“Oh, Vega?”
I turned to look at Thorne. He was casually holding up the Adder Stone.
“Might you want to try this? Your purported healing rock?”
Now I knew why he had Delph shot. As a way to prove that what I had said about the Adder Stone was true. As well as to punish me for my disrespect.
I held up my hand. “Toss it here, quickly.”
“Sorry, I don’t think that was quite what I was looking for,” he said smoothly, his manner unhurried.
Swallowing both my pride and anger, I said in a pleading voice, “Please, King Thorne, might I have the Stone to help my friend? Please, O King?”
“Now, that’s better. See what a bit of respect and politeness can manage?”
He threw the Stone to me. I caught it and instantly waved it over Delph’s leg, thinking good thoughts. Not only did the wound heal, the arrow slid free from his thigh and dropped to the rock without a smidge of his blood on it.
Delph’s breathing returned to normal, though he was still deathly pale. He slowly rose from the floor.
“ ’Tis okay, Vega Jane,” he said, but the fear was evident in his eyes. “Thanks for doing the Stone over me.”
In a breathless voice I said, “Don’t thank me, Delph. It was my fault you got shot.”
When I turned, Thorne was right next to me.
“What did you have to do to cause such a cure?” he asked.
“Don’t tell him, Vega Jane,” shouted Delph. I looked over at him. Again, I had no choice. A dozen arrows would be flying at Delph if I didn’t.
“You wave the Stone over the wound and think good thoughts.”
“Does it work on all living things?” he asked eagerly.
I knew why he asked this. He would want it to heal the ekos in case any were injured during his attack on Wormwood.
“I’ve used it on my canine.”
“Can it bring back the dead?”
“No,” I said emphatically. “Nor can it regrow limbs that have been lost. I tried that once and it didn’t work.”
“Pity,” he said, snatching the Stone from me. “But still, it has its uses, I’ll grant you that. You will of course teach me how to fly with the chain.”
I was about to scream out, The bloody Hel I will, you king of the gits, but I refrained. I might just take an arrow to the head. “It will take time,” I said evenly. “It’s not easy to train someone up to fly.”
“Well, it’s not like you’re going anywhere. Ever again.”
Despite the clear menace behind his words, I breathed a bit easier, though I didn’t let my features express this. At least we would be allowed to live, until we could figure out a way to escape this place.
Thorne made sure to pocket the Stone and the ring.
He did not, however, take the glove. When he wasn’t looking, I slipped it into my cloak. From out of the corner of my eye, I caught a gnome staring at me as I did this. It was the same bandy-legged creature that had fetched the bucket for Thorne. At first, I thought he was going to tell on me, but he just looked at me stonily before turning away to jabber with one of his mates.
I marched along behind Thorne with Delph and Harry Two at our heels and the brigade of armed ekos bringing up the rear.
Delph whispered, “Why’d you tell him about the bleeding Stone? And show him what Destin can do?”
“Delph, he would have killed you if I hadn’t.”
“So?”
I was so stunned I stopped walking. A prod in the back from an ekos made me start up again, but I looked at Delph in astonishment.
“You wanted to die?”
“I want you to survive, to get through this here place.”
“I’m not getting through it without you,” I replied heatedly.
“I’m not that important, Vega Jane. Not really. You’re the one what needs to live. Like the female what gave you the Elemental said.”
“Not important?” I hissed back. “You’re all I’ve got, Delph. I can’t go through the Quag without you. I won’t.”
His face grew red and he looked away. I knew Delph so well that I understood he was searching for the right words to say back to me.
“Well, neither will I,” he said. “Both or nothing, eh?”
“Yes.”
He drew closer to me. “Then what I’d do is get him up high-like with Destin and when the bloke least expects it, drop the prat.”
I nodded slowly. This plan was certainly tempting. But if we killed the king, what might his minions do to us?
