The Finisher

I looked at the Elemental. I knew I could not throw it as the chain-mailed female had. But she had said that, when I had no other friends, it would be there for me. Well, friends are supposed to be good listeners. I looked back at the jabbit.

It was now or never.

I spun in the air, faced the oncoming jabbit and threw the Elemental. In my mind, it flew straight and true at the target.

The jabbit exploded and the Elemental flew in a graceful curve right back into my gloved hand. I landed, set down Harry Two and we ran full tilt toward the gates. I’d had quite enough of the past. As soon as I passed through the gates, everything became black.

I knew where I was. I could feel the grass around me. I heard Harry Two’s yips, the impact of his four paws with the ground near me. Part of me just wanted to lie there with my eyes closed for the rest of my sessions. But I slowly sat up and opened my eyes. Stacks was in the distance. I looked to the sky. Hardly any time had passed. It was still light, though growing darker by the sliver. The only things to tell me I had not imagined it all was the glove on my hand and the Elemen- tal gripped in that hand.

And the bulge in my cloak pocket was the Adder Stone.

210 I rose and held the Elemental tighter. What was I to do with the thing? It was as tall as I was. I couldn’t carry it around Wormwood. I couldn’t really hide it.

And as though the thing could read my mind, it shrunk down to the size of an ink stick. I stared at it, dumbstruck.

And yet it seemed that I was growing accustomed to inexpli- cable things happening to me as they mounted in number.

It occurred to me that I had not returned to Eon even though he had said time travelers did. Yet then again I was not supposed to be seen, heard or harmed while I traveled back in time. I looked at a burn on my arm. Well, I had been seen, heard, injured and nearly killed.

I touched the burn and pain shot all the way down my arm.

“Oi, Eon,” I called angrily out to the air. “You need to rethink your rules of time. They’re a bit dodgy.

” I took out the Stone, waved it over my wound and thought good thoughts. The pain eased some, but the burn did not heal fully. I sighed resignedly and put the Stone away.

“Figures,” I said to myself. “I guess this is a burn from the past that the Stone can’t sort out all the way. Thanks loads, Eon.

” I walked along, thinking about so many things that I finally couldn’t think at all. My head truly felt like it would burst at any moment.

Bloody Hel, Vega. Bloody, bloody Hel.

211 V I G I N T I Q U A T T U O R Secrets I spent the next few nights practicing my flying with Destin and my tossing with the Elemental. During the lights, I kept the Adder Stone and the Elemental hidden under a floorboard at my digs. Destin always rode around my waist.

I would never dream of removing it at this point because I never knew when taking to the skies might save my skin.

The next light, I was walking along the forest path to my tree before Stacks when I was confronted by Non wearing his metal breastplate. I looked behind him and there was Nida, who no longer guarded Valhall. The prisoners had been released and then bound into servitude to help build the Wall.

But Nida had his shuck with him, and the great beast was growling and snapping its immense jaws.

Harry Two started snapping his jaws and growling right back. My canine had grown surprisingly fast since I had taken him in. His chest, neck and legs were thick and powerful. I put a hand down in front of his face and Harry Two immedi- ately sat on his haunches and grew silent.

Non and Nida paired together were bad enough. But next to Nida was Cletus Loon holding his morta and sporting a malevolent grin.

Non held out a hand. “Pass parchment.

” I gave it to him. He flicked a gaze over it and then flung it back at me.

He leaned down and said, “What are you doing, female?” “What I’m doing is I’m going to my tree to eat my first meal,” I said, holding up my battered tin box. “Would you like to see for yourself?” I shouldn’t have made the offer because Cletus snatched the tin from me and opened it.

“Good stuff in here,” he said. He pulled out a hard-boiled egg, popped it into his mouth and swallowed it whole. The next instant, he was on the ground holding his belly because that’s where I kicked him.

Non snagged my arm to hold me back. “We’ll nae have that.

” “He just stole my food!” I shouted.

Cletus was on his feet now and appeared to be about to point his morta at me. But Nida smacked him in the head and sent him sprawling again. Nida never said much, but when he hit you, you knew it.

