The Stars Below, page 30
part #4 of Vega Jane Series
I felt tears creep to my eyes in the face of his heartfelt confession. “You fought well, Archie. I was proud to have you with me.”
He drew a replenishing breath, and then his tone became more workmanlike, as though he knew he had a limited amount of time to accomplish what he wanted to.
“The point is, there’s still more to do. Only I won’t be around to help.” He started to cough violently and abruptly sat up. I knelt next to him and waved the Adder Stone over him, wishing the best thoughts I could. His breathing eased a bit, but he was clearly in a great deal of pain. Pain that I could do nothing about.
He drew another shuddering breath and said, “You need to talk to my mother. If she can help you get into Empyrean, then you need to try.”
“But you know what will happen if I use you as the conduit.”
He smiled bitterly, his eyes seeming to glass over as I stared into them.
“That I’ll die?” He laughed until he coughed.
After he recovered, he said, “Let me put what life I have left to good use. To help you. To help our lot. I’d much prefer that to lying under a tree until I breathe my last. What bloody good is that?”
I could see the logic in all that he said. Still, I sat there for several long moments as I mulled this over. Finally, I reached my conclusion.
“When do you want to do it?” I asked.
He touched his chest. “I think we best do it now, Vega. My time is dwindling. I feel it in every bit of me.”
I helped him to his feet and led him into the trees until we found a small clearing where we could be alone. He lay on the ground and looked up at me.
“Thank you, Vega. Thank you for letting me do this.”
Tears were spilling down my cheeks now, as what was about to happen fully set upon me.
“Thank you, Archie, for being so good, and brave.”
He closed his eyes and I raised my wand.
I HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED anything quite like this. I had been in mists before that held surprises. In the Quag, I had ventured under a river into the lair of Orco and his wall of the dead. I had seen horrors that would drive most people starkly insane and yet never lost my nerve.
But this was somehow different.
The mists were there, and I beheld no terrors sprouting from them. But an undeniable dread rose up in every pore of me as I walked along.
“Astrea? Are you there? It’s Vega. I need to talk to you.”
There was no answer and my spirits plummeted. Had I just sacrificed Archie for no reason a’tall?
Just as I was thinking of turning back, I sensed movement to the left of me. I turned in that direction and strode through the mists with purpose. Surprisingly, my footfalls made no noise. When I looked down, there was nothing there. No dirt, no floor. Just my feet lost in mist.
I seemed to walk for hours, but it couldn’t have been that long. Finally, the mists parted, and I glimpsed a small pond set in the middle of what looked to be a broad meadow, though nary a single flower grew there that I could see.
“Astrea?” I called out again.
“Yes, Vega?”
The voice was unrecognizable to me, and I had no idea from where it was coming.
“Astrea? Where are you?”
“I am here, Vega.”
I looked in every direction until my gaze fell upon something in the distance coming toward me.
I ran in that direction, my legs and heart pumping furiously. As I neared it, I slowed and then stopped.
It wasn’t Astrea. At least as I knew her.
It was a fawn.
The creature drew close to me and then stopped.
“Astrea?” I said, bewildered.
The fawn nodded its head.
“But you’re a —”
“A living thing that I admired greatly when I too was alive. An innocent creature with not a shred of hatred in its heart. It simply wants to run into the sunshine and live at peace with all other things. How glorious for me.”
I could not see the fawn speaking these words. They were just echoing all around me. But the creature was undoubtedly the source.
“So you chose this … form?”
The fawn nodded. “I did indeed. For all of eternity.”
“Astrea, I’m sorry that you’re dead.”
“I should have been dead long ago, Vega. My only regret is that I did not dispatch Necro while I had the chance.”
“I killed the jabbit that bit you.”
“As I knew you would.”
I could see the fawn looking me over. My battered body seemed to give it pause.
“I see that things have not gone well for you.”
I took a minute to tell her what had happened.
The fawn nodded but then gazed at me sharply. “Who has sacrificed in order for you to be here?”
I knew that so accomplished a sorceress as Astrea Prine was bound to ask this question.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, “Archie. He was badly injured. He was dying. And he insisted. I didn’t want to do it, but … but he wanted his death to have a purpose. A purpose that would help our kind.”
I thought I could see a cluster of tears in the fawn’s eyes.
“My son did the right thing. A brave and honorable man. As you know, much of his life was spent doing things with which he did not agree. At least at the end he was able to do as he wished.”
“I agree.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“The Maladons have taken over Empyrean, as I said. They have made it their new home.”
“But surely their castle …”
I had forgotten to tell her that part.
“We destroyed their castle. It is no more.”
“I applaud you, Vega. I truly do.”
“But now we need to attack the Maladons and take back what is rightfully ours. I know that in the Quag you had the green dome, which kept your cottage safe.”
