The Finisher Page 29

  Its features softened and turned Wug-like. When it was done, I could only stare transfixed. It was my brother, John, at age three sessions. He started to cry once more. When I instinctively put out my hand, he immediately drew back.

  “It’s okay, John,” I said in a hushed voice. “I’m going to get you out of here.” I knew none of this made any sense. John could not be here, and he certainly couldn’t be three sessions old. But my mind wasn’t working very well in here. I put out my hand once more, and once more he shrank back. His distrust eased my suspicions and I lunged forward and gripped his hand tightly.

  John looked up at me, his tears now stopped. “Vega?”

  I nodded. “It’ll be okay. I’ll get you out of here.”

  I could only think that Morrigone had somehow imprisoned John here to get back at me. As I turned to look around for a way out, I let go of his hand. Or at least I tried to. I looked down at my hand and what I saw made me more than slightly sick. His fingers were now part of my fingers. They had somehow grown together. I jerked my arm back, but all that did was lift John off the floor. His other arm reached out and gripped my shoulder.

  Instantly, I felt a weird, invasive sensation. I looked down and his hand and arm were now growing into my shoulder, right through my cloak. And when next I looked at his face, John was no longer there. What was there was the most odious, foul creature I had ever seen. It was like a moldering skeleton with bits of skin dangling in odd spots. And there were no eyes in the sockets, only ripples of black flame. With each dark flicker I felt pain course through my body. Its teeth were black and grinned at me like some savage demon that had just triumphed over its prey.

  I screamed, turned and ran. All this did was allow the thing to wrap its small legs around my waist. I felt the invasive feeling again but I kept running. I just wanted to go back through the looking glass, yet I had no idea how. I could feel the thing melding onto my back. And then the most extraordinary thing happened. I suddenly felt like I weighed a thousand pounds. I couldn’t remain standing. My legs buckled. I fell to my knees, and then forward onto my face. I felt my nose shatter and my already injured eye swell even more. A dislodged tooth fell out of my mouth. I spit up blood.

  The thing was on my head now. I could feel fingers like tentacles encircling my skull. And if I thought this was the worst it could possibly get, I was about to be proved wrong. In my mind grew darkness so profound, so overwhelming, that I felt paralyzed. I thought I had been struck blind and moaned in anguish. And then something vanquished the darkness. What I saw next made me wish the darkness would return.

  It was every nightmare I had ever had times a factor of a thousand. From my earliest memories to seemingly the last sliver of my life, every painful fragment of memory I had ever experienced exploded onto my consciousness with the force of a million colossals crashing on top of me.

  And then, even surpassing those horrible visions, were images I had never seen before, but which now flooded my brain.

  Everyone I had ever loved — my parents, Virgil, Calliope, John — was running away from me. When I tried to go after them, a serpent came out of a dark hole in the dirt, wrapped itself around my ankle and started pulling me down. I cried out for help, but my family simply ran away from me faster. In another nightmare, Krone was lifting the ax high above his head and when it came down, two heads rolled off the block — mine and Delph’s. Our heads lay there staring lifelessly at each other.

  And then I was reaching out to my parents on their cots in the Care. But in my hand was an open flame. When I touched them with it, they burst afire. They screamed at me, tried to escape, but couldn’t. Their flesh turned black and then fell away until there was only bone left and then that too vanished. Their screams, however, continued to ring in my ears, each burst like a knife between my ribs.

  The last image was somehow the worst. I was on a flying steed, dressed all in chain mail, like the female I had seen. I was fighting. I had a sword in one hand and the Elemental in the other. Bodies were falling all around me as I cleaved and thrust my way through a horde of attackers. And then it hit me directly in the chest. The light entered me in the front and left me in the back. The pain was unimaginable.

  I watched myself look down at the wound. The mortal wound. The next instant I was falling through the sky, down … down … down….

  I tried to scream but nothing came out. I felt the creature on my back tightening its grip around me. I swung my arms back and tried to hit it. But in hitting it, I was only striking myself. I had thought fighting in the Duelum was hard. I would take a thousand Nons trying to crush my skull over this. This was so awful, all I wanted was to die.

