Keeper of the Lost Cities

The car swerves, just missing her, but hits a street lamp that breaks off and pitches toward her. On instinct, she puts her hand up, and the pole halts. Fitz is there; he says, “Put it down” (13). Sophie shrieks and drops her hand. The lamp pole resumes its fall; Fitz yanks her away before it slams down.

The driver saw what she did. Fitz says they should get away; reluctantly, she agrees. He says his father ordered him to search for her, but he’s surprised that she has brown eyes when everyone else in his group has blue. What’s more, they’re “not human.” Sophie laughs and starts to walk away. He asks, “Can humans do this?” (16) He vanishes, then reappears.

She says she can’t do that, but he reminds her about the lamp pole and suggests she hardly knows what she can do.

Fitz says Sophie is an “elf.” She laughs and asks if she has to help Frodo or Santa Claus. He pulls out a wand with a crystal at the end, then tells her to hold his hand and think only of holding on. Curious, she does so. Suddenly, she can’t see him or herself, as if they’ve both melted away. Then they’re standing by a river lined with giant trees near castles made of crystal and, in the distance, a city of bejeweled domes in a lush, fragrant, mountain-ringed valley.

Fitz explains that the city, which they call Eternalia, is also known to humans as Shangri-la: “All of the Lost Cities are real—but not how you’d picture them” (21). Humans garble their histories.

Sophie asks if all this is magic. Fitz laughs and says magic is the human word for many things they can’t explain. She asks how they got there. Fitz calls it “light leaping.” She says Einstein’s theory of relativity proves such travel is impossible; Fitz says Einstein is wrong. He takes her hand, and suddenly they’re standing in a chill breeze before a glowing castle.

Fitz tells Sophie that she must abandon her old ideas and accept the superior ones of elves, who are much smarter than humans. After all, he reminds her she’s way ahead of the other students in her class. 

From the castle emerges two cape-clad elves who lead dozens of very tall, shirtless beings with flat noses, prominent muscles, and gray, pleated skin. Fitz pulls Sophie behind a rock. He calls the creatures “Goblins,” who are extremely dangerous but recently signed a peace treaty. Sophie asks why they must hide; Fitz says their clothes mark them as humans, who are forbidden in this world, Luminaria, the meeting place for “gnomes, dwarves, ogres, goblins, trolls” (26). Humans once signed the peace treaty but became greedy, tried to conquer the other species, and were banned. Human memories of that time are contained in fairy tales. 

Fitz returns Sophie to her neighborhood. Nearby fires still burn white-hot. He makes her promise to keep silent about what she’s just seen. He’s surprised he can’t hear her thoughts. She can’t hear his, either. He says he’s not blocking her, and she should try to listen to his thoughts. She focuses, and suddenly she can hear them, like whispers.

Fitz promises to see her tomorrow. She asks how she’ll find him; he answers, “I’ll find you” (32).

To her upset mother, Sophie explains that she ran from the museum because some guy started questioning her about why she was in the newspaper; it’s at least partly true. Her mother says, “I just wish…,” and Sophie can hear her thought: “You could be normal, like your sister” (35). Her mom hugs Sophie and says she’d be bereft if something bad happened to her.

Her father arrives home, and her nine-year-old pest of a sister, Amy, comes downstairs, and they have dinner. Sophie suddenly understands why Amy is so different from her, with mediocre grades and great popularity: She’s human, while Sophie is an elf. Her entire family isn’t related to her. She feels nauseous, excuses herself, and hurries to her room.

Just before bed, she asks her mother if she was adopted or switched at birth. Her mom, remembering the 12 hours of labor she went through, assures Sophie that she’s her daughter. Sophie says, “Okay,” but, lying there in the dark, she’s filled with doubt.

The next morning, Sophie steps outside, where her neighbor, Mr. Forkle, greets her. She doesn’t like him much, but he called 911 when she fell, so she owes him.

Just then, an anxious dog races into her yard, followed by a young jogger. Sophie catches and calms the dog. The young man explains that the pooch belongs to his sister but doesn’t like him: It has already bitten him several times. He shows her the bite wounds, then asks if she might walk the dog home to his sister. Mr. Forkle steps between her and the jogger; angrily, he says she won’t. The two men stare at each other with piercing blue eyes. The jogger backs off and leaves.

At school, she’s pulled aside by Fitz, who’s surprised to learn about the jogger. He says she must come with him again; she protests, saying she can’t ditch class all the time. She listens for his thoughts, finds one—“a test”—and demands to know what test she must face.

