The Width of the World

by David Baldacci

  Did Petra fancy the strapping lad?

  I could only hope.

  I had James Throckmorton, a small man who had been enslaved the longest of the group, starting at age nine, perform the Embattlemento spell. I broke through it easily the first six times he tried, but the seventh time his shield held against my wand’s blast.

  His face sweaty and his chest heaving, he accepted my congratulations with a single nod before getting back to work.

  I kept moving through the group, helping Alabetus Trumbull succeed in deploying the Engulfiado spell, which doused poor Pauline Paternas, a pugnacious woman of twenty.

  As I helped her up and dried her off with a wave of my wand, I said, “Now it’s your turn.”

  Which she took with a flicker of malice in her eyes. And her stream of water was far stronger than Trumbull’s and sent him sailing headlong into the wall.

  I had to work hard to hide my smile.

  Aloysius Danbury struck Tobias Holmes blind with the Impairio spell but forgot how to reverse it, which I quickly fixed.

  Charlotte Tokken straightened out a maze I had created in one corner of the hall by employing with confidence the Confuso, recuso incantation.

  I shuddered when I recalled how that spell had saved our lives in the Quag as we were going through the First Circle.

  Anna Dibble, a big-boned girl around my age with brown hair cut very short by her former masters, which gave her a face a severely intense look, trapped her sparring partner and former slave mate, Sara Bond, with the Incartarata incantation. As the white lights swirled around Sara, I recalled how that same prison had held a huge jabbit in Astrea Prine’s cottage. A jabbit that would have done me in, had I not been exceptionally fast with my wand!

  I walked halfway up the stairs and looked back down, surveying my little army going about its training.

  Over there Dennis O’Shaughnessy used the Rejoinda spell to take the wand of Miranda Weeks. She promptly turned the tables on him after she got her wand back and roped him neatly with an Ensnario incantation. In another corner a door was opened by Reginald Magnus using the Ingressio incantation. Another corner was brightened by the Illumina spell.

  People rose with the Elevata spell and others fell with the Descente incantation.

  A tree I had conjured in the middle of the hall had its trunk shrunk by the Withero spell.

  I smiled. All in all it was a good day.

  I wandered into the room where Delph was holding forth.

  As usual, he was dressed in a suit with a vest and looked fetchingly handsome with his thick, long hair and tall, strong body. There were twenty students in the room and I noted, with a bit of apprehension, that all twelve of the young women sat there somehow managing to copiously write down every word Delph said while simultaneously gaping at him. I watched as several glanced at one another, patted their chests and giggled.

  I closed the door to the room and walked away, shaking my head.

  Females.

  At dinner that night we all ate together. I usually liked to split the group up so as not to overburden the kitchen, but Mrs. Jolly insisted that it was fine. And the meal was particularly splendid, with chicken and ham and vegetables from the garden and soft rolls that seemed to melt in my mouth. Then followed pudding, and soon we all sat there happy and drowsy.

  We said our good nights and went our separate ways.

  Petra caught up to me as I walked to my room.

  “I think things are going rather well,” she said. “Artemis Dale gets everything right after just a few attempts now. And Regina Samms nearly so. And Katie Watson’s Ensnario spell is quite something. And Alex Prettyman’s convulsing hex is nearly unbreakable.”

  “And Nicholas Bonham?” I said slyly. “He seems awfully good too.”

  Petra turned pink and looked away. “He’s all right but he also needs a lot of work.”

  “And I’m sure you’ll give him all the attention he needs,” I said encouragingly.

  I looked her over. Ever since coming here, it seemed to me that Petra had become even more lovely. She could now bathe regularly, wear clean clothes and wash her hair. And Mrs. Jolly’s food had filled out her gaunt look. She was a beautiful woman, I had to admit. Nicholas Bonham would be fortunate to win her good graces.

  “He tried to snog me the other night,” she said, startling me.

  “What did you do?”

  “I hexed him.”

  “Really?”

  She smiled. “But then I snogged him back.”

  I laughed. “Well, I’m sure he liked that.”

  “Delph wants to snog you.”

  My smile faded. “How do you know that?”

  “He told me. That night I was in his room. We were talking about you. He really loves you, Vega. I’ve always known that. I guess I flirted with him sometimes just to make you mad. Anyway, he wanted my opinion about what he should do.”

  I thought back to that night when I had almost sent Petra to her death. They had been talking about me?

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “To follow his heart.”

  I shot her a curious glance. “So you’re not … ?”

  “I didn’t say that, did I?” She paused, but only for a moment, before adding, “And I plan to follow my heart too!”

  She said good night, spun on her heel and went off to her room, leaving me standing there.

  What else should I have expected from bloody Petra Sonnet?

  A moment later Delph came around the corner.

  My face instantly felt warm and I said, innocently, “Hey, Delph, Petra and I were just talking about you.”

  “Really? What about?”

  “Oh, nothing important. You’ve become a fine teacher.”

  “Right.” He seemed distracted and I wondered why.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “I’m glad you liked your present.”

  I touched the necklace. “I love it, Delph.”