Sprawled on the ground, Cletus moaned in pain and grabbed his head. “What’d you do that for?” “Simmer down, Loon,” advised Non. “Or he’ll have the shuck on you next and then you’ll be begging for a clubbing on the head ’cause a shuck don’t club, it bites.

” Cletus stood, looking embarrassed and his cheeks red. I didn’t feel sorry for him. I didn’t care about Cletus. I snapped, “I’ll be coming round and taking that egg from your meal por- tion at the Loons.

” “The Hel you will,” he shot back. “I was testing it to see if there was something in it what shouldn’t-a been.

” 213 I pulled my little knife and smiled wickedly. “You want me to check your belly then, to make sure?” Cletus leapt back, got his feet tangled, and fell on his head. Non roared with laughter and the shuck growled at the sudden noise, but Nida held him back on the chain. I grabbed my tin off the ground where Cletus had let it fall.

Non gripped my arm and leaned in close. “One lucky strike nigh means nothing, female,” he whispered in my ear. I glanced at the dent I had made in his breastplate but said nothing. He continued. “Krone has told me the lay of the land. You and Morrigone. She will nae always be there to protect you.

” I ripped my hand free. Around my waist Destin felt on fire. “I didn’t need her to do that, did I?” I shot back, pointing at the dent.

Before he could say anything else, I hurried on my way. I didn’t like being stopped by Wugs with mortas. I didn’t like having my stuff male-handled and my food eaten. I didn’t like that lout Non threatening me. But that seemed how Wormwood was going to be from now on.

I reached my tree, gave a searching look around to make sure no one was watching, picked up Harry Two, gave a great leap and landed neatly on my planks.

We sat and I divvied up our meal. I was parceling out the small harvest from the little garden I kept next to my tree. My crop was not much. A few vegetables, some lettuce leafs, a bit of basil, parsley, and witch’s ear, which brings heat to any food you might make. But I was supporting myself and living on my own.

214 Still, I was worried about the fact that Krone so obvi- ously wanted me in Valhall. I had to protect myself from discovery because I intended to keep practicing with Destin and the Elemental. I had studied the map of the Quag on my skin every night. I now knew it by heart. I had to keep the Adder Stone and the Elemental a secret, obviously. It was for- tunate that the Adder merely looked like a stone. And the reduced Elemental could have been an ink stick. Destin was a chain. Unless they saw me flying around with it, there was no cause to throw me in prison over it.

That’s when I sat bolt upright.

The book. Quentin’s book of the Quag. I needed to study it as closely as I had the map. It would give me valuable information about creatures in there, information I would need to survive. I couldn’t believe I had neglected it this long.


I had to rectify that as soon as possible. Without the book, I could not flee this place. And this place, I now promised myself, I was going to flee.

That night after I finished work I snuck from my lodg- ings, leaving Harry Two sleeping, entered the forest, looked to make sure no Wug was around, and then I started sprinting and leapt into the air. I caught an updraft of wind and soared high. The breeze sailed through my hair and over my body.

It felt cleansing, like I was taking a long bath under the pipes.

I reached the Delphias’ property in record time and dropped to the ground with little sound. The creta Duf had been working on was gone now, taking its muscle to the building of the Wall. The whist hound was nowhere to be seen. The young slep was still here being trained up proper 215 for a place on Thansius’s carriage. And the adar was also here and asleep, its leg still attached to a peg in the ground. But its vocal cords and speech capabilities, I was sure, were much enhanced since my last visit.

In the darkness and with very little Noc to guide me, I suddenly realized I had a problem. I couldn’t remember where I had buried the book. I walked past each pine tree, examin- ing the ground underneath for the little pile of needles I had placed over the hole I’d dug. Of course, after all this time, the little pile of needles had been blown away by the wind or else carried off by creatures to construct their nests. I was cursing myself again for being so blindly stupid, when I heard it. Or rather, heard him.

“Wo-wo-wotcha, Vega Jane.

” I turned slowly around and saw Delph standing there.

