‘That’s the bloke’s throat. Elbow strike there, he can’t breathe, can he? He passes out. And you win. And go on to the next round. Clean and quick. Har.’
I felt my own throat constrict. ‘But if he can’t breathe, won’t he die?’
Delph rose and dusted off his trousers and hands. ‘Well, most blokes start breathing on their own pretty quick. For those what need a bitta help, there’re Mendens standing by to come over and beat on their chests. That usually does the trick. Sometimes they have to cut open the throat to get the air flowing again, but the scar is pretty small, and it don’t bleed all that much.’
I turned around and heaved the meagre contents of my belly into a bush.
I felt Delph’s big hands around my shoulders a moment later. He supported me while I finished being sick. I wiped my mouth and turned to face him, my cheeks red with embarrassment.
‘Delph, I had no idea the Duelums were like this. And you winning three of them already? Well, that’s about the most amazing thing ever.’
‘’Tain’t all that special,’ he said modestly.
‘But what you’ve taught me will help.’ I didn’t believe this of course, because even if I jumped off the tallest tree in Wormwood and landed on Non’s throat, I doubt he would even cough.
‘This is just the start, Vega Jane. There’s a lot more for you to learn. And you’ve got to build up your strength too.’
‘I’m pretty strong.’
‘That’s not good enough.’
‘How do I get stronger? I work all light at Stacks building straps for the Wall. When will I have a sliver to train? I have to sleep.’
‘We’ll think of a way.’
‘When will we know who we have to fight?’
‘They’ll post the first bouts seven nights before the Duelum starts,’ he replied.
We worked some more on various moves and strategies until I was exhausted.
Before taking my leave, I glanced over at the adar.
‘Delph, that adar—’
‘Dad’s been having no end of trouble with the durn thing,’ he grumbled.
‘What kind of trouble?’
Delph would not meet my eye. ‘Saying things we got no idea where he heard ’em. Dad says some adars have minds of their own, they do.’
‘But adars can’t naturally stutter, can—’
‘Gotta go, Vega Jane.’
And then he disappeared into his cottage and closed the door tight.
36
THE TRUTH COMES FOR JOHN
Next light, I rose early. I wanted to get out of Wormwood proper before other Wugs got up. As Harry Two and I walked down the cobblestones, we passed an old Wug I didn’t know but had seen before. He glared at me and aimed a slop of spit at my boot. I hopped away and kept going, my head down. Obviously, word had got around about my arrest and sentencing to fight in the Duelum. It might be that every Wug loathed me now, although it was hard to fathom how they could turn against me so quickly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roman Picus coming down the cobblestones. I braced myself for his insults and slurs. But he did something that bruised me even more. He pulled down his hat and cut between two buildings, apparently so he would not have to talk to or perhaps be seen with me.
I kept shuffling along, my energy sapped, and I had a full light of work ahead.
As I passed the Loons, Hestia Loon stepped out to put some rubbish in the dustbin. I tried not to make eye contact, but she called out, ‘Vega?’
I stopped, fearing the worst. Hestia had always been nice to me, but she was under Loon’s thumb completely. I eyed the broom in her hand and wondered if she was going to take a swat at me.
‘Yes?’ I said quietly.
She walked over, gave Harry Two a pat and said, ‘’Tis a beautiful canine.’
My spirits lifted a bit at her kind words. ‘Thank you. His name is Harry Two.’
She glanced up at me, her features hardening. ‘It’s rubbish, what they’re saying ’bout you. Know that as well as I know me own frying pan.’
I felt my face grow warm and moisture crept into my eyes. I hastily rubbed this away and continued to stare at her.
She looked over her shoulder back at the Loons and came forward, drawing something from her pocket. She held it up. It was a little chain with a metal disc on the end.
‘Me mum gave this to me when I was but a nipper. For good luck, they say.’ I looked at her in confusion. She spoke hurriedly. ‘Luck, for in the Duelum. Heard you had to fight. Council is a bunch of fools, if you ask me, but no Wug did.’ She gripped my hand and placed the good-luck charm in it and curled my fingers over it.
‘You take this, Vega Jane. You take this and you beat them males. I know you can do it. Outliers! As if you’d be helping them, and your grandfather being Virgil Alfadir Jane. Don’t have the sense they were born with, the lot of ’em.’
She looked down at my thin, dirty frame, and I saw her heavy cheeks start to quiver. ‘Give me a mo’,’ she said.
She nipped into the Loons and was back a half-sliver later with a small cloth bag. She handed it to me. ‘Just between us,’ she said and gave my cheek a pinch. Then she was gone.
I looked in the bag and saw a loaf of freshly baked bread, two apples, a jar of pickles, a wedge of cheese and two fat sausages. My stomach rumbled in anticipation of devouring it.
I looked at the charm she had given me. The disc of metal was copper and had the image of a star with seven points to it. I lifted it over my head, and the chain settled around my neck. I stared back at the Loons and found Hestia peering at me from a window. She disappeared quickly when she saw me looking.
I continued on, my spirits heartened by her gesture of kindness. However, that feeling would not last long because when I arrived at my tree, and saw what was happening, I dropped the bag and ran forward screaming furiously.
