Vega Jane and the Maze of Monsters Read online

  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.’

  ‘Who?’ I asked.

  ‘Virgil.’

  ‘They were friends, I guess.’ Though I couldn’t imagine my kind grandfather being friends with the likes of Thorne.

  As though to give voice to my thoughts, Luc added, ‘Well, in his mead cups, he didn’t sound none too friendly towards him.’

  ‘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 lit 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.

  Delph said, ‘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 us, but I need to figure out a way to get into Thorne’s room while he isn’t there.’

  ‘What you need is a distraction to get him outta his room.’

  ‘What sort?’ I asked curiously.

  Delph sat forward and looked very serious. ‘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 sceptically.

  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.

  Thirty slivers later, Delph and I peered around the corner of the passageway leading to Thorne’s chamber.

  ‘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 hurtle 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 towards 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 shrank back as far as I could in the niche when he raced past me in the darkened passage, a short-barrelled 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 towards his chamber, not knowing how long I would have.

  The light from the candle I had just lit 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 labour 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 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. 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. A 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 fleeing into 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 one more thing
in the box 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 blue 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. Many things now 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.

  10

  NOTHING FROM SOMETHING

  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 and the Adder Stone sliding around that made the noise. I slowly opened the box and felt for the items in the darkness. My fingers closed around the ring and I slipped it on. Then I put the Adder Stone in my pocket. 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 had apparently 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.

  Thorne’s 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 bright 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 shrank 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 well enough 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 become invisible? It seemed an impossible thought, but what other explanation was there?

  So, if he wasn’t able to see me, could I sneak out of here?

  I glanced through the crack once more and saw Thorne in bed. He had kept one candle burning, but the chamber was only partially lit 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, waiting for Thorne to spring up and wonder 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 centre 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 as well as the gift of flight, it also gave the wearer exceptional strength. But my chain was around Thorne’s waist and I didn’t want to wake him. 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 blasting away. And though I might have been invisible, I was still flesh and blood. One round zinged past my ear. Another smashed into 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 the 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 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.’

&n
bsp; ‘What was in it?’

  ‘Virgil accused Thorne of murdering Murgatroyd with poisoned mushrooms. He said he was going to see Thorne pay 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.’

  ‘That bloke just likes to kill, don’t he!’ exclaimed Delph.

  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. 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.

  ‘Holy Steeples,’ he said. ‘Experiments?’

  We started reading the book together. It was filled not only with words but also 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.

  Suddenly, I heard it. ‘Someone’s coming,’ I said in a hushed voice. I looked down at the ring. The blasted ring. And the Adder Stone. What if I was found with them? And the book!

  I gazed around, searching for a hiding place. 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 and the Adder Stone under him, and Harry Two lay right down, his big body covering them completely. I blew out the candle, and the chamber was plunged into darkness. Delph and I quickly lay down and pretended to be asleep.