The Sword of the Wormling

by Jerry B. Jenkins

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  The Wormling II: The Sword of the Wormling

  Copyright © 2007 by Jerry B. Jenkins. All rights reserved.

  Cover illustration © 2007 by Tim Jessell. All rights reserved.

  Designed by Ron Kaufmann

  Edited by Lorie Popp

  Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the authors or publisher.

  For manufacturing information regarding this product, please call 1-800-323-9400.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Jenkins, Jerry B.

  The Wormling II : the sword of the Wormling / Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Having accepted his role as Wormling, Owen Reeder and his new friends from the Lowlands continue their search for the King’s son while keeping safe from the evil Dragon, in a dangerous attempt to fulfill the prophesy of uniting Owen’s world with the Lowlands.

  ISBN 978-1-4143-0156-3 (sc)

  [1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Good and evil—Fiction. 3. Dragons—Fiction. 4. Fantasy.] I. Fabry, Chris, date. II. Title. III. Title: Wormling two. IV. Title: Sword of the Wormling.

  PZ7.J4138Wos 2007

  [Fic]—dc22 2006033335

  For Brandon and Colin, who love swords

  “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

  Yogi Berra

  “Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.”

  Malcolm Wallace, Braveheart

  Table of Contents

  1: Rivulets

  2: The Son

  3: Whispers on the Wind

  4: The Warning

  5: Call to Arms

  6: The Deluge

  7: The Guardian

  8: The Aftermath

  9: The Journey Begins

  10: Questions

  11: The Enchantment

  12: In a Flash

  13: The Viewing Circle

  14: To the Islands

  15: On the Waves

  16: The Two-leg Curse

  17: Troubled Waters

  18: The Crest of the Wave

  19: Shoreline

  20: Company

  21: Mordecai

  22: The Cave

  23: Firelight

  24: The Lair

  25: Genuine Laughter

  26: The Sword

  27: Dinner and Treasure

  28: Watcher’s Quandary

  29: Attack

  30: Dominoes

  31: Swordplay

  32: Initiation

  33: Leaving Mirantha

  34: “May the King Grant It”

  35: The Badlands

  36: Encampment

  37: Skirting Lizards

  38: The Queen

  39: Escape

  40: The Good Heart

  41: To the Castle

  42: Between the Stones

  43: Incoming

  44: Searching

  45: Life-and-Death Struggle

  46: Into the Labyrinth

  47: Underwater

  48: Dungeon

  49: The Plan

  50: The Breakout

  51: Caught

  52: Decisions

  53: Viper War

  54: Torture

  55: The Return

  56: The Truth

  57: A Meeting of Sinful Minds

  About the Authors

  Sediment and silt trickled down the sides of Mountain Lake, carried by tiny water rivulets, channels cut into the soft mud—“rain tracks,” as Owen Reeder had called them when he was a child. Days of rain turned the crystal clear lake muddy. Ever since the Wormling had come, gray clouds hovered, angry at the earth.

  Such surrounded the gigantic lake at the mountaintop, resulting in a cone of darkness that spread over the land. But that is not to say it rained only there. The Valley of Shoam got its share. In fact, most of the inhabitants of the valley huddled inside their humble dwellings even now as the relentless rain beat on their thatched roofs, invading their cupboards and living rooms, seeping into the walls. Small animals moved on the dense forest floor, looking for some dry place, curling up by the base of a tree or under bushes.

  Two droplets fell in tandem, twin tears from a grieving sky, and descended on the valley. If you were inside these droplets—well, you would have to be very tiny—you would pass the tip of the mountain that rises beyond the lake into a sharp, rocky point, then travel down the side to the hole the Mucker had dug to allow the Wormling passage from the Highlands to the Lowlands.

  You might land on a pine needle, exploding into several droplets before reaching the ground, or you might fall on a scrumhouse, the small building behind each home known as an outhouse to those in Owen’s world. He had never seen one until he happened on this valley.

  Call it fate or happenstance, but these two raindrops that hurtled toward the ground at a frightening rate (and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the speed) separated and remained an arm’s length apart until one landed on the boy we know as Owen and the other on his new friend Watcher.

  The former was a young teenager out of his element, out of his comfort zone, with piercing brown eyes and a shock of light brown hair. He was of average height and slight build—which is to say that Owen did not look like the full-armed football players back home but more like a chess-club type. He wore clothes from his world—jeans, a T-shirt, and a backpack—under a cloak the Lowlanders called a tunic, made from the skins of forest animals. He had accepted it as a gift from the woman inside the cottage behind him after her husband, Bardig, had died, a victim of an otherworldly being named Dreadwart, a being Owen could have never even imagined only a few short days before.

  The latter was a smaller being, Watcher, whose face looked much like a Yorkshire terrier’s. Let us be clear that Watcher would have been infuriated to know we had compared her to a dog from the Highlands, a dog that, unlike her, can’t speak and walks on four legs. Her eyes were soft and delicate, and when she blinked the water away from her brown-and-blonde matted fur, it made her look sad, as if tears pooled there. But do not be fooled by her cute, gentle appearance, for, as you will see, inside Watcher beats a ferocious heart.

