Vega Jane and the Rebels’ Revolt

by David Baldacci

  We began to head back the way we had come until we could see the train once more.

  ‘Shhh,’ said Petra.

  A group of cloaked figures with wands was approaching. Quickly, I made us invisible again and we darted into the shadows.

  I peered out at the figures. They had to be Maladons. They were dressed like the blokes at Saint Necro’s.

  In as low a voice as I could manage, I said, ‘They know someone who shouldn’t be is down here.’

  The Maladons were walking side by side, spanning the entire passage and waving their wands in front of them. Light was coming out of the end of each.

  I ducked back down and eyed the open train carriage door directly behind us. It was our only possible escape. ‘This way, quick!’ I hissed.

  We moved backwards and on to the train carriage and leaped inside. Thankfully, it was empty.

  I risked a quick look out the window and saw the Maladons heading our way.

  ‘It’s like they know where we are,’ I hissed.

  We hurried to the rear of the train and shrank back against the wall.

  The Maladons entered the train and looked around. They walked slowly up the carriage, then turned to go. Only one hesitated. To my surprise, he took a long sniff, breathing in the air. He frowned.

  Invisibility did not shield our smell. Perhaps the accursed bloke was sniffing out my canine.

  I raised my wand and whispered, ‘Confusio.’

  The spell hit him and he blinked. He turned and followed his mates off the train.

  With a lurch and a long rasping noise, the train pulled out of the station.

  I let out a long breath of relief. Then I thought of those people in that room having their minds emptied and filled up with nothing but tosh.

  It was like my life in Wormwood – filled only with lies.

  ‘Vega Jane,’ said Delph, ‘who do you suppose is driving this here train?’

  ‘Dunno, do I?’

  ‘And where do you suppose we’re heading?’ asked Petra.

  ‘Same answer,’ I said irritably.

  5

  MR ENDEMEN

  When we were clear of the station, the train gathered speed and we were soon roaring through the dark countryside.

  Covered by the invisibility shield, we searched the rest of the train, but every carriage was empty. We were the only ones on the entire train. Where were all the other passengers?

  One of the carriages was different from the others. There were no windows, and, ominously, there were chains attached to each seat.

  We went back to our carriage and settled in our seats, looking at each other anxiously. Delph said, ‘I wonder who they put in chains? The ones they were messing with?’

  I shook my head. ‘Not them. I think they stay in True. You don’t need to chain people who can’t think for themselves.’

  Petra said, ‘But there’s no one on the train.’

  Delph looked up ahead and said, ‘Some bloke’s got to be steering this thing, don’t he?’

  I took out my wand, pointed it towards the front of the train and said, ‘Crystilado magnifica.’

  There were two males sitting in comfortable seats, chatting. They were wearing blue uniforms with caps, like the blokes I had seen directing the motors on the cobbles. In front of them, set into a large wooden board, was a vast array of shiny buttons and levers. Facing them was a large window showing what was in front of the train as it sped along. One of them lit a pipe.

  I relinquished the magnification spell.

  Delph seemed relieved. ‘Well, at least someone is steering.’

  ‘I wonder where we’re going, though?’ said Petra. ‘Are they picking up more folks?’

  ‘To bring them back here in the middle of the night and do things to their minds?’ added Delph nervously.

  I looked out the window and wondered how long till our destination, and what we would do when we got there. I touched my temple. The effects of whatever was happening in that room back in the bowels of the train station were gone, for the most part. But something lingered in my mind. Something so pleasing and wonderful and perfect, that it instinctively horrified me more than anything I had seen or fought in the Quag.

  I looked back from where we had just come.

  A place called True.

  Ironic, I thought, since I now doubted there was even a smidgen of truth in the whole place. Simply more lies, like back in Wormwood.

  Lies.

  Ironic too that my kind – who were supposed to be the good ones – and the evil Maladons used similar methods to keep people in line.

