I hurried over to the door and tugged on it.
It wouldn’t budge.
I cast my spell to unlock it. It didn’t work. I tried every spell I could think of to open that door and not a single one worked.
I put my ear to the metal. I was listening for any sound from the jabbits, but I heard nothing.
‘The magic,’ said Delph. ‘Victus said there was magic guarding this room. I reckon if you get past the jabbits and get in here, they got spells that make sure you don’t get out.’
I pointed my wand at the slit in the wall. If I could enlarge it, maybe . . . I cast my spell. It immediately rebounded on me and knocked me head over heels across the room.
I slowly rose, rubbing at a painful newly risen knot on my head.
‘Hel,’ I said.
As I took a step back across the room, the creature shot out a hand and grabbed my wrist. Though terribly emaciated, it was ridiculously strong. I dug my fingers into its flesh to make it let go, but its grip was like iron shackles.
Delph came to my aid, but even with his immense strength, he could not break the creature’s grip.
Petra pointed her wand at it and said, ‘Impacto.’
Her spell ricocheted off the thing and she had to duck to avoid being hit.
‘Uh, Vega Jane,’ said Delph.
‘What?’ I barked, still struggling to free myself.
‘Is it my imagination, or is this room getting smaller?’
I looked wildly around.
He was absolutely right.
The walls were moving towards us. Already the room was half as large as it had been.
I tugged with all the strength that Destin provided me and still I could not break the creature’s grip. And the walls were barely two feet from us and were closing in with alarming speed now.
‘Let go!’ I screamed.
The walls were barely six inches from us, and in a few more seconds we would be smashed flat. I felt one wall hit me in the back.
Delph was pushing back against another wall with all his strength, but it was useless. It pushed him right into me. Petra was next to me and Harry Two on the other side. The walls would be touching within a few seconds. As we watched, the wooden arm of the chair splintered.
It was over. We were done for.
And then Harry Two jumped up and licked the creature’s arm.
It immediately let me go.
Frantically, I pointed my wand at the oncoming walls.
‘Embattlemento.’
My shield spell sprang out all around us. When the walls hit it, they ground to a halt.
But only for a moment. Then they started moving forward again, but at a much slower pace.
The walls pushed us closer. My lungs were constricted as Delph, Petra and Harry Two were shoved more tightly into me. I could feel the creature’s rank breath on my cheek, so close was I to it. Our faces were now an inch apart. There was no room left to even breathe.
As panic set in, I felt my wand hand jerk.
Of course!
I willed my wand to return to its form as the Elemental.
‘Everyone hold on!’ I shouted.
As I spoke, the door to the Tower Room was vaporized, and Endemen stood in the doorway.
I knew he couldn’t see us, but he knew we were there.
He pointed his wand at the narrow space that was all that was left of the Tower Room.
As I had before, I tossed the Elemental upward, but held on.
We were all immediately ripped off our feet, bound together as we were by the magical tether.
The Elemental hit the stone ceiling and blasted right through it.
We were out in the open.
I gulped in several large breaths as we flew, and knew the others were doing the same. I turned back. Endemen was behind us, astride one of the jabbits, which, as it turned out, was of the flying jabbit variety, as I had seen from my brief journey back in time when I lived in Wormwood.
Behind him were a dozen Bowler Hats.
Well, I had managed to lose them before. Perhaps I could again.
I zigzagged across the sky, but they matched me move for move, as though they could actually see me.
The jabbit put on a burst of speed and came so close to me that one of the heads tried to bite my boot. I kicked it away in the nick of time.
Then Delph cried out, ‘It’s the jabbit. It can smell us.’
I knew if we attempted to fire spells at Endemen and his cohorts, it would truly give away our positions. I put on a burst of speed and pulled away, but I sensed that Destin could not keep up this pace.
Next instant I saw that Endemen and the jabbit had closed the gap by half and were moving up fast.
‘We can’t outfly them, Vega,’ cried out Petra.
‘Then we’ll just do this!’
