The Finisher

He bowed his head, something that surprised me. But his next words stunned me. “I think of them often, Vega. I pray at Steeples for their recovery. They were good Wugs. And may the Fates be kind to them.

” When he raised his head, I saw something that was even more shocking than his words.

184 There were tears in his eyes. Tears in Domitar’s eyes? We locked gazes for an instant before he turned and left.

I felt someone behind me. For an instant I thought it might be Krone come to take me to Valhall despite Morrigone’s assurances, but it was simply Dis Fidus.

“It’s time to go back to work, Vega,” he said quietly.

I nodded and returned to my workstation. As I passed Domitar’s office, I could see his silhouette. He was bent over his desk and, unless my ears were deceiving me, the tubby Wug was sobbing.

The rest of my slivers at Stacks that light went by in a sort of blur. I must have worked hard, because when the end- of-work bell rang, all the straps I had been given to finish lay coiled on the trolley with their edges sanded, their surfaces smooth as a baby whist’s skin and the requisite holes cut pre- cisely as instructed in the parchment. I went to the locker room, changed into my other clothes and headed out.

Dis Fidus closed the doors behind me and I heard the lock turn. And that’s when I made up my mind. I was going back into Stacks. I remembered the vision of the fierce battle and the torrent of blood that had washed me away. I remem- bered the screaming Wug on the doorknob. I of course remembered the jabbits.

But what I most vividly recalled, as I plunged into the red abyss, were the images of my parents. I needed to find out what had happened to them. I would not find out the truth from the Care. Or Council. Wormwood was not what it seemed to be, this I was learning quite forcefully. It held secrets, secrets I was now determined to discover.

185 A sliver later, Dis Fidus came out from a side door and walked down a path away from me. A bit later, I saw Domitar emerge from the same door. I crouched down low in the tall grass. Harry Two copied me. Once Domitar was out of sight, I said to Harry Two, “Okay, I’ll be back. You stay here.

” I got up and started to walk away. Harry Two followed me. I put out a hand. “You stay here, I’ll be back.

” I started to walk again. Once more he followed. “Harry Two,” I said.

“You stay.

” He simply smiled and wagged his tail and followed.

Finally, I gave it up as a bad job. It looked like we would do this together.

I accessed Stacks through the same door as before. Harry Two followed me in. I wasted no time and made right for the stairs. I did not want to be in here after dark. I hurried up the stairs with Harry Two right on my heels. I found the door the jabbits had knocked down. It was fully repaired. I opened it and went inside.

I could now see that what had toppled down on me and revealed the little door was a suit of armor. It was all righted and shiny now. I managed to move it aside, again exposing the little door. Harry Two started growling when he saw the screaming Wug on the doorknob, but I told him to be quiet and he obeyed instantly. I closed the door behind us. At the same time, I braced myself for a wall of blood hurtling at me.

I had already planned to use Destin to get to my parents’ image in that abyss. And I did not intend on drowning Harry Two and myself in the process.

But there was no blood.

186 As I stood there, the cavernous walls disappeared and an enormous pit was revealed directly in front of me.

I felt woozy at this transformation. How could something that was right there no longer be there? How could one thing change into another thing? Stacks had clearly been some- thing else many sessions ago. There was something in this place, some force that was absolutely foreign to me and every other Wug. Well, maybe not to Morrigone.

I looked at Harry Two. He was no longer smiling and his tail was not wagging. I touched his head and found that he felt cold. I touched my arm. It was as though all the blood had drained from me.

I squared my shoulders and stepped forward until I came to the edge of the pit. I stared down, unable to process what I was seeing. So stunning was it that I felt myself teeter on the edge. That’s when I felt Harry Two bite down on my cloak and pull me away from the edge before I might topple in.

I composed myself and once more drew close to the pit and stared down again. What I was looking at filled me with both anger and hopelessness. For what was down there were all the things that Wugs who had long labored at Stacks had made. The ones on the very top, I recognized as objects I had very recently finished: a silver candlestick and a pair of bronze cups. I sat down on the ground, my spinning head between my knees, my stomach suddenly lurching. I felt like I was los- ing my mind.

