The Tower Of The Watchful Eye: The Legend Of Kairu Book 1 by Tim McFarlane Read Free Book Online Page B

that.”
    “ You won’t believe how many times I’ve heard that,” The Keeper
chuckled.
    “ Tom still has one of the plants,” I said.
    The Keeper’s
eyes grew wide and he crossed the room in a hurry. “Where does he
keep it?”
    “ In the library,” I answered. “Move aside the exotic flowers
section and you’ll see the little hole he’s made. It’s in
there.”
    “ Good work, Keeper,” Keeper Anderson said proudly. “I will
send a Teacher to go and claim it. Maybe finally Thomas can be put
to death for his crimes.”
    “ How did he avoid it in the first place?” I asked.
    “ His father obviously,” Keeper Anderson said. “He was ashamed
of his son’s actions. Only the Masters and a handful of Teachers
knew the full extent of what Thomas had done. To keep things
hidden, Master Pryce used whatever dirt he had on them to keep it
quiet. Thomas was charged with a lesser crime and Silenced. Over
the years everyone involved simply died.”
    “ And no one questioned it?” I asked.
    “ Who would question Master Pryce?” The Keeper asked with a
raised eyebrow.
    “ This is insane,” I said bracing myself on the wall. “There
has be to something we can do?”
    “ Nope, you see why I could be called, ‘eccentric’?” Keeper
Anderson asked. “This is the Order of Magic! It has a long history
of corruption and abuse of powers and no one has ever done anything
about it.”
    “ There must be something,” I said.
    “ I said the same thing when I first started,” he smiled.
“You’ll have a whole lifetime of frustration if you try to fight
it.”
    I let out a
long breath. “I guess there is no backing out now. Is there?”
    “ No, you took the oath,” Keeper Anderson said. “You’re mine
and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
    “ It wasn’t really much of an oath,” I said.
    “ It wasn’t really much of a Ceremony,” he countered. “I
remember when the Coming of Age Ceremony was held at the end of the
summer and all the Apprentices that had the Demon Dream where
brought outside for a massive feast. But times change. The Masters
wanted to give the Apprentices a chance to begin working for the
Order sooner.” He scoffed. “’Working for the Order’. More like
slaves for the Masters.”
    I nodded but
remained quiet. He was right. The oath was still the oath. I didn’t
need to be reminded that backing down meant I would be Silenced.
This wasn’t the worst position to end up in. As...eccentric...as
the Keeper was, he seemed like a nice guy at heart.
    “ You doing ok?” he asked.
    “ Just a lot to take in,” I answered.
    “ I know it’s pretty heavy for a first day but it is
important,” he explained seriously. “I wish there was an easier way
to do this but there isn’t. You need to be ready to face the truth
of things or you will be Silenced to, well, be
silenced.”
    I thought
things over for a minute. “So what are we supposed to do?”
    “ We record the history as it happens, my boy,” he said sliding
right back into his eccentric groove.
    “ And we can’t do anything to change it?” I asked. “We can’t
use this knowledge to make things better?”
    “ No, the Masters won’t allow it,” Keeper Anderson said sadly.
“We are sworn to secrecy under penalty of Death. Can you imagine if
this stuff got out? It would ruin the Order of Magic and plunge the
world into chaos.”
    “ Judging by this room alone, it seems the Order is the centre
of chaos,” I said.
    The Keeper
smiled. “I am glad I am not the only one that sees it like
that.”
    I paced back
and forth before looking up at him. “Why me?”
    “ Why not?” he asked back.
    “ Surely you had your pick out of every Apprentice,” I said.
“Why choose the biggest loner out of everyone?”
    “ You just answered your own question,” he smirked. “The
Keeper’s life is solitude. We work alone, live alone and don’t deal
with others unless it is to record an event. Who would you choose
for that life? A