The Keep

  Grasping it tightly, he began to climb up, ever-conscious of the creatures lurking beneath the water below. He just hoped that it would hold, that the knots were tied tight enough, as he pressed on.

  A quarter of the way up the rope, the ache of his muscles made itself known again. After so much suffering, he was surprised he'd even made it that far by himself. Staring up toward the window, his arms shaking with the strain of hauling his body up the rope, he realized he wasn’t going to make it under his own steam; he needed help, or he was going to fall again.

  “Pull me up!” he yelled.

  The bedsheets began to move in a jerky motion. It was a nerve-wracking ascent, the fabric straining as he got higher and higher, the knots above his head looking less and less sturdy with every foot he moved away from the moat. At one point, he thought he heard the sound of something ripping, the noise convincing him that he was headed for another nasty fall.

  All he could do was cling tight and hope he reached the window ledge before the sheets gave way. It drew nearer, and he could see the relieved faces of his friends as they continued to pull. It was a relief to him too, and he smiled as he came within a few inches of the sill.

  This time, the ripping sound was unmistakable as the last bedsheet tore away from the one above it. The relieved faces turned to expressions of panic. Alex felt himself falling again, before an arm shot out, lightning fast, and he reached up to grasp it. Agatha held him firmly, her hand gripped in a vise around his with surprising strength. Glancing down, he saw the sheet fall toward the moat, dancing on the breeze like a ghost. The sight made his stomach turn.

  “Pull me up,” he rasped, looking up to meet Agatha’s green eyes.

  “With pleasure,” Agatha replied, hauling him up over the window ledge and back into the relative safety of the prison. Alex had never been so happy to feel hard stone beneath his cheek.

  Chapter 6

  After a brief rest and a much-needed shower, Alex returned to the fray, against his better judgment. Over the next few days, they scoured as many floors as they could, following the roughly sketched map of suitable hallways that Vincent and Agatha had drawn out for them. It seemed their rough idea of safe passageways was in need of updating, as they ended up running into countless traps from the depths of Caius’s box of trickery, ducking swarms of flying golden arrows and powerful waves of force fields that knocked the air right out of them. Not to mention the pack of golden hounds that chased them through at least four floors, their teeth snapping at their heels. Still, Alex pressed on, reviewing the rudimentary map that was beginning to take shape and the crosses upon it that signaled traps. They managed to reach as far down as a subterranean floor of mildewed, yet-to-be-filled cells, only to be faced with a black swell of bats that triggered the tremble of the ground beneath them, sending them sprinting back the way they had come.

  Back in the comfort of the tower room, after a particularly nasty encounter with a jet of toxic gas that had left their throats raw and their eyes running, Alex realized there were just too many unknowns in Kingstone Keep. Glancing down at the map in his hands, he saw that most of the floors were covered in more crosses than there was room for. He hated to admit it, but Lintz had been right—the risk was too great. They needed a better way to track down the essence, instead of blindly scouting the whole prison in search of it.

  Lintz had disappeared after the moat incident, claiming there was something he needed to attend to, but Alex knew the professor had every right to say, “I told you so.” Still, even given the opportunity, the old man hadn’t said any such words. He just seemed relieved that Alex was still in one piece.

  Demeter and Vincent had stayed in the tower room to review the notes they had compiled about the keep’s layout. Alex almost wanted to tell them not to bother; there was no point in pretending they could find the essence using their current strategies—not before one of them got killed.

  “So what do you suggest we do now?” Aamir asked the group sullenly. “We’ve mapped out this whole place, searched every corridor—well, the ones that haven’t tried to murder us. I’ve yet to stumble across any secret passageways, and Jari has been completely unhelpful.”

  “What! I take one nap, and now I’m ‘unhelpful?’” Jari snapped, using air quotes.

  “You locked me in the guard’s toilet, you dunce,” Aamir retorted. “I swear, I thought I was going to suffocate.”

  “I let you out eventually, didn’t I?”