How could all these things have ended up here? I had always assumed they were being made for the Wugs who had ordered them. I could never afford any of these things, 187 but other Wugs could. They were custom-made. They —.

Here, my idiotic thoughts broke off. They were made so they could be thrown into this pit right here. They had never left Stacks. All my work, my whole existence as a grown Wug, was in that pit.

Without thinking, I slammed my already-injured hand against the hard ground, then yelped in pain. I grabbed it with my other hand and squeezed, trying to stop the pain.

But it only grew worse. What a git I was.

I bent down and, using my injured hand, I picked up a white stone lying on the floor next to the pit. I wanted to see if I could form a grip. I could, barely.

I glanced at Harry Two, who stared up at me with a help- less look, as though he could feel every painful thought of mine. He licked my hand and I absently patted his head.

I had come here looking for answers about my parents’ vanishing. Instead I had found that my whole working life was also a lie. The tilt of emotions was crushing, yet I fought against it. I had labored at Stacks, apparently, just for busy work and for no other reason. If so, why was it so important to keep us busy? I stood. I was here. I had found this pit, but I needed to find more. Much more.

“Let’s go, Harry Two,” I said in a determined voice.

We marched around the pit and through a tunnel on the other side. It eventually opened into a vast cave.

I looked all around. There was no other tunnel out of here. There were just blank, rock-studded walls.

My frustration boiling up inside, I suddenly screamed, “I need answers. And I need them now!” 188 Immediately, a movement came from my left. I wheeled in that direction and called out, “Who’s there?” I blinked as a small orb of light glimmered from the part of the cave far- thest from me. As I continued to stare, the orb grew and then transformed to a shadow. And then this shadow evolved into a small being holding a lantern. As it came forward and stopped in front of me, I looked down at it and it looked up at me.

“Who are you?” I asked in a quavering voice.

“Eon,” came the response.

It had on a blue cloak and carried a brass-tipped wooden staff in its other hand. As the lantern light illuminated the thing calling itself Eon more clearly, I saw a small, wrinkled face that was distinctly male. His eyes were protuberant and took up a far greater proportion of his face than I was used to.

His ears were tiny, and instead of being round, they were peaked at the top, like Harry Two’s. His hands were thick and plump and the fingers short and curved. He was barefoot. I could just see small toes poking from under his cloak.


“What are you?” I asked, for he was clearly not a Pech like Nida, nor was he like Duf Delphia. He almost seemed transparent, as the light appeared to cut right through him.

“I am Eon.

” “What are you doing here, Eon?” “This is where I am,” replied Eon.

I shook my head in bewilderment. “And where is this?” “Where I am,” he answered. I felt wonky again. It did not seem that reason applied to this bloke.

I said quickly, “My name is Vega Jane.

” I held out my hand for him to shake, but winced with pain.

189 Eon looked at my hand, all battered and bloodied.

He pointed to the white stone I held in my other hand.

“Wave that over your injured hand and think good thoughts.

” “What?” I was growing convinced that Eon was com- pletely mental.

“Wave the stone over your injured hand and think good thoughts,” he repeated.

“Why?” “It’s the Adder Stone. You can tell by the hole through it.

” I looked at the rock and sure enough, there was a small hole that ran completely through it. For the first time I also noticed how truly brilliantly white it was.

“What does it do?” I asked warily.

“Just think good thoughts.

” I sighed and then did as Eon had asked me to do. My hand instantly healed. No more pain and not a trace of blood.

I stared down in utter amazement. I was so stunned that I nearly dropped the Stone. “How did that happen?” I exclaimed.

“The Adder Stone has the soul of a powerful sorceress embedded in it.

” I stared at him blankly. “A sorceress?” “A magical being.

” Eon fixed his great, bulging eyes on me. “With the power to heal, as you can see for yourself.

