Vega Jane and the Maze of Monsters Page 5

  ‘But he is the king,’ said Cere in a trembling voice. ‘And he sleeps behind a door made of iron. And he has recruited spies among us who report to him. Any signs of rebellion are quashed.’

  ‘Surely the ekos would rally around you, Luc,’ I said.

  He lowered his head. ‘No, Vega. That would not happen.’

  ‘Why not?’

  He would not look at me as he said the words. ‘Thorne works us hard, no doubt. But he has taught us skills and he keeps us safe.’

  ‘You could do all that without him,’ I pointed out.

  ‘Yet many ekos worship him,’ added Cere. ‘It is like he has cast a spell over them. No matter the horrible things he does, they obey him.’

  ‘It is mostly because he has broken our will, our spirit,’ Luc added. ‘Such a thing is greater than any weapon.’

  I thought about this but could think of no ready reply. I decided to change the subject. I said, ‘We must escape from here. But before we go, I would like to find answers to questions I have. Will you help us?’

  Luc looked at Cere, who stared up anxiously at him.

  Finally, he nodded. ‘You saved little Kori, so we will come back this night. And then you will have your answers, Vega.’

  Late that night, we could hear footsteps approaching. And a sliver later, along the outer stone passageway, we could both see the shadows created by a light coming our way. Then Luc appeared in the opening to our chamber holding a flickering candle in one hand. Cere was behind him, looking pale and frightened.

  He said softly, ‘Tread lightly. There are eyes in the least likely places.’

  The guards that had been stationed outside our chamber were no longer there. I figured that was Luc’s doing. The three of us followed him back down the passageway. I had told Harry Two not to bark. I could have sworn he nodded his head at me as I finished speaking.

  As we flitted down the cold passage, I did have one comforting thought. I had on my cloak. And in my cloak were my glove and the Elemental.

  We reached a spot where three corridors intersected and Luc led us down the one on the far left. We reached a wooden door, which Luc unlocked with a fat bronze key that he unclipped from a blackened iron ring on his belt. He pushed the door open and ushered us in before closing the portal behind us. The chamber was dark, but it brightened considerably when Luc used his candle to light the torches suspended on the wall.

  I gaped.

  And so did Delph.

  The chamber was vast, with high ceilings. And strewn throughout were broad, scarred and stained wooden worktables overflowing with what looked to be intricate tasks in progress. There were old worm-eaten plank shelves, literally bursting with strange objects, and piles of parchment, scrolls and leather-backed tomes. And an old desk packed with drawers and cubbies that were, in turn, bulging with scrolls and parchment. And there was a wooden swivel chair tucked into the kneehole. And on a series of low tables were bottles, scales and other delicate instruments that I had seen and used at Stacks to do my job.

  ‘He couldn’t have brought all this with him from Wormwood,’ I said.

  Luc said, ‘He did some of the parchment, ink, scrolls and a few of the instruments and tools you see. The rest were made here. And the furniture we built according to his design after he showed us how. Thorne taught us a great deal. All he asked in return was our freedom.’ Luc finished in a resigned tone.

  As my gaze spanned the place, it came to rest on something suspended from a long metal chain affixed to the ceiling in one far corner. It was a skeleton. And next to the skeleton and attached to the wall was the outer layer of the thing – the skin, which showed its huge wingspan. And now I believed I knew how Thorne had made it from the cliff down to here.

  ‘That’s an adar,’ mumbled Delph.

  ‘Was an adar,’ I corrected. ‘That’s how Thorne managed the cliff. He flew down like we did.’

  ‘It’s a big ’un,’ noted Delph. ‘Bigger’n I’ve ever seen.’

  I turned to Luc. ‘This is his . . . what, workshop?’

  ‘Well, he calls it a laboratory,’ said Luc. ‘He spends most of his time in here, working away, talking to himself and cackling.’

