Keeper of the Lost Cities

Alden takes Sophie to her new home, Havenfield, with its nature preserve run by her hosts, Grady and Edaline. They lost a daughter and still grieve, but Alden assures Sophie that they’re wonderful people. The preserve contains all sorts of animals, some unfamiliar, others supposedly extinct: “mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, dinosaurs” (129). They’re fed special gnome vegetables that satisfy them so they don’t hunt each other.

A huge, feathered tyrannosaurus roars and struggles against ropes held by gnomes while a blond elf climbs atop her, extracts a blood-sucking snake from her neck, and tosses it to a gnome. He slides back down and introduces himself to Sophie as Grady. He asks if Sophie would like to pet the dinosaur, whose name is Verdi. Nervous, but not wanting to seem like a “wimp,” Sophie gently pets Verdi’s downturned head. She gets the sense that Verdi is still in pain. Grady applies a smelly poultice of Kelpie dung to Verdi’s wound, which calms her. She stares at Sophie as if thanking her.

They walk to a tall house on a cliff overlooking the sea. Smaller and simpler than Alden and Della’s mansion, the place is clean and elegant. Edaline appears. Yet another beautiful elf, she’s delicate and red-haired, but with shadows under her eyes, perhaps from stress. She welcomes Sophie, but the girl can tell that Edaline is as nervous as she is.

In a cozy kitchen nook, everyone enjoys a snack of mallowmelt, a gooey cake that tastes like chocolate chip cookies smothered in ice cream, frosting, and butterscotch. Immediately it becomes Sophie’s all-time favorite food. The kitchen makes her feel at home. Edaline is a Conjurer, and she offers Sophie a bottle of lushberry juice by teleporting it from storage to appear suddenly on the table.

Grady takes Edaline’s hand as she stares out the window. Sophie senses their ongoing grief about losing a family member; from her own recent loss, she understands. Still, she’s worried that they’ll be gloomy all the time. Alden gives her a small crystal cube called an Imparter that she can use to communicate with anyone. If she needs him, she’s to say his name into it, and he’ll answer.

Grady shows Sophie to her new bedroom. It takes up the entire third floor of the house, with a huge canopied bed, giant closet, walls of books, waterfall shower, and gigantic tub. Sophie unpacks; doing so makes the place feel more like home. She lies on the bed, cries once again for her lost family, then decides to look ahead. Of her new surroundings, “maybe, with time, it would really feel like home” (139).

A gorgeous sunrise pours through the crystal walls and wakes Sophie. At breakfast, Grady tells her she can work the wall shades by clapping her hands twice.

Sophie notices scrolls filled with symbols. One of them contains runes, and today Sophie can read them: “Project Moonlark.” Moonlark is the word Sophie used to utter in elvish as a toddler, except in English it sounds like soybean, which became her father’s nickname for her. Grady says it’s classified and nothing to worry about.

Edaline and Sophie leap to the island city of Mysterium in search of the medicines prescribed by Elwin. The city is “working-class,” and the people lead very different, if equally wealthy, lifestyles, but their social rank is lower. They wear informal clothing, and their buildings aren’t as imaginative as those in the other cities Sophie has visited. Edaline clearly feels uncomfortable here.

They walk to a multi-colored store called “Slurps and Burps: Your Merry Apothecary” (144). The proprietor, Kesler, is Edaline’s brother-in-law. His son, Dex, takes an interest in Sophie. He’s fascinated by her brown eyes and that she has lived among humans. They’re in the same grade at Foxfire. Edaline suggests that, if Kesler made the apothecary more normal-looking, the nobles wouldn’t squirm so much in it. Kesler refuses.

A skinny, bald girl, Stina and her mother, Vika, enter. Stina accuses Dex of giving her a potion that made her hair fall out. Dex admits nothing, but he giggles. Vika insults Kesler for his “bad match” to his wife, Juline; angry, Kesler only agrees to give Stina a minimum hair-restoring batch. Vika and Stina leave, and Dex brings out the chemicals for a new batch. He whispers to Sophie that she’ll get hair, all right, and a beard to match.

At Havenfield, Grady tries to teach Sophie how to light-leap on her own. It takes her dozens of tries, but finally she leaps across the property and completes several leaps in a row. Her nexus bracelet shows her concentration at a mere 10%. Grady says kids her age typically achieve 30%, and Bronte will be looking for any excuse to have her banned to the Exillium school, so she must train hard.

Kesler’s wife, Juline, and Dex appear. Juline is a messy version of her sister, Edaline. Dex follows Sophie upstairs. He laughs at her human clothes but takes a great interest in her scrapbook, with its pictures from her human world. He notices her iPod and offers to make it solar-powered so she can use it again. Glancing at her school schedule, he comments on some of the tough Mentors she’s been assigned. Sophie assumes Bronte had a hand in that.

