“Ten or more sessions, close as I remember. Lot of work.”
“Ten sessions,” I repeated, and then smiled. That was a good thing, I thought. “And if he can’t catch any more grubbs, he can’t build another bladder or aero ship.”
Delph whispered in my ear, “What are you planning to do, Vega Jane?”
“Escape this place and make sure he can’t attack Wormwood,” I said flatly, as though it were obvious. And it was to me.
I had expected Delph to simply nod in agreement. Only he didn’t.
“ ’Tain’t that simple, Vega.”
“What?” I said, startled.
“What about the ekos and gnomes?” He rubbed the face of the grubb. “And these here creatures?”
“I don’t understand you, Delph.”
“You heard Luc. Thorne has spies. Those loyal to him. If we escape and ruin his plans, you think he won’t take it out on them? On Luc, and Cere and little Kori?”
I couldn’t look at Delph because I knew he was right. My heart was being torn in half with this dilemma. “We... we can’t save everyone, Delph. It’s impossible.”
“Well, we can try,” he replied matter-of-factly.
I started to snap something back at him, but then I realized that he was entirely in the right. I felt both relieved by this but also like a mountain had settled upon my shoulders. We had come in here with the goal of surviving the Quag. Now we would be committing to saving a bunch of others as well. But Delph was right. We had to at least try.
I said slowly, “We can try, Delph. But I’m going to need help. I can’t do this alone.”
“That’s why ya got me, Vega Jane.”
Novem: The King’s Secret
For the next five lights, I carried Thorne in the harness and taught him the intricacies of flying. And each night, we were visited by Luc, sometimes accompanied by Cere. They had continued to provide us with information about Thorne.
Delph and I were doing our best to come up with a plan. We had parts of it in good shape, but how could we ensure that once we left, Thorne would be king no longer?
And I did have one unanswered question that was driving me mad.
Why did Thorne want to go to war with his own kind? What would make a Wug hate other Wugs so much? I talked to Delph about this one night.
“Well,” he said. “Seems to me that to answer that question, we need to know why the bloke came into the Quag in the first place. Pretty desperate thing to do. And he told us that he was forced to leave.”
“That’s right. Although I think he had to flee. If he had done something bad they would have put him in Valhall, not made him go into the Quag.”
“Whatever he did musta been pretty bad, then, to make him choose the Quag. They were probably going to lop off his head if he stayed in Wormwood.”
I shivered a bit. That had almost happened to me.
“So maybe one ties into the other?” I said. “He’s getting back at them for making him leave?”
“Way I see it, yeah.”
An idea came to me. I quickly told Delph about it.
He said thoughtfully, “It may work, but we need to know more.”
“We know who to ask, then,” I replied.
The next night, I queried Luc if he knew why Thorne had come into the Quag.
Luc said, “Well, when he’s been far into the bottles of mead some nights, I’ve heard him say things. Spouting off names and such.”
“What names?” I asked anxiously.
Luc rubbed his cheek, staring off. “Me— Let me think now. Mer. No, Mur — Murgatroyd. Yes, that was it. Murgatroyd.”
The name meant nothing to me. I looked at Delph, who shook his head.
“Anything else?”
“He would go on about Wugs not seeing him for the great leader he was. Oh, he did mention another name, ’cept you already know it.”
“What?” I asked.
“Virgil.”
“They were friends, I guess.”
“In his mead cups, he didn’t sound none too friendly toward him.”
I puzzled over this for a bit. “Luc, is there any way I can get into Thorne’s sleeping chamber?”
“Don’t see how. Keeps it locked when he’s out of it and locked when he’s in it. Why?”
Delph said, “We think the reason he came into the Quag might be in there.”
“Aye, if he wanted to keep it secret, that would be the place, for no one goes in there but him.”
“Can you at least show us where he sleeps, Luc?” I asked.
We passed through quite a few corridors until I was hopelessly lost, but I knew Delph probably wasn’t. I looked back at him to confirm that he could find this place again if need be. He gave a quick nod.
Luc stopped at the beginning of a passage and pointed down the corridor of stone. It was well lighted and thus I could easily see the massive door at the end, set directly into the rock wall. There were no guards posted outside the door, yet it looked impenetrable.
On the return journey, I spoke to Luc in a low voice. At first he was not receptive to my ideas, but I could sense that the courage and spirit Thorne had taken from him was slowly returning to the head ekos.
As soon as we got back to our little chamber, Luc left us.
“We have to get into Thorne’s sleeping chamber,” I said. As I said it, I felt the collywobbles in my stomach, like a million moths were flying around in there.
Delph nodded. “Thorne’s become quite a dab hand at flying. Which means he won’t need us much longer, will he? Then we’ll be bones on a wall.”
“Luc will help, but I need a way to get into his room while Thorne isn’t there.”
“Then what you need is to get him outta his room.”
I frowned. “Brilliant, Delph. I wish I would have thought of that. Well done,” I added sarcastically.
“No, I mean you need a distraction.”
“What sort?” I asked curiously.
“He’s afraid of grubbs, right?”
“Well, yeah, they want to kill him. So?”
“So we start with that and build our plan.”
“You got some grubbs that’ll do your bidding?” I asked skeptically.
My cloak was hanging on a peg on the wall. He reached in one of its pockets, put on my glove, pulled out the Elemental and willed it to full size.
“The Elemental?” I said, completely puzzled.
He nodded. “With this I get to pretend I’m something that I’m not.”
I smiled as I finally understood what he meant. “A grubb,” I said.
Thirty slivers later, Delph and I peered around the corner of the passageway leading to Thorne’s chamber. Delph was holding the Elemental.
“Luc is all ready to go,” I said.
Delph nodded, exhaled a long breath and said, “You best be getting on, then.”
I hurried down the passageway and secreted myself in a niche that would keep me hidden from view. I leaned out, looked back down the passage at Delph and nodded. Then I squeezed myself back into the niche.
I saw the Elemental blast past me, its turbulent wake snuffing out the torches on the wall as it sailed by. Then it struck the door a terrific blow, knocking it down. Moments later, in the near darkness now, I saw it zoom back toward Delph.
There were screams and shouts and I knew Luc had done his task as well. Ekos up and down passages were crying out that the grubbs were attacking.
The next sliver, I heard him.
It was Thorne shouting orders, and I shrunk back as far as I could in the niche when he raced past me in the now darkened passage, a short-barreled morta in one hand and a flickering candle in the other. He was in his sleeping clothes, his hair wild and flying around his face. He had Destin around his waist.
As soon as he was well past me, I turned and ran toward his chamber. I didn’t know how long I would have, but I doubted it would be long.