” I looked once more at my hand and had to admit he was right. I felt a chill soar up my spine at holding something in my hand that could heal wounds with a wave and a wish. Yet I don’t know why I was so astonished. After all, I had a chain that allowed me to fly. I had nearly drowned in a river of blood only to mysteriously vanish from this place and end up outside it. I was coming to learn that Stacks was chock-full of 190 secrets and powers and mysteries. “And yet you just leave it lying around?” I asked.

“It is here, it is there. It is sometimes everywhere,” chanted Eon. “Sometimes it is simply where you need it to be.

” “It can do anything?” I asked eagerly. “Grant any wish?” He shook his head. “It can grant the good thoughts of the one holding it. You could be sad and it would make you feel better. You might think that you could use a bit of good fortune, and it might happen. It has its limits, though.

” “Like what?” I asked curiously.

“You must never wish ill of anyone with the Adder. Not only will it not grant the wish, terrible consequences will befall you in such an attempt.

” He stopped, looked me over and said, “Are you injured a lot?” “A bit more than I’d like, actually,” I answered curtly. “So what do you do here?” “My race is the guardian of time.

” “Time doesn’t need guarding.

” “I would expect that response from one who has not seen her past or future from a different perspective. Follow me, Vega Jane.

” Before I could say anything, he turned and walked slowly down the tunnel. I glanced at Harry Two, who looked at me with a curious expression. My past and my future? I had come to learn that my past was a lie. If I could see it from a different way, would I learn anything useful? I couldn’t answer that for sure. But I knew I had to try.

We walked for a long way until we reached the end of a tunnel. Eon stopped and turned to me, pointing at the wall. I looked where he was indicating, expecting to see only rock.

191 Instead I saw a pair of enormous iron gates. I had seen some of the Dactyls at Stacks fashion iron like this by beating it with their hammers while it was still molten. The only thing was, this gate looked as if it were still glowing with heat. It appeared so hot, in fact, that it was flaming red.

“Is it on fire?” I asked, keeping my distance from it.

“No. It is actually cool to the touch. You may see for yourself.

” I touched it gingerly. It was cool.

Eon held up two keys that he had taken from his cloak pocket and handed them to me. “One will take you to the past, the other, your future.

” “They’re gold!” I said in wonder.

Eon nodded. “Any key used to open something enchanted is made of gold.

” I smiled at this strange remark. “Is that a rule?” “It is more than a mere rule, for rules can be changed. It is truth.

” “I think I understand that,” I said slowly.

Eon looked at the keys I held and said, “So many fascinat- ing events that might have taken place did not because one lacked the courage to open a certain portal.

” “Well, sometimes it might be smarter not to open it,” I said stoutly. Then I added, “How do you tell the keys apart? Which is past and which is future?” “You can’t tell them apart, really,” Eon replied. “You must take your chances. And you may pick only one, past or future.

” “And if I pick the past over the future?” “Then you will see the past. Your past.

” “And if I pick the future?” 192 “You will see what lies ahead of course.

” “I’m not sure I want to see what will be coming up for me.

” Eon said firmly, “But you must choose.

” I stared down at the two keys. They were identical. But apparently depending on which one I selected, the outcome would be very different indeed.

“Is there really no way to tell them apart?” He cocked his small head. “Do you have a preference?” I had made up my mind. “The past,” I said. “Even though I have lived it, I have recently found that it remains as murky as though I had not. I need to understand it fully if I am to have a future. At least I believe that to be true.

” Eon considered this. “Then, Vega Jane, I would tell you the vast majority of choosers end up going into the future, because they return here and tell me of their experiences.

” “But if there’s truly no way to tell, I guess my odds are split right down the middle.

” “All I can advise is for you to look at the keys and see if you can feel which is the right one for you, taking into account all that I have said to you,” replied Eon.

I took a few steps back and held both keys side by side in the palm of my hand. They were identical, down to the teeth. But then something occurred to me. Something that Eon had said. It had been a clue and I had to think it was intentional.