‘No. No!’ I yelled. ‘That’s my tree.’
There were four Wugs, all males, all twice my size. One of them was Non. He had an axe and was about to strike my tree a vicious blow. Two other Wugs stood ready with a long saw, while the fourth Wug had a morta, which he now pointed at me while Harry Two growled and snapped at him.
They were going to chop down my tree.
Non stopped, but still holding the axe up high, he said viciously, ‘Traitors dinnae get to have trees, female. And it’s needed for the Wall.’
He started his downswing with the huge axe.
‘No!’ I screamed. ‘You can’t. You can’t.’ I paused and then said, ‘You won’t!’
Non hit my tree with a staggering blow, and the most amazing thing happened. There was not a dent or cut in the bark. Instead, the axe broke in half and fell to the ground.
Non stood there looking in disbelief at where he had hit my tree and then down at his shattered tool.
‘What the—?’ he roared. ‘Bring up the saw, lads.’
I just stood there, staring at my poor tree, willing with all my heart for it to survive this unjust attack.
The two Wugs set the saw’s teeth against my tree’s bark and started to cut. Or they tried to. The teeth disintegrated against the trunk.
The Wugs straightened and looked in puzzlement at their ruined saw.
Non stared fiercely over at me. ‘What sort of tree is this?’ he demanded.
‘It’s my tree,’ I said, pushing past the Wug holding the morta. ‘Now, clear off.’
‘It’s bedevilled,’ exclaimed Non. ‘You’re working with them Outliers. Evil scum. They’ve bedevilled this tree, they have!’
‘That is utter nonsense.’
We all looked around and saw Thansius standing about five yards from us. He was dressed in a long grey cloak. He held a long stick in one massive hand, and I imagined he had gone for an early walk.
‘A bedevilled tree?’ said Thansius as he drew nearer and looked up at my beautiful poplar. ‘How do you mean?’
Non shuffled his feet nervously and kept his gaze downcast. The o
ther Wugs had all taken steps back and were studying the ground.
Non said haltingly, ‘Well, Thansius . . . sir, axe and . . . and saw don’t touch it, did they . . . sir?’
‘Easily explained,’ said Thansius, looking at me.
He rapped my tree with his knuckles. ‘You see, over time some trees that are ancient become petrified. That is to say their bark hardens to such a degree that it becomes stronger than iron. It’s no wonder your tools fell victim to its trunk.’
He picked up the pieces of the broken axe and the toothless saw and handed them back to Non and the other two Wugs. ‘I would say that this tree will still be standing when we are all long since dust.’ He looked directly at Non. ‘So, be off with you, Non. I’m sure you and your colleagues have labours on the Wall to perform.’
Non and his cronies hastily made their way down the path and were soon out of sight.
I touched my tree’s bark and then looked at the boards I had nailed into it leading up to my planks. How could I have nailed into it if it were petrified? I looked at Thansius and was about to ask this very query when he said, ‘It is quite a magnificent tree, Vega. It would have been a terrible shame to see it perish.’
In his features I could tell that he wasn’t talking only about my tree. He was also referring to me.
I wanted to tell Thansius that I was not a traitor and that I never would have used the map to help anything that wanted to hurt Wormwood. But he had already turned away and walked off. I watched until I could no longer see him. Then I turned to my tree and gave it a hug.
I worked at Stacks all light long, and after finishing, I helped transport a shipment of straps by a wagon pulled by two cretas to the section of the Wall that was currently being completed. As I helped lift the heavy straps off, I was thinking this was a great way for me to build up my strength – if I didn’t die of exhaustion first.
As I finished unloading the straps, I stayed to look around. The Wall rose up well over thirty feet. The stripped timbers were thick, planed and mitred. Straps that I had finished were wound around the logs and locked down tightly through the punch holes, giving the wood a strength and stability it would not otherwise have had.
The activity was frenetic, but seemed well co-ordinated, with Wugs marching here and there with tools and materials. I spotted John on a raised platform with lit torches all around, overseeing the construction. Next to him were three members of Council and two other Wugs I knew were good at building things.
It was startling to me how quickly my many sessions with John had been efficiently overridden by his time under Morrigone’s wing. Or claw, more like it. And yet she had saved my life. Was she my ally or enemy?
I walked over to the large holes dug for the water and gazed down at them. Another Wug came up to me, carrying some tools.
‘When will the water be piped in here?’ I asked.
He looked down at the hole. ‘They say in six more lights and nights, but I don’t see how. We’re behind schedule.’
I remembered John’s earlier comment about being behind schedule. ‘It seems that Wugs are working as hard as they can,’ I said.
‘Tell that to them,’ said the Wug, motioning to the platform where John was. The Wug looked back at me. ‘’Tis your brother, ain’t he?’
‘He is.’
The Wug stared hard at me. ‘Then you have my pity.’
As he started to walk off, I grabbed his arm. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Only that it don’t matter to him how tired or sick we are or that our families need us. He flat-out don’t care, does he?’
‘I thought he was just working on the plans?’
The Wug shook his head. ‘For a young, he acts very old. And he hasn’t a heart a’tall. I know you’re family and all, but that’s just how I feel.’
