My hopes of escape plummeted.
Thorne had had the ekos lift the door and place it in its opening. While it was no longer a perfect fit, there was no crevice big enough for me to fit through. I would have to stay here all night and wait for Thorne to leave next light, or risk knocking the door over as soon as he was asleep.
Then, suddenly, I had a far greater problem.
Thorne was heading right for the wardrobe.
I saw with a thrill of horror that his nightshirt was filthy. He was going to put on a fresh nightshirt to replace the dirty one.
I shrunk back as far as I could, though I knew it couldn’t possibly be enough. In my anxiety I nervously twisted my grandfather’s ring around and around on my thumb. The doors were flung open and I caught a breath and closed my eyes, waiting for the blow to fall.
Nothing happened. I opened my eyes. Thorne was staring right at me, our faces barely a foot apart. But he made no reaction. It was as if he couldn’t see me at all. He pulled out a clean nightshirt and closed the wardrobe door. A sliver later, I heard him settle into his bed. I stood there trying not to breathe, but also trying to sort out what had just happened.
If Thorne could see to take a fresh nightshirt and then climb into bed, how could he possibly not see me? I ran a hand down my leg. I was solid enough. Then I rubbed my finger against the ring. In twisting it around and around, I had reversed it. The part of it with the strange three-hooked design was facing downward, and the ring’s band was exposed on the top side of my thumb.
I had worn the ring before and nothing special had happened. But I had never reversed the ring before, I thought. In twisting the ring around as I’d done, had I been, well, rendered incapable of being seen? It seemed an impossible thought, but what other explanation was there?
So could I sneak out of here? I would still have to move the door to get through it. Thorne would certainly know someone or something was there. Or I could stay here and wait for first light. I decided to chance it.
I glanced through the crack once more and saw Thorne in bed. He had kept one candle burning, but the chamber was only partially lighted by it. I waited twenty more slivers until I started to hear his breathing deepen. When a soft snore escaped his lips, I counted to ten and then quietly opened the wardrobe door. It gave a little creak, which sounded to me like the scream of a garm on the hunt.
I froze, awaiting Thorne possibly springing up and wondering how his wardrobe had managed to open its own door. But he didn’t stir. I closed the door behind me after sliding the box with the mystic carving back where I’d found it.
I looked up at the massive chamber door. I tried to wedge my head through an opening between it and the wall, but I couldn’t fit. The ekos had leaned it back against the wall so that there were only crevices on either side. There was a hole dead center in the door where the Elemental had hit it, only it wasn’t large enough for me to climb through. And anyway, it was too far off the floor for me to reach.
I placed my fingers inside one of the crevices, set my feet and pulled. The door didn’t budge. It would have been easy with Destin around my waist because of the exceptional strength it conveyed to me. But my chain was around Thorne’s waist and I seriously doubted I could strip it off him without the bloke noticing. I almost cried out when I heard the whispery voice from the other side of the huge door.
“Wotcha, Vega Jane?”
It was Delph.
I crept forward and put my mouth right next to the crevice.
“He’s in here asleep, but I can’t get out.”
“Stand back,” he said.
“What are you going to do?” I breathed through the crevice.
“Same as I did before.”
The Elemental struck the door dead-on less than a sliver later, and it toppled inward. I was through the opening so fast that I could see the Elemental smack back into Delph’s outstretched glove. Then he disappeared down the hall, running for his life. I was also running for my life down the passage because morta rounds were exploding out of the chamber I had just escaped. I turned for a moment and saw Thorne in the open doorway. He had a short-barreled morta in either hand and was blasting away. And though I might be invisible, I was still flesh and blood. One round zinged past my ear. Another splattered off the wall, and a piece of stone shattered off, hit my arm and cut it. I kept running and didn’t stop until I was back in our sleeping chamber. Delph was already there, bent over, his big chest heaving in and out.