Thorne led us back to the room where we had dined. Lit torches still lined the wall. He sat at the table, drew a knife, sliced open his finger and then waved the Stone over it and, I supposed, thought good thoughts. The wound instantly healed.
He smiled. “We will begin the flight lessons next light,” he said. “You will be taken back to the cage until then.”
Thorne was intelligent, crafty, vain and mercurial. A difficult combination to corral, but I needed to try. “Surely you have sufficient guards to watch over us without resorting to that,” I said. “You’ll be invading Wormwood soon enough with your mighty legions. Compared to that, I doubt that the three of us will pose much of a challenge. We are totally in your power.”
Thorne rubbed his beard while I stood there watching him. I could hear Delph breathing heavily next to me, no doubt wondering if another arrow would soon be finding its way into his body because of more insolent remarks from me.
However, my plan worked and we soon found ourselves back in the room where I had slept.
The ekos left the three of us there, but I noted that a pair of them was stationed right outside the opening to the room.
I sat on the wooden pallet with Delph next to me. Harry Two sidled up to me. As I petted him, Delph said in a low voice, “It’s not enough for us to escape this place, Vega Jane. In his blasted aero ship, Thorne can fly right over the Wall.”
“We’ll never let that happen, Delph. Never!”
“So you got a plan?” he asked eagerly.
“Um, it’s forming right now in my mind,” I said lamely. I lay down on the pallet. “I just need to sleep on it is all.”
“Sleep!” exclaimed Delph incredulously. “Are ya daft? How can you think of sleep with all this goin’ on and all? I’ll not sleep a wink. Nae a wink!” he added emphatically.
“Brilliant, then you can keep watch.”
I closed my eyes, and Harry Two settled down next to me.
As I expected, shortly thereafter, I heard Delph’s soft snores. He was stretched out on the hard floor next to the pallet, sound asleep. His features were peaceful. I doubted that would last, but I was glad he could have that feeling for now. I pulled the blanket off the pallet and covered him with it.
I took another look at Delph’s features and, despite our desperate circumstances, I felt myself go a bit willy. He was very tall, about six and a half feet, with huge shoulders, long dark hair, a wide forehead that crinkled when he was embarrassed, which was often, and eyes that were deep and brooding. He was so brave. And, well, just such a good Wug. He had never let me down. Never!
And then my heart felt like it had been split in half. Delph was expecting me to have a plan, to lead him and Harry Two out of here. And also to save Wormwood from the mad king. Yet I had nothing. I was not a leader. I was a loner. I had always been a loner, more comfortable up my tree back in Wormwood with only my thoughts as companions. But now … ? I felt crippled by the absolute certainty that I was going to let both Delph and Harry Two down.
I lay back on the pallet knowing full well that sleep would not be coming for me.
I had no plan. And without a plan, we had no chance to survive.
WE WERE ROUSTED from our beds by rough hands that pulled us awake.
It was a group of ekos, led by Luc.
“All right, all right,” muttered Delph as he stood, towering over them.
I stretched and felt kinks in my arms and shoulders pop. I had been
dreaming something, but I couldn’t remember what. They pushed us out of the chamber and down a poorly lit passageway. I could hear the sounds of digging and I figured that Thorne’s minions labored all light and night. He struck me as that sort of king.
We filed into a dark chamber with a dirty, pebble-strewn floor. Here, we were forced at sword point to sit on our bums and wait.
Within a few slivers, Thorne walked in. He was dressed in trousers, boots and a long, loose shirt.
“Can we get something to eat?” I asked.
“After we’ve flown,” said Thorne. “It is early yet; your hunger will hold.”
I bristled at this, figuring that his belly was no doubt always kept full.
“Do you have the chain?” I asked, biting back my anger. I didn’t want Delph struck with another arrow.
He lifted his shirt and I saw it strapped around his waist. Seeing my chain on him made my face flush. He smiled at my obvious discomfort. “To the winner go all the spoils, Vega.”
