The Adventures of Benjamin Skyhammer by Nicole Sheldrake

nothing. The image didn't change. He let out his breath.
    Back in the chair, image gone, he stared unseeing into the soft green light of the walls. Someone had been here within the last three years. Someone had taken a piece of the Vault out. How was that possible? Who would break the Vault on purpose, then try to smuggle a piece out? Maybe he could take one as well and get magic powers. He stood on the seat once again and tugged and pushed at each of the four cubes, then tried to break a rod. The machine was unaffected. He slumped back into the chair.
    For the first time ever he wished he had listened when the previous Vault Keeper had been droning on about the Vault. It didn't help that he was drunk eighty percent of the day and sleeping the other twenty percent. The result of a coveted, yet totally useless, position. The Keepers just kept an eye on the Vault. They knew absolutely nothing about how it worked-- like every other Relic.
    He groaned. Maybe if he had been around, doing his job then the Retrograph Sorcerer would've been caught soon after stealing the piece.
    Maybe the Moksha had come back. He massaged his skull. They wouldn't break their own bloody Vault, would they? Who knew what the Moksha would do, though. They'd been gone millions of years.
    The rod that was missing a cube didn't look damaged at all, he observed upon a second examination. In fact, it looked as though it was meant to come apart. There was a slot where some kind of hook could go into the rod. He compared it to the other black cubes: smooth all over, no sign of being able to come apart. How had the Sorcerer figured out that one was different? He would've had to spend a lot of time in here. The Sorcerer was a curious and intelligent person. And powerful.
    Skyhammer walked to the edge of the spiral platform where he had come off the bridge. By the time he arrived, the walls had stopped moving and he could see the tunnel entrance across the chasm. He focused on the tunnel and stepped into empty air. When his foot hit the bridge, he whispered a quick thanks and hurried across. As he made his way back to the receiving cavern, he kept his eye on the ground. It was as clean and empty as ever.
    Back out in the lake, shorts having reappeared, he floated, star-shaped, on his back. He wasn't ready to talk to Higgins just yet. Over the past two days, his world had turned upside-down. Words, ideas, events flickered through his brain. But he grasped nothing, like a fickle butterfly in a field of wildflowers.
    Immutable truths. Only one Keeper? Untrue.
    His thoughts landed. Orderly now, as though he was assessing a battle or planning a Relic hunt.
    Relics unalterable? Untrue. Magic restrained by the Circles? True. Danger from angry humans? High. Likelihood of receiving magic powers? True. True. True!
    He felt like he could soar above the lake, into the sky.
    Likelihood of powerful sorcerer sabotaging the ceremony? Low, if Skyhammer had anything to do with it.
    Strong strokes powered him back to the shore where Higgins was standing. As he got dressed, he told her what he had found.
    "The Sorcerer and the Keeper who stole the cube is not necessarily the same person," she pointed out.
    They were walking along the moss beach toward the cliff. A Byndari named Hermit lived on top of the cliff, reclusive to the point of throwing stones down on people trying to get up the cliff. Byndari at the Academy just shrugged when humans complained about Hermit. They left him alone as well, in fact. He didn't seem to have any friends at all.
    "You're saying that either there are three Keepers or the Sorcerer doesn't need to go in the Vault to change Retrographs." Skyhammer's imagination almost baulked at how powerful the Sorcerer would be.
    "I'm saying we shouldn't rule anything out."
    As he concentrated on keeping his balance walking across the springy moss, Skyhammer recalled the day that his class had gone to Murk Lake to do the test. Students at the Relic Hunters Academy were