The Keeper (7 page)

F
OR THE NEXT
five lights, I carried Thorne in the harness and taught him the intricacies of flying. And each night, we were visited by Luc, sometimes accompanied by Cere. They had continued to provide us with information about Thorne.

Delph and I were doing our best to come up with a plan. We had parts of it in good shape, but how could we ensure that once we left, Thorne would be king no longer?

And I did have one unanswered question that was driving me mad.

Why did Thorne want to go to war with his own kind? What would make a Wug hate other Wugs so much? I talked to Delph about this one night.

“Well,” he said. “Seems to me that to answer that question, we need to know why the bloke came into the Quag in the first place. Pretty desperate thing to do. And he told us that he was forced to leave.”

“That’s right. Although I think he
had
to flee. If he had done something bad they would have put him in Valhall, not made him go into the Quag.”

“Whatever he did musta been pretty bad, then, to make him choose the Quag. They were probably going to lop off his head if he stayed in Wormwood.”

I shivered a bit. That had almost happened to me.

“So maybe one ties into the other?” I said. “He’s getting back at them for making him leave?”

“Way I see it, yeah.”

An idea came to me. I quickly told Delph about it.

He said thoughtfully, “It may work, but we need to know more.”

“We know who to ask, then,” I replied.

The next night, I queried Luc if he knew why Thorne had come into the Quag.

Luc said, “Well, when he’s been far into the bottles of mead some nights, I’ve heard him say things. Spouting off names and such.”

“What names?” I asked anxiously.

Luc rubbed his cheek, staring off. “Me— Let me think now. Mer. No, Mur–Murgatroyd. Yes, that was it. Murgatroyd.”

The name meant nothing to me. I looked at Delph, who shook his head.

“Anything else?”

“He would go on about Wugs not seeing him for the great leader he was. Oh, he did mention another name, ’cept you already know it.”

“What?” I asked.

“Virgil.”

“They were friends, I guess.”

“In his mead cups, he didn’t sound none too friendly toward him.”

I puzzled over this for a bit. “Luc, is there any way I can get into Thorne’s sleeping chamber?”

“Don’t see how. Keeps it locked when he’s out of it and locked when he’s in it. Why?”

Delph said, “We think the reason he came into the Quag might be in there.”

“Aye, if he wanted to keep it secret, that would be the place, for no one goes in there but him.”

“Can you at least show us where he sleeps, Luc?” I asked.

We passed through quite a few corridors until I was hopelessly lost, but I knew Delph probably wasn’t. I looked back at him to confirm that he could find this place again if need be. He gave a quick nod.

Luc stopped at the beginning of a passage and pointed down the corridor of stone. It was well lighted and thus I could easily see the massive door at the end, set directly into the rock wall. There were no guards posted outside the door, yet it looked impenetrable.

On the return journey, I spoke to Luc in a low voice. At first he was not receptive to my ideas, but I could sense that the courage and spirit Thorne had taken from him was slowly returning to the head ekos.

As soon as we got back to our little chamber, Luc left us.

“We
have
to get into Thorne’s sleeping chamber,” I said. As I said it, I felt the collywobbles in my stomach, like a million moths were flying around in there.

Delph nodded. “Thorne’s become quite a dab hand at flying. Which means he won’t need us much longer, will he? Then we’ll be bones on a wall.”

“Luc will help, but I need a way to get into his room while Thorne isn’t there.”

“Then what you need is to get him outta his room.”

I frowned. “Brilliant, Delph. I wish I would have thought of that. Well done,” I added sarcastically.

“No, I mean you need a distraction.”

“What sort?” I asked curiously.

“He’s afraid of grubbs, right?”

“Well, yeah, they want to kill him. So?”

“So we start with that and build our plan.”

“You got some grubbs that’ll do your bidding?” I asked skeptically.

My cloak was hanging on a peg on the wall. He reached in one of its pockets, put on my glove, pulled out the Elemental and willed it to full size.

“The Elemental?” I said, completely puzzled.

He nodded. “With this I get to pretend I’m something that I’m not.”

I smiled as I finally understood what he meant. “A grubb,” I said.