“Hello, Delph,” I replied. He drew even closer. He looked tired and while his hair was no longer white because he had not been working in the Mill, it was long and scraggly and right dirty black.

He held up my book.

I stared at it and then at him, unsure whether I should claim ownership.

“C-c-can I c-come t-too, Ve-Vega Jane?” 216 V I G I N T I Q U I N Q U E The Wall of Twiddle Twaddle I stared at delph, dumbfounded.

He drew closer and held the book up even higher. “To the Quag, I’m meaning, eh,” he said in a too-loud voice.

“I know it’s the bloody Quag,” I said fiercely, finally find- ing my voice. “And you don’t have to tell every Wug in Wormwood about it. Where did you find it?” In a far quieter voice, he said, “Box in the ho-hole you d-dug.

” “How did you know about that?” “Wa-watched you, di-didn’t I?” “Have you read it?” I asked in a whisper.

“N-not all. But it don’t s-say h-how a Wu-Wug gets th-through it,” he said.

He eyed my waist. Rather, he eyed the chain around my waist.

“You ca-can fly,” he said. “ ’Cause-a that thing?” I felt myself growing angry. “You’re sounding very logi- cal, Delph. Was it all an act before? Because if it was, you are the biggest, sorriest git I’ve ever met.

” He fell back a step, his face betraying his hurt feelings. “I ca-can talk, Vega Jane, when I want to. But th-things get mu-mu-muddled up here.

” He touched his head and sat down on a stump and gazed pitifully up at me, the book dangling between his fingers. My anger faded as I looked at his hurt features.

“Where’d y-you ge-get it?” “I found it at Quentin Herms’s cottage. He was the one who put it together.

” “So’s he’s b-been through the Qu-Quag?” “I guess so.

” “Then th-the Out-Ou —, th-the Out —” We eyed each other for about a sliver but said nothing.

He held the book up to me. “Ta-take it,” he said, and I did.

“No map-a the Qu-Quag,” he pointed out.

“I have one,” I replied.

“Where?” “Someplace safe.

” I sat next to him on the ground. This actually would be my best opportunity to have my most pressing question answered and I intended to do just that. “I had a vision. Would you like to hear it, Delph?” “Vi-vision? What, like Mor-Morri . . . gone?” “Maybe more certain even than that. I went back in time.

Do you see?” I saw him mouth the words back in time. But no realization spread over his features. “Wo-wot, like when y-you was a ti-tiny thing?” “Even before that. But when I was younger I saw some- one, Delph. I saw you.

” He looked truly unnerved by this, his face frozen in fear.

“The Hel you say.

” “I saw you at Morrigone’s house.

” 218 He shook his head savagely. “ ’Tain’t ne-never b-b-been there.

” “I saw you running away from her home. You were so scared, Delph.

” He put his hands up to his ears, covering them. “ ’Tain’t true, ’tain’t.

” “And I saw Morrigone. She was scared too.

” “ ’Tain’t true,” Delph exclaimed.

“And I think I know what you saw.

” “No . . . n-no . . . no,” sobbed Delph.

I put my hand on his quaking shoulder. “The red light? You remember you told me about the red light? Was it Morrigone’s hair you saw? Was that the red light?” Delph was swinging his head to and fro. I was afraid he was going to jump up and run off. But I swore to myself that if he did, I would fly after him. I would run him down and make him tell me the truth. I needed to know that badly.

“She was there, wasn’t she? And my grandfather? At her home? His Event? It happened then and there, didn’t it?” I shook him. “Didn’t it, Delph? Didn’t it!” He shouted, “I was there, Vega Jane.

” “With Morrigone? And my grandfather?” He nodded.

“Why were you there? Why? You have to tell me.

” I shook him again. “Tell me!” His face was scrunched in agony. He doubled over, but I pulled him back upright. I was out of my mind now. I had to know. I didn’t care if I was hurting him. My whole life was apparently a lie. I had to know some part of the truth. I had to know right this sliver.

219 I slapped him. “Tell me!” “G-gone to see her new wh-whist hound me dad brung her after he tr-trained it up. H-Harpie. L-loved H-Harpie, I d-did.