There was a marginal difference between the keys. One had more black scratches than the other. I glanced at the heavy iron gates. The lock was irregularly shaped. It would be difficult to insert a key without scratching it against the blackened iron plate. Eon had said that most ended up 193 in the future. So that key would have been used far more. And thus have far more scratches. I had my answer.

Grinning, I handed the badly scratched key to Eon. He pocketed it and said, “You have a good mind, Vega Jane.

” He looked at the gates and then at me. “And now it is time you were off.

” Drawing a deep breath, I marched over to the gate and prepared to insert the key. I looked back at Eon. “How exactly will it happen?” “You will not be seen nor heard and you cannot be harmed. Neither can you intervene in any way in the events you will witness, no matter what happens. That is the law of time and it cannot be circumvented.


” “One more question. How do I get back?” “Through this gate. But do not dawdle, Vega Jane. And do not think yourself mad, though madness you think you may see.

” With this disturbing thought in mind, I took a deep, replenishing breath and inserted the key. I gave Harry Two a hopeful smile and opened the gate.

194 V I G I N T I D U O The Past Is Never Past The gates swung open wide and Harry Two and I simply walked through. Everything was fuzzy, as if the clouds had deflated and fallen to the ground for a lie-down. If I was to see my past, it seemed it would be through this filter of fog.

The cry startled me. Eon hadn’t said specifically that I would hear things, though I supposed he assumed that I knew I would. Obviously, in the past, folks still talked and things still made sounds. But there was something about the cry that seemed distantly familiar to me. I hurried along, using my hands to push the mist away, although all I really did was muck it up more. Then I reached a clearing in the mist and stopped. My mouth sagged.

I was back in my old home. And the scene I was looking at was remarkable. I had seen it before, only I was a very young and I didn’t remember. That was Eon’s point, I sup- posed. Simply because you’ve lived through something doesn’t mean you understand its true significance or even recall the details of it correctly.

I knelt down next to my father as he hovered over the small bed. On the bed was my mother. She looked pale and spent and her hair was slicked back against her head. A female dressed in a white cloak and a domed cap stood next to my father. I recognized her as a Nurse who helped bring new Wugs to life.

My mother was cradling a tiny bundle in her arms. I could just glimpse the small head and thin black hair of my brother, John. The cry had come from him. John and I shared a birthlight, so from this I knew I was exactly three sessions old. When I lifted my gaze from this sight, I was startled to see my younger self peering into the room from the doorway.

I was far shorter and so was my hair. But I was still skinny, although the sinewy muscle I’m possessed with now was of course not evident yet. I was smiling as I stared at my new little brother. There was an innocence and hope in that look that brought tears to my eyes. And yet two of my family were now gone. Three if you counted John being with Morrigone.

Essentially, I was the only one left.

My father rose, beaming first at John and then at the younger me. He slapped his palms together, and as if on com- mand, I ran and leapt into his arms.

I gasped. I had forgotten that I had done that as a very young. My father hugged me and then held me low enough to see John close up. I touched his little hand. He made a belching sound and I jumped back and squealed with laughter.

With a sudden pang, I realized how long it had been since I had laughed like that. I have had fewer and fewer rea- sons to laugh as my sessions have piled on top of one another.

I looked last at my mother. Helen Jane was beautiful despite her ordeal of giving birth to what would become the smartest 196 Wug in all of Wormwood. I knew from Eon that she couldn’t see me, but I drew closer and knelt down next to the bed. My hand reached out and I touched her. Well, not really, because my hand merely passed through her image. I touched John and then my father, with the same result. They were not actu- ally there with me of course, or I with them. But they were real enough.

I felt my lips starting to quiver and my heart throbbed fiercely. It had been so long since we were a family that I had almost forgotten the joy that came with having one. All the small and large moments, many that I had taken for granted while they were occurring, no doubt bolstered by the cer- tainty that there would be many more.

Yet such endearing and memorable engagements in life are promised to no one. They come and go and one has to be aware that there is no assurance they will ever come again. It made me tremble to think what I had lost.

And then the mists clouded over once more and a new image replaced the old.