  I walked around the chamber and eyed some drawings that had been fastened to the walls. These were maps and drawings of Wormwood, down to the smallest detail.

  They clearly showed his planned attack. I noted Thorne’s scribbles and margin notes all over the parchment pages. There was an area noted as the landing place. He would send out his aero ship at night and make his landings at that spot while Wormwood slept. Then when his army was fully on site, he would attack and take them all by surprise.

  I looked at Delph, who had been peering over my shoulder. He looked sickened by all of it.

  ‘We got to stop ’im, Vega Jane.’

  I looked at Luc. ‘Can we go to the aero ship now?’

  We made our way quickly through a number of passageways until I was hopelessly lost. But when I looked back at Delph, who was very good at directions, he nodded.

  ‘I know where we are,’ he whispered. ‘It’s just up there on the left.’

  Sure enough, Luc and Cere stopped and turned to the left and passed through another opening in the wall. The aero ship towered over us like an enormous beast waiting to strike and then devour. There was no one else here.

  We drew nearer to the huge wooden carriage that would hold both an army and its weapons. It was then that I noted the series of holes in the sides.

  ‘What are those for?’ I asked.

  In answer, Luc pointed towards one wall. ‘How he plans to steer it. Look.’

  Delph and I saw the long oars with large, flat, rectangular ends neatly stacked there.

  Luc showed us how they worked and then took us through the rest of the aero ship, pointing out the contraption that filled the huge bladder with heated air, and the steering mechanism. And how vents in the bladder released air and allowed the aero ship to descend.

  I nodded in understanding. ‘And what’s the cause of your reddened eyes?’ I asked.

  ‘Mixing the morta powder,’ he said. ‘Powder dust gets in ’em.’

  ‘But Kori has red eyes too. Surely he doesn’t make—’

  ‘Thorne don’t care how old or young one is, Vega,’ said Luc. ‘We all have to work.’

  My blood boiling at this revelation, we went back out into the passage. I said expectantly, ‘The grubbs?’

  Luc nodded wearily. ‘Aye, the grubbs.’

  And I observed, as he said this, that he placed one large hand on the hilt of the short-barrelled morta that rode on his belt. He turned to Cere and said, ‘You best head on back. Kori will be missing you.’

  Cere gave him a worried look. ‘Luc, think what you’re doing. If Thorne finds out!’

  ‘You just go on, Cere. Go on now,’ he added sternly.

  With a baleful glance back at us, she quickly disappeared down the tunnel.

  ‘Let’s be off, then,’ Luc said firmly, but I could see the fear in his eyes. Not because of the grubbs, I didn’t think, but because of the king.

  I glanced at Delph. I could tell he was thinking exactly what I was.

  Luc could be killed for helping us. But I didn’t know any other way to do this. And I did have a plan. Well, part of one anyway.

  Delph was expecting me to lead. I was expecting me to lead. I just hoped I wasn’t leading us to our doom.

  8

  THE PLIGHT OF GRUBBS

  I could both feel and hear my heart pounding as we walked down a long, dark passageway. We were far removed from the other areas we had been shown previously. Luc was walking in slow, measured strides, his gaze swivelling from side to side. When I looked at Delph, he was glancing over his shoulder.

  ‘Luc,’ he said, turning back around. ‘Do grubbs attack anything?’

  ‘No. Not without a good reason.’

  I looked at Delph. ‘So, let’s not give them a good reason.’

  Luc’s st
eps slowed as we neared what looked to be a blank wall. I thought perhaps Luc had taken a wrong turn down here, when I heard it. I suppose that’s when we all heard it. And then felt it.

  Rumblings, and the ground under us starting to shake. Dirt and stone dust from overhead cascaded down. We started to cough and gag. I had turned to run back the way we had come when I felt a hand on my arm, holding me in place.

  Luc said, ‘It’s all right. Just their way is all. They’ve heard us approach.’