  I rubbed my temple again. Images hovered at the edges of my mind, images associated with that wonderful, blurry feeling. I wanted to try and remember more.

  A hand was reaching down from what looked to be the sky. In it was something truly bedazzling. I tried to focus. In the palm of the hand was . . . me! I was smiling and felt as light as air. I had never felt so perfect and happy and beautiful. The possibilities were truly limitless. I could accomplish anything. And what I wanted to accomplish was . . .

  Here the images darkened a bit, but that didn’t detract from my happiness in the slightest. I had a very brief vision of myself baking bread. Then I was on my hands and knees washing the cobbles. The next instant I was sweeping the floor. I felt happy. Whatever my desires turned out to be, I would be perfectly satisfied.

  I opened my eyes. They weren’t my desires.

  They were the desires that someone else was telling me were my own.

  What was being taken from those people was simply their lives. And the only thing the poor blokes had to do was keep on living the life that someone else had chosen for them.

  The train roared on.

  Delph took the first watch.

  For once I slept soundly. The gentle swaying of the train carriage was hypnotic. I awoke refreshed, my mind once more eager to take on what lay ahead of us.

  As Delph sat back in his seat and dozed off, I glanced out the window and noted the passing countryside. I glimpsed clusters of small homes, cows and sheep dozing or grazing, the bulge of a knoll, a stand of trees, open fields.

  I looked down at Harry Two. He had never fallen asleep. Now his hackles were up and his fangs were bared.

  ‘Delph, Petra!’ I exclaimed.

  They immediately awoke.

  ‘What is it?’ whispered Delph nervously.

  ‘The train is slowing down.’

  It was indeed now rapidly decreasing its speed.

  I looked out the window, but there was only darkened countryside. There couldn’t be a station hereabouts, could there?

  Then I froze.

  Things were whirling across the sky, so fast I could barely see them. They were like shooting stars, only far closer to the ground. I knew what they were.

  They were coming for us.

  ‘Get up,’ I said. ‘We have to get out of here.’

  The flying shapes were now paralleling the path of the train. One pulled up close to our window.

  It was a male dressed in a suit and a waistcoat. A brown bowler hat, like the one Duf Delphia used to wear, somehow managed to remain on his head despite the speed at which he was travelling.

  A wand was clutched in his hand.

  He peered inside the train carriage, his gaze sweeping all points of it. They had realized that we had somehow got on to the empty train. And they had caught up with us.

  ‘Vega,’ said Petra. ‘Look!’

  On the other side of the train were two more figures. They had their wands out too.

  I grabbed the others and pushed them flat to the floor. A moment later the windows on the train exploded inward, showering us with glass, as spell after spell blasted across the width of the carriage.

  We crawled on our bellies towards the rear of the carriage. Shattered glass cut my face. I heard Delph moan as a piece of wooden seat smacked him in the leg.

  I thought about putting up a shield spell, but I knew that would cer
tainly give us away as things magically rebounded off it.

  A man shot through the open window and landed on the floor. He held his wand up, moving it back and forth, as though he was using it to ferret us out. I pointed my wand directly at his chest, backing the others away into the small vestibule.

  Suddenly the carriage door was ripped open and another man hovered there. He was, like his companion, dressed neatly in a suit and bowler hat. He alighted on the floor.

  Petra had her wand out and it was pointed at his chest. I held up a finger, signalling her to wait.

  Just then, the train slammed to a halt, throwing us against the inside of the vestibule.

  We picked ourselves up and jumped from the train, hitting the ground and rolling for a few feet. Fortunately our magical tether held. We peered through the long grass.

  The train sat motionless while blurred figures soared around it. All the windows in all of the carriages had been blown out in the search for us.

  The two blokes in the blue uniforms who had been steering the train were hauled out and dragged in front of the carriage by two men in suits and hats.

