Unlocked 8.5 (Keeper of the Lost Cities) Read online

  Well, guess I’ll give us all code names while I’m at it—and they’ll be way better than the ones Keefe tried to give us in Alluveterre!

  Me (Moonlark)

  Dex (Dimples)

  Keefe (Hunkyhair)

  Tam (Bangs)

  Linh (Splash)

  Biana (Sparkles)

  Fitz (Wonderboy? I don’t know—maybe Keefe was right and it should be Brainwave.…)

  Wylie (Flare)

  Marella (Inferno)

  Maruca (Shield)

  (Pretty sure this list is proof that I’ve been spending too much time with Keefe.)

  Jolie was also a member (and it feels wrong giving her a code name after what happened, so I’m going to skip that).

  The oath we swore when we joined the Black Swan was, “I will do everything in my power to help my world.”

  They also gave us these black-swan monocle/magnifying-glass pendants to wear (which were really good at starting fires). But mine got destroyed when Keefe ran off to join the Neverseen, and the one he stole back for me turned out to have a tracker in it, so I’m kinda done with those pendants for now.

  The Collective all have matching black rings filled with some sort of special poison they can take to completely erase their memories if they’re ever captured—and they say it’ll be okay if that happens because they have “Proxies” (whatever that means). Though, it also kinda sounded like they think I’m going to take over someday—with my friends. I don’t know how I feel about that.…

  They love telling everyone to trust them and be patient and spend time reading boring books instead of doing anything that might actually be helpful.

  We’re going to win this… whatever you want to call it. “Game” sounds too fun, and “war” sounds too terrifying, but… either way, we’re going to win. We have to.

  Things I know about Mr. Forkle

  His official name (for this identity, at least) is Mr. Errol L. Forkle, which he apparently chose because the initials spell out “elf,” and because the word “Forkle” can sometimes mean “disguise” in Norwegian. (I guess he used to spend a lot of time in Norway—no idea why.) The L stands for Loki, because he was kinda the source of some of the Loki myths—which is way too weird to think about.

  He claims he’s not my biological father (despite being listed that way on certain documents). Even if that’s true, he still helped create me. And he knows who my biological father is. And he refuses to tell me.

  He’s a super powerful Telepath.

  He loves to start sentences with “you kids.”

  He eats a lot of ruckleberries to disguise what he really looks like.

  He lies sometimes. Maybe all the time. Who knows?

  He was my annoying next-door neighbor in San Diego, always sitting in his yard rearranging his lawn gnomes (and apparently the gnomes were one of the ways he passed along messages to the Black Swan).

  He’s the one who triggered my abilities. And the one who stole my missing memories. And the one who planted the information in my brain. He also rescued me from the Neverseen after they kidnapped me. And probably a bunch of other stuff I don’t know about yet.

  He’s Magnate Leto.

  Also Sir Astin.

  I’m sure he has other identities too. I just haven’t figured out what they are yet.

  And… he secretly had an identical twin. Only one of them was registered (their parents didn’t want them to face the scorn of being a “multiple birth”), and they were sharing one life and switching places all the time. Sometimes I was talking to one brother, and sometimes I was talking to the other—or I was, until one of them died right in front of me in Lumenaria. I thought he was gone, but… then Granite brought us to Brumevale, and… there was the other Forkle. I still don’t really know how to process it. But I’m glad he’s still here, even if he’s a little more limited now that he can’t be two places at once.

  We planted a Wanderling for the Forkle-twin we lost near Trolltunga in Norway. The tree looks like it’s leaning a bit, waiting for its brother—but I’m selfishly hoping it grows alone for a really long time. Maybe forever.

  Things I know about Granite

  He takes a powder called indurite to make himself look like an unrecognizable half-carved statue.

  But he’s actually Sir Tiergan, my telepathy Mentor.

  So… he spent my first year or two in the Lost Cities lying to me all the time. But… that’s how it goes when you’re the moonlark, I guess.

  Huh… I don’t really know much else about him, other than all the stuff about Prentice and Wylie—but none of that really matters for this.

  Things I know about Squall

  She’s a Froster and covers herself in a thick layer of ice to hide her identity.

  She’s actually Dex’s mom (Juline)—and technically my aunt.

  She joined the Black Swan after she had the triplets and saw how much scorn they were going to grow up with (unless something changed).

  She lied to her family to hide what she was doing—especially Dex and Kesler. Unfortunately, that’s how it goes with the Black Swan.

  And… that’s pretty much it.

  Things I know about Blur

  He’s a Phaser and only lets himself partially re-form, so all I can see are blurry splotches of color sort of shaped like an elf.

  One time, I did get a slightly better glimpse of him, and I could tell he was skinny with full lips and round cheeks. But I still didn’t recognize him.

  Wow. That’s all I know about him—though I have a few theories for who he might be…

  Things I know about Wraith

  He’s a Vanisher, so all I ever see is his floating silver cloak.

  According to Della, making the body disappear while leaving the clothes visible is called a “layered vanish,” and it’s super hard to do.

  Huh. That’s all I know. I don’t even have any theories about his identity!

