Multiverse Mashup Omnibus, page 78
I sighed, thinking of how far I had gotten sidetracked. Not that what I had been doing wasn’t important, but it hadn’t brought me any closer to fulfilling my mission. I still had no idea how the kids had gotten to this world in the first place. I shook my head, clearing out the cobwebs.
“But once a new Keeper of All is installed, whoever it is will have to choose a new Keeper of Peace. I can’t stick around here forever.”
“A new Keeper of All? But we have Keeper Sally.”
I shook my head. “Keeper Sally can’t stick around either. The other Keepers are meeting now, figuring out how to legally transfer Keepership without triggering the Lacunae again. They need to put a plan together before Sally has to swear the Oath.”
I dropped my undergarments and kicked them away, thinking about that meeting. Coin was pressuring Sally to swear the Oath right away out of fear of the Lacunae, but everyone else was confident that the wraiths were gone. The Oath was required, but it wasn’t what made a Keeper a Keeper. The Claiming ceremony did that, and there was no record of Lacunae ever reappearing between the Claiming ceremony and the Oath-taking ceremony.
The Keepers didn’t understand why Sally couldn’t stay and rule. Secrets wanted to tell them about Sally’s otherworldly origins, and I was beginning to think she was right. I didn’t want to just steal Sally away and leave them with another crisis.
“Er, Keeper,” Dimka said. The teenaged Peaceful was looking down at my feet. “Did you want anything else?”
“Sorry, Dimka, what? I was miles away.”
He looked up. His cheeks were bright red. I realized I had just casually stripped naked in front of the kid while we were alone in my bedchamber, and then stood there in front of him, completely silent.
“Oh! Sorry, sorry, Dimka. Hold on. I was getting dressed and got distracted.”
I put my hand on the pile of gloves and concentrated. My spanner sent a signal to the material and it began to flow up my arm and down my body. After a moment, I was dressed again in a duplicate of my Keeper of Peace uniform. “There we go.”
Dimka’s mouth hung open. “Sorcery!”
“Yeah, sure, if you want.”
“I heard you made the gloves from your own clothes, but I thought…I thought…” He laughed. “I don’t know what I thought, but not that!”
“Cool trick, right? Sorry about the casual nudity. Feel free to file a complaint with human resources.”
I opened the door to the main room before he could ask me what human resources was. Cuna and the kids were sitting at the table, waiting for me. Cuna jumped to her feet when I entered.
“Jed,” she said. “When you return Sally and Billy to their world, I must accompany them.”
“Whoa. One thing at a time, Cuna. None of us are going anywhere until I figure out how they got here.”
“But she’ll be able to come with us, won’t she, Jed?” Sally asked. “When we go home?”
“Well, that’s kind of a problem.” I saw the looks on all three of their faces and my heart sank. “I can’t take anyone anywhere, myself. Once my mission is over, other agents from the Crossroads will come and take Billy and Sally home. But my people have rules. They’ll only transport refugees. People who are stranded in the wrong universe.”
Cuna folded her arms. “Unacceptable. You must persuade them. I have sworn an Oath to protect the children. I cannot do that if we are in different worlds.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “I can put in a request for an exception. Sometimes if someone was affected by the cross-universal event in a way that means they can’t remain in their own world…”
I trailed off, thinking. That was how I had gotten Kud, my merboy friend, relocated to the Crossroads – he had been altered by magic from another universe, into a form that couldn’t survive in his own magic-less world. But the same didn’t apply to Cuna. My bosses wouldn’t see her Oath as reason enough.
“I’ll think of something,” I said finally.
All three looked ready to argue, but a knock on our door saved me. I ran across the large chamber to answer it, grateful for the reprieve. Behind me, I heard Dimka asking something about other worlds, but nobody answered him.
The Keeper of Seas’ smiling face awaited me as I opened the door. The weathered, gray-haired woman gave me a solid, friendly cuff across the shoulder in greeting and stepped into the room. I grimaced and bit back the pain. The Keeper of Body had treated my wounds with some mysterious concoction, but I was still plenty sore.