  The taller of the two twirled his wand in his hand as he surveyed the drivers, who looked terrified. This was the bloke I had seen flying next to the carriage. When he took off his bowler hat I could see that he had straight dark hair, combed neatly around his head. His nose was long with not an imperfection on it. His mouth was but a slash of lips, cruel and remorseless. His eyes were so dark it was like looking at twin morta barrels.

  He ran a hand through his hair and replaced his hat. When he spoke, his voice was calm. ‘You saw no one?’

  ‘No one, Mr Endemen, sir,’ said one of the train drivers, his voice quivering.

  Endemen replied, ‘Yet they were seen.’

  What did he mean – that we were seen? We were invisible.

  Endemen continued smoothly. ‘A tall young man with long dark hair, a pretty young woman with long blonde hair and a dog with one ear partially missing.’

  My heart sank.

  ‘And there was another. A girl. Even taller than the blonde. Darker hair. She’s gangly and dirty.’

  My knees went weak. How had anyone seen me?

  ‘We . . . we saw no one, sir,’ stammered the same man.

  Endemen scrutinized him. ‘And, as per your duties, you did a thorough search of the train before you left the station? We’ve had stowaways before, as you well know.’

  The men in uniform were silent. Though I couldn’t see their faces fully, I could only imagine the terror that was going through them.

  Endemen snapped his fingers.

  Instantly, six more blokes wearing suits and bowler hats appeared out of thin air and encircled the pair, wands out.

  ‘W-we did search,’ said one of the men. ‘Only we hadn’t any reason to believe that—’

  The driver would never finish what he was saying.

  ‘Rigamorte,’ said Endemen. The blast of black light hit the man full in the chest. He toppled forward and fell still.

  I drew in a quick breath of air.

  His companion dropped to his knees, his hands clasped together.

  ‘Please, sir, Mr Endemen, we meant no harm. We was only—’

  ‘Rigamorte.’

  A moment later he joined his colleague on the ground.

  Endemen looked down at the pair as though they were no more than bothersome insects.

  He slid his wand back into his inner coat pocket and looked around. We ducked down into the grass.

  ‘Dispose of these, Creel,’ Endemen said to the shorter man standing next to him. ‘Provide the standard evil Campions explanation to their families, appropriate compensation for their loss, any help we can convey, et cetera.’

  ‘Yes, Mr Endemen.’

  I felt my head whirling. The evil Campions?

  Creel pointed his wand downward at the bodies and mumbled something I didn’t catch. The two corpses were instantly bound in heavy blankets, with rope cinched tightly around them. Creel rose into the air and used his wand to direct the covered bodies to do the same. Then he was off in a flash of light.

  Endemen looked at the others, who were all dressed as he was: pinstriped suit, waistcoat, tie, brown bowler hat, shiny shoes. And deadly wands.

  He said, ‘We will spread out and search this area, from the air to the ground. Keep the spell work to a minimum. Signal if you see anything. Wait for me before you kill. I want to ask some questions. Right, let’s get to it.’

  We silently lifted into the air and flew away as fast as I could manage. Petra was on the end, her wand pointed behind her at the group of evil sorcerers, who could fly fast and kill even faster. I knew if they spotted us, the fight would be a short one. We were no match at all for them.

  The image of the two frightened men tumbling to the dirt was burned into my mind. I doubted I would ever forget it.

  Then, just as the train faded from view, my wand swung downwards. And so did we.

  Try as I might, there was nothing I could do.

  We were plummeting from the sky.

  6

  A GUIDING WAND

  Just as it looked like we would slam into the ground, my wand pointed slightly upward and we landed hard, but safely. I looked up in time to see a half dozen forms heading our way. It was Endemen and his cohorts.

  My wand jerked towards the left and I felt myself being pulled to my feet by the power within it.

  With my wand pointing the way, we raced towards the thick woods.

  We reached the treeline and plunged into the welcome cover of the trunks and canopies. We ran until we could run no more. Then we stood, bent over, gasping for air. Even Harry Two was panting heavily.

