Air Keep Read online

  © 2013 J. Scott Savage.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

  Table of Contents

  Front Matter

  What Came Before

  Drought

  Is, Was, Will Be

  Books and Beetles

  A Change of Plans

  Dropping In

  Missing Reflections

  Window to the Soul

  The Is

  The Was

  Good Advice

  The Will Be

  The Time of Shadows

  Pain

  Air Keep

  Return

  Who's at the Door?

  No Time like the Present

  On the Trail

  An Unexpected Ride

  At the Speed of Snail

  Icehold

  Fire and Ice

  Decisions

  Something to Chew On

  Very Punny

  Air Keep

  All Hail the Fuzz Ball

  Ultimatum

  Aerisians

  A Dark Vision

  Traitors?

  Fun and Games

  Finding the Truth

  The Referee

  Exsalusentia

  One Way Back

  Golems and Gallons

  Graehl’s Return

  Memories and Messages

  The Trill Stones Strategy

  A Wet Return

  Flying Hot Dogs

  Attack

  Battle at Terra ne Staric

  An Old Friend

  The Trap

  The Never Was

  A Cold Ride

  The Time for Truth

  Trust

  The Battle

  The Flying Weasel

  Good-bye

  The Cell

  Epilogue

  Glossary

  Discussion Questions

  Acknowledgments

  To Vicki Martin Savage (1938–2012),

  the happiest person I know.

  I love you forever, Mom.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Savage, J. Scott, 1963– author.

  Air keep / J. Scott Savage.

  —(Farworld, book three)

  Summary: Marcus and Kyja continue to search for the Elementals they need to unite to open a drift between Earth and Farworld, but the Air Elementals have a strange sense of humor and with Farworld in the grip of a terrible drought and daily earthquakes, the two friends face untold challenges.

  ISBN 978-1-60907-325-1 (hardbound : alk. paper) 1. Fantasy fiction. [1. Foundlings—Fiction. 2. People with disabilities—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Series: Savage, J. Scott (Jeffrey Scott), 1963– Farworld ; bk. 3.

  PZ7.S25897Air 2013

  [Fic]—dc232012043373

  Printed in the United States of America

  Worzalla Publishing Co., Stevens Point, WI

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  What Came Before

  Water Keep

  Marcus Kanenas is a nobody from nowhere. He is found abandoned near a Greek Orthodox monastery in the Sonoran Desert as a baby. His body has been so badly broken that he is nearly given up for dead. Even after he recovers, the police are unable to discover the identity of the tiny infant. The only clue is a mysterious symbol branded on his shoulder.

  Badly crippled and confined to a wheelchair, Marcus is often the butt of cruel pranks by the other boys in the various schools he attends. The only things that save him from being picked on even more than he is are his willingness to stand up to any odds and some unusual talents that seem almost magical.

  Kyja lives in a world called Farworld where everyone from babies to farm animals has magic—except her. Not only is she incapable of performing any magic whatsoever, but she is immune to its effects as well. Her only friends are Riph Raph, a small dragon-like creature, and Master Therapass, the wizard who helped raise her.

  While trying to find some sliver of magic inside herself, Kyja learns she is in terrible danger and is forced to flee the city of Terra ne Staric. She sees Marcus in a vision and realizes he is about to be killed by a dark wizard named Bonesplinter.

  Desperate to save the boy, Kyja clutches the amulet she has worn since she was a baby—an amulet engraved with the same symbol as the one on Marcus’s shoulder—and sees a golden rope in her mind. She pulls on the rope and brings Marcus to Farworld.

  After narrowly escaping an encounter with a large scorpion-like creature called a mimicker, Kyja and Marcus meet up again with Master Therapass. The wizard reveals a secret he has been hiding for the last thirteen years.

  Marcus was born in Farworld, fulfilling a prophecy. Legend holds that a boy with the brand Marcus wears will save his world from destruction. Aware of his birth, a group of evil wizards known as the Dark Circle conspired to have him killed. Master Therapass and a warrior named Tankum managed to save Marcus from certain death by opening a portal and sending him to Earth.

  But in order to keep the scales balanced, Master Therpass had to bring a person of equal importance from Earth to Farworld—Kyja. Just as Marcus may hold the future of Farworld in his hands, Kyja may hold the future of Earth in hers. What Master Therapass did not foresee was that once Kyja was in Farworld, she could not be sent back because she is immune to magic.

  In order to restore the balance, Marcus and Kyja must return to their own worlds. They soon realize that Marcus isn’t completely in Farworld at all. Kyja’s accidental summoning left part of him trapped in a gray area between the two worlds, where he will be unable to survive for more than a few days without returning to Earth.

  The only way for Marcus and Kyja to save their worlds is for them to open a passageway between both worlds called a drift. This requires the help of four elementals, beings which control water, land, air, and fire magic. But the elementals won’t even talk to humans, much less one another.

