I bent down and, using my injured hand, I picked up a white stone lying on the floor next to the pit. I wanted to see if I could form a grip. I could, barely.
I glanced at Harry Two, who stared up at me with a helpless look, as though he could feel every painful thought of mine. He licked my bad hand and I absently patted his head.
‘Let’s go, Harry Two,’ I said in a determined voice.
We marched around the pit and through a tunnel on the other side. It eventually opened into a vast cave.
I looked all around. Nothing but blank, rock-studded walls stared back.
My frustration boiling up inside, I screamed, ‘I need answers. And I need them now!’
Immediately, a movement came from my left. I wheeled in that direction and called out, ‘Who’s there?’ I blinked as a small orb of light glimmered from the part of the cave furthest from me. The orb grew and then transformed to a shadow. And then this shadow evolved into a small being holding a lantern. As it came forward and stopped in front of me, I looked down at it and it looked up at me.
‘Who are you?’ I asked in a quavering voice.
‘Eon,’ came the response.
25
EON AND THE HOLE
The creature named Eon wore a blue cloak and carried a brass-tipped wooden staff in its other hand. As the lantern light illuminated him more clearly, I saw a small, wrinkled face. His eyes were protuberant, his ears tiny, and instead of being round, they were peaked at the top, like Harry Two’s. His hands were thick and plump, and the fingers short and curved. I could see small toes poking from under his cloak.
‘What are you doing here, Eon?’
‘This is where I am,’ replied Eon.
I shook my head in bewilderment. ‘And where is this?’
‘Where I am,’ he answered. It did not seem that reason applied to this bloke.
‘My name is Vega Jane.’
I held out my hand for him to shake, but I winced with pain.
Eon looked at my battered and bloodied hand.
He pointed to the white stone I held in my other hand. ‘Wave that over your injured hand and think good thoughts.’
‘What?’ I couldn’t imagine what good that would do.
‘Wave the stone over your injured hand and think good thoughts,’ he repeated.
‘Why?’
‘It’s the Adder Stone. You can tell by the hole through it.’
I looked at the rock and sure enough, there was a small hole that ran completely through it. For the first time I also noticed how truly brilliantly white it was.
‘What does it do?’ I asked warily.
‘Just wave it over your hand and think good thoughts.’
I sighed and then did as Eon had asked me to do. My hand instantly healed. No more pain and not a trace of blood. I stared down in utter amazement. ‘How did that happen?’ I exclaimed.
‘The Adder Stone has the soul of a powerful sorceress embedded in it.’
I stared at him blankly. ‘A sorceress?’
‘A magical being.’ Eon fixed his great, bulging eyes on me. ‘With the power to heal, as you can see for yourself.’
I felt a chill soar up my spine at holding something in my hand that could heal wounds with a wave and a wish. ‘And yet you just leave it lying around?’ I asked.
‘Sometimes it is simply where you need it to be.’
‘It can do anything?’ I asked eagerly. ‘Grant any wish?’
He shook his head. ‘It heals. But it has its limits.’
‘Like what?’ I asked curiously.
‘You must never wish ill of anyone with the Adder. Terrible consequences will befall you in such an attempt.’ He stopped, looked me over and said, ‘Are you injured a lot?’
‘A bit more than I’d like, actually. So, what do you do here?’
‘My race is the guardian of time.’
‘Time doesn’t need guarding.’
‘Follow me, Vega Jane.’
Before I could say anything, he turned and walked slowly into the cave. I glanced at Harry Two, who looked at me with a curious expression.
We walked for a long way until we reached the back of the cave. Eon stopped and turned to me, pointing at the wall. I looked where he was indicating, expecting to see only rock. Instead I saw a pair of enormous iron gates that glowed a flaming red.
‘Is it on fire?’ I asked, keeping my distance from it.
‘No. It is actually cool to the touch. You may see for yourself.’
I touched it gingerly. It was cool.
Eon held up two keys that he had taken from his cloak pocket and handed them to me. ‘One will take you to the past; the other, your future.’
‘They’re gold!’ I said in wonder.
Eon nodded. ‘Any key used to open something enchanted is made of gold.’
I smiled at this strange remark. ‘Is that a rule?’
‘It is more than a mere rule, for rules can be changed. It is truth.’
‘I think I understand that,’ I said slowly.
Eon said, ‘So many fascinating events that might have taken place did not because one lacked the courage to open a certain portal.’
‘Well, sometimes it might be smarter not to open it,’ I said stoutly. Then I added, ‘How do you tell the keys apart? Which is past and which is future?’
‘You must take your chances. And you may pick only one.’
‘And if I pick the past over the future?’
‘Then you will see the past. Your past.’
‘And if I pick the future?’
‘You will see what lies ahead of course.’
‘I’m not sure I want to see what will be coming up for me.’
Eon said firmly, ‘But you must choose.’
I stared down at the two keys. They were identical. But depending on which one I selected, the outcome would be very different indeed.
‘Is there really no way to tell them apart?’
He cocked his small head. ‘Do you have a preference?’
I had made up my mind. ‘The past,’ I said. ‘Even though I have lived it, I have recently found that it remains as murky as though I had not. I need to understand it fully if I am to have a future. At least I believe that to be true.’