“Peace!” she shouted. “Well done! I can’t believe I missed all that!”
“Thanks, Seas,” I said. “You just get back?”
She nodded. “Saw the last of the Keblian ships off.” She barked out a hearty laugh. “Sailing back to Keblia with their tails between their legs! Lost without their Flor.”
“Glad to hear it.”
She whistled. “History, a traitor. I never would have thought it. Are you coming to this Keepers meeting? I think I’m late.”
I shook my head. “I won’t be a Keeper for much longer. I thought it was better to leave the rest of you to it.”
“Lucky you. These things are boring as…” She spotted Sally and stopped short. “Oh! My most sincere apologies, Highness, I did not see you.” She knelt and bowed her head. “Congratulations to you, Keeper of All. The Promised God keep you.”
Sally looked nervously at Billy, who nodded for her to say something.
“Thank you, Keeper of Seas.” Sally got up from her seat and curtsied. “Um. Please get up.”
Seas laughed and stood. “Thank you, Keeper. I’m not as young as I was and my knees don’t care for the feel of hard stone.”
“Is everyone going to kneel to me?” Sally asked.
“I’m afraid there’s going to be a lot of kneeling in your future, Highness.”
“Oh.” She looked up at her bodyguard. “You won’t treat me any different, will you, Cuna?”
Cuna smiled down at her. “Never, little one.”
Behind them, Dimka drew his sword. His face had gone stark white and he was staring at something above me. “Promised God keep us!”
A Lacuna was floating above us, near the ceiling. Its face was a bleached skull which shifted to a rotting mass of flesh before our eyes. It cast its gaze around the room, searching for a victim.
“No,” Seas said. “No, damn it, it can’t be. We have a Keeper of All. It can’t be.”
“Yet it is.” Cuna stepped forward. “Everyone, stay behind me. A Lacuna was felled by my touch before. This one will share its fate.”
I extended my uniform out to cover my hands, cursing myself for having taken my gloves back from the Peaceful so quickly. I had left the city defenseless. Through the doors leading out to the patio I could already hear the screams of citizens caught unprepared.
Everyone gathered in a group, putting Cuna and me between themselves and the Lacuna. I took my gloves off and tossed them to Dimka, but before I could form another, the Lacuna chose its target and swooped down from the ceiling.
It headed straight for Cuna. It wasn’t looking beyond her – it had chosen the Avowed. She braced herself, but we all expected the creature to dissipate when it touched her, as had happened in the Keepers’ meeting room.
Instead, the wraith slashed its bony, clawed fingers and scratched a gash across her cheek. She swung a fist in turn, but it just passed through the creature. The Lacuna wrapped its hands around Cuna’s throat and squeezed.
I jumped in, thrusting my arms into the specter’s body, while Dimka grabbed its hands. To me it felt like passing through ooze but to the Lacuna it was agony. The creature shrieked and pulled back, floating up to the ceiling again. It never took its eyes off Cuna.
I made another pair of gloves and gave them to the Avowed. “I thought you were immune.”
“As did I.” She put the gloves on. “It seems we were wrong.”
Through the still-open doorway, Secrets and Coin barreled into the room, bolting for Cuna.
“If you seek the Avowed’s protection,” Seas said, “it’s worn off.”
“What?” Coin stopped short, gaping at the Lacuna. “But she kept us safe before!”
The creature swooped down on Cuna again, but she was ready, and punched it away.
Secrets kept going, joining the children and Seas. She put her arms around the kids and watched the wraith with a fearful expression.
Cuna swatted the Lacuna away, then shook her head at Secrets. “Hiding behind the children again? I had come to think you had more mettle in you than that, Keeper.”
Secrets’ jaw clenched, but she didn’t say anything.
And then something clicked for me.
“She does,” I said. “Secrets, you weren’t hiding behind the children before. You were protecting them.”
“Nonsense.” Secrets looked away. “Bravery isn’t part of my Oath.”