  Marcus and Kyja travel toward Water Keep—home of the water elementals—pursued by the Dark Circle. When Master Therapass is attacked by a Summoner, Marcus and Kyja escape by jumping to Earth. It appears the geography of Earth and Farworld are somewhat similar, so Marcus and Kyja can move in one world by traveling to the other world and jumping back. But, like Marcus, Kyja can’t stay away from her world for more than a few days without getting sick so they have to jump between worlds often.

  The Dark Circle—which has already created a passageway usable only by evil wizards—chases them in both worlds. After being captured by a cave trulloch named Screech and nearly dying in the cavern of the Unmakers, Marcus and Kyja ride a frost pinnois named Zhethar to Water Keep.

  Once they arrive at Water Keep, Kyja and Marcus learn the elementals, who call themselves Fontasians, have no interest in helping the cause. In fact, they condemn the children to death for entering the city without permission.

  Marcus and Kyja risk their lives to save a trapped Fontasian named Morning Dew. Intrigued by the children’s actions, several of the water elementals leave Water Keep and save Marcus and Kyja from the Dark Circle army waiting outside the city walls.

  Cascade, the water elemental who controls all moving water, agrees to join Marcus and Kyja on their quest. Marcus hears Master Therapass’s voice in the music of flowers and thinks the wizard might still be alive.

  Land Keep

  Marcus and Kyja, together with Cascade and Riph Raph, leave Water Keep in search of Land Keep. Marcus is getting better at using magic, but he is haunted by a recurring dream in which he destroys Farworld. During their search, they come across the Keepers o
f the Balance. The Keepers use creatures called snifflers from the realm of shadows (the gray place between Earth and Farworld) to take magic from those who are weak and give it to those who are powerful.

  Kyja accidentally touches a sniffler, and, without realizing it, begins to draw away Marcus’s magic. After they flee into a swamp, Marcus is captured by a harbinger. The harbinger takes Marcus into a huge underground cavern where he meets a boy named Jaklah, who tells him the people in the cavern are either criminals or those who ran from the Keepers.

  As Kyja, Riph Raph, and Cascade search for Marcus, they are joined by an unexpected visitor. Screech has been following them since the cavern of the Unmakers. He offers to help find Marcus. Kyja leaves Cascade and Screech in the swamp and descends to the underground cavern where Marcus is trapped.

  They discover the door to Land Keep and manage to open it. Once inside, they learn that Land Keep has been abandoned for thousands of years. Because they are deep underground, Marcus can’t jump back to Earth, and he is getting sicker and sicker. They can’t return to the swamp without being attacked by the harbingers. Their only choice is to enter a doorway that leads to a kind of oracle called the Augur Well.

  Inside the door, they meet an odd little man named Mr. Z, who explains that they can’t get to the Augur Well without passing the land elementals’ quests. As they attempt to pass the tests, Marcus grows weaker while Kyja’s magic gets stronger. In the last test, Kyja is forced to give up the thing she values most—her newfound magic—to save Marcus’s life.

  When they finally reach the Augur Well, the oracle tells them they will never find a single land elemental. At first, they are crushed, but eventually they discover the well’s true meaning. There is no such thing as a single land elemental because each is a combination of two creatures.

  Marcus and Kyja become honorary land elementals, free all the captured people, and return the harbingers to their original forms. After learning that Master Therapass has been imprisoned by the leader of the Keepers, Zentan Dolan, Marcus and Kyja realize they must return to Terra ne Staric.

  Kyja takes Marcus to Earth, where he heals; the two drive a motorcycle and sidecar across the country. Jumping back to Terra ne Staric, Marcus and Kyja are betrayed by Rhaidnan, a close friend of Kyja’s, and turned over to the Keepers who now control the city.

  At first the Keepers—who have been absorbing the magic of other people for years—are too strong to defeat, but when Cascade and a pair of land elementals named Lanctrus-Darnoc arrive, the battle turns. Lanctrus-Darnoc brings the stone statues of all of Terra ne Staric’s most powerful wizards and warriors back to life, including Tankum—the warrior who died saving Marcus. Marcus and Kyja use the confusion of the battle to enter the tower in search of Master Therapass.

  As Kyja hurries to the dungeon to rescue the wizard, Marcus is drawn to the top of the tower. There he finds the Innoris a’Gentoran, a gauntlet only he can use. Mesmerized by the gauntlet’s power, Marcus realizes he can destroy the Dark Circle and heal himself at the same time.

  It is only when Kyja reminds him that the wizard told them their weaknesses are also their strengths that Marcus realizes the gauntlet is powered by stolen magic. Marcus manages to destroy the gauntlet, returning the magic to those it was stolen from, and the zentan attacks him.

  Rhaidnan steps in front of the zentan’s blade, sacrificing his life to save Marcus. Master Therapass and Tankum arrive in time to fight Zentan Dolan.

  After the battle, Marcus and Kyja meet a tall man named Graehl. It turns out that Screech was once a man, but had been turned into a cave trulloch by the Keepers as a punishment. Now that he is human again, he vows to help Marcus and Kyja on their quest. Master Therapass sends Cascade and Lanctrus-Darnoc on an unknown journey.