I turned so sharply that the others were swung out wide on the tether.
Now I was heading right for Endemen and the jabbit, though they couldn’t see us.
But the jabbit could smell us, and I could tell from its hundreds of confused expressions that it didn’t know quite what to make of its prey coming so willingly to the slaughter.
I readied my wand, but Delph shook his head. ‘Spell cast will give us clear away,’ he said. He pulled out his long knife. ‘I’ll kill it with this, Vega Jane.’
Petra exclaimed, ‘A knife? Against that! Are you barmy or what?’
Delph said, ‘My dad told me once that the underbelly of a jabbit is the softest spot on it. And my dad never told an untruth in his life.’
He gripped his blade and readied himself as we roared towards the hideous flying serpent.
Endemen was barely ten feet from us. At our combined speeds, we would crash into each other in another few seconds.
I counted one, then two.
The screech of the jabbit was ear-shattering. I could see every mouth open, all the venomous teeth about to tear into us.
‘Vega!’ screamed Petra.
I felt Harry Two go rigid in his harness.
They were right on us. I could see the darkened pupils of Endemen’s eyes.
‘Now,’ I shouted.
I dived.
We soared directly under the jabbit.
‘Now, Delph, now!’
He pointed the blade straight up.
It ripped into the serpent’s underbelly.
Jabbit blood spattered us and the great beast tumbled from the sky, bringing Endemen and his crew down with it.
I turned back around and accelerated to Destin’s top speed. I felt the links of the chain against my skin. They were like ice. It was as though my chain instinctively knew that our very survival was at stake. It was giving our escape every bit of power it could provide.
We were far enough away now.
I raised my wand, tapped my leg and cried out, ‘Pass-pusay.’
The image of wonderful, safe Empyrean was firmly in my mind.
The next moment we landed at the front door of the place.
I lunged for the huge doorknob, opened the portal, and we all fell inside.
Delph leaped up and slammed the door shut before he slumped to the floor alongside us.
We all just lay there panting and shaking.
As my head cleared, I looked up from the floor to see Pillsbury there.
‘Mistress Vega, are you all right?’
I slowly stood with the others. We were all covered in jabbit yuck.
‘No, Pillsbury. In fact, I doubt I’ll ever be right again.’
24
BOTTLES OF RUIN
The sun was starting to come up as we headed for our respective rooms. I took off my soiled clothes and poured pitcher after pitcher of clean water over me. It magically replenished each time. I scrubbed every inch of me hard with a bar of soap. Then I did the same with Harry Two. I dried us both and I put on clean clothes that Pillsbury had placed in my cabinet.
When I got back downstairs, Petra and Delph were already there, looking s
omewhat revived in their clean clothes and skins. I could see the memory of what we’d gone through in their eyes; I’m sure it showed in mine.
‘What was that thing in the Tower Room?’ asked Petra. ‘It . . . it had no face.’
‘And what was so special about it that it needed such heavy guard?’ asked Delph.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I know I couldn’t make it let go of me.’
I looked at where it had clutched me.
Then I glanced at Harry Two. ‘If not for Harry Two, we’d be dead. He was the only thing to make that creature let go.’
I patted Harry Two’s head, and he gave me an appreciative lick.
‘Endemen killed Daphne and the others,’ said Petra in a hollow tone. ‘Like it was nothing.’
‘We’ve seen him kill before,’ I said. ‘Those poor blokes on the train. He doesn’t care who he kills, Petra.’
She turned on me, her eyes glittering. ‘And yet you let him live back in Bimbleton! If you’d taken my advice, Daphne and the others would still be alive.’
‘That’s not fair,’ Delph said defensively. ‘Vega Jane had no way of knowing.’
‘He’s murderous, Delph,’ snapped Petra. ‘The point is how could she not know. Or how couldn’t you, for that matter!’
I finally found my voice.
