The Keeper (5 page)

Thorne rubbed his beard while I stood there watching him. I could hear Delph breathing heavily next to me, no doubt wondering if another arrow would soon be finding its way into his body because of more insolent remarks from me.

However, my plan worked and we soon found ourselves back in the room where I had slept.

The ekos left the three of us there, but I noted that a pair of them was stationed right outside the opening to the room.

I sat on the wooden pallet with Delph next to me. Harry Two sidled up to me. As I petted him, Delph said in a low voice, “It’s not enough for us to escape this place, Vega Jane. In his blasted aero ship, Thorne can fly right over the Wall.”

“We’ll never let that happen, Delph. Never!”

“So you got a plan?” he asked eagerly.

“Um, it’s forming right now in my mind,” I said lamely. I lay down on the pallet. “I just need to sleep on it is all.”

“Sleep!” exclaimed Delph incredulously. “Are ya daft? How can you think of sleep with all this goin’ on and all? I’ll not sleep a wink. Nae a
wink
!” he added emphatically.

“Brilliant, then you can keep watch.”

I closed my eyes, and Harry Two settled down next to me.

As I expected, shortly thereafter, I heard Delph’s soft snores. He was stretched out on the hard floor next to the pallet, sound asleep. His features were peaceful. I doubted that would last, but I was glad he could have that feeling for now. I pulled the blanket off the pallet and covered him with it.

I took another look at Delph’s features and, despite our desperate circumstances, I felt myself go a bit willy. He was very tall, about six and a half feet, with huge shoulders, long dark hair, a wide forehead that crinkled when he was embarrassed, which was often, and eyes that were deep and brooding. He was so brave. And, well, just such a good Wug. He had never let me down. Never!

And then my heart felt like it had been split in half. Delph was expecting me to have a plan, to lead him and Harry Two out of here. And also to save Wormwood from the mad king. Yet I had nothing. I was not a leader. I was a loner. I had always been a loner, more comfortable up my tree back in Wormwood with only my thoughts as companions. But now … ? I felt crippled by the absolute certainty that I was going to let both Delph and Harry Two down.

I lay back on the pallet knowing full well that sleep would not be coming for me.

I had no plan. And without a plan, we had no chance to survive.

W
E WERE ROUSTED
from our beds by rough hands that pulled us awake.

It was a group of ekos, led by Luc.

“All right, all right,” muttered Delph as he stood, towering over them.

I stretched and felt kinks in my arms and shoulders pop. I had been dreaming something, but I couldn’t remember what. They pushed us out of the chamber and down a poorly lit passageway. I could hear the sounds of digging and I figured that Thorne’s minions labored all light and night. He struck me as
that
sort of king.

We filed into a dark chamber with a dirty, pebble-strewn floor. Here, we were forced at sword point to sit on our bums and wait.

Within a few slivers, Thorne walked in. He was dressed in trousers, boots and a long, loose shirt.

“Can we get something to eat?” I asked.

“After we’ve flown,” said Thorne. “It is early yet; your hunger will hold.”

I bristled at this, figuring that his belly was no doubt always kept full.

“Do you have the chain?” I asked, biting back my anger. I didn’t want Delph struck with another arrow.

He lifted his shirt and I saw it strapped around his waist. Seeing my chain on him made my face flush. He smiled at my obvious discomfort. “To the winner go all the spoils, Vega.”

“Right,” I said briskly. “Well, let’s crack on.”

We were joined by a dozen ekos. They all carried short-barreled mortas and pouches of powder and ammo. We made our way up a set of steps in the same chamber that we had fallen into the previous night.

With the cranking of gears, and ekos straining on ropes below, the ceiling canopy rose, revealing the blue sky. As we clambered onto the surface of the Quag, the dozen ekos raced past us and formed a perimeter, their weapons ready and their gazes scanning both sky and land. They looked like they had done this before. Then they removed their peaked caps and put them in their pockets.

Next, they sank down into the long grasses. Except for their eyes, they were completely invisible. Now I understood the grass on their arms and heads. They had adapted to their environment.

I shot a glance at Delph and saw that he had noted this too.

“Blimey,” he said. “Figger me dad would have liked to seen that.”

I nodded and glanced at Thorne. He was scanning the skies, and then his gaze swept the area we were in. He grunted at an armed ekos, who came forward and relinquished his weapon to Thorne. Thorne expertly examined the morta, raised it to his shoulder, swiveled around, aimed into the air and fired. A moment later a bird fell from the sky, mortally wounded.