Eon considered this. ‘Then, Vega Jane, I would tell you the vast majority of choosers end up going into the future, because they return here and tell me of their experiences.’
‘But if there’s truly no way to tell, I guess my odds are split right down the middle.’
‘All I can advise is for you to look at the keys and see if you can feel which is the right one for you, taking into account all that I have said to you,’ replied Eon.
I took a few steps back and held both keys side by side in the palm of my hand. They were identical, down to the teeth. But then something occurred to me. Something that Eon had said.
There was a marginal difference between the keys. One had more black scratches than the other. I glanced at the heavy iron gates. The lock was irregularly shaped. It would be difficult to insert a key without scratching it against the blackened iron plate. Eon had said that most ended up in the future. So that key would have been used far more. And thus have far more scratches. I had my answer.
Grinning, I handed the badly scratched key to Eon.
He pocketed it and said, ‘You have a good mind, Vega Jane.’ He looked at the gates and then at me. ‘And now it is time you were off.’
Drawing a deep breath, I marched over to the gate and prepared to insert the key. I looked back at Eon. ‘How exactly will it happen?’
‘You will not be seen nor heard, and you cannot be harmed. Neither can you intervene in any way in the events you will witness, no matter what happens. That is the law of time.’
‘How do I get back?’
‘Through this gate. But do not dawdle, Vega Jane. And do not think yourself mad, though madness you may think you see.’
With this disturbing thought in mind, I took a d
eep, replenishing breath and inserted the key. I gave Harry Two a hopeful smile and opened the gate.
26
THE PAST IS NEVER PAST
The gates swung open and Harry Two and I simply walked through. Everything was fuzzy, as if the clouds had deflated and fallen to the ground for a lie-down. If I was to see my past, it seemed it would be through this filter of fog.
The cry startled me. There was something about it that seemed distantly familiar. I hurried along, until I reached a clearing in the mist and stopped. My mouth sagged.
I was back in my old home. And the scene I was looking at was remarkable. I knelt down next to my father as he hovered over the small bed. On the bed was my mother. She looked pale and spent, and her hair was slicked back against her head. A female dressed in a white cloak and a domed cap stood next to my father. I recognized her as a Nurse who helped bring new Wugs to life.
My mother was cradling a tiny bundle in her arms. I could just glimpse the small head and black hair of my brother, John. The cry had come from him. John and I shared a birthlight, so from this I knew I was exactly three sessions old. When I lifted my gaze from this sight, I was startled to see my younger self peering into the room from the doorway.
I was smiling as I stared at my new little brother. There was an innocence and hope in that look that brought tears to my eyes.
My father rose, beaming first at John and then at the younger me. He slapped his palms together and, as if on command, I ran and leaped into his arms.
I gasped. I had forgotten that I used to do that. My father hugged me and then held me low enough to see John close up. I touched his little hand. He made a belching sound and I jumped back, squealing with laughter.
With a sudden pang, I realized how long it had been since I had laughed like that. I looked last at my mother. Helen Jane was beautiful despite her ordeal of giving birth to what would become the smartest Wug in all of Wormwood. I knew from Eon that she couldn’t see me, but I drew closer and knelt down next to the bed. I reached out and tried to touch her, but my hand merely passed through her image. They were not actually there with me of course, or I with them. But they were real enough.
It had been so long since we were a family that I had almost forgotten the joy that came with having one. All the small and large moments, many that I had taken for granted at the time, no doubt bolstered by the certainty that there would be many more.
It made me tremble to think what I had lost.
And then the mists clouded over once more and a new image replaced the old.
They were running hard, the female a bit ahead of the male. I chased after them. The trees towered above. As I caught up, I saw them more clearly. The female was perhaps five sessions. The male then must be one session older, or six. I knew this because the male and female were Delph and me.
He was already tall for his age, as I was. His hair was not very long yet. We jumped a narrow creek and landed on the opposite side, laughing and pushing each other. Delph’s face was animated, his eyes bursting with possibilities. For the life of me, I had not remembered this part of my past until just now.
Then I realized that Delph would see my grandfather’s Event this session, and he would never be the same. And neither would I. I wanted to call out to them, to warn of what was coming, but there was no point because they couldn’t hear me.
This image faded and I found myself in the Hallowed Ground, where Wugs who had slipped away were laid in the soil. I was staring down at the hole in the dirt as my grandmother Calliope’s box was lowered into it. Other Wugs stood around solemnly watching this take place. This timing of events was wrong, because she in fact had died from the sick soon after John was born but before me and Delph had been running through the trees.
And then it occurred to me. Calliope going into the ground meant that my grandfather Virgil was here. I found him in the crowd of Wugs on what I now remembered was a miserably cold light full of drizzle with not even a glimpse of warming sun.
My father stood next to him, his arm on Virgil’s shoulder. My mother, holding my brother, stood next to them. And holding my grandfather’s other hand was my younger self.
I stood next to Virgil and looked up. It was painful to see his sorrow, etched so heavily across his features. Once more, I felt an enormous sense of loss. I could have spent so much more time with him. I should have spent so much more time with him. But I had been robbed of that opportunity.