‘To kill in cold blood takes a different sort of Wug,’ I said quietly. ‘And as much as it would truly be convenient to be so evil, I’m not that sort of a Wug. Neither is Delph.’ I paused. ‘Are you?’
‘Maybe I am,’ she retorted. ‘Since I’m not a Wug!’
‘So why didn’t you just kill them yourself? You could have done.’
She started to answer but stopped.
‘Why, Petra?’
‘If I had killed them, that would have just been proof to you that I’m really and truly a Maladon.’
‘Is that the only reason?’ I asked. ‘I don’t think it is.’
‘I don’t care what you think,’ Petra snapped. ‘They have an army! Magic far beyond our powers. If we leave Empyrean again, chances are we won’t come back alive. But if we don’t leave Empyrean, then we can’t defeat the Maladons and turn things right again. So what was the point of us fighting our way through the damn Quag!’ she positively shrieked.
I glared at her. But there was no getting away from it: she was right.
‘I have no intention of spending the rest of my life safely within the lap of luxury here at Empyrean,’ I said. ‘I fought my way across the Quag to find my family. And to find the truth. Since I haven’t discovered either yet, I intend to keep looking. You can do whatever the Hel you want, Petra Sonnet. I’ve no time or patience for cowards.’
She looked like I had punched her.
‘And I reckon that’s enough talk for one night,’ said Delph, glancing nervously between us.
I ignored him and rolled my wand between my fingers. Petra did the same.
Delph must have noticed the tension. ‘Well, I’m knackered,’ he said, standing up. ‘So I’m going to get some sleep.’
We watched him head up the stairs, and then Petra and I locked gazes once more. She eyed my wand and I hers.
‘Do you really want to have a go at me, Petra?’ I said coolly.
For just an instant I saw something familiar flicker in her eyes. I strained to think where I had seen it before.
I steeled myself for her attack.
But then she turned and stalked off up the stairs.
I let out a long breath.
I waited until she was out of sight, I wasn’t sure why, and then I marched up the stairs too.
Poor Delph. If he thought Petra and me taking a blood oath and swearing allegiance to each other would completely solve our differences, well he just didn’t understand females.
Though the sun was coming up I fell asleep almost immediately, with Harry Two right next to me. I awoke much later somehow feeling just as tired as I had when I’d gone to bed.
As I washed, I gazed at myself in the looking glass. It seemed that I looked older, more haggard and lost. My limbs were stiff and I had very little energy. I rubbed at a pain in my neck as I walked down the stairs.
Pillsbury was in the kitchen, where Mrs Jolly had laid out a truly sumptuous meal. A few moments later, Petra and Delph staggered in looking as lethargic as I felt. I wondered whether the jabbit venom had affected us somehow.
After Pillsbury and Mrs Jolly left us, we sat down and started to eat. None of us spoke a word or snatched a glance at one another. It was like we were each eating alone.
When I had finished eating, I started to feel a bit better. I set down my glass and looked over at Delph.
He finally gazed back at me, while Petra looked back and forth at us.
‘We were almost goners last night about a dozen times,’ he said.
I nodded weakly.
‘I feel awful,’ I said. ‘You don’t suppose we got some jabbit venom in us somehow?’
Delph said, ‘Vega Jane, if we’d done that, we’d be dead.’
‘That’s true,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘What was that thing in the Tower?’
‘It seems to me it was a prisoner there,’ said Delph. ‘And if it was, maybe it’s an enemy of the Maladons.’
I shot him a glance. ‘Then that might make that thing an ally of ours.’
He nodded. ‘That’s what I was thinking. We could try and rescue it . . .’
I shook my head. ‘Too risky. Don’t forget that the damn thing nearly got us killed. The Maladons are tricky. It might have been a trap. ’
Delph nodded. ‘’Tis true enough.’
I slapped my forehead and leaped up.
I ran upstairs, grabbed the coat I had worn the night before and ran back into the kitchen. I put my hand in the pocket and drew out the miniaturized bottles.
‘Hel,’ said Delph. ‘I’d forgotten all about them.’