” “Then what?” “Th-thought I could h-hear Harpie inside. T-took a peek.

” “And you went in?” He nodded, his face still screwed up in pain, his eyes closed. I kept a grip on his arm. I was willing him to keep going. “D-didn’t see no Wug n-n-nowhere. No Har- Harpie neither.

” “Keep going, Delph. Keep going.

” “H-heard a noise. Still n-no Wu-Wug. So’s I w-went up the stairs. I w-was sc-scared.

” “You were only six sessions, Delph. I would’ve been scared too.

” I was keeping my voice level now, trying to force the same calm on him.

“G-got closer, hear-heard ’em. Argu-arg-arguing.

” He finally got the troublesome word out of his mouth.

“My grandfather and Morrigone?” He said nothing. I shook him. “Was it them?” “C-can’t do th-this, Ve —” “Was it them?” I roared, twisting his face until it was lined up with mine. “Look at me, Delph. Look at me!” I screamed.

He opened his eyes. “Was it Morrigone and my grand father?” “Yes,” he said breathlessly, tears dribbling from his eyes.

“Any other Wug?” He shook his head. “Brilliant. Keep going, Delph.


” “Them ar-arguing like that, sc-scared me. But . . . but 220 may-maybe I c-could help, calm ’em down. L-like I’d do w-with the beasts with m-me dad. C-calm ’em down like.

” “I would have thought the same thing, Delph. Calm them down. Trying to help.

” He let out a little sob and I felt so guilty for making him remember all this, but there was no other way. He put his head in his hands and started sobbing, and I jerked him back straight so he had to look me in the eye.

“You can’t stop now. You have to get this out. You have to.

” “T-two doors d-down that way. Nothing b-b-behind the first one.

” “And the second?” I said, my voice like fragile chips of ice in my throat.

“When I saw . . .

” His voice trailed off and he started to whimper. I thought I was going to lose him again. But I didn’t yell this time. I didn’t hit him.

“You saw something that made you really afraid, didn’t you?” He nodded miserably. “They wa-was f-facing each uh-other.

” “Was she mad at him? Was she angry? And he was trying to calm her?” His response stunned me. “ ’Twas the uh-uh-other way round, Ve-Vega Jane. ’Twas M-Morrigone, what l-l-looked scared. She s-s-seemed to be tr-tr-trying to calm him d-down.

” I stared at him in disbelief. “What was she saying to him?” Delph took deep shuddering breaths, his body twitching with each of them. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was trying to throw off some sick that had got 221 hold of him. He finally stopped twitching, rubbed his face clear of tears and sat up. He looked directly at me. His expres- sion was clear. There was no more pain there.

“Not to go,” Delph said simply. “Please not to go.

” “And what did he say?” “That he had to. He had to try. He just had to. He kept saying it over and over. So terrible-like. Hear him in me dreams . . .

” His voice trailed off again.

“Go? Go where?” I said more harshly than I intended.

Delph glanced down at me, his face so pale it looked like the Noc close up.

“Didn’t say. And then it happened.

” “The red light?” The look on his face was so fearful, my heart went out to him. “ ’Twas fire. Fire the likes of which I ain’t never seen. It was fire that . . . that was alive. It . . . it flamed up all around Virgil, like a serpent swallowing him whole. And then . . . and then he floated up in the air. And then . . . and then . . . he was gone. Without making a sound.

” Delph paused, staring ahead. “Not one sound,” he added in what was no more than a whisper.

I could barely draw a breath. What Delph had just described was what had happened to my parents. My parents had suffered Events right in front of me. I had seen it! Only I hadn’t known that’s what it was.

I must have been looking blankly off because I was roused only when Delph gripped my shoulder and shook me.

“Vega Jane, are you all right?” I still couldn’t speak.

“Vega Jane?” he said in a panicked voice.

222 My mind drifted back to the memory. I could see the fire swallowing them whole. An Event. Holy Steeples, I had witnessed their Events.

“Vega Jane?” He shook me so hard I nearly fell over.

I finally focused on him. “I’m sorry, Delph. What hap- pened then?” I asked in a hoarse voice, the terrible image of my parents in flames still firmly in my mind’s eye.

