The Stars Below, page 34
part #4 of Vega Jane Series
“Undoubtedly.”
“Do you feel dead?”
“No, but I am. I know I am.”
“Yet you are in your original form?”
“What do you mean? Alice and Uma are in their original form.”
“No, they are no longer flesh and blood. They are spirits. In Uma’s case, she is regret. Yet you are flesh and bone. Don’t you see?”
I slowly reached out a hand and touched my leg. I could feel it.
I glanced up at him. “How can that be? I was killed. Necro killed me.”
“Petra too was killed. And yet she rose again, did she not?”
I stared at him. “That’s because she only thought she was dead. She was stunned, that was all.”
“No, she was dead. The spell that hit her was a killing spell.”
I shook my head. This was nonsense. “That’s impossible.”
“When Petra died, did you feel anything?”
“No, I —” I paused, because I had felt something. “I … I felt something funny in my chest.”
Jasper nodded. “That would make sense.”
“Why?” I said quickly.
“Because it is a condition of the Oath of Oblivion that you both took. That you both made to each other.”
I drew in a sharp breath. “The Oath of Oblivion?”
He pointed to my forehead. “There is a solemn vow, an exchange of blood, a pact that one will die for the other. And if not, if the pact is broken, then terrible consequences will follow. But on the other hand, good can come from it. Because it can offer extraordinary protections that can be found nowhere else in the magical world.”
I tried to follow what he was saying, but it was difficult.
“Do you … do you mean what I think you mean?”
“A bit of you and a bit of Petra were exchanged when you made the promise to each other. That bit of you and that bit of Petra serve to protect you against the most dire of consequences.”
“Death?” I said in a hollow tone.
He nodded. “Petra lived because the killing curse hit that bit of you, Vega. And that bit of you absorbed the full force of the spell. It killed that piece of you, but it allowed Petra to survive.”
“So Necro’s spell?”
“It killed that bit of Petra.”
“Then why am I here? If I’m not really dead?”
“A part of you is dead, Vega. And death requires you to come here. But unlike virtually all others who arrive at this place, you will not be required to stay.”
“But Petra didn’t mention any of that happening to her.”
“But you are not Petra. Her coming here would have garnered the barest of recollection. Perhaps she would not remember it all. But you, you are different.”
“Why am I different?”
“You are Vega Jane, and with that comes complications. But chief among them? You have a choice to make.”
“You mean I can leave and go back to the living?” I looked around. “Or stay here?”
“Yes. But should you die once more, it will be final.”
I nodded, because that made perfect sense. “By taking that oath, we saved both of our lives?”
“Yes.”
“I guess it was lucky that we did so.”
“Oh, I think luck had little enough to do with it.”
“Did you know I would triumph over Necro because you saw that in the future?”
“No, Vega, but having met you, I thought it a pretty good bet.”
I smiled at his confidence in me.
I wish I could have known him when he was alive. I think he would have been quite wonderful to have been around.
“I’ve made my choice, and I have to get going, Jasper. But I would like to ask you one more question.”
“Yes?” he said expectantly.
“How did you die?”
“What does it matter? Life and death are just states of mind, Vega. I will see you again at some point, but not for a long time, I suspect.”
The mist swirled around me so fiercely that I had to blink to be able to see.
The next moment the image of Steeples appeared before me.
The colossal lay dead in the field next to the building.
And at the doorway to the building stood Necro.
He appeared to have healed himself, for he was nearly back to his original form.
He seemed to be searching for something. Perhaps he was wondering why, having vanquished me, he was not free to leave this place.
His voice boomed out. “I have won, Elythia. Fair and square. And now it is time for you to set me free to do as I wish. I demand that. Now.”
“I don’t think so,” I cried out.
He turned slowly to face me. When he saw who it was, he grew still.
“This cannot be.”
“It certainly can be,” I said as I started walking toward him.
He shot a spell at me that I flicked away with my wand. He fired another and another. I deflected them with ease.
I had never felt stronger. It was as though all the power of the entire Jane family now rested within me. It was palpable.
“You are dead!” he screamed.
“No, I’m not. But you are.”
I stopped when I was only five feet from him. We stared across the width of ground at each other.
“I killed you once. I can do so again,” said Necro.
“You killed me by trick. That won’t happen again.”
He held up his wand. “You will never get through my defenses. I have the power of not just myself, but dear Astrea inside me.”
“You took her power out of fear.”
Necro curled his lip. “You are mad.”
“Out of your fear of me.”
He laughed shrilly.
“Because you were afraid your magical powers would not be equal to mine.”
“You are deluded. There is no magical being more powerful than I.”
“But you made a mistake,” I said, ignoring his self-aggrandizing comment.
“You talk in circles.”
“Then let me make it clearer. You and Astrea are not compatible.”
“What does that mean?” he sneered.
“It means that you took inside of you the magic of a mighty sorceress who hates you. Can you feel that, Necro? Can you understand your colossal blunder? You have killed yourself from within.”
He started to laugh, