David Baldacci - The Finisher

I glanced at the carriage. I thought back to my last encounter with John. To the things I had seen on the walls of his room.

“I think he might already be lost to me ,” I replied slowly. “So you see, there is really nothing left for me here. Nothing at all.”

She released my arm, stepped back and looked down. “I see.”

“Do you really see, Morrigone?” I asked.

She glanced up sharply, her gaze probing, almost menacing. “I see far more than you realize, Vega.”

I squared my shoulders and stared down at her. “If I fight, I was told I would be free. I intend to fight to the end. And if I survive, I intend to be free. Really free,” I added. Then I turned and walked off. As always, it was a good idea to keep moving in Wormwood.

And so I did.

I had two more lights. Perhaps to live.

I WAS JUST THINKINGof crawling into my cot and pulling the covers over me when someone rapped at my door. Harry Two barked and started clawing at the wood. I walked to the door and said, “Who is it?”

“Wotcha, Vega Jane.”

I opened the door, stepped back and let Delph pass through. He knelt to pet Harry Two, who was jumping all over him and trying to lick every exposed piece of skin Delph had. I closed the door and motioned him to the chair by the empty fireplace. I perched on the cot, my hands in my lap, and stared at him.

“What do you want?” I asked.

He gave me a furtive glance. “You okay?”

“Well, let me see. I just went to watch a Wug being planted at the Hallowed Ground. I no longer recognize my brother. My parents are gone. In two lights, I’m probably going to die in the Duelum at the hands of a murderer. So, spot on, I’m definitely not okay.”

He bowed his head and I felt bad for having said what I had.

“I’m sorry, Delph. None of this is your problem.”

“But ’tis my problem. You dying? Can’t let that happen, can I? I mean, I just can’t .”

“I have to fight Ladon-Tosh,” I said. “And nothing you say will make me change my mind.”

He nodded at this, which surprised me. “So the thing is, you got to not get killed.”

“Trust me, that point I understand.”

“How you going to do it, then?”

I stared at him. It had just occurred to me that as much thought as I had given to my upcoming bout with Ladon-Tosh, I had given no thinking time to how I was actually going to win. Or at least survive. “I’ve been thinking,” I said slowly, allowing myself time to actually “think” of something.

“Well, I been thinking too,” said Delph forcefully. “And some blokes told me what he done to poor Tilt.”

I sat forward, suddenly feeling engaged. “The thing is, Delph, I never even saw Ladon-Tosh strike. That’s how fast the blow was. It knocked Tilt completely out of the quad. He weighed over two hundred pounds if he weighed an ounce. He was dead before he hit the dirt. Killed with one blow. I’ve never seen anything like it.” This all came out in a rush of fear that had been welling up inside me ever since Tilt had struck the ground.

“But look what you done to that cobble at Stacks,” he pointed out. “That thing weighed more’n Tilt, I’ll tell you that. And you didn’t just kill it. You exploded it.”

“That was because I had Destin.”

“And you’ll have Destin when you fight Ladon-Tosh.”

“That would be cheating.”

“Bollocks!! Do you really think Ladon-Tosh is a normal Wug? Something’s going on there, Vega Jane. You having Destin when you take him on won’t be cheating. It’ll be making the fight fair, way I see it.”

I sat back and thought about this. What Delph was saying made perfect sense. I had won all my other matches on my own by a combination of luck, planning and instinct. But I knew in my heart that none of those would allow me to prevail against Ladon-Tosh. He had killed a Wug with one blow. That was not possible; only it had definitely happened.

“Okay, I guess I can see that,” I finally said.

He looked vastly relieved by my acquiescence on this critical point. “So it comes down to you landing your blow before Ladon-Tosh can land his.”

“Like I said, I never even saw him hit Tilt. I might have killed that cobble with one blow, but I was nowhere near as fast as Ladon-Tosh.”

“Then we have to come up with a way that you’re even faster. Or else you have to make him miss with his first strike and finish him off before he can try again.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” I said incredulously.

“’Tis why I’m here. Fought in enough Duelums, haven’t I? Know my way around the quad, don’t I?”

“Okay, what suggestions do you have?”

“Watched Ladon-Tosh’s second round. He dinnae kill no Wug that time, but there are some things I noted.”

“Like what?”

“He don’t move on the bell, not up or back.”

“That’s right, he didn’t move against Tilt either.”

“He lets you come to him, then he strikes.”

“Faster than the eye can see,” I groused.

“Where’s the chain?”

“Why?”

“Want to see something.”

I fetched Destin from under the floorboard and put it around my waist. Delph stood and put up his hands. “Put yours up too.” I did so. “Now I’m going to throw a punch, and I’m not going to say when —”

He snapped a blow at my head. I easily flicked it away.

He smiled, but I didn’t. “That wasn’t nearly as fast as Ladon-Tosh’s,” I said.

“Back up to the wall over there.”

“What?”

“Wanta try something else.”

I did as he asked, reluctantly. From his coat he pulled out a long strip of rubber with a small square patch of leather attached. On the patch he placed a stone he’d taken from his trouser pocket. He started to spin the rubber, which I now saw as a shotslinger, faster and faster.

“Can you see the stone?” he asked.

“Barely.”

He spun it faster. “How about now?”

“Just a glimpse.”

He whirled it even faster. “Now?”

“Not at al —”

Before I finished speaking, he had fired off the stone right at me. When I looked down a sliver later, I saw the stone cupped in my hand.

I looked up in amazement. “How did I do that?”

Delph grinned and pointed at Destin. “Reckon the answer lies there.”

“But it lets me fly. And it gives me strength. But —”

And now Delph was about to shock me.

“I think what it does, Vega Jane, is give ya what i’tis you need at the time you need it.”

I gazed openmouthed up at him. This was stunning. Not what Destin could do, although that was amazing. No, it was that Delph had thought of it and I hadn’t.

“Do you really think so?” I asked hopefully.

“Fly when you need to? Give a pasting to a cobble when it needs doing? Stop a stone from hitting you in the face?”

I touched Destin. It felt warm, as though it had just had a bit of exercise.

“But that’s not all, Vega Jane.”

I looked at him with wrinkled brow. “What do you mean?”

“Chain is a big help, no doubt. But you got to have more than one way to beat Ladon-Tosh. He’s big, strong, fast. Can’t count on taking him with just speed.”

“What, then?”

“You got to move. Wear him down. Let him punch.” He paused. “And if you got to take to the air, Vega Jane, take to the bloody air.”

I stared wide-eyed at him. “Okay, up to that last statement, you didn’t sound mental at all. But you want me to fly? In front of Council? In front of every Wug?”

“Would you rather be headed to the Hallowed Ground for all of eternity instead?”

What irritated me most about this exchange was that Delph sounded the far more logical one of us. “A bit of me says yes. Most of me says no.”