Vega Jane and the Maze of Monsters Page 7

  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 stopped. 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 tone in his voice 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.’

  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 and the Adder Stone. 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 danger 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 and put it on, careful to keep the three-hook side up so I wouldn’t vanish. I slipped the Adder Stone into my pocket. 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. 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.

  ‘There’s a lot more to your grandfather than we thought,’ he said.

  ‘I think there’s a lot more to everything than we thought,’ I said back.

  And I did not mean this in a good way.

  11

  GONE

  The next light found us outside for another go at flying Thorne around.

  As I readied for our flight, he looked at my arm pointedly.

  ‘Cut yourself, did you?’

  I shot a glance at my sleeve. There was blood on it from where the stone fragment blasted off by the morta shot had hit me.

  ‘I caught it on a jag of rock.’

  He gave me a dismissive look and stared up at the sky, which was quickly turning dark and foreboding. ‘Looks like a storm is coming. Shall we get on?’

  When I started to strap Thorne into the harness, he shook his head.

  ‘Positions reversed this time, my dear. I shall carry you.’

  Since I had no choice I allowed him to harness me up and then we kicked off and sailed upward.

  The ride up was bumpy as the winds pummelled us. We quickly became soaked as the rain began pelting down. I was glad of my goggles. A skylight spear shot sideways above us and the accompanying thunder-thrust was nearly deafening. I felt Thorne tense above me. He seemed scared of a bit of rain and noise.

  ‘Everything OK?’ I asked.

  He didn’t answer. Instead, I felt him wriggling above me and the harness started falling away from him. He had unbuckled it and, since he was the only thing keeping me up, that was quite the problem for me. I reached back and grabbed Destin. But then he gripped my hand with both of his and tried to peel my fingers from the chain.

  Unbalanced, we immediately went into a dive.

  ‘Let go!’ he roared, kicking at me.

  ‘Not likely!’ I yelled back.

  We swooped, barrel-rolled, somersaulted and plunged across the stormy skies.

  He kept punching and kicking at me; I felt my face start to puff up.

  Finally, I drew back my fist and managed to wallop him across the face. Blood from his nose spurted so fiercely that it splattered over both of us.

  He looked down at me in shock. ‘You broke my nose.’

  I turned to face him and clung on by wrapping my legs around his torso. With my legs supporting me, both my hands were free, and I struck Thorne again and again. All the hatred, loathing, disgust and fury I had pent up for this bloke was finally unleashed. I thought of every vile thing he’d done to us, to the ekos, the gnomes and the grubbs.

  After a dozen hits, I had very nearly knocked him out. But though I had won the fight with Thorne, our combined equilibrium had now been upset by his nearly being unconscious. We fell into a steep dive. I bent my head back and looked down. The only thing I could see was a mass of tree canopies coming at us sickeningly fast.

  I spun us around so that I was on top, gripped Destin with both hands, like the reins on a slep, and arched my neck and shoulders. Foot by foot we started to point up. As we finally soared upward, my boots brushed the tops of the tree canopy.

  Then a skylight spear and accompanying thunder-thrust struck so close that it jarred me loose from Thorne, who had recovered his senses. He seized on this opportunity by grabbing me by the hair with both hands and ripping me away from him. Then he let go, which was fine with me because unbeknownst to him I had quickly managed to slip Destin from around his waist and secured it around my own. I looked up just in time to see Thorne falling like a boulder.

  The mighty king was screaming like a frightened baby Wug.

  ‘Help me, Vega!’ he screamed.

  Part of me wanted to let him fall and good riddance to him. But another part of me couldn’t let the bloke die – at least not like that.

  I suppose that’s what separated the likes of him from the likes of me. And the fact was, a fast death was not justice enough for him. Not by a long shot.

  I pointed my head and shoulders downward and shot that way as if I was propelled from one of Thorne’s cannons.

  I grabbed him by the hair and thought, Let’s see how he likes it. When we landed, we hit softly enough to barely cause a stumble.

  The next moment, a morta was levelled against my head.

  ‘I just saved your life,’ I snapped.

  ‘And I’m about to take yours,’ he said, a completely deranged look on his face.

  The next instant, he was lying face down and his morta had been knocked flying. I looked down at Harry Two, who was perched on Thorne’s back. Before he could recover and try to shoot us again, I coshed him, knocking him out.

  ‘Come on, Harry Two,’ I said urgently. ‘Quick.’

  I snatched up the harness, which had hit the ground near us, and put it on. Harry Two jumped into my arms and I quickly buckled him in. I jumped straight up and we soared into the stormy sky like a fired arrow.

