Then I heard Delph’s belly rumbling.
It was then that I realized I was starving. I looked in my tuck to find that my larder was basically empty. Delph and Petra did the same, with similar results.
Harry Two looked hungry, but then he always did.
‘Here.’ I handed them the clothes I had found. We swiftly dressed and put our old clothes and boots along with the spare new items in our tucks. I slipped the book on True into my coat pocket.
Petra said, ‘But what now? We can’t go outside, can we?’
‘I’ve seen lots and lots of Wu—’ I stopped. ‘I mean I’ve seen lots of people coming and going. And almost never did I see one of them hail another. I think this place is far larger than we initially thought. If there are lots of blokes around, then maybe, in our new clothes, we can blend in with them.’
‘But what about Harry Two?’ asked Delph.
‘You saw the pictures of canines – I mean dogs – in the book. I’ve seen four people walking ca—’ I stopped again, frustrated by having to learn a new language so quickly. ‘DOGS!’
Delph said, probably equally frustrated, ‘Can we speak Wugish for now?’
I nodded. ‘Yes, but we can’t when we’re dealing with blokes from here. We have to start thinking in their language, Delph. Since only those from Wormwood are Wugs, we have to call the blokes here people.’
‘That makes sense,’ he replied.
‘Maybe best we say nothing at all, till we hear some of them blokes talk,’ suggested Petra.
‘That’s a good idea,’ I replied, giving her a smile. I wanted to like and trust Petra, I really did. And if she turned out to be a Maladon, I hoped I could kill her before she killed me.
Delph nodded. ‘All right, then. But how will we get food? We got nothing to pay with.’
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,’ I said gamely.
I returned us to visibility and we headed downstairs.
I had just opened the front doors when a voice cried out.
‘Oi! What in blazes are you lot doing here?’
I didn’t even look for the source.
As we had so often done in the Quag, we ran for it.
2
THE ABSENCE OF EVIL
We sprinted as hard as we could, turning corner after corner until we stopped, hunched over, breathless.
‘W-what-wh-who was that?’ Delph finally got out.
I shook my head. ‘D-dunno. But he saw us for s-sure.’
Petra drew in one long replenishing breath and said, ‘He was some bloke in a long black cloak with a white collar round his neck. Older, grey hair. He had some papers in his hand. Maybe he works there. Doubt he was there last night or else he would have heard all the fighting.’
I looked at her admiringly. She’d had the good sense to look at who had yelled at us. I had just run.
‘We’d best budge along,’ said Delph nervously.
I followed his gaze to see folks on the cobbles staring at us as they walked by. Some were on two-wheeled things that were propelled along – at least it seemed – by their feet. Strapped to the front of the contraption, where the rider placed their hands, was a wire basket to carry things. I had seen a picture of this in the book too. It was called a bicycle.
We darted across the cobbles only to almost be hit by a motor. The male behind the wheel raised a fist at us, and a great honking sound, like an enraged goose, blasted out.
My heart beating painfully fast, I turned left and we trooped single file to another corner, where I turned right. And stopped.
Wugs – I mean people – were queued up outside a shop. I knew why. The most wonderful smells were coming from within. My belly rumbled.
‘Blimey,’ said Delph, staring up at the sign over the shop.
‘Caspian’s Creations.’ He looked at me. ‘What you reckon that is?’
I said, ‘I reckon it’s a place to eat. Look.’
There was a window in the front of the shop and we could see people seated round neatly spaced wooden tables. They had plates and cups and saucers in front of them and were chomping away using shiny metal knives and forks and spoons.
‘Reminds me of the Starving Tove back in Wormwood,’ said Delph.
‘Reminds me’a nothing,’ declared Petra. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
Her tone and look were of absolute wonder. It made me think, not for the first time, that as bad as I had had it in Wormwood, it was but nothing compared to what Petra had endured living in the Quag.