The full-size Elemental was on the floor. Delph had forgotten to shrink it and Thorne might be here any sliver. I snatched the glove off his hand, hefted the golden lance and willed it to its tiny size.
Delph nearly jumped to the ceiling. It was then I realized that he could not see me. He had just seen the Elemental and the glove suspended in air.
I spun the ring around until it was back to its normal position.
He stared at me like he’d seen an adar flying around the room.
“How — how — how —?” Poor Delph couldn’t finish. He was shaking too badly.
“It was the ring.” I held it up.
“How can a bloody ring make you … make you not there?”
I twisted the ring and vanished. I knew I had vanished because Delph was looking around to see where I’d gone. I put it back once more and reappeared. “I don’t know how it does it, Delph. I’m just glad it did so this night. Otherwise I’d be dead.” This made me remember what I’d discovered.
“Delph, I have so much to tell you.”
I told him about the picture first.
He scratched his chin and said, “So you think Thorne is Morrigone’s father?”
“I’m sure of it. And Murgatroyd is her mother. Was her mother. She’s dead.”
“Well, how do you know that?” he asked.
“Because of the second thing I found. It was a letter. From Virgil to Thorne.”
“What letter?”
“Virgil accused Thorne of murdering Murgatroyd with poisoned mushrooms. He said he was going to see Thorne executed for his crime. And he mentioned Morrigone in the letter. He said that Thorne had robbed her of her mother. That’s why Thorne had to flee Wormwood.”
“Bloody Hel,” exclaimed Delph. “That bloke just likes to kill, don’t he?”
I sat down on the pallet next to him. “Murgatroyd was like Morrigone. It was her job to take care of Wugs and Wormwood. I bet that made Thorne jealous. I bet he also knew what else she could do. The same things Morrigone can do now.”
“Ya mean magic-sorcery stuff?”
“I wonder if Morrigone even knows what really happened to her mother?”
“Makes me feel kind-a sorry for her,” said Delph.
I had never thought I would feel sorry for Morrigone. But if Thorne had murdered Morrigone’s mother? What a weight to carry in one’s heart.
I was surprised that Thorne had not turned up to check on us by now. But perhaps he was chasing down grubbs in some far-off part of his kingdom. At least it would give us some time to think.
Thorne was undeniably a monster. And he had to be stopped. Now. But how? Then I remembered. The book I had taken from under Thorne’s mattress. Maybe there was something in there.
I pulled the book out and showed it to Delph.
“Blimey,” he said. “Experiments?”
We started reading the book together. It was filled not only with words but with drawings. We both turned pale and then I felt sick to my stomach.
They were drawings of cut-up ekos, gnomes and grubbs. The drawings of young ekos, their bodies all disfigured, made me sick. I had to look away.
“He’s … been experimenting on them,” Delph said.
“Someone’s coming,” I said in a hushed voice. I looked down at the ring. The blasted ring. If I was found with it? And the book!
I gazed around, searching for a hiding place. But there was really nowhere. Then something nudged my hand. It was Harry Two. I looked at my canine and he looked back at me.
I took the ring off and he opened his mouth. I placed the ring inside and he closed his snout. I slid the book of experiments under him and Harry Two lay right down, his big body covering it completely. I blew out the candle, and the chamber was plunged into darkness. Delph and I quickly lay down and pretended to be asleep.
A few moments later, Thorne stalked in, followed by a number of ekos. They were carrying torches and mortas. Luc was one of them. I sat up, stretched and let out a yawn.
“What is it?” I asked sleepily. “What’s all the fuss now?”
Thorne came to stand over me. He looked first at me, then at Delph. His gaze swept over but did not linger on Harry Two, who lay there on the floor with his snout between his front paws.
“What’s all the fuss now?” said Thorne. “What do you mean by that?” he added suspiciously.
“Well, there was this commotion before. Screams. Morta shots. Then it quieted down. And then it started up again. But then it quieted down again. Until you blokes showed up.”
Thorne kept peering at me. “Have you been here all this time?”
