The Keeper

by David Baldacci

  I pointed us in the direction where I knew Delph was. A skylight spear shot near us and I rolled over and then zipped downward.

  “Vega Jane!”

  Delph was there running for his life. I knew this to be true because a group of ekos was right behind, firing their mortas at him. I pointed us straight at him and Harry Two and I rocketed toward the ground. At the last possible moment, I leveled out, reached down and gripped Delph’s outstretched hand. We soared upward and then did a long backward arc before we both bent our shoulders forward, propelling us to speeds I had never reached before. We would need every bit of it because we had only slivers to execute our plan.

  We streaked down the shaft through which we had both previously fallen and landed at the bottom. The only ekos there was Luc. This wasn’t by happenstance. Delph had arranged it earlier with the head ekos, who had simply ordered the other ekos away. I freed Harry Two from the harness and gripped Luc’s arm.

  “The aero ship,” I said.

  After grabbing our tucks from the sleeping chamber, we followed him down a passageway. Then I abruptly stopped.

  “Wait a mo’,” I said. I put on my glove, willed the Elemental to full size and took aim.

  Delph pulled Luc back and said, “Cover your ears.”

  I let the Elemental fly and it soared straight ahead and smashed into the towering wall of skulls. There was a terrific explosion and the bony masses collapsed downward, creating a mess of crushed bones on the rock floor. When the dust settled, there wasn’t a single pair of eye sockets staring back at us from that hideous collection.

  “Bugger off, O mighty King,” I shouted to no one in particular.

  We arrived at the aero ship’s chamber a few slivers later. Luc unlocked the enormous door.

  “I’ll get the oars,” said Delph.

  But a sound made us all turn.

  It was Cere and little Kori at the doorway.

  “Thorne is returning,” Cere said breathlessly. “And I have never seen him this angry.” She paused, her face quivering. “And from words I have heard, Luc, he knows we have betrayed him. We will not live past this light.”

  “Yes, you will,” I said firmly. I pulled the book from my tuck. “This is the proof you need, Luc. If this doesn’t turn your kind against your prat king, nothing will.”

  Luc took the book, opened it, flipped through a few pages, and his features paled. His expression then turned to one of disgust. And from that to anger. It was as if I could see Luc’s courage filling back up inside him. He closed the book and looked up at me.

  “I knew that Thorne was mad, but I never suspected … this evil.”

  Delph said, “But you musta known ekos and gnomes were going missing?”

  “Aye, but Thorne blamed it all on the grubbs. I can see now it was his way to turn our races against each other.”

  “He’s a cruel monster, Luc,” I said. “I don’t know what else we’ll face in the Quag, but I doubt we’ll confront anything more evil than Thorne.” I paused. “So what are you going to do about it?” I asked bluntly, tapping the book.

  “Do?” said Luc. “Do?” Luc seemed to be swelling right before our eyes, growing into something, or perhaps back into the bloke he had once been.

  “We are going to take our lives back. And free us from a bloody king who never should have been allowed to lead a blade of grass.”

  We exchanged tearful hugs.

  As we drew apart, Luc said, “Thank you, Vega. You have given us the chance to fight and take back what is ours. Now go. And good luck to you in your journey.”

  Luc locked the door behind him. We could hear shouts and running feet in the distance.

  While Delph grabbed the oars, I ran over to the aero ship, jumped inside the carriage and started fumbling with the contraption that forced air into the bladder. “Can you figure out how this works?” I called out to Delph.

  “I know how it works” came a voice.

  I whirled around to see the gnome who had looked at me funny that one light. He came forward from where he had been hidden in a crevice of rock.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Sieve,” he answered.

  “And how come you can speak Wugish?” I asked.

  “Easy enough. I listen to Luc and the king,” he replied smoothly. “No one much notices us gnomes. So you hear things, you do.”

  “Can you fill it with air?”

  He hopped into the carriage and did something with the contraption such that a flame erupted in its belly. There was a whooshing sound and I noted the bladder was rapidly beginning to fill as the heated air was propelled into it.