T
HIRTY SLIVERS LATER
,
Delph and I peered around the corner of the passageway leading to Thorne’s chamber. Delph was holding the Elemental.

“Luc is all ready to go,” I said.

Delph nodded, exhaled a long breath and said, “You best be getting on, then.”

I hurried down the passageway and secreted myself in a niche that would keep me hidden from view. I leaned out, looked back down the passage at Delph and nodded. Then I squeezed myself back into the niche.

I saw the Elemental blast past me, its turbulent wake snuffing out the torches on the wall as it sailed by. Then it struck the door a terrific blow, knocking it down. Moments later, in the near darkness now, I saw it zoom back toward Delph.

There were screams and shouts and I knew Luc had done his task as well. Ekos up and down passages were crying out that the grubbs were attacking.

The next sliver, I heard him.

It was Thorne shouting orders, and I shrunk back as far as I could in the niche when he raced past me in the now darkened passage, a short-barreled morta in one hand and a flickering candle in the other. He was in his sleeping clothes, his hair wild and flying around his face. He had Destin around his waist.

As soon as he was well past me, I turned and ran toward his chamber. I didn’t know how long I would have, but I doubted it would be long.

The illumination from the candle I had brought and just now lighted showed that the chamber had few furnishings. A bed, a nightstand, and an old wardrobe set against one wall. There was nothing on the bed except a pile of sheets and blankets; a pillow was lying on the floor.

I looked at the narrow crevice between the floor and the bed — nothing. Then I hefted the mattress.

Yes!

Wedged in among the ropes that supported the mattress was a book.

I snatched it free and put the mattress back in place. I looked down at the book.

Log of Experiments
?

I opened it to the first page. There was neat handwriting that I knew to be Thorne’s, having seen samples of it in his laboratory. I read down some of it quickly, but I could make neither head nor tail of it. I looked down at the mattress. It had been a labor lifting it and I was pretty strong. The book of experiments was full; there wasn’t an empty page left in it. I doubted that Thorne would take it out often just to look at it. And thus he probably wouldn’t notice it missing. I knew it was a risk, yet this might be the only chance I had. I thrust it into my cloak and continued on.

I found nothing in the nightstand. That left the wardrobe. I pulled open the wardrobe doors and rifled quickly through the clothing hanging there. Next, my fingers frantically tugged at drawers, but I found nothing in them.

And then my hand closed around the box.

It was in an open cubby at the bottom of the wardrobe. It was wooden with carvings that made no sense to me. I opened the box and gasped. Inside was my grandfather’s ring, along with the Adder Stone. My first thought was to take them, but Thorne would surely miss them. Unlike the book under the mattress, these objects were new to him and far more easily accessed. On the other hand, I might not get another chance to retrieve them. It was an agonizing choice. Finally, I decided to leave them there, and continued to rummage through the box. My fingers closed around a picture of three Wugs.

One was evidently a younger Thorne. He was standing next to a grown female. Perhaps this was the Murgatroyd that Luc said he had heard Thorne mention. And next to her was a very young female who looked both familiar and foreign to me. There was the hint of something I recognized in the eyes and around the jawline, but the rest of her didn’t jog anything in my mind.

I turned when I heard footsteps and then a morta was fired off. With the labyrinth of passages down here, the echoes played funny tricks on one’s hearing. I couldn’t really tell how close Thorne might be. Another loud explosion caused me to jump and I dropped the picture. I waited, holding my breath, to see if another explosion would come. When it didn’t, I picked up the picture, and this time the other side was facing me. I looked at the handwriting scrawled on the back. I held the candle closer so I could read it clearly.

Thorne, Murgatroyd and —

My breath caught in my throat.
Morrigone.

Thorne was Morrigone’s
father
. And Murgatroyd was her mother. The likeness among them tallied. When I looked at the picture once more, I instantly recognized the younger Morrigone and wondered why I hadn’t the first time.

Morrigone had told me her father suffered an Event when she was six sessions old. He had been down near the edge of the Quag, she said, hunting for a certain type of mushroom. Yet he hadn’t suffered an Event. He had done something bad that had caused him to escape punishment by entering the Quag.