  The thing was gripping me so tightly I could barely breathe. My chest was rising and falling in increasingly constricted space. I knew at some point soon it would have no more latitude to operate. But I didn’t care. Right now I had no desire to live. The nightmarish images became darker, smaller, but their potency somehow grew immeasurably with each passing moment. I was being dissolved from the inside out.

  I’m not sure how it came to me because I don’t really remember doing it. My hand reached down to my waist. My breathing was so labored now that any upcoming breath could very well be my last. I managed, despite the crushing weight I felt, to slip Destin free.

  I gripped it in both my hands, which of course were now part of the creature’s hands. I flipped it upward over my head and felt it settle around the creature’s neck. I crossed my arms as fiercely as I could. This, in turn, made Destin replicate that movement. It encircled the creature’s neck and then tightened. If this didn’t work, I was truly lost. I pulled with all the strength I had left.

  I heard a gurgle, the first sound the creature had made since it stopped crying.

  The next thing I saw struck me first with horror and then with relief as the chain grew lax. The thing’s head hit the floor in front of me, bounced once and then lay still. Slowly, an inch and a sliver at a time, I felt the grip of the thing begin to ease and then fall away. In three excruciatingly long slivers, it was gone. My mind cleared. I rose on wobbly legs.

  I didn’t want to because I thought it might have turned back into John, but I finally had to stare down at the evil thing that had very nearly killed me. It was turning black and was shriveling up before my eyes.

  I turned and ran as fast as I could. Only this time I knew where I was going because the darkness inside wherever I was had started to lift. It was as though the evil dead thing was absorbing all the blackness in here into itself, allowing the light to shine once more.

  When I saw my reflection just up ahead, I sped up and leapt, my hands outstretched. I flew through the looking glass, tumbled to the hard marble floor, and was up in an instant. I turned to stare back at the looking glasses. All of them were starting to fade. In less than a sliver, they disappeared. But I had glimpsed once more the intricate designs on the wooden frames. And this time, I remembered where I had seen them before.

  The Adder Stone safely in my pocket, I raced down the steps and out through the side door of Stacks. Freed from the place, I soared into the air, Destin in fine working order after being freed from the glass. I had to get back to hospital as fast as possible.

  SLIVERS LATER, I landed as near the place as I dared. I sprinted the rest of the way, pushed through the doors and raced down the hall. Another sliver passed and then I was back in Duf’s room. Breathing hard, I skirted around the sheet that hung from the ceiling giving the space some privacy.

  Then I stopped dead. The cot was empty. The room was empty. Delph and his father were gone. I rushed back down the corridor, thinking only terrible thoughts, the next worse than the previous one. There were no Nurses or Mendens in the passageways, so I started poking my head in each room I came to.

  Wugs in various states of ill health or injury peered back at me from their cots. Heads bandaged, faces red and swollen, lungs hacking, legs bound in plaster, arms tethered to bodies — none of them was Duf. I had to
believe many of them had been injured on the Wall construction, yet none so badly as Duf.

  When I came out of one room I heard the scream. I looked wildly about because I recognized the voice. I hustled toward the sound, rounding one corner and then another. The screams kept coming and then they abruptly died out. I reached a set of double doors, pushed them open and hurtled into the room, panting from being out of breath, my broken nose pouring blood and throbbing. I slowly straightened and looked upon the horror in front of me.

  Duf lay on the table, a sheet covering the top of him. As I looked down below, my stomach gave a lurch. There was nothing there. His legs below the knees were gone. Duf was covered in sweat and unconscious, something for which I was dearly grateful.

  Delph was just standing there, his big hands tucked into fists, his great chest heaving, the tears spreading over his cheeks as he peered at what was left of his father. I looked at the Menden who stood there with blood smeared across his white gown and a vicious-looking saw in one hand. A Nurse stood next to him, staring anxiously at Delph.

