The Box and the Dragonfly is the first book in the Keepers series.
Summary[]
Artifacts. Miseries. Mysteries. From the moment Horace F. Andrews sees the sign from the bus—a sign with his own name on it—everything changes. The sighting leads him underground, to the House of Answers, a hidden warehouse full of mysterious objects. But there he finds only questions. What is this curious place? Who are the strange, secretive people who entrust him with a rare and immensely powerful gift? And what is he to do with it?
Horace quickly discovers that nothing is ordinary anymore. From the sinister man lurking around every corner to the gradual mastery of his newfound abilities to his encounters with Chloe—a girl who has an astonishing talent of her own—Horace follows a path that puts him in the middle of a centuries-old conflict between two factions.
Horace’s journey leads him and Chloe deep into a place where every decision they make could have disastrous consequences. Most important, it links Horace to the Box of Promises and a future he never saw coming.
With an action-packed blend of science fiction and fantasy, Ted Sanders creates a world in which everything is more than it seems and where friendship and loyalty have the greatest power of all.
Back Blurb[]
Horace wandered away from the podium, determined to wait. He wasn't about to risk leaving anyway, not with the thin man outside. He examined the bins he'd glimpsed yesterday. But the bins had been rearranged. Many of them were new.
Odd-shaped
Ship-shaped
Shape-shaped
Implausible
Palpable
Often Lost
Never Found
Tourmindae
That last one was extra mysterious. Horace was just about to reach out for it when once again a strange voice- a man's voice this time- stopped him short: "One moment, if you will."
Epigraph[]
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
-Arthur C. Clarke
Plot[]
The Find[]
Horace F. Andrews is riding the bus home from school when he notices an unusual sign bearing his own name. On impulse, he gets off at the next stop to investigate, but is met by an inhumanly tall and thin man who calls him a Tinker and warns him about pursuing his curiosity. Nobody else seems to notice the man's unnatural build. Soon after, Horace discovers that the sign is actually advertising the House of Answers.
Horace speaks his name and state of mind at the door, which allows him to enter the House of Answers, a strange warehouse full of curious items. He explores for a few minutes, noting its bizarre inventory, then signs in using an unusual quill. He has a brief conversation with a woman named Mrs. Hapsteade, who is closing up the warehouse; she warns him about the thin man and gives him a marble-like leestone, encouraging him to come back the next day. She bids him farewell with a strange ritual: "Fear is the stone we push. May yours be light."
Horace returns home, but finds he's lost his house key. His mother gets home and lets him inside, where he uses his computer to research several unfamiliar words from his outing, noting that "arcana" (from the House of Answers sign) refers to special knowledge revealed to a new member of a secret society. After dinner, he examines the leestone, noting that it feels warm and its color has faded from black to purple. He plays chess with his mother, who wins as usual. Horace happens to mention that someone called him a Tinker; his mother reminds him that Mother's Day is imminent. Horace tries to sleep but is troubled by memories of the thin man.
The next morning, Horace takes the bus back towards the House of Answers, noting that the purple cloud in the leestone has shrunk significantly. He notices an unfriendly-looking girl wearing a green hoodie sitting in the back row of the bus. The thin man boards, but doesn't notice Horace. When the bus stops, Horace runs out the doors; the girl in the green hoodie waves him over from a storefront nearby, though Horace hadn't seen her disembark. Together they escape the thin man, running through a bookstore and into an alley. They talk, and the girl is hostile. She doesn't seem to know much more than Horace, though she mentions seeing the thin man the same way Horace does. She leaves, and Horace is just heading for the House of Answers when the thin man steps in front of him.
Horace throws the leestone into the street, where it shatters, distracting the thin man. He rushes into the House of Answers, signs in, and notices that some bins have been rearranged. He meets a strange old man with thick glasses and a many-pocketed red vest, who introduces himself as Mr. Meister. Mr. Meister mentions the thin man's name, Dr. Jericho, and encourages Horace to look around the warehouse before leaving abruptly. Horace examines a number of bins containing increasingly bizarre objects, then comes across a bin marked Of Scientific Interest, inside of which is (among other things) a red leather pouch containing a wooden, glass-bottomed box. Upon touching the box, he feels an immediate sensation that something has changed, and that a question he never asked has been answered.
