The two jabbits that had nearly killed me at Stacks catapulted from the husk that had once been Ladon-Tosh. How creatures so large had been compressed into the space of one Wug, albeit a big Wug, I couldn’t fathom. They hit the ground so hard that the pitch seemed to whipsaw under our legs. Then five hundred heads and with them one thousand eyes looked at all the Wugs so perilously close, and I could almost see the lustful hunger in the monsters’ sinister orbs.
Every Wug ran for his or her life. Parents snatched up their youngs and very youngs. Screams kept coming, but they came nowhere near to drowning out the screeches that heralded a slaughter of Wugs about to occur.
I glanced once more at Morrigone. To her credit, she had not run away. Indeed, she was waving her hands and it looked like, as difficult as it was for me to believe, she was trying to will Ladon-Tosh back together again. But it was clear that she had not been able to control the creatures with Tilt and it was just as clear that she would not be able to stop them now. As I watched, she glanced at me. Tears were in her panic-filled eyes. She looked desperate.
Cries of “Outliers, it’s the Outliers come” sprang up and were repeated from Wug mouths everywhere.
I looked for Thansius and found him trying to fight his way forward through the sea of Wugs and toward the jabbits. He drew something from under his robe. It was the same sword he had used at the Council hearing. He said he had no special powers, but what the Wug did have in abundance was courage. Yet I didn’t think he would get a chance to use his blade in time.
I thought this because both jabbits had risen up, their innumerable fangs exposed, and they were just about to launch themselves against the nearest Wugs. It would be a bloodbath not seen here for hundreds of sessions.
I looked back once more at Morrigone. She was staring dead at me. Her mouth was moving. She was yelling something. Finally, I could make it out over the screams of the crowd.
“Help me, Vega! Help me!”
I don’t remember reaching in my pocket and slipping on my glove. I really don’t. I willed the Elemental to full size, sprang upward into the air, twisted my body to the left — and the golden spear launched from my grip with as much torque as I could place upon it.
It shot through the air just as the jabbits struck. They attacked in parallel, as I knew the beasts did, which made it perfectly perfect for me. The Elemental hit the first jabbit, passed through its body and collided with the second jabbit a moment later.
There was a tremendous explosion and the shock wave struck me while I was still sixteen feet off the ground. I was propelled forward like a fish by a great wave. It seemed that I flew a long, long way before hitting something extraordinarily hard.
And then everything was gone.
QUINQUAGINTA: The Duelum Champion
I OPENED MY EYES quite suddenly and tried to sit up, but a hand pushed me back down. I looked to my right and was not unduly surprised to see Delph there.
“Wotcha, Vega Jane?” he said, his voice weary but now filled with relief.
I blurted out wildly, “Where am I? Hospital? The Care? The Hallowed Ground?”
He touched my forehead as though to test for its warmth. “You jargoled?”
“Where, Delph?” I persisted.
“Your digs.”
I looked around and saw that this was so. “How did I get here?”
“Carried you.”
“I remember hitting something really hard.”
“Spot on, that was me you hit.”
I sat up slowly to see a welt on his forehead the size of a hen’s egg.
“How did I hit you? I was thrown far away from all Wugs.”
“Well, I sort of ran to … to catch you when you got blown.”
“The jabbits?” I said, my face paling at the mention of the name.
“Dead and gone. You took care-a that.”
“No Wugs hurt?”
“Just the ones who trampled each other getting away like. They’ll be okay.”
“Ladon-Tosh had jabbits inside him,” I said slowly, as though trying to make myself understand what I was saying.
Delph grimaced. “Well, what I’d say is jabbits had Ladon-Tosh outside of them.”
I turned on my side, rested my head on my arm and gazed at him. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.” Something else came back to me. “My cloak? The Elemental?”
“Don’t wad your knickers. There and there,” he added, pointing.
On a peg on the wall was my cloak. I could see the bulge of Destin inside it. Standing in one corner was the full-size Elemental.
Delph said, “Almost forgot to put the glove on before I picked it up.”
My next words carried a heaviness that I found nearly unbearable. “Delph, Wugs had to see what I did.”
“What Wugs saw was two jabbits coming out another Wug. After that, they didn’t see nothin’. ’Cept you killing the pair of ’em. And they ain’t too clear on how you done it. But I don’t see no Wug holding that against ya.”
“So what do the Wugs say about it all?”
“Outliers. They was shouting it when it was happening. ‘Outliers got Ladon-Tosh. Got inside-a him.’ That’s what they said.”
“That’s mental!”
“Course i’tis, but that don’t mean they don’t believe it.”
I sighed and sat back. I was just so tired.
“You feeling up to snuff, Vega Jane?”
I glanced over at him. “Why?”
“Well, they’re waiting, ain’t they?”
“Who’s waiting?” I said suspiciously.
He held out a hand, which I slowly took and rose off the cot. He led me over to the window. I peered out and my jaw dropped.
“They are,” said Delph, smiling.
When Delph opened the door to my digs and I stepped out, the cheers started and hats were flung high into the air. It looked like every Wug was in attendance.
“Ve-ga Jane. Ve-ga Jane,” they started chanting over and over.
I heard a canine bark and looked down to see Harry Two next to me. He apparently had been guarding my privacy. I stroked his head and then gazed up at Delph.
“What is all this?” I asked in bewilderment.
“Are ya serious? Time for the prize. You’re champion, you silly goose.”
I had forgotten that with the defeat of Ladon-Tosh, I was the champion.
“Quiet, please. Quiet.”
The voice belonged to Thansius. As the crowd parted and became silent, he came forward holding two objects. One was a metal figurine. The other a woolen bag with a cord tied firmly around its neck.
Thansius motioned to me. “Vega, please step forward.”
I let go of Delph’s hand and walked toward the Chief of Council with hesitant steps. I was still a bit wonky, but I couldn’t not go, could I?
Thansius turned to the crowd and proclaimed, “I officially declare Vega Jane the champion of the Duelum.”
A cheer went up again. As I looked out on the masses of Wugs, I saw many tears and smiles and only the very occasional sour look from the likes of Ran Digby, Ted Racksport — on sticks because of his morta-shot foot — and Cletus Loon, who, as usual, looked murderously at me. And when I glanced to the right, I saw Krone and Dodgson staring daggers.
As the crowd quieted, Thansius said, “I now present you with the trophy.”
He handed me the figurine. They must have made it special because it was a female holding a male over her head. Thansius bent down and said in my ear, “The young Dactyl Jasper Forke, one of your fellow Stackers, made that for you. Just in case,” he added.
I took it and held it and my smile widened to my ears. I looked and found Forke in the crowd and thanked him with my eyes before he glanced shyly down at his feet.