Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (23 page)

“That is my business.” His face became a stone mask. “Right now I need to catch up with my
comrades
before they get worried
.”

Before they could say anything else
he
sidestepped them and started running towards Sarah. They
had
made a lot of progress
during his
ambush and interrogation
and
so
he
picked up the pace.
Connor
easily
sprinted
through the valley and started to climb up the side of the mountain
without slowing
. About three minutes later an orange light
shone
through the thinning trees
.
Right now he
was about halfway up the gigantic mountain.
When he
cleared the trees
he
found
that
everyone
was
waiting for
him
out in the open
. Sarah was the first to spot
his form
and qu
ickly came up to
him
. “Were there
any problems?”

Connor
ran
his
fingers through
his
hair and smiled down at her. “It was
just a pair of Immortal Guards
just following behind us.”

“What did you do to them
?” She raised an eyebrow.

“You know me so well.”
She smiled
his private
smile and a
bout this time everyone was close by. “I just picked them up by the backs of their necks
like little dolls
and let them go after hearing who they were
.”

M
ark and Jack started laughing. K
ara then changed the atmosphere by saying “I don’t know about you, but I want to go see what is inside
before we freeze to death
!”

“Inside what?”
Connor
had to ask. Kara pointed to her right and
he
had to look twice
at what laid before him
.

There were pillars of
white
stone paired up and a flaming torch
i
s
placed
in
the crown of
each pole.
T
wenty pillars
were counted
to each side and they were separated every ten feet apart.
It was designed as a walkway
,
he
quickly
guessed
. The pillars
led
all the way to the side of the mountain wall. There was a massive cave entrance that too was lined with torches. The front
of the cave had an
arch
that
was lined with intricate symbols
Connor
had never seen and
carvings
that
he
didn’t
yet
understand. The ground was covered with snow, but
he
knew the floor itself was a perfect
ly flat
stone that has been leveled for comfort. In the mouth of the cave
sat
a large
, stone,
podium desk and in that podium sat a Keeper
wh
o was looking right at all of them
.

“Ready?” Connor
glanced down at Sarah
who asked
.
He
took a steadying breath,
sighed, collected
him
self and nodded.

Together the six of
them
began
walk
ing
between the
p
illars that lined the outside of the entrance.
H
e
looked again and
clearly understood
what the pillars were
actually
for. They were a landing strip
for those that had the capability for flight
.

Silently
they
stepped in front of the Keeper who
waited patiently
a
t the front entrance
for he is what they’ve been drawn to these past several days
. He eyed them
all as
they
made
their
approach. This Keeper had the same black
, smooth
and glossy scales that Veronica
had
. His head was somewhat larger and so were his upper body muscles. His chest and shoulder muscles were more defined
even through his grey robe
. Off to the side of his desk
Connor
saw his tail
move
. It was twice as thick as Veronica’s and looked much more lethal. His eyes were a brown color and
Connor
could tell he was
v
ery
old because of his ageless eyes and cool demeanor.
He
guessed
the reptile
to be about two million years old
, comparing him to those immortals
he’s
met thus far
.

Connor
felt his mind
seeking access he
blocked everything that was important.
“Good evening, Hatchlings.”
Connor
followed everyone in a courteous bow
to him
.
His mental voice
came out
calm and rugged.
“Before I remove my bond, are any of you unfamiliar
with this place?”

“The three of us are.” Connor
said and the Keepe
r’s brown eyes locked onto
his
as
he
began
pointing to Kara and
his
mate.

“I have never seen two of you, but I do remember you
.
It is a joy for me to see that you have found someone
to love
after so long
, little one.
”
His eyes stopped on Sarah
and she bowed again to the polite Keeper
. Then his eyes sat back on Connor’s
.
“I guess you are her new mate?”
The old one
teased with a wicked
smile
and he
smiled back
.
“I hope that this will be a pleasant experience for you.”
His eyes shifted to his
sister.
“Same goes to you
too
, Hatchling.”

He sat up straight
er
,
more refined
a
s he
pulled out two scrolls from his desk. He leaned
forward
to hand
Connor
and
his
sister the papers.
The scroll he handed
down
was about two feet long and has been well aged.
“These are the maps to each level of the meeting
. Return it to an Immortal Guard later when you’ve memorized it
… Now each person step close
r
, one at a time,
so that I may remove the bond I
have
placed
up
on you.”

Jillian stepped forward and Connor
had a crazy idea.
He
focused
his energy to his
eyes and looked at th
is
Keeper. He placed a
clawed
hand over Jillian’s head.
H
is aura was
brown
and
so very small
.
I
t must have been maybe two feet around him.
Suddenly the size of his aura
grew and
became slightly bigger after he said
“It is done. Next.”
Jack came forth and the Keeper
’
s aura
slightly
increased again.

At that point
Connor understood
that when he sent off his Keeper’s Call he severely dropped his power
to establish the link to all immortals across the globe
. And with each person who get’s
their bond
removed
makes his power return
.
It made sense once
he
saw this with
his
very own eyes.

Next came Mark, then Kara, then Sarah and finally
himself
.
Connor
stood before his desk. His clawed hand hovered over the top of
his head. Then Connor felt the
secondary
bond move inside his
gut and suddenly it disappeared.
It felt great to only feel the
singular
bond with Sarah.
He
took a step back and stopped when he said
“Wait.”
He handed over
six
large tickets.
Each paper ticket had large numbers printed and each ticket sheet was about a foot long and six inches wide.
“Pass those out
for me
. Do not l
ose those tickets. You will need them for
your
lodging and getting your seat during the council meeting
that will begin
next week
.”
Connor
handed them out with
himself
getting number
132
, Sarah got
1
33, Jillian and Jack received
1
3
6
and 1
3
7
, his
friend
and sister clamed 1
3
5
and
1
3
6
.
“Have a pleasant stay.”
The K
eeper finall
y
and pleasantly
smiled
,
showing his great teeth
.

The six of
them
walked around
the occupied
desk and into the tunnel. About halfway down the fire lit tunnel
Connor
folded
his
ticket
in half
and put it in
a
pocket and opened up the scroll.
He
held the paper flap with
his
left hand and
unfurled
the scroll by ro
l
ling the paper to the right.

The first picture held a side diagram of the mountain that showed five levels placed one atop the other. The top picture
, outside the mountain
showed
two hands shaking and that meant greeting
and
next to
it looked like some kind of game ball that
he’s
never seen before.
Connor
guessed that
they
are on the top level.
The picture down from that one had a picture of a hut or a house
,
he
couldn’t really decide
what the shelter really was,
but
understood
it
t
o be
lodging. Number three was a picture of music symbols and two chic
ken drumsticks and he
knew that to be food and entertainment. The forth level held three desks and Jack explained that to be the meeting level. The final level’s picture looked to be marked over
in ink
.
Connor
asked Mark what it meant and he said “That was where the tournaments were held, but the
re
hasn’t been a tournament held in over a thousand years.”

Connor
opened the scroll even more to reveal a single dot above the layout and that
correlated
meaning that it was a map of level one.
I
t looked like at the end of the this tunnel
,
showed
several open spaces
, like a simple grid
. But in the center of the room was a circle and around the inner circle held lines. I
t was
guessed
to be the
main stairwell. On the second level
diagram
h
eld
the same circle in the middle. And same on
all
the remaining diagrams reinforced
the
guess
.