  “Should we just give up on the idea of going home, then?” Ellabell asked suddenly. Her quiet words brought a hush about the room. Even Jari didn’t have a quip for what they all knew to be a hopeless situation. Alex swallowed hard. He wanted to comfort her, to assure everyone that they would find a way out soon. But how could he, when he had no such hope himself?

  From the well of despair, an idea slowly began to come to him, materializing in his mind—another way of tracking down the essence. He was certain Caius had the essence, or would keep it close by, as all his royal brethren did.

  “We need to think of a way to make Caius tell us where the bottles are,” Alex announced, breaking the tension.

  The others looked at him as if he were mad, but Demeter seemed more optimistic as a thoughtful expression flashed across his eyes.

  “If I was given the right opportunity, I might have a way of making Caius talk,” he replied cryptically. There was a dark glimmer in the ex-teacher’s eyes that intensified Alex’s curiosity as to what Demeter’s “special skillset” actually was.

  “Really?” asked Alex. He could understand the bewildered expression in his friends’ eyes; Caius was a dangerous, terrifying mage—the last person they wanted to meet in this dark place. But time was ticking, and Alex didn’t know how they would escape before Alypia arrived if they didn’t figure out how to glean the essence’s location from the one person who knew. He just hoped that, if they did come face-to-face with him, they would all be able to hold their nerve—and escape alive.

  Demeter nodded, all eyes now on him. “It would be extremely dangerous, but I think I can make him talk if we can find him... Tracking him down will be tricky, however.”

  “Can it be done?” Natalie asked.

  “There are areas of the prison that Caius visits sometimes, on the few occasions he comes to the keep, so I suppose we could stake out those places and take him by surprise, spring on him when he appears,” Demeter suggested.

  “Sounds like a lot of waiting around,” Jari mumbled, evidently not as impressed by the plan as everyone else.

  Demeter nodded. “It would definitely be a lot of waiting around, and the man is unpredictable at best. When I say, ‘visits sometimes,’ I mean once in a full moon, but I think it’s our best option if we wish to catch him.”

  “It is ‘blue moon,’ I believe,” muttered Natalie.

  Demeter frowned. “Is it?”

  The refreshed news of Caius’s evasiveness came as a blow to Alex’s boosted optimism. He was already on edge from the influence of the barrier, Alypia’s impending arrival, and the events of the past few days, all these things feeding his anxieties and bristling his nerves, but he knew he had to force down the spike of irritation threatening to rise through him. Balling his fists until his nails pressed into the flesh of his palms, he focused on calming his nerves.

  It’s just the barrier making me feel this way. I’m the one in control of my emotions, not the barrier. Not even my missing piece of soul.

  “Don’t be disheartened, Alex Webber,” Vincent spoke up. “You have myself and Agatha to assist in your endeavors now, and we have keener eyes than most. Rats always emerge from their hidey-holes, and I know a few spots he likes to frequent.”

  “Bad news, my friends!” A frazzled Lintz burst through the door of the tower room and threw a bagful of beetles on the table. A dark cloud of anxiety hovered about him, and it only served to reignite Alex’s concerns.

  “Are you okay, Professor?” Alex asked.

  Lintz
wiped sweat from his brow. “I’m afraid our time may have just been cut shorter.”

  “Why, what’s the matter?” Jari pressed.

  “Well, someone is constantly trying to open a portal to the keep. It’s happened twice in the last hour, and I fear if they continue to increase their efforts it will end up taking much of everyone’s time, layering more magic into the beetles and fixing them up when they break, which they keep doing. If we keep at it, we’ll all end up running around like headless chickens, responding to beacons and making sure the portals have been properly closed. Eventually, someone will make a tiny mistake, and Alypia will get through… I just know it. And my beetles won’t last forever. One missed portal, and we’re done for.”

  “We have to find Caius!” Alex said, realizing they needed the Kingstone essence sooner than ever before. He quickly filled in the professor on what they had decided to do where Caius was concerned. Lintz listened intently, but didn’t seem pleased by the prospect.

  “If Caius wants to stay hidden then there’s nothing we can do,” he said.