Horace begins to experience a deep connection to the box, awed by a new feeling of power and clarity. Mr. Meister arrives and confirms that the box belongs to Horace, and he is in the first stage of the Find. He asks about Horace's encounter with Dr. Jericho and seems surprised by how quickly the leestone faded. Mr. Meister explains that leestones work by soaking up unwanted attention. He gives Horace a statue of a raven on a turtle's back, a powerful leestone which Horace can take home to protect his entire family. Mr. Meister insinuates that Dr. Jericho is hunting the box and warns Horace about using it when he is nearby. Mr. Meister ushers Horace out, giving two final pieces of advice: Horace should not open the box without reason, and he cannot keep anything inside the box.
Horace spends the rest of the day marveling over the box and carrying it around with him, before eventually falling asleep with it under his pillow. The next morning he feels troubled and uncertain. He gives his mother the leestone as a Mother's Day present, but spends the evening feeling sick and hollow. Several days pass, with Horace distracted and performing poorly in school. He discovers that he can sense where the box is at all times, but nothing specific about what to do with it. One afternoon, he finds he's lost his house key again; when his father comes into his room to give him a new one, he notices Horace fidgeting with the box. To Horace's dismay, his father puts the house key inside the box for safekeeping; when Horace opens the box a few minutes later, the key is gone.
Horace searches his entire room but is unable to find the key. That night, he stays up late to investigate the box's properties. He happens to be looking through the bottom glass of the box when he glances out the window and notices his cat Loki roaming the yard. Horace puts a great number of objects into the box, including a note with his address, assuming the objects are being teleported somewhere. Loki comes in to watch, and Horace wonders who let him in.
Horace sleeps poorly that night, put on edge by Loki's reappearance. He has a muddled day at school and spends the afternoon working on constellations for his ceiling. The house key suddenly reappears in his room. That evening, while watching a movie, Horace has a realization: the box is sending objects one day into the future. All the objects Horace had sent the previous night reappear, and he starts doing research.
A few days later, Horace discusses time travel with his science teacher Mr. Ludwig, who explains Einstein's theory of special relativity. Horace continues to experiment with the box, discovering that the trip is nearly instantaneous. He sends a firefly through the box, then notices it flashing through the glass. Looking through the box, he sees himself, holding a sign that reads: "Yes Horace, this is tomorrow."
The Girl Who Walked Through Walls[]
Several days later, Horace is still experimenting with the box. He has recently learned that what he sees through the box may not be entirely accurate. Now, he deliberately contradicts a future he has seen by refusing to eat a sandwich. This act makes him feel physically ill. After recovering from the bout of sickness, he has a brief conversation with his mother, who tells him: "Everything the future is made of is happening right now." That night, Horace is looking through the box when he notices the girl in the green hoodie running across his lawn. He watches as she walks directly through the wall of his toolshed. Horace sneaks out of the house and follows the girl's path to a neighborhood park, noticing that she wears an exquisite dragonfly pendant, which he identifies as the source of her powers. Horace has an encounter with the next day's Dr. Jericho, who can sense when the present Horace is using the box; he uses this to draw Dr. Jericho away from the park. He returns home, exhausted, hoping the girl was able to escape.
The following night, Horace sneaks into the toolshed, planning to warn the girl about Dr. Jericho. However, when she sees him, she bolts, setting in motion the events Horace has observed through the box. He runs up the street and hides near the park, watching as the girl hides inside a tree. Dr. Jericho is lured away by yesterday's box, and the girl exits the tree and leaves the park. Horace follows her until she enters an apartment building, then waits, unsure whether this is actually where she lives. After he's seen no sign of activity for several minutes, he checks the box, and sees the girl passing by the building on the next night. The box draws Dr. Jericho, but the leestone protects Horace, and the thin man doesn't even notice him. The girl leaves the building, and Horace continues following her through the neighborhoods. At one point, to Horace's dismay, she uses the dragonfly to steal food from a grocery store. He eventually follows her to where she really lives: a small, ramshackle white house next to a train yard. By the time Horace gets home, it's after midnight; he has a brief, groggy conversation with his mother, who asks about the box.
