David Baldacci - The Keeper

Thorne handed the morta back to the ekos and gave me a derisive look. “Unlike you, Vega, I came into the Quag armed and ready. However, when I fell in the hole, I thought I was finished. But when I fired off the first morta round at the ekos, they scattered like dormice. After that, they came back to me on their knees and it’s been that way ever since. That was the easy part, actually. The hard part was teaching the blighters to do things, make things. I plan to return to Wormwood in triumph. That’s the only thing that’s kept me going all this time. Now let’s get on with my lesson, Vega. How do you want to proceed?”

“I have to go with you,” I said.

“How is that possible?”

I indicated the straps still hanging from my chest.

“Why can’t you just tell me what to do?” he countered.

“Fine,” I said. “You jump straight up or get a running start and leap into the air. You point your hands where you want to go. Shoulders and head up to gain height. Reverse that to go down. Right before you touch the ground, slip your feet downward so you can land on them. But if you botch any of that while you’re up there by yourself, we’ll need something to pick up the pieces of you with.”

Thorne, if it was possible, paled even more than he already was.

“Let’s try it your way first,” he said with as much dignity as he could muster.

I held out my hand. “Let me have the chain, then.”

“Why?” he asked.

“If I’m controlling the flying, I need to have the chain.”

He lifted his shirt, removed it, handed it over and then stood with his back to me while I strapped him into the harness.

He glanced back at me. “Just remember, Vega, that your friend and your canine will be surrounded by my ekos. If anything happens to me, they die.”

I turned away so he would not see the utter hatred on my face. “I understand.”

Destin, I could tell, had been ice cold while around Thorne’s waist. Now the links warmed to my touch. That gave me comfort.

“Because we’re tied together, we’re going to have to jump straight up. Just mimic my movements. Right, then, on the count of three. One... two... three!”

On the last number, I kicked off hard, and so did he, albeit a little late. We rose awkwardly into the air and then quickly gained both speed and height.

I slowly lifted my feet into the air, drawing his with mine. We leveled out and soared along. The wind pushed harshly into my eyes and they started to water. From my cloak pocket I pulled out the goggles that I had used at Stacks. Thorne had not taken these from me because there was nothing special about them. But with the goggles on, I could see clearly and not be troubled by the wind in my eyes. Thorne’s long hair blew into my face, but I tucked it under the harness’s leather straps and it stayed there.

Thorne said, “This is absolutely incredible.”

Though I despised him, I nearly laughed at the wonder in his voice and words. It was exactly how I had felt when I first took to the air.

I led him through the same drills that I had with Delph. We stayed up for a while, doing ascents and descents, changing direction, soaring around trees and over small hills. While Thorne gazed around spellbound, I was taking in every detail and comparing it to the map of the Quag I had in my head and to what I had seen from the cliff when we first entered the Quag.

And with what I was seeing, I thought I might be sick.

The dark, fog-shrouded river I had spotted to the west from the cliff had moved to the north. The forested mountain to the north that had looked blue had shifted to the east. And the rocky slope was no longer even there.

I said to Thorne, “What is that mountain in the distance?”

“I have no idea, having never been there.”

“I suppose it’s always been there, though,” I said. “I mean, whenever you’ve come up and looked at it, the thing’s been right where it’s always been?”

He turned his head and I could see a faint smile. “If you’re referring to how things in the Quag have a tendency to move themselves, then yes, I have noticed that.”

I exclaimed, “How can a mountain or river move? It’s impossible, isn’t it?”

“You will find that nothing in the Quag is impossible,” he sneered.

It seemed barmy to believe such a thing was true, but the facts were literally staring me in the face.

I was ripped from my musings by screams. I looked down. A very young ekos was being chased by two freks. The other ekos were firing their mortas, but the ekos and its pursuers were well out of the weapons’ range.

“Idiot creature,” snapped Thorne, who was looking down now. “Ah, well, let’s do some more maneuvering, Ve—”

However, I had already gone into a steep dive.

“What do you think you’re doing?” screamed Thorne.

The little ekos could never outrun the freks. They were gaining with every leap of their long limbs. In less than a sliver, he would be done for.

I aimed so that I would approach from the rear. I slipped Destin from around my waist as Thorne continued to struggle.

“Up, up!” he screamed in my ear.

“No!”

Down below I could see full-grown ekos racing along, their mortas aimed. And there was another ekos — a female, by her appearance — that was running faster than any of them, though she had no morta. I concluded that was the little ekos’s mother. She was grunting so loud I knew it was her way of screaming for her young. Whether beast or Wug, a mother would sacrifice anything for her young.

I swooped in behind the freks and used Destin to swat them on the sides of the head. They were instantly bowled over by the blows. I put on a burst of speed, dropped the hand in which I held Destin and soared over the little ekos.

“Grab it,” I called down to him. He looked up, the fear so painful to see in his small face.

“Grab it!” I screamed, indicating the chain.

I heard growls behind us. The freks had recovered. I looked back. They were gaining. I looked ahead. A huge stand of trees was just ahead. I had to pull up.

“Go! Go!” screamed Thorne, trying to snatch at the chain that I kept just out of reach. “Leave the damn creature. Leave it!”

“Take it,” I yelled at the little ekos, ignoring Thorne. Then, something occurred to me. I grunted. I didn’t know exactly what I was grunting, but I figured it was better than jabbering at the poor, terrified thing in Wugish.

He reached out his little hand and his fingers closed around Destin. I instantly pulled up and we did a sharp bank and headed in the other direction, missing the trees and leaving the freks far below.

When the freks turned to follow us, they were met head-on by a mass of morta-firing ekos. I heard shot after shot and then listened to the sounds of two large demonic beasts thudding to the dirt for the very last time.

Good riddance to the bloody things.

We were flying back when I heard a scream. I looked down. The little ekos had lost his grip on the chain. He was plummeting to his death. I went into a dive, but I knew I was too far away to catch him in time. The little ekos was going to die. My heart sank.

Like a blur, Delph came racing into view. He leapt, soaring several feet into the air, his long arms stretched to their limit.

“Yes!” I screamed in joy.

Delph caught the little ekos before he hit the ground. He rose and carried him over to his mother.

The mother took her young in her arms, first hugging and kissing and then scolding him in severe grunts. Then she went back to hugging and kissing him again.

“You imbecile!” roared Thorne at me as we touched down. “You could have gotten me killed. And for what? A bloody ekos? I should have you—”