Vega jane and the end of.., p.12
Vega Jane and the End of Time, page 12
Slapping my hand against the stone wall, I said angrily, ‘Thansius told me. He had to bury them all. He would never lie.’
‘We can’t leave them like this,’ my mother said.
‘No, we can’t,’ I said.
Just then, the door opened and three cloaked Maladons entered.
We immediately pointed our wands at them. I whispered, ‘Archie, left. Mum, right. I’ve got the bloke in the middle.’
‘Impacto,’ said Archie and my mother at the same moment I cast my spell at the middle Maladon and put his mind under my control.
As his mates slumped to the floor, my Maladon looked stupidly at the wall.
Archie paled a bit when I told the Maladon to let his hood down.
‘Blimey,’ he said. ‘Do they all look like that?’
‘Underneath, yes. That’s a real Maladon, Archie.’
I looked at my mother. She had obviously seen Maladons in death during the course of their battles with them. Still, I could see the revulsion on her features.
I said, ‘OK, Maladon, explain the people in the glass.’
‘We’re learning things from them, ain’t we?’
‘What things? Tell me,’ I ordered.
‘They ain’t magical, for starters.’
‘That, I know. What else?’
He was about to say something when he clutched his chest and fell forward. I knelt down and checked him. His eyes were wide open and unseeing.
I looked up at my mother and Archie in shock. ‘He’s dead.’
‘But how? You did nothing to him,’ said my mother.
I rose. It was true.
I heard the footsteps.
I looked at the Wugs behind the glass. I had to free their spirits. But to do that, I needed to stay alive.
My heart was breaking, and tears welled up in my eyes as I drew near to Duf’s glass. ‘I will be back, Duf, I promise.’
‘Vega, hurry,’ implored Archie.
We rushed from the room. As soon as we turned one corner, we saw a group of Maladons coming towards us. They couldn’t see us, but they were spread out, filling the hall from wall to wall.
Well, two could play that game.
I lifted into the air, pulling Archie and my mother after me. We passed over the Maladons and continued on our way.
‘Vega, what’s going on?’ hissed Archie.
‘They know someone is here,’ I replied. ‘They must have placed some sort of curse on that Maladon back there. If he tried to divulge anything of importance, he would die. And he did.’
We turned another corner and there they were.
A garm on one side and a jabbit on the other. And two huge Maladons leading them on chains. The beasts were sniffing the air heavily.
‘Odorous obstructo,’ I said quietly, aiming my wand at their snouts.
This froze their scent capability, and we floated over them with no problem. We landed on the other side and rushed down the hall. We heard more footsteps coming, and I used my wand to look through the nearest door. What I saw inside made me gasp.
‘This way,’ I said, pulling them into the room.
I shut the door behind us and stared at the objects I’d seen with my spell.
‘Blimey,’ said Archie.
Blimey indeed, I thought. It was a pinstripe suit, white shirt and bowler hat hanging on hooks on the wall.
I drew closer and used my wand to flip over the hat so I could see the inside lining.
I gasped again.
Written out in silver handwriting along the inner rim’s band was a name.
Mr Endemen.
I whirled around, half expecting to see the man coming at me. But there was no one there. I placed the hat back on the hook with a flick of my wand.
I looked around. This surely couldn’t be where Endemen lived. It was small, cramped and musty. More a closet than a room.
I had a sudden inspiration.
Using my modified wand wire, I contacted Victus. When he answered, I said, ‘Victus, what has happened to Mr Endemen?’
‘He has been imprisoned.’
I nearly reeled with the shock. ‘What? Why?’
‘I told you, Vega, that Necro was upset with him. Well, that upset has turned to anger and the anger has now led Necro to strip Mr Endemen of his powers and his freedom.’
‘Where is he?’
‘In the same tower I spoke to you about before.’
The tower where my grandfather had been imprisoned. ‘Thanks, Victus. Um, do they know we’re here?’
‘They know someone who should not be here is, Vega. Please take care.’
I led Archie and my mother from the room and down another corridor, towards the tower where I had nearly been crushed to death.
Along the way I wondered what sort of guards would be stationed outside the tower room. If they were already looking for us, they would be on high alert.
But when we arrived I saw no guards.
This made me extra wary.
I took out my wand and cast the spell to see inside the tower room.
Endemen was in there, bound by thick black chains that were attached to the floor.
I approached the door and used my wand to open it. It yielded easily, which put me even more on my guard.
My mother whispered in my ear, ‘We need to take care, Vega. Something is not right.’
I nodded, and we slowly entered the room, our wands in defensive positions, our gazes revolving around the space.
Endemen looked up. His face was blank. I had identified him as Endemen by his hair and the line of his jaw and the rest of his profile.
But his face, the slash of his mouth, his dangerous eyes, were no more. He was like all the other slaves I had encountered: faceless, their magic taken from them.
I kept my wand pointed directly at him, because face or not, he could be deadly, as I well knew.
Yet there was something so pitiable about him that I could no longer stand it. The last person I wanted to feel sorry for was this bloke.
I readied my wand and said, ‘Origante.’
And then I nearly cried out. Endemen had not turned into a grotesque creature, as was the case with the other Maladons.
