The Keeper's Curse (13 page)

“
She’s trying to stray you from the path!
” Persephone whispered in a mock-raspy voice.
“
What a horrible thing it must be to be
you!
”

Emmy let
her forehead fall to the table with a bang.

***

Patience
was not one of Emmy’s virtues but she no longer had a choice in the
matter. While Willow held onto her journals during their time away
from each other, Emmy did her best to focus on school.

Another
thing she had learned to ignore - besides the haunting Voice – was
the feeling of being constantly watched, even though she had
noticed that the raven had disappeared from her life.

She began
spending an inordinate amount of time in the library, which, like
in the real world, didn’t seem to be the most popular of places.
Beautiful as it was, the library had a poignant smell of mingled
dust and wood polish. Every step she made echoed, she being the
only person in the room besides the librarian, who looked rather
suspicious of her being there. She had picked up several books in
primary history, politics and literature which she figured would be
a good start. She hadn’t even needed a library card; Emmy had a
hunch the librarian would remember her by name.

When she
returned home, Vera and Jade stared at her like she was an alien as
she walked into the house with several tomes.

“
What?” she demanded, plopping them on the kitchen table,
causing it to rattle and several puffs of dust to explode above the
books. Emmy rolled her shoulders, trying to be rid of the stiffness
the books’ weight had caused her, while silently grieving over the
loss of the Internet. “I thought you wanted me to learn? It’s like
I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t.”

“
Yeah, but that looks really boring,” Jade said with pity,
tying on her apron. “Why don’t you just ask us stuff?”

“
No offense, but you guys only seem to tell me stuff when you
remember to. I’m going to have to learn this if I want to live here
anyway, right?”

Vera gave
a hearty laugh. “Good for you, Emmy. You have the spirit of Gabe,
the only one in this family who cares about academics, bless his
heart.”

Jade rolled her eyes at the remark. “Hey, I’d do more
homework if you didn’t have me pouring coffee every night! Hey Em,
if you’re going to be doing t
hat
, you’re going to need some help.
How about I make you a coffee?”

“
Yeah, thanks,” she said, catching up to Jade in the hallway,
making her way downstairs into the coffee shop. As always, it was
busy, the chatter loud enough to drown the buzzing in Emmy’s ears.
In the corner was a man playing a mandolin with a bucket full of
coins at his side. Emmy had learned that Jade picked out the music,
and all of it seemed to be slow, weird, and slightly Indian-like.
Jade hated regular music, or what she referred to as
“sensationalist crap.”

“
Did you speak to your counsellor yet?” Jade said, slipping
behind the counter, Emmy following.

“
I have a meeting with her tomorrow during lunch. I’m so
excited, Jade. I hope she finds something useful.”

“
No kidding,” she said, strutting over to the coffeemaker.
“So, what would you like?”

“
Can I just have a regular coffee? Grande.”

“‘
Grande’? What’s with your random French words? ”

“
Medium, please. You know, you can teach me how to work this
thing if you want. I wouldn’t mind taking a few shifts if it’ll
help Vera out. I’d like to do something to repay you
guys.”

Jade’s
face brightened. “Oh, that’d be so much fun! The two of us working
together. I’m always asking my other friends to work here, but none
of them want to.”

Emmy’s
ears perked up at the words “other friends” – did this mean they
were friends now?

Jade
began chattering about having to work too much as she made Emmy’s
drink. She didn’t hate it, Jade said, but she only did it to help
her mom out.

Where is she, where is she? She’s late for
everything.

“
Sacrement
.”

Jade
handed her the coffee with confusion. “See! That, right there!
Random French words again.”

“
Hey Jade!”

Emmy was
starting to recognize that voice from anywhere. She followed the
sound to the middle of the shop, a hand waving above the heads. The
dark red hair, which was all she could see of him, moved
closer.

“
I need to get out of here,” Emmy muttered.

Jade
didn’t hear her. “Hey, Breckin! I know, I know – chamomile tea,
extra large.”

His face
made its way through the crowd, and suddenly he was leaning up
against the counter, grinning at Jade. “You know me too
well.”

“
Unfortunately I do. If you’re going to ask me where Rozelyn
is, I haven’t seen her.”

“
I wasn’t,” he said, his eyes still fixated on Jade. Emmy was
standing right in front of them, paralyzed. She wanted to move, but
that feeling of being pushed towards him just like she had felt
when she first met him overwhelmed her. Her chest felt like it was
on fire.

Jade
snorted. “Yeah, right. Hey, you’ve met the rookie right? I think
you were there that day she had her accident.”

Emmy
could have killed her, but the damage was done. Green eyes darted
her way, a look of recognition dawning on him. He smiled politely.
“Yeah, I remember. How’s your arm?”

Jade,
walking away like she had done something to be proud of, left them
alone, trapping Emmy. She forced herself to steady her shaky
breathing and straightened her back. He wouldn’t get to
her.

“
I – it’s okay,” she said. “I’m getting the cast off soon
enough.”

He
nodded, tapping his hands on the counter to the beat of the music.
“That was really irresponsible of Teddy, I’m sorry. Usually people
don’t have accidents so early on,” he said, his strange voice
enunciating almost every syllable in that soft tone of
his.

“
I’m fine,” she said shortly. “And I’ll always
be
fine, thank
you.”

Despite
looking slightly off-put, he didn’t react to this statement. He was
good at manipulation, she had to admit. “That’s a good mind-set,
especially in your position.”

Emmy’s
eyes narrowed. “And what position is that?” Her tone was about as
rude as it got, but he tried to remain neutral and ignore
it.