He paused, licked his lips. “And then I run ’cause Morrigone saw me.

” “What did she look like?” “Like she would kill me if she could get to me. I run harder than I ever run in all my sessions. But she was faster.

She was there, before I got out the door, she was. Then that’s when it happened.

” “What happened?” “The red light.

” “But I thought the red light happened with my grandfa- ther. It was the flames.

” “No. The red light . . . the red light happened to me, Vega Jane.

” I thought back to when I had been in the past at Morrigone’s home. After seeing Delph run away. She had seen me, waved her hand and there had been a blue light.

I looked at Delph. “Delph, are you sure the light wasn’t blue?” He shook his head. “ ’Twas red, Vega Jane. ’Twas red.

Like the fire.

” “And what happened after that?” “My head felt all funny-like. But I was running still. I kept running. And . . . and then that’s all. Just running.

” He turned 223 to me, looking drained by all he had recounted. “Why did you ask if the light was blue?” “Because that’s the color it was when Morrigone waved her hand at me.

” He looked nearly petrified by these words. “You were there?” “But I never remembered it, Delph. It was gone until I saw it again.

” “But then why did I just remember pieces of it, then? Until now?” “Difference between blue and red light, I guess,” I said, feeling as drained as he looked. We both seemed to have run countless miles.

But I was also thinking of something else. When I told Morrigone I had visited her home once before, she had seemed immediately tense and suspicious. Now I knew why.

She had thought I remembered seeing her all those sessions ago, when she had run out all mad-looking and hit me with the blue light, erasing from my mind what I had seen.

Then something else struck me. I stared hard at Delph.

He finally said, “Wot is it, Vega Jane?” “Delph, you’re not stuttering anymore.

” He looked shaken by this observation; his mouth dropped open and then a smile slowly spread over his features. “You’re right.

” He smiled more broadly.

“But why?” I asked.

“The words ain’t jargoled no more, Vega Jane.

” He touched his head. “In here.

” I put a hand on his arm. “The weight has lifted from you, Delph. I don’t think you’ll ever stutter again. And I’m so sorry 224 I had to put you through that. So very sorry, Delph, because you’re my friend. My only one.

” He looked at me and then to the sky. In the Noc light he looked like a very young again, running alongside me through the woods with nary a care in his heart. And the same for me.

I couldn’t even imagine what that would feel like anymore.

Even though we weren’t old, we were old with all that we carried inside.

He glanced at me, and the look on his face made me want to weep.

He touched my hand with his. “You’re my friend too.

And I’d take you over all other Wugs put together.

” “I’m glad we got through that together, Delph.

” I paused and then decided to just say it. “My parents had Events. I saw them. They’re not at the Care anymore. They’re gone.

” He looked at me in horror. “Wot?” The tears slid down my cheeks as I continued. “The fire swallowed them up. It was just like you described, Delph. I had no idea what had happened to them, but now I do.

” “I’m sorry you had to see that, Vega Jane.

” “I’m sorry you had to see what you saw too.

” I looked down at the book I still held.

“What about Outliers? Are they in the book?” I asked.

He glanced at me and shook his head. “Outliers? Load-a rubbish.

” I hiked my eyebrows. I had come to agree with him, but I had seen so much that he hadn’t. “Why?” “If Outliers are out there, what are they waiting for, then? For us Wugs to build this stonking Wall for them to have to get over? Barmy.


” 225 “But you’re helping to build the Wall,” I pointed out.

“And what else can I do?” he said helplessly. “Probably chuck me in Valhall if I didn’t.

” “That’s why they had to put the reward on Quentin’s head,” I said. The answer had just occurred to me, in fact.

“Why?” asked Delph. “What do you mean?” “They couldn’t simply say he’d had an Event, or a garm had got him. Because that would not have laid the ground- work for the announcement of the Outliers.

” Delph seamlessly picked up my line of thought. “And then to the building of the Wall. ’Cause the one made the other happen.