I nodded and said, “Where else would we be?”
Thorne looked at Luc, who said, “ ’Tis true, my king. They never left here. ’Twas the grubbs come back, no doubt.”
“Hmm, I wonder,” said Thorne. There was a look in his eyes and a dangerous sound in his tone that made my skin turn cold.
“I want them searched,” he said, pointing at me and Delph.
“What are we looking for, my king?” said Luc.
Thorne roared, “I’ll know it when I see it, Luc. Just do it.”
Now I knew he had discovered the ring missing. I didn’t know about the book. Perhaps he hadn’t looked under his mattress. I put on my blankest expression and prayed to Steeples that Delph was able to do the same. I took a chance at glancing over at him and discovered that Delph had slumped back down and looked like he was asleep.
I was so proud of him!
We were searched and nothing was found. Of course they never thought to look in my canine’s mouth for the ring or under him for the book. Thorne was not pleased, I could tell. And neither was I, at least not entirely. Now I knew Thorne would believe there were traitors among his number. And the last thing I wanted was to bring peril to Luc and his family. As Thorne stalked off, Luc gave me a tremulous glance that only heightened my fear for him.
I reached out my hand and Harry Two obediently opened his mouth and allowed me to retrieve the ring. I wiped it off and put it on, careful to keep the three-hook side up so I wouldn’t vanish. Then I took the book back and looked down at it.
“An awful, terrible Wug,” said Delph solemnly.
“I know. But with this book, I think we have a chance to make sure he’s an ex-king, Delph.”
“How d’ya mean?”
“This is proof of the evil things he’s been doing to the ekos and gnomes.”
His features widened in understanding. “Right, we can give it to Luc and he can … he can use it to fire up the ekos like. There’s no way they’d remain loyal to Thorne after learning he’s been killing their own kind like that.”
“But first we have to make sure that Thorne can never attack Wormwood.”
“This has to end soon, Vega Jane,” said Delph. “He knows we’re up to something. We’ll never get another chance.”
“It will end soon, Delph. It will end next light in fact.”
Delph looked at the ring.
“There’s a lot more to your grandfather than we thought,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot more to everything than we thought,” I said back.
And I did not mean this in a good way.
THE NEXT LIGHT found us outside for another go at flying Thorne around.
As I readied for our flight, he looked at my arm.
“Cut yourself, did you?” he said pointedly.
I shot a glance at where he was pointing. There was blood on my sleeve from where the stone fragment blasted off by the morta shot had hit me.
“I caught it on a jag of rock.”
He gave me a dismissive look and stared up at the sky, which was quickly turning dark and foreboding. “Looks like a storm is coming. Shall we get on?”
When I started to strap Thorne into the harness, he shook his head.
“Positions reversed this time, my dear. I shall carry you.”
Since I had no choice I allowed him to harness me up and then we kicked off and sailed upward.
The ride up was bumpy as the winds pummeled us. We quickly became soaked as the rain began pelting down. I was glad of my goggles. A skylight spear shot sideways above us and the accompanying thunder-thrust was nearly deafening. I felt Thorne tense above me. It seemed the bloke was scared of a bit of rain and noise.
“Everything okay, O mighty king?” I asked snidely.
He didn’t answer. Instead, I felt him wriggling above me. I couldn’t tell at first what he was doing. But then it became quite clear as the harness started falling away from him. He had unbuckled it from around his torso. And since he was the only thing keeping me up, that presented a bit of a problem for me. A problem I solved by reaching back and grabbing Destin with one hand.
Unbalanced, we immediately went into a dive.
“Let go,” he roared, kicking at me.
“Not bloody likely,” I yelled back.
We swooped, barrel-rolled, somersaulted and plunged across the stormy skies.
He kept kicking at me and I kept parrying the blows.
Then I grew tired of that and drew back my fist and walloped him across the face. Blood from his nose spurted so fiercely that it splattered over both of us.