Finally, Dex offers to show her around the school on her first day. She asks if it would embarrass him to be seen with the weird girl, but Dex says he’ll be proud to declare that he made friends with her first. At that, they agree to be friends.

In the morning, Dex arrives to escort Sophie to school. Sophie asks about the capes they must wear. Dex says they symbolize nobility, and that the school is for the children of nobles.

He asks where Grady and Edaline are, and Sophie explains that they had to run to the preserve to disentangle some fighting animals. Dex says Grady and Edaline used to throw great parties, but since their daughter died they rarely go out.

They light-leap to Foxfire. The school consists of several crystal buildings and towers that surround a giant glass pyramid. Dex leads Sophie to the main floor of the pyramid, crowded with students, where Dame Alina, the principal, broadcasts announcements. She welcomes Sophie; a spotlight shines on the girl, and the other kids trade whispers. Sophie hates it.

Dex shows her to her locker. Nearby, he opens his own, and a terrible smell emerges. They hear laughs; behind them stands Stina, curly short hairs erupting from her scalp, with her pals. Dex demands to know how she got a smelly muskog, a frog-like creature, into his locker. Stina says he left it open, something she’d expect from the son of a “bad match.” Dex points out that Stina is beginning to grow a beard. She feels her chin and squeals in horror.

A Phaser, Lady Alexine, emerges from a nearby wall, forces Dex and Stina to apologize to each other, gives them a week’s lunchtime detention together, orders Dex to clean out the muskog, apologizes to Sophie, and disappears through another wall.

As Sophie hurries down a hallway, a young boy, Jensi, tags along, saying he’s deputized himself to speak to her on behalf of other young students. He announces loudly to anyone nearby that Sophie is nice, just as he predicted. He asks where she’s been before now; taking Alden’s advice to be honest, she answers that she lived with humans. Jensi is suitably astounded and wants to call her “Human Girl,” but Sophie talks him out of it. He helps her find her first class, Elementalism, and hopes she doesn’t get “zapped.”

As she enters the room, a bolt of lightning knocks her off her feet.

In line at the lunchroom, Sophie tells Dex that she survived the lightning bolt in Elementalism class because the teacher, Sir Conley, captured it in a small vial. Soon she’ll have to master that feat and also capture a tornado in a bottle. So far, she’s a poor student.

Jensi invites Sophie to sit with his nerdy friends. She accepts. The boys—who wear their hair long and slicked back into greasy ponytails—stare at her in shock, as if they’ve never seen a girl before. They make dopey comments, and Jensi tries to get them to stop it; each time, in unison they say, “Sorry, dude.”

A small, blonde girl, Marella, grabs Sophie’s tray and rescues her from Jensi’s “drooly boys.” Marella says she admires Sophie for making enemies with Stina, whom she, like Dex, considers “evil.” They agree that Fitz is dreamy and that Dex is cute, though Marella says his parents are a “bad match.” Sophie asks what that means, and Marella says the Dizznees are “genetically incompatible.” They aren’t in the noble class, have triplets—a bad sign among elves—and their children are considered inferior.

Marella thinks Dex’s relatives the Ruewens are weird because they stopped socializing when their daughter died. Sophie defends them, but Marella just shrugs. She says Dex will be ok and probably won’t get demoted to the Exillium school, where losers go to train for inferior jobs. Sophie shudders.

Her next class is Universe, an astronomy tutorial in which she must learn all the stars on the maps presented by Mentor Sir Astin. Her photographic memory is a big help.

During study hall, Sophie sits with Dex. Fitz hands her a note from Alden: “The San Diego fires have been extinguished. No reason to worry” (176). She tries to introduce Fitz to Dex, but Dex is rude. Fitz leaves, and Sophie asks what’s the matter. Dex believes Fitz’s family consists of snobs. Sophie defends Fitz, but Dex says she’s like all the girls around Fitz: “You lit up.” Sophie denies it, but Dex rolls his eyes and says, “Girls” (178).

Physical education is a group class held twice a week. Sophie dons her athletic clothing. Stina walks past and loudly guesses that Sophie will be demoted to Exillium. Marella confronts Stina and they trade insults, then Marella pulls Sophie out to the amphitheater. She says she and the other students expect that Sophie will put Stina in her place because she’s the “new variable” and probably has special powers. Sophie denies she’s special.

Twelve Mentors, a man and woman for each grade, enter and announce that the day’s work will involve channeling. Dex says it’s about focusing the mind. Sophie is terrible at it; the other kids stare. Ashamed, Sophie skips lunch and goes early to her telepathy class. Tiergan begins by trying to read her mind; he fails utterly. At his invitation, she easily reads his thoughts.

