David Baldacci - The Keeper

Delph looked at him blankly. “An aero ship?”

“It flies.” He pointed up. “Aero. Up there.”

“How?” demanded Delph heatedly.

I could feel waves of anger rising off him. I gripped Delph’s arm tightly and looked at him, trying to calm him before he did something we might all regret.

Thorne motioned to the flattened, suspended object. “That is what I term a bladder. Once it is filled with heated air, the bladder will lift the underneath carriage quite easily. And I have fashioned certain controls that will allow me to guide its path. By my calculations, it will lift my army and all its equipment in a very few excursions. Then, we will make our way to Wormwood. Our triumphant march to Wormwood, rather.”

“But how are you going to get this contraption out of here?”

He pointed upward again. “Much as the hole you fell in? Well, we have dug up to the top there, though it’s well covered now. The hole we have fashioned is far large enough for my aero ship to be launched through.”

“Why do you want to attack Wormwood?” I asked fiercely. “You’re a Wug.”

“Well, the truth is I didn’t choose to leave Wormwood. I was forced to leave.”

“Really?” I snapped. “And you, such a nice bloke and all.”

“Enough,” he barked, his mad eyes narrowing. “I’ve told and shown you all that I plan to. I require answers from you . And I will have them now!”

He grunted several times and Luc brought over Destin, the Adder Stone and the glove. “It’s your turn to speak.” Thorne grunted once more and we were surrounded by bow-and-arrow-wielding ekos. Half took aim at Delph, the other half at Harry Two. I couldn’t defend them both at the same time. I had no choice.

Delph gazed at me. I could tell he knew what I was going to do. He shook his head, but I ignored him. If I lost Delph, there would be no point going on anyway.

“The chain allows one to fly. The stone can heal wounds.”

He looked suitably intrigued, if a bit skeptical of my words.

“Indeed? And the glove?”

“I had the pair but I lost one when we were running from beasts in the Quag. It has no powers,” I added, which was perfectly true.

“Well, let’s try one out, shall we?” he said.

He grunted a few more times, each one louder and more authoritative than its predecessor. Several ekos shot forward and picked me up clean off the ground.

“Stop!” shouted Delph, but he and Harry Two were instantly surrounded by a wall of armed ekos.

I shouted, “It’ll be okay, Delph.” I knew what I was going to do.

The ekos carried me back into the room where the mountain of rock and the miner gnomes were located. Thorne followed us, as did Delph and Harry Two, at the sword ends of the trailing ekos.

Thorne tossed the chain to me. “Now prove your statement,” he said.

I wrapped the chain around me even as the ekos clambered up the mountain of rock, carrying me all the way to the top. They were strong and their grasses scratched and irritated my skin. We reached a ledge at the very top of the rock. The ekos set me down. I heard grunts from below. Thorne was obviously giving his final instructions. The git needn’t have bothered. I wasn’t going to wait to be forced off the ledge.

When a pair of ekos reached out to me, I pushed them away so hard they fell back against the rock wall. “Bugger off!” I cried out.

I looked down at Thorne with as much defiance as I could possibly muster, which wasn’t hard.

And then I jumped.

I soared straight downward. I looked at no one other than Thorne. I wanted him to see the revulsion on my face. He looked stunned, which ordinarily would have made me smile. But my anger was such that all I could do was stare daggers at him as I fell. At the last instant, I lifted my head and shoulders and pointed my arms upward. I soared over them and then lifted up, up, up, until I landed back neatly on the ledge.

The ekos all drew away from me.

I looked triumphantly at Thorne.

He smacked his hands several times by way of applause and then beckoned me to join him below. I jumped once more and landed nimbly right next to him.

He looked at me slyly. “From where did you come by such a remarkable thing as that?”

“You know Stacks?” He nodded. “It has rooms that are secret. I found it there.”

He looked lost in thought for a moment. “And Stacks was not always what it is now.”

“That’s right. Did Julius Domitar tell you that?”

“Alas, Domitar and I did not see eye to eye on much.”

“Well, my respect for him just increased a hundredfold.”

“You would do well to hold your tongue, Vega,” he said, sounding dangerous. He pointed to Delph. “Say you are sorry for disrespecting me.”

“I’m sorry.” However, my stubborn features, I know, betrayed this as a lie.

“There is a price to be paid for lying to King Thorne.”

He grunted to the group of ekos and before I could react, it happened.

One of the ekos shot an arrow into Delph’s thigh. He screamed and toppled to the rocky ground, holding on to the shaft that had suddenly sprouted from his limb.

“Delph,” I screamed.

I rushed to him. Blood was pouring out of him far too fast. I ripped off part of my sleeve and used it to try and stanch the bleeding. But it kept pouring out. Delph’s face turned chalk white and he stopped screaming. He sank flat to the floor.

Harry Two stood in front of us both, his fangs bared as though daring any of the ekos to come closer.

“Oh, Vega?”

I turned to look at Thorne. He was casually holding up the Adder Stone.

“Might you want to try this? Your purported healing rock?”

Now I knew why he had Delph shot. As a way to prove that what I had said about the Adder Stone was true. As well as to punish me for my disrespect.

I held up my hand. “Toss it here, quickly.”

“Sorry, I don’t think that was quite what I was looking for,” he said smoothly, his manner unhurried.

Swallowing both my pride and anger, I said in a pleading voice, “Please, King Thorne, might I have the Stone to help my friend? Please, O King?”

“Now, that’s better. See what a bit of respect and politeness can manage?”

He threw the Stone to me. I caught it and instantly waved it over Delph’s leg, thinking good thoughts. Not only did the wound heal, the arrow slid free from his thigh and dropped to the rock without a smidge of his blood on it.

Delph’s breathing returned to normal, though he was still deathly pale. He slowly rose from the floor.

“ ’Tis okay, Vega Jane,” he said, but the fear was evident in his eyes. “Thanks for doing the Stone over me.”

In a breathless voice I said, “Don’t thank me, Delph. It was my fault you got shot.”

When I turned, Thorne was right next to me.

“What did you have to do to cause such a cure?” he asked.

“Don’t tell him, Vega Jane,” shouted Delph. I looked over at him. Again, I had no choice. A dozen arrows would be flying at Delph if I didn’t.

“You wave the Stone over the wound and think good thoughts.”

“Does it work on all living things?” he asked eagerly.

I knew why he asked this. He would want it to heal the ekos in case any were injured during his attack on Wormwood.

“I’ve used it on my canine.”

“Can it bring back the dead?”

“No,” I said emphatically. “Nor can it regrow limbs that have been lost. I tried that once and it didn’t work.”

“Pity,” he said, snatching the Stone from me. “But still, it has its uses, I’ll grant you that. You will of course teach me how to fly with the chain.”

I was about to scream out, The bloody Hel I will, you king of the gits , but I refrained. I might just take an arrow to the head. “It will take time,” I said evenly. “It’s not easy to train someone up to fly.”