What had happened to Murgatroyd? Morrigone had never mentioned her.

I quickly remembered, though, that Julius Domitar
had
mentioned her, only not by name. He had said that it was Morrigone’s job to take care of Wormwood and all Wugs in it. He said that such tasks were often passed down in families and that Morrigone’s
mother
had done it before her.

So Murgatroyd had been Wormwood’s protector prior to Morrigone assuming the role. Then
what
had happened to Murgatroyd? I needed to know.

The shouts and running feet were growing closer and I knew my time here was limited. Only there was one more thing in the box that needed my attention.

I pulled out the sheet of parchment. It was a letter addressed to Thorne. The handwriting was precise and clear. While I could tell the paper was very old, the ink was still as clear as the sky on a brilliantly bright, cloudless light.

I read the contents of the letter quickly, slowing as I neared the end. When I saw the signature at the bottom, I thought my heart would stop. So many things started to make sense to me. Then I heard Thorne’s voice and shot a glance over my shoulder. He was very nearly at the door.

Which meant I was trapped.

I
LOOKED FRANTICALLY AROUND
.
There was no space under the bed. The nightstand was too small to conceal me. There was only one option. I put out my candle, jumped up into the wardrobe and shut the doors. I was trying to shrink myself behind the clothing when I heard Thorne enter his chamber.

At first, I dared not move. The box was still in my hand. As I bent over to set it down, the contents inside shifted, making a slight sound. I held my breath, hoping beyond hope that he had not heard it. A sliver went by and I finally let out the breath. I figured it had been the ring sliding around that made the noise. I slowly opened the box and felt for the ring in the darkness. My fingers closed around it and I slipped it on. Then I set down the box and waited.

I heard Thorne muttering to himself. He seemed to be spending some slivers around the fallen door. That made sense, I thought. How could so paranoid a Wug safely go back to sleep exposed, particularly after such an attack? Then I heard grunts and more grunts. A group of ekos apparently had joined their king. I heard a great deal of huffing and puffing and then something hard hitting something else hard. The grunts continued for about a sliver and then there were multiple footsteps going away. Then silence.

As I stood there in the wardrobe, I thought about what to do. Finally, I reached an answer. My plan would be to wait until he fell soundly asleep and then make my way out of the chamber through where his door had once been.

His mutterings continued and I grew more and more curious as to what the bloke was doing. I found that if I leaned forward, I could see through a slight gap between the two wardrobe doors. The chamber was lighted now because Thorne had evidently lit the wall torches when he’d returned.

My hopes of escape plummeted.

Thorne had had the ekos lift the door and place it in its opening. While it was no longer a perfect fit, there was no crevice big enough for me to fit through. I would have to stay here all night and wait for Thorne to leave next light, or risk knocking the door over as soon as he was asleep.

Then, suddenly, I had a far greater problem.

Thorne was heading right for the wardrobe.

I saw with a thrill of horror that his nightshirt was filthy. He was going to put on a fresh nightshirt to replace the dirty one.

I shrunk back as far as I could, though I knew it couldn’t possibly be enough. In my anxiety I nervously twisted my grandfather’s ring around and around on my thumb. The doors were flung open and I caught a breath and closed my eyes, waiting for the blow to fall.

Nothing happened. I opened my eyes. Thorne was staring right at me, our faces barely a foot apart. But he made no reaction. It was as if he couldn’t see me at all. He pulled out a clean nightshirt and closed the wardrobe door. A sliver later, I heard him settle into his bed. I stood there trying not to breathe, but also trying to sort out what had just happened.

If Thorne could see to take a fresh nightshirt and then climb into bed, how could he possibly not see me? I ran a hand down my leg. I was solid enough. Then I rubbed my finger against the ring. In twisting it around and around, I had reversed it. The part of it with the strange three-hooked design was facing downward, and the ring’s band was exposed on the top side of my thumb.

I had worn the ring before and nothing special had happened. But I had never reversed the ring before, I thought. In twisting the ring around as I’d done, had I been, well, rendered incapable of being seen? It seemed an impossible thought, but what other explanation was there?