The next day, Horace is tired and distracted in science lab, and has trouble working on his experiment. Mr. Ludwig checks in with him, suggesting that he take a break and get some air. Horace walks to the bathroom, where he is confronted by the girl who walks through walls. She makes fun of his hair and reveals that she knew he'd been following her. She'd thought he might be working with Dr. Jericho, but after realizing he wasn't, became curious about his activities. She tells him the dragonfly is magic and asks him how he caught her using it in the shed. Horace mentions the box, and the girl asks what it does, so- to his own surprise- he tells her. She's shocked, and asks where he got it. Horace starts to explain the House of Answers, which the girl seems to faintly remember. She introduces herself as Chloe. She says she'll come to his house that night so they can talk more; Horace, remembering how he'd seen her through the box on the previous night, suggests midnight.
Chloe arrives in Horace's room at midnight, and they get to talking. Chloe explains her powers: she can go "thin", or incorporeal, and pass through other objects, though things don't ordinarily pass through her. She mentions avoiding a girl who plays the flute, who sometimes finds her; she also admits that she was in Horace's room before, just to figure out his name and where he went to school. Horace shows Chloe the box. She tests it by writing a message on his wall, which he's only able to read after he promises he won't clean it off. Afterwards, they send various objects through the box. Horace asks Chloe about the scars around her throat. She explains that she's gotten them when the cord of her dragonfly pendant has slipped into her neck when she's gone thin. She shows him a wide variety of other, similarly caused scars. Chloe mentions that her powers led her to get broken bones a long time ago, and that she could potentially die, as she can only keep the dragonfly activated for about two minutes. Horace asks if she can go underground, and Chloe immediately insists she can't. They share interesting facts and funny stories for a few minutes. Chloe confesses that Dr. Jericho was in her house the previous night, asking about Horace.
The following week, Horace and Chloe visit the House of Answers, the inventory of which has been mostly moved out. Mrs. Hapsteade serves them ginkgo-leaf soup and explains that the seemingly magical objects they've recently encountered are known as Tanu. Instruments that take a bond and have a Keeper- as the box and the dragonfly do- are Tan'ji. She shows them her instrument, the Vora- the quill and inkwell that visitors to the House of Answers use to sign in. Horace and Chloe write using the Vora, and their words appear in different colors: deep blue for Horace and bloodred for Chloe. Horace also learns that Chloe has had the dragonfly since she was five. Mrs. Hapsteade reveals that her goal is to protect Horace's and Chloe's instruments, and encourages them to fight.
Mrs. Hapsteade explains that Dr. Jericho is one of many- called the Riven. Just then, the House of Answers is breached: a mighty mass of living stone bursts through the doorway and pursues the Keepers deeper into the building. Mrs. Hapsteade uses a white pendant to produce a clear, dome-shaped shield- a dumin- but Horace realizes she's left the Vora behind. Chloe decides to venture into the stone golem to rescue it; Horace checks the box, proving that Chloe will return by promising to leave behind one of her mints as a sign. Chloe uses the dragonfly to escape the dumin and move through the golem, returning with the Vora. The Keepers step through the back door of the House of Answers, emerging into a dark tunnel which Mrs. Hapsteade illuminates with a glowing crystal necklace. As they move forward, Horace loses all feeling of the box.