“Right,” I said briskly. “Well, let’s crack on.”
We were joined by a dozen ekos. They all carried short-barreled mortas and pouches of powder and ammo. We made our way up a set of steps in the same chamber that we had fallen into the previous night.
With the cranking of gears, and ekos straining on ropes below, the ceiling canopy rose, revealing the blue sky. As we clambered onto the surface of the Quag, the dozen ekos raced past us and formed a perimeter, their weapons ready and their gazes scanning both sky and land. They looked like they had done this before. Then they removed their peaked caps and put them in their pockets.
Next, they sank down into the long grasses. Except for their eyes, they were completely invisible. Now I understood the grass on their arms and heads. They had adapted to their environment.
I shot a glance at Delph and saw that he had noted this too.
“Blimey,” he said. “Figger me dad would have liked to seen that.”
I nodded and glanced at Thorne. He was scanning the skies, and then his gaze swept the area we were in. He grunted at an armed ekos, who came forward and relinquished his weapon to Thorne. Thorne expertly examined the morta, raised it to his shoulder, swiveled around, aimed into the air and fired. A moment later a bird fell from the sky, mortally wounded.
Thorne handed the morta back to the ekos and gave me a derisive look. “Unlike you, Vega, I came into the Quag armed and ready. However, when I fell in the hole, I thought I was finished. But when I fired off the first morta round at the ekos, they scattered like dormice. After that, they came back to me on their knees and it’s been that way ever since. That was the easy part, actually. The hard part was teaching the blighters to do things, make things. I plan to return to Wormwood in triumph. That’s the only thing that’s kept me going all this time. Now let’s get on with my lesson, Vega. How do you want to proceed?”
“I have to go with you,” I said.
“How is that possible?”
I indicated the straps still hanging from my chest.
“Why can’t you just tell me what to do?” he countered.
“Fine,” I said. “You jump straight up or get a running start and leap into the air. You point your hands where you want to go. Shoulders and head up to gain height. Reverse that to go down. Right before you touch the ground, slip your feet downward so you can land on them. But if you botch any of that while you’re up there by yourself, we’ll need something to pick up the pieces of you with.”
Thorne, if it was possible, paled even more than he already was.
“Let’s try it your way first,” he said with as much dignity as he could muster.
I held out my hand. “Let me have the chain, then.”
“Why?” he asked.
“If I’m controlling the flying, I need to have the chain.”
He lifted his shirt, removed it, handed it over and then stood with his back to me while I strapped him into the harness.
He glanced back at me. “Just remember, Vega, that your friend and your canine will be surrounded by my ekos. If anything happens to me, they die.”
I turned away so he would not see the utter hatred on my face. “I understand.”
Destin, I could tell, had been ice cold while around Thorne’s waist. Now the links warmed to my touch. That gave me comfort.
“Because we’re tied together, we’re going to have to jump straight up. Just mimic my movements. Right, then, on the count of three. One … two … three!”
On the last number, I kicked off hard, and so did he, albeit a little late. We rose awkwardly into the air and then quickly gained both speed and height.
I slowly lifted my feet into the air, drawing his with mine. We leveled out and soared along. The wind pushed harshly into my eyes and they started to water. From my cloak pocket I pulled out the goggles that I had used at Stacks. Thorne had not taken these from me because there was nothing special about them. But with the goggles on, I could see clearly and not be troubled by the wind in my eyes. Thorne’s long hair blew into my face, but I tucked it under the harness’s leather straps and it stayed there.
Thorne said, “This is absolutely incredible.”
Though I despised him, I nearly laughed at the wonder in his voice and words. It was exactly how I had felt when I first took to the air.
I led him through the same drills that I had with Delph. We stayed up for a while, doing ascents and descents, changing direction, soaring around trees and over small hills. While Thorne gazed around spellbound, I was taking in every detail and comparing it to the map of the Quag I had in my head and to what I had seen from the cliff when we first entered the Quag.