  Watcher’s ears made perfect sentinels, listening for anything out of the ordinary: the flap of a wing, the call of some strange animal, or a cry for help. She had been trained since a youngling to be alert to everything around her, and that training had paid off when she had heard the arrival of the Wormling and paved the way for him. But he was not as welcome to the rest in the valley as she wished.

  Owen, the Wormling, and Watcher had been together since the passing of Bardig. Owen had wanted to immediately search for the King’s Son, who, it was said, would unite Owen’s world with the Lowlands and everyone would be saved and happy and blah, blah, blah. But with the time of mourning for Bardig and the heavy rains (which had coincidentally come at the same time), Owen had relented and stayed in the small dwelling, sleeping on the back porch while Bardig’s wife and a few townspeople sat inside crying and moaning and trying their best to sing comforting songs.

  “Why do they sing so softly?” Owen had said.

  “Singing is
forbidden,” Watcher said, “along with the reading of books.” She nodded at The Book of the King, Owen’s huge, animal-skinned tome that weighed as much as an old dictionary. “As far as I know, you carry the only book in the entire kingdom.”

  The book contained prophecies and stories, most of which Owen did not yet understand. But those weren’t the parts that bothered him. It was the parts he could understand. The book invigorated and unnerved him. It caused his heart to soar at one moment, imbuing him with great courage and mettle, and in the next, it frightened him. It called him higher, gave him purpose, and with its stories made him realize he was not alone, that the world was much bigger than his tiny slice of it. Most chilling to Owen was that he had been given the responsibility of keeping the book and delivering it safely to the King’s Son, who was out there somewhere, even now, in this rain-drenched world.

  You might ask why Owen and Watcher were standing outside in the cold, pelting rain. Why would they not gravitate inside near the fire like the others? Well, that’s where they had been, but at the perking of Watcher’s ears they had hurried outside, peering first at the forest, then toward the mountain, then down at the valley.

  “Invisibles?” Owen said through chattering teeth.

  Watcher shook her head. “A stirring. From the valley.”

  Ever since Owen had arrived, he had not moved from this mountainside retreat. He asked about the Lowlands, its regions, what the people did to stay alive, whether they ever went on vacation (to which Watcher had responded with a blank stare), and whether there were other valleys or rivers or even oceans.

  “I’ve lived here all my life,” Watcher had said, pointing. “Up there. Waiting for you. I’ve heard of all the different places, of course. And, yes, we do have an ocean, and there are islands and a huge river that way. But passage is difficult and dangerous. The town council forbade us long ago from sending a runner, even when there was a death of a family member.”

  Owen wiped water from his forehead and turned toward the valley where Watcher looked, sniffing, ears twitching, head cocked.

  “Visitors,” she said.

  Three hooded figures slogged up the mountain, their boots covered with mud, walking right where only days before Dreadwart had flattened a schoolhouse and trees. Owen had to look away, the fear of that day threatening to return.

  “Let’s leave,” Owen said. “Let’s take what Bardig’s wife packed and find the King’s Son.”

  “You can’t, Wormling. The initiation—”

  “No one here can read the scroll you showed me. I can’t even read it. How are we supposed to go through some ceremony where no one knows what to say?”

  “It is required.”

  “It’s a ceremony. It means nothing compared to finding the King’s Son so I can—”

  “Anger,” Watcher said, nodding toward the three who marched with even more determination up the muddy hillside. “There is rage among these.”

  “I don’t care—”

  “Perhaps you should.”

  “—if someone is mad. I don’t care if people expect me to go through some ritual that proves I’m a real Wormling. It’s not even in the book.”

  Watcher narrowed her eyes at him, and the fur beside her mouth drew itself into a knot. “Bardig gave his life to protect you, to keep you from the enemy. He was the one taught in the ways of the Wormling, the only one who still believed you would come.”

  “Other than you,” Owen said, calming.

  Watcher seemed resolute. “He was clear that when you came—not if but when—the initiation must take place. It is more than just words. It is required. Period. I would think you would be more respectful of the dead and abide by his wishes.”

  Owen followed Watcher up the hill to another tree ripped out by its roots. Fresh worms crawled in the moist earth as if even they were looking for a dry place. Small animals scurried, obviously sensing something.

  “I can’t be expected to live up to the expectations of people I don’t even know,” Owen said. “They didn’t send me here.”

  Watcher turned on him. “Can’t you trust in people who want you to succeed but who know there is more to your quest than simply finding someone and handing him a book?” Her ears twitched again, and her eyes widened. “The animals are telling us something. Danger is near.”

  “Another attack?”

  “Worse. Much worse.” Watcher loped up the hill as fast as any creature Owen had ever seen. She stopped and turned. “Wait here. Try to stay out of trouble.”

