The Keeper

by David Baldacci

  Then they did the same to a mightily embarrassed Delph.

  The mother ekos dragged her young one over and grunted at him until he did the same. When I looked down into his tiny, unwrinkled face, I noted that his eyes were as red as the far older ekos. I smiled, showing each of my teeth. And then my smile deepened when the little creature put his arms around me and squeezed tightly.

  Delph was so tall that the little ekos just gripped his legs when he next went to hug him.

  Thorne, who, I observed, had been studying all of this quite closely, said kindly, “All right now, it’s all over. Everything is fine. The little … lad is safe.” He made some quick grunts and then pointed at me, and then at himself.

  It seemed to me that a few of the ekos looked at us somewhat doubtfully after this. When I asked Thorne what he had said, he assured me that he had given us full credit for the rescue.

  Delph whispered, “And if you believe that, I’ll sell you a bloody jabbit for a pet.”

  “Enough flying for this light, Vega,” said Thorne. “I have no doubt I will get the hang of it soon enough. And then I will have no more need of your assistance, just your chain. Or, rather, my chain.” He snatched Destin away from me and then pushed and prodded us along until we descended once more into the darkness beneath the Quag.

  We were led back to my chamber, and guards were posted outside. However, a few slivers later, the mother ekos came in carrying a large wooden tray. Luc was behind her. She put the tray down on a stone slab and smiled at us.

  On the tray was a pitcher of water and what looked like milk. Some goblets, breads, some meat and a few hard-boiled eggs and a fat tomato, all sliced. And two loaves of bread that oozed warmth. And there was a bowl of nuts and some hunks of different cheeses, which filled the chamber with their deliciously pungent smell.

  I smiled and tried to grunt in return, which made her laugh. She reached her grassy arms around me and gave me a hug. I hugged her back. Luc came over and embraced me too. Then the couple, tears in their reddened eyes, departed.

  “Blimey,” said Delph as he sat down and started digging into the meal. “I think we made some friends this light.”

  I knelt next to him and poured us out goblets of milk. It was cold and tasted fresh. We were so hungry that we didn’t speak — we just chewed, drank and swallowed. I had given Harry Two his share, which he was happily devouring on the stone floor. I finished my meal and sat there idly rubbing my canine’s ears.

  Delph finally pushed away from the tray after finishing a long drink of milk, and looked at me. “So what be in your head, Vega Jane?”

  I took a deep breath and then just let it out. “What be in my head is that we have to get out of here before old King Thorne runs out of use for us. But first we need to find out more of his plan to attack Wormwood. And I still want to know how he got down that cliff.”

  “Why is that so important to you?” he asked.

  “Because I don’t like unanswered questions. Thorne is evil. You saw how he was going to let that little ekos die.”

  Delph nodded. “I guess royalty don’t care about ordinary blokes.”

  “Well, Luc and the female cared.”

  “Aye,” Delph said. “ ’Tis a bit comfortin’, though, ain’t it?”

  I gave him a perplexed look. “What is?” I asked.

  “Well, creatures what got grass growing on ’em and talk in grunts got feelings like us. Care ’bout each other. All I’m saying. Comfortin’.”

  There was a lot going on in Delph’s head. And that, for me, was comforting.

  I eyed the doorway, where I could now see Luc taking a peek at us. An idea struck me.

  “I think this night would be a great opportunity for us to do a little exploring.”

  “Exploring!” exclaimed Delph. “And how do you ’spect us to do that?”

  “Like you said, we made some friends here.”

  THE MOTHER EKOS and Luc entered our chamber later to retrieve the meal tray.

  I said, “I know you can’t understand me, but thank you.”

  “It is we who need to thank you, Vega,” said Luc as the female ekos nodded.

  “You can speak Wugish?” I asked Luc in astonishment.

  “King Thorne taught me as a way to prevent him from losing the speech himself. And I taught my daughter here, Cere.”

  Cere added, “We do not speak Wug to the others. King Thorne forbids it.”

  “And it was your son that was nearly killed by the freks?” I asked.