  He edged a bit closer. “I wanted to give you another present on your birthday, but I wasn’t … wasn’t sure you’d like it.”

  “Delph, I’m sure I would love whatever you gave me.”

  He took another step forward.

  And he kissed me. I mean he really snogged me.

  And before I realized it, I was snogging him back. We stood there for about five minutes with our lips and bodies locked together. My heart felt like it might burst.

  Then we heard a giggle.

  And then someone cleared his throat.

  We turned to find half a dozen people standing there watching us.

  The two girls watching us looked like they might melt, though Cecilia Harkes did seem a bit disappointed.

  The blokes, Amicus and Dennis among them, just looked embarrassed.

  “Right,” I said. “Well, good night, Delph.”

  We uncoiled from each other and I hurried into my room and closed the door.

  I don’t believe my face was wide enough to accommodate my smile.

  Harry Two was already there.

  But my dog wasn’t asleep, though he usually was by now.

  He was perched on my bed looking strange, I thought.

  I sat next to him and rubbed his fur.

  “You okay, Harry Two?” I said.

  Usually when I said that he would lick my face. This time he didn’t. He didn’t move or even look at me.

  Troubled by this, I undressed, washed my face and climbed into bed.

  I lay there staring at the ceiling.

  I could tell that time passed, and soon it was the darkest point before the rise of the sun and still I had not closed my eyes.

  I might have been thinking about Delph the whole time. That kiss had confirmed much for me. And it made my heart leap for joy. But though I really wanted to dwell on that, I was thinking principally about Harry Two. He had not moved a muscle. He was still perched in the exact same spot, his body as rigid as marble.

  I would occasionally lift
my head and look at him, wishing that he would finally lie down and go to sleep. But he didn’t. And I knew that nothing Harry Two did was without purpose. He was my early warning signal and always had been. He sensed things long before I did.

  I finally crawled over next to my faithful companion and sat with my arm around him.

  I worriedly scanned his face. His eyes were pointed straight at the door. His snout was clamped shut. He looked as serious as ever I’d seen him, even when death was staring us both in the face, in the shape of a garm or jabbit or Maladon.

  Finally, I got dressed and was debating whether to go downstairs and prepare for the next day’s lessons when I shot a look at Harry Two. It was clear that his senses had once again been faster than mine, for he had jumped down from the bed and was intently staring at the door to my room.

  I rushed over to him.

  “Harry Two, what is it?” I asked.

  He never once looked at me. But his remaining ear had peaked.

  And then he lunged and started to scratch at the door.

  I flung it open and he raced out.

  “Harry Two!”

  He ran down the hall and then hurtled down the stairs.

  I raced after him.

  He reached the first floor, turned and bolted out of sight.

  I caught sight of him as he galloped down a set of stairs.

  I followed in time to see him turn and go down another set of rickety stairs.

  Then my heart went into my throat because I knew where he was going.

  Sure enough, he reached the little door with the screaming Wug on the doorknob. When I ran up next to him he looked at me and barked, as though to say, Hurry up, will you?

  I used my wand to open the door. Harry Two raced in and I followed.

  The sounds reached my ears as soon as I closed the door behind me.

  It was someone sobbing.

  The bits of light were swirling everywhere, as before, though there appeared to be more of them, and their flight more frenetic than it had been.

  I rushed around looking for Uma Cadmus, or Alice Adronis, in her pierced armor and with her mortal wound. But they were not there.

  So where were the sobs coming from?

  Harry Two was not at a loss, though. He yipped and raced to a distant corner. I ran after him and found that the corner was actually a bend in the room that led to a much smaller room.

  And in the very center of that room was a huddled figure.

  I crept forward, unsure who or what it was. I doubted that any of the fifty people we had brought here would have found this place, or been able to access it. Was it one of the household staff? Was it another restless soul I had not met?

  “Hello?” I said cautiously. “Excuse me? Hello? Are you all right?”

  When the figure turned toward me, I didn’t know how I kept from fainting, or my heart from stopping.

  The ethereal image of Morrigone was facing me.

  But I had left Morrigone behind in Wormwood.

  So what the Hel —

  My breath caught in my throat as my lungs seized up.

  Wormwood!

  We rushed over to her and I knelt down beside her.

  I knew it was Morrigone, but it was a very changed Morrigone.

  I had seen her in an image from Astrea Prine’s cottage when I was in the Quag. Even then she had looked different from what I remembered. Always tall, queenly and flawless in all respects, she had looked older, withered, ill even.

  The Morrigone I was looking at now was pale and frail, and the look in her eyes, even as recognition sparked there as her gaze fell full on my features, was one of abject horror undercut by a sense of complete despair.

  I didn’t know which terrified me more.

  “Morrigone? It’s me, Vega Jane.”

  But she knew who I was. I had seen that clearly in her features. At first she said nothing. But her hand reached out and gripped my arm. Or rather it tried to. It simply passed right through.

  “Vega,” she said in a near whisper.

  “What happened?” I said. “How did you get here?”

  “I am dead,” she said in the same low voice, as though she barely had the strength to speak.

  “Dead! But how?”

