The Keeper

Undecim: 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.

“Cut yourself, did you?” he said pointedly.

I shot a glance at where he was pointing. There was blood on my sleeve 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 pummeled 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. It seemed the bloke was scared of a bit of rain and noise.

“Everything okay, O mighty king?” I asked snidely.

He didn’t answer. Instead, I felt him wriggling above me. I couldn’t tell at first what he was doing. But then it became quite clear as the harness started falling away from him. He had unbuckled it from around his torso. And since he was the only thing keeping me up, that presented a bit of a problem for me. A problem I solved by reaching back and grabbing Destin with one hand.

Unbalanced, we immediately went into a dive.

“Let go,” he roared, kicking at me.

“Not bloody likely,” I yelled back.

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

He kept kicking at me and I kept parrying the blows.

Then I grew tired of that and drew back my fist and walloped 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 damn nose.”

“Here’s another just for the Hel of it.”

I punched him again, giving him a black eye, and then I added a kick in his belly for good measure. I was a female, ’tis true, but I was tougher than just about any male of my acquaintance, including this git!

He gripped my hand with both of his and tried to peel my fingers from the chain. He managed to pry three away. So I turned to face him and wrapped my legs around his torso. With my legs supporting me, both my hands were free. And I used them to sound effect.

I struck Thorne over every part of his body I could reach. All the hatred, loathing, disgust and just sheer fury I had pent up for this bloke was finally unleashed. I was hurting him for every vile thing he’d done to us. For every ekos and gnome he’d cut up. For every grubb he’d killed. For murdering Murgatroyd. And simply for being the biggest, most evil prat I’d ever had the misfortune to meet.

After a dozen hits, I thought I had very nearly knocked him out. But there was more fight in the old Wug than I gave him credit for. I didn’t see the blow coming in time. His fist slammed against my face so hard I thought I felt all my teeth loosen. Thorne was old but he was big. Another blow to my face caused blood to fly from my nose and my face to puff up. I felt woozy and sick. But I was not about to let this git beat me. Thinking he had an advantage, he threw another blow, but I blocked it with my arm, the pain rattling up and down the limb. Then, keeping one leg wrapped around him so I wouldn’t plunge to the ground, I drew my other leg back and kneed him in a spot no male ever wanted to be hit. He groaned and went limp.

“Oh no!” I cried out.

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.

Thorne must have seen this and roused himself. “You’re going to kill us both,” he screamed between the gap in his teeth I had caused by knocking a front one out.

“Well, you were trying to kill me,” I shouted right back.

I spun us around so that I was on top. I 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. 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 perfectly fine with me because unbeknownst to him I had slipped Destin from around his waist while he was mauling me.

I secured Destin around my waist and 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 didn’t want to do a thing. Let him fall and good riddance to the jumped-up git. 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, to see how he liked it. When we landed, we hit softly enough to barely cause a stumble.

The next moment, a short-barreled morta was leveled against my head.

I had beaten Thorne to a bloody pulp. His face was swollen, nearly unrecognizable. And I’m pretty sure I had cracked a rib or two in addition to my facial injuries.

“I just saved your life,” I snapped.

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

The next instant, he was lying facedown and his morta had flown away. I looked down at Harry Two, who was perched on Thorne’s back. Harry Two then bit Thorne in his left buttock. The king screamed before I coshed him on the head with my booted foot, knocking him out.

“Come on, Harry Two,” I said urgently. “Quick.”

I snatched up the harness, which had hit the ground near us, and donned it. 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 there running for his life. I knew this to be true because a group of ekos was right behind, firing their mortas at him. I pointed us straight at him and Harry Two and I rocketed toward the ground. At the last possible moment, I leveled out, reached down and gripped Delph’s outstretched hand. We soared upward and then did a long backward 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 soared 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.

“Bugger off, 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 returning,” 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 your prat 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 our races 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?” Luc 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 us from a bloody 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. You have given us the chance to fight and take back what is ours. Now go. 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.

“Sieve,” 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.”

“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 turned to Sieve. “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 toward 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.

“Damn,” I screamed. Our plan was apparently full of holes.

But Sieve 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. I didn’t care for blokes who were that agreeable. Give me stubbornness or outright deceit any light and I will readily accept it. But casual kindness will bedevil me all night long.

“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 clawlike 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 bloody 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 toward it.

