But I wasn’t listening to him. I had unhooked Harry Two from his harness. He lay limply on the ground. He was barely breathing. His eyes were closed.
‘No,’ I whimpered. ‘Please, no!’
I pulled off the breastplate and rubbed the Adder Stone over the wound on his side where the morta metal had struck him. He was so badly hurt I thought that touching the Stone to his body would make the wound heal faster. I kept rubbing, pressing the Stone into his fur and passing it over the wound. Still nothing. The tears streamed down my face as Delph knelt next to me.
‘Vega Jane.’ He put a hand on my shoulder, trying to draw me away. ‘Vega Jane, leave him be now. He’s gone.’
‘Shove off!’ I screamed and pushed him so hard he flew backwards and sprawled in the dirt.
I looked down at Harry Two and thought every good thought I could think of.
‘Please, please,’ I moaned. ‘Please don’t leave me again.’ In my despair, I was merging the two canines in my mind. My vision was blurred by my tears.
Harry Two didn’t move. His breathing was slowing down, and I could barely see his chest rise.
I couldn’t believe this. I had lost my Harry Two. I turned to see Delph picking himself back up. That’s when Harry Two touched my hand with his wet nose. His eyes were now open, and he was breathing normally. He rose on his paws and shook all over, as though throwing off his near death good and proper. I think he even smiled at me. I was so happy I shouted for joy and hugged him tightly.
In return he licked my face and barked.
Delph knelt next to us. ‘Thank the Steeples,’ he said, scratching Harry Two’s snout.
I smiled and then I stopped smiling. I was staring at Delph’s hand.
Delph’s ink-stamped hand from all those sessions at the Mill.
That’s when I heard the growls on either side of us.
I slowly turned.
There was a garm to the right and an enormous and equally deadly frek on our left.
I didn’t wait an instant longer. I drew the Elemental and thought it to full size. I threw it even as the frek leaped at Delph. It struck the beast dead centre of the chest and the frek disintegrated.
But the garm had lunged forward now, its own blood pouring down its chest and its odious smell searing my lungs. And bursting from its powerful jaw was that awful sound it makes when on the hunt. I knew the next thing leaping from its jaws would be a chest full of fire that would cremate us.
I snatched the jug of water from my tuck and hurled it at the creature. It struck it full in the snout, the jug cracked open and the water splashed in the garm’s face.
It only gave me a moment, but a moment was all I needed. As soon as the Elemental touched my hand on its return from destroying the frek, I flung it onwards.
The Elemental passed right through the garm’s mouth and burst out its backside. The creature turned a burning orange and flamed up, as though all the fire on its inside couldn’t reach the outside. A moment later, it exploded in a cloud of black smoke. When the smoke cleared, the garm was no more.
We had no time to celebrate our victory. I grabbed Delph’s inked hand and snagged the bottle and cloth Dis Fidus had given me from my cloak pocket.
‘What’s that?’ he asked.
‘Just shut up and know this is going to hurt like the blazes.’
I poured the liquid on the cloth and then pressed it on his hand.
Delph clenched his teeth and to his credit didn’t utter a sound though his body shook like he was having the heaves after eating bad meat.
When the liquid had done its job, the back of his hand was as pink and scarred as mine.
‘Is this a good thing?’ he asked, wincing and shaking his hand.
‘It’ll make it harder for those beasts to track us.’
‘Then it’s a good thing,’ he said with conviction.
We grabbed our tucks where they had fallen.
‘We need to keep moving, Delph.’
I went first, with the fully formed Elemental ready in my hand, Delph second and Harry Two covering our rear flank.
We cleared the trees and thick vegetation, and then the most astounding thing happened. The Quag opened up to a flat expanse of green fields with small stands of towering trees that allowed us to see many miles in the distance. Far off to the west was a wide fog-shrouded river full of black water. To the east was a rocky slope that led up to somewhere. Far ahead of us to the north was a towering forested mountain that in the uneasy darkness looked not green, but blue.
There was only one problem. Before we could reach the flat expanse where we could see danger coming at us from a long way away, we had to get past the next obstacle. We were right on the edge of a cliff. I looked down. I figured the drop to be nearly a full mile. I looked at Delph and he looked back at me.
‘Are you ready?’ I asked.
He gripped my hand and nodded.
I lifted Harry Two into his harness and gave his head a pat.
We heard the sounds behind us and they were coming fast. From the quantity of noise, I figured three or four garms and what sounded like a whole herd of freks. They had no doubt been alerted to our presence by the previous battle.
They burst from the dense forest, which lay behind us. I looked back. I had been wrong. It wasn’t four garms; it was ten. And they weren’t freks. They were amarocs. And if anything, they were even more terrifying than the freks.
I turned and looked ahead to the distant blue mountain that somehow I knew was where we needed to go. Just beyond that, in the sky, were the stars, the lost stars as I thought of them now. Lost, like we were. Would they ever find their way? Would we? Perhaps not. Perhaps we would simply flame out. But at least we would have tried.