  I drew closer to the cot. Where Duf’s legs had been were just stumps. I could barely find the breath to keep my lungs going.

  “What happened?” I asked breathlessly.

  “Cu-cut ’em off,” said Delph. He was teetering. “Just cu-cu-cu —”

  I gripped his hand and looked at the Menden. “When did you do this?”

  He was staring at my injured face, but then focused on my question.

  “Finished about a sliver ago. Delph didn’t want it done, but it had to be done. Otherwise, we’d have a dead Wug.”

  “A sliver?”

  The Nurse pulled me away from Delph and said in a low voice, “He tried to stop the Menden.” She pointed to his torn gown and battered face. “It took five Wug orderlies to manage him while the Menden performed the amputation. He said you were coming with something that would help Duf. And we did wait, for a bit, although we knew that was nonsense. You never came back, so we had to get it done. You understand. Medical matter.”

  I couldn’t find the breath to speak. My mind was so full of things that it was impossible to form a response.

  A sliver. A bloody sliver. Why did I take so long? Why did I lose the bloody Stone in the first place?

  Duf’s legs were gone. I didn’t think even the Adder Stone could help. Still, I slipped it from my pocket, thought of Duf with his legs fully healed and then waved the Stone over his stumps, disguising the movement by pretending to straighten the sheet.

  I held my breath, waiting for the legs to be regrown. And I kept waiting. And nothing happened. Finally, sick to my stomach, I let go of the Adder Stone and it fell to the bottom of my pocket.

  The Menden came over and studied my face. “What happened to your nose?”

  “Duelum,” I said absently. I doubted whether he would have known this was a lie or not. And I really didn’t care.

  “Do you want me to attend to your injuries? I can reset your nose.”

  I shook my head. “It’s nothing,” I said in a hushed tone. And it was nothing. “You just … you just tend to Duf.”

  I went back over to Delph. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “So very sorry.”

  He sniffled and rubbed his eyes. “You tried, Vega Jane. I know ya did. Just ran out of slivers, didn’t we? Just ran out of …” His voice trailed off.

  “But he’ll live,” I said.

  “If you can call it that!” said Delph in a sudden rush of anger. He calmed just as quickly and looked tenderly at me. “Glad you made it back safe.” He saw my face and gaped. “Vega, you’re hurt bad. You need to —”

  I gripped his arm tighter. “It’s nothing, Delph. It’s really nothing. I’ll be fine.”

  My mind heaved like I had been wrenched upside down. I am nothing, Delph. I failed you. I am nothing.

  Delph nodded sadly. “The thing is, you tried. For that I’ll always be grateful. Did you run into —” He lowered his voice. “Into, you know? Your face and all?”

  “I tripped and hit some stone. Just stupid of me. That’s all.”

  He looked vastly relieved by this. “Do you mind if I have a mo’ with me dad?” I nodded quickly and hurriedly left the room.

  I waited until I was well down the dark and dank corridor before I sank to the cold floor and sobbed uncontrollably.

  WHEN I FINALLY rose, my tears were gone, my sadness replaced with a smoldering anger. I raced from hospital and took to the air. Slivers later my feet hit crushed gravel. My skin still ached where that awful thing had pinned itself to me. My head reeled from the impressions of a lifetime of nightmares bundled into one continuous dark vision.

  I knew what the creature was, because it, like the cobble, had been in Quentin Herms’s book. I hadn’t recognized it before it struck because it was impossible to recognize. It could assume any shape it wanted. I knew what it was because of what it had done to me.

  It was a maniack, an evil spirit that attached to your body and then your mind and drove you irreversibly insane with every fear you’ve ever had. And yet as I stood there, my mind cleared and my body stopped hurting so much, though my broken nose ached like blazes. I hadn’t even thought to pull the Adder Stone to heal myself. And I didn’t take the time to do it now.

  I hurried up the walk, pushed open the gates and sprinted to the massive doorway. I didn’t bother to knock. I just opened the door and stormed inside. William, the pudgy Wug in his sparkling clean uniform of the dutiful servant, came into the hall and looked at me in surprise.