“Delph, quick! He’ll have a key.”

We rushed over to some heavy crates built from thick wood 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 Sieve. “Do it now or you will surely 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 onto 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 Sieve, “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 provided 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 backward 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. The blood was pouring down his front.

I knelt beside him and held out the Adder Stone.

“Where’d you get that?” he cried out, his face twisted in pain.

“Nicked it from Thorne’s robe when we were cartwheeling across the sky.”

I waved it over Delph’s wound and thought good thoughts and the blood ceased and the slash healed. Then I used it 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 in fury. I could only smile, though, as I looked at his battered face and broken nose.

Then I saw movement to the right of Thorne. It was Sieve. He had stuck his head out of a hole, apparently to see what was going on.

Before I could utter a warning, Thorne, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, had turned and fired his morta. The projectile caught Sieve full in the face. He slumped down in the hole, dead.

“You bloody murderer!” I screamed at Thorne.

“I will kill you too!” he roared back.

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 toward the cliff. That was not what I wanted.

“Delph,” I called out. “The oars.”

He dropped down onto 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.

“Okay, 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.

I looked behind us. A column of ekos was aiming their long-barreled mortas directly at the aero ship. Thorne was right behind them, gazing up at us with great delight. I turned to Delph and nodded.

He gripped the cord dangling near the wheel and pulled it, releasing the air from the bladder. We began to lower.

I hoisted Harry Two into the harness. “Delph, take my hand. It’s time.”

He grabbed our tucks with one hand and gripped my hand with his other. I led him over to the far side of the carriage, away from Thorne and the ekos.

We held hands, each of us looking at the other.

“If this don’t work,” said Delph.

“It will work,” I said firmly.

“Right, but if it don’t, well.” He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek.

The mortas fired and projectiles tore into the bladder, riddling it with holes.

“Now!” I screamed. I kicked the contraption holding the fire, knocking it over. The wooden carriage quickly became ablaze.

We clambered up on the edge of the carriage and leapt.

Another round of mortas fired off, blasting into the carriage.

I looked behind us and saw that the aero ship was starting to fall.

Right before we were about to hit the ground, I straightened out and we zoomed along just above it. I looked back again and saw the aero ship hit the ground with a tremendous crash, and as the remnants of the bladder fell on top of the carriage, there was a mighty explosion. The flash of light and geyser of smoke towered above us.

Well, I thought, that was the end of Thorne’s chance to attack Wormwood. Even if he somehow managed to escape Luc and the other ekos, he would never be able to build another aero ship.

When the smoke cleared away, Delph called out, “Vega Jane, look!”

I turned and saw a sight I will never forget.

Hundreds of armed ekos were racing toward Thorne and his much smaller band. And leading them was Luc. And held aloft in his hand was... the book — the proof of Thorne’s crimes against the ekos, unmistakably written out in the miserable bloke’s own hand.

I turned to Delph, a smile a mile wide on my face.

He gazed back. “I think this is the end of old King Thorne.”

“Bloody well overdue,” I said firmly.

I turned back around and flew along as fast as I could. About three miles farther on, I was exhausted from toting Delph and Harry Two and our bags of supplies. I aimed my head and shoulders down and we landed a sliver later.

I unhooked Harry Two from the harness and we all sank to the ground and just lay there. I was astonished that we were actually alive. As I looked over at Delph, I could tell he was thinking the exact same thing.

He said, “Well, we done it, didn’t we? All the things coulda gone wrong with our plan and we done it.” He looked down. “ ’Cept for Sieve gettin’ killed.”

“I know, Delph. We never would have made it out except for him. But he died fighting against Thorne. He was very brave.”

“Suppose you’re right, Vega Jane.”

Harry Two gave a sharp bark and we both jumped. But my canine was grinning. It was like he was agreeing with me.

I touched my cheek. “You kissed me right there, before we jumped.”

He glanced down, his eyes half-shut. “I... I...”

I reached over and kissed him on his cheek in the exact same place he’d kissed me.

“Thank you, Delph.”

He opened his eyes fully and gazed at me. “For what?”

“Just for being you. Which is pretty bloody wonderful.”

And then it happened. From nowhere a dark cloud descended upon us. I could see nothing. I heard Harry Two bark. I heard someone gasp. And then the cloud was gone.

And so was Delph.