Free The Keeper by David Baldacci

Thorne’s, having seen samples of it in his laboratory. I read down some of it quickly, but I could make neither head nor tail of it. I looked down at the mattress. It had been a labor lifting it and I was pretty strong. The book of experiments was full; there wasn’t an empty page left in it. I doubted that Thorne would take it out often just to look at it. And thus he probably wouldn’t notice it missing. I knew it was a risk, yet this might be the only chance I had. I thrust it into my cloak and continued on.
    I found nothing in the nightstand. That left the wardrobe. I pulled open the wardrobe doors and rifled quickly through the clothing hanging there. Next, my fingers frantically tugged at drawers, but I found nothing in them.
    And then my hand closed around the box.
    It was in an open cubby at the bottom of the wardrobe. It was wooden with carvings that made no sense to me. I opened the box and gasped. Inside was my grandfather’s ring, along with the Adder Stone. My first thought was to take them, but Thorne would surely miss them. Unlike the book under the mattress, these objects were new to him and far more easily accessed. On the other hand, I might not get another chance to retrieve them. It was an agonizing choice. Finally, I decided to leave them there, and continued to rummage through the box. My fingers closed around a picture of three Wugs.
    One was evidently a younger Thorne. He was standing next to a grown female. Perhaps this was the Murgatroyd that Luc said he had heard Thorne mention. And next to her was a very young female who looked both familiar and foreign to me. There was the hint of something I recognized in the eyes and around the jawline, but the rest of her didn’t jog anything in my mind.
    I turned when I heard footsteps and then a morta was fired off. With the labyrinth of passages down here, the echoes played funny tricks on one’s hearing. I couldn’t really tell how close Thorne might be. Another loud explosion caused me to jump and I dropped the picture. I waited, holding my breath, to see if another explosion would come. When it didn’t, I picked up the picture, and this time the other side was facing me. I looked at the handwriting scrawled on the back. I held the candle closer so I could read it clearly.
    Thorne, Murgatroyd and —
    My breath caught in my throat. Morrigone.
    Thorne was Morrigone’s father . And Murgatroyd was her mother. The likeness among them tallied. When I looked at the picture once more, I instantly recognized the younger Morrigone and wondered why I hadn’t the first time.
    Morrigone had told me her father suffered an Event when she was six sessions old. He had been down near the edge of the Quag, she said, hunting for a certain type of mushroom. Yet he hadn’t suffered an Event. He had done something bad that had caused him to escape punishment by entering the Quag.
    What had happened to Murgatroyd? Morrigone had never mentioned her.
    I quickly remembered, though, that Julius Domitar had mentioned her, only not by name. He had said that it was Morrigone’s job to take care of Wormwood and all Wugs in it. He said that such tasks were often passed down in families and that Morrigone’s mother had done it before her.
    So Murgatroyd had been Wormwood’s protector prior to Morrigone assuming the role. Then what had happened to Murgatroyd? I needed to know.
    The shouts and running feet were growing closer and I knew my time here was limited. Only there was one more thing in the box that needed my attention.
    I pulled out the sheet of parchment. It was a letter addressed to Thorne. The handwriting was precise and clear. While I could tell the paper was very old, the ink was still as clear as the sky on a brilliantly bright, cloudless light.
    I read the contents of the letter quickly, slowing as I neared the end. When I saw the signature at the bottom, I thought my heart would stop. So many things started to make sense to me. Then I heard Thorne’s voice