Delph and Harry Two’s face and snout, respectively, were pressed against the glass as they peered longingly inside. Behind a wooden counter there were males and females in aprons filling – I supposed – orders of customers. Behind them I could see other folks dressed in white shirts and aprons, labouring over stoves and pots and pans. Piled high in wire baskets on the counter were loaves of bread and stacks of pastries and chocolates. On racks next to them were cakes and pies and . . . the most delectable puddings. My head was spinning.
I could see paper and coin exchanging hands between those behind the counter and the customers. With sinking spirits, I saw that it looked very different from Wormwood coin.
Delph had evidently seen what I had because he said, ‘You reckon we can find something to do to earn some proper coin so we can buy food?’
I heard a noise and looked round.
A large motor had pulled to a stop in front of the shop. The metal grille had a name etched on it: ZEPHYER.
There was a bloke in front behind the wheel, and there was a bloke way in the back. He was dressed in very fine clothes indeed. He wore a tall black hat. His nose was red and bulbous.
He yelled at the fellow in front, who jumped out and came swiftly round to the back.
The window came down and the bloke with the high hat could be heard clearly.
‘Go on, Wainwright. I don’t have time to eat a proper breakfast and that’s your fault. Get my usual, immediately. I can eat along the way.’
The male called Wainwright, who was dressed in knee-high brown boots, a jacket with lots of shiny buttons and a hard-sided cap with goggles wrapped round it, said pleadingly, ‘But, sir, there is a very long queue.’
‘That is not my problem, is it? Here, take the money.’
I watched as he opened a brown leather pouch he’d taken from his coat pocket. He withdrew a piece of paper and a few coins. This must be money. From here I could see that he had more paper and more coins in the large pouch.
These were the moments in my life where clear choices could be made. Do it or don’t do it. Often, the decision was difficult. This time, it was easy.
The bloke obviously had far too much money. I was just going to relieve him of a bit, and he’d be none the wiser.
I looked round and slowly withdrew my wand, hiding it inside my coat sleeve.
‘Delph,’ I said, out of the side of my mouth, ‘I need another one of your little distractions.’
‘What?’ He glanced from me to the bloke in the motor. ‘Oh, right.’
He looked around for a moment and then cried out, in his deep, carrying voice, ‘Oi, look at that!’
Everyone within earshot glanced sharply that way, including the two blokes at the long motor.
‘Rejoinda some of the, uh, money stuff in that bloke’s pouch,’ I muttered under my breath.
Some paper and coins shot from the pouch, zipped past the chin of the fellow in uniform, who was looking across the cobbles like everyone else, and landed neatly in my other hand.
I slipped the paper and coin into my pocket and we joined the queue.
‘That’s stealing, ain’t it, Vega Jane?’ admonished Delph.
Petra said, ‘So what? It’s how me and Lack survived in the Quag all that time.’
‘We’re not in the Quag now, are we?’ countered Delph sternly.
‘Do you want to eat or not?’ I said.
Well, that shut him up good and proper.
We finally made it inside the shop and stepped up to the counter.
A female in a long white apron with a matching cap faced us. Her skin was paler than mine and her eyes were large and round. Her long black hair was pulled back into a knot at the nape of her neck.
‘What would you like, dearie?’
‘Um, what do you have?’ I said timidly.
She pointed to a board on the wall that listed lots of things. ‘All that there, plus what you see on the counter.’
Petra said boldly, ‘What do you like the best?’
The female smiled, looked at her and said in a low voice, ‘Well, I must admit, number four is my absolute favourite.’
‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘For the three of us.’
She looked down and saw Harry Two. ‘Dogs outside, please. He’s a cute one, though. What do you call him?’
‘Um, Harry.’ I figured telling her his real name would only prompt questions I didn’t want to answer.
‘Why, the poor thing’s gone and lost most of an ear,’ she noted, clucking sympathetically.
‘I know. He, uh, got into a fight with another cani— dog.’