“Last time, right before Cuna repelled the Lacuna, you stumbled up onto the platform, with the children. You made it look like an accident, but…” I snapped my fingers. “And right before that, History fell into you! I’ll bet that wasn’t an accident either! He knew, didn’t he? He wasn’t worried about summoning the Lacunae because he knew you could protect him!”
She yawned. “I’ve no idea what you’re on about, Jed.”
“Keep going, Jed!” Billy said. “I think I get it! Gosh, how did we miss it?”
“Because she never slipped up,” I said. “Not really. No clues hiding in plain sight. Just a woman who isn’t as cold-hearted as she likes people to think.”
Cuna and Dimka were still busily keeping the Lacuna at bay. “If you might make your case a little more quickly, Jed,” Cuna said, “it would be appreciated.”
“There is no case to be made,” Secrets said. “Coin and I came here when the Lacunae reappeared because we sought the Avowed’s protection.”
“Coin did, sure,” I said. “But you…you were always with Cuna and the kids whenever the Lacunae attacked.”
“As I said—”
“For protection, sure. And if Cuna hadn’t just been bloodied by one of them I might still believe you. But if she’s not warding them off…”
The Lacuna, struck by Dimka’s glove, flew across the room. It passed through Coin, who squealed in fear and ran to join us. The Lacuna reared back and charged Cuna once again.
I grabbed Secrets, pinning her arms to her side, and shoved her in front of the group, directly in the Lacuna’s path.
“No!” Secrets cried, throwing up her hands.
The Lacuna hit her and vaporized. It turned into a puff of gray smoke and didn’t reform.
Everyone was still. Secrets slowly lowered her arms.
“Coincidence,” she said softly. “The wave must have ended right at that moment.”
“Coincidence?” Coin yelled. “Are you addled, woman? We can still hear the screams from the city! The wave continues! Have you been able to protect us all this time?”
“Go easy on her,” I said. “I’m guessing her Oath requires her to protect this secret. To lie to keep it from being uncovered.”
Secrets folded her arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Is she behind the Lacunae?” Seas asked. “Does she summon them? Is that why they first attacked so soon after Ustoffe’s death, and why they return now?” She grabbed Secrets roughly by the arm. “You and History were friends. Were you a part of his plot? Do you seek to destroy the Kept Lands as well?”
“Wait,” I said. “She can’t defend herself. She may be innocent. I don’t want what happened with Neema to happen again.” I started pacing. “All we know is, Secrets is immune to the Lacunae. And she knows why, but her Oath forbids her from telling us. She has to lie to us to keep us away from the truth.”
“The Lacunae are a pretty big mystery, Jed,” Sally said. “We read all about them in History’s books, but nobody knows why they started appearing.”
“Right,” Billy said. “They only figured out the rules by trial and error.”
“When did they first appear?”
“A few generations after the Kept Lands were founded,” Sally answered. “The third Keeper of All died with no heir, and there was a really awful civil war and a lot of people died. The next time there was no heir was when the seventh Keeper of All died, and that’s when the Lacunae appeared for the first time.”
“The first wave,” Seas said. “We learn about this as children. It was thousands of years ago.”
“The third Keeper…” I said. “So the first Keeper after that war would have been the fourth.”
“Bravo, you can count to four,” Coin said. “Perhaps you should be Keeper of Coin. Shouldn’t we be gathering everyone around Secrets, if she can keep us safe? And passing those gloves of yours back out?”
“I’d rather put a stop to this, once and for all,” I said. “There’s something History told me…about the fourth Keeper…”
And then it hit me.
“I know where we need to go,” I said. “I know what’s bringing the Lacunae here!”
One last time, then. This one just for me.
HOW DID I KNOW WHAT WAS SUMMONING THE LACUNAE…AND WHAT WAS IT?
Twenty-six
I didn’t get the chance to explain. Two more Lacunae flew into the room, one through a wall, one rising up through the floor. The first targeted Dimka, the second flew straight for me. We swung at them with our gloves and they backed away, but quickly attacked again.
Secrets turned away, burying her face in her hands.
