Vega Jane and the Rebels’ Revolt

by David Baldacci

  ‘One can only defeat the Maladons by fighting them. It is through fighting them one comes up with ways and methods and strategies to do so. One cannot sit back and contemplate how to manage it. One must be engaged in the war.’

  As she was speaking, she floated down from the ceiling to sit next to me.

  I had to admit it was a bit disconcerting having, well, regret perched on my bed.

  ‘Your father believed that Necro wanted peace,’ I said a bit crossly. ‘And instead he got a war.’

  ‘My father was a good man who was fooled by a cleverer one,’ she said with proper spirit. I could imagine myself defending my father in the same way.

  ‘Well, your father and my ancestor Alice Adronis and Astrea Prine were all great magical beings. My grandfather was an Excalibur. And they couldn’t beat the Maladons. I hardly see how I have any chance of victory.’

  I watched as she stared off into the distance. There was so much hurt in her eyes that I seemed to feel it in my bones.

  ‘You . . . you loved Jason very much, didn’t you?’

  She slowly turned to me. ‘As much as one could love another,’ she said simply.

  ‘I haven’t felt that way about anyone,’ I said.

  ‘Are you certain about that?’

  I looked at her in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I have seen how you look at your friend Delph. And I see how he looks at you.’

  I felt the blood rush to my face and I had to turn away.

  ‘We’re just friends.’

  ‘Friendship often is and should be a precursor to love.’

  I glanced back at her. ‘You said you represent regret. Does that mean you regret loving Jason?’

  ‘That is the only thing I do not regret.’

  I took a deep breath. ‘Uma, can you help me? I . . . know I must do this, but I’m not yet sixteen years old and . . . and I’m terrified that I’m going to fail and let everyone down.’

  Uma reached out a hand and gripped mine.

  This stunned me, for I had just assumed that she was not flesh and bone.

  ‘Let me show you something,’ she said.

  She rose and drifted out of the room. I hurried after her.

  I followed her ghostlike form down corridors and up staircases. We finally reached a passageway that I hadn’t seen before.

  At the end was a simple wooden door.

  She passed right through it, whereas I was forced to use the doorknob.

  When I entered, Uma was hovering next to the far wall.

  The room was not large, but it was brightly lit by torches that came to life at my entry.

  There wasn’t a stick of furniture in the room. In fact, there was only one item in the entire space: a small glass box hanging from the wall.

  In that box was a wand.

  It was long and as golden in colour as the Elemental when fully formed.

  Even though no one was holding it, it seemed to pulsate with power.

  ‘Whose wand is that?’ I asked.

  ‘My father’s.’

  ‘That’s Bastion Cadmus’s wand?’ I exclaimed.

  ‘He was a tremendously powerful sorcerer. It was acknowledged by all that even Alice Adronis was second to him in ability.’

  ‘But how did his wand come to be here?’

  ‘Alice recovered it and brought it here after he was killed.’

  ‘If he was so powerful, how exactly did he die? On the battlefield?’

  ‘No. He was betrayed.’

  ‘By whom?’

  ‘Victoria, my mother and his wife.’

  I gasped. ‘How did that happen?’

  ‘She didn’t do it voluntarily. I was already dead, and the war had commenced. She was placed under the Subservio spell and she gave the Maladons information about my father – including when he would be home alone. She let them in and my father found himself surrounded by Maladons one night. There was no one to help him. He killed a dozen of them, but he had received a mortal wound. He died in the great hall of his beloved home.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Uma,’ I said.

  ‘Necro did not want to face him on the battlefield. He knew my father would triumph. Yes, he never wanted war, and yes he may have gone too far in trying to appease the Maladons. But he was a tremendous warrior, which is why they decided to get to him by trickery, using my poor mother.’

  ‘That’s awful, Uma.’

  ‘He was not simply my father, you know, but the father of all of our people. So when he died, much of the spirit went out of us,’ said Uma wistfully. ‘And the Maladons took full advantage of that. They fought even more fiercely. They could sense weakness. They smelt blood. They did terrible things.’

  I looked at the box as she traced her fingers over the glass. Though it could have been my imagination, it seemed as though the wand sparked at her touch of the glass.

  ‘I think that’s why I remain here,’ she said. ‘To be somewhere that was happy, that was safe. That was free of the Maladons!’ she concluded fiercely.

  ‘What happened to Victoria – to your mother?’

  ‘She came out of the spell, realized what she had done . . . and killed herself.’

  I could think of nothing to say.

  ‘Like mother, like daughter,’ said Uma gloomily.

  ‘You thought the love of your life was dead,’ I said.

  Delph’s face shot through my mind.

  What would I do if something happened to Delph? If he were killed?

  She said, ‘Do you know what the most powerful thing in the world is?’

  I shook my head.

  She took my hand and pressed it against my chest.

  ‘That is the most powerful thing there is, Vega. All magic, all grand sorcery, pales next to it.’

  ‘My heart?’

  ‘And what it represents. It means desire, Vega. It means what you want more than anything else. But there are differences in feelings. In their potency.’

  ‘How do you mean?’ I asked.

