Vega Jane and the Rebels’ Revolt Read online

  CONTENTS

  1: A PLACE CALLED TRUE

  2: THE ABSENCE OF EVIL

  3: ABANDONED

  4: THE LATE TRAIN

  5: MR ENDEMEN

  6: A GUIDING WAND

  7: EMPYREAN

  8: THIS HOUSE OF MINE

  9: A HEART REVEALED

  10: UMA AND JASON

  11: A PAINTING COMES CALLING

  12: A CHOICE TO BE MADE

  13: THE PERIL OF PETRA

  14: GREATER TRUE

  15: MALADON CASTLE

  16: PEOPLE OF THE GLASS

  17: HOME AGAIN

  18: A BLOOD OATH

  19: BIMBLETON STATION

  20: ONWARD

  21: CLARENDON ON HILLSHIRE

  22: THE BATTLE BEGINS

  23: THE THING IN THE TOWER

  24: BOTTLES OF RUIN

  25: DELPH’S IDEA

  26: THE PATH AHEAD

  27: A LOSS OF ONE

  28: LAST WORDS

  29: FAREWELL

  30: THE PLAN

  31: ONE DEATH

  32: A WELL-TIMED PIECE OF ADVICE

  33: THE INCONCEIVABLE INCANTATION

  34: A CLOSE CALL

  35: A MOTLEY CREW

  36: SIMPLY, A ROSE

  37: ONE SMALL STEP

  38: THE END OF ME

  A WUGMORT’S GUIDE TO WORMWOOD AND BEYOND

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  To Sandy Violette and Caspian Dennis, for being so awesome from day one

  1

  A PLACE CALLED TRUE

  We landed invisible, on the cobbles, and were nearly killed.

  Petra Sonnet cried out, Delph Delphia grunted in surprise, my canine, Harry Two, yipped and I, Vega Jane, jerked back on the magical tether holding us all together, as a deafening contraption charged past us.

  It was boxy and made of metal and had doors with windows on either side. It also had what looked like four wagon wheels, but the infernal thing was moving of its own accord with no sleps pulling it.

  It was puffing and wheezing, with what sounded like metal clanking on metal, and in a few moments, it turned the corner and vanished from our view.

  Delph looked at me, his face pale. ‘What was that?’

  I shook my head because I had no idea what it was. Rattled, I scratched Harry Two’s remaining ear.

  We all had scars from our journey across the Quag.

  Delph’s arm had been burned and blackened.

  Harry Two had lost an ear.

  Petra had injured her hand.

  And I had the mark of the three hooks on the back of my hand. It had magically burned on my skin by some unknown means.

  I was about to return us to visibility by spinning my ring round when a pair of males appeared, both of them cloaked.

  We froze, each holding our breath.

  ‘You sure it was from here?’ the taller of them asked the other.

  The male nodded.

  My mind was whirling. These were the blokes we had seen earlier, after escaping the Quag. How could they have followed us?

  I glanced at Delph and Petra. They looked as terrified as I felt.

  I pointed to the right and we shuffled off round the corner.

  We set our tucks down and I whispered, ‘They followed us. How?’

  Petra shook her head. But Delph said, ‘You reckon they can detect magic? Because you done that to get us here.’ He pointed to the magical tethers that kept us all invisible.

  I looked down at my wand like it had just bitten me. Could that be true?

  Delph said, ‘Look.’ He was pointing to the right. Down the cobbles at the very end of the street was a tall building made of stone and brick and timbers. I stared up at its highest point.

  ‘Steeples,’ I said in wonder.

  ‘It’s got a bell too,’ said Delph. ‘Me dad said Steeples had a bell once, before it broke.’

  ‘Steeples?’ said Petra, looking confused.

  ‘The place back in Wormwood where Wugmorts would go to listen to Ezekiel the Sermonizer telling us to be good while scaring us half to death with tales of how badly our lives would turn out regardless of what we did,’ I explained.

  At night Steeples had always been empty. This building might be the same.