So could I sneak out of here? I would still have to move the door to get through it. Thorne would certainly know someone or something was there. Or I could stay here and wait for first light. I decided to chance it.

I glanced through the crack once more and saw Thorne in bed. He had kept one candle burning, but the chamber was only partially lighted by it. I waited twenty more slivers until I started to hear his breathing deepen. When a soft snore escaped his lips, I counted to ten and then quietly opened the wardrobe door. It gave a little creak, which sounded to me like the scream of a garm on the hunt.

I froze, awaiting Thorne possibly springing up and wondering how his wardrobe had managed to open its own door. But he didn’t stir. I closed the door behind me after sliding the box with the mystic carving back where I’d found it.

I looked up at the massive chamber door. I tried to wedge my head through an opening between it and the wall, but I couldn’t fit. The ekos had leaned it back against the wall so that there were only crevices on either side. There was a hole dead center in the door where the Elemental had hit it, only it wasn’t large enough for me to climb through. And anyway, it was too far off the floor for me to reach.

I placed my fingers inside one of the crevices, set my feet and pulled. The door didn’t budge. It would have been easy with Destin around my waist because of the exceptional strength it conveyed to me. But my chain was around Thorne’s waist and I seriously doubted I could strip it off him without the bloke noticing. I almost cried out when I heard the whispery voice from the other side of the huge door.

“Wotcha, Vega Jane?”

It was Delph.

I crept forward and put my mouth right next to the crevice.

“He’s in here asleep, but I can’t get out.”

“Stand back,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” I breathed through the crevice.

“Same as I did before.”

The Elemental struck the door dead-on less than a sliver later, and it toppled inward. I was through the opening so fast that I could see the Elemental smack back into Delph’s outstretched glove. Then he disappeared down the hall, running for his life. I was also running for my life down the passage because morta rounds were exploding out of the chamber I had just escaped. I turned for a moment and saw Thorne in the open doorway. He had a short-barreled morta in either hand and was blasting away. And though I might be invisible, I was still flesh and blood. One round zinged past my ear. Another splattered off the wall, and a piece of stone shattered off, hit my arm and cut it. I kept running and didn’t stop until I was back in our sleeping chamber. Delph was already there, bent over, his big chest heaving in and out.

The full-size Elemental was on the floor. Delph had forgotten to shrink it and Thorne might be here any sliver. I snatched the glove off his hand, hefted the golden lance and willed it to its tiny size.

Delph nearly jumped to the ceiling. It was then I realized that he could not see me. He had just seen the Elemental and the glove suspended in air.

I spun the ring around until it was back to its normal position.

He stared at me like he’d seen an adar flying around the room.

“How — how — how —?” Poor Delph couldn’t finish. He was shaking too badly.

“It was the ring.” I held it up.

“How can a bloody ring make you … make you not there?”

I twisted the ring and vanished. I knew I had vanished because Delph was looking around to see where I’d gone. I put it back once more and reappeared. “I don’t know how it does it, Delph. I’m just glad it did so this night. Otherwise I’d be dead.” This made me remember what I’d discovered.

“Delph, I have so much to tell you.”

I told him about the picture first.

He scratched his chin and said, “So you think Thorne is Morrigone’s father?”

“I’m sure of it. And Murgatroyd is her mother.
Was
her mother. She’s dead.”

“Well, how do you know that?” he asked.

“Because of the second thing I found. It was a letter. From Virgil to Thorne.”

“What letter?”

“Virgil accused Thorne of
murdering
Murgatroyd with poisoned mushrooms. He said he was going to see Thorne executed for his crime. And he mentioned Morrigone in the letter. He said that Thorne had robbed her of her mother.
That’s
why Thorne had to flee Wormwood.”

“Bloody Hel,” exclaimed Delph. “That bloke just likes to kill, don’t he?”

I sat down on the pallet next to him. “Murgatroyd was like Morrigone. It was her job to take care of Wugs and Wormwood. I bet that made Thorne jealous. I bet he also knew what else she could do. The same things Morrigone can do now.”

“Ya mean magic-sorcery stuff?”

“I wonder if Morrigone even knows what really happened to her mother?”

“Makes me feel kind-a sorry for her,” said Delph.