They were running hard, the female a bit ahead of the male. I ran too to catch up through the mist that had become my world for now. The trees were towering, though not so towering as I was used to in the present. As I caught up, I saw them more clearly. The female was perhaps four sessions. The male then must be two sessions older, or six. I knew this because the male and female were Delph and I.

He was already tall for his age, as I was. His hair was not that long yet. We jumped a narrow creek and landed on the opposite side, laughing and pushing each other. Delph’s face was animated, his eyes bursting with possibilities of the 197 sessions ahead. For the life of me, I had not remembered this part of my past until just now.

Then I realized that Delph would see my grandfather’s Event this session, and he would never be the same. And nei- ther would I. Maybe that’s why I banished this memory, because it was closely aligned with that terrible time. I wanted to call out to them, to warn of what was coming, though I didn’t. There would be no point because they couldn’t hear me.

This image faded and I found myself in the Hallowed Ground where Wugs who had slipped away were laid in the ground. I was staring down at the hole in the dirt as my grandmother Calliope’s box was lowered into it. Other Wugs stood around solemnly watching this take place. This was a bit out of order, because she had died from the sick soon after John was born but before me and Delph had been running through the trees.

And then it occurred to me. Calliope going into the ground meant that my grandfather Virgil was here. I found him in the crowd of Wugs on what I now remembered was a miserably cold light full of drizzle and not even a glimpse of warming sun.

He was tall but looked bent. He was not so very old, yet looked aged. Calliope and he had been together for so many sessions that when she left him, my grandfather was reduced to something far less than he had been. My father stood next to him, his arm on Virgil’s shoulder. My mother, holding my new brother, stood next to them. And holding my grand- father’s other hand was my younger self.

198 I stood next to Virgil and looked up. It was painful to see his sorrow, etched so heavily across his features. Just as I had seeing my brother being born, I once more was possessed of an enormous sense of loss. I was still a very young when my grandfather vanished. I could have spent so much more time with him. I should have spent so much more time with him.

But I had been robbed of that opportunity. My spirits dipped lower than they ever had before.

At the end of a lifetime’s worth of lights and nights, it seemed that family was really the only important thing there was. And yet how many of us truly appreciated that signifi- cance before our last breath left us? We lost family all the time, and we mourned them and buried them and remem- bered them. Wouldn’t it be better to celebrate family while they are alive to a greater degree than when they are no longer with us? I put my hand to my eyes and wept quietly. My body shuddered and I could feel Harry Two right next to me, as though he were holding me up.

Once I regained my composure, my gaze settled on the ring on my grandfather’s hand. The same ring that had been found in Quentin Herms’s cottage. I looked at the back of my grandfather’s hand and saw the same design echoed there: the three hooks connected. I had no idea what it meant or why he had such a ring or such a mark. But it was becoming clearer all the time that there was much I didn’t know about my family. And it was crystal clear that those were mysteries I had to solve if I was ever going to find the truth. Of my family. Of Wormwood. Even of myself.


199 I had my ink stick in my pocket and I used it to draw the three connected hooks on the back of my hand.

The crowd of Wugs was large. I wasn’t surprised by the size. Calliope was much loved in Wormwood. Near the front of the crowd I saw a younger Ezekiel, and next to him was Thansius, so large and solid. He hadn’t really changed at all.

But I was startled to see Morrigone in the back of the crowd.

She was many sessions younger at that point, but she also looked nearly the same as she did now.

I was just about to go over to her when the mists crowded me out once more. It was frustrating, yet I had no other option but to keep going.

That’s when I heard the scream. As the mists cleared once more, I saw Delph. He looked the same age as in my last memory, which meant it was still around the time of my grandfather’s Event.

He was running down a hard-packed gravel road that looked instantly familiar to me. I looked up ahead and saw the gates with the large M on them. Delph was running from Morrigone’s home. As I watched, he looked back in terror and then passed by me. That’s when I realized what was hap- pening. That’s when I saw her. Or rather me.

