The Keeper's Curse (4 page)

“
It’s whenever a child’s powers manifest, usually around age
twelve or thirteen.”

“
Then please, let me take it.” She spoke as fast as her lips
let her, trying to keep Circlet’s attention. “Please, if I pass,
can you keep my mom out of jail?”

Every
pair of eyes in the room stared at her, not daring to
speak.

“
Miss Rathers, that’s not the only issue,” she said as if
speaking to a child. “You mother left the orbs, and if you know
anything, you’ll know that it’s forbidden. And to create a child
that’s half crafter and half human is wrong. You’ll be weaker than
everybody else, but at the same time you can’t live in the real
world. Do you understand?”

“
I do,” she lied. “B – but she didn’t do anything since she
left, and never told anybody but my dad.” She had no idea if that
were true. “And she taught us, and sent us here when we had to go.
Doesn’t that count for anything? She might have broken the law, but
nothing bad happened.”

Circlet
tried to run a hand through her hair before realizing it was in a
bun. Everyone was staring at her, a frail hope teetering on the
edge.

“
Annie, how much did you teach her?” she asked.

“
Enough,” was all she could muster.

“
Circlet please,” Vera said. “You’re Methelwood’s governor –
you can do whatever you want. Please, the girl is scared out of her
wits. Just let Annie off this one time.”

Emmy
silently prayed that Circlet wouldn’t ask her questions about
anything. She knew nothing about where they were, how they got
there, what a crafter was, what those horrible clouds were, or how
she could be sucked into a glass ball.

Circlet
paced back and forth, looking at everyone in the room who in turn
stared back at her. Finally she stopped.

“
You assaulted security,” she said. “I’ll have to put you in
prison for that. The penalty for assault is three months.” She
sighed. “Depending on your daughter’s performance at Urquhart
Institute,” she paused, “will determine if you’ll be there longer.
Miss Rathers, I am giving you three months to take the exam, and
pass. To have both you and your brother perform just as well as any
other citizen on the exam is the only way I’ll be able to make a
case for your mother.”

Everyone
sighed in relief. Vera even let out a nervous laugh.

“
We’ll teach her everything she’ll need to know,” Vera said,
the underlying message being “She stays here.”

“
Time to go,” Circlet said, signalling the guards to take
Annalise away. She complied gracefully, but looked over her
shoulder at her daughter.

“
Emmy –”

“
Don’t. Don’t speak to me.” Emmy stormed out of the
room.

She heard
the bustle of everyone saying their goodbyes while she tried to get
as far away from them as she could. She ended up in a crammed
kitchen and, not knowing where else to go, let herself fall to the
ground.

“
Give her my room,” she heard Alex saying in the next room.
“I’ll sleep on the couch until we can arrange something
better.”

“
Do you think we should take her to the hospital, Mom?” Jade
asked.

“
Absolutely not!” Vera said. “She’s scared and exhausted, let
her sleep. Alex, take her to the attic, we’ll worry about the rest
later. Jade, come, let’s get the house cleaned up. Your father and
Gabe should be home soon and they’re going to need an
explanation.”

Emmy was
silent again. Alex carried her through the house, whispering words
of comfort to her. He led her up another flight of stairs down the
hallway, and stopped at the attic door above their heads. Alex
pulled on the ringed latch, dragged out a wooden ladder, and led
Emmy up to her new room. With the exception of dust-covered boxes,
all there was in the room was a bed in the corner with an animal
skin for a blanket.

“
Sleep well, okay?” He messed up her hair, and left her
alone.

She made
her way across the room and collapsed into the bed.

The last
light of the day was gone now, Emmy experiencing her second sundown
of the night. The weight of what she had been told and what was now
expected of her pressed down on her chest until she nearly
suffocated. But that wasn’t the worst part.

She was
trapped. She was trapped in this horrible place. That wasn’t the
worst part either.

The worst
part also wasn’t the image of her mother alone and cold in a
cell.

The worst
was that she would never see her dad or Jesse again.

Emmy
buried her face in the old pillow and cried herself to
sleep.

Chapter 3

The
Silver Raven

Emmy left
her bed three times the next day. Once to go to the bathroom, and
twice to vomit up the food Vera brought her. The rest of the day
consisted of her lying in a fetal position and pretending to be
asleep when anyone came to visit her. The second and third days
went relatively similarly.

The
fourth day she became too hungry. She scarfed the food down in
front of Jade, who smiled broadly at the sight. Jade asked if she
would like to see Alex, which Emmy faintly nodded yes to. The rest
of the afternoon was spent making awkward conversation with her
brother; they couldn’t talk about where they were because it would
upset Emmy, and they couldn’t talk about home because it would
upset Alex. In the end they mostly just stared at each other. The
image of him as a twelve-year-old was all she had to hold on to for
so long, and seeing him in a man’s body was very disconcerting to
her. It was amazing what puberty did to a person.

She had
imagined so many scenarios to explain what could have possibly
happened to Alex over the years that finding out he really was at
school came as somewhat of a disappointment. Her parents had always
insisted he was at boarding school and made up the stupidest
excuses as to why he couldn’t return for holidays and summers. She
had imagined him in juvenile detention, an insane asylum, military
school – she had thought the worst after a while, thinking he might
have been kidnapped or killed, but he sent letters regularly which
gave her some relief. She had never, however, come to a conclusion
like this.

The fifth
day Alex brought her breakfast and asked her if she would like to
go for a walk.

“
I don’t want to be around
them
,” she said. “Their faces, they
scare me.”