  The next moment, the wall in front of us collapsed, revealing a hole. In the hole was a face, which took up the entire opening. A pair of dull yellow eyes was staring at me. When the mouth opened, I could see enormous jagged teeth far more lethal-looking than any knife I’d ever seen.

  Luc looked at the creature and said some words that I had no way of understanding. They appeared to be a cross between grunts and hisses. Then he turned to look at us. ‘They know Thorne’s not with us. No need to worry now.’

  I crept forward and rested my gaze on the grubb. It gazed back at me with what I thought was a suspicious look.

  ‘Why is the grubb staring at me like that?’

  ‘Well, you look like Thorne. A Wug, I mean.’

  ‘Can you tell it that while I am a Wug, I’m not a Wug like Thorne?’

  ‘Already did, Vega. It’s why it hasn’t killed you.’

  My stomach lurched and I found myself backing up a pace or two.

  ‘Its name is, well, no use saying it – you won’t be able to pronounce it, much less remember it. We’ll just call it Grubb.’

  ‘Hello, Gr-Grubb, sir,’ said a panicky Delph.

  ‘Matter of fact, ’tis a female, Delph,’ said Luc. ‘You can tell by the eyes. Yellow for the females and blue for the males. Don’t know why, just the way it is.’

  Luc marched forward and patted the grubb on its, or rather, her head. The grubb let out a sound that I had heard before. But then it had been a feline purring.

  ‘Peaceful creatures,’ said Luc. ‘Keep themselves to themselves. They tunnel down here. Can eat through rock faster’n gnomes with their claws.’

  ‘They eat rock?’ Delph gasped.

  I watched as Harry Two sidled over to the grubb and sniffed it. My canine was perilously close to those enormous teeth and I was about to call him back, when Harry Two licked the thing.

  Before I could move, a long, slithery tongue appeared between the jagged teeth, and the grubb licked Harry Two back. I moved forward and cautiously put out a hand, stopping and looking questioningly at Luc.

  ‘G’on, then,’ he said encouragingly. ‘Grubb knows you’re OK.’

  I patted the grubb’s head and then Delph joined me in doing so. It was far softer and not nearly as slimy as I thought it would be. It was like touching a cattail plant down by the pond back in Wormwood. I could see that it was about twice the size of a creta, which was very large indeed. It must eat a lot of rock.

  The grubb licked Delph’s hand, and it seemed to me that the grubb batted her eyes at him.

  ‘She’s taken a shine to you, Delph,’ said Luc, who had noted this too.

  ‘Um, why do they hate Thorne so?’ Delph asked, obviously embarrassed by the creature’s affections.

  ‘Well, they have good reason.’ Luc pointed to the creature’s skin and then rubbed it. ‘Its hide is strong. But it can also do something else.’

  ‘What?’ I asked.

  ‘It can expand. Big as you want it to. It’s why Thorne kills ’em.’

  ‘He kills them?’ I exclaimed.

  ‘Slaughters ’em, more like it. Least he did.’

  ‘Why is the skin so important to Thorne?’ Delph asked.

  ‘For the bladder,’ answered Luc.

  ‘The bladder, on the aero ship?’ I said. Then I realized what he meant. ‘He uses the grubbs’ skin to make the bladder?’ I added, horrified.

  Luc nodded. ‘Has ’em stitched together. And the grubbs’ blood? It hardens good and stout when you mix it with a few other ingredients. Where the needle holes are in the bladder when they stitch the hides together? Thorne uses the blood concoction to seal ’em so no air leaks out.’

  I turned to look at the grubb. While I knew it probably could not understand us, I sensed a deep misery in its eyes. Her eyes.

  Luc said, ‘But he hasn’t caught a grubb in a long time now.’

  ‘Why?’

  Luc said his next words in a low voice. ‘Cos I come and warn ’em and they hide.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘They might not be much to look at, I know. But underneath that hide, they’ve a heart as big as any you’re likely to ever see.’