  We shouldered our tucks and crept along the cobbles until we came to the double wooden doors of the entrance.

  There was a sign next to it.

  ‘Saint Necro’s,’ I read. I glanced at Delph. ‘What do you reckon that means?’

  ‘Dunno, do I?’ he replied. ‘Never heard-a no Saint Necro. Alls I know is Steeples.’

  I tried the doors but they were locked. I pointed my wand at the heavy wrought-iron lock and was about to whisper ‘Ingressio’ when Delph grabbed my arm.

  ‘Magic,’ he said warningly.

  I nodded and slowly lowered my wand.

  Then Petra noticed a window on the side. ‘It’s not locked.’

  Delph boosted her up first and she slid through. I followed. Delph lifted Harry Two through the opening and into my arms, and then he brought up the rear.

  We were inside a vast chamber that was far larger than Steeples, though it had similar brightly coloured windows, rows of seats and a raised area up front where sermons were no doubt given. I wondered whether the sermonizer who spoke here was as depressing as Ezekiel. Petra said in a hushed tone, ‘Where do we go now?’

  I pointed to a set of stone stairs. ‘Let’s see what’s up that way.’

  ‘Why not down?’ said Petra, pointing to another set of stairs that apparently led to a lower floor.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘Up is better.’

  She gave me a sceptical look, but I didn’t wait for her approval. I walked over to the stairs with Harry Two beside me. Delph and Petra hurried after us.

  That’s when we heard the footsteps at the entrance.

  We ducked down between two sets of pews as I heard someone say, ‘Ingressio.’

  The doors flew open.

  I lifted my head a bit so I could see over the backs of the pews. It was the same two cloaked figures.

  But this was impossible. I hadn’t used magic before they got here. How could they be—

  I looked down at the mark on my hand. Was it that?

  As the footsteps drew closer, I heard one of the males say, ‘Are you sure?’

  I peered over the edge again in time to see the other bloke hold up his wand. ‘See for yourself,’ he said.

  The wand was glowing. He spun round to face where we were hiding.

  ‘There!’ he snapped. He pointed his wand and said, ‘Infernus!’

  ‘Embattlemento!’ I instantly cried out.

  His blast of fire ricocheted off my shield spell and he had to duck to avoid being incinerated.

  The second bloke rushed forward, casting spell after spell our way, each more powerful than the last.

  Petra cast a shield spell as well, and his magic rebounded off it and smashed into the pews, destroying them.

  Spells were now being cast so quickly I could barely follow them.

  Glass shattered. Wooden pews disintegrated, and a small statue exploded when hit by a glancing blow from a rebounding spell. I had never been in such a battle as fast and fierce as this one. Though we were still invisible, we were in terrible danger of being killed simply by being in this confined space.

  I was hurling spells so quickly I could barely remember thinking of the incantation before sending it off. When I glanced at Petra, I saw both terror and fury in her eyes. Somehow, this filled me with resolve.

  I slid on my belly, squeezed under a pew, came up behind the bloke and said, ‘Impacto.’ He was
blasted off his feet and flung against a wall.

  But the bloke rebounded off it, turned and fired multiple spells in my general direction. I ducked, then threw myself over a pew. I turned in time to see Delph get slammed against another pew.

  I heard Petra cry out as she was hurled over another pew, crashing on the floor.

  I whirled round on the same bloke and fired every spell I could think of, but he was deflecting them left and right. My arm was growing weary, and Petra had not recovered enough to help me. When a spell hit so close to my head that it made me dizzy, I ducked under a pew for a moment to catch my breath and clear my senses.

  When I looked back up I almost cheered as I saw Delph slam into the male, lift him up, turn him upside down and pile drive him into the floor. I had seen Delph use that same move in the Duelum back in Wormwood. The bloke went limp.

  The next instant a light shot right past my face, hit the wall behind me and knocked a hole in it. The spell knocked me head over heels and broke the magical tether keeping the others invisible.