Alex
patted her head. “I know they look weird, but they’re just like
us,” he said. “Mostly, anyway. Look, if you don’t want to go
outside, maybe just come downstairs. Vera and Jade will be off for
their lunch break soon, and you’ll see they’re really kind. The
Woodworkers took me in for nothing and they treat me like I’m part
of the family - they’ll do the same for you if you give them a
chance.”

Emmy
shook her head. “Those black clouds – ”

“
The palewraiths,” he corrected her. “Don’t worry, I’ve told
them to never use them around you. Emmy, school starts in a few
days. You have to get out of this room. How are you going to go to
school if you’re too scared to get out of bed?”

Emmy
buried her head in her pillow. “Why did I make that deal? I can’t
possibly go through with it.”

“
Yes, you can. But you need to get out of bed. Nothing’s going
to hurt you. I’ll be beside you the whole time.”

Emmy
turned over to his worried face on her. She shouldn’t have lied to
that Circlet woman. She got her brother’s hopes up, and she was
guaranteed to disappoint him. All she could do was maintain his
hope a little longer.

“
Okay,” she said. “Let me take a shower.”

He smiled
as he turned away, leaving her to get ready.

Using the
little willpower she had, she threw the blanket off her and headed
towards the bathroom. Only then did she realize she had left her
suitcase in the lobby with all her things in it. When she was
clean, she noticed an unused robe hanging on the wooden door and
pulled it on. As she passed the mirror she couldn’t help but look
at herself. Her pale skin had a greyish tint and she had shadows
under her eyes, but that wasn’t what she concentrated on. It was
the sharp edges of her face, the silver in her light hair, the
solid blue eyes – she had a certain predatory look to her. She
looked like them, and she had never noticed it before.

Suddenly
hating the sight of her appearance, she flung open the door and
bumped straight into Jade.

“
Oh! Hi! You’re up.”

“
Yeah,” she said, backing away from her. “Um, I’m sorry to
bother you, but all my stuff is gone. Do you ... have any clothes I
could borrow?”

This
wasn’t what Jade had expected, but she nonetheless appeared to be
thrilled Emmy was talking. “Of course you can! Come on, my room is
down this way.”

The two
girls sauntered down the narrow hallway to the end bedroom which
belonged to Jade. It was decorated in a typical teenage girl
fashion with posters all over the walls, different groups of people
that had to be bands. Emmy darted her eyes around. The band that
made the most frequent appearance on the walls was a rather sullen
quartet of black-haired men called “Cinder Mead”.

Jade
opened her closet, revealing a wide array of dark silks, blazers
and black pants.

“
Hm, I’m not sure what’ll fit you. How tall are
you?”

“
About five foot six.”

She
laughed. “Well, I’ll have to give you something I had when I was a
preteen.” She took out a burgundy shirt and one of her many pairs
of black pants.

“
Here. Go ahead and change in here.”

Emmy did
as she was told, although she had a difficult time fastening the
shirt up with the complicated black bodice and sewn-in buttons.
After about ten minutes she was able to get it on properly, and
then headed downstairs. Vera, Jade, Alex, and a blonde-haired boy
with wiry glasses were all sitting at the table in the kitchen,
laughing and drinking hot chocolate.

“
Hello,” she whispered.

The four
pairs of eyes all moved in her direction and she nearly tripped on
the stairs.

Vera was
the first to smile and respond, “Hello, Evangeline! Would you like
something to eat or drink?”

“
Thanks, Mrs. Woodworker, but I just had breakfast,” she said,
while Alex led her to the one empty chair left.

“
Right, of course. And I forgot – you haven’t met my son yet,
have you? This is Gabe. Gabe, this is Evangeline, who is, as you
know, Alex’s sister.”

The
blonde boy jerked his head to the side, giving her a simple smile
and nodded.

“
He doesn’t talk much,” Jade said, popping a blueberry in her
mouth. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing against you. He’s more of the
‘strong and silent’ type.”

“
I’ll talk if you want me to,” Gabe said, stirring his drink
without looking at anyone.

At that
moment the sound of booming footsteps bounding up the stairs came
from beneath them. A few seconds later a middle-aged man with a
moustache the same color as Gabe’s hair stormed in. Before he said
“hello” to anyone, he held out his hand and a black cloud appeared
in front of him, shaping itself into a hand, reaching out across
the counter for the kettle and recoiled the hand back to him. Emmy
paled profusely.

Vera
shook her head, “Sol, no! Evangeline’s down here.”

The man
jumped, looking over at Emmy and dropped the kettle. “Oh, my
apologies! My, so Vera was telling the truth. I was starting to
think she was keeping a wild animal up there or
something.”

Vera
whacked the man playfully. “As you might have guessed, this is my
husband, Sol. I’m sorry, dear, we didn’t mean to scare you
again.”

“
It’s okay,” she said. “Thank you for letting me stay
here.”

“
No problem, no problem at all,” Sol said, pulling up another
chair. “You’re Annie’s girl, which practically makes you one of
us.”

Vera
smiled awkwardly. “We used to be friends with her when we went to
school together.”

Emmy just
nodded, not knowing what to say. Annalise had never mentioned these
people before. A silence followed this announcement, everyone
trying not to mention where Annalise was at the moment, so Emmy
decided to go an even more uncomfortable route.

“
What are those things?” she asked. “The black
smoke?”

Everyone
jumped on the opportunity to explain that one, and Jade won out.
“They’re called palewraiths. Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you.
They’re just spirits.” The look on Emmy’s face must have said it
all, because Jade tripped over herself trying to fix the damage.
“They won’t hurt you though! They can’t do anything unless we
command it – we control them. You can do it too, but it’ll take
some practice.”

“
I don’t think I can,” Emmy said trying not to be
sick.

“
Of course you can! You did it back at your house when you
destroyed your kitchen.”