And with what I was seeing, I thought I might be sick.
The dark, fog-shrouded river I had spotted to the west from the cliff had moved to the north. The forested mountain to the north that had looked blue had shifted to the east. And the rocky slope was no longer even there.
I said to Thorne, “What is that mountain in the distance?”
“I have no idea, having never been there.”
“I suppose it’s always been there, though,” I said. “I mean, whenever you’ve come up and looked at it, the thing’s been right where it’s always been?”
He turned his head and I could see a faint smile. “If you’re referring to how things in the Quag have a tendency to move themselves, then yes, I have noticed that.”
I exclaimed, “How can a mountain or river move? It’s impossible, isn’t it?”
“You will find that nothing in the Quag is impossible,” he sneered.
It seemed barmy to believe such a thing was true, but the facts were literally staring me in the face.
I was ripped from my musings by screams. I looked down. A very young ekos was being chased by two freks. The other ekos were firing their mortas, but the ekos and its pursuers were well out of the weapons’ range.
“Idiot creature,” snapped Thorne, who was looking down now. “Ah, well, let’s do some more maneuvering, Ve—”
However, I had already gone into a steep dive.
“What do you think you’re doing?” screamed Thorne.
The little ekos could never outrun the freks. They were gaining with every leap of their long limbs. In less than a sliver, he would be done for.
I aimed so that I would approach from the rear. I slipped Destin from around my waist as Thorne continued to struggle.
“Up, up!” he screamed in my ear.
“No!”
Down below I could see full-grown ekos racing along, their mortas aimed. And there was another ekos — a female, by her appearance — that was running faster than any of them, though she had no morta. I concluded that was the little ekos’s mother. She was grunting so loud I knew it was her way of screaming for her young. Whether beast or Wug, a mother would sacrifice anything for her young.
I swooped in behind the freks and used Destin to swat them on the sides of the head. They were instantly bowled over by the blows. I put on a bu
rst of speed, dropped the hand in which I held Destin and soared over the little ekos.
“Grab it,” I called down to him. He looked up, the fear so painful to see in his small face.
“Grab it!” I screamed, indicating the chain.
I heard growls behind us. The freks had recovered. I looked back. They were gaining. I looked ahead. A huge stand of trees was just ahead. I had to pull up.
“Go! Go!” screamed Thorne, trying to snatch at the chain that I kept just out of reach. “Leave the damn creature. Leave it!”
“Take it,” I yelled at the little ekos, ignoring Thorne. Then, something occurred to me. I grunted. I didn’t know exactly what I was grunting, but I figured it was better than jabbering at the poor, terrified thing in Wugish.
He reached out his little hand and his fingers closed around Destin. I instantly pulled up and we did a sharp bank and headed in the other direction, missing the trees and leaving the freks far below.
When the freks turned to follow us, they were met head-on by a mass of morta-firing ekos. I heard shot after shot and then listened to the sounds of two large demonic beasts thudding to the dirt for the very last time.
Good riddance to the bloody things.
We were flying back when I heard a scream. I looked down. The little ekos had lost his grip on the chain. He was plummeting to his death. I went into a dive, but I knew I was too far away to catch him in time. The little ekos was going to die. My heart sank.
Like a blur, Delph came racing into view. He leapt, soaring several feet into the air, his long arms stretched to their limit.
“Yes!” I screamed in joy.
Delph caught the little ekos before he hit the ground. He rose and carried him over to his mother.
The mother took her young in her arms, first hugging and kissing and then scolding him in severe grunts. Then she went back to hugging and kissing him again.
“You imbecile!” roared Thorne at me as we touched down. “You could have gotten me killed. And for what? A bloody ekos? I should have you —”
He stopped because the ekos had surrounded us. Then Luc, accompanied by the mother, approached and knelt down. Each took one of my hands and kissed it.
The Keeper Page 4