Jason, Necro’s son and Uma’s love, stared back at me.
22
NO WAY OUT
I stared at Endemen. Or Jason. It must be some sort of trick. There was no way the gentle, handsome Jason could be the wicked killer that I knew Endemen to be.
Yet as I looked into that face, I saw something strangely real. Pain.
True pain.
‘Vega!’ said Archie more urgently.
I refocused on him, pushing the tortured features of Jason from my mind.
‘What?’
My mother said, ‘Vega, the air. It’s getting hard to breathe.’
She was right – I struggled to draw in a breath. Necro.
I looked frantically around. There were no longer any windows in the tower room. We heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
This had been a trap. Or else we had triggered some warning spell that the Maladons had cast around the room.
Thinking quickly, I spun my ring around, rendering us visible once more.
I ran over to Jason and looked down at him.
‘Why . . . why are you here?’ he gasped.
‘You’re supposed to be dead. Uma saw you dead. She died soon after.’
Jason groaned, and if it was possible, his pain deepened. ‘Uma is dead?’
He hadn’t known. ‘What happened to you?’ I asked. ‘How did you come to be here?’
Jason shook his head as tears rolled down his face. Archie edged up to me. He gasped, ‘Uh, Vega, it’s really getting bloody hard to breathe in here. And the sounds are getting closer.’
I ignored him, struggling to speak against the tightness in my chest.
‘Your father turned you into Mr Endemen, didn’t he, Jason?’ I said.
He slowly nodded.
‘Why?’
‘To make war. And then to silence me. He took . . . he took my mind.’
I thought back to the town of True and the room under the train station where the Maladons led groups of people to have their minds stolen.
My mother said, ‘Have you seen my son? Is John Jane here?’ she added in an urgent whisper.
Jason only shook his head. ‘I . . . I don’t know.’
‘Please, you must think.’ My mother put a hand out to grip his shoulder, perhaps shake him into remembering, but I gave her a warning look. ‘Why are you chained?’ I asked Jason.
‘I . . . Uma.’
‘What about her?’
‘Um, Vega, they’re right outside the door,’ Archie warned.
I did not tear my eyes from Jason.
‘I have seen her,’ I said, hoping to prompt him. ‘Her spirit. She calls it regret. She loved you more than anything. With you gone she had nothing to live for.’
‘Can you tell her . . . can you tell her that I loved her just as much as she loved me? Perhaps more.’
‘I will, if we get out of here alive.’
‘Then I will do all in my power to ensure that you will be able to do so,’ he said, his voice for an instant growing firm and strong.
The door flew open.
I whirled around to see Necro standing there.
Our gazes locked, since I was not invisible.
I saw triumph on his features. But not recognition. Then again, the last time I had seen him had been eight hundred or so years ago.
He slipped off his hood. ‘You must be Vega,’ he said. ‘I have heard much about you from various sources.’ He looked at me more closely. ‘And I believe that we might have met at some point.’
‘Where is my son?!’ screamed my mother.
Necro’s gaze pivoted to her. ‘I would be delighted to reunite you with your son. Tell me who he is. I might have him under glass in the castle.’
‘Like your son?’ I said.
Necro glanced at his son, and froze.
He bared his teeth like a dog about to attack.
I whipped my ring around, and we disappeared from view. But it was a small space and Necro knew we were here.
He raised his wand, and the air around us began to grow even heavier. I felt my lungs heave. Next to me, Archie and my mother gasped.
I lifted off the ground and took aim at Necro.
Then he simply vanished. Behind him were a dozen Maladons, all Bowler Hats. They streamed into the room, took aim and started firing spells all around.
Archie and my mother screamed as I dived, ducked, flipped, turned and hurtled us around the room, trying to avoid their curses.
The problem was the air was growing so heavy that I was having a difficult time staying up.
I looked at Archie.
‘Vega, what can we do?’ he gasped.
‘Take out as many of the Maladons as you can. Fire left, Mum. Archie, you go right.’
They nodded, pointed their wands and began firing away. I knew that each spell cast would reveal our position, but we kept moving. And if we didn’t fight back we would be slaughtered regardless.
I added my wand to the fight and Maladon after Maladon fell, their wands rolling away across the floor.
But more crowded in to take their place.
We kept firing and taking fire. I cast a shield spell, but it only partially held against all the incoming curses.
‘I can . . . barely breathe, Vega,’ Archie gasped.
I too was starting to flutter in and out of consciousness. For some reason, this did not appear to be affecting the Maladons.
And that was the moment he returned.
Necro stood in the doorway. He looked around at all his fallen followers and showed no concern at all for them. He raised his wand slowly into the air.
This would be it, I supposed. We were like birds trapped in a cage. Helplessly flying with no way out.
I didn’t know what spell he would use, but I imagined it would finish us off.
I had escaped such a situation before, using my Elemental as a spear to blast my way through the high dome of the castle.
Now I tried to line up my wand to take aim at him. To finish him off before he did the same to us.
But I was about out of air. And I could no longer see or think clearly, and my wand wobbled in my hand.