I looked once more at Delph, attempted a smile that died before it reached my face, and then we jumped. The three of us seemed suspended in the air for what seemed a long time as the wicked beasts sped towards us.
And then we soared downward, now fully embraced by the Quag.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Baldacci is one of the world’s bestselling and favourite thriller writers. With more than 150 million copies in print, his books are published in more than eighty territories and forty-five languages, and have been adapted for both feature-film and television. Together with his wife, Michelle, David established the Wish You Well Foundation® to promote family literacy. David and his family live in Virginia, USA.
VEGA JANE MAY HAVE ESCAPED FROM WORMWOOD AND MADE IT INTO THE QUAG, BUT HER JOURNEY TO DISCOVER THE TRUTH HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN . . .
FOLLOW VEGA, DELPH AND HARRY TWO AS THEIR EPIC ADVENTURE CONTINUES IN
VEGA JANE AND THE MAZE OF MONSTERS
Coming soon
Turn the page to read an extract.
THE KINGDOM OF CATAPHILE
A fiendish inficio was behind us. It was a large creature with two massive legs, a set of powerful webbed wings and a long scaly torso out of which grew a serpent-like neck capped by a small head, which was fronted by blazing venomous eyes, and a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. Even more terrifying was the deadly gas it exhaled, instantly killing any who breathed it. I had been right in not taking to the air. We would already be dead.
Delph looked back as we sprinted along.
‘It’s comin’ lower. Comin’ to kill us!’ he yelled. ‘Run!’
I needed to do something. Anything. Why was my brain so muddled?
‘Vega Jane!’ screamed Delph again.
Without really thinking, I reached into my cloak pocket, pulled on my glove, and closed my fingers around the Elemental. I needed to do something. I refused to simply . . . die.
As I looked back, the inficio was closing fast, its clawed feet nearly on the ground. I saw its mighty chest fill with air and then it expelled a great cloud of blue smoke that held death at its centre.
Still running, I turned and prepared to hurl the Elemental, guiding it with my thoughts. When I let the weapon fly, it zipped past the ou
ter edge of the smoke, creating a wake that pushed the cloud of poison back towards the creature. The inficio instantly soared upwards. Apparently, inhaling the smoke could harm it too.
The Elemental flew back to me. Just as I grasped it, the ground under our feet gave way and Delph, Harry Two and I plummeted about fifty feet. Whatever we hit was softer than we had expected. Still, I gasped and I heard Delph do the same. Harry Two yipped once, but that was all.
I rolled on to my back and saw the dark sky disappearing behind the cover of large branches and rolls of matted grass, which were being hoisted into place by what looked to be a series of pulleys and ropes. But that could hardly keep the inficio at bay. I expected it to burst through this flimsy cover and destroy us.
But it did not come. Instead, a heavy net fell over us and we became tangled in ropes so thoroughly that I could barely move. I looked to the side and saw that Delph and Harry Two were in the same predicament. As we lay there struggling, I heard something approaching. Delph obviously did too, because he grew quiet. I willed the Elemental to shrink and slipped it into my pocket, then took off the glove and placed it in my other pocket.
I reached out as far as I could and took Delph by the hand. In a low tremulous voice, I said, ‘Be ready for anything, Delph.’
He nodded.
Our eyes locked for a moment. I think we realized that this might be it for us – two simple Wugs from Wormwood attempting to cross the insanely treacherous Quag. It seemed so absurd right now. We never stood a chance.
‘I’m so sorry, D-Delph,’ I said, my voice breaking as I finished.
Surprisingly, he smiled and, rubbing my hand gently, he said, ‘’Tis all right, Vega Jane. At least . . . well, at least we’re together, eh?’
I nodded and felt a smile creep to my face. ‘Yes,’ I said. I looked beyond his shoulder and saw lit torches set into holders on the rock walls. They gave the place a shadowy, misty light that added to my sense of fear and foreboding. What would be coming for us now?
I looked past Delph and stiffened.
There were dozens of pairs of eyes looking back at me from barely ten feet away. As my vision adjusted to the gloom, I could see that they were smallish creatures with fierce, grimy faces and strong, toughened bodies. But their backs were bent and their fingers dirty and gnarled, perhaps from heavy toil.
As they drew closer, I was shocked to see that they had mats of grass growing on their exposed arms and necks and on their faces.
I heard Delph quietly mutter, ‘What the . . . ?’
The column of little creatures transformed into a circle and they surrounded us. I heard one of them call out in a series of grunts. When the net started to lift, I realized that he had been giving the instruction to do so.
The weight of the ropes lessened and we all three struggled to rise.
Quick as a flash, the creatures whipped out weapons and held them at the ready: small swords, lances, pickaxes and long, lethal-looking knives. And about a dozen of the creatures held small bows with sharpened arrows tucked on to strings ready to fire.
We could now see our captors quite clearly. Not only was grass growing on their bodies and faces, but their hair was grass as well.
Outnumbered as we were, I thought a friendly if direct approach best. I said, ‘Hello. I’m Vega. And this is Delph and Harry Two. Who are you?’