  Things I know about Project Moonlark

  I’m the moonlark—which means I get to have lots of people trying to kill me.

  Calla came up with the name for the project because of the way moonlarks treat their eggs.

  She also helped the Black Swan figure out my genetics, which are mostly based off alicorn DNA. That’s why I have brown eyes and can teleport. (And yeah, it’s hard not to feel like “the horse girl.”)

  They chose a lot of the abilities they gave me because they were hoping I’d be able to use them to heal broken minds (since the Black Swan knew some of their members might endure memory breaks—like poor Prentice).

  I grew up with humans, partly to make sure no one found me. But mostly so I’d understand humans differently from how other elves understand them. And I guess I do, but… I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.

  It’s possible I may end up manifesting another special ability (or more than one—anything’s possible at this point). But I hope not. Five is seriously enough!

  My biological mother is Councillor Oralie, which means she lied to me every time she saw me for years (and signed me up for a genetic experiment and then totally abandoned me). I also can’t tell anyone who she is, because then she’d have to resign from the Council, and that would create so much chaos that it could give the Neverseen the opportunity to take control. So, lucky me—I get to be unmatchable!

  The Black Swan loves to tell me I have a choice in all of this, and I guess I do for certain things. But it’s not like I can change my genetics. Or everything I’ve gone through. Or the fact that everyone’s expecting me to be this big important THING, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do or how I’m supposed to do it.

  Sometimes I wonder if the real reason the Black Swan won’t tell me what they’re planning is because they don’t actually have a PLAN. They just made their little moonlark and are expecting me to figure out the rest. Which, you know, would be pretty terrifying if I’m right. But at the same time… I kinda think it might be better—because if they do have
a PLAN, then wouldn’t that mean they also knew exactly what the Neverseen were going to do and could’ve prevented it all from happening in the first place?

  THE NEVERSEEN

  The Neverseen LOVE using symbols. They might even love them more than the Black Swan loves making swan references. And this is their main one—the creepy white eye that stares at me from the sleeves of their black hooded cloaks. I swear this symbol will haunt my nightmares forever.

  This is the “Lodestar symbol.” Took us forever to figure out what it was supposed to be and how it worked—and Dex was the one who finally solved it. Each one of those little “rays” is actually a special code that can be used to leap to one of the Neverseen’s hideouts. Unfortunately, by the time we figured that out, they’d abandoned all the hideouts and taken everything important away.

  I sometimes call this the “Nightfall symbol,” even though it’s really Vespera’s signature. Each one of those swirling lines is actually an elvin rune, spelling out her name. But the symbol was used to mark the entrance to her original Nightfall facility in Atlantis, so calling it the Nightfall symbol is still accurate.

  Sadly, I have no idea what this symbol is supposed to be—but it was on the letter that Lady Gisela made Keefe deliver to the humans she later murdered, so I’m sure it’s super important. I just hope we figure this one out before it’s too late.

  Things I know about the Neverseen

  They’re evil.

  They hide behind long black cloaks with hoods.

  They have some dwarves and ogres on their side—and I wouldn’t be surprised if they also have trolls.

  The gnomes hate them, though, and won’t grow them any food. I don’t think they have any goblins helping them either. Let’s hope that doesn’t change.

  They want to overthrow the Council and take over as rulers because they think they’re smarter than everybody. And they don’t care if people get hurt or killed in the process.

  Mr. Forkle thinks they’re trying to weaken all of the intelligent species to make sure none of them could be victorious in the coming power struggle.

  They have a Technopath working with them (but I have no idea who it is).

  They have way too many leaders (and we have way too many enemies). I’m hoping that’s going to turn out to be their undoing.

  Things I know about Lady Gisela

  She’s Keefe’s mom.

  She’s also one of the main leaders of the Neverseen—for the moment, at least.

  She’s a murderer. The facts are blurry, but it seems like she killed two humans not long after she had Keefe deliver a letter to them in London. And it’s possible she killed Cyrah Endal—though she claims that was Gethen’s doing (and that Fintan gave the order).

  Even if Gethen was the one to murder Cyrah, Gisela was the one who forced Cyrah to make a bunch of special starstones for her, which is why Fintan wanted to get rid of her.

  One of those starstones seems to be missing.

  Fintan and Brant had Gisela locked away in an ogre prison, which left a bunch of scars on her face (though she’s gotten rid of those somehow—and it makes her skin really tight and strange).

  After she fought her way back to the top, she basically forced Vespera to work with her. So it’s probably only a matter of time before there’s another huge power struggle. I’m kind of hoping for that, actually.

  She’s a Polyglot—and excellent at mimicking.

  It doesn’t seem like she has a second ability (like most Polyglots do), but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s hiding something.

  She’s also really good at lying to Empaths.

  She tried to steal the alicorns several times.

  One of her plans used to be called “the Lodestar Initiative” and had its own symbol and a bunch of fancy hideouts and stuff. But it seems like she’s mostly abandoned all of that—maybe because of stuff Fintan did when he overthrew her?