I set the bottles on the floor, drew out my wand and made the reverse incantation.
The bottles immediately returned to their full size.
‘They’re all slaves now,’ I said in a hollow tone.
Petra glanced over at me. ‘But why did the Maladons not just kill them, like they done to Daphne? Why keep them alive at all?’
‘Because to them killing is nothing special,’ I said. ‘But to rob their enemies of their magic? To enslave them? Treat them like cow dung? Now, that would be something truly special for those monsters.’
My unspoken thought was, Monsters – maybe like you!
We all stared down at the bottles. Each represented a shattered life.
‘We learned a lot last night,’ I said. ‘About how the Maladons operate, how they get their victims right where they want them. The layout of the castle.’
Delph said, ‘We didn’t see that bloke you talked about. The one on the throne.’
‘And I’m glad we didn’t. He makes Endemen look positively cute.’
I picked up one of the bottles and looked at the name engraved on it. ‘I wonder where Clive Pippen is.’
‘Why?’ asked Petra.
‘Because I’d like to return this to him.’
‘You can do that?’ she asked, her voice full of wonder with a smidge of disbelief.
‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
‘Well, that’s a big maybe, that is,’ she retorted.
I agreed, but instead said, ‘I think the first thing we need to do is write down all the names of the people on the bottles. We need parchment and ink . . .’
On cue, Pillsbury came in, carrying an ink stick, a bottle of ink and a small journal.
‘I happened to hear what you required, Mistress Vega. Here it is.’
‘Thank you, Pillsbury.’
The next moment he was gone.
‘Helpful bloke, that one,’ noted Petra.
Delph said, ‘Vega Jane, you got nice handwriting from all your work at Stacks. So Petra and I will read off the names and you write ’em down like.’
I settled at the table, filled my ink stick from the bottle and let it hover over the first blank parchment page of the journal.
‘I’m ready.’
They started reading off the names and I dutifully wrote them down.
Amicus Arnold, Pauline Paternas, Tobias Holmes, Reginald Magnus, Charlotte Tokken, Alabetus Trumbull, Clive Pippen, Dedo Datt, Aloysius Danbury, Cecilia Harkes, Sybill Hornbill, Miranda Weeks, Dennis O’Shaughnessy, James Throckmorton, Artemis Dale.
Then they both stopped.
I looked up, my ink stick poised over the parchment, and saw Delph holding an especially large glass bottle. He was staring at it, open-mouthed.
Petra was doing the very same thing.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
They both slowly turned to look at me.
‘What is it?’ I asked again.
Instead of answering, Delph simply handed over the bottle.
I took it, with a feeling of dread. Then I saw the name engraved on the glass and all other thoughts were struck clean from me.
VIRGIL ALFADIR JANE.
25
DELPH’S IDEA
I was so shocked that I nearly dropped the bottle. Then I gripped the glass so tightly that I was afraid I was going to crush it in my hand.
Finally, I set it down on the table and closed my eyes.
When I opened them the bottle was still there. Part of me was hoping we had all just imagined its existence.
‘They’ve . . . they’ve got your grandfather,’ said Delph. ‘They’ve got Virgil.’
I looked down at my hands in my lap, lost for words. The mark of the hooks on the back of my hand was burning brightly.
‘What is it, Vega Jane?’ asked Delph, who was watching me closely.
‘I don’t know. My mark feels really odd. And it looks stronger than before, don’t you think?’
He looked at it carefully. ‘Maybe it does.’
Petra interjected, ‘So what do we do? If they can beat your grandfather, a bleedin’ Excalibur, what chance do we have?’
‘It’s not clear that they have beaten him,’ I said defensively.
Petra gave me a look. ‘Really? So what, he just gave up his magic all on his own?’
‘All I’m saying is that we don’t know for certain.’
‘Well, it seems certain to me that he don’t have no more magic,’ she retorted. ‘It’s all in that bottle.’
Vega Jane and the Rebels’ Revolt Page 14