Without the box, Horace begins to disconnect from reality, and loses his drive to keep walking. Chloe wants to go back for him, but Mrs. Hapsteade stops her; instead, Chloe pretends she has the box, luring Horace forward until he feels the bond again. Mrs. Hapsteade explains that they have passed through the Nevren, which temporarily cuts a Keeper's bond with their instrument. Horace was almost dispossessed, losing his bond permanently; realizing this, Chloe lashes out at Mrs. Hapsteade, who angrily justifies her own actions by emphasizing the power and importance of the box- which she names the Fel'Daera. Chloe proves the dragonfly's power to Horace by overlapping her finger with his, allowing him to feel the dragonfly's energyand its song. Mrs. Hapsteade presents both Keepers with formal apologies, then leads them further into the tunnels, where she explains that the Nevren protects from golems (which are Tan'kindi, Tanu that don't take a bond) and the Riven (who are incapable of being separated from their instruments). Suddenly, she instructs Horace and Chloe to wait, then moves deeper into the tunnels. She returns shortly with another Keeper, a reserved teenage boy named Gabriel whose Tan'ji is a silver-footed cane. Mrs. Hapsteade asks Horace and Chloe to meet her at Horace's bus stop the following day, and insists Chloe stay at his house for the night. She moves swiftly back down the tunnel towards the House of Answers, leaving the three young Keepers in darkness. Gabriel leads Horace and Chloe on despite the gloom, informing them that the Riven- or Kesh'kiri, as they call themselves- are in the tunnels, and Mrs. Hapsteade and Mr. Meister will hold them off. While the Riven seek to take all Tanu for themselves, Tan'ji are useless without Keepers to use them, and the Riven will likely attempt to turn Chloe and Horace to their cause. Gabriel hears Riven in the distance- hunters- and asks Horace and Chloe to climb up on a ledge while he deals with them. He uses his instrument, and the noise of the Riven is silenced; when it returns, he has opened the sewer's floodgates, and a torrent of water has filled the tunnel, washing the Riven away. Gabriel leads Horace and Chloe out of the tunnels and into a cloister: a safe haven, a walled courtyard protected by a leestone. The sunlight reveals Gabriel to be blind, though Horace suspects something is allowing him to get around easier than he should be able to. They use a Tan'kindi called a passkey, which- similar to the dragonfly- allows those holding it to pass through a specific wall. Exiting onto the street, Gabriel ushers Horace and Chloe into a waiting taxi.
Chloe and Horace arrive at Horace's house, and he takes her inside to meet his family. Chloe proves to be likable and charismatic, getting along well with Horace's parents and sharing a generous helping of lies about herself over dinner. She leaves for the evening, saying goodbye to Horace's parents, but sneaks back in once they're asleep to spend the night. She and Horace discuss whether they can trust Mrs. Hapsteade and the other Keepers, and she tells him that she was more seriously injured by the golem than she let on- revealing a bubbling red scar across her side.
Beneath The Surface[]
The next day, Horace and Chloe meet Mrs. Hapsteade at the bus stop to take a taxi downtown. The driver, Beck, is the same bundled figure from the previous day. They arrive at a tall stone building called the Mazzoleni Academy, which Mrs. Hapsteade explains is the way to Mr. Meister, the chief taxonomer. The Academy is an ordinary boarding school, but a safe place for Keepers to hide: it is defended by a mighty raven leestone. Mrs. Hapsteade leads the Keepers into a tiny elevator and down a long flight of stairs, emerging into a domed cave with a wide lake in its center. She uses her crystal necklace- called a jithandra- to make the lake water solid, and they move across the lake, skirting the edge of a powerful source of the Nevren, Vithra's Eye. They enter a wide, down-sloping tunnel, before finally arriving in a great cavern filled with massive, hollow columns: the Great Burrow, the topmost level of the Warren. In one of the hollow dwellings, called dobas, they pass a pale, bespectacled boy whom Mrs. Hapsteade identifies as Brian. They enter a larger doba where, among discarded bins from the House of Answers, Mr. Meister keeps his office. The office is round and bright red, covered in compartments and home to a colony of little black birds. Most compartments contain Tanu, and there are several on Mr. Meister's desk, including a leestone, an owl sculpture with a gleaming yellow eye, a compass with a red needle but no markings, and a globe Horace recognizes from the House of Answers. Mr. Meister invites Horace and Chloe to sit, promising that since both are through the Find, he can finally answer their questions.