  The wizard tells Marcus and Kyja that the gray place between their worlds is called the realm of shadows. It is extremely dangerous for Marcus to pass through the realm of shadows because one of his parents was from there. Marcus must return to the monastery on Earth until Master Therapass can find a way to bring him through the realm of shadows safely.

  At the end of book two, the master of the Dark Circle changes Bonesplinter into a Summoner and contacts a pair of land elementals and a water elemental who are apparently working with him.

  Interlude

  Drought

  Jaklah was thinking about water. Filling his mouth. Running down his parched throat. Splashing over his sunburned face and dripping from his hair. Unlike the small supply of warm, dusty liquid sloshing in his waterskin, the water in his imagination was fresh and so cold the very thought of it brought goose bumps to the backs of his arms and cramped his stomach.

  Not yet seventeen, Jaklah was one of the youngest soldiers in the army, but the drought that had dried up entire rivers and had shrunken lakes to little more than ponds affected him as much as the older men. His eyes, gritty with dust, hurt every time he blinked. His parched skin itched constantly, and his lips cracked until they bled.

  Marching across clumps of dead grass and weeds so dry they exploded into tiny brown clouds with every step, he let his mind summon up a crystal lake—icy, blue, and endless. He’d stop on the shore, inhaling the deep, wet aroma. Then he’d stick in just one toe, shivering at how good the water felt on skin that hadn’t experienced more moisture than could be wrung out of a damp rag in what seemed like forever.

  He’d wade in far enough to cover the tops of his feet. Then out to his shins. Waves would slosh against his knees. Finally, when he couldn’t stand it any longer, he’d throw his hat, tear off his shirt and breeches, and—

  Caught up in the wonderful vision playing out in his head, he didn’t notice the rest of the army coming to a halt around him until he ran face-first into the broad back of a stone statue.

  Tankum, a curved blade sheathed behind each of his shoulders, didn’t so much as turn around as Jaklah collided with him. The stone warrior stood with both feet planted in the baked ground, arms folded across his chest like a boulder that just happened to be in the shape of a man. “Brace yourself.”

  At the warrior’s words, Jaklah’s heart began to race. Was this it? After weeks of searching, had they finally come across a band of Keepers and their pet snifflers? Or even better, an unmaker—one of the creatures said to have come from the mysterious world of shadows? His hand went to the nicked iron sword at his waist as he scanned the terrain.

  Nothing. Not even the blurring of air and light that was said to signal the presence of the shadow creatures. Why had the army stopped? The stone wizards and warriors stood in rows and columns safely apart from one another, the horses were hobbled to keep from running, and the men and boys who had joined the army knelt or lay flat on the ground. Only then did Jaklah remember what time it was. His eyes went to the sky.

  The sun was almost directly overhead.

  With a panicked yelp, he dropped to the ground. He found no bushes or rocks to clutch onto, so he dug his fingers into the cracked and broken dirt, hoping that would be enough.

  For a moment everything was perfectly still, as though Farworld itself waited. Then it came, starting as a low rumble in the distance, growing in sound as the stalks of dead grass shook and crumbled to dust and pebbles rattled and bounced. Jaklah pressed to the dirt and closed his eyes.

  Beneath him, the ground rolled and bucked like a wild stallion determined to throw its rider and trample him underfoot. Dust filled his nostrils and caked his throat as the world around him shook and roared. Horses whinnied in terror; wagons groaned.

  He’d experienced these quakes every day for the past six months—as long as it had been since the last rain—but he was still terrified of each one, sure this would be the time the world opened up and swallowed him.

  As though hearing his thoughts, the ground gave a final heave, and a sound like rocks being torn apart roared in his ears.

  “Look out!” a soldier screamed. Jaklah’s eyes flew open.

  Not a dozen steps away, a split nearly
the length of a man across and ten men long had divided the ground. Jaklah’s friend Theyin stood at its edge, straining to catch his balance. Wheeling his arms, he tried to keep from falling into the great black mouth stretching open before him. He wasn’t going to make it. Face white with panic, he slowly tilted toward the crevice.

  “Hold on!” Jaklah shouted. “I’m coming.”

  Before he could get to his feet, a flash of stone and steel blurred past. Jaklah had never seen Tankum run, and it came as a shock to watch the living statue move so quickly his feet barely touched the ground. But even so, he would be too late.

  Theyin’s last shred of balance gave out, and he tumbled into the opening. The warrior was only a few steps away, but he’d never be able to reach Theyin without falling into the chasm himself.

  “Help!” Theyin cried, spreading his arms as though he might somehow be able to sprout wings and fly to safety.

  Without slowing at all, Tankum raced to the edge of the crevice, grabbed Theyin’s belt in his great stone hand, and launched himself into the air.

  “Not possible,” Jaklah whispered, his hand going to his mouth. He had no idea how much the stone warrior weighed, but he’d seen the man’s footprints leaving indentations in the dirt, each as deep as his little finger was long. Yet, somehow, even with Theyin’s full weight in one hand, Tankum had bent his stone legs and launched himself over the crevice.