  She nodded, and tears clustered in her eyes. “But for you and Delph, Vega, little Kori would be no more.” She placed a grassy hand gently against my cheek. “Despite what King Thorne said, we knew that to be true.”

  Delph said, “So what load-a rubbish did the mighty ‘king’ say then, eh?”

  Luc answered, “That it was his idea to save Kori.”

  “He tried to stop me from saving him. He’s an evil Wug.”

  “Yet we all fear him too much to ever oust him,” said Luc.

  Delph scoffed. “There’re lots of you blokes. And only one-a him.”

  “But he is the king,” said Cere in a trembling voice. “And he sleeps behind a door made of iron. And he has recruited spies among us who report to him. Any signs of rebellion are quashed.”

  “Surely the ekos would rally around you, Luc,” I said.

  He lowered his head. “No, Vega. That would not happen.”

  “Why not?”

  He would not look at me as he said the words. “Thorne works us hard, no doubt. But he has taught us skills and he keeps us safe.”

  “You could do all that without him,” I pointed out.

  “Yet many ekos worship him,” added Cere. “I don’t know why, really, because he is a cruel one, but they would follow him anywhere.”

  I looked at Delph and then back at Luc. “That seems very odd,” I said. “I mean, he’s not exactly lovable, is he?”

  “Well, it is mostly because he has broken our will, our spirit,” Luc explained. “Such a thing is greater than any weapon.”

  I thought about this but could think of no ready reply. I decided to change the subject. I said, “We must escape from here. But before we go, I would like to find answers to questions I have. Will you help us?”

  Luc looked at Cere, who stared up anxiously at him. Finally, he nodded. “You saved little Kori, so we will come back this night. And then you will have your answers, Vega.”

  LATE THAT NIGHT, we could hear footsteps approaching. And a sliver later, along the outer stone passageway, we could both see the shadows created by a light coming our way. Then Luc appeared in the opening to our chamber holding a flickering candle in one hand. Cere was behind him, looking pale and frightened.

  He said softly, “Tread lightly. There are eyes in the least likely places.”

  The guards that had been stationed outside our chamber were no longer there. I figured that was Luc’s doing. The three of us followed him back down the passageway. I had told Harry Two not to bark or otherwise make undue noise. I could have sworn he nodded his head at me as I finished speaking.

  We flitted down the cold passage. I did have one comforting thought. I had on my cloak. And in my cloak were my glove and the Elemental.

  We reached a spot where three corridors intersected and Luc led us down the one on the far left. We reached a wooden door, which Luc unlocked with a fat bronze key that he unclipped from a blackened iron ring on his wide leather belt. He pushed the door open and ushered us in before closing the portal behind us. The chamber was dark, but it brightened considerably when Luc used his candle to light the torches suspended on the wall.

  I gaped.

  And so did Delph.

  And we did so for good reason.

  The chamber was vast, with high ceilings. And strewn throughout were broad, scarred and stained wooden worktables overflowing with what looked to be intricate tasks in progress. There were old worm-eaten plank shelves, literally bursting with st
range objects, and piles of parchment, scrolls and leather-backed tomes. And an old desk packed with drawers and cubbies that were, in turn, bulging with scrolls and parchment. And there was a wooden swivel chair tucked into the kneehole. And on a series of low tables were bottles, scales and other delicate instruments that I had seen and used at Stacks to do my job as a Finisher.

  “He couldn’t have brought all this with him from Wormwood,” I said.

  Luc said, “He did some of the parchment, ink, scrolls and a few of the instruments and tools you see. The rest came later. And the furniture we built according to his design after he showed us how. Thorne taught us a great deal. All he asked in return was our freedom.” Luc finished in a resigned tone.

  As my gaze spanned the place, it came to rest on something suspended from a long metal chain affixed to the ceiling in one far corner. It was a skeleton. And next to the skeleton and attached to the wall was the outer layer of the thing — the skin. And now I believed I knew how Thorne had made it from the cliff down to here.

  “That’s an adar,” mumbled Delph.

