David Baldacci - The Finisher

“What are you doing here?”

“Thansius’s adar told me they were coming. He said he’d told you too. So’s I took off.”

“Took off for where?”

His face turned to a scowl. “You’re asking me that, you prat?”

I gaped at him. Daniel Delphia had never called me such a name in all the sessions I had known him, which was basically all of my sessions.

“A prat?” I said in astonishment. “You called me a prat?”

“What kind of a Wug do ya take me for? Prat I said and prat I meant,” he added huffily.

I walked over and was about to slap him. My hand was reared back to strike when I noticed that he had a tuck over his shoulders.

“What’s that?”

“Me stuff. Same as you got there, ain’t it?” He indicated my tuck. He looked down at the armored Harry Two and said, “Blimey, that’s right fine.” He looked back up.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Same place you’re going.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I bloody well am.”

“Delph, you are not coming with me.”

“Then you’re not going.”

“You think you can stop me?”

“I think I can try.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“What we planned all along, right?” he said.

“But your dad — I thought —”

“He and me talked it out, didn’t we? Told him stuff. He agreed I should go. You got ridda his pain. And … and he said to thank you for, well, putting me back right with me head and all. He wanted to tell you himself, but he kept blubbering in front of me when he talked of it. ’Spect he’d never be able to say it to you directly.”

“I, well, I’m very touched by that.”

“And he got coin and a bloke to train. A bizness, like you said.”

“But I meant for the two of you to run it.”

He shook his head stubbornly. “Can’t let you go in the Quag by yourself, Vega Jane. Just can’t.”

I stood there looking up at him and he stood there looking down at me. I was going to say something back to him when I happened to glance at the sky. That’s when I saw it.

Two shooting stars racing side by side. It was a lesson, I supposed, not to focus only on oneself. Delph, I’m sure, wanted to escape the confines of Wormwood too. There were other Wugs besides me whose destinies lay outside this place.

I looked at him and gripped his hand. “I’m glad you’re here, Delph.”

His face brightened. “You are? Really?”

I went up on tiptoes and kissed him.

As he went all red in the face, I said, “I’d have to be a nutter to want to go into the Quag without you, wouldn’t I? And I am many things, but a nutter is not one of them.”

“No, Vega Jane, you’re no nutter.”

And then he picked me up off the ground and kissed me back so hard I felt my breath leave my body so fast I thought I would pass out. When he set me back down, both our eyes were closed. When they opened, nearly simultaneously, Delph and I just looked at each other for what seemed a handful of slivers.

Finally he said, “So what now?”

“The Wall,” I said. Something struck me. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“Didn’t. Been running all over the place trying to find you.”

“A while back I picked a particular finished spot on the Wall. I think it’s our best shot to get through.”

“Wug guards on the towers,” he said anxiously.

“I know that. But the distance in between them leaves a gap.”

He eyed my cloak. “Got your chain?”

I nodded. “You ready?”

When we reached my planned breach point, we hid behind a bush and looked up at the Wall. Two hundred feet on either side of this spot were lantern-lighted watchtowers with Wugs carrying mortas stationed in them.

I hooked up Harry Two with the harness and he dangled from my chest. With Destin across my shoulders providing me strength, he felt no heavier than a couple of pounds.

“Wrap your arms around my shoulders, Delph, like we did before.”

He never got a chance to.

“There they are!” yelled a voice.

At the sound, my heart sank.

I looked to the right and saw a cluster of Wugs rushing toward us, mortas in hand. My heart sank even more when I saw who it was. To our left was Ted Racksport hobbling on his gimpy foot, Cletus with bloodlust in his wicked eyes and Ran Digby with his ugly beard and filthy face.

To our right was Jurik Krone and Duk Dodgson.

And leading all of them was Morrigone. “No, Vega!” she screamed. “You will not leave Wormwood. You cannot.”

They were each cocking their mortas and starting to take aim.

I grabbed Delph by the hand and ran, Harry Two banging against my chest with each stride. We were within fifty yards of the Wall when I left my feet, pulling Delph with me. It was an awkward balance and I veered to the side Delph was on before righting my path of ascendance.

I turned in time to see Morrigone aim her hands at us. The full Elemental was in my hand a moment later and the deflected beam of red light she hurled at us struck part of the Wall and blasted a hole in it. We soared on.

“Fire!” shouted Krone.

The mortas roared. I felt something race past my head. I heard Delph cry out and he went limp. I gripped his arm tighter.

“Delph,” I shouted.

“Just go, go,” he said in a strained voice. “I’m okay.”

But I knew he was not okay. I banked to the left and then back to the right as the mortas fired again. Harry Two barked and then howled and then whimpered. Then he fell silent. I felt something wet against my face.

Harry Two had been shot as well. I shrunk my Elemental, put it away and supported Harry Two with my free hand while my other clutched Delph.

“Stop firing!” I yelled.

I didn’t think they would, since they had already hit two of us. I just wanted an instant to do what I was about to. I banked hard right, flew around a tree, cupped Harry Two with my elbow, ripped off a branch as I raced by, and when I came out of the turn, I was facing the Wugs.

I threw the branch, scattering them, and it plowed into the dirt right where they had been standing. I turned once more and aimed for the top timber of the Wall.

The mortas were quieted for the moment. But I knew I didn’t have much time. Delph was moaning. And, even more frightening, Harry Two was hanging limp in his harness, not moving at all. I headed right for the Wall at speed, but I was having immense trouble gaining enough lift with Delph and Harry Two.

When I looked back I froze in fear.

Jurik Krone, the finest shot in all of Wormwood, had his morta pointed directly at my head. I could not pull my Elemental because I was holding on to Delph with one hand and I was supporting Harry Two’s body with the other.

I could see Krone smile as he started to pull the trigger that would send a morta round directly into my head. And all three of us would fall to our deaths.

And then something hit Krone so hard that he was knocked sideways for thirty feet. He tumbled and rolled and his morta flew from his hands.

I looked to see what had just saved my life.

Morrigone was lowering her hands, which were pointed at where Krone had been standing. She turned and looked at me. For an instant I imagined a metal helmet around Morrigone’s face, the shield raised, and how she looked so much like the female on that battlefield from so long ago. Then she lifted her hands once more and I felt an invisible force, like an iron tether, grip my leg. When I glanced at her, Morrigone was moving her arms as though pulling a rope toward her. I felt my momentum stop and, with a jerk, I felt us being pulled backward, downward.

This was it. This was the moment. If I could not do this, then everything would have been for nothing.