  ‘Got you!’ roared the other bloke who had shot at me as he pointed his wand right at Delph’s exposed chest.

  Before I could regain my feet and aim my wand, a voice called out, ‘Subservio.’

  Petra’s spell hit the bloke square on. He instantly went rigid and his wand hand dropped. He simply stood there, looking blankly ahead.

  We rose on shaky legs and approached him.

  ‘Thanks, Pet, you saved me,’ said Delph weakly.

  ‘That was quick thinking, Petra,’ I said.

  She let out a long breath. ‘I’m . . . I’m just glad it worked.’

  Delph pointed at the wand still held in the bloke’s hand.

  I stared down at it, stunned.

  Etched on his brightly glowing wand was the mark of the three hooks! The same mark that had been burned on to my hand. The mark on the wand was pulsing as though it was alive.

  Delph said, ‘That’s how they found us. Your mark, it must give off a signal.’

  I nodded. But what was I to do? I couldn’t very well cut off my hand.

  ‘Vega Jane, your glove!’ said Delph.

  ‘My what?’ I said distractedly.

  ‘Your glove. It has powerful magic. See if it can block the signal.’

  I plunged my hand into my cloak pocket and pulled out the glove Alice Adronis had given me in order to handle the Elemental, which was now also my wand.

  I hastily pulled on the glove, covering the mark.

  I looked at the fellow’s wand and breathed a sigh of relief. The mark of the three hooks was gone from it and the wand was no longer glowing.

  ‘That was brilliant!’ said Petra to Delph.

  I saw him smile.

  ‘It was very smart of you, Delph.’ I turned, pointed my wand at the unconscious bloke, and removed any memory he might have had of this. I did the same with his mate. Next, Petra and I repaired the damage to the building.

  Finally, I turned the ring back round, attached the magical tethers, and we became invisible once more. It was only then that I released the blokes who had attacked us from the spell.

  They both looked around.

  One said, ‘What the blazes are we doing here?’

  The other fellow shook his head. ‘Last thing I remember I was in me bed. And that’s where I’m going back to,’ he added.

  He turned and left. His mate gave the place one more searching look and joined him, shutting the doors behind him.

  I let out a long breath. ‘Now let’s go and find a proper place to hide.’

  The long winding staircase carried us upward. It would, I was sure, lead all the way to the bell tower. But I stopped short of that. There was a door to the right. I tried it. Locked. I pulled out my wand, and a moment later the door opened.

  I had grown accustomed to being able to do things like this, but I never wanted to take it for granted. I had come to completely adore being a sorceress!

  Inside the room were old leather trunks. There was also a window, just as I’d hoped.

  I closed the door behind us and locked it. I pointed to the window. ‘When the light comes, we can watch the goings-on down there. Get the lay of the land. In the meantime, we should get some sleep. We’ll take turns keeping watch.’

  I offered to take the first watch, and the others settled down on the floor, with their tucks as their pillows. We had retrieved some blankets that were stacked neatly in a corner, for the floor was hard and the room was cool.

  I took up watch by the window for a bit with Harry Two lying next to me. I didn’t see any movement down below. In the distance I thought I heard a long, high whistle of sorts, but I couldn’t be too sure of that, for the sound carried strangely up here.

  I finally turned to some of the trunks and, trying to remain as quiet as possible so I wouldn’t wake the others, I started searching them, hoping they would give us some idea as to the place we were now in.

  The first trunk was filled with clothes. Trousers, coats, shirts, shoes and frocks. Even some hats. They were of a style, cut and material I had never seen. I pulled them out. If we were going to fit into this place, whatever it was, we had to dress like the others who were here.

  I put these aside and opened the next trunk. When I saw what was in there I felt like I had happened upon a treasure trove.

  Books! I pulled a number of them out, sat on my haunches and, using the conjured light from my wand, began to look through them.

  The first few books were filled with what seemed to be sermons that someone like Ezekiel would deliver. However, the next book was far more interesting and potentially useful.