” “Right,” I said, impressed by his logic. Gone was the mumbly-bumbly Delph with the big heart. He was now strong of both mind and body. And I was pretty sure he would need both. To survive.

What I was about to say might sound to Delph like a spontaneous thought, but I believed part of my mind had been thinking this ever since John left me.

“Delph,” I said slowly.

“What?” “You asked me if you could come with me through the Quag?” He kept his gaze right on me. “That’s right. I did.

” “But why would you want to leave Wormwood? It’s all you’ve ever known.

” He scoffed. “What is there here, really, Vega Jane? Forty sessions from now, what will be different about here? And who’s to say there ain’t somethin’ out there, beyond the Quag? 226 If there ain’t been no Wug to go there, how do they know there ain’t nothin’ else? Tell me that. And now they’re putting up this bleedin’ Wall? Har!” I was so proud of Delph at that sliver that I wanted to snog him.

“I don’t think the Wall is being built to keep Outliers out, Delph. I think it’s being built —” “To keep us in,” he finished for me.

“Council has lied to us. Krone, Morrigone, even Thansius,” I said quietly.

He nodded absently. “I’ll go with you through the Quag, Vega Jane. On the grave of me mum, I will go with you.

” “Okay,” I said. “If we’re going to really do this, we have to have a plan.

” He glanced at me. “What sort?” I touched Destin around my waist. “For starters, you’re going to have to learn how to fly too.

” He looked terrified. “Fly? What, up there?” he said, pointing to the sky.

“Well, that’s sort of the point of flying, Delph.

” He put his huge hands up in protest. “I never. I couldn’t, Vega Jane. I’m . . . I’m too big.

” I stood and motioned for him to stand too and then I turned my back to him. “Put your arms around me.

” “What?” His face reddened.

“Put your arms around me, Delph. And hold tight.

” “Bloody Hel,” he exclaimed, but his arms encircled me.

This close, it was surprising how truly big he was, though I had known him all my life.

227 “Tighter, Delph, you don’t want to fall.

” He squeezed me so tight around my middle that I could barely breathe. “Not that bloody tight!” I barked at him. His grip relaxed a bit. “Now together we’re going to jump, on the count of three. One . . . two . . . three.

” We leapt at the same time, straight up. We shot skyward.

I could feel Delph’s grip around me tighten. I slowly moved myself forward so that he was now on my back. We raced along only about thirty yards up. The wind whipped over us.

“Bloody Hel!” Delph exclaimed again.

I looked back and up and saw that his eyes were closed.

“Delph, open your eyes. The view is amazing from up here.

” He opened his eyes and looked ahead of us. His grip lessened and I felt his body, stiff as a rock before, grow relaxed.

“ ’Tis beautiful,” he said in an awed voice.

“Yes, it is. Just don’t look down yet. It takes some getting used to and —” That was a mistake. As soon as I said, “don’t look down,” Delph of course looked down. His grip around my waist became iron, his body tensed and he screamed and rolled.

That sent us into a dive. We were heading to the ground far faster than I ever had, but then I realized I had never before flown with a 250-pound Wug on my back.

We were totally out of control. Delph screamed. I screamed. We were a few yards from the ground when I reached back and slapped Delph in the face. He immedi- ately stopped thrashing. I regained control, zoomed upward and then back down in a controlled dive this time and we 228 landed, not smoothly, but we landed. As we sprawled on the ground, I looked over at him.

“You almost killed us,” I said hotly. Then my anger faded as I remembered how it had been on my first flight. And at least I had been in control. He was just along for the ride. I stood and helped him up. “That was my fault, Delph. It will be better the next time.

” He looked at me like I was asking him to be best mates with Cletus Loon. “Next time?” he said incredulously. “ ’Tain’t going to be no next time, Vega Jane.

” “Do you want to get through the Quag?” He sputtered but said nothing. I continued. “Because if we can fly over parts or all of the Quag, we won’t have to worry about what’s in it.

” I stared at him expectantly, tapping my boot against the dirt.