She returns home, where Grady exercises a giant insect. She reports that she’s terrible at PE and that Tiergan lectured her on telepathic ethics, including the prohibition against blocking her mind from the authorities and the law against reading others’ minds without permission.

Grady also has a special ability but won’t tell her what it is.

The next day, Marella says Grady is a Mesmer, someone who can make a person do anything the Mesmer wants. It’s similar to inflicting, a rare ability that forces people to experience feelings like laughter or sadness or intense pain.

Marella adds that Tiergan, the greatest telepath Mentor, has returned to school. Sophie asks about him. Marella says he was friends with Prentice, a powerful telepath and Keeper who broke a law and was exiled to a dungeon for life. Sophie guesses that Prentice is her father, and that he manipulated her adoptive parents into thinking she was their daughter. She can’t figure out why he’d send her to them, though.

Sophie asks about Prentice’s son, Wylie. Marella says he’s secluded in elite studies and can’t be disturbed. Sophie asks if Marella has heard rumors about a Project Moonlark, but Marella hasn’t heard of it. Marella warns Sophie that her Alchemy Mentor, Lady Galvin, hates teaching and regularly flunks students.

In Alchemy class, Lady Galvin gives Sophie a fairly simple recipe; Sophie mixes it wrong, and it explodes all over the teacher’s cape. Sophie apologizes, but Galvin notices a red welt on the girl’s wrist and gruffly sends Sophie to the Healing Center.

As she walks down a hallway, a cute Level Four boy with a deep voice introduces himself as Keefe. Clearly one of the cool students, he’s friendly but rather full of himself. He gets her to explain why she’s not in class, looks at her welt, and decides to escort her to the Healing Center.

Elwin presides there. He looks at the burn on Sophie’s hand while Keefe mimes an explosion. Elwin laughs and applies a salve to her wound, then asks how she blew up the chemicals. She said the instructions read “WHAP,” and she decided it meant “whip.” Keefe laughs and explains that WHAP means “‘wash hands and present” (201). Sophie feels like an idiot.

Soon everyone at school has heard about “the Great Cape Destruction” (202). Sophie’s Mentors kid her about it. Somehow, the incident makes her popular. Dex gets requests for brown-eye drops. Classes continue to challenge her. Galvin makes her practice in a corner, where accidents continue as she unlearns incorrect chemistry principles taught by her human teachers. The only class she excels in is Telepathy, where she learns effortlessly techniques that give her control of her ability.

Biana continues to avoid her. Dex says she’s just jealous because she’s no longer the prettiest girl at school. Hearing this, Sophie feels awkward. 

At Havenfield, Edaline rides an angry mammoth, trying to calm it, while Grady and Sophie subdue a snarling verminion, a creature that looks like a giant rodent and that Sophie calls “Hamsterzilla.” With Grady’s help, Sophie presses the verminion’s jaws until it releases several small dead animals. A small bat-like creature is still alive, and she brings it to Edaline, who places it on a veterinary table and administers first aid. Sophie uses a dropper to give it water; soon, it’s curled up, asleep. She asks to bring the creature, called an imp, to the house so she can keep an eye on it. Grady puts it in a cage for her, but he warns her that imps can be feisty, and their bite stings badly.

Sophie names it Iggy. Just before bed, Sophie puts the cage in her room. The imp continues to snore loudly. Edaline, who has never touched Sophie, puts a hand on her shoulder, then brushes some hairs from her cheek. Sophie leans against Edaline’s hand; she misses the affection from her parents.

Thursday’s PE class is a splotching contest: Everyone pairs up, and each tries to push with their mind a ball filled with colored goo. Whoever gets splotched loses. Winners pair up and continue the game until only a few students are left. Sophie makes quick work of Dex, then wins against Stina, and soon she’s taken out several Level Three students. She gets through the semi-finals and must face Fitz for the championship.

Students and Mentors are surprised and intrigued by Sophie’s sudden success. Fitz always wins, but even his friend Keefe is rooting for Sophie. Fitz and Sophie balance the ball in the air between them; at the command, “Splotch!” Sophie somehow pulls from a reservoir of energy in the back of her mind and hurls it at the ball. The ball explodes and both Sophie and Fitz are hurled backward. Each slams into a wall and crumples to the floor. Sophie blacks out.

Sophie awakens at the Healing Center. Elwin says she’s been unconscious for 10 minutes. Fitz lies nearby. They both agree that, in pushing energy at the ball, some of it bounced back and hit them. Elwin explains that telekinesis uses core energy, but a few Ancients also know how to use mental energy as a force, and the two types of energy can rebound off each other.