  “We’ll find him,” Alex insisted, trying to boost his own morale. “Our only hope is to find Caius. We’ll quadruple our efforts to smoke him out, even if that means staking out every possible corridor where he might be, every minute of every day. Vincent, you said you know some places he likes to go?”

  Vincent looked at Alex, a twinkle of admiration in his eyes. “Indeed. I’ll lead you to those spots, if you wish.”

  “Yes,” Alex replied, grateful for the necromancer’s presence. “And those who aren’t on a shift seeking Caius should help Lintz with portals and beetles, to try to ease some of the strain,” he added through gritted teeth, hoping the others wouldn’t notice the tension in his body as he spoke. “And in case any of us finds him or herself with a bit of free time in between all this, we brush up on our skills to stay sharp. Okay?”

  “Sounds perfectly viable!” Demeter agreed, but not even the teacher’s calming presence could soothe another bolt of annoyance that pulsed through Alex, provoked by the barrier magic all around him.

  The others were similarly enthusiastic, and they all agreed to take an hour to regroup before setting off with Vincent to begin staking out Caius’s usual haunts. The necromancer had informed them he had a personal task to attend to, but he would return for them when the hour was up, to show them the royal’s preferred spots. Alex needed the time to gather his thoughts, to try to keep a lid on the strange anger that kept spiking up and overwhelming him.

  He stumbled over to the rudimentary kitchen area that had been set up in the corner and made himself a cup of tea. His friends disbanded, flashing concerned looks in his direction, though he chose to ignore them as best as he could and focus on the practical task before him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aamir and Jari leave the tower completely, while Ellabell and Natalie went off to one side, moving into the most open space in the tower room and taking up sparring stances. Alex could hear the crackle and whoosh of golden magic moving through the air behind him. He was glad they were spending the time to practice for whatever lay ahead, as he’d suggested—but instead of watching their duel, he focused his mind, returning it to a calmer state, slowly breathing in and breathing out.

  He could have stayed that way, silently meditating. It was only when he caught sight of Ellabell out of the corner of his eye, sprawling backward onto the hard stone, that he whirled around to see what was going on. A yelp of pain left her lips as she fell. Golden wisps of magic twisted around her, constricting her throat, making her eyes bulge behind her glasses as her body lifted itself back up again, though it didn’t seem to be Ellabell who was in control of her body. She rose as if possessed.

  Glancing toward Natalie, Alex saw her hands turning quickly in neat, deft movements, manipulating Ellabell like a puppet, as if she held the marionette strings between her fingers and was making Ellabell dance to her bidding.

  “Natalie,” Ellabell pleaded, her voice raspy as she tried to force words through lips not controlled by her own mind anymore. “Natalie, stop,” she repeated, a little louder.

  “I did it!” Grinning with delight, Natalie twisted her hands sharply, stopping the spell in an instant. But the suddenness of the spell’s removal seemed to come as a surprise to Ellabell, as the bespectacled girl collapsed to the floor.

  “Sorry, I got a bit carried away,” Natalie said, still smiling. “You’re okay, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay—” Ellabell winced as she tried to stand.

  Alex ran over, his fury bristling again, though this time for a more valid reason. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

  “Natalie, what the hell?” he yelled, helping Ellabell up off the ground.

  “What? You were just saying we need to keep our skills from getting rusty!” she retorted, looking at Alex as if he were the crazy one.

  “Yes, but you hurt Ellabell,” he snapped. “We can’t afford unnecessary injury!”

  Natalie rolled her eyes. “Ellabell is fine. Stop overreacting.”

  “She could have cracked her head open on the floor—you could have strangled her! You don’t realize how strong you are sometimes,” he growled, propping Ellabell up on a nearby chair. She seemed fine, and even tried to grasp his hand to get his attention, but Alex’s focus was elsewhere.

  “If it were anyone else, you would not have a problem,” Natalie said, suddenly defensive. “Ellabell can handle herself, you know. She is not a damsel in need of rescuing.”