Delph blinked, slowly took this in and said, “Let’s give it another go, then, Vega Jane. Har!” 229 V I G I N T I S E X Training Up The next two nights, we practiced our flying. Well, I practiced while Delph hung on for his life. Finally, I slipped Destin off and handed it to him. He turned to run like a frightened Wug facing an amaroc.

“You have to try, Delph,” I said.

He turned back. “Why? You can fly the thing. All’s I need is to hold on.

” “We don’t know what might happen. You knowing how to do it by yourself is important.

” He looked doubtful until I said, “You have to, Delph, if you want to come along with me.

” He gingerly took Destin from me. I had uncoiled the chain so that it was longer. Delph was wider at the waist than I was. I helped get it around him and snapped closed a metal hook I had fashioned and added to the chain.

He just stood there. “Now what?” he asked.

“Now what?” I said in amazement. “Delph, you’ve been flying with me for how long now? What do I do?” “You either run and take off or you just jump,” he replied promptly.

“So don’t you reckon that’s what you want to do?” “Should I run or jump?” he asked tentatively.

Males. You have to lead them to the water and then show them how to slurp it.

“I don’t care. Pick one.

” “And once I get up there, what then?” “I’ve shown you, Delph. You know how to steer. You know how to land. Just do it like I did it.

” He backed up, got a running start and leapt. He flew straight and fast. Right into a large bush. I ran over and helped him out. He was coughing and his face was scratched from the prickly leaves.

“I can’t do this, Vega Jane. I’m no good a’tall. Me feet belong on the ground.

” “Yes, you can too do it,” I said firmly. “Now, when you run and leap, point your head and shoulders upward. Then you won’t hit the bush again. To turn, you point with which- ever shoulder is in the direction you want to go. To head higher up, point your head that way. To come down, point your head and shoulders down. Right before you land, swing your feet down and you’ll land upright.


” “I’ll bash my head in.

” “You might,” I said. “But if you do, I’ll put it back together and you can try again.

” He looked at me dubiously. “You cannae put no smashed head back together.

” I took the Adder Stone out of my cloak pocket and waved it in front of his face and thought good things. The scratches there vanished. He backed away, looking fearful.

“What is that thing?” he exclaimed.

“It heals, Delph. Scratches and smashed heads. Pretty much anything.

” 231 “It can do that?” “Yes, it can,” I replied, though I had no actual experience with fixing smashed heads.

On his fourth attempt, Delph soared into the air, flew for about a quarter mile, made a long, if ragged, bank, turned back toward me and landed. On his feet. He was so excited at his success that he snatched me off the ground and whirled me around at such a fast pace I thought I would be sick.

“I did it, Vega Jane. I’m like a bird, I am.

” “A very big bird,” I replied. “And put me down before I vomit on you.

” I decided to show Delph the Elemental. When I first pulled the tiny spear from my cloak pocket, wearing my glove, it was not very impressive to him. And considering it was barely three inches long, I could hardly blame him. But when I focused my thoughts and asked the Elemental to return to its normal state, it grew in my gloved hand to its proper length and assumed its dazzling golden color.

Delph exclaimed, “How in the bloody Hel does it do that, Vega Jane?” “It doesn’t matter to me how it does it, Delph,” I said. “It’s only important that it does it when I need it to.

” He reached out to take it, but I stayed his hand. “Only with this, Delph,” I said, holding up the glove.

“If you touch it without the glove, what happens?” he asked.

“Neither one of us wants to find out, do we?” He slipped on the glove and hefted the Elemental. I looked over at a tree about thirty feet distant. “Think in your 232 mind that you want the Elemental to hit that tree. Then throw it that way, like a spear.

” Delph looked doubtful, but he scrunched up his face — which was a bit comical, though I hid my smile — took aim and let fly.

The Elemental traveled a few yards and then dove into the dirt. Delph looked over at me, smiling. “Cor blimey. Is that all it does? Har!” I took the glove from him, picked up the Elemental, thought about what I wanted it to do and let it fly. The tree disintegrated in a flash of light when the spear struck it. I held out my gloved hand, and the Elemental flew back to it, like the hunter hawks I had seen Duf training up.