  I turned to Sieve. “How long?”

  “Not long,” he said. “As you can see.”

  The ropes holding the carriage in place were already straining against the lift generated by the strengthening buoyancy.

  Delph stared up toward the ceiling and his features collapsed. “And how do we open that so we can actually get this thing out?”

  I looked where he was looking. It was only then that I noticed there was no opening.

  “Damn,” I screamed. Our plan was apparently full of holes.

  But Sieve pointed to a dark corner where a metal lever was wedged between two large gears. “That’s how. It’ll open the roof. Plenty of room to get out.”

  Now I looked at him suspiciously. I didn’t care for blokes who were that agreeable. Give me stubbornness or outright deceit any light and I will readily accept it. But casual kindness will bedevil me all night long.

  “Why are you helping us?” I demanded.

  He smiled and said with a slight hiss, “I don’t much like the company of kings.” He held up one of his clawlike hands. “I like to get in the dirt. Why we gnomes get along with the grubbs, I ’spect. And I saw you give that book to Luc. I heard what he said. No more bloody king.” He clacked his claws several times more in apparent delight at the thought.

  Delph pulled on the lever, and a hole opened up directly above the aero ship, which was nearly ready to go.

  I glanced at the locked door as footsteps hurried toward it.

  “Delph, quick! He’ll have a key.”

  We rushed over to some heavy crates built from thick wood stacked next to the door and wedged them against it.

  We hurried to the carriage and climbed in, throwing our tucks in too. Delph had already slid the oars through the holes in the sides of the aero ship. There was a knife in a leather sheath inside the carriage. I pulled it out and looked at Delph. “To cut the ropes holding us down.”

  He nodded and looked upward at the now full bladder. The ropes were mightily creaking and straining to keep the ship tethered to the ground.

  There came an almighty crash against the thick door but it held fast with the added weight of the crates behind it.

  “Cut the lines,” cried Sieve. “Do it now or you will surely perish.”

  I started hacking the ropes as fast as I could, but they were stout.

  Another great crash came and the door split a bit, yet still held.

  I heard Thorne roar, “Fetch the cannon!”

  Delph grabbed the knife from me and starting sawing at the ropes like a Wug possessed. I looked up and saw the still stormy sky through the opening. Delph had three more ropes to slash. Harry Two clambered up onto the edge of the carriage and began to gnaw at one of them.

  I looked around the interior of the carriage for the steering mechanism and the oars that would allow us to navigate. I mentally went through our plan and discovered about four thousand things that could go wrong.

  When I heard the cannon being rolled down the passageway, I called out to Sieve, “How are you going to get out of here?”

  He held up his claws and smiled, once more showing his stained, pointy teeth. “S’long as I have these, I have a way out.”

  Then he turned and attacked the rock wall behind him.

  Harry Two had cut through his rope. Delph was just about done with his, which left o
nly one.

  I gripped it in my hands and pulled with all the strength that Destin provided me. The metal peg that the rope was attached to had been driven deep into the rock. But with one mighty tug, it came free. I fell over backward and hit my head on the fire contraption. I rose up at the same time the carriage did. It was a surprisingly fast ascent. But not fast enough.

  The roar of the cannon came an instant later, followed by the door and the crates being blown aside as though they weighed nothing.

  Delph screamed.

  Harry Two barked.

  I ducked.

  The cannonball shot between the carriage and the bottom of the bladder.

  When I rose back up, I couldn’t believe our good fortune.

  It had missed us completely and we were very nearly through the opening that would lead us to the outside. But when I looked at Delph, I knew I’d been wrong. The cannonball had hit the rock wall, and a chunk of stone had flown off and slashed Delph’s arm. He had dropped to the carriage’s bottom, clutching his limb. The blood was pouring down his front.

  I knelt beside him and held out the Adder Stone.

  “Where’d you get that?” he cried out, his face twisted in pain.

  “Nicked it from Thorne’s robe when we were cartwheeling across the sky.”

