David Baldacci - The Keeper

“No,” said Petra. “I think they let us steal from them because they know we have nothing.”

Lackland scowled at her. “As if anything in this place would ‘let’ someone steal from ’em. We stole it fair and square.”

I didn’t think anyone could steal something “fair and square.” But I didn’t say this.

“Well, we’ve never been caught or hurt doing it,” pointed out Petra.

“ ’Cause we’re good, ain’t we?” said Lackland with a satisfied look.

“Where do the hyperbores live?” I asked.

“Oh, they have nests here and there,” said Lackland.

“Nests?” Delph exclaimed. “What, like birds?”

“Yep, way up in the trees. Pretty big nests too. Lots of ’em live together. Safer that way, I ’spect.”

I said, “How do you nick from them, then, if they’re way up there?”

“Petra can climb something fierce,” said Lackland proudly. “And she drops the things toward the ground, where I catch ’em.”

“What sorts of things?”

“Vegetables, meats, spare cloth we make into proper trousers and shirts. And water. They keep it in jugs made from tree bark. Catching them can be a bit difficult. Broke my nose and two fingers so far.”

“Not a bad price to pay to keep from starving,” pointed out Petra.

Lackland turned to me. “You can get us out of here, you said?”

“I didn’t say that,” I shot back. “I said Delph, Harry Two and me are getting out of here.”

“But what’s beyond here?” asked Lackland.

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully.

“Then why do you want to go there?” Petra said.

“ ’Cause it’s no doubt better than this place,” replied Lackland, the scowl returning to his features. “I mean, what place could be worse than here, eh?”

I said under my breath, “Well, we’ll find out.” In a louder voice I said, “What do you know of where you came from? We’re called Wugs, or Wugmorts. You look just like us. I wonder if you could have been from Wormwood too at some point.”

Delph looked at me questioningly. I shrugged. I had just thought of this. I didn’t see how Wugs from Wormwood could have ended up this far in the Quag and started another settlement of sorts. But I didn’t know it wasn’t possible either.

Lackland looked unsure. “I mean we’re just here. Always just been here. Always been Furinas. Least it’s all we’ve known.”

Petra added spitefully, “Never enough to eat. And always something ready to kill you!”

Lackland agreed. “Aye, me dad told me all the remaining Furinas finally banded together for safety. Our last settlement was over to the west. About five miles from here. There were only about twenty-odd of us left, when the bloody beasts came that night.” He looked down and threw a twig on the fire. “Blasted things.”

“And your parents never told you anything about where you came from?” I asked.

“Well, there’s the parchment, o’course,” said Lackland.

I said quickly, “What parchment?”

Petra said sternly, “Now who’s telling stuff?!”

Lackland said, “Eh, you’re the one said they looked like us. And they saved our skins. So show ’em the parchment. It’s in the bag hanging on that there tree,” he added, pointing.

“I know where it is, Lack!” Petra rose and scampered up the tree with impressive nimbleness. I snatched a glance at Delph and saw him watching her with similar admiration. And maybe a wee bit more than that. I felt a scowl creep to my mouth. At that instant, Delph glanced over at me, saw my expression and dropped his gaze to the dirt.

Petra brought the bag back down and carried it over to us. She sat cross-legged next to Delph — of course — and opened it. She drew out a bunch of withered pages of bound parchment and passed them across to me.

I looked through them. The writing was beautiful, but the language was not something I had ever seen.

“What does it say?” I asked.

Both Lackland and Petra shook their heads. “We’ve never known,” she said. “Nor did our parents.”

“So why carry it around?” asked Delph.

Grinning sheepishly, Lackland said, “When you ain’t got much, hard to part with anything.” He paused, then added, looking at me, “Now, we know things that can help you. And we’ll pull our weight. Tough as anything we both are. You won’t regret this, never one bit.” He looked pleadingly at me.

Delph glanced at me. I nodded. He turned back to Lackland and Petra and said, “ ’Tis done, then.” He held out his hand and we shook all around.

I said, “You have to understand that it will be dangerous.”

“Well,” said Lackland. “What a change that’ll be, eh?”

We all laughed.

And it felt good.

Until I realized that we might well never laugh again.

It was night. I had taken the first watch. My wand beside me, I kept my gaze going back and forth. As the time passed I saw someone stir. Delph rose from his bed of leaves and strode over to me, carrying a loaded crossbow that was Petra’s weapon of choice but which Delph had used to devastating effect against the colossals. I passed Destin over to him and watched as he slung the chain around his waist. I also handed him the Adder Stone. I would always hold on to my wand of course.

“Nothin’?” Delph asked as he took up the vigil.

I shook my head.

He plopped himself down and said, “Get some sleep, Vega Jane.”

“Who’s taking the third watch?”

“Petra. She and me worked it out.”

“I’m sure you did.” My harsh tone surprised me and it seemed to startle Delph.

“You okay?” he said.

I didn’t look at him. “I’m fine, Delph.”

“No, I think there’s more to it,” he insisted. I scowled at him until he said, “Sit, Vega Jane, and talk to me.”

I plunked down next to him. “Okay. Petra and you seem to have become good friends really, really fast.”

“I feel sorry for her and Lack. They’ve had it rough. Lost everything.”

“Yes, but she keeps... well, rubbing your arm and looking at you.” I knew this sounded positively stupid, but they were the only words I could think of.

To his credit, Delph didn’t laugh or make me feel like I was being silly.

“I saw you staring at me when I was looking at her once,” said Delph. “But there was a point to it, see.”

“What point?”

“It was when Lack asked where we were headed.”

I looked at him curiously. “Right. And you said we were heading out of here, meaning the Quag. And he called you daft.”

“Right. But see, I looked at Petra when he was saying that, and she didn’t look like she thought it was daft, gettin’ outta here, I mean.”

“What did she look like?”

“Like she wanted to leave this place.”

I snorted. “Well, who wouldn’t?”

“No, ’twas more’n that. It was like she knew it was possible . It was like she knew there was another place to go to, see?”

This struck me like a hard slap. “You could read all that in her face?”

“It was pretty obvious, Vega Jane. I may not talk much, but I don’t miss much neither.”

His words embarrassed me. It seemed I often took Delph for granted when I should consider myself the luckiest Wug there was, to have him with me.

“Then it seems there’s more to Petra than we thought,” I commented.

“But I still feel sorry for her,” he said.

I sighed. Males. They couldn’t see everything, could they?

“Thanks, Delph. I’m glad we had this talk.”

“Right you are.”

I strode over to the others and lay down on my cot of leaves, my tuck as my pillow. Harry Two was next to me. I closed my eyes. However, I quickly found that I could not fall asleep.