Fitz lectures her about reading minds, which is a serious offense in his world. Fitz says it’s time for her to meet his family and a committee that wants to test her. She asks what the test is for. Fitz says, “Your future.”

Fitz and Sophie arrive at his family’s estate in Everglen. Sophie meets Fitz’s father, Alden. He learns about Sophie’s encounter with the jogger and asks to see her memories of the incident. Sophie lets him put his fingers on her head, but he can read nothing.

Alden chastises Fitz for transporting Sophie without a nexus bracelet. The light beam transmutes bodies into small particles, and the nexus stabilizes them. Fitz insists he’s strong enough to transport three people without one, but Alden warns him not to be careless: “Only fools overestimate their skills” (53). He places a bejeweled bracelet, etched with symbols, on Sophie’s wrist and tells her it will protect her during beam travel until she learns how to do it herself.

They walk down a path lined with trees whose flowers shine in every color. She asks what the test is for; Fitz says it’s to see if she qualifies for a special academy that he also attends called Foxfire. She makes a joke about a school named for a fungus, and Alden laughs. Sophie wonders how she’d be able to attend such a school from her home.

They walk past a densely packed, colorful garden tended by green-skinned creatures called Gnomes, who love gardening and are much in demand for their delicious produce. The trio arrives at a huge home made of crystal, its interior elaborately decorated.

Three elves greet them: Kenric, built like a football player; Oralie, with rosy cheeks the image of a “fairy princess”; and Bronte, who looks young but is thousands of years old but. Alden says elves don’t die of old age.

They begin with a meal. The food, all vegetables, looks disgusting but tastes delicious, some of it like meat. Bronte, the skeptic of the group, demands to know if Sophie can read his mind. Given Fitz’s earlier warning about invading other people’s thoughts, Sophie hesitates, but Fitz says Bronte’s demand gives her permission. The test has begun.

Sophie listens carefully to Bronte’s mind, then reports, “You’re thinking that you’re the only one at this table with any common sense […]. And you’re tired of watching Kenric stare at Oralie” (61). Bronte says that, as one of the Ancients, his mind should be nearly impenetrable. Alden says Sophie is exceptional: Already, she’s gotten past Fitz’s powerful mind block.

Alden asks her to lift a goblet with her mind. Sophie recalls how she felt the day before when stopping the falling light pole. She aims that feeling toward the goblet; it rises and floats. She’s delighted, but Bronte demands more, so Sophie gets five goblets to float. Bronte says he wants to see heavy objects rise; Sophie makes him and his chair rise up.

The strain is too much, and everything she’s lifted collapses, including Bronte. Kenric compliments her and adds that she speaks the elvin language with barely any accent. Fitz explains that she’s been speaking the local tongue instinctively, as do all elves from birth. Sophie’s recalls that her parents considered her a noisy baby.

Bronte votes against Sophie. Kenric votes in favor of her. Oralie, an empath, takes Sophie’s hand. She says Sophie is afraid and confused but more sincere than Oralie has ever seen. She votes for Sophie. Bronte demands a mind probe. Fitz tells her it’s a deeper mental search that students receive routinely.

After the Councillors leave, Fitz says Bronte worries that no one can read Sophie’s mind. Bronte also distrusts Sophie’s upbringing among humans: It’s never happened before.

Alden suggests that she and Fitz change into elf clothing. She asks where they’re going. Alden says, “How would you like to see Atlantis?” (69).

Alden, Fitz, and Sophie light leap to a rocky coastline. Atlantis lies nearby under water. Alden opens a small door in a rock, retrieves a bottle named “whirlpool,” and tosses it into the sea. A vortex forms in the water, and he jumps in. Fitz says it’s Sophie’s turn; she doesn’t want to but relents and jumps, screaming, into a “tunnel of air” that leads downward like a water slide (73). She lands on an “enormous sponge” that seems to lick her all over. It pulls back, and she steps off it, quite dry.

Before them stands Atlantis, a city of gleaming crystal towers topped by glowing blue spires and traversed by canals and bridges, all under a huge, clear dome. Elegantly dressed people walk past. Alden hires a canal boat pulled by a huge, scorpion-like creature. Sophie backs away, but Fitz reaches down and rubs the creature’s back, and it emits a satisfied hiss. Alden says they’ll visit someone named Quinlan who can decipher Sophie’s “impenetrable mind.”

Reluctantly, Sophie boards the boat. The craft sets off. Alden says Quinlin Sonden is a “probe” whom Alden believes can penetrate Sophie’s mental barrier. Quinlan also keeps Sophie’s classified file.