  It was entitled A Book of True.

  True, I quickly came to learn, was the name of the place we were in. There were words in the book that I had never seen before: years, horse, man, woman, church and motor being among them. Fortunately, there were accompanying pictures. Thus I learned that man and woman were like our male and female, and both were referred to as people, not Wugmorts.

  My education continued. A horse was our slep. A canine was a dog. Sessions translated to years, which were divided up into twelve months, and the twelve months were divided up into something called days. Slivers were minutes. Sixty of those minutes represented something called an hour. The church was the place we were currently in. And a motor was the contraption we had seen rumbling along.

  Oh, and there was something called the morning, which apparently was when the sun was coming up, and the rest of the light was called the day. And the Noc was called the moon.

  I leaned back against the coolness of the stone and repeated these words over and over. I didn’t know that learning a new language would be required here, but why not? Everything about this journey had been totally unpredictable. Just because we had escaped the Quag, that simple rule needn’t change.

  If we wanted to fit in here, we couldn’t very well go around this place calling horses ‘sleps’ and the moon ‘the Noc’.

  As I continued to read, I learned that True had experienced several centuries (each century is one hundred sessions!) of peace, following some difficult periods of war and uncertainty. There were pictures of Wugs – or people – engaged in fun activities with their youngs, who were called children. I looked at the illustrations of the smiling children and wondered how that fit with what I had been told about the ruthlessness and savagery of the Maladons, the magical race that Astrea Prine had told us had beaten her kind in a great war. Presumably the Maladons now ruled this place.

  Unless . . . perhaps these people had fought and overthrown the Maladons? If so, they must be magical. How else could they have beaten the powerful sorcery the Maladons supposedly possessed? After all, they had thrashed my kind, who were powerfully magical in their own right.

  And most telling of all, I believed we had run into a pair of Maladons twice already. So they were here. It was truly puzzling.

  I continued to read and learn as much as I could.

  I gaze
d at the picture of the motor and marvelled how it could move without sleps, or horses, pulling it. Had it been created by magic?

  Before I knew it, the sun was coming up outside. I had forgotten to awaken Delph or Petra to take over my watch. But I was not tired in the least. My head was filled with all this new information; my mind was swirling with questions and possibilities. But mostly questions, I had to admit.

  I moved back over to the window and looked out. With the sun coming up, I could see things quite clearly now. True was larger than it had appeared last night. I could see spires of many buildings in the distance. Wugmorts – I caught myself – people were emerging from buildings. I waved my wand and muttered, ‘Crystilado magnifica.’ Instantly, I was seeing all of this as though it were inches from my face.

  Fortunately, the people looked like us at least; otherwise it would be awfully hard for us to fit in. And their clothes looked like the ones I had pilfered from the trunk. Again, a good thing. But we might stand out anyway. We were three strangers with a canine. How would we explain our presence here?

  A clattering sound caught my attention, and in my magnified line of sight came another motor speeding down the cobbles. It was followed by a second, which looked different – it was bigger, with different levels, and had more people riding in it. They rode in one lower and one upper level. At one corner the bigger motor stopped and some people got off and others got on. On the side was a sign that read TRUE TRANSPORT. This must be how they moved from one place to another, I thought.

  ‘Blimey!’

  I whirled round to find Delph and Petra staring over my shoulder.

  ‘You didn’t wake us to take a watch,’ said Petra disapprovingly.

  ‘I thought I’d just let you sleep,’ I replied.

  Delph said, ‘Vega Jane, you can’t do this alone. I know I can’t do magic, but I didn’t fight my way across the Quag to be useless!’

  Delph never talked to me that way and his words cut into me like a hurled blade. I composed myself and said, ‘You’re right, Delph. But I’ve learned quite a lot actually.’

  I took some time showing them the clothes and the books and telling them of the new words I had learned, like people and dogs and morning and horses and motors. They took it all in, though I could tell they were even more overwhelmed by it than I had been.