Seas grabbed her arm roughly and shook her. “Damn it, Secrets! Help them!”
Secrets pulled away. “There’s nothing I can do. I have no power over the Lacunae.”
“She can’t help,” Sally said. “She has to keep pretending or she’ll break her Oath!”
“If she can’t help willingly, she’ll help unwillingly!”
Seas shoved Secrets into Dimka. The Lacuna attacking him tried to float away but was too slow. Secrets stumbled through it and it vanished into gray smoke with a shriek.
We couldn’t keep this up, and we couldn’t keep using Secrets as a shield. “Follow me!” I said.
I ran out into the hallway. My Lacuna blocked my path, but I ran through it. It was disrupted by my uniform and turned partially vaporous, but snapped at my unprotected face. I felt blood drip down my cheek. It shrieked, reformed, and pursued me down the hall.
I could hear the thunder of footsteps behind me as the rest of the group chased after me. We reached a staircase and rushed down a few flights, to the castle’s ground level. We emerged in the main hall leading from the front gate and stopped.
There were hundreds of Lacunae, swirling everywhere. A few were hunting for victims, but most were gathered at the far end of the hall. They floated up and down, back and forth, but stayed in front of the place we needed to get to, blocking the entrance to the Chamber of Unity.
My own personal Lacuna swooped out of the stairwell. Cuna picked Secrets up under the arms and swung her right through it. The creature vanished in a puff of thick gray smoke.
Cuna dropped Secrets roughly. Secrets staggered against the wall, then stood up and brushed herself off. “Would you please stop hurling me about like a rag doll?”
I made a few more pairs of gloves and tossed them to Dimka. “Pass these out,” I said. “Help as many as you can.”
“Yes, Keeper.” A screaming attendant ran past us, and Dimka started after the wraith that was in pursuit.
“An explanation, please, Peace,” Coin said, panting for breath. “You were taking us to the Chamber of Unity? The Lacunae have other ideas.”
“We have to get in there,” I answered.
“You want to do another Claiming?” Seas asked. “That wouldn’t be legal, not with Sally Tucker still Keeper of All.”
“No, no,” I said. “It’s something History told me. And something Maccus said, too. Maccus told me that most magical objects are very, very old.”
“Aye,” Seas said. “That’s true. Magic is in its dying days in the world, most of us think. But the old artifacts still have power.”
“And that big old gemstone that hangs above the throne. That’s old, right?”
“Aye.” She nodded, then her tanned face lit up. “Oh! And it was given—”
“To the fourth Keeper of All,” I finished. “By his Keeper of Secrets. After the first civil war caused by the lack of an heir.”
“Conjecture,” Coin said. “The Jeweled Bridge has always hung there. It’s purely ornamental.”
“Then why is it called the Jeweled Bridge?” I asked. “Why not the Jeweled Ornament? The Jeweled Shield? The Jeweled Plaque? It doesn’t look anything like a bridge.”
“A bridge lets people cross from one place to another!” Sally said.
“Like the Lacunae,” Billy added. “Crossing from the land of the dead to the land of the living!”
“Hm.” Coin tapped his lip with one finger. “Perhaps. But even if the Jeweled Bridge is the cause of the Lacunae waves, what are we to do about it? And why has it gone so wrong?”
I looked at Secrets, who didn’t meet my gaze. “I have some thoughts on that second question,” I said, “but for the first, I need to get past those Lacunae.”
Seas nodded towards the mass of specters. “They’re not behaving as they usually do. They look like they’re guarding the doors.”
“Then I need to get through them. And I’m going to need some back-up. Cuna, can you—”
“I cannot, Jed. I will not take the children through, nor will I leave them alone at such a time. I am sorry.”
“It’s all right. Coin, Seas, I’ll need you—”
Coin laughed. “You’re joking, surely? I’m not leaving Secrets’ side.”
I sighed. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Seas?”
The old admiral nodded. “I’m with you, Peace. What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to have to hug you.”
She frowned. “This doesn’t seem the time, and my wife’s the jealous sort.”
