Keeper of the Realms: Crow's Revenge (Book 1) (33 page)

Charlie was horrified to see that Kelko was actually crying. His big shoulders began to shake, his fat stomach wobbled from side to side and he let out big, blubbing sniffs. Jensen too looked decidedly uncomfortable. He began to pick and pull at his collar as though his shirt had suddenly grown several sizes too small for him.

With a start Charlie realized that the two of them felt guilty!
She was quite sure it should have been the other way around. In fact, she
knew
it should have been. So she did the only thing she could think of, which was to go over and throw an arm around both of her friends and give them a big, big hug.

Everything seemed better after that.

Well, almost everything was better, except that Azariah had this really smug look on his face that seemed to suggest that he had just done the right thing.

Whatever that was.

‘So you’ll be back here in six days?’ said Charlie.

‘Yup,’ said Nibbler.

‘Promise?’

Nibbler rolled his eyes.

‘Promise!’ insisted Charlie, raising an eyebrow.

‘Of course I’ll be back in six days! Nothing to it. Three days there, drop off a letter, get a reply, then three days back. Not a problem.’

‘So you’ll be careful?’

‘Yes, Mum!’

‘Hhmpf.’

Nibbler grinned. Reaching up with his front claws, he checked that the letter was still firmly tied to his back. Then, throwing one last cheeky grin at Charlie, he leaped to the top of the balcony, stretched his neck so that all the bones in it cricked and cracked … then he toppled forward.

Charlie gasped and rushed over to the balcony.

Nibbler was a streamlined arrow. His green scales gleamed
as he plummeted straight towards one of Sylvaris’s large squares. At the last possible moment he spread his wings wide and shot upward. Soaring over the top of a squat tower, he only just missed slamming into a weathervane, narrowly dodged a trundling cart that was passing over a bridge and almost clipped a startled Tree Singer as he stood working on a walkway. With a delighted laugh that echoed back to Charlie’s ears, the winged troublemaker disappeared into the distance.

‘Well, looks like young Nibbler got off OK,’ said Jensen, giving Charlie a quick, reassuring pat on her back. ‘So, then, ya have been in Sylvaris for, wot, five days? And from wot I’ve heard ya’ve hardly seen any of it, so how about a proper tour? Ya know, get ta see the real Flower of Deepforest?’

Charlie’s eyes lit up.

‘Or wot about a decent game of K’Changa?
I
heard ya haven’t been getting enough practice lately,’ offered Kelko.

‘Great!’ said Charlie. ‘I wanted to practise my landings so I could stop falling on my –’

‘Gentlemen,’ said Azariah, interrupting. ‘I’m afraid that the young Keeper will not be able to take up these generous offers. At least not until this evening.’

‘And why’s that, then?’ asked Jensen. ‘We haven’t seen her properly in days, Azariah.’

Charlie looked expectantly at the councillor. She was desperate to do both things.

‘Because it is time for the young lady to begin her education as a Keeper,’ he explained. ‘It is time for her to learn – properly this time – the Ways of the Path, the Portal and the Will.’

45

An Education

‘If you do not learn to concentrate, you will never succeed. Pick yourself up and try again.’

Charlie did as she was told. Pushing herself into a kneeling position, she gritted her teeth and heaved her weary body upright. She wanted to groan as her muscles protested. She felt torn and bruised and she had a harsh headache, the kind that felt as though hot needles were being stabbed repeatedly through her skull.

‘Good. Now focus your Will. Control it. Use it! Show me what you can do!’

Azariah was no easy teacher.

All morning and for most of the afternoon the two of them had been hard at work in Azariah’s garden. First Charlie had learned all about the theory of the Will, the Way and the Paths. Theory had been easy but the practical aspect of it was taking a little longer to master. Once again all she had managed to do was set her hands glowing and when Azariah had instructed her to open a Portal the best that she could do was make the air shimmer and wobble. Charlie was beginning to lose her patience.