  I waved it over Delph’s wound and thought good thoughts and the blood ceased and the slash healed. Then I used it to fix my wounds from fighting Thorne. I heard shouts and looked over the edge of the aero ship.

  Thorne was down there with his fist upraised and his features awash in fury. I could only smile, though, as I looked at his battered face and broken nose.

  Then I saw movement to the right of Thorne. It was Sieve. He had stuck his head out of a hole, apparently to see what was going on.

  Before I could utter a warning, Thorne, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, had turned and fired his morta. The projectile caught Sieve full in the face. He slumped down in the hole, dead.

  “You bloody murderer!” I screamed at Thorne.

  “I will kill you too!” he roared back.

  Then we were through the hole and out into the open expanse of the Quag, where we were quickly slammed by the wind. It was pushing us back toward the cliff. That was not what I wanted.

  “Delph,” I called out. “The oars.”

  He dropped down onto the bench, gripped an oar in each hand and pulled.

  “The other way!” I shouted over the blasts of the storm.

  “Right,” he said, and he reversed his sitting position and tugged on the oars.

  I snatched the wheel and did my best to guide us where we needed to go.

  Every sliver, I looked down at the ground to see what was going on. Then I finally saw what I knew I would. Thorne and his army of ekos. They were about fifty feet behind us.

  “Okay, Delph, you can stop rowing.”

  “Are they catching up?”

  “Yes.”

  He dropped the oars and joined me at the side of the aero ship.

  I looked ahead of us. The Quag had changed yet again. The mountains, the river and the ridges all had exchanged places. I could feel a current of energy in the air. And for some reason, I didn’t think it was from the storm.

  I looked behind us. A column of ekos was aiming their long-barreled mortas directly at the aero ship. Thorne was right behind them, gazing up at us with great delight. I turned to Delph and nodded.

  He gripped the cord dangling near the wheel and pulled it, releasing the air from the bladder. We began to lower.

  I hoisted Harry Two into the harness. “Delph, take my hand. It’s time.”

  He grabbed our tucks with one hand and gripped my hand with his other. I led him over to the far side of the carriage, away from Thorne and the ekos.

  We held hands, each of us looking at the other.

  “If this don’t work,” said Delph.

  “It will work,” I said firmly.

  “Right, but if it don’t, well.” He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek.

  The mortas fired and projectiles tore into the bladder, riddling it with holes.

  “Now!” I screamed. I kicked the contraption holding the fire, knocking it over. The wooden carriage quickly became ablaze.

  We clambered up on the edge of the carriage and leapt.

  Another round of mortas fired off, blasting into the carriage.

  I looked behind us and saw that the aero ship was starting to fall.

  Right before we were about to hit the ground, I straightened out and we zoomed along just above it. I looked back again and saw the aero ship hit the ground with a tremendous crash, and as the remnants of the bladder fell on top of the carriage, there was a mighty explosion. The flash of light and geyser of smoke towered above us.

  Well, I thought, that was the end of Thorne’s chance to attack Wormwood. Even if he somehow managed to escape Luc and the other ekos, he would never be able to build another aero ship.

  When the smoke cleared away, Delph called out, “Vega Jane, look!”

  I turned and saw a sight I will never forget.

  Hundreds of armed ekos were racing toward Thorne and his much smaller band. And leading them was Luc. And held aloft in his hand was … the book — the proof of Thorne’s crimes against the ekos, unmistakably written out in the miserable bloke’s own hand.

  I turned to Delph, a smile a mile wide on my face.

  He gazed back. “I think this is the end of old King Thorne.”

  “Bloody well overdue,” I said firmly.

  I turned back around and flew along as fast as I could. About three miles farther on, I was exhausted from toting Delph and Harry Two and our bags of supplies. I aimed my head and shoulders down and we landed a sliver later.

  I unhooked Harry Two from the harness and we all sank to the ground and just lay there. I was astonished that we were actually alive. As I looked over at Delph, I could tell he was thinking the exact same thing.