  I looked back at the grubb and could see that her yellow eyes were filled with moisture. When I shot a glance at Luc, he had anticipated my question.

  ‘A grubb can sense things like we never can. They can feel what we’re feeling. I don’t know if we give off a scent or what, but they know. They just know. She understands that we’re sad. And so she’s sad too. And with that sadness, it also tells her that we’re, well, that we’re good creatures, not bad.’

  I had never been referred to as a creature before. But then again, a Wug was just one thing among many other living things, I reckoned.

  I turned to look at the grubb and gently rubbed her face. I said, ‘I think you’re very beautiful.’ And I smiled.

  The purring sound filled the passageway again.

  I smiled even more broadly, and though I couldn’t be sure, it seemed that she was smiling back at me.

  ‘Now she senses happiness,’ explained Luc.

  I said, ‘Thorne said they’ve tried to kill him, many times. How?’

  ‘They can tunnel through anything. Never know where they might pop out. Only thing gives ’em away is the sound of their tunnelling.’

  ‘So, I’m sure Thorne, being as cunning as he is, takes precautions?’

  ‘He has patrols down the passageways and has things on the wall that measure the smallest of vibrations. Gives him early warning when and where they might be coming. And his sleeping chamber is lined with iron. Grubbs can work their way through iron, but it takes a while. Plenty of time for Thorne to get away, but even so, early on, they came close to getting him.’

  He looked at the grubb, and his face became embarrassed. ‘More courage than I got.’

  ‘But you warned them against Thorne,’ Delph pointed out. ‘That takes courage.’

  ‘Not the same, is it?’ said Luc.

  ‘It’s Cere and Kori, isn’t it?’ I said. This statement made Luc glance at me. I continued. ‘He’d hurt them, right? If you turned against him? She was worried that you were showing us these places. She’s afraid Thorne will find out.’

  Luc slowly nodded. ‘He has ekos fiercely loyal to him. They’d kill their own flesh and blood for him.’

  A great many thoughts were swirling through my head. I turned to Luc, my determination resolute. ‘How long did it take Thorne to build the aero ship?’

  ‘Ten or more sessions, close as I remember. Lot of work.’

  ‘Ten sessions,’ I repeated, and then smiled. That was a good thing, I thought. ‘And if he can’t catch any more grubbs, he can’t build another bladder for the aero ship.’

  Delph whispered in my ear, ‘What are you planning to do, Vega Jane?’

  ‘To escape this place and make sure he can’t attack Wormwood,’ I said flatly, as though it were obvious. And it was to me.

  I had expected Delph to simply nod in agreement. Only he didn’t.

  ‘’Tain’t that simple, Vega.’

  ‘What?’ I said, startled.

  ‘What about the ekos and gnomes?’ He rubbed the face of the grubb. ‘And these here creatures?’

  ‘I don’t understand you, Delph.’

  ‘You heard Luc. Thorne has spies. Those loyal to him. If we escape and ruin his plans, you think he won’t take it out on them? On Luc, and Cere and little Kori? And the grubbs?’

  I couldn’t look at Delph because I knew he was right.
My heart was being torn in half with this dilemma. ‘We . . . we can’t save everyone, Delph. It’s impossible.’

  ‘Well, we can try,’ he replied matter-of-factly.

  I felt like a mountain had settled upon my shoulders. We had come in here with the goal of surviving the Quag. Now we must save a bunch of others as well. But Delph was right. We had to at least try.

  I said slowly, ‘We can try, Delph. But I’m going to need help. I can’t do this alone.’

  ‘That’s why ya got me, Vega Jane.’

  9

  THE KING’S SECRET

  For 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 was forced to leave in the first place.’

  ‘That’s right. 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. So, he ran for it. And now he wants to make them pay for that.’

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

  He said thoughtfully, ‘It may work, but we need to know more.’

  The next night, I asked 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.’