At the end of one’s lifetime, it seemed that family was really the only important thing there was. And yet how many of us truly appreciated that significance before our last breath left us?
I put my hand to my eyes and wept quietly. My body shuddered and I could feel Harry Two right next to me, as though he were trying to buck me up.
Once I stopped crying, my gaze settled on the ring on my grandfather’s hand. The same ring that had been found in Quentin Herms’s cottage. I looked at the back of my grandfather’s hand and saw the same design etched there: the three hooks connected. It was becoming clearer all the time that there was much I didn’t know about my family. And it was crystal clear that those were mysteries I had to solve if I was ever going to find the truth. About my family. About Wormwood. Even about myself.
I had my ink stick in my pocket and I used it to draw the three connected hooks on the back of my hand.
The crowd of Wugs was large. I wasn’t surprised by the size. Calliope was much loved in Wormwood. Near the front of the crowd I saw a younger Ezekiel, and next to him was Thansius, so large and solid. He hadn’t really changed at all. But I was startled to see Morrigone in the back of the crowd. She was many sessions younger at that point, but she also looked nearly the same as she did now.
I was just about to go over to her when the mists crowded me out once more.
That’s when I heard the scream. As the mists cleared, I saw Delph. He looked the same age as in my last memory, which meant it was still around the time of my grandfather’s Event.
He was running down a hard-packed gravel road that looked instantly familiar to me. I looked up ahead and saw the gates with the large M on them. Delph was running from Morrigone’s home. As I watched, he looked back in terror and then passed by me. That’s when I realized what was happening. That’s when I saw her. Or rather me.
My younger self was standing in the lane staring after Delph. I recognized the little dolly I carried. It had been a present from my mother on my fourth birthlight. To my shock, my younger self started to walk up the gravel path towards the big gates. They opened at my approach. Harry Two was jumping and growling around my legs as I followed my younger self on to the grounds of Morrigone’s home. We arrived at the large wooden door. It was partially open. I heard sounds from inside but I couldn’t make out what they were. I drew closer, as did my younger self.
Suddenly, the door flew open all the way and there stood Morrigone, her brilliantly red hair awry and her robes askew. Yet what I was really drawn to was her eyes. They were the eyes of a female who had been struck clean of all reason.
Morrigone caught sight of my younger self standing there clutching the dolly. She took a step forward and waved her hand. There was a blinding blue light. I heard another scream. And then there was a thud. I closed my eyes. When I reopened them, the mists had enveloped me.
I sat down on my bum and gripped my head while Harry Two danced and yipped around me. The blue light seemed burned into my eyes. I couldn’t shake it. And then the scream. What had Morrigone done to me?
I rose on quivering legs, wondering where Harry Two and I would end up next.
That thought died just about the time the blow struck, knocking me off my feet.
27
YOU MUST SURVIVE
I fell hard to the ground and rolled over twice from the force of whatever had hit me. I started to rise, but something was holding me down. When I glanced up, I could see it was Harry Two with his paws on my shoulders.
I finally managed to push him off and sit up.
The field was far bigger than the Duelum pitch back in Wormwood, but I could see nothing that would have knocked me down. There were blurs of light racing here and there and emitting sparks and rays of colours. At first it seemed truly beautiful and somehow melodious, though it made no sound. But when a silver ray of light hit one of the blurs that I saw racing across the sky, there was a tremendous explosion. An instant later, a body dropped from the heavens and ploughed into the dirt less than two feet from where I sat.
I screamed and scrambled to my feet. Harry Two barked and jumped next to me. I stared down at the body. It was blackened, and bits of it were blown off, but I could see the great bearded face and the metal cap and breastplate the male wore. There was liquid all over it, like blood, except instead of red, it was a sparkling green the likes of which I had never seen before. I screamed again and this seemed to rouse him. For a moment, he stared up at me with the one eye he still had. Then he gave a great heaving shudder, the eye froze and he just died, right in front of me.
I backed away in horror until I heard Harry Two howl. I turned in time to see a steed racing at me. Its size would have put any of Thansius’s sleps to shame. And on the steed was a tall, lean figure outfitted all in chain mail. The figure also wore a full metal helmet with face shield. Only when it raised the visor did I see with astonishment that it was a female.
In her gloved hand was a long, golden spear. She took aim as she rode and hurled it right at me. Only it didn’t hit me. It sailed six feet over my head and I whirled in time to see it strike a male full in the chest as he was charging me astride another enormous steed. There was a sky burst like I had seen come down from the heavens on stormy nights, and the bloke simply disappeared in a hail of black dust and red fire.
The spear emerged from the ball of fire, turned in the air and flew back into the female’s throwing hand. Only now she was right on top of me. I covered my head and waited to be trampled. When I looked up, all I saw was the underbelly of the steed as it rose up in the air, lifted by wings that had seemingly sprouted from its withers. It soared into the sky and I watched in fascination as the rider engaged in battle with another figure perched on a winged creature that looked like an adar, only three times as large.
Vega Jane and the Secrets of Sorcery Page 12