I was standing in the lane staring after Delph. I was just four sessions old. I recognized the little dolly I carried. It had been a present from my mother on my fourth birth light and it still looked new. To my shock, my young self started to walk up the gravel path toward the big gates. They opened at my approach. Harry Two was jumping and growling around my legs as I followed my younger self onto the grounds of Morrigone’s home. We arrived at the large wooden door. It was 200 partially open. I heard sounds from inside but I couldn’t make out what they were. I drew closer, as did my younger self.

Suddenly, the door flew open all the way and there stood Morrigone, her brilliantly red hair awry and her robes askew.

Yet what I was really drawn to were her eyes. They were the eyes of a female who had been struck clean of all reason.

Morrigone caught sight of my younger self standing there clutching the dolly. She took a step forward. There was a blinding blue light. I heard another scream. And then there was a thud. I closed my eyes. When I reopened them, the mists had enveloped me.

I sat down on my bum and gripped my head while Harry Two danced and yipped around me. The blue light seemed burned into my eyes. I couldn’t shake it. Morrigone, mad.

And then the scream. And the thud. Was that my younger self falling? What had Morrigone done to me? I rose on quivering legs. I had never felt this wonky before and that was indeed telling, for many recent things in my life had left me woozy. I wondered where Harry Two and I would end up next. I was actually growing a bit weary of my wan- dering through the past, but I had to admit, I had learned many things I should already have known.

That thought died just about the time the blow struck and knocked me arse over elbows.

201 V I G I N T I T R E S Who Must Survive I fell hard to the ground and rolled over twice from the force of whatever had hit me. I started to rise, but some- thing was holding me down. When I glanced up, I could see it was Harry Two with his paws on my shoulders. He was surprisingly strong.

I finally managed to push him off and sit up. The field was far bigger than the Duelum pitch back in Wormwood, but I could see nothing that would have knocked me down.

There were blurs of light racing here and there and emitting sparks and rays of colors. At first it seemed truly beautiful and somehow melodious, though it made no sound. But when a silver ray of light hit one of the blurs that I saw racing across the sky, there was a tremendous explosion. An instant later, a body dropped from the heavens and plowed into the dirt less than two feet from where I sat.

I screamed and scrambled to my feet. Harry Two barked and jumped next to me. I stared down at the body. It was blackened and bits of it were blown off, but I could see the great bearded face and the metal cap and breastplate the male wore. There was liquid all over it, like blood, except instead of red, it was a sparkling green the likes of which I had never seen before. I screamed again and this seemed to rouse him.

For a moment, he stared up at me with the one eye he still had. Then he gave a great heaving shudder, the eye froze and he just died, right in front of me.

I backed away in horror until I heard Harry Two howl. I turned in time to see a steed racing at me. Its size would have put any of Thansius’s sleps to bloody shame. And on the steed was a tall, lean figure outfitted all in chain mail. The figure wore a full metal helmet with face shield and was racing right at me. Only when it raised the face shield did I see with aston- ishment that it was a female. I could only see a bit of her features because the helmet covered most of her, even with the shield up.

She lifted her arm. In her gloved hand was a long, golden spear. She took aim as she rode and hurled it right at me.

Only it didn’t hit me. It sailed six feet over my head and I whirled in time to see it strike a huge male full in the chest as he was charging me astride another enormous steed. There was a sky burst like I had seen come down from the heavens on stormy nights, and the bloke simply disappeared in a hail of black dust and red fire.

The spear emerged from the ball of fire, turned in the air and flew back into the female’s throwing hand. Only now she was right on top of me. I covered my head and waited to be trampled. When I looked up, all I saw was the underbelly of the steed as it rose up in the air, lifted by wings that had seemingly sprouted from its withers. It soared into the sky and I watched in fascination as the rider engaged in battle with another figure perched on a winged creature that looked like an adar, only three times as large.

Everywhere I looked, something was attacking something 203 else. From the air and the ground, powerful streams of light whizzed by at unfathomable velocities. If the streams man- aged to hit their targets, they simply exploded. If they missed and hit the ground, the concussive force lifted me off my feet.