Scowling, he stalked off leaving me staring at the ground, thinking many things and none of them pleasant. I glanced back over at John, hoping that the Wug had been exaggerating. Yet, even as I watched, he started pointing and yelling at a group of Wugs who were struggling with a heavy timber. John rushed down to them and started gesticulating. The Wugs looked stonily at him, any response they might have had no doubt muted by the large Wugs armed with mortas who stood behind John.
I walked up to John, who was still raging at the Wugs standing there with the log balanced precariously over their weary shoulders. I said, ‘Why don’t you let them put it down, John, while you tell them what you want?’
He turned to me, an expression of great annoyance on his face. At first, I didn’t think he even recognized me.
‘We don’t have time for that!’ he exclaimed. ‘We’re already behind this light, and night crew will be here in slivers.’
‘And these Wugs have been working hard all light. You’ll be even more behind schedule if Wugs start getting sick or injured from being overworked.’
‘It is not your place to give orders,’ he said, gazing stonily at me.
‘Maybe it isn’t. But I’m the only family you have left.’
He gave me a condescending look. ‘Have you forgotten the Care?’
I knew I shouldn’t do it, but at this point I was no longer concerned about John’s feelings. Besides, I wasn’t sure he had any left. And I was destined to either get my brains bashed in fighting in the Duelum or die in Valhall.
‘As I said, I’m the only family you have. I thought Morrigone would have told you by now. Our parents both suffered Events. There is nothing left of them.’
With that I turned on my heel and marched away.
I had just committed the biggest mistake of my life.
37
FOES UNITED
The next few lights and nights followed a uniform pattern. I worked all light at Stacks and then delivered straps to the Wall. After that, Delph and I practised my Duelum skills late into the night. He had put together a long pole with the ends weighted by bundles of rocks. He had me lift that over my head and put it on my shoulders and squat down to build up my upper and lower body. My limbs hurt so badly the next light, I cried out in pain after I tried to get off my cot. But I kept doing it. Wanting to live is a great motivator.
At first we were at his digs, then we moved to the forest and sometimes we fought inside my digs, occasionally knocking over my few pieces of furniture and scaring Harry Two half to death.
On the seventh light after Thansius had made his announcement about the Duelum, I was passing Cletus Loon and his chums on the way to my digs. Loon stepped in front of me while his chums made a circle around me. Harry Two started growling and the hair on his back rose as they closed in on us. I patted Harry Two on the head and told him it was OK.
Cletus said, ‘So you have to fight in the Duelum or else you’ll rot in Valhall for being a traitor.’
I stood there with as bored a look on my face as I could manage. Even his simple mind finally seemed to grasp that he would either have to say something else or shove off.
Cletus finally said, ‘You know what I wish, Vega?’
‘I don’t want to try and see inside your head, Loon; I might go blind.’
‘I wish that I draw you in the first round of the Duelum.’
His friends laughed while I stood there staring at Cletus like he was not worth a sliver of my time.
Finally I said, ‘Be careful what you wish for, Loon; you might just get it.’
He got right in my face. ‘I can’t wait to see you get a right good beating and I hope I’m the one to do it.’
‘I suppose you’ve got some brilliant moves you’re itching to try out.’
‘You bet I do,’ he said, grinning maliciously.
I waited patiently for Cletus to do what I knew he was going to do. What he so desperately wanted to do.
He feinted with his right hand, swung his left to within an inch of my cheek and then pretended to knee me in the stomach.
I just stood there stoically, not even batting an eye.
His grin finally disappe
ared. ‘You best watch yourself.’
‘Right,’ I said.
He stepped to the side, allowing me to pass. I walked on with Harry Two protecting my flank.
‘Thanks, you idiot,’ I said under my breath.
I heard Wugs calling out further down the Low Road where it turned into the high street cobblestones leading into Wormwood proper. Other Wugs were rushing towards that destination as well. I picked up my pace to see what was going on. I turned on to the high street and saw that Wugs were collecting around a wooden board that was used for official announcements.
Then it occurred to me. The first Duelum bouts were being posted this night! I sprinted hard down the cobblestones and pushed my way through hordes of Wugs until I could see the long parchment strips pinned to the wood. I ran my eye down the list, finally reaching my name near the bottom. As I gazed across at my opponent for the first bout, my mouth twitched. Cletus Loon indeed would be getting his wish, for I had drawn him in the first round. I would have to fight and win four times to reach the championship match. Not that I expected, despite Delph’s encouragement, to get that far.
Yet I knew one thing. I was going to beat Cletus Loon. That would be enough for me. I prayed the other females in the competition would survive the first round reasonably intact.
I then looked for Delph’s name and found it less than a sliver later. In the first bout, he would be fighting the huge, vile Ran Digby, the patrol Wug.
A hand grabbed my arm. I turned to see Jurik Krone. Next to him was a simpering Duk Dodgson. I pulled my arm free and stared up at him. I could sense other Wugs giving us space, but staring all the same.
‘Madame Morrigone has no doubt told you of your lucky escape from justice,’ he snarled.
Vega Jane and the Secrets of Sorcery Page 18