‘It’s not fair! I’m doing exactly what you tell me to do
but I still can’t get the Portal to open. What’`s wrong? Why isn’t it working?’

‘Not fair? Not fair?’ mimicked Azariah. ‘Nothing in life is ever fair, Charlie Keeper! But that has nothing to do with our lessons for today. The reason why it is not working is because you are not concentrating hard enough. I want to see you focus like you mean it. Now try harder!’

‘Harder?’ muttered Charlie to herself. ‘I’ll show him harder!’

Angry with herself for constantly failing and furious with Azariah for nagging her, Charlie sucked all her temper into a small, compact ball of rage and focused. Really focused.

The light from her hands intensified. Blossoming, it spread across the width of Azariah’s beautiful garden. Creasing her forehead into a frown, Charlie concentrated like crazy.

‘So he wants a Portal?’ murmured Charlie. ‘To Jensen’s house? No problem!’

Straining her Will into an even tighter knot, she grunted as sweat began to bead across her face. She focused intensely on where she wanted to go … and suddenly something inside her seemed to go click.

The air above Azariah’s prized T’ellis-T’ellis bush rippled and shimmered, then tore itself open. The light from Charlie’s hands flared into brilliance, washing the garden, herself and Azariah in a warm golden glow. The fissure in the air quivered as though uncertain, then steadied and grew firm.

She’d done it, she’d opened a Portal!

‘Wot in Leaf and Shade is dis? Wotcha think ya doing?’ squawked a startled voice.

Jensen went white with shock and tried to dive deeper
beneath the soapy suds of his bathtub. Waves of water went splashing over the side. Orchid leaves, bath salts, bubbles and a little rubber duck went slipping and sliding across the floor.

‘Have ya no decency! Can ya not let a hard-working Treman enjoy his bath in peace?’ squealed Jensen as he frantically pulled more bubbles about his waist. ‘Shut that blooming Portal before anyone else sees! Shut it dis distant!’

Charlie was so shocked by the sight that she released her hold on the Portal. It sprang shut like the jaws on a bear trap and the force sent Charlie reeling backwards to slam quite heavily against a small sapling.

‘Oof!’

Delicate copper- and bronze-coloured leaves fell to the ground, Charlie plucked some loose debris from her hair and sighed.

‘You must not simply let go of a Portal!’ scolded Azariah. ‘You must Will it to go, which is what I have been repeatedly telling you.’ He stared disdainfully down as his young student. ‘Now then, if you would be so good as to get out of my Idryllis bush. Carefully! Good. Very well … where were we?’

‘Ooh! Why is this lesson going so badly?’ moaned Charlie in dismay. ‘I never seem to get anything right! This … this power, it seems to randomly switch on and off whenever it wants. I just can’t seem to control it.’

Azariah pulled a stern face and placed his hands on his hips. His beard bristled and his forehead wrinkled into a deep scowl. Suddenly he threw back his head and roared out a deep, chuckling laugh.

‘Oh, Charlie. You have done well. So very, very well! To be honest, I was shocked by how quickly you picked up the basics, and so I have pushed you much further than any other novice. For you to be able to open a Portal this early, even for a few brief seconds, is astonishing! Frankly, young Keeper, I am very, very impressed.’

‘You are?’

‘Yes, Charlie Keeper, I am. Of course your technique is sloppy and the application of your Will is totally inadequate. Not to mention that your self-doubt leads you to stumble and cause foolish mistakes, but all of these errors are elementary and will improve with time.’

‘But how come I can only use it some of the time? Why is it that it never seems to work when I really, really need it?’

‘When you really need it? Young lady, I don’t think you quite realize just how often you have already used your Will since arriving in Bellania.’

‘I have?’

‘Yes, you have.’

‘When?’

‘When? Just think back to your house. There was a door, was there not? A door that led you from Earth to Bellania? That, Charlie Keeper, was a Gateway. Only by focusing your Will could you have opened such a door.’