“Yes.”
“Empyrean had such protections, but they were broken.”
“Tell me how it was done.”
I told her what Uma had said.
She said, “It is an old ruse. Hiding your enemies inside an innocuous object that is then used to breach the desired target.”
“Well, it worked. But Empyrean has been covered once more with such protections, so I can’t see how we can successfully attack now. Our numbers are few, so the element of surprise is critical if we are to be victorious. We can use my invisibility shield to our advantage. But we need to get in first.”
“I see your dilemma. But there is a way, Vega, there is indeed.”
“What is it?” I asked eagerly.
“Look to the sky.”
I did so. It was a breathtakingly beautiful blue with nary a puff of anything to mar it.
I looked back at the fawn, well, at Astrea.
“What am I looking for?”
“What did you see when you went to Maladon Castle?”
“I saw the castle,” I replied, puzzled at the inquiry.
“And that was all?”
“Yes.”
“No, it wasn’t. You saw the sky over the castle.”
“Well, of course. But so what?”
“And nothing else?”
“Look,” I said, growing irritated. But then it struck me. I had seen nothing else. Only the castle and the sky.
“Why didn’t the Maladons use a protective spell around their castle?” I asked.
“The answer to that is the Maladons are arrogant beyond belief. And they felt no need for protections like that. They have ruled this world for so long and no one has ever challenged them. They have grown complacent and lazy in their superiority.”
“I guess that’s true enough, though even without the protections the castle was well guarded. I could never enter without my invisibility ring. And they had garms and jabbits as well. They didn’t need bloody enchantments.”
“Correct.”
Then I thought about it some more. “But that can’t be right,” I said. “I used your Seer-See. I saw the protections around Empyrean. They’re there.”
“I’m sure that you did.”
“So they must have put them there.”
“Why? When they thought you were defeated?”
I was immensely frustrated because it appeared we were talking in circles. “But there are protections there. I just told you that.”
“I know. I was the one who put them there initially.”
My head was growing wonky. “Astrea, can you please just explain this to me?”
The fawn drew closer to me.
“I drew up those protections to hold against anything, Vega. But, in the rare chance that they were broken, for any reason, I did something else.”
“What?”
“I conjured the protections so that, if ever defeated, they would grow back. The spells you are seeing around Empyrean through the Seer-See are mine, not the Maladons’.”
I looked down at the fawn, stunned.
“You’re … you’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely. But you can test it for yourself with a simple spell once you return.”
She told me the spell. “If the light around Empyrean turns green, the protections are mine.”
“Green, like the dome around your cottage?”
“Yes. And if the protections are mine …”
“Then they form no barrier for us,” I finished for her.
The fawn nodded and then drew closer still.
“Vega, I’m sorry that I fell in battle. I would have much preferred to be with you fighting.”
“I know.”
“And since this will likely be the last time we will ever meet, I need to say this.”
I stood there rigidly, since I had no idea what she was about to say.
“It was an honor to first be your teacher in sorcery, Vega. And it was an even higher honor later to be your follower. I can’t think of anyone better suited to lead our kind than you.”
Before I could say anything back, she said, “Now go on and finish off the bloody Maladons once and for all.”
My thoughts swirled, my head spun and my eyes closed.
When they opened, I was lying on the ground looking up at the sky.
No mist. No fawn. No Astrea.
I wondered for a moment if I had dreamed it all.
But then I sat up and looked to my right.
And went rigid.
There was Archie.
Dead.
His glassy eyes were staring, lifeless, up at the darkness as well.
I used my hand to close them. I stood, lifted my wand, used it to dig a grave and placed Archie’s body in it and then covered it over.
I found a chunk of wood and set it in the dirt at the head of the grave.
Using my wand, I burned an inscription into the wood.
Here lies Archie Prine. Who at the end of his life lived as he wanted. Your bravery will never be forgotten.
I looked down at the mound of freshly dug dirt.
I had buried others before.
Many.
Too damn many.
Yet Archie’s death was different somehow. He had sacrificed himself so I could talk to his dead mother, and give us a fighting chance against the Maladons. For a man who had spent hundreds of years in complete drudgery, I wondered if the short time he had existed on the outside of that stillborn life had made up for all those centuries.
Somehow, I thought they had.
I turned away from the grave.
I had thought Empyrean impenetrable to us because of those enchantments. We would not have the element of surprise. But if Astrea was right and those were her protections?
I prayed to holy Steeples that she was not mistaken.
Because I had business to finish.
I had the Maladons to finish.
INVISIBLE, I HOVERED over Empyrean in the dead of night.
I was here for one reason, and one reason only.
I raised my wand and pointed it at the dome of protection and uttered the spell that Astrea had told me.
Tears of joy appeared in my eyes when the color green emerged over the dome for the briefest of moments before vanishing.