I had never thought I would feel sorry for Morrigone. But if Thorne had murdered Morrigone’s mother? What a weight to carry in one’s heart.

I was surprised that Thorne had not turned up to check on us by now. But perhaps he was chasing down grubbs in some far-off part of his kingdom. At least it would give us some time to think.

Thorne was undeniably a monster. And he had to be stopped. Now. But how? Then I remembered. The book I had taken from under Thorne’s mattress. Maybe there was something in there.

I pulled the book out and showed it to Delph.

“Blimey,” he said. “Experiments?”

We started reading the book together. It was filled not only with words but with drawings. We both turned pale and then I felt sick to my stomach.

They were drawings of cut-up ekos, gnomes and grubbs. The drawings of young ekos, their bodies all disfigured, made me sick. I had to look away.

“He’s … been experimenting on
them
,” Delph said.

“Someone’s coming,” I said in a hushed voice. I looked down at the ring. The blasted ring. If I was found with it? And the book!

I gazed around, searching for a hiding place. But there was really nowhere. Then something nudged my hand. It was Harry Two. I looked at my canine and he looked back at me. I took the ring off and he opened his mouth. I placed the ring inside and he closed his snout. I slid the book of experiments under him and Harry Two lay right down, his big body covering it completely. I blew out the candle, and the chamber was plunged into darkness. Delph and I quickly lay down and pretended to be asleep.

A few moments later, Thorne stalked in, followed by a number of ekos. They were carrying torches and mortas. Luc was one of them. I sat up, stretched and let out a yawn.

“What is it?” I asked sleepily. “What’s all the fuss now?”

Thorne came to stand over me. He looked first at me, then at Delph. His gaze swept over but did not linger on Harry Two, who lay there on the floor with his snout between his front paws.

“What’s all the fuss
now
?” said Thorne. “What do you mean by that?” he added suspiciously.

“Well, there was this commotion before. Screams. Morta shots. Then it quieted down. And then it started up again. But then it quieted down again. Until you blokes showed up.”

Thorne kept peering at me. “Have you been here all this time?”

I nodded and said, “Where else would we be?”

Thorne looked at Luc, who said, “ ’Tis true, my king. They never left here. ’Twas the grubbs come back, no doubt.”

“Hmm, I wonder,” said Thorne. There was a look in his eyes and a dangerous sound in his tone that made my skin turn cold.

“I want them searched,” he said, pointing at me and Delph.

“What are we looking for, my king?” said Luc.

Thorne roared, “I’ll know it when I see it, Luc. Just do it.”

Now I knew he had discovered the ring missing. I didn’t know about the book. Perhaps he hadn’t looked under his mattress. I put on my blankest expression and prayed to Steeples that Delph was able to do the same. I took a chance at glancing over at him and discovered that Delph had slumped back down and looked like he was asleep.

I was so proud of him!

We were searched and nothing was found. Of course they never thought to look in my canine’s mouth for the ring or under him for the book. Thorne was not pleased, I could tell. And neither was I, at least not entirely. Now I knew Thorne would believe there were traitors among his number. And the last thing I wanted was to bring peril to Luc and his family. As Thorne stalked off, Luc gave me a tremulous glance that only heightened my fear for him.

I reached out my hand and Harry Two obediently opened his mouth and allowed me to retrieve the ring. I wiped it off and put it on, careful to keep the three-hook side up so I wouldn’t vanish. Then I took the book back and looked down at it.

“An awful, terrible Wug,” said Delph solemnly.

“I know. But with this book, I think we have a chance to make sure he’s an ex-king, Delph.”

“How d’ya mean?”

“This is proof of the evil things he’s been doing to the ekos and gnomes.”

His features widened in understanding. “Right, we can give it to Luc and he can … he can use it to fire up the ekos like. There’s no way they’d remain loyal to Thorne after learning he’s been killing their own kind like that.”

“But first we have to make sure that Thorne can never attack Wormwood.”

“This has to end soon, Vega Jane,” said Delph. “He knows we’re up to something. We’ll never get another chance.”

“It will end soon, Delph. It will end next light in fact.”

Delph looked at the ring.