  She built her own “Nightfall” facility, sealed the door with her son’s blood, and created the creepy gorgodons to guard the place. I don’t know what she planned to use it for—it looked like she stored all the soporidine there, but it was gone by the time we were able to sneak in. All that was left was Alvar, lying bloody and unconscious in a cell—which turned out to be another trap.

  She wrote this book called the Archetype and locked it with a special key that Keefe found hidden at Candleshade. I guess it’s her long, boring explanation of all her theories—some of which are based on Vespera’s ideas (but Vespera seems to think Gisela’s wrong about a ton of stuff and that they actually have opposite visions). No one knows where the Archetype is right now. But we still have the key, in case we find it.

  She tried to destroy Atlantis as part of some evil test for me and Keefe, to see if we’re ready to “make hard choices.” She also tried to kill Ro, to punish King Dimitar for the scars he gave her (and the time she spent in his prison).

  She took Tam hostage and had Glimmer put these weird bonds on his wrists to force him to do whatever awful things she wanted.

  She used Keefe for different tasks, like having him spy on his friends or deliver stuff for her—and then erased his memories (or shattered the worst ones) so he wouldn’t know what he’d done.

  She also hid a tracker in Keefe’s Sencen crest pin and used it to follow him to the Black Swan (and totally attacked her own son during those ambushes).

  She even rigged his Imparter so she could eavesdrop on him.

  She also loves to talk about Keefe’s “legacy,” like she has this huge master plan for him—even though she also used to claim that she never experimented on her son. Turns out Keefe was part of something she calls stellarlune. I don’t know the specifics yet, but it seems like it had to do with exposing herself and her husband to shadowflux and quintessence before trying to have a baby—and then exposing Keefe to a whole lot more in Loamnore to “transform” him. We won’t know more until Keefe wakes up.

  So she’s basically the worst mother ever—and someday I’m going to make her pay for every horrible thing she’s ever done. I don’t know how or when yet. But it will happen.

  Things I know about Vespera

  She’s one of the Ancients.

  She’s an Empath (but it’s made her go numb).

  She spent several thousand years locked away in Lumenaria’s dungeon because of the experiments she was doing on humans, trying to understand their capacity for violence and learn how elves could effectively be more ruthless.She’s the real reason the elvin-human alliance fell apart. But the Council covered that up.

  She’s a master of creating illusions and worked with Luzia Vacker to design the tricks that keep the Lost Cities hidden.

  She wears a headpiece that’s kind of like a really strong thinking cap and blocks everyone from being able to use their abilities on her.

  She took my human parents and used them for her horrifying experiments because she wanted to figure out why the Black Swan chose them for Project Moonlark.

  She shoved Biana through some of her mirrors in Nightfall, intentionally trying to give her scars so she’d “never be the same.”

  She made Alvar open the gates to Lumenaria and made Umber open the hidden troll hive as some sort of vendetta to expose Luzia Vacker—and had no problem cowering under a force field and then fleeing to safety when the newborn trolls turned everything bloody.

  Basically she’s psychotic—and I don’t think sending her back to prison is going to be enough to stop her.

  Things I know about Fintan

  He’s Ancient.

  He’s a Pyrokinetic.

  He created Balefire.

  He used to be a Councillor—until he tried to teach five of his Pyrokinetic friends how to call down Everblaze, and it turned into an inferno that killed everyone except him. Pyrokinesis was banned after that, and he had to step down, since Councillors can’t be Talentless.

  He trained Brant in pyrokinesis—and managed to keep Brant’s identity secret during the memory b
reak the Council ordered.

  When I tried to heal his mind, he called down Everblaze and killed Councillor Kenric (and destroyed half of Eternalia).

  He faked his death and only revealed that he was still alive when he thought he was winning with the gnomish plague.

  He overpowered Lady Gisela and sent her to an ogre prison, becoming the new leader of the Neverseen.

  He keeps a list called Criterion, which seems to have something to do with emotions, because he made Keefe help him with it during their training sessions (when Keefe was trying to infiltrate the Neverseen).

  I don’t know if he’s the one who tortured Wylie, or if it was Brant—either way, I know he fully supported that disgusting interrogation.

  He showed up to the Peace Summit in Lumenaria because he knew the Council would put him in the dungeon and he could help Gethen knock down the castle and set Vespera free.

  He let Keefe think he was stealing his cache—and Kenric’s cache—when Keefe fled the Neverseen. But the caches were actually fake.

  He was captured by Grady while trying to sneak away from Vespera’s version of Nightfall, and he’s now being held in a special prison designed to make sure he’ll never have enough heat to escape.

  He’s training Marella in pyrokinesis—which could be a really bad idea. But he’s the only one who can help her truly learn to control her ability.

  He might be willing to help us with other things, since he doesn’t seem all that loyal to the Neverseen now that Lady Gisela’s in charge again—but his help never comes free, and I’m not sure what we can offer.

  Things I know about Brant

  He was engaged to Jolie (who loved him more than anything).

  Everyone thought he was Talentless. But he was secretly a Pyrokinetic.

  He joined the Neverseen because he hated the Council for banning pyrokinesis and forcing him to be Talentless, since it made him a bad match and caused a ton of problems for him and Jolie.