Mr. Meister examines the Fel'Daera first, naming it as the Box of Promises. He encourages Horace to share his experiments and takes particular note of the differences between the box's prediction and the future that actually occurs. He explains that, in the process of opening the box to observe the future, Horace has already made a choice about how it will unfold, and he should try to avoid changing what he sees. As long as Horace acts logically when viewing the future, and takes all influences into account, the box will show the future reliably. Horace asks why Mrs. Hapsteade hates the box, and Mr. Meister explains that she fears its power- knowledge of the future if a much more powerful weapon against the Riven than strength in numbers would be. Chloe goes next, and though Horace wants to know how the dragonfly works, she has no interest in the science of it. Instead, she asks whether or not the dragonfly is just a passkey. Mr. Meister explains that in passing through the dumin, she proved how much more powerful the dragonfly was than any passkey could be. The dragonfly is related, but different- the queen of passkeys. Mr. Meister realizes it is the Alvalaithen, or Earthwing, an instrument of legend which grants the power to move underground. Chloe denies this, saying it's not how the dragonfly works; Mr. Meister asks to examine it. While he's polishing his glasses in preparation, Horace realizes they are Tan'ji as well. Examining the dragonfly, Mr. Meister explains that the left lens of his glasses is an oraculum, a type of Tanu which grants its user augmented vision. His allows him to see patterns in the abilities of Tanu, determining their properties. While he's explaining, Chloe makes the dragonfly go thin and snags it out of the air below his hand.
Mr. Meister asks Horace and Chloe to join his cause. He explains that he, Mrs. Hapsteade, Gabriel, and many others make up the Wardens, who protect Tanu from the Riven, who seek to control them all. The Riven see themselves, and not humans, as the rightful owners of all Tanu. They are descendants of the Makers- the Altari, as they were called- who once lived quietly among humans. Eventually, for unclear reasons, the Altari went into hiding. They still gave humans Tan'kindi as gifts, which led to the term Tinker, now used by the Riven as a pejorative for humans. Centuries later, it was discovered that humans could become Tan'ji just as the Altari could, which caused them to rift. This eventually led to a civil war between those who wanted to keep the Tanu for themselves- the Riven- and the Altari who wished to stay peaceful, only some of whom now remain. The Riven will never stop fighting, but Mr. Meister says their time is short, refusing to explain why. Horace says he and Chloe have already been fighting and shares their encounter with Dr. Jericho in the park. Mr. Meister identifies him as a Mordin: a type of Riven specifically equipped to hunt human Keepers. Chloe says he's been following her, but lies about how often, claiming she's seen him less frequently than she really has. Mr. Meister is worried nonetheless and asks about the leestone he gave her when she first got the dragonfly, which Chloe claims she doesn't remember receiving. He reveals that the Riven must have followed her trail to find the House of Answers. Chloe tells him how often she really notices Dr. Jericho- every other day- and admits that he knows where she lives. Mr. Meister asks about her family, mentioning that he knows about her mother; he asks if her father has recently acquired a Tanu token, which Chloe denies. He explains what he's referring to: a malkund, a gift of the Riven designed to amplify its holder's weaknesses, and which is difficult to destroy. He gives Chloe a raven's eye and tells her to sleep at Horace's house for further protection. He asks both Keepers to consider his invitation, and join the Wardens currently in the city- who, at present, are five strong. He agrees to meet them in Horace's shed the following night, and bids them farewell: "Fear is the stone. May yours be light."
The Willed Path[]
Description
Threads[]
Description
Trivia[]
- This book is dedicated to Jodee Stanley, the author's wife.
- The epigraph is a statement of Clarke's second law.
- The scene where Mr. Ludwig explains special relativity was inspired by a scene from A Wrinkle In Time.
- The original cover design featured Horace and Chloe entering the House of Answers among a variety of birdcages. While the birdcages don't appear on the final design, their shadows are still visible on the storage bins.
Cover Gallery[]
Interior Art[]
