Keeper: Chapter 45

Chapter 45.

Jamie closed the door after escorting the representative of the Gederan out. He sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. “I take it back,” he muttered. “That was not fun at all.” If anything the representative from the Gederan had been less forthcoming than Terrell had been. “Terrell at least gave me a name to call him.” The Gederan representative merely stated he was the representative of the Gederan. Jamie shook his head and walked back to the kitchen. Del was, for once not present and Jamie could see him doing something in the garden with the few sprigs of green that had yet to die off for winter. Jamie let him be, poured himself a mug of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table to organize his thoughts.



Overall the Gederan had given him the same answers Terrell had given to him. He suggested that both the Gederan and the Federan could share the space. He had a particular memory blank when asked what the power raised during the rite would do and he denied any knowledge of the Brotherhood of Shadows involvement. Jamie had noticed, however that a similar scar marked his cheek, uniting both him and Terrell.



“He also looked extremely nervous and slightly guilty at the mention of the last Keeper’s house.” Jamie sipped his coffee. As the Gederan’s presentation of why they should use the Lustan was nearly identical to Terrell’s, Jamie had asked nearly identical questions. Neither side was happy with him at the moment. “Not that I blame them.” He was meeting with the High Talbot in the morning to give him the final verdict on the use of the Lustan during the Lune Merdos.



“I wonder if anyone will try to kill me tonight?” Jamie asked himself.



“Have you managed to provoke them already?” Del asked from the doorway. Jamie gave a little start, nearly spilling his coffee down the front of his shirt. Del calmly reached back and pulled the door leading to the kitchen garden closed against the wind. In his other hand was held a bundle of fresh herbs. While Jamie couldn’t tell one herb from another, he knew that nothing in the close to winter garden behind the house would produce anything that fresh. He decided not to mention it.



“Well I suspect they each thought me a push over before they got here and are now having to re-evaluate,” Jamie told him. “As they wanted to kill me before they met me on the off chance I wouldn’t be a pushover I suspect the thought to try again may occur to them.”



“I see,” Del’s face darkened with the words.



“I plan to stay inside for the rest of the day and my morning meeting with the High Talbot should settle the matter for good. We will need a tea cart for that meeting.” Jamie maintained a blank face but at the last second his lips twitched up at the corners. While Del’s face didn’t exactly brighten, it did loose some of it’s darker aspects.



“They told me looking after a Keeper was a bit more work than an ordinary household. Stupidly I chalked it up to dealing with highborn guests.”



“We get those too.”



“Yes, yes. We get those too.” Del noticed the time was edging past one and he darted a look to Jamie. “Do you have time for lunch then?”



“I do,” Jamie said realizing the act of feeding him would help settle Del down. Del began putting sandwiches together and Jamie turned his thoughts inwards again as he drank his coffee. He decided looking into the Brotherhood of Shadows was probably a good plan.



“They could have disbanded,” Jamie said, forgetting Del was there.



“Who disbanded?”



“The Brotherhood of Shadows.”



“That lot?” Del snorted. “Not likely. At least not until they achieve their goals.”



“Goals?”



“Well one goal really,” Del said walking a plate filled with a sandwich over and setting it on the table in front of Jamie. Jamie thanked him as he turned and went back for his own plate. Del settled himself across from Jamie. “The Brotherhood wants the fey, High Court of course, to be free to rule the earth with humans more or less as subjugated chattel.”



“Only the High Court want this?” Jamie asked.



“Of course.” Del said firmly. “It wouldn’t do much good for those of us who aren’t high court. As a rule we have a tendency to move to the human side of the crossroads in order to escape the high courts.”



“So the high court can’t really migrate past the crossroads while it is still in tact?”



“Exactly,” Del said. “The crossroads separate the Human world and the Fey world. For the High Court Lords to take over the Human world the crossroads would have to dissolve by mutual agreement.”



“Mutual agreement?”



“Yup,” Del said. He paused to take a bite of his sandwich and gave a look to Jamie that suggested he ought to do the same. Jamie picked up and began eating his sandwich. Del swallowed his bite and washed it down with a swig of tea. “If the High courts didn’t have permission from the Keeper then the power they threw at the cross roads would just bounce back at them. It would sizzle them pretty well. I’d say like sausages on a grill but considering how much power they would need to destroy the crossroads, even with permission it would be more like sizzling the sausages with the assist of an active volcano. Of course that’s assuming they could raise the power in the first place.”