Thorne handed the morta back to the ekos and gave me a derisive look. “Unlike you, Vega, I came into the Quag armed and ready. However, when I fell in the hole, I thought I was finished. But when I fired off the first morta round at the ekos, they scattered like dormice. After that, they came back to me on their knees and it’s been that way ever since. That was the easy part, actually. The hard part was teaching the blighters to do things, make things. I plan to return to Wormwood in triumph. That’s the only thing that’s kept me going all this time. Now let’s get on with my lesson, Vega. How do you want to proceed?”

“I have to go with you,” I said.

“How is that possible?”

I indicated the straps still hanging from my chest.

“Why can’t you just tell me what to do?” he countered.

“Fine,” I said. “You jump straight up or get a running start and leap into the air. You point your hands where you want to go. Shoulders and head up to gain height. Reverse that to go down. Right before you touch the ground, slip your feet downward so you can land on them. But if you botch any of that while you’re up there by yourself, we’ll need something to pick up the pieces of you with.”

Thorne, if it was possible, paled even more than he already was.

“Let’s try it your way first
,
” he said with as much dignity as he could muster.

I held out my hand. “Let me have the chain, then.”

“Why?” he asked.

“If I’m controlling the flying, I need to have the chain.”

He lifted his shirt, removed it, handed it over and then stood with his back to me while I strapped him into the harness.

He glanced back at me. “Just remember, Vega, that your friend and your canine will be surrounded by my ekos. If anything happens to me, they die.”

I turned away so he would not see the utter hatred on my face. “I understand.”

Destin, I could tell, had been ice cold while around Thorne’s waist. Now the links warmed to my touch. That gave me comfort.

“Because we’re tied together, we’re going to have to jump straight up. Just mimic my movements. Right, then, on the count of three. One … two … three!”

On the last number, I kicked off hard, and so did he, albeit a little late. We rose awkwardly into the air and then quickly gained both speed and height.

I slowly lifted my feet into the air, drawing his with mine. We leveled out and soared along. The wind pushed harshly into my eyes and they started to water. From my cloak pocket I pulled out the goggles that I had used at Stacks. Thorne had not taken these from me because there was nothing special about them. But with the goggles on, I could see clearly and not be troubled by the wind in my eyes. Thorne’s long hair blew into my face, but I tucked it under the harness’s leather straps and it stayed there.

Thorne said, “This is absolutely incredible.”

Though I despised him, I nearly laughed at the wonder in his voice and words. It was exactly how I had felt when I first took to the air.

I led him through the same drills that I had with Delph. We stayed up for a while, doing ascents and descents, changing direction, soaring around trees and over small hills. While Thorne gazed around spellbound, I was taking in every detail and comparing it to the map of the Quag I had in my head and to what I had seen from the cliff when we first entered the Quag.

And with what I was seeing, I thought I might be sick.

The dark, fog-shrouded river I had spotted to the west from the cliff had moved to the north. The forested mountain to the north that had looked blue had shifted to the east. And the rocky slope was no longer even there.

I said to Thorne, “What is that mountain in the distance?”

“I have no idea, having never been there.”

“I suppose it’s always been there, though,” I said. “I mean, whenever you’ve come up and looked at it, the thing’s been right where it’s always been?”

He turned his head and I could see a faint smile. “If you’re referring to how things in the Quag have a tendency to move themselves, then yes, I have noticed that.”

I exclaimed, “How can a mountain or river move? It’s impossible, isn’t it?”

“You will find that nothing in the Quag is impossible,” he sneered.

It seemed barmy to believe such a thing was true, but the facts were literally staring me in the face.

I was ripped from my musings by screams. I looked down. A very young ekos was being chased by two freks. The other ekos were firing their mortas, but the ekos and its pursuers were well out of the weapons’ range.

“Idiot creature,” snapped Thorne, who was looking down now. “Ah, well, let’s do some more maneuvering, Ve—”

However, I had already gone into a steep dive.

“What do you think you’re doing?” screamed Thorne.

The little ekos could never outrun the freks. They were gaining with every leap of their long limbs. In less than a sliver, he would be done for.

I aimed so that I would approach from the rear. I slipped Destin from around my waist as Thorne continued to struggle.

“Up, up!” he screamed in my ear.

“No!”

Down below I could see full-grown ekos racing along, their mortas aimed. And there was another ekos — a female, by her appearance — that was running faster than any of them, though she had no morta. I concluded that was the little ekos’s mother. She was grunting so loud I knew it was her way of screaming for her young. Whether beast or Wug, a mother would sacrifice anything for her young.