  ‘Some are fleeting, like fear and happiness. Others are more permanent. Like vanity or kindness. But in my brief life I found that there are only two that stand the test of time, that define who and what we are.’ She paused. ‘Love and hate.’

  ‘Does that mean I will be soundly defeated as well?’

  She again pressed my hand to my chest.

  ‘The answer to that, Vega, lies right here.’

  And in the next instant, she vanished.

  I sat there for what seemed a very long time.

  I nearly jumped when I felt something touch my hand.

  I looked down, and there was Harry Two. He had finally decided to follow me. I was a bit cross, but when I looked down into his beautiful, mismatched eyes so full of love, my annoyance slipped away.

  Love was indeed very powerful.

  As I sat there thinking about that, and what Uma had said, a plan came together in my mind. A real plan, with precise steps and a goal at the end.

  I stood and took out my wand.

  I guess it all came down to whether I believed in myself or not.

  I went back to my room, packed my tuck, threw it over my shoulder and headed down the stairs with Harry Two marching right next to me.

  My dog looked as resolute as ever I’d seen him.

  I met the others in the foyer of Empyrean.

  They looked as ready as I did. Which was good, because we would need to be perfect to pull this off.

  Mrs Jolly had prepared food for us. Delph put it in his tuck.

  We stepped outside the front door tethered together.

  We looked at one another.

  ‘Well,’ I said. ‘This is it.’

  ‘Do you really think we can do it?’ asked Petra.

  ‘Let’s go and find out,’ I said.

  30

  THE PLAN

  As soon as we were far enough away from Empyrean, I cast my Pass-pusay spell, and with the thought of the town in mind, we were instantly delivered
to the centre of True.

  It was midday, so folks were bustling around. Motors zipped past, people chatted away as they walked and shops were open, doing a thriving business. I watched women scrubbing the cobbles and men soaping up storefront windows.

  They all looked pleasant and happy and oblivious to the fact that a terrible force had stolen their very lives from them.

  Perhaps because of that, they would never know a bit of unhappiness or true sorrow or maybe even pain. Yet I thought that each of them, fully informed of the choice, would accept a real life of ups and downs over a manufactured one devoid of the whole spectrum of existence.

  I desperately wanted to give them the chance.

  Delph said, ‘I thought we were going to Greater True?’

  ‘We are. But we need something from here first.’

  They followed me down the cobbles until we reached the place I had in mind. Our original hiding place on our first night in this new land. I could see the vast steeple and, inside, the huge bell.

  ‘Why are we going there?’ asked Delph as he followed my gaze.

  The door opened and a group of people came out, all well dressed. One woman was carrying a baby draped all in white. The baby was screaming, while the mother was trying to calm it.

  A christening ceremony. We did that with our newborns in Wormwood, christening them at Steeples.

  We slipped through the door before it closed, and moved swiftly up the aisle.

  The place was empty. The group that had left must have been the only one in the church.

  The first night there we had headed upstairs. Instead, I led us down a corridor off to the right.

  There was a wooden door partially open at the end of the corridor.

  I peered through and saw a man sitting at a large desk, writing on a pad of paper.

  It was the same man who had chased us when we’d been here before. He wore the same stiff white collar, but all the rest of his clothes were starkly black.

  He paused in his writing, took off his spectacles and rubbed at his face, then turned and opened a book.

  There was a wand sticking out of the open drawer of his desk. He had seen us that night. And reported us. That’s why the other bloke had followed us. This man was a Maladon sent here to live among the ‘Ordinaries’. Just as my grandfather had warned me about.

  Well, now it was my turn to target him.

  I raised my wand and said, ‘Subservio.’

  The jet of light hit him directly in the back, and he instantly stiffened.

  I kicked the door open and moved into the room with the others close behind.

  I reached across his still form and snatched the wand out of the desk drawer.

  Through the spell books we had discovered at Empyrean, I had added a number of incantations to my quiver. I was prepared to use one of them now.

  I might as well make certain.

  I pointed my wand at the man, gave it a long sweep and said, ‘Origante.’

  The moment after my spell hit him, we all took a step back as the ‘person’ transformed into the Maladon that he was.

  The face elongated. The hands became claws. The nose looked as sharp as a knife blade, the mouth cruel. When he turned to us, his eyes were large red drops of blood.

  Petra screamed, but I gripped her by the shoulder.

  ‘Keep quiet. He’s under my spell.’

  ‘What is that . . . that thing?’ exclaimed Delph.

  ‘A Maladon in its original form,’ I replied. I glanced at Petra. She had a funny look on her face that took me a moment to interpret.

  She’s worried that if I use the spell on her, she will turn into something like that.

  I looked back at our captive.

  ‘What is your name?’ I asked. ‘Your real Maladon name,’ I added.

  When it opened its mouth to answer, I saw that, like the vile Orco’s, its tongue was long and forked at the end.

  The creature said, ‘My name is Krill.’

  Its voice was like a serpent’s hiss and a banshee’s shriek wedded at the vocal cords.

  ‘And you work here to spy on the people living in True?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How do you report to those at Maladon Castle?’

  ‘Wand wire.’