  I pointed us in the direction where I knew Delph was. A skylight spear shot near us and I rolled over and then zipped downward.

  ‘Vega Jane!’

  Delph was running for his life. I knew this to be true because a group of ekos was right behind, with the
ir weapons raised. I pointed us straight at him, and Harry Two and I rocketed towards the ground. At the last possible moment, I levelled out, reached down and gripped Delph’s outstretched hand. We soared away and then did a long backwards arc before we both bent our shoulders forward, propelling us to speeds I had never reached before. We would need every bit of it because we had only slivers to execute our plan.

  We streaked down the shaft through which we had both previously fallen and landed at the bottom. The only ekos there was Luc. This wasn’t by happenstance. Delph had arranged it earlier with the head ekos, who had simply ordered the other ekos away. I freed Harry Two from the harness and gripped Luc’s arm.

  ‘The aero ship,’ I said.

  After grabbing our tucks from the sleeping chamber, we followed him down a passageway. Then I abruptly stopped.

  ‘Wait a mo’,’ I said. I put on my glove, willed the Elemental to full size and took aim.

  Delph pulled Luc back and said, ‘Cover your ears.’

  I let the Elemental fly and it hurtled straight ahead and smashed into the towering wall of skulls. There was a terrific explosion and the bony masses collapsed downward, creating a mess of crushed bones on the rock floor. When the dust settled, there wasn’t a single pair of eye sockets staring back at us from that hideous collection.

  ‘Take that, O mighty King,’ I shouted to no one in particular.

  We arrived at the aero ship’s chamber a few slivers later. Luc unlocked the enormous door.

  ‘I’ll get the oars,’ said Delph.

  But a sound made us all turn.

  It was Cere and little Kori at the doorway.

  ‘Thorne is coming,’ Cere said breathlessly. ‘And I have never seen him this angry.’ She paused, her face quivering. ‘And from words I have heard, Luc, he knows we have betrayed him. We will not live past this light.’

  ‘Yes, you will,’ I said firmly. I pulled the book from my tuck. ‘This is the proof you need, Luc. If this doesn’t turn your kind against their king, nothing will.’

  Luc took the book, opened it, flipped through a few pages, and his features paled. His expression then turned to one of disgust. And from that to anger. It was as if I could see Luc’s courage filling back up inside him. He closed the book and looked up at me.

  ‘I knew that Thorne was mad, but I never suspected . . . this evil.’

  Delph said, ‘But you musta known ekos and gnomes were going missing?’

  ‘Aye, but Thorne blamed it all on the grubbs. I can see now it was his way to turn us against each other.’

  ‘He’s a cruel monster, Luc,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what else we’ll face in the Quag, but I doubt we’ll confront anything more evil than Thorne.’ I paused. ‘So, what are you going to do about it?’ I asked bluntly, tapping the book.

  ‘Do?’ said Luc. ‘Do?’ He seemed to be swelling right before our eyes, growing into something, or perhaps back into the bloke he had once been.

  ‘We are going to take our lives back. And free ourselves from a king who never should have been allowed to lead a blade of grass.’

  We exchanged tearful hugs.

  As we drew apart, Luc said, ‘Thank you, Vega. And good luck to you in your journey.’

  Luc locked the door behind him. We could hear shouts and running feet in the distance.

  While Delph grabbed the oars, I ran over to the aero ship, jumped inside the carriage and started fumbling with the contraption that forced air into the bladder. ‘Can you figure out how this works?’ I called out to Delph.

  ‘I know how it works,’ came a voice.

  I whirled around to see the gnome who had looked at me funny that one light. He came forward from where he had been hidden in a crevice of rock.

  ‘Who are you?’ I asked.

  ‘Sieva,’ he answered.

  ‘And how come you can speak Wugish?’ I asked.

  ‘Easy enough. I listen to Luc and the king,’ he replied smoothly. ‘No one much notices us gnomes. So, you hear things, you do.’

  I nodded towards the bladder. ‘Can you fill it with air?’

  He hopped into the carriage and did something with the contraption such that a flame erupted in its belly. There was a whooshing sound and I noted the bladder was rapidly beginning to fill as the heated air was propelled into it.

  I called up to Sieva. ‘How long?’

  ‘Not long,’ he said. ‘As you can see.’

  The ropes holding the carriage in place were already straining against the lift generated by the strengthening buoyancy.

  Delph stared up towards the ceiling and his features collapsed. ‘And how do we open that so we can actually get this thing out?’

  I looked where he was looking. It was only then that I noticed there was no opening.

  ‘No!’ I screamed. Our plan was not going to work.