‘V-Vega,’ mumbled Archie, his eyes closing as he grew limp against the magical tether keeping him both invisible and in the air.
I refocused on Necro with my wand.
Come on, Vega, you can do it. Finish the bloke. Rigamorte and it’s over. Do it.
Necro said, ‘Vega, your spirit is admirable. Come and join me in my crusade to bring us to our true destiny.’
I answered his call with a blast from my wand, which he easily blocked.
Rigamorte, he can’t block that. Do it.
But the death spell required a concentration that I could simply not give at the moment. I was barely conscious. There was not enough wind left in my lungs for another breath.
Next to me, Archie slumped unconscious. His dead weight sagged against the tethers, stretching them to their limits. On the other side, my mother was still casting spells, but I could see that she was about to faint.
They pulled me down like lead, even as I felt my eyes fluttering and my chest struggling to rise once more.
‘A pity, Vega. You would have been useful.’
Necro aimed his wand towards us.
‘No!’
I saw a blur of movement to my left.
It was Jason. Despite his chains, he had managed to reach one of the wands dropped by a Maladon. He pointed it at his father.
A burst of light exploded from his wand. I took this opportunity to marshal my focus and transformed the Elemental into a lance. We hurtled upward, bursting through the ceiling of the tower room and out into the fresh air.
I didn’t waste a moment. I reduced the Elemental back to a wand, tapped my leg and uttered the incantation with one image firmly in my mind.
The next thing, we were standing on the steps of Empyrean.
I twisted the ring around, we became visible once more and we stumbled inside, collapsing onto the floor. None of us moved for a few long moments.
Pillsbury rushed into the room, and hurried over to me.
‘Mistress Vega, are you all right?’
I sat up and nodded. ‘Just a bit out of wind, Pillsbury. I’ll be fine.’ I slowly rose and gave a hand to my mother, helping her up, while Pillsbury did the same for Archie.
Archie looked at me in a sort of awe.
‘I don’t know how you got us out of that place,’ he said. ‘But I’m very glad you did.’
My mother put a hand on my shoulder. When I turned to look at her, there were tears clustered in her eyes.
‘I know, Mum. I’m sorry we didn’t find John.’
‘It’s not that, Vega. You . . . you were wonderful back there.’
I felt myself actually blush. ‘Th-thanks.’
She went to my father and Archie staggered off to rest. I left too. But I was not going to rest. There was someone I needed to talk to – and there was no time to waste.
23
TWINING
‘Uma?’
I looked around the chamber where I could usually find her. She didn’t appear.
‘Uma. I have news. Of Jason.’
The next moment, there she was. Shimmering, nearly transparent. Nearly gone, actually.
‘Jason?’ she said breathlessly. ‘News?’
I nodded and leaned back against the wall, more for support than anything else.
‘What I’m about to tell you will not be easy to hear, but it’s the truth. I swear it.’
She hovered there frozen in front of me.
‘Please tell me, Vega,’ she said.
And I did. With some trepidation, because I knew it would come as a great shock, as it had to me. When I got to the part revealing Endemen to be her supposedly dead fiancé, Uma visibly shuddered. Then she broke down in sobs.
I let her cry for a while. Then I said, ‘Uma, Jason asked me to tell you something.’
She looked up at me. ‘He told me to tell you that he loved you just as much as you loved him, perhaps more.’ I paused as she took this in. ‘And I would not be here right now had he not helped us escape.’
Uma sank down to the floor. I sat next to her.
‘I don’t understand any of this, Vega,’ she sobbed. ‘Jason was dead. I saw his body.’
‘I know. It seems inexplicable.’ I paused, marshalling my thoughts. ‘Necro wanted to start a war between our kind and the Maladons. Pillsbury told me he murdered Gunther Andronis. Now, what if, to distract from his crime, Necro organized another?’
‘So he pretended to have Jason killed and blamed the death on us?’ said Uma.
‘Yes. How he did so I don’t know, but with his magical powers . . .’
‘But you say that Jason was working for him?’
I nodded, thinking. ‘Jason was a good man, Uma. He would have fought for peace. That was something Necro could never tolerate. He punished Jason by taking over his mind, making him wicked.’ I paused and drew a breath. ‘When I saw you both in town the day I travelled into the past, Necro seemed eager for the marriage to take place. Clearly it was all an act, perhaps to avoid suspicion. He never intended to allow the two of you to marry. He was using you both.’
‘But you said Jason told you he loved me? So has his sanity returned?’
‘Apparently so. Somehow, very recently, he must have finally broken free.’
Uma mulled this over. ‘What happened to him, after you escaped the castle? Is he alive?’
‘I don’t know, but I have a way to find out.’
‘Thank you, Vega.’
I left her there and rushed back up to the main floor. I found Delph and Petra and quickly told them what had happened.
Delph was absolutely stunned.
‘My . . . my dad was there? But you saw his grave.’
I nodded.
‘I don’t know, Delph. I don’t know what has happened to them. But I told him that we would be back to help them.’
Petra shuddered. ‘How could Endemen, or Jason, suddenly become himself again? We’ve both faced Endemen. He was a demon, as evil as I’ve ever seen. Surely it was some trick?’