I swooped in behind the freks and used Destin to swat them on the sides of the head. They were instantly bowled over by the blows. I put on a burst of speed, dropped the hand in which I held Destin and soared over the little ekos.

“Grab it,” I called down to him. He looked up, the fear so painful to see in his small face.

“Grab it!” I screamed, indicating the chain.

I heard growls behind us. The freks had recovered. I looked back. They were gaining. I looked ahead. A huge stand of trees was just ahead. I had to pull up.

“Go! Go!” screamed Thorne, trying to snatch at the chain that I kept just out of reach. “Leave the damn creature. Leave it!”

“Take it,” I yelled at the little ekos, ignoring Thorne. Then, something occurred to me. I grunted. I didn’t know exactly what I was grunting, but I figured it was better than jabbering at the poor, terrified thing in Wugish.

He reached out his little hand and his fingers closed around Destin. I instantly pulled up and we did a sharp bank and headed in the other direction, missing the trees and leaving the freks far below.

When the freks turned to follow us, they were met head-on by a mass of morta-firing ekos. I heard shot after shot and then listened to the sounds of two large demonic beasts thudding to the dirt for the very last time.

Good riddance to the bloody things.

We were flying back when I heard a scream. I looked down. The little ekos had lost his grip on the chain. He was plummeting to his death. I went into a dive, but I knew I was too far away to catch him in time. The little ekos was going to die. My heart sank.

Like a blur, Delph came racing into view. He leapt, soaring several feet into the air, his long arms stretched to their limit.

“Yes!” I screamed in joy.

Delph caught the little ekos before he hit the ground. He rose and carried him over to his mother.

The mother took her young in her arms, first hugging and kissing and then scolding him in severe grunts. Then she went back to hugging and kissing him again.

“You imbecile!” roared Thorne at me as we touched down. “You could have gotten me killed. And for what? A bloody ekos? I should have you —”

He stopped because the ekos had surrounded us. Then Luc, accompanied by the mother, approached and knelt down. Each took one of my hands and kissed it.

Then they did the same to a mightily embarrassed Delph.

The mother ekos dragged her young one over and grunted at him until he did the same. When I looked down into his tiny, unwrinkled face, I noted that his eyes were as red as the far older ekos. I smiled, showing each of my teeth. And then my smile deepened when the little creature put his arms around me and squeezed tightly.

Delph was so tall that the little ekos just gripped his legs when he next went to hug him.

Thorne, who, I observed, had been studying all of this quite closely, said kindly, “All right now, it’s all over. Everything is fine. The little … lad is safe.” He made some quick grunts and then pointed at me, and then at himself.

It seemed to me that a few of the ekos looked at us somewhat doubtfully after this. When I asked Thorne what he had said, he assured me that he had given us full credit for the rescue.

Delph whispered, “And if you believe that, I’ll sell you a bloody jabbit for a pet.”

“Enough flying for this light, Vega,” said Thorne. “I have no doubt I will get the hang of it soon enough. And then I will have no more need of your assistance, just your chain. Or, rather,
my
chain.” He snatched Destin away from me and then pushed and prodded us along until we descended once more into the darkness beneath the Quag.

We were led back to my chamber, and guards were posted outside. However, a few slivers later, the mother ekos came in carrying a large wooden tray. Luc was behind her. She put the tray down on a stone slab and smiled at us.

On the tray was a pitcher of water and what looked like milk. Some goblets, breads, some meat and a few hard-boiled eggs and a fat tomato, all sliced. And two loaves of bread that oozed warmth. And there was a bowl of nuts and some hunks of different cheeses, which filled the chamber with their deliciously pungent smell.

I smiled and tried to grunt in return, which made her laugh. She reached her grassy arms around me and gave me a hug. I hugged her back. Luc came over and embraced me too. Then the couple, tears in their reddened eyes, departed.

“Blimey,” said Delph as he sat down and started digging into the meal. “I think we made some friends this light.”

I knelt next to him and poured us out goblets of milk. It was cold and tasted fresh. We were so hungry that we didn’t speak — we just chewed, drank and swallowed. I had given Harry Two his share, which he was happily devouring on the stone floor. I finished my meal and sat there idly rubbing my canine’s ears.

Delph finally pushed away from the tray after finishing a long drink of milk, and looked at me. “So what be in your head, Vega Jane?”

I took a deep breath and then just let it out. “What be in my head is that we have to get out of here before old King Thorne runs out of use for us. But first we need to find out more of his plan to attack Wormwood. And I still want to know how he got down that cliff.”