I only stopped running when I was nearly a mile from Stacks.
It occurred to me while I was running that the reward was meaningless to the other Wugs. Quentin had gone into the Quag, which meant no other Wug could find him. The idea of the reward had been directed at me. They wanted information on Quentin. And they thought I alone could provide it.
My lungs heaving, my mind jumping from one awful conclusion to another, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t changed from my work clothes. Even more catastrophic, I had forgotten my cloak. And in the cloak was the book I had found about the Quag.
I felt like I would vomit.
Would Domitar look in my locker and find it? If he did, would I have to become a fugitive as well? Would the reward for my return dead or alive be two thousand coins? Ten thousand coins?
I had to get the book back. But if I returned now, Domitar would grow suspicious.
Then, in a flash, I suddenly had a plan, one that turned everything upside down.
DECEM: A Pair of Jabbits
IT WAS THE third section of night and I was on the move again. The sky over Wormwood was not clear. The Noc was gone from sight. Drops of rain plopped on me as I hurried along, my head down, my heart full of dread. There was a rumble across the heavens and they lit up and then boomed. I froze. Every Wug had seen spears of skylight before and then heard the thunder-thrusts. That didn’t make it any less frightening. Yet something was scaring me even more.
I had never been to Stacks at night. Not once. Now I had no choice. I had to get the book back now before it was discovered in my locker. For all I knew it might already have been.
I stopped about twenty yards away from my destination and looked up. Stacks rose up out of the darkness like some imperious demon waiting for prey to draw just close enough for it to have an easy meal.
Well, here I was.
I didn’t know if they had guards at night. If so, I wasn’t sure what I would do. Run like Hel, probably. What I did know was I wasn’t going in through the front doors.
There was a side door hidden behind a pile of old, decaying equipment that had been sitting there probably since my grandfather was my age. As I passed the mounds of junk, every nook and cranny seemed to hold a garm, a shuck or even an amaroc. As the skylight speared and thunder-thrusts boomed again, there seemed to be a thousand eyes in that metal pile, and all of them were fixed on me. Just waiting.
The door was solid wood with a large, ancient lock. I slipped my slender tools into the mouth of the lock and did my little magic — the door clicked open.
I closed the door behind me as quietly as I could, licked my lips, drew a long breath, then shook my head clear.
I used my lantern now because if I didn’t, I would knock into something and kill myself. I moved slowly along, hugging one wall and peering ahead. I was also listening and sniffing the air. I knew what Stacks smelled like. If I smelled something else, I was going to flee.
A few slivers later, I opened the door to the locker room and slipped inside.
I felt my way along each locker until I reached the seventh one down, which was mine. There were no true locks on the lockers, just simple latches, because no one ever brought anything of value here. At least no Wug had until I stupidly left the book that could land me in Valhall. I slowly opened the door, and that’s when it hit me.
I dropped my lantern and nearly shrieked. I stood there hunched over, trying to keep the meager dinner I had eaten at the Loons inside of me rather than on the floor. I reached down and picked up the lantern and the book. The book had fallen out and hit me on the arm. I relit my lantern and leafed through the pages. It was all there. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. I never dreamed it would be this easy.
I stopped thinking that when I heard the noise. My good fortune had just turned into disaster.
I put the book in the pocket of my cloak and turned my lantern down as low as the flame would go and still allow me to see an inch in front of me. I stood still, listening as hard as I could.
Okay, I thought with an involuntary shudder, that was the sound of something large and swift. I knew of several creatures that would make sounds like that. None of them should have been in Stacks. Ever.
After one more sliver frozen, I sprinted down the hall of the locker room, away from the door I came in. This turned out to be a good idea, because a sliver later, that door crashed to the floor. The sound was inside the room with me. It was clearer now. It was not the clops of hooves, or the scratching of claws on wood. That ruled out a frek, garm or amaroc. That left basically one creature.
I shook my head in disbelief. It couldn’t be. Yet as I thought this, hoping beyond all hope that I was wrong, I heard the hissing. And my heart stopped for two beats before restarting.
We had been told about these vile beasts in Learning. I had never desired to see one for real.
They could move incredibly fast, faster than I could run, actually. They did not come into Wormwood proper, and they almost never went after Wugmorts because there was usually far easier prey to be found. To my knowledge, three Wugs had perished by them when they had ventured too close to the Quag. I did not want to be the fourth.
I kicked open the other door and shot through it like I was being propelled from a morta. But the sounds were growing closer still. When I made it to the back hall, I could go one of two ways. The left would take me out of here by the side door from which I had entered.
The only problem was, I saw eyes that way. Big, staring eyes that locked on me. There were about five hundred of them, if I had time to count, which I didn’t. My worst fear had just been confirmed and then doubled.
There was a pair of them after me.
I went to the right. That would take me up the stairs. Up the stairs was forbidden. Anyone working at Stacks who tried to go up the stairs would have his or her head cut off by Ladon-Tosh and thrown in the furnace with the rest of the parts. But Ladon-Tosh wasn’t here at night. And even if he were, I would take my chances with him over what was coming at me.
I flew up the steps, my knees chugging faster than they ever had. I hit the top landing and sped off to the right. I glanced back once and saw the innumerable eyes barely thirty feet behind me. I told myself I was never going to look back again.
Who the Hel had loosed these things in here?
Something occurred to me as I ran down the upper corridor. These things were the guardians of Stacks, but only at night. That was the only way they could be here. It could be the only reason that no Wug had been attacked during the light. You did not keep these creatures around as pets.
And that meant someone in Wormwood could do the unthinkable. Someone could control them, when we had always been told they were wildly uncontrollable. Not even Duf would ever attempt to train one.
I reached the only door on the hall. It was at the very end and it was locked. Of course it was locked. Why would I think it would be open? I grabbed the tools from my cloak, my fingers shaking so badly that I nearly dropped them. The creatures were coming fiercely now; they sounded like the rush of a waterfall. The screeches from all those mouths were so high-pitched that I felt my brain would burst with the terror of it all. It was said the screech was always the last thing you heard before they struck.
As I inserted the tools in the lock and worked frantically, all I could think of was John. What he would do without me.
They were right on top of me now.
The screech is the last thing you hear before they strike.
The screech is the last thing you hear before they strike.
I didn’t know whether I was brave to keep my back turned in the face of their charge, or else the biggest coward in Wormwood. As my tools turned and the door opened, I assumed it was bravery.