I had my answer. Now it was time to act on it.
I returned to our camp and gathered my army together, including our newest member, Geoffrey Tremaine. I had fifteen magicals, including me and Jason. I had Delph, an assortment of creatures like hobs and ekos and the unicorn, and sixty Wugs led by Thansius.
Russell’s contingent was a hundred strong, but none of them could perform sorcery.
I calculated the Maladon army at over two hundred, all sorcerers.
Still, I actually considered this as fair a fight as we were ever likely to manage.
I faced my troops and told them about what I had learned.
“We will take them by surprise, but it won’t be easy, and it won’t be without loss. This is our last chance to defeat the Maladons, and we have to take it. They have the fewest number of sorcerers they have had yet. And with Russell’s group and my fellow Wugs, we have nearly an equal number of warriors as they.”
I looked around at my lot, wounded, battered, still reeling from the loss of comrades and friends. And all I saw in their countenances was a steely resolve that caused the hairs on my neck to rise and my cheeks to flush, and my own spine, always abnormally stiff, to harden even more.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
They held up wands and weapons and fists.
Silently.
To me they represented something far stronger than shouts. They heralded a group of people who would never submit to defeat, who would fight on so long as one of them still stood.
“Let’s finish this,” I said.
IT WAS THE darkest part of the night. It was so black, in fact, that sky and ground seemed to have melded into one.
Indeed, the stars above seemed to have moved to below.
To cluster with us.
Having drifted right through the protective incantations, we landed softly on the front grounds of Empyrean. The front of the house had been repaired, and the door was solid and presumably locked.
All magically tethered together, and hence invisible, we made our way to the back.
As we stared at the rear of Empyrean, Delph took my hand and leaned in.
“Whatever happens this night, Vega. If one of us doesn’t make it —”
“Delph, we’ll be fine.”
“Vega, if one of us doesn’t make it, I want you to know that I love you with all my heart. I have always loved you.”
I felt my heart thudding inside me. And tears rushed to my eyes.
Just leave it to Delph to make me all wonky right before I was to go to war!
“I love you too, Delph. With all that I have.”
We exchanged a kiss and then focused on the task at hand.
We searched around for sentries and finally happened upon two Maladons sleepily at their posts. Necro must have truly believed we were not strong enough to attack. He was probably focused on seeking us out and finishing us off, never truly contemplating that we were going to do the same to him.
We pointed our wands at the Maladons, and said the words.
The two sentries lost their lives never knowing who had taken them.
Two down, about two hundred to go.
Next, I said softly, “Pillsbury?”
The armored man appeared next to me a moment later.
“Mistress Vega,” he said softly, gazing around for me.
“We’re over here, Pillsbury,” I said very quietly.
I cast a tether over him and Pillsbury instantly became invisible too.
“Mistress Vega, thank all that is good in the world that you are safe.”
“We’re here to attack the Maladons,” I said.
He looked around at the others. “How may I assist?” he asked gamely.
“We need to get in the house without anyone knowing,” I said.
He nodded. “There is the rear door by the conservatory. There is no one there. They are most derelict when it comes to security.”
“Where is Necro?”
“I am not sure, Mistress Vega. I have the pleasure to say that I have not seen that awful creature for some time.”
That information worried me, but there was nothing to do but continue on.
Pillsbury got us into the house through the conservatory door.
We moved silently into the Great Hall from there.
“Where are the Maladons?” I asked.
“Some are sleeping in their rooms upstairs. Others are in the lower level. About a dozen are eating in the dining hall.”
“Eating, at this hour?” I said.
“They do not adhere to any normalcy of schedule, the louts. I mean, can you imagine the indigestion? I hope they choke on it.”
Delph said, “Well, they’re not bloody normal, are they?”
I looked at my troops. I had already conceived a plan pairing off magicals and nonmagicals in clusters of attack groups. And had gone over the tactics and techniques that I wanted them to employ. There was great risk with this, and many things could go wrong. I knew that better than anyone. But the greatest risk of all would be to do nothing. Then the Maladons would simply hunt us down and kill us at their leisure.
We divided up into three forces to take on the lower level, the dining hall and the upstairs.
I was in the group going to the lower level. Pillsbury had also told us that was where the greatest concentration of Maladons were. With me were Miranda, John, Geoffrey and my mother. Also a third of Russell’s men and the Wugs.
In the brief time I’d spent training Geoffrey in the art of battle, he had proved to be an apt student. Though I would only truly know when the battle began.
We headed to the lower level as quietly as possible. I felt the chain links of Destin silently moving under my skin. I would need every bit of power I had to survive this night.
We reached the lower level, and I immediately felt a presence.
Alice Adronis appeared in front of me.
“Follow me, Vega,” she said quietly. “I will lead you to them.”