Delph had thrown himself to the dirt when the Elemental hit the tree. When he looked up, I gazed down at him with what I hoped was a sufficiently patronizing look.

“No, that’s what it does, Delph. Har!” Soon, Delph could hit just about anything with the Ele- mental. I didn’t know if it would be necessary when we tried to pass through the Quag, but I didn’t know it wouldn’t be either.

Late that night, Delph and I sat at my digs in front of a meager fire while Harry Two snoozed at our feet. Making up my mind, I stood and said, “Now you need to see something.

” “What?” I slid my trousers down.

“Vega Jane!” he exclaimed, looking away, his face as red as a raspberry.

233 I ignored this and lifted up my tattered shirt and my shirtsleeves, exposing my belly and my arms. “Look, Delph. Look.

” “Cor blimey, Vega Jane,” he said, his voice shaky. “You gone mental or what?” “It’s not what you think, Delph. I’ve got my under thingies on. Look!” He slowly turned his head back. His gaze ran up along my legs to my belly and up my arms. His jaw fell. “What in Noc’s name is that, I ask ya?” “It’s the map through the Quag. Quentin Herms left it for me. He had it on parchment. But I was afraid to keep it, so I inked it on my skin.

” He drew closer. “The way through?” “And I’ve memorized all of it, Delph. But you need to as well.

” “I wouldnae b-b-be staring at your . . .

at your Wu- Wugness,” stammered Delph, turning away once more.

I frowned. “Well, you’re going to have to, Delph. If you want to go. We both have to know the way, just in case.

” I held up the Quag book. “You well know what awaits us in there.

” For the next thirty slivers, Delph studied the marks on my skin as I walked him through the map of the Quag. I would do this for as many nights as possible until the direc- tions were firmly entrenched in his brain. As the slivers passed, Delph’s eyes slowly closed. Soon he was snoring in his seat. I lowered my shirt and drew up my trousers, sat in my only other chair and looked through the book on the Quag.

234 Harry Two whimpered a bit at my feet. I looked down and thought he might be having a bad dream. I wasn’t sure if canines could dream, though I didn’t see any particular rea- son why not. And anyway, Harry Two was quite a special canine.

I slowly turned page after page in the book, taking in as much information as I could. Quentin Herms had been as meticulous in documenting the Quag as he had been making pretty things at the Stacks. But the things he had documented and re-created in these pages were not to be taken lightly. On nearly every piece of parchment there was something that could kill you. Like a creature that was three huge bodies attached. And while you might be able to cleave them apart, the book warned that “Woe be to the Wug who forgets that destroying one part of the thing does not equal victory. ” But there were some beneficial creatures as well, includ- ing something called a Hob that would help you so long as you gave it a small gift each light. Cheeky blighter, I thought, trading kindness for coin.

I finally closed the book and peered into the fire. One smoldering log caught my attention. Its bark was reddened, nearly transparent because of the bite of flames. My grandfa- ther and my parents — swallowed whole by fire.

But it was my grandfather who had initiated the flames.

He had wanted to go. Morrigone was imploring him to stay.

And he had gone anyway. And now my parents had gone too. And perhaps they had done so because they wanted to leave as well.

Which meant they had chosen to leave us. No, to leave me.

235 Well, I could not burst into flames to leave Wormwood, but I could go through the Quag to do so. For now that was my overriding obsession. To leave Wormwood and find my grandfather and my parents, because they were not dead.

They were simply no longer in Wormwood. Which meant they were somewhere else. Which meant there was some- where other than Wormwood.

Now another emotion seized me and I sat down on the cold stone floor and did something I almost never did. I started to weep. I rocked back and forth. I hurt all over.

Almost like I had been swallowed by fire myself. My skin felt burned and blackened. I was gasping for breath, so hard was I crying. It was like I had saved all my sessions up to let it loose now.

I was startled when I felt it.

The big arms wrapped around me. I opened my eyes and there was Delph sitting next to me, holding me and weeping along with me.

Harry Two had awoken as well. He had sidled over to us and was inching my hand up with his snout. Trying to make me look at him. Probably trying to make me feel better. But it’s hard to feel better when your entire family has left you.