From the corner of my eye I saw Delph tug down the sleeve that covered his blackened arm and Petra slipping her injured hand into her pocket.
I quickly led Harry Two outside and told him to wait by the window. Then I went back inside and paid for our food. The female gave me back some other paper and a few coins and I put them away in my coat pocket.
‘That’s an odd glove, dearie. And just the one too,’ she observed.
My throat constricted a bit. ‘My mum gave it to me. I lost the other. But I keep it on for her.’
‘Well, ain’t that nice of you. I’ve got three daughters of me own, you know.’
I smiled weakly and hurried off.
A group of blokes left their table and we took it. When our food came, I took a portion out to Harry Two.
When I rejoined Delph and Petra, my gaze caught and held on her.
She was staring down at her meal like it was the most beautiful sight she had ever laid eyes on: scrambled eggs and bacon and fat sausages and warm buttered bread and hot tea and porridge topped off with a pile of kippers.
She caught me looking and her face reddened. I reached out and took her hand.
‘I know what it’s like to be hungry. But I was never hungry like you and Lack were. So I say eat up and enjoy a very fine meal.’
She smiled. For the next ten slivers all we did was eat, swallow and drink.
Delph mumbled between mouthfuls, ‘Looks like the food ain’t so different here.’
Petra glanced at him. ‘Maybe for you. I’ve never had such a feast in all my life.’
I saw that she was fumbling with the fork, knife and spoon. I cut up a sausage slowly, so that she could copy me.
When our bellies were full, we rose and made our way out. Harry Two had long since finished his meal and was relieving himself against a corner of a building.
‘What now?’ asked Petra. ‘We should have a look around.’
‘We find a place to stay,’ I said firmly. They’d both slept all night but I hadn’t.
We began walking.
‘Where do you reckon the Maladons are, Vega Jane?’ Delph asked.
‘Are we sure there are Maladons here?’ asked Petra.
‘Who in the blazes do you think those two blokes were last night?’ I snapped. I was worried. I’d thought the Maladons would be easy to spot because they would be hideous in figure and murderous of temper. The blokes last night just looked like everyone else in True. That was a scary thought – not knowing who the Maladons were until they pulled their wands.
Delph looked at all the bustling activity.
‘It don’t look like what I thought it would,’ he remarked.
Delph was exactly right about that. We had been told that the Maladons were evil.
So why did everyone look happy and . . . free?
We walked around True for a while. Every corner revealed something new and different to see. The large double-decked motors I had seen from the church window carried folks where they wanted to go. They paid coin, or money rather, for the ride.
We watched folks walk in and out of buildings. Many carried packages and bags, and some had youngs in tow or in their arms. Some pushed around baskets on wheels that had very young youngs inside of them swathed in blankets.
I inwardly sighed. Not youngs. Children. I couldn’t help but think of my family. My parents, my brother, John, and I would often take walks together. I remembered my father’s strong grip, my mother’s loving smile and my brother’s curiosity about all things. Tears prickled my eyes. I noticed Petra watching me curiously.
‘Let’s budge along,’ I said.
There were blokes on some corners holding stacks of papers and calling out, ‘Warehouse fire blamed on lax hygiene.’ Then other blokes would take one of the papers in exchange for some money. I had no idea what any of it meant.
Some hurried along and others moved more slowly. There were males in shiny uniforms with lots of brass buttons standing in the middle of the cobbles, directing the motors where to go and whether to stop and start.
There were males wearing aprons selling food and drink to passers-by. Children rushing around and exhausting their mothers and fathers. Folks chatting as Wugs did back in Wormwood.
But the thing I wasn’t seeing disturbed me most of all.
Where was the MAGIC?
Aside from the pair last night, I had seen nary a wand nor a spell cast. There were no evil creatures to battle.