They all stared blankly back at me. Their faces were small and wrinkly, but their eyes bulged and were quite painfully red. I could see now that they were dressed in a hodgepodge of dirty clothing: trousers held up by stout rope, old shirts, frayed kerchiefs, stained vests, old coats and peaked hats. Some wore dented metal breastplates. Others had metal coverings held on with leather straps over their thighs. One bloke sported a cap made of rusty iron.
We drew back because the little creatures were moving forward, tightening the circle they had formed around us. They were jabbering and grunting, and a pair of them poked us with their little blades.
‘Oi!’ I cried out. ‘You can keep those things to yourselves.’
The creatures drew even closer.
I took a sudden step forward. This obviously surprised them, and as a group they jumped back. The one who had spoken before grunted again to his fellows. He was taller than the others and had an air of authority. I turned my attention to him and said, ‘Can you speak my language? Can you speak Wugish?’
And I received another shock. One so great I thought my heart had stopped.
Slowly walking towards us was a Wugmort from Wormwood – or at least he looked like one.
‘Cor blimey,’ muttered Delph, who had obviously also seen him.
The male stopped right outside the circle of creatures, who had respectfully parted to allow him to pass.
I said, ‘Are you a Wug?’
The male stopped barely five feet from me. He was tall and wore a green cloak. I could see pointed shoes poking out from under the hem. He was elderly; his hair was white, as was his beard. His face was lined and remarkably pale; in fact, it competed with his hair for which was whiter. Then it occurred to me that if he lived down here, the burn of the sun would never touch him.
‘Not any more,’ he answered in a high-pitched voice. ‘I left long ago.’ He looked at the creature that had grunted before, and started speaking to him in a fast, guttural language that was impossible to follow.
Again, my mind was seized with dire thoughts. Back in Wormwood we had been told of fiendish Outlier creatures that supposedly lived in the Quag. We had been warned they wanted to invade Wormwood and kill us all. And it had terrified all Wugmorts because we had heard these creatures could look just like us and could even inhabit our minds and make us do their bidding. Was this bloke inhabited by the Outliers? Or was he an Outlier himself?
He pointed to his right and said, ‘This way, if you please.’
My heart in my throat, we headed in that direction and the creatures followed.
We passed from the large, tall cave to a small tunnel, which was nevertheless well-lit with torches on the wall.
When we entered a high, broad room of stone, the male stopped so abruptly I almost walked into him. He motioned Delph and me past him and into the cavernous room. Harry Two obediently followed.
When I looked around, the breath seized in my lungs.
There were little niches in all the walls that rose up as high as I could see. And in each of those niches was a —
Skull.
It was as if hundreds of sightless eyes were staring at us.
I looked over at Delph, who was also gazing upwards. Poor Harry Two started to whine. The entire space reeked of death.
The male turned to look at me. ‘Do you know what they are?’
I nodded, my stomach churning. Had he brought us here because our bones would soon be joining these? ‘Wug skulls,’ I said fearfully.
‘Look more closely,’ he said with a sweep of his hand.
I stared more fixedly at the skull closest to me and then at numerous others. I looked back at the male.
‘These aren’t Wugs.’
He said, ‘They are creatures of the Quag that seek to harm us.’
I crept closer to another skull on a lower niche. It was undoubtedly from a frek. I recognized the jawbone and the long fangs. Next to it was an amaroc. I had seen a skull of one of those at Delph’s place in Wormwood.
I looked back at the male. ‘Did you kill them all?’
He chortled. ‘Not personally, no.’
‘How, then?’ I asked.
The male looked me up and down. ‘Who exactly are you?’
‘My name is Vega. This is Delph. The canine is Harry Two. We’re from Wormwood.’ He said nothing to this. ‘Have you been here long?’ I asked.
‘Longer than your tally of sessions.’
‘You have retained your Wug speech nicely,’ I observed.
‘Indeed,’ he said, staring at me.
‘What do you call this place?’ I asked.
He looked a
round. ‘The Kingdom of Cataphile, of course.’
Delph said, ‘What’s a c-cat-cata-whatsis? And who’s the king?’
‘A cataphile is a collector and keeper of bones. And as you can see, we fit that criterion rather well. As for the king, here I am. At your service.’
He gave us a sweeping bow.
‘You’re the king?’ I asked incredulously.
‘King Thorne,’ he answered with a dignified air.
I said, ‘How do you go from being a Wugmort to being a king here?’
He spread his hands. ‘Well, I largely fell in a hole, as did you.’ His face took on a dreamy expression. ‘There is much to be said for falling in a hole. It opens up a world of possibilities.’
First published as The Finisher in the US 2014 by Scholastic Press
First published as The Finisher in the UK 2014 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published as Vega Jane and the Secrets of Sorcery
by Macmillan Children’s Books 2021
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5290-3792-0
Text copyright © Columbus Rose, Ltd 2014 and 2021
Illustrations copyright © Tomislav Tomić 2021
Cover illustration by Steve Stone
Text illustrations by Tomislav Tomić
The right of David Baldacci and Tomislav Tomic to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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