  “What are you doing here?” he exclaimed.

  I knew I must be a sight. One eye nearly closed. My face bloody and bruised from my fight with Non. I had no idea what discernible residue the maniack had left on me. I knew I was missing a tooth, and my nose was broken. But I didn’t really care.

  I said, “William, please get out of my way. I just need to see something.”

  He continued to bar my path. “Madame Morrigone is not here.”

  “I don’t want to see her,” I barked.

  “Neither is Master John.”

  “Or Master John,” I snapped.

  “She told me of no visitors. And so no visitors will be admitted —”

  He stopped because I had hoisted him off the floor and hooked the back of his collar over an unlighted torch holder set on the wall. With Destin around my waist, William was as light as air.

  “Just stay there,” I said. “I’ll let you down when I’m done.”

  Blocking out his cries of protest, I rushed down the hall to the library. I threw open the doors and entered. No fire was lit. The sunlight streamed in through the windows. The books were all still there. I stepped up to it: the looking glass that hung on the wall above the chimneypiece.

  I had seen it when John and I had first supped here, back when I thought Morrigone was a good, decent Wug. Before she had stolen my brother from me and made him into something that he was never meant to be. My gaze drifted to the ornately carved wooden frame. It was the exact same design as the looking glasses back at Stacks. As I peered closer, I could clearly see the carved frame was made up of a series of interlocked serpents that formed one continuous, foul beast.

  As I stepped back and took in the whole glass, I knew without doubt that this looking glass and the ones at Stacks were identical. I had no idea what power Morrigone had that allowed her to do this, but I knew that she had somehow taken this mirror and replicated it many times over at Stacks as a way to trap and then kill me.

  Well, two could play that game.

  I drew my Elemental, willed it to full size, took aim and hurled it dead center of the mirror. It blasted into tiny pieces that sprayed all over the beautiful and, up to that moment, immaculate room. As the debris settled over all her pretty things, I allowed myself a grim smile.

  I rushed back down the hall and lifted the still-sputtering William off the torch holder and set him gently down. He looked at me indignantly and smoothed down his ruffled clothes. “
Rest assured that I will inform Madame Morrigone of this most inexcusable trespass as soon as she returns.”

  I said, “That’s exactly what I want you to do.”

  As a parting shot, I ripped from the wall the silver candleholders I had made and took them with me. When I was high up in the air, flying on a seam of wind, I flung them as far away as I could manage. And all I wished was that I could fling myself just as far from this place.

  DUK DODGSON WAS the youngest member of Council and a protégé of Jurik Krone’s. He was also my next opponent. He was tall and strong but had never won a Duelum because, at least to my mind, he was too cocksure to acknowledge that he had weaknesses on which he should work. He was handsome, though his mouth was cruel and his eyes arrogant. His ambition was the black tunic, not the small figurine, even if it did come with five hundred coins. I had seen Dodgson in the Council Chamber. He had been seated next to Krone and followed his lead in every way. He clearly loathed me because his master did. And I just as clearly loathed him because he was a spineless git.

  I was very glad I had drawn him in the Duelum. Getting even was not just fun; sometimes it was all you had.

  Delph had beaten Dodgson in the last Duelum. He had told me that Dodgson would hang back and not attack right away, and that he had a bad habit of keeping his fists too low, which made his neck and head vulnerable. This gave me an idea, and I had snuck into hospital the night before the next round and nicked a book. I pored over the pages and pictures late into the night, learning what I needed to learn in order to carry out my plan good and proper.

  At the next first light, I was up early and slipped on my cloak. I left Harry Two at the digs. I was afraid if I started losing, my canine would attack Dodgson, and Jurik Krone would use that as an excuse to kill Harry Two.

  When I got to the pitch, I saw on the betting boards that odds were running fairly even, meaning as many coin had been placed on me to win as on Dodgson. I’m sure that was not sitting well with the ambitious Council member. I was on at the second bell this light. I placed my bet and then turned and nearly bumped into him.