But those blokes from last night could do magic. They had very nearly killed us. I was convinced they were Maladons. How else would they have been able to track the mark on my hand? So how did that murderous presence, which we had expected, match up with the serene world we were seeing now?
I scratched my head. The whole thing was sixes and sevens as far as I was concerned.
‘Uh, Vega Jane,’ muttered Delph, ‘I think a bloke is following us.’
I forced myself to keep looking ahead.
‘Why do you think that?’ I asked nervously.
Petra answered, ‘Because he’s been behind us since we left the place where we ate. Don’t you use your eyes?’
I shot her an angry glance, but I was upset with myself. If Delph and Petra had noticed this, why hadn’t I?
I crossed to the other side of the cobbles, quickly enough that Delph and Petra had to hustle to catch up. I turned to look back at them, but really I looked at the fellow behind us.
It wasn’t hard to spot him. He was short and plump and he was hustling across the street, his gaze locked on us. He wore a matching jacket and trousers with a white shirt, a long strand of red material round his collar and an oddly shaped hat that I had seen other males here wearing.
‘What do we do now?’ asked Petra as we hurried along.
I looked ahead. There was little alley coming up. ‘Down here.’
As soon as we turned into the alley, I pulled out my wand, conjured the lasso, attached it to the others and then turned my ring backwards. Invisible, we moved back against the brick wall of the alley and waited.
We didn’t have to wait long.
The bloke came hurtling into the narrow space and then stopped dead, looking up and down the alley.
He ran down the alley until he reached the end. He looked left and right; then he hustled back to where we all stood watching him.
He took something out of his pocket, lit it with a match and blew smoke out of his nostrils as he tapped his shiny shoe against the cobbles and rubbed his chin.
My fingers loosely gripped my wand. Round my waist, Destin, a chain that, among other things, allowed me to fly, hugged me a bit tighter.
Petra had her wand at the ready too. She looked intent and not even slightly afraid.
I turned back to our pursuer. If this bloke was a Maladon, he didn’t look remotely dangerous. Even pathetic Cletus Loon f
rom Wormwood could take the little twerp if need be.
He finished his smoke, crushed it underfoot with the heel of his shoe and, giving the alley one more penetrating look, turned and left. We waited a bit to make sure he was gone good and proper, and then I reversed the ring and lifted the spell of the conjured lasso.
‘Who you reckon that bloke was?’ asked Delph.
‘A spy for the Maladons, maybe,’ I said. ‘Only . . . if he were magical, you’d think he would have used his wand to find us in here.’
‘Aye, that’s a right good point,’ said Delph, looking impressed by my logic.
‘But that means that the Maladons may control this place and use some of the folks here to help them. Even if they can’t do magic, they’re our enemies.’
Delph looked unnerved by this. ‘So everybody here might be against us?’
‘It’s possible, Delph,’ I said.
As I continued to gaze around, something struck me. Everyone here looked very different from one another. I know that blokes look different from other blokes. But back in Wormwood, Wugs all looked pretty much the same. Same general facial features, hair colour and pale skin. Morrigone with her blood-red hair was really the sole outlier. Here I was seeing features and skin colour I’d never seen before. Black and brown and skin far paler than mine.
‘Well, we’re strangers here,’ said Petra, interrupting my thoughts. ‘That prat who chased us from the church might have told others about us. So if these Maladons are smart, they’ll send more blokes after us. We can’t stay invisible forever.’
‘Aye, that’s a right good point too,’ said Delph, gazing admiringly at Petra.
‘So what do we do now?’ Petra asked.
They both looked at me – or all three of them did if you counted Harry Two, which I always did.
I thought quickly. ‘We still need to find another place to hide. Until dark.’
‘OK, but where?’ said Petra.
It was then that we heard a great roaring sound.
‘Come on,’ I said.
We rushed off over the cobbles in the direction of the racket, finally coming out into an enormous square filled with folk rushing hither and thither.
Vega Jane and the Rebels’ Revolt Page 2