  “Was an adar,” I corrected. “That’s how Thorne managed the cliff. He flew down like we did.”

  “It’s a big ’un,” noted Delph. “Bigger’n I’ve ever seen.”

  I turned to Luc. “This is his … what, workshop?”

  “Well, he calls it a laboratory,” said Luc. “He spends most of his time in here, working away, talking to himself, sometimes cackling like he’s gone barmy.”

  “I think he has gone barmy.”

  I walked around the chamber and eyed some drawings that had been fastened to the walls. These were maps of Wormwood, down to the smallest details. In the precision of the words and pictures I sensed cunning and genius, but also a sickness of the mind. It gave me chills just to look upon the parchment and to envision the mad Wug bent over his terrible obsession for the destruction of his former home.

  These maps had been drawn for a very clear reason. They were going to be used as the basis of attack. I noted Thorne’s scribbles and margin notes all over the parchment pages. There was an area noted as the landing place. He would probably send out his aero ship at night and make his landings at that spot while Wormwood slept. Then when his army was fully on site he would attack and take them all by surprise.

  There were arrows pointing at Stacks and Steeples and the Council building, with references like “first target” and “use for prisoners,” and with a shiver I read the word Destroy written over both the Care and hospital. I wondered why, but then it occurred to me that in a war, the side that could not take care of its citizens or treat their wounds would likely not be victorious.

  I looked at Delph, who had been peering over my shoulder. He looked sickened by all of it.

  “A nutter, Vega Jane, a nutter who wants to kill. We got to stop ’im.”

  I looked at Luc. “Can we go to the aero ship now?”

  We made our way quickly through a number of passageways until I was hopelessly lost. But when I looked back at Delph, he nodded.

  “I know where we are,” he whispered. “It’s just up there on the left.”

  Sure enough, Luc and Cere stopped and turned to the left and passed through another opening in the wall. The aero ship towered over us like an enormous beast waiting to strike and then devour. There was no one else here.

  We drew nearer to the huge wooden carriage that would hold both troops and their weapons. It was then that I noted the series of holes in the sides.

  “What are those for?” I asked.

  In answer, Luc pointed against one wall. “How he plans to steer it. Look.”

  Delph and I saw the long oars with large, flat rectangular ends neatly stacked there.

  Luc showed us how they worked and then took us through the rest of the aero ship, pointing out the contraption that filled the huge bladder with heated air, and the steering mechanism. And how vents in the bladder released air and allowed the aero ship to descend.

  I nodded in understanding. “And what’s the cause of your reddened eyes?” I asked.

  “Mixing the morta powder,” he said. “Powder dust gets in ’em.”

  “But Kori has red eyes too. Surely he doesn’t make —”

  “Thorne don’t care how old or young one is, Vega,” said Luc. “We all have to work.”

  My blood boiling at this revelation, we went back out in the passage. I said expectantly, “The grubbs?”

  He nodded wearily. “Aye, the grubbs.”

  And I observed, as he said this, that he placed one large hand on the hilt of the short-barreled morta that rode on his belt. He turned to Cere and said, “You best head on back. Kori will be missing you.”

  Cere gave him a worried look. “Luc, think what you’re doing. If Thorne finds out!”

  “You just go on, Cere. Go on now,” he added sternly.

  With a baleful glance back at us, she quickly disappeared down the tunnel.

  “Let’s be off, then,” Luc said firmly, but I could see the fear in his eyes. Not because of the grubbs, I didn’t think, but because of the king.

  I glanced at Delph. I could tell he was thinking exactly what I was.

  Luc could be killed for helping us. But I didn’t know any other way to do this. And I did have a plan. Well, part of one anyway.

  Delph was expecting me to lead. Hel, I was expecting me to lead. I just hoped I wasn’t leading us to our doom.

  I COULD BOTH FEEL and hear my heart pounding as we walked down that long, dark passageway. We had gone far enough, perhaps a half mile, that I could just tell we were entering areas that were far removed from the life of the Kingdom of Cataphile denizens. Luc was walking in slow, measured strides, his gaze swiveling from side to side. When I looked at Delph, he was glancing over his shoulder.