  Owen rolled his eyes. He was wet, cold, and eager to be on his way.

  Had Owen known what was about to occur, both with the three who approached from below and the onslaught that would come from above, he would have sounded an alarm, gathered his book (and the pack of food carefully prepared for his journey), set off through the tangle of vines and junglelike forest, and let Watcher find him with her heightened senses.

  But Owen did not leave, did not gather the precious book given to him by a strange man in the other world, a man with weird clothes and eyes every bit as fierce as those he had seen in these people. Something about the man had caused Owen to trust him almost immediately, so when the winged beast had plunged toward them and blown its fiery breath, Owen had feared losing the man more than dying himself (though, of course, he feared that too).

  Owen turned at the sound of a door slamming. Two of the hooded figures stood on Bardig’s ramshackle porch, their faces shrouded.

  A whoop came from inside, where the third figure had to be, and Owen quickly made his way back down. It was Bardig’s wife who cried, keening—half wail, half sob, all pain.

  “What’s wrong?” Owen called, but the hooded figures did not turn.

  Owen ran to a window in time to see the third hooded figure stand before Bardig’s wife and remove his hood. He was a younger, slimmer Bardig!

  “I came as soon as I heard,” the man said. “Word travels slowly.”

  “Oh, Connor!” Bardig’s wife cried, clinging to him like a vine to a rock wall. “You shouldn’t have come. You know it is forbidden.”

  “The rules of the evil one mean nothing to me. I should never have left you.” He held her tightly, and Owen was warmed by his words.

  But there were also whispers in the room. Owen suddenly felt self-conscious, as if the whispers were about him. He was the reason Bardig was dead. Owen and the man’s determination to protect him at all costs.

  “Is he the one?” Connor said, wet hair hanging before steely eyes.

  Owen moved quickly from the window. These people should grieve alone and in peace.

  “You!” Connor shouted, bursting onto the porch. “Wormling! Are you such a dog that you would crawl away, afraid to face the son of the man you killed?”

  Owen stopped and faced him. “Your father protected me from one who would have taken my life. For that I will be eternally grateful.”

  Connor jumped down, his eyes locking on Owen’s. “You speak confidently for a boy who killed my father.”

  “The beast killed your father. You do him a disservice to say otherwise.”

  Connor pushed back his cloak and pulled from his scabbard a large sword. “A true Wormling is fearless, my father always said. A true Wormling would bring healing. You brought death. And this infernal rain.”

  “I have no power over the elements, but I am sorry for your loss.”

  “You are the reason for my loss!”

  A crowd gathered behind Connor, people from inside as well as a few who had heard the commotion from the village below. Owen supposed this event was the only real entertainment these people had.

  “You will stay and you will fight,” Connor said. “For the honor of my father.”

  All the way up the mountain, though it took her half the time it would have taken the quickest human, Watcher muttered about the Wormling and his timid ways. She had hoped for a strong leader, a wise, barrel-chested, fire-in-the-belly type of man who would take on their world the wa
y Mucker had chewed through the miles of dirt and rock to get here. Instead, they had been sent a shy and hesitant Wormling, more of a schoolboy than a fighter, a milk-fed kitten rather than a lion.

  Her best friend in the world had been Bardig, so it is no surprise that she would speak to him, even though she knew he was dead.

  “I don’t understand it,” she said, looking to the heavens. “All the things you told me made me think the Wormling would be different. He seems more eager to get back to his own world than to save ours. He has to have an older brother or even a sister who is stronger. Why couldn’t they have been sent?”

  She scuttled up the mountain, grabbing at saplings and rocks to propel her. Strangely, the farther she got, the softer the ground became. Her small padded hooves left footprints much deeper than she was accustomed to, and she was glad to get to the stony ledge that led to the mouth of the lake. From there she could usually look out on the lush valley, green and flowering, the trees rising before her. The ground was so steep she could almost step out and walk on them. But today, with the clouds and a mist so thick it hung like sackcloth over the water, it was all she could do to even see the path that led around the lake.

  “Why would such a weak, hapless human be sent to a place like this when what we need—?”

  Like a whisper on the wind, a voice pricked Watcher’s ears. “He is the one. Listen to him. Help him.”

  It was not Bardig’s voice, though it could have been. He had said the same thing to Watcher moments before he had been killed by Dreadwart. Bardig had been convinced that though Owen was small in stature, he was bigger in heart than most warriors in the Lowlands.

  Watcher’s eyes darted. “How can I help someone I don’t believe is worthy to be called Wormling?”

  The voice didn’t answer.

  With her next step, Watcher’s breath was sucked away. Her hoof sank a few inches in the trail along the crater lake. The rain had forced small gullies in the bank to sweep down the mountain. The lake had risen to within a few feet of the top of the crater, and the softness of the embankment led Watcher to believe the village didn’t have much time to prepare.