  ‘Wand wire?’ This was a new term for me.

  ‘We send messages using our wands. Like writing in the air. It leaves one wand and comes out through the wand of the intended recipient in the form of a thought in one’s mind.’

  Clever, I thought.

  ‘Tell me the spell to accomplish that.’

  He did so, and I tucked that away in my memory. I glanced inquiringly at Petra. She nodded, letting me know that she had done the same.

  I turned back to Krill. ‘There are people here who have had their magic taken from them. Do you have information on these people? Where they are living and what they are called?’

  That was why I was here. I thought if there was one place where such records would be kept, it would be here. The place was called Saint Necro’s, after all. His original followers had been called ‘worshippers’.

  Krill pointed to a large tome on a shelf above his desk.

  ‘It is all in there.’

  ‘Is that for only those in Greater True?’

  ‘Greater True and Maladon Castle are the only places they are located. There are none in True.’

  ‘You’re positive?’

  He nodded. ‘Quite positive. These “things” are rewards for the most elite among the Ordinaries. They live in Greater True. And of course, a very few at Maladon Castle.’

  ‘Why only a very few at Maladon Castle? I’d have thought the Maladons would love to be waited on hand and foot by the enslaved.’

  ‘Because our masters do not like to be associated with filthy weaklings, regardless of how they are clothed.’ He spat on the floor.

  I bristled at his foul words, but I believed him. The Maladons would see us that way.

  ‘Why do you keep these records at all?’ Petra asked.

  ‘We always keep records of property, however unsavoury.’

  This statement made me want to curse him to dust.

  Instead, I pointed my wand at the book, said the familiar spell and watched as it zoomed into my hand. I set it down, pointed my wand at it, said, ‘Duplicado’ and an exact replica appeared in my free hand. I pocketed it and sent the original book zipping back on to the shelf.

  I looked at Krill. ‘Do the Maladons know that there are intruders among them? Has Mr Endemen spoken to you about it?’

  Krill said, ‘Mr Endemen does not speak to the likes of me. He uses intermediaries. But, yes, I have heard that there are those about who should not be here.’

  I pointed my wand at Krill and reversed my Origante spell. Then I said to him, ‘You will remember nothing of this, understood?’

  He nodded. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Turn around and go back to work.’

  He did so while I freed him from the Subservio spell and then used the Pass-pusay spell to take us from this unholy place.

  Invisible and back out on the street, Delph and Petra beamed at me.

  ‘That was brilliant, Vega Jane,’ exclaimed Delph, so loudly that I had to shush him.

  I led them into an alley, took out the book and opened it to the first page.

  I read down the page and said, ‘These are all the people we must return magic to. We have their names and where they live now.’

  ‘How many names on the list?’ asked Petra.

  I swiftly counted.

  ‘Fifty-five. Fifty of them live in Greater True. The others are at Maladon Castle. One of them is Victus.’

  ‘Blimey!’ Delph said. ‘Fifty names. Where do we start?’ he added in a hopeless tone.

  I placed my thumb over the first name on the ledger.

  ‘Amicus Arnold. He lives on Goldofin Street in Greater True.’

  ‘But what do we do when we get there?’ asked Petra. ‘We can’t jus
t free him without anyone knowing. Word will get out and everyone will be on guard.’

  ‘I’ve thought of a way around that,’ I said.

  Next, I used the Pass-pusay spell to get us to Greater True. That was when we realized: we had no idea how to find our way around.

  Then Delph exclaimed, ‘Look there.’

  We looked where he was pointing. It was a shop that sold maps!

  We went to the shop door and I looked in through an open window. I could see a bloke at the counter helping a customer.

  A moment later I spotted the map I wanted. I waited until the bloke had turned his back and did my incantation. The map flew through the window and into my hand.

  We hurried around to an alley and I opened the map. It took a few moments, but I located Goldofin Street. It was only three streets over from where we were presently.

  Number Forty-Seven was the one we wanted.

  We quickly walked there and looked at the solidly built brick house attached to its neighbours on either side. There was a bright red door that reminded me of blood. The place was impeccable, the windows sparkling clean with not even a smidgen of dirt on the stone pavement in front.

  As we watched from across the street, the red door opened and we saw a blank-eyed man appear there with a rag and bottle of liquid in hand.

  This was undoubtedly the unfortunate if elegantly attired Amicus Arnold.

  Elegantly attired!

  I had wondered why these slaves were so beautifully dressed, and now I understood. It was a badge of humiliation. A cruel joke, for all the ‘elites’ here knew that these people were slaves by their blank eyes. You could dress them up, but that didn’t change the fact that they were owned by others. It was a heartless act.

  That’s exactly what the Maladons were: cruel and heartless.

  Arnold began to dutifully polish the brass knocker. When it was gleaming, he went back inside.

  My blood began to boil. This man had had his magic, his life and his honour taken from him.

  Well, I meant to give them all back.

  We waited, invisible, until it turned dark, and the streets emptied of both motors and people. Then we waited some more.

  We quietly ate some of the provisions that Mrs Jolly had given us.

  We spoke only in low tones because I had no reason to believe there weren’t spies throughout this horrible place.