  He said, “Well, we done it, didn’t we? All the things coulda gone wrong with our plan and we done it.” He looked down. “ ’Cept for Sieve gettin’ killed.”

  “I know, Delph. We never would have made it out except for him. But he died fighting against Thorne. He was very brave.”

  “Suppose you’re right, Vega Jane.”

  Harry Two gave a sharp bark and we both jumped. But my canine was grinning. It was like he was agreeing with me.

  I touched my cheek. “You kissed me right there, before we jumped.”

  He glanced down, his eyes half-shut. “I … I …”

  I reached over and kissed him on his cheek in the exact same place he’d kissed me.

  “Thank you, Delph.”

  He opened his eyes fully and gazed at me. “For what?”

  “Just for being you. Which is pretty bloody wonderful.”

  And then it happened. From nowhere a dark cloud descended upon us. I could see nothing. I heard Harry Two bark. I heard someone gasp. And then the cloud was gone.

  And so was Delph.

  I JUMPED TO MY feet and screamed. “Delph? DELPH!” I looked frantically around. He was nowhere. He … he was gone. The cloud! I looked to the sky. There was nothing up there except the storm. I rushed around in all directions. I looked behind trees and rocks, and raced over little knolls with Harry Two right behind me. I kept calling out for Delph until my lungs were exhausted. I collapsed to the dirt, my mind racing so fast I couldn’t think clearly. Then, as the slivers passed and there was still no Delph, I started to weep, and then cry and then sob. I sobbed so hard I vomited.

  I lay there in the dirt, Harry Two curled protectively around me.

  I just kept mumbling over and over, “Delph, Delph, Delph. Please come back. Please come back. Please.”

  But Delph did not come back. He was gone.

  I slowly rose from the ground and picked up my tuck. That’s when I realized that Delph’s tuck was gone. How could that cloud? How could … ?

  The vile Th
orne had told me that nothing was impossible in the Quag. Thorne! Could he have … ? But if it had been Thorne, he surely would have taken me too.

  As Harry Two and I walked slowly along, I looked down at my feet. I focused on placing one foot in front of the other. I was trying to block out everything else. Most of all, I was trying to not think about Delph not being next to me. I still couldn’t quite fathom how it had happened. I even stopped and closed my eyes once, and then opened them, hoping that my nightmare would be over and there Delph would be.

  He would look at me with his silly, endearing grin and say, “Wotcha, Vega Jane?”

  But he wasn’t and so he didn’t.

  I was just a fifteen-sessions-old female from Wormwood who felt like bawling her eyes out because her best friend was gone.

  Only I couldn’t. I had no tears left to shed.

  I looked ahead. The Quag stretched endlessly.

  I looked above and my jaw dropped. The storm was still raging and skylight spears and thunder-thrusts had grown so ubiquitous as to be quite unremarkable. But there was something else in that sky.

  It was a huge flying creature nearly the size of the inficio. I didn’t know if it was ally or foe. Then, as it swooped lower, I got a better look at it. It was a firebird. Its plumage was a mess of brilliant colors that shone like a beacon even in the darkness of the storm. Its beak and huge claws were hideously sharp. Quentin’s book had said that a firebird could be either enemy or ally. I couldn’t afford to find out which right now.

  “Run!” I cried out to Harry Two.

  There was only one possible escape. I saw the opening in the rock up the first ridge. I sprinted toward it, looking over my shoulder for the gigantic bird. But the skies were so dark now and the rain falling so hard that I couldn’t see much of anything.

  We reached the cave opening and I stopped. Rushing headlong into a dark, confined space in the Quag might be the last thing I ever did. I took a moment to light my lantern and reached in my pocket for my glove, gripped the Elemental and willed it to full size.

  I lifted the tuck over one shoulder. With the lantern in my other hand, Harry Two and I cautiously slipped into the mouth of the cave. We had gone about twenty paces when I heard a sound. It was not the growl of a beast, nor could my nose detect a foul odor of any kind. It was more like someone mumbling.