  “Luc,” he said, turning back around. “Do grubbs attack anything?”

  “No. Not without a reason.”

  I looked at Delph. “So let’s not give them a reason.”

  Luc’s steps slowed as we neared what looked to be a blank wall. I thought perhaps Luc had taken a wrong turn down here, when I heard it. I suppose that’s when we all heard it. And then felt it.

  Rumblings, and the ground under us starting to shake. Dirt and stone dust from overhead cascaded down. We started to cough and gag. I had turned to run back the way we had come when I felt a hand on my arm, holding me in place.

  Luc said, “It’s all right. Just their way is all. They’ve heard us approach.”

  The next moment, the wall in front of us collapsed, revealing a hole. In the hole was a face, which took up the entire opening. A pair of dull yellow eyes was staring at me. When the mouth opened, I could see enormous jagged teeth far more lethal-looking than any knife I’d ever seen.

  Luc looked at the creature and said some words that I had no way of understanding. They appeared to be a cross between grunts and hisses. Then he turned to look at us. “They know Thorne’s not with us. No need to worry now.”

  I looked down at the morta. “Then why do you have that out?” I asked.

  “Well, grubbs might’ve struck first and then found out Thorne wasn’t here. Pays to be cautious when dealing with anything as big and unpredictable as a grubb. That one there weighs about a ton.”

  I crept forward and rested my gaze on the grubb. It gazed back at me.

  “Why is the grubb staring at me like that?”

  “Well, you look like Thorne. A Wug, I mean.”

  “Can you tell it that while I am a Wug, I’m not a Wug like Thorne?”

  “Already did, Vega. It’s why it hasn’t tried to kill you.”

  My stomach lurched and I found myself backing up a pace or two.

  “Its name is, well, no use saying it, you won’t be able to pronounce it, much less remember it. We’ll just call it Grubb.”

  “Hello, Gr-Grubb, sir,” said a panicky Delph.

  “Matter of fact, ’tis a female, Delph,” said Luc. “You can tell by the eyes. Yellow
for the females and blue for the males. Don’t know why, just the way it is.”

  Luc marched forward and patted the grubb on its, or, rather, her head. The grubb let out a sound that I had heard before. But then it had been a feline purring.

  “Peaceful creatures,” said Luc. “Keep themselves to themselves. They tunnel down here. Can eat through rock faster’n gnomes with their claws can.”

  “They eat rock?” gasped Delph.

  I watched as Harry Two sidled over to the grubb and sniffed it. My canine was perilously close to those enormous teeth and I was about to call him back, when Harry Two licked the thing.

  Before I could move, a long, slithery tongue appeared between the jagged teeth and the grubb licked Harry Two back. I moved forward and cautiously put out a hand, stopping and looking questioningly at Luc.

  “G’on, then,” he said encouragingly. “Grubb knows you’re okay.”

  I patted the grubb’s head and then Delph joined me in doing so. It was far softer and not nearly as slimy as I thought it would be. It was like touching a cattail down by the pond back in Wormwood. I could see that it was about twice the size of a creta, which was very large indeed. It must eat a lot of rock.

  As we were petting the grubb, Delph’s and my fingers touched. I looked up at him and he down at me. We smiled at the same time.

  “Like being down at the pond in Wormwood,” he said. “You remember?”

  “I was just thinking of the cattails we used to rub,” I said, blushing a bit.

  The grubb licked Delph’s hand.

  “She’s taken a right shine to you, Delph,” said Luc.

  “What?” gasped a thoroughly wonked Delph. “No, I don’t think … why, what business is it of yours if Vega Ja—”

  I felt so badly for Delph that I interrupted him and said, “I think he means the grubb, Delph.” I could feel my cheeks afire.

  Delph stared openmouthed at me for what seemed ten slivers. His face held so many different expressions, one tracking another, that it was all I could do not to laugh, though I was as embarrassed as he.

  “Oh, right, o’course he does,” he said in a voice he was trying so hard to make firm that it wobbled badly.