“So they would need my permission,” Jamie said as something deep in his mind clicked.



“Personally I think it’s just spit in the wind,” Del told him.



“Really? Why?”



“Well the high courts have been sequestered like in the lands of the Fey for a long time, with only a few jaunts out to the Keeper’s house now and then. And to be honest, not much changes here. And even the parts that do aren’t the parts they see. They don’t see the kitchens so they don’t see the food made with gas or electric instead of fire. For the most par t they don’t see much ion the way of changes. And since they know that Burr Alverson and his lot helped create this place they would assume anything more advanced than the humans they remember would be the result of that. The high court is pretty convinced of it’s own superiority.”



“That I have noticed,” Jamie thought his mind adding the High Talbot into the mix. Even if he wasn’t of a piece with Terrell, Jamie had the impression that the High Talbot did not consider him an equal.



“The first of the cross roads was established about the time Rome started to rise. Mostly as a means of keeping the Fey from the more densely clustered areas of human settlement. Of course there is some debate about that.”



“Oh, what sort of debate?”



“Well some say that the first of the cross roads were set up in Persia or Egypt but if you want my opinion those were less like the crossroads we have now in the system and a bit more like fences. Kind of as an intended separation, but nothing a horse with a running start couldn’t clear.”



“System?” Jamie asked.



“Of course,” Del said. “As your lot spread out we had to keep building them and anchoring them sort of like a border or the Great Wall of China. The crossroads are the only entry and exit points between the human world and the Fey world. You wouldn’t think we’d depend on just one doorway did you?” Del’s eyes sparked with good natured amusement.



“I suppose I hadn’t really thought it through.” Jamie confessed. “But that does make sense. “I suppose there are other keepers then?”



“I suppose. Never really met any of them. But I suppose there must be.” They sat in silence for a minute, each eating their lunch.



“So before the system was fully up and operational, there was more mingling?”



“I wouldn’t call it mingling but there was more contact.”



“Contact?” Jamie felt slow and somewhat stupid. Hopefully the book of the crossroads would help him fill in more gaps later. Mixed in with the stupidity was a wondering of why this had not been a part of Albe’s lessons. Was the lesson waiting until more urgent lessons were learned?



“The high court liked to go on raiding parties and bring human’s back. Mostly musicians if they could manage it.”



“Why musicians?” Jamie asked, picturing a gang of armed horsemen raiding one of the larger concert venues like the Family Values tour or even some random State Fair’s bandstand and carrying off musicians. The image was both amusing and disturbing.



“Because the music is different. Fey music is lovely but somewhat... limited. Probably because we live so long. The theory is that human mortality gives human music a bit more...vitality to it. Whatever you call it our music lacks it and your music has it. So if you want human music you have to have human musicians.”



“Now they could just go raiding for I-pods. I suppose.”



“For what?” Del asked.



“I can show you later if you’d like,” Jamie told him wanting to follow the threat of thought before it snapped. “So when was the system of crossroads completed?



“Well the system was completed around the same time the Doomsday book was written. Since then it’s just sort of expanded. Like adding links to a chain to make a bracelet into an anklet and then into a necklace.”



“If I remember my highlights of history that would be 1066 right?”



“Sounds about right.”



“So the High Court has not mixed with Humanity since then?”



“Exactly,” Del said proudly, as though his slowest pupil had finally understood that two plus two equals four no matter what time of day the math is done. “And humans have changed a bit since then. You may have a lot less magic, but you have a lot more firepower. And there are a lot more of you. I can’t say for certain who would come out the victor in a fight between the human world and the courts but I know it would make a great big mess if either of you tried.”



“On that we agree,” Jamie told him finishing off his sandwich. “Hopefully it will never come down to it.” Jamie pushed away from the table, thinking that he might want to finish the book about the crossroads before delving into the Brotherhood.



“Thanks for lunch,” he told Del. “I’ll probably be in either the library or study the rest of the day. It seems I have a lot of reading to catch up on.”