  “Don’t make this about me, Natalie. You just wanted to try out something dark and dangerous and thought you’d use Ellabell as a guinea pig.” Alex was raging now, struggling to keep a lid on his anger. He felt Ellabell tugging on his arm.

  “I’m fine, Alex. Honestly, we were just practicing something Natalie learned at Stillwater. I knew what I was getting into,” she said.

  Alex didn’t dare voice his thoughts on Natalie’s magical predilections, worried it would come out of his mouth as a torrent of accusation and irritation. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he didn’t feel like himself with so much anger coursing through his veins. It wasn’t him.

  Turning back to Natalie, he caught a flash of something in her eyes that unsettled him, as if she were biting her tongue again, longing to say something but preventing herself, much the same as he was. Frowning, he wondered what it was she wanted to say to him, and was about to encourage her to spew whatever venom she wanted his way, when Jari entered the room. He had left with Aamir when the group disbanded twenty minutes earlier, but Aamir was no longer with him.

  “Where’s Aamir?” Alex asked.

  Jari shrugged. “Dunno. I’m not his keeper.”

  “It’s like trying to wrangle slippery eels,” Alex said under his breath. “Why didn't you two stay here and work on your magic? We’re supposed to be moving out soon, into God knows how much danger—and we don’t have time to waste, waiting for people!” As he spoke, his voice rose into a shout and his fists clenched.

  In the haze of anger that had settled upon him, he was only vaguely aware that he might be blowing the situation out of proportion. All he could think was that his friends simply weren’t taking their situation seriously enough; they seemed frivolous, more than eager to wander off and do as they pleased instead of putting plans into action or coming up with fresh ideas that might help them succeed. That job seemed to perpetually fall upon his shoulders, and he was growing tired of bearing its weight. The whole group was in a great deal of danger, and he had enough on his plate without having to chase after everyone and make sure they weren’t up to no good. He was sick of playing dad to them. Aamir of all people should have known better—he was older than Alex.

  Despite his attempts to smother the feelings roiling inside him, he felt his eyes beginning to burn with white-hot rage.

  “Whoa… dude. Your eyes are, like… glowing,” Jari said, taking a step back.

  Alex turned quickly away from Jari’s g
aze. The barrier and its influence made him feel more out of control than he had felt since he first learned of his strange heritage, to the point that he wasn’t sure he was even governing his own body anymore.

  When Aamir appeared a minute later, Alex strode over, cornering his friend.

  “Where have you been?” he hissed.

  “The bathroom,” Aamir replied evenly, his brow furrowed.

  Alex moved in close, his face mere inches from Aamir’s. “You had better not be up to your old tricks again,” he whispered.

  Aamir stared at Alex, his expression a mix of surprise and confusion. “No, of course not,” he said, lowering his voice. “I was just in the bathroom, as I said. I passed Lintz on the way there—you can ask him.”

  Alex couldn’t decide what to believe as he tried to focus on his friend’s face, seeking out any sign of a lie. His mind felt so clouded, and his chest ached dully, jolting sharply every so often and refreshing the pain. Before he knew what he was doing, Alex lunged forward and grasped Aamir roughly by the shoulders.

  “If you ever betray us again, you’ll wish you’d never been born,” he growled.

  It shocked Alex, and everyone else in the room by the looks on their faces, to hear the words pouring from his mouth. He quickly let go of Aamir, an expression of abject horror on both their faces. It was entirely out of character for Alex, and he didn’t know where it had come from or what had prompted him to say it—he felt as if he were watching a twisted version of himself from behind a glass screen, unable to stop his avatar from lashing out.

  “The Head has no control over me now. I would never betray you,” said Aamir steadily, though his breath hitched, and his expression showed deep distress at Alex’s outburst. “Are you feeling okay?” He reached for Alex’s shoulder.

  Alex wrenched his arm away. “It’s just the air,” he murmured. “I can’t breathe. I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I’ll be back… I’m sorry.” He rushed from the room, hoping his friends wouldn’t hate him upon his return. He felt like a hypocrite now and loathed the fact that he was wasting valuable time, but he knew he couldn’t spend a moment longer in that room, feeling as he did.