‘No, no. That’s not what happened at all! I’m sure it was Jensen or someone else who opened the door. I screamed and shouted at it, but it only opened when I said “please”.’

‘Hhmm. Well, of course “please” is the magic word and if you say it often enough and in the right circumstances it’ll get you far in the world.’

‘Are you serious? If I say “please” I can open Gateways?’ gasped Charlie with wide eyes. ‘Wow!’

‘Er … no, young Keeper.’ Azariah coughed and tried to hide his smile behind his hand. ‘I was only joking about it being the magic word.’

‘So it’s not magic?’

‘Young Keeper! No, it is not magic! I have told you before, what we do is the practical application of a science. There is no mumbo-jumbo involved. There is no waving of hands and mumbling of incantations! The word “magic” is for idiots who do not accept powers that their feeble intellect cannot comprehend,’ scoffed Azariah. ‘The Way of the Will is an art, a science. Cast your mind back. You were in the Hall of Doorways and you were faced with a Door that would not open. You desperately wanted it to open. In fact, you needed it to open in order to save your life, correct?’

‘Yes,’ said Charlie in a small voice.

‘And did you feel anything at the time?’

‘Anger, frustration. Fear … rage.’

‘Hhmm. All very powerful emotions. And emotions such as those will focus the Will like nothing else. Which, Charlie, is exactly what happened. Your fear of Bane, mixed with your anger and rage, caused your mind to really focus on the matter at hand. Which was to escape. It was your Will that first opened the Door, allowing you to escape, and it was your Will that shut the Door to bar Bane’s way.’

‘It was?’

‘Yes, young lady, and that impossible jump you made on to the Torn Bridge … Remember when you were fleeing from the Shades in Willow Tower? That too was fuelled by
your Will. And, of course, let us not forget when you were trapped on the same bridge, with no chance of escape, what was it that you really needed?’

‘Help?’

‘Exactly! It was your need that caused the pendant to awaken Nibbler and it was your Will that alerted me to your predicament. Will, young lady, is the key to your survival, and don’t you ever forget it. Now then, before I release you to spend the rest of the day with Jensen and Kelko, I believe a reward is due for all your hard work.’

Charlie looked surprised. ‘A reward?’

‘Yes, young Keeper. I believe it is time for us to go shopping.’

46

Dark Schemes

‘Mother, surely not all of the Jade Circle were fooled?’ said Stix. ‘Some of them must have realized we have joined with Bane. We must do something and we must do it fast.’

‘I am well aware of the risks involved,’ snapped Narcissa. ‘But all is not lost. We have access to Bane’s wealth, remember. We can use it to begin bribing councillors and buying votes. Flint will assist us in this.’ She smiled as a thought came to mind. ‘If we are lucky we might even be able to buy enough councillors that we can strip Lady Dridif of her title and have me as First Speaker. Imagine! It would be me, not her, ruling Sylvaris.’

‘What about the council members who can’t be bribed?’ asked Stones.

‘If they won’t see reason we can blackmail them. Whatever it takes to win over the Jade Circle. But the councillors are not our main adversaries, the Keepers are. We must get the pendant! Everything else is secondary.’

‘Do you want us to go around to Azariah’s house and slit their throats?’ asked Stix, straight-faced.

‘Or burn his house down with them still in it?’ added Stones.

‘No! Are you stupid?’ Narcissa took a deep breath and
continued calmly. ‘Killing a Keeper as powerful as Azariah will be no easy task. As strong and as skilled as the two of you are, you are no match for such an experienced master. Which is why we will wait for Bane’s mysterious servant to arrive. Once the servant is here we will be powerful enough to confront the Keepers directly. Until then we will follow Bane’s instructions. I will use Constantina to humiliate Charlie and ensure that she fails to endear herself to the people of Sylvaris. At the same time I will continue to use Sylvaris’s outdated laws to our advantage.’