Suffice it to say, I was off my feet just about every sliver.

Then it occurred to me that this was very nearly identical to the scene I had observed on the wall in the cavern at Stacks before the river of blood had come to nearly hurl me to my death. A full-fledged battle was raging and now I was right in the middle of it.

As I watched, there came a slight lull in the fighting on the ground. I took the opportunity to run full out, with Harry Two slightly ahead of me. Eon had told me that I could not be seen or heard or presumably touched. Well, I had been knocked down and nearly crushed. I knew if I stayed here, I would die. As a silver beam ricocheted off a boulder, it struck the ground a glancing blow barely five yards from me. I was thrown into the air and came down hard on something. When I rolled away, I saw that that something was a body. It was the female rider in the chain mail, the one who had destroyed the male bearing down on me.

She had evidently been blasted out of the sky. Yet even as I started to get up, her hand reached out and gripped my arm. A strange, near-terrifying sensation went through my entire body at her touch. My mind clouded over. I felt cold, then warm, and then cold again. An instant later, my reason cleared, but I felt as heavy as a creta. I couldn’t seem to move.

“Wait,” she said breathlessly. “Please wait.

” As I looked down at her, she touched the side of her hel- met. It took me a moment to comprehend what she wanted. I 204 carefully lifted it off and her long auburn hair swirled around her metal shoulders. I could now fully see her face, and her features were beautiful. As I stared down at her, I was certain I had seen her before, somewhere. Then my gaze went lower and I saw the hole in her chain mail dead center of her chest.


Red blood just like mine flowed from this wound. She was dying.

I had a sudden thought. I whipped out the Adder Stone and waved it in front of the wound and wished her to be healed. But nothing happened. Then it struck me. I was in the past. This female had died long ago. I couldn’t change that.

I slowly put the Stone away and gazed down at her body.

She was tall, even taller than I was, and leaner if that was pos- sible. But I had felt the immense strength in her grip when she grabbed my arm. And she must be extraordinarily powerful to have wielded the sky spear the way she had, and to wear the chain mail while astride a steed.

The spear! It was lying beside her. I reached for it. But as I did, she spoke again.

“No, wait,” she gasped, but with urgency in her tone. She struggled up a bit and held out her right hand. On it was a glove made of a bright silver material.

“Take . . . this . . . first,” she said, each word separated by a gurgling breath.

I hesitated, but only for a moment as the battle raged with increased ferocity all around us. I took the glove off and slipped it onto my own hand. It looked like metal but was as soft as leather.

She dropped back to the ground. “Now,” she said breathlessly.

205 I reached over and picked up the spear. It was lighter than it looked.

“The Elemental,” she said in a low voice that I had to bend down to hear.

“What?” “The Elemental. Take it.

” She took a long burbling breath that I knew heralded the end of her life. “When you have . . .

no other friends . . . it will be there . . . for you.

” I couldn’t think how a spear could be a friend. “Who are you?” I said. “Why are you fighting?” She was about to say something in reply when a sound came that shook the very ground. When I looked up, I saw to my horror that advancing upon the battlefield were three gigantic figures, each standing at least twenty yards tall, with huge muscular bodies and small heads. They were grabbing flying steeds and riders out of the air and crushing them in their grasp even as they galumphed across the ground.

I looked back down when the dying female grabbed my cloak. “Go!” “But —” “Now.

” And what she said next shocked me more than anything ever had in my life.

She took a shuddering breath, gripped the back of my head and pulled me so close I could see that her eyes were so brilliantly blue they made the color of the entire sky look insignificant. Those eyes bored into me. “You must survive, Vega Jane.

” She shook violently and her hand fell away. Her eyes glazed over as she stared upward.

She was gone.

206 I stared down at her. She had called me Vega Jane. She knew who I was. But who was she? And how did she know my name? When I looked down at her right hand, my heart nearly stopped. On one of the fingers was a ring, with the same three hooks that my grandfather’s held. I reached out to touch it. And then take it. But it would not come off. I would have to cut off her finger to leave here with the ring. And I could not do that, not to a brave female warrior who had saved my life.