  But Sieva pointed to a dark corner where a metal lever was wedged between two large gears. ‘That’s how. It’ll open the roof. Plenty of room to get out.’

  Now I looked at him suspiciously. ‘Why are you helping us?’ I demanded.

  He smiled and said with a slight hiss, ‘I don’t much like the company of kings.’ He held up one of his claw-like hands. ‘I like to get in the dirt. Why we gnomes get along with the grubbs, I ’spect. And I saw you give that book to Luc. I heard what he said. No more king.’ He clacked his claws several times more in apparent delight at the thought.

  Delph pulled on the lever, and a hole opened up directly above the aero ship, which was nearly ready to go.

  I glanced at the locked door as footsteps hurried towards it.

  ‘Delph, quick! He’ll have a key.’

  We rushed over to some heavy crates stacked next to the door and wedged them against it.

  We hurried to the carriage and climbed in, throwing our tucks in too. Delph had already slid the oars through the holes in the sides of the aero ship. There was a knife in a leather sheath inside the carriage. I pulled it out and looked at Delph. ‘To cut the ropes holding us down.’

  He nodded and looked upward at the now full bladder. The ropes were mightily creaking and straining to keep the ship tethered to the ground.

  There came an almighty crash against the thick door but it held fast with the added weight of the crates behind it.

  ‘Cut the lines,’ cried Sieva. ‘Do it now or you will perish.’

  I started hacking the ropes as fast as I could, but they were stout.

  Another great crash came and the door split a bit, yet still held.

  I heard Thorne roar, ‘Fetch the cannon!’

  Delph grabbed the knife from me and starting sawing at the ropes like a Wug possessed. I looked up and saw the still stormy sky through the opening. Delph had three more ropes to slash. Harry Two clambered up on to the edge of the carriage and began to gnaw at one of them.

  I looked around the interior of the carriage for the steering mechanism and the oars that would allow us to navigate. I mentally went through our plan and discovered about four thousand things that could go wrong.

  When I heard the cannon being rolled down the passageway, I called out to Sieva, ‘How are you going to get out of here?’

  He held up his claws and smiled, once more showing his stained, pointy teeth. ‘S’long as I have these, I have a way out.’ Then he turned and attacked the rock wall behind him.

  Harry Two had cut through his rope. Delph was just about done with his, which left only one.

  I gripped it in my hands and pulled with all the strength that Destin gave me. The metal peg that the rope was attached to had been driven deep into the rock. But with one mighty tug, it came free. I fell over backwards and hit my head on the fire contraption. I rose up at the same time the carriage did. It was a surprisingly fast ascent. But not fast enough.

  The roar of the cannon came an instant later, followed by the door and the crates being blown aside as though they weighed nothing.

  Delph screamed. Harry Two barked. I ducked.

  The
cannonball shot between the carriage and the bottom of the bladder.

  When I rose back up, I couldn’t believe our good fortune. It had missed us completely and we were very nearly through the opening that would lead us to the outside. But when I looked at Delph, I knew I’d been wrong. The cannonball had hit the rock wall, and a chunk of stone had flown off and slashed Delph’s arm. He had dropped to the carriage’s bottom, clutching his limb, his face twisted in pain. The blood was pouring down his front.

  I knelt beside Delph, pulled out the Adder Stone, held it over his wound and thought good thoughts. The blood ceased flowing and the slash healed. Then I used the Stone to fix my wounds from fighting Thorne. I heard shouts and looked over the edge of the aero ship.

  Thorne was down there with his fist upraised and his features awash with fury. I could only smile, though, as I looked at his battered face and broken nose.

  ‘I will kill you!’ he roared.

  Then we were through the hole and out into the open expanse of the Quag, where we were quickly slammed by the wind. It was pushing us back towards the cliff. That was not what I wanted.

  ‘Delph,’ I called out. ‘The oars.’

  He dropped down on to the bench, gripped an oar in each hand and pulled.

  ‘The other way!’ I shouted over the blasts of the storm.

  ‘Right,’ he said, and he reversed his sitting position and tugged on the oars.

  I snatched the wheel and did my best to guide us where we needed to go.

  Every sliver, I looked down at the ground to see what was going on. Then I finally saw what I knew I would. Thorne and his army of ekos. They were about fifty feet behind us.

  ‘OK, Delph, you can stop rowing.’

  ‘Are they catching up?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He dropped the oars and joined me at the side of the aero ship.

  I looked ahead of us. The Quag had changed yet again. The mountains, the river and the ridges all had exchanged places. I could feel a current of energy in the air. And for some reason, I didn’t think it was from the storm.