  Slowly, we all straightened.

  I looked at Delph. He stared back at me. His features wore the same expression as mine:

  Terror.

  Petra broke the silence and said breathlessly, ‘Well, I think we truly found the Maladons.’

  ‘What now, Vega Jane?’ said Delph.

  I made us visible and said, ‘We need to find a place to hide out.’

  Just then, my wand jerked so violently to the left that I was nearly pulled off my feet. I had no way to stop it.

  I was yanked through more thick forest, over a knoll, down to a narrow stream and, once I forded it, the wand pulled me back into the thicket of trees.

  The others were running behind me, doing their best to keep up while my wand forced me along.

  I raced through still more trees, dodging thick trunks and bending low to avoid branches and tearing through bushes, which left me scratched and bloody. But still my wand pulled me on. I was exhausted and growing more and more scared with each lunge of my legs and heave of my chest.

  And then I cleared one last stand of trees and stopped dead.

  Because my wand was no longer pulling me along.

  It was simply pointing straight ahead.

  I was standing in front of an old, enormous rambling house. It was a higgledy-piggledy mix of lichen-coated stone, aged brick and blackened wood. Its roof was made of mossy slate shingles of the kind that I had seen back in Wormwood. The windows were old and mullioned and the front door was stout oak with rusted iron bands across it. Half a dozen chimneys sprouted from its roof, but not a single one belched smoke. The place looked abandoned. The grounds around it were all grown over, neglected and full of weeds. A meandering stone path led from the edge of the grounds up to the front door.

  With a rush, Delph, Petra and Harry Two hurtled into the clearing beside me.

  ‘What the Hel, Vega Jane,’ gasped Delph.

  Petra looked at me suspiciously. ‘What was all that about? Taking off like that without a word.’

  Harry Two was staring at the house I’d just discovered. It seemed like his eyes were actually sparkling at the sight of it.

  ‘It was my wand. It . . . it had a mind of its own.’ I pointed at the house. ‘It was leading me here.’

  Delph straig
htened, saw the place and gaped.

  Petra gasped. ‘What is that thing?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘But I reckon we should go see what’s inside. It’s clearly been abandoned.’

  ‘But what if those blokes happen upon it?’ pointed out Petra. ‘It’s enormous. You can’t exactly miss it.’

  She had a point there.

  The next moment though, we heard voices and footsteps.

  ‘Quick,’ I snapped. I raced up the meandering stone path and to the front door.

  The others sprinted behind me.

  I saw with a quick glance that there was a brass plate bolted to the wall next to the door. On the plate was a word.

  EMPYREAN.

  ‘Vega Jane,’ said Delph. ‘Let’s become invisible again before we go in.’

  ‘Good idea.’ I turned the ring round and attached the magical tethers. We vanished from sight.

  The portal opened at my push and I breathed a sigh of relief. We all slipped through the door and I closed it quietly behind us.

  We crept over to one of the windows and peered out.

  Petra saw them first.

  ‘There,’ she said in a low voice.

  From the left a man emerged from the woods. I caught a breath, for it was Endemen.

  He was followed by two of his men. They all three had their wands out. Dressed in their immaculate suits with their bowler hats perched on their heads, they looked completely out of place in the woods.

  They were hunting us.

  And they would kill us if they found us.

  Although we were invisible, we ducked down lower in the window as Endemen’s gaze passed over us.

  Endemen and his men were now within ten feet of the house.

  I turned to Petra. ‘If you have to, use the Impacto spell on the other two. But leave Endemen to me.’

  She nodded, her eyes full of fear.

  I had tried to sound confident, but I wasn’t. I had the sinking feeling that whatever spell I used against him, Endemen would easily parry it before finishing me and then the others off.

  The men started towards the house. Delph took Lackland’s old, rusted sword out of his tuck and was holding it ready.

  Even as I found his gaze, I knew what he was thinking.