  “They came.”

  They? Who‘s they? I wondered.

  But then the images leapt back to my mind. There really could only be one they.

  “The Maladons?” I said. “They came to Wormwood?”

  She nodded.

  “And killed you?”

  She nodded again.

  I could barely breathe. “And … and the rest of Wormwood?”

  She said nothing. She simply shook her head.

  “I … it can’t be,” I blurted out.

  Now Morrigone’s expression turned hard, cruel, loathing in every facet.

  “I told you, Vega. I warned you what could happen. Well, now it has happened. Our deaths are upon your head.”

  Before I could say anything in response, she faded away to nothing.

  I could only stare at the spot where she had been. My mind had gone blank.

  When it was filled with thoughts a few moments later, they were all terrible ones indeed.

  Wormwood? My home?

  They had killed her. They had killed … everyone?

  My mind went blank again. No, my mind went dead.

  When it restarted, I slumped to the side and vomited up my dinner.

  Next instant I jumped up and ran all the way to my room with Harry Two right behind. I was so out of control that I bounced into walls and crashed over furniture. It was a wonder the whole house wasn’t awoken, but I reached my bedroom without anyone seeing me.

  I put on my cloak, slipped Destin around my waist and put the harness around my shoulders. I snapped my fingers and Harry Two jumped into the harness as he had done so many times before.

  We passed by first Delph’s and then Petra’s rooms. But this was something I had to do.

  Alone.

  We stepped outside of Empyrean and I tapped my leg twice with the destination firmly in mind as I said the spell.

  A moment later Harry Two and I arrived at the spot where we had left the Quag so long ago.

  It was dark and dreary.

  When I walked over to the spot I raised my wand and said, “Exposadus.”

  There it was, the magical dome that had entombed both Wormwood and the Quag. And on it was the very slightest of impressions, like an exposed seam in a garment.

  We had come out here.

  I looked down at my ring. I had used it to open the dome, allowing us to escape.

  A useful magical element.

  Those were the words that Endemen had spoken to me in Major Nelson’s bedroom. And I now I fully knew what he meant. I had used my ring to cut a seam in the dome to get out.

  They had used my ring to get in.

  When I was at the castle before and had seen all the pell-mell activity. That was when they must have found the spot where we came out. By making the seam we had exposed the location of the spell wall protecting both the Quag and Wormwood. It had been pristine and thus completely invisible. They had never been able to find it before. But with the seam marring the perfect surface of the dome they at least knew what they had to break through. But they hadn’t been able to get in.

  Until they got my ring.

  My heart crumbled to bits.

  I used my ring to pierce the wall. Then I tapped my wand against my leg and muttered “Pass-pusay” holding the image of the place of my birth singly in mind. I certainly knew it better than any other place.

  The next moment my feet touched down on the High Street in the town square.

  I had been gone from here it seemed like an eternity.

  And it looked as though an eternity had passed.

  The buildings were destroyed. The cobbles ruptured.

  I walked numbly toward the Loons, where my brother, John, and I had lived after our parents had gone to
the Care.

  The building was a shell now, the doors and windows blown out.

  I walked to the end where the majestic Council building had been located. I gaped, for there was only an enormous blackened hole in the dirt where it had once stood.

  I wandered aimlessly around.

  Steeples was burned, the pretty glass melted.

  The hospital and the Care were similarly gutted.

  I flew to Duf Delphia’s cottage.

  Please, don’t let it be. Don’t let Duf be …

  As I drew close, I noted with horror that all of the beasts that Duf typically trained lay dead in the paddocks around the cottage, showing more bone than flesh.

  I landed and crept up to the porch of the cottage. The door was gone, the windows simply gaping holes.

  With a thrill of horror, I saw it.

  A pair of wooden stumps leaned against the wall.

  But Duf Delphia was not attached to them.

  I backed away, with Harry Two still in the harness, and pushed off the ground.

  I soared above and landed in front of my old family home, where I had gone to live after Morrigone had taken in John. Surprisingly, nothing was touched there. I walked in the door and looked around in wonder that they had not demolished this place, especially this place.

  But then I saw the mark of the Maladons burned into the wall.

  So they had been here.

  I raised my wand and blasted their mark away.

  I ran out and lifted off into the sky, and moments later landed at Stacks.

  The towers were toppled, the massive gate caved in. When I walked inside I saw that everything had been destroyed.

  When I reached my old worker station where I had been a Finisher, I saw that the brass nameplate with Vega Jane on it had been savagely defaced.

  I pointed my wand at it, and wiped the marks away so that my name and my name alone was visible.

  I went to Julius Domitar’s little office. The furniture had been overturned, his precious ink bottles smashed to bits.

  I headed up the stairs to the second floor and from there to the door with the screaming Wug as a doorknob. None of it was there. The door and the Wug doorknob were gone. The only thing there was a blank wall.

  I left Stacks and flew next to my tree house.

  It was still there with the boards intact against the trunk of the tree. One of them was still blackened from when the garm had attacked me here. I leapt to the top of the planks. Again, like my home, it was undisturbed, except for one thing.