He looked down at me in shock. “You broke my damn nose.”
“Here’s another just for the Hel of it.”
I punched him again, giving him a black eye, and then I added a kick in his belly for good measure. I was a female, ’tis true, but I was tougher than just about any male of my acquaintance, including this git!
He gripped my hand with both of his and tried to peel my fingers from the chain. He managed to pry three away. So I turned to face him and wrapped my legs around his torso. With my legs supporting me, both my hands were free. And I used them to sound effect.
I struck Thorne over every part of his body I could reach. All the hatred, loathing, disgust and just sheer fury I had pent up for this bloke was finally unleashed. I was hurting him for every vile thing he’d done to us. For every ekos and gnome he’d cut up. For every grubb he’d killed. For murdering Murgatroyd. And simply for being the biggest, most evil prat I’d ever had the misfortune to meet.
After a dozen hits, I thought I had very nearly knocked him out. But there was more fight in the old Wug than I gave him credit for. I didn’t see the blow coming in time. His fist slammed against my face so hard I thought I felt all my teeth loosen. Thorne was old but he was big. Another blow to my face caused blood to fly from my nose and my face to puff up. I felt woozy and sick. But I was not about to let this git beat me. Thinking he had an advantage, he threw another blow, but I blocked it with my arm, the pain rattling up and down the limb. Then, keeping one leg wrapped around him so I wouldn’t plunge to the ground, I drew my other leg back and kneed him in a spot no male ever wanted to be hit. He groaned and went limp.
“Oh no!” I cried out.
Though I had won the fight with Thorne, our combined equilibrium had now been upset by his nearly being unconscious. We fell into a steep dive. I bent my head back and looked down. The only thing I could see was a mass of tree canopies coming at us sickeningly fast.
Thorne must have seen this and roused himself. “You’re going to kill us both,” he screamed between the gap in his teeth I had caused by knocking a front one out.
“Well, you were trying to kill me,” I shouted right back.
I spun us around so that I was on top. I gripped Destin with both hands, like the reins on a slep, and arched my neck and shoulders. Foot by foot we started to
point up. As we finally soared upward, my boots brushed the tops of the tree canopy.
Then a skylight spear and accompanying thunder-thrust struck so close that it jarred me loose from Thorne. He seized on this opportunity by grabbing me by the hair with both hands and ripping me away from him. Then he let go, which was perfectly fine with me because unbeknownst to him I had slipped Destin from around his waist while he was mauling me.
I secured Destin around my waist and looked up just in time to see Thorne falling like a boulder.
The mighty king was screaming like a frightened baby Wug.
“Help me, Vega!” he screamed.
Part of me didn’t want to do a thing. Let him fall and good riddance to the jumped-up git. But another part of me couldn’t let the bloke die, at least not like that.
I suppose that’s what separated the likes of him from the likes of me. And the fact was, a fast death was not justice enough for him. Not by a long shot.
I pointed my head and shoulders downward and shot that way as if I was propelled from one of Thorne’s cannons. I grabbed him by the hair, to see how he liked it. When we landed, we hit softly enough to barely cause a stumble.
The next moment, a short-barreled morta was leveled against my head.
I had beaten Thorne to a bloody pulp. His face was swollen, nearly unrecognizable. And I’m pretty sure I had cracked a rib or two in addition to my facial injuries.
“I just saved your life,” I snapped.
“And I’m about to take yours,” he said, a completely deranged look on his bloody face.
The next instant, he was lying facedown and his morta had flown away. I looked down at Harry Two, who was perched on Thorne’s back. Harry Two then bit Thorne in his left buttock. The king screamed before I coshed him on the head with my booted foot, knocking him out.
“Come on, Harry Two,” I said urgently. “Quick.”
I snatched up the harness, which had hit the ground near us, and donned it. Harry Two jumped into my arms and I quickly buckled him in. I jumped straight up and we soared into the stormy sky like a fired arrow.
The Keeper Page 7