“
I just mean that you’re new to the crafter world, is all.” He
leaned in a little closer as he lowered his voice. Every hair on
Emmy’s body stood on end – was he going to physically attack her?
“I’m not from here either. And I know it’s not the same, but
Methelwood is a big adjustment. They’re pretty intense here.
Borderline mad, really.”

Why is she looking at me like that? She looks like I’m going
to hit her or something.

Emmy
ignored the internal dialogue – giving him a reaction was exactly
what he wanted. “Yeah, they are. It’s nothing I can’t handle,
though.” She leaned in closer to him now. “Even mind
readers.”

He
blinked, and then laughed. The sound was high, almost a cackle, and
it pierced right through her like some sort of undetectable wave.
“Mind readers? No one can mind read here,
unfortunately.”

“
No one, huh?”

The smile
slipped slowly off his face.

What did I
do
to her? It’s like she hates me.

Emmy didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but she
continued to stand her ground. “Are
you
?”

“
Um, no.” There was an awkward pause then, the boy looking
down and tapping his fingers against the counter again, as if
scared to look at her. Emmy smirked; making him uncomfortable was
certainly something to be happy about.

At long
last, Jade returned with his tea, oblivious to the tension between
the two of them. “Alright, here you go. You can stay inside as long
as you want, but don’t you dare block my line,
Crawford.”

“
I’m not blocking anything,
Woodworker
,” he said, throwing his
head back and taking a large gulp that should have burned his
throat. “Anyways, I’ll see you around.” He then turned back to
Emmy. “And um, you too ...?”

The gall
of him – he wanted her name? “Lana,” she said.

“
What the –” Jade began, but Emmy stomped on her foot,
shutting her up.

“
Okay, bye Lana.”

The two
girls waited several moments until he was far enough away that
there was no way he could hear them.

Jade
crossed her arms and turned to Emmy. “‘Lana’? Who’s
Lana?”

“
Some annoying girl I hated in middle school,” Emmy said. “It
just popped into my head.”

Jade’s
eyes traveled to the door where he was just exiting, and then back
to Emmy with slight annoyance. “But why did you say
that?”

Emmy
sighed. She couldn’t lie to Jade anymore – this boy could be a
threat to her. His innocent act was uncanny. “Jade, there’s
something wrong with him. I didn’t want to tell you because he’s
your friend, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“
What are – oh, I see. Someone told you about Breckin, huh?
Listen, the rumours are bad, but he’s harmless, Emmy. Most people
don’t know him like I do. And I can tell you he’s a very good
person, despite what he is.”

Emmy
blinked. She knew? “Despite that he speaks in people’s
heads?”

Now it was Jade’s turn to look confused. “I – what? No! About
his
position
in
our world, if you know what I mean.”

“
No, I really don’t. All I know about him is that he tries to
take over people and I think it’s disgusting. Maybe he’s done it to
you, and that’s why you trust him.”

Emmy was
very irritated when Jade laughed loudly. “Breckin? An evil
mastermind?”

This was
starting to get too much. There was something else important she
didn’t know about him? “Well, what were you talking
about?”

“
It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later. I have to
work.”

“
No, Jade, I need you to tell me now. If you don’t give me a
good reason as to why you trust him I’ll assume the
worst.”

Jade
sighed, gazing warily at the long line up. Emmy held her stance.
With a swift motion, Jade took her by the arm into the back room,
where everything was made. The smell of banana bread would have
made Emmy’s mouth water if she hadn’t been so upset.

“
There’s no big secret, okay?” Jade begun. “I sort of figured
you knew because well, everyone knows. It’s common knowledge here,
I kind of forgot.”

“
What
is common
knowledge?”

“
Okay, how do I explain this? Have you ever heard of the hive
mind?”

This was
not what Emmy had been expecting. “Jade, what does this have to do
–?”

“
You know with a hive of bees, there’s a collective
consciousness? And how there is a queen bee, that has a special
connection to all the other bees? It’s almost a psychic thing, the
beehive mentality. It’s inherent, and she has full control over the
group.

“
Crafters have something sort of like that – we have one
crafter in the whole world that is a leader to us, and we call that
person the Eldoir. This person has every craft, and the crafts are
more potent to that one person than the most skilled crafter. He’s
more powerful than a king really, because once he has his
initiation ceremony, the entire crafter world bows to him. Once he
reaches that full power, he can pretty much do whatever he wants –
if people go against him, he can force them into doing anything.
It’s sort of scary, actually.”

Emmy
furrowed her eyebrows. “I still don’t get –”

“
Breckin is our future Eldoir. He’ll go through the initiation
ceremony when he’s nineteen, and he’ll be in charge of Ministrial,
above all the governors of all the orbs. Obviously not everyone
likes that. It kind of contradicts democracy. Scratch kind
of.”

Emmy
didn’t know quite how to absorb this. Breckin was the most powerful
crafter in the world, and he had a vendetta against her for some
reason. “But he can’t read minds?”

“
No. I told you, crafters can only perform physical acts with
the palewraiths. What’s this all about anyway?”

“
I just have a bad feeling about him. Can’t they just elect a
new Eldoir?”

“
No. The palewraiths chose him when he was a small child,
there’s nothing anyone can do about it. The second the last one
dies, another is chosen.”

Emmy
buried her face in her hands, trying to steady her breathing. This
was terrible. How was she supposed to go against the most powerful
crafter in the world?

“
Does he have any enemies?”

“
Many. We haven’t actually had an Eldoir in over three hundred
years, so there’s a mixed response. But I would say the most
hostile reaction to him is from James Thoreoux.”