackland Cyphers, a good friend to the end.

Then I placed a shield spell over the mound to keep his final resting place safe.

I turned and looked ahead. With a mountain no longer in the way, our path was quite straightforward now. Though nothing was quite as straightforward as it appeared, was it? Certainly not in this place.

I grabbed my tuck from where it had fallen to the ground, and hoisted it.

I passed by Delph, Petra and Harry Two.

I was changed now. I was different. I could feel it in every crevice of my being. I had been the leader. Yet a reluctant, hesitant, unsure one. Then I had grown more confident, piling victory on top of victory. Thorne and the circles. Now something else had happened. Something catastrophic.

One of the ones I had led, who had trusted me to get him through this safely, now lay dead. Yes, I was changed, completely. And forever.

With my wand in hand, I led the way once more.

To the end.

To the bloody, bloody end.