David Baldacci - The Finisher

“But he’ll live,” I said.

“If you can call it that!” said Delph in a sudden rush of anger. He calmed just as quickly and looked tenderly at me. “Glad you made it back safe.” He saw my face and gaped. “Vega, you’re hurt bad. You need to —”

I gripped his arm tighter. “It’s nothing, Delph. It’s really nothing. I’ll be fine.”

My mind heaved like I had been wrenched upside down. I am nothing, Delph. I failed you. I am nothing.

Delph nodded sadly. “The thing is, you tried. For that I’ll always be grateful. Did you run into —” He lowered his voice. “Into, you know? Your face and all?”

“I tripped and hit some stone. Just stupid of me. That’s all.”

He looked vastly relieved by this. “Do you mind if I have a mo’ with me dad?” I nodded quickly and hurriedly left the room.

I waited until I was well down the dark and dank corridor before I sank to the cold floor and sobbed uncontrollably.

WHEN I FINALLYrose, my tears were gone, my sadness replaced with a smoldering anger. I raced from hospital and took to the air. Slivers later my feet hit crushed gravel. My skin still ached where that awful thing had pinned itself to me. My head reeled from the impressions of a lifetime of nightmares bundled into one continuous dark vision.

I knew what the creature was, because it, like the cobble, had been in Quentin Herms’s book. I hadn’t recognized it before it struck because it was impossible to recognize. It could assume any shape it wanted. I knew what it was because of what it had done to me.

It was a maniack, an evil spirit that attached to your body and then your mind and drove you irreversibly insane with every fear you’ve ever had. And yet as I stood there, my mind cleared and my body stopped hurting so much, though my broken nose ached like blazes. I hadn’t even thought to pull the Adder Stone to heal myself. And I didn’t take the time to do it now.

I hurried up the walk, pushed open the gates and sprinted to the massive doorway. I didn’t bother to knock. I just opened the door and stormed inside. William, the pudgy Wug in his sparkling clean uniform of the dutiful servant, came into the hall and looked at me in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” he exclaimed.

I knew I must be a sight. One eye nearly closed. My face bloody and bruised from my fight with Non. I had no idea what discernible residue the maniack had left on me. I knew I was missing a tooth, and my nose was broken. But I didn’t really care.

I said, “William, please get out of my way. I just need to see something.”

He continued to bar my path. “Madame Morrigone is not here.”

“I don’t want to see her,” I barked.

“Neither is Master John.”

“Or Master John,” I snapped.

“She told me of no visitors. And so no visitors will be admitted —”

He stopped because I had hoisted him off the floor and hooked the back of his collar over an unlighted torch holder set on the wall. With Destin around my waist, William was as light as air.

“Just stay there,” I said. “I’ll let you down when I’m done.”

Blocking out his cries of protest, I rushed down the hall to the library. I threw open the doors and entered. No fire was lit. The sunlight streamed in through the windows. The books were all still there. I stepped up to it: the looking glass that hung on the wall above the chimneypiece.

I had seen it when John and I had first supped here, back when I thought Morrigone was a good, decent Wug. Before she had stolen my brother from me and made him into something that he was never meant to be. My gaze drifted to the ornately carved wooden frame. It was the exact same design as the looking glasses back at Stacks. As I peered closer, I could clearly see the carved frame was made up of a series of interlocked serpents that formed one continuous, foul beast.

As I stepped back and took in the whole glass, I knew without doubt that this looking glass and the ones at Stacks were identical. I had no idea what power Morrigone had that allowed her to do this, but I knew that she had somehow taken this mirror and replicated it many times over at Stacks as a way to trap and then kill me.

Well, two could play that game.

I drew my Elemental, willed it to full size, took aim and hurled it dead center of the mirror. It blasted into tiny pieces that sprayed all over the beautiful and, up to that moment, immaculate room. As the debris settled over all her pretty things, I allowed myself a grim smile.

I rushed back down the hall and lifted the still-sputtering William off the torch holder and set him gently down. He looked at me indignantly and smoothed down his ruffled clothes. “Rest assured that I will inform Madame Morrigone of this most inexcusable trespass as soon as she returns.”

I said, “That’s exactly what I want you to do.”

As a parting shot, I ripped from the wall the silver candleholders I had made and took them with me. When I was high up in the air, flying on a seam of wind, I flung them as far away as I could manage. And all I wished was that I could fling myself just as far from this place.

DUK DODGSON WASthe youngest member of Council and a protégé of Jurik Krone’s. He was also my next opponent. He was tall and strong but had never won a Duelum because, at least to my mind, he was too cocksure to acknowledge that he had weaknesses on which he should work. He was handsome, though his mouth was cruel and his eyes arrogant. His ambition was the black tunic, not the small figurine, even if it did come with five hundred coins. I had seen Dodgson in the Council Chamber. He had been seated next to Krone and followed his lead in every way. He clearly loathed me because his master did. And I just as clearly loathed him because he was a spineless git.

I was very glad I had drawn him in the Duelum. Getting even was not just fun; sometimes it was all you had.

Delph had beaten Dodgson in the last Duelum. He had told me that Dodgson would hang back and not attack right away, and that he had a bad habit of keeping his fists too low, which made his neck and head vulnerable. This gave me an idea, and I had snuck into hospital the night before the next round and nicked a book. I pored over the pages and pictures late into the night, learning what I needed to learn in order to carry out my plan good and proper.

At the next first light, I was up early and slipped on my cloak. I left Harry Two at the digs. I was afraid if I started losing, my canine would attack Dodgson, and Jurik Krone would use that as an excuse to kill Harry Two.

When I got to the pitch, I saw on the betting boards that odds were running fairly even, meaning as many coin had been placed on me to win as on Dodgson. I’m sure that was not sitting well with the ambitious Council member. I was on at the second bell this light. I placed my bet and then turned and nearly bumped into him.

Krone wore his black tunic like it was a halo of gold. When he spoke his tone was one of derision.

“Do you like to lose your coin?” he said. “You can’t have that much.”

“Excuse me?” I said in an indifferent voice.

“You wagered on yourself. My esteemed colleague barely lost to Delph in the last Duelum. You won’t stand a chance. Why not just surrender and we can take you away to Valhall where you belong.” He made a show of handing Litches McGee twenty-five coins wagering on his “esteemed colleague” to beat my brains out.

“Why don’t you simply give me the coins now,” I said. “It’ll save McGee the trouble of handing them over to me when I’m finished with your precious little Wug.”