I took a moment to close her eyes, gripped the Elemen- tal, scooped up Harry Two in my free hand, looked back once at the giants whose every stride covered a score of yards, and ran for my life.

While the giants were now the focal point on the field, the battle raged on, both on the ground and in the air. As I turned back once to see how close they were growing, a steed and rider swooped low, wielding a great sword nearly as long as I was tall. He ducked under the outstretched arms of one of the giants, and, using both hands, he swung his great blade with incredible force. It sliced the giant’s head clean off its shoulders.

“Take that, you bloody colossal!” he screamed before he and his steed swooped safely away.

A colossal? What the bloody Hel was a colossal? But as the colossal fell, it soon became apparent that he would topple right onto me. And as I estimated he weighed the better part of four tons, there would be nothing left of Harry Two or me.

207 I ran as fast as I’d ever run, even as I could see the shadow of the colossal blocking out the light and reaching ahead of me by a handful of yards. I was never going to make it, not with carrying both the Elemental and Harry Two. And I was unwilling to sacrifice either one.

And then it occurred to me. “You prat,” I told myself.

As the shadow of the falling colossal engulfed me, I lifted off the ground and soared straight ahead, barely a yard in the air. I needed distance now, not height. I half closed my eyes because I was still unsure if I was going to squeak past. The thunderous crash that occurred right behind me jarred my eyes fully open. I glanced back. The dead colossal had missed me by less than two feet.

I soared upward, but this only made me more of a target.

Streams of light were coming at me from all directions. Harry Two barked and snapped at them, as though his teeth could defeat the threat they each carried. I used the only tool I had, the Elemental. I did not hurl it because I was not practiced at aiming it while flying. Rather, I used it as a shield. I didn’t know if it would block the lights coming at me, but I found out quickly enough.

It did. The lights ricocheted off. One deflected blue streak knocked a rider clean off his steed. A purple streak struck one of the remaining colossals squarely in the chest and he dropped to his knees and fell face-forward, digging a hole ten feet deep in the ground with the force of his impact and crushing a rider and his steed underneath.

All I knew was, I wanted to get the Hel out of here. But to do so, I had to find the gates. And I had no idea where they were.

208 As I flew, I looked ahead and saw my own death speeding toward me. Six abreast they were. All huge males wearing chain mail. They were riding steeds with withers as wide across as I was tall and they had upraised swords in hand.

Yet they didn’t wait to get close enough to swing them at me; they brought them down in a slashing move and out of each sword blasted shafts of white light. I gripped the Elemental like I had seen the dead female do. In my head I knew what I wanted the thing to do, but I had no idea how to make it happen.

I hurled the Elemental with all my strength, but I didn’t throw it straight at the oncoming shafts of light. I threw it to the right side of the shafts with as much backspin torque as my poor arm could muster. The spear turned to the left, gained speed and shot straight across the air. It hit the first white shaft, then the second, the third, and then the remain- ing three. It caused them to bounce off and head in reverse, like an orb thrown against a wall.

When the deflected shafts of light struck the wall of rid- ers and their steeds, there came the loudest explosion I had yet seen on the battlefield, even louder than when the first colossal had fallen. Harry Two and I were knocked heels over arse as waves of concussive air pummeled us. When the smoke and fire cleared, the riders and their enormous steeds had vanished. I did not dwell on my improbable vic- tory. I had righted myself in time and had caught the Elemental squarely in my gloved hand as it reversed course and soared back to me.

As I pointed downward and looked toward the ground, I saw them in a valley miles away and partially obscured in a 209 sea of mist. But they were still unmistakable to me: the flam- ing-red gates. I went into a dive. I had to. For a new peril had emerged from the heavens. Right behind me was a creature I can only describe as a jabbit with wings. And if it were possible, the vile thing was even more terrifying than the dirt- bound variety. And as fast as I could fly, the winged jabbit was swifter.