A side canal leads to a squat building. They head to an office where Quinlin, a dark-skinned elf, greets them. He notes Sophie’s brown eyes, then hands her a silvery square item and asks her to lick it to provide her DNA. Squirming, she does so, and a hologram of DNA spirals in the air, with the word “MATCH” floating next to it.

Quinlin presses his fingers against Sophie’s head for five minutes but can’t read any of her thoughts. Alden says, “It means she’ll be the greatest Keeper we’ve ever known” (81). Sophie asks what a Keeper is. Alden says it’s someone whose mind can’t be probed and therefore receives and guards supremely important secrets.

Quinlin takes them to another room, where images of the San Diego fires are projected onto the walls. An aerial view shows the fires as a perfect half-circle around the city. Quinlin says the fires, white-hot and leaning against the wind, look like “the sign.” Alden monitors human acts of folly, such as the fires, to make sure they don’t get out of hand. He thanks Quinlin for sending him the article in the newspaper that led him to Sophie, but Quinlin insists he sent no such article.

The group leaves by boat and travels to the edge of the city, where a tall column, topped by a circle with an iridescent center, awaits. Alden takes Sophie and Fitz’s hands and levitates with them up to the circle, which wraps around them like a giant bubble. A geyser shoots up and pushes the bubble out of Atlantis. 

Their bubble floats high above the sea. The group light-leaps from it to Everglen. Another elf, Tiergan, joins them. His olive skin contrasts with his pale hair; he’s angry to be summoned by Alden, whom he hates. Alden quietly explains that Sophie is a telepathic prodigy who needs training. Tiergan stares at her; finally, he says, “She’s the one, isn’t she? The one Prentice was hiding?” (91). Grumbling, he agrees to teach her.

Sophie protests that no one tells her anything and that she’s not being consulted. She doesn’t want to be trained in a force she dislikes intensely. Tiergan says she can learn to control her power so it doesn’t give her headaches or force her to hear unpleasant thoughts. Sophie consents.

After Tiergan leaves, the others go inside, where Alden explains Sophie’s course of study. School already is in session; she’ll take eight subjects, each tutored one-on-one by a member of the nobility called a Mentor. Sophie shudders to think that, for the first time in her life, she won’t be the class leader but will be trying to catch up to everyone else.

Sophie meets Bianca, Alden’s lovely daughter her age. A woman appears suddenly out of nowhere. She’s Della, Alden’s extraordinarily beautiful wife, and a “Vanisher.” Della apologizes for startling Sophie, then hands her two items from the Council: a jeweled “registry pendant” necklace that identifies her and a small green cube that connects to her “birth fund,” which is worth five million “lusters,” each luster worth roughly a million dollars.

Alden takes Sophie to his office. The walls are a giant aquarium. Alden explains that Sophie’s powers are growing rapidly, that she’s no longer safe in the “Forbidden Cities” of the human world, and that she must relocate to the elvin world right away.

Sophie wants to protest, but she’s always been lonely in the human world, and lately her headaches have worsened. Alden says they’ll make it look like Sophie was killed. She objects: “You can’t do that to my parents” (103), who’d be convulsed with agony. She asks if they can be made to forget her. Alden says it’s possible. Sophie says it will hurt her, but at least they’ll be ok.

Alden agrees. Sophie bursts into tears. She asks if she can say goodbye; Alden says the Council forbids it, but he can risk their wrath to give her a 20-minute visit.

Back at home, Sophie’s parents are angry with her for disappearing again. They give her three months’ grounding. Fighting back tears, Sophie runs to them and hugs them hard. Amy appears and smirks at Sophie’s long detention. Realizing that she loves her bratty sister, Sophie hugs her, too. Amy pulls away: “Why are you being weird?” (108). Sophie says she loves them all, and they’re the best family she could ask for. Saying she’ll explain shortly, she goes upstairs.

She packs a few things, then returns downstairs. Her family is waiting. Her father, seeing her backpack, forbids her to leave. She tells them to sit and she’ll explain.

They sit. She says, “Please, please know that I love you. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me. I have to go now, but I will never forget you” (110). Holding her breath, she forces herself to switch on the sleeping-gas disc provided by the elves. She drops to the floor and sobs.

After a few moments, Fitz is there, holding her as she cries. He tells her the “Washers,” telepaths who erase memories, will be there shortly, and they must leave. He asks where her baggage is; she points to the backpack. He reminds her that this is the only time she can retrieve anything from her house. She decides to take Ella, the blue elephant plush toy that she still sleeps with. She realizes it’s right to bring it: “Now she had something to hold on to” (112).