Elwin releases them, but they’re to stay on the sidelines for the rest of the day. They return to the amphitheater, where their friends hug and congratulate them. Fitz hit the wall harder, so Sophie is declared the winner.

Later, she tells Grady about the contest. She asks if she really used a brain push on Fitz. Grady says those can’t be done without training, but Sophie doesn’t recall any. Grady looks doubtful—and worried.

As mid-terms approach, Sophie frets that she’ll flunk alchemy and Bronte will get her removed from the academy. She struggles with the idea, new to her, that she might need help with her studies.

On the good side, her social life has improved. Dex and Marella are now her good friends. The students collect pins of rare animals, and to jump-start her collection, Dex gives her a valuable pin of a unicorn. She’s stunned when Biana invites her over so they can become friends. Dex and Marella are suspicious, but Sophie believes that, for some reason, Biana is sincere.

Sophie leaps to Everglen, where Biana meets her. They’re awkward at first, but Fitz and Keefe involve them in an outdoor game called “base quest” where the goal is to reach the other team’s base without getting tagged. Special powers are allowed. Keefe tries to tap Sophie for his teammate, but Biana seems jealous, so Sophie suggests girls against boys.

Sophie doesn’t know the grounds, so she plays sentry, where she can make good use of her abilities to monitor all the players. Fitz blocks her, but she can pick up Keefe’s thoughts. She senses them approaching, runs toward them, and tags them both at once. They’re stunned. Keefe wonders if she’s hiding something from him; Fitz, who knows her telepathy must be kept secret, saves her by complaining that Keefe was simply “crashing through the bushes like a sasquatch” (241). Biana says Sophie can be her base quest partner anytime.

At school, Biana, Keefe, and Fitz join Sophie’s lunch table. Dex sulks, so Sophie asks him to help her later with her alchemy studies. This inspires Marella to list a series of Sophie’s lab explosions to Keefe’s great amusement.

Dex tries to improve Sophie’s alchemical skills, but she nearly sets fire to her bedroom, so they practice in some caves near the ocean. As test day approaches, Sophie panics: She decides to break the rules and read Lady Galvin’s mind. In class, she does so and learns that her Mentor is deciding between the two most difficult chemical conversions, clearly hoping to fail Sophie.

At home, she can’t sleep for the guilt of having cheated. She decides to call Alden for advice.

Sophie attends a meeting at Principal Alina’s office. With her are Alden and Tiergan. Tiergan argues that it’s unfair if Sophie gets a slap on the wrist when Prentice got exile. Old tensions erupt, and the adults argue. Dame Alina wants an appropriate punishment. Alden argues that Sophie didn’t cheat on the exam but instead came to them to confess. Ironically, Tiergan agrees.

Sophie offers to accept detention. Alina makes it last through midterms, with the proviso that Sophie tell no one the reason for it. Alden agrees to explain the situation to Lady Galvin.

Lunchtime detention, in a room upstairs in the pyramid, is overseen by a different Mentor each day. Sir Conley makes the students listen to “siren song,” a screechy, whiny sound they hate that’s considered high art. Lady Balva makes them do ballroom dance, and Sophie must dance with one of Jensi’s drooling friends. Keefe is in for planting something smelly in the principal’s office. He banters with Sophie in a friendly way; he’s an empath, can read her feelings, and teases her about them.

On the third day, Lady Galvin makes the students iron capes. Sophie, though, must sit in a corner instead. As she leaves, Galvin casually drops a huge hint about what will be on Sophie’s Alchemy test—“iron purification,” the simplest transmutation. At the lockers, she asks Dex to help her with that topic.

At midterms, all students must wear a “thinking cap” that prevents them from using their mental powers to cheat. It’s a fabric hat of woven metallic threads whose top droops over. It makes students look like Smurfs. She dons hers but still can hear others’ thoughts: “It clearly didn’t work on her” (260).

She aces her history and astronomy exams, and Tiergan gives her a perfect telepathy score because her cap can’t inhibit her power. Lady Galvin’s alchemy test requires her to purify iron with smelly ruckleberries. She only finishes two-thirds of the iron and spills some juice on a pinky, making it look old and smell bad. She does well on her essay for her multispeciesial class but loses concentration while channeling in PE, and she cracks a bottle in elementalism while trying to capture a whirlwind.

At her locker, Sophie feels exhausted. Dex doesn’t look too happy, either. In the evening, Grady and Edaline break their self-imposed isolation to take Sophie shopping in Atlantis. There, she buys gifts to exchange with friends the next day, a post-exam tradition. During shopping, Sophie takes Grady and Edaline’s hands, and they continue to walk that way.

Back home, Grady tells Sophie he’s glad she lives with them. Sophie whispers, “I’m glad I live here too” (266).