‘I think that she is, Domitar. I most assuredly do.’
I whirled around. Dis Fidus stood in the doorway, holding a rag and a small bottle.
He shuffled forward. ‘I am happy that you were victorious in the Duelum this light.’
‘Thank you, but what did you mean—’
However, he had shifted his gaze to Domitar. ‘We knew this moment would come, of course.’
I looked at Domitar as he slowly nodded. ‘The time has come, I suppose.’
Dis Fidus held the rag to the bottle and doused the cloth with liquid. ‘Hold out your hand, Vega,’ he said.
‘Why? What’s that stuff on the cloth?’
‘Just hold out your hand. Your inked hand.’
I glanced at Domitar, who slowly nodded at me.
I tentatively held out my hand. My gaze was drawn to the blue skin on top, the result of two sessions of having Dis Fidus stamp my hand for no apparent reason.
Dis Fidus said, ‘This will not occur without some discomfort.’
I drew back my hand.
‘Why should I endure the pain?’ I asked. ‘What result will come of it?’
‘It will be much less painful than what’s in the Quag if you have the ink on you.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Nor should you,’ said Domitar. ‘But if that is your plan, it is essential that the ink comes off.’
I held out my hand once more, half closed my eyes and prepared for the pain. He touched the top of my hand with the rag and it felt like a thousand flying stingers had attacked the surface. I tried to jerk my hand back, but I couldn’t. When I fully opened my eyes, I saw that Dis Fidus had gripped my wrist with his hand. He was surprisingly strong for being so old.
I moaned, clenched my teeth, bit my lip, screwed my eyes shut and swayed on my feet. When it got to the point where I could stand it no longer, Dis Fidus said, ‘’Tis done.’
He let go of my wrist and I opened my eyes. The back of my hand was scarred and pink and sore. But there was not a trace of blue on it. I looked up at him as I rubbed it with my other hand.
‘You have of course wondered why I spend my lights inking hands here,’ said Dis Fidus. I nodded. ‘Well, now you have the answer. Simply put, to go through the Quag with an inked hand is a death sentence.’
‘So Quentin Herms, then?’ I said bitterly.
I looked from Domitar to Dis Fidus. Each shook their head. Finally, Dis Fidus said, ‘If he went through the Quag with his hand as ’twas, I fear for him.’
‘You don’t believe that Outliers took him, then?’ I said.
‘Surely you have moved on from that theory,’ he said sharply.
‘I have,’ I conceded.
‘Then let us waste no more time speaking of it,’ said Dis Fidus with finality. He corked the bottle and handed it and a fresh cloth to me. ‘Take this.’
‘But my hand is clean of ink.’
‘Take it nonetheless,’ he urged.
I put them away in my cloak. ‘So how is the ink harmful to us in the Quag?’
Domitar answered. ‘It is like the scent given off by a female slep in need of a male.’
‘So it draws the beasts right to the Wugs,’ I said fiercely. ‘A death sentence clearly,’ I added accusingly. ‘And you knew about it!’
‘Wugs are not supposed to go into the Quag,’ said Domitar defensively. ‘And if they don’t, the ink marks are meaningless to them.’
‘But what if the beasts come out of the Quag?’ I said. ‘A garm came after me, chased me up my tree. And now I know why, because of the marks on my hand.’
Domitar looked guiltily at Dis Fidus before continuing. ‘No system is perfect.’
‘And whose system was it?’ I asked.
Surprisingly, Dis Fidus answered. ‘It has always been so, that I know. And there is no Wug alive whose sessions tally to mine.’
‘What of Morrigone? Or Thansius?’
‘Even Thansius is not so old as Dis Fidus. Now Morrigone is a special case, you understand,’ said Domitar.
‘Oh, she’s special all right!’ I exclaimed.
‘She’s not an evil Wug,’ said Dis Fidus. ‘Don’t think that she is.’
‘You tell me Morrigone isn’t evil and expect me to believe that? She was controlling Ladon-Tosh. She was the reason those jabbits were inside him. She couldn’t control them. She had to beg me for help in slaying them.’
To my astonishment, this did not seem to surprise either of them.
Dis Fidus merely nodded, as though I were simply confirming what he already suspected. ‘Yes, it would be difficult for her,’ he said in a nonchalant tone.
‘For her?’ I shouted. ‘What about me?’
‘Some Wugs have duties passed down,’ explained Domitar. ‘Morrigone is one of them. Before her, it was her mother’s responsibility to see to Wug welfare. And that is what she was doing this light.’
‘By trying to murder me?’
‘You are a danger to her and to all of Wormwood, Vega – do you not understand that?’ said Domitar in exasperation.
‘How am I a danger to her?’
‘That is something you must discover for yourself.’
‘Domitar!’
‘No, Vega. That is my last word on the subject.’
I looked at them both. ‘So, where does that leave us?’
Domitar rose. ‘Me still safely in Wormwood and you apparently not.’
‘You don’t think I’ll make it through the Quag, do you?’
‘Actually, I believe that you will,’ he said in a whisper, and bowed his head. ‘And then may Steeples help all Wugs.’
When I looked at Dis Fidus, he had bowed his head too.
I turned and left Stacks.
I would not be coming back.
53
THE END OF THE BEGINNING
I went back to my digs and packed up everything I owned – which, granted, wasn’t much – and placed it in my tuck. In the pocket of my cloak went the Adder Stone and the shrunken Elemental. I placed my tuck under my cot and decided to spend one of the coins I had in my cloak pocket on a last meal in my place of birth.
As I walked towards the Starving Tove on the high street with Harry Two at my heels, I could hear the cries of celebration coming from the Golden Cask. Inside, I held out my coin, as a matter of course, to let them know I could pay for my meal, but the big, flat-faced Wug who seated me waved this off.
‘Your coin is no good here, Vega.’
‘What?’
‘On us, Vega. And what an honour i’tis.’
‘Are you sure you can do that?’ I asked.
‘Sure as you beat that wicked Ladon-Tosh to nothing.’
When he brought me the scroll with the food items on it, I said I would have one of everything. At first, he looked surprised by this, but then a silly grin spread across his face and he replied, ‘Coming right up.’
I ate like I never had in all my sessions. It was as though I had never had a meal before. The more I ate, the more I wanted, until I could gorge no more. I knew I would probably never have a meal like this one again. I pushed back the last plate, patted my belly contentedly and then glanced out the window. The first section of night was here.
I would wait until the fourth section. That seemed as good a time as any to tackle the Quag. I had brought some food out with me to give to Harry Two. This was my other concern. Food. We would have to eat while we were in the Quag. I looked down at the few remaining coins I had. I went to another shop and spent it all on some basic provisions for my canine and me. It wasn’t much, and part of me was glad of that. I couldn’t be bogged down with pounds of food if I was running from a garm. And I would have to bring water. But it was heavy as well, so I couldn’t bring much. The truth was I had to be able to find food and water in the Quag.
I had just reached my digs when I looked up and saw it coming.
Adars are clumsy-looking beasts when ground-bound. In the air, though, they are crea
tures of grace and beauty. This one soared along, flying far better than I ever would.
It drew closer and closer and finally descended and came to rest a few feet from me. As I looked more closely at it, I realized it was the adar Duf had been training up for Thansius. And then I also observed it had a woollen bag in its beak. It ambled towards me and dropped the bag at my feet.
I looked down at it and then back up at the tall adar.
‘A present from Thansius,’ said the adar in a voice that was remarkably like the Wug himself.
I knelt, picked up the bag and opened it. There were two items inside.
My grandfather’s ring.
And the book on the Quag.
The adar continued. ‘He says take them with faith and the belief that the courage of one can change everything.’
I slipped the ring and book inside my cloak. The creature’s next words froze me, but only for an instant. Then I was running full tilt to the door of my digs, where I frantically retrieved my tuck. I burst out and ran down the cobblestones with Harry Two bounding next to me.
The adar had already taken flight and I watched it soar overhead.
I would never forget its last words to me.
They are coming for you, Vega. They are coming for you right now.
Harry Two and I did not stop running until we were well out of Wormwood proper. I looked to the sky and blinked. There were no stars up there save one. And it was moving. This was the second shooting star I had seen, and it seemed identical to the first one I had glimpsed. It seemed to be following me as I hurried along the path to the point where I would confront the Wall.
I thought to myself that it seemed lonely, that star. Lonely and perhaps lost, as I had thought before. It was shooting across a sky of nothing but black, going somewhere or at least trying to. But if you don’t know where you want to go, I suppose any path will get you there.
After a quarter-mile, I stopped and pulled some things from my tuck. I had built these from scraps at Stacks over a period of time. I knelt down in front of Harry Two and slipped the small breastplate over his chest and fastened it with the leather straps. It was lightweight but strong, just as I had designed it. I then clipped a metal helmet I had made over Harry Two’s head. My canine took all of this fuss and bother perfectly stoically and wore the contraption like he had been born to it. I thanked him for being so good. I then strapped the harness around my shoulders. I would load Harry Two into it when we grew closer to the Wall.
Then I dropped to the ground and listened.
Whatever was coming did not care about stealth. It was making so much noise I became alarmed. Predators unafraid of what lay ahead made noise. Prey kept quiet and in the shadows. Harry Two and I slipped behind a large bush and waited to see what it was.
I donned the glove, drew the Elemental and willed it to full size. And waited.
The noise was drawing closer. In far less than a sliver, I would know what I would be confronting.
‘Delph!’
He was hurtling past where I lay hidden. At my voice, he pulled up short and stared around in bewilderment until I rose up so he could see me.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Thansius’s adar told me they were coming. He said he’d told you too. So’s I took off.’
‘Took off for where?’ It was then I noticed that he had a tuck over his shoulders.
‘What’s that?’
‘Me stuff. Same as you got there, ain’t it?’ He indicated my tuck. He looked down at the armoured Harry Two and said, ‘Blimey, that’s right fine.’ He looked back up.
‘Where are you going?’ I asked.
‘Same place you’re going.’
‘Delph, you are not coming with me.’
‘Then you’re not going.’
‘You think you can stop me?’
‘I think I can try.’
‘Why are you doing this?’
‘It’s what we planned all along, right?’ he said.
‘But your dad – I thought—’
‘He and me talked it out, didn’t we? He agreed I should go. You got ridda his pain. And . . . and he said to thank you for putting my head right. He got coin and a bloke to train. A bizness, like you said.’
‘But I meant for the two of you to run it.’
He shook his head. ‘Can’t let you go in the Quag by yourself, Vega Jane. Just can’t.’
I stood there looking up at him and he stood there looking down at me. I was going to say something back to him when I happened to glance at the sky. That’s when I saw it.
Two shooting stars racing side by side. It was a lesson, I supposed, not to focus only on oneself. Delph, I’m sure, wanted to escape the confines of Wormwood too. There were other Wugs besides me whose destinies lay outside this place.
I went up on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.
I said, ‘I’d have to be a fool to want to go into the Quag without you, wouldn’t I? And I am many things, but a fool is not one of them.’
‘No, Vega Jane, you’re no fool – so what now?’
‘A while back I picked a particular spot on the Wall. I think it’s our best shot to get through.’
‘Wug guards on the towers,’ he said anxiously.
‘I know that. But the distance in between them leaves a gap.’
He eyed my cloak. ‘Got your chain?’
I nodded. ‘I have everything I need.’ I added, ’Now that you’re here.’
When we reached my planned breach point, we hid behind a bush and looked up at the Wall. Two hundred feet on either side of this spot were lantern-lit watchtowers with Wugs carrying mortas stationed in them.
About twenty yards before the edge of the interior moat, I hooked up Harry Two with the harness and he dangled from my chest. With Destin across my shoulders providing me strength, he felt no heavier than a couple of pounds.
‘Wrap your arms around my shoulders, Delph, like we did before.’
He never got a chance to.
‘There they are!’ yelled a voice.
At the sound, my heart sank.
I looked to the right and saw a cluster of Wugs rushing towards us, mortas in hand. My heart sank even more when I saw who it was. To our left were a hobbling Ted Racksport, Cletus with bloodlust in his wicked eyes and Ran Digby with his ugly beard and filthy face.
More alarmingly, to our right were Jurik Krone and Duk Dodgson.
And leading all of them was Morrigone. ‘No, Vega!’ she screamed. ‘You will not leave Wormwood. You cannot.’
They were each cocking their mortas and starting to take aim.
I grabbed Delph by the hand and ran, Harry Two banging against my chest with each stride. We were within five yards of the moat when I left my feet, pulling Delph with me. It was an awkward balance and I veered to the side Delph was on before righting my path of ascendance.
I turned in time to see Morrigone aim her hands at us. The full Elemental was in my hand a moment later, and the deflected beam of red light she hurled at us struck part of the Wall and blasted a hole in it. We soared on.
‘Fire!’ shouted Krone.
The mortas roared. I felt something race past my head. I heard Delph cry out and he went limp. I gripped his arm tighter.
‘Delph!’ I shouted.
‘Just go, go,’ he said in a strained voice. ‘I’m OK.’
But I knew he was not OK. I banked to the left and then back to the right as the mortas fired again. Harry Two barked and then howled and then whimpered. Then he fell silent. I felt something wet against my face.
I shrank my Elemental, put it away and felt along Harry Two’s armour until I found the hole the morta had made. ‘Stop firing!’ I yelled.
I didn’t think they would, since they had already hit two of us. I just wanted an instant to do what I was about to. I banked hard right, flew around a tree, cupped Harry Two with my elbow, ripped off a large branch as I raced by, and when I came out of the turn, I was facing the Wugs.
> I threw the branch, scattering them, and it ploughed into the dirt right where they had been standing. I turned once more and aimed for the top timber of the Wall.
But I knew I didn’t have much time. Delph was moaning. And, even more frightening, Harry Two was hanging limp in his harness, not moving at all. I headed right for the Wall at speed, but I was having immense trouble gaining enough lift while carrying both Delph and Harry Two.
When I looked back I froze in fear.
Jurik Krone had his morta pointed directly at my head.
I could see Krone smile as he started to pull the trigger. All three of us would fall to our deaths.
And then something hit Krone so hard that he was knocked sideways for thirty feet. He tumbled and rolled and his morta flew from his hands.
I looked to see what had just saved my life.
Morrigone was lowering her hands, which were pointed at where Krone had been standing. She turned and looked at me, lifted her hands once more and I felt an invisible force, like an iron tether, grip my leg. When I glanced at her, Morrigone was moving her arms as though pulling a rope towards her. I felt my momentum stop and, with a jerk, I felt us being pulled downward.
This was it. This was the moment. If I could not do this, then everything would have been for nothing.
With a scream that seemed to go on for slivers, I summoned every ounce of strength I had. I felt energy surging through me. I kicked with my feet and I could feel the invisible tether loosen. I kicked harder and bent my shoulders forward as though I were labouring under an impossibly heavy weight. And then with one more long scream and my muscles so tense I thought I was paralysed, I broke free, soared over the top timbers – Delph’s boots actually scraped across them – and we were past the Wall.
As I looked back once more, I saw Morrigone on the ground, spent, dirty and defeated. Our gazes locked.
She raised one shaky hand towards me – not to try and stop me – but, I realized, simply to say farewell.
The next quarter-sliver we cleared the exterior moat below and passed into the Quag. We sailed over the first stand of trees and bushes. And then it became so dense I had to quickly drop to the ground.
It was good that I did. I had already snatched the Adder Stone out of my cloak pocket. Delph was slumped on the ground, holding his arm, and blood had saturated his shirt. I ran the Stone over it and the wound vanished and the pain on his face disappeared. He straightened and gasped, ‘Thanks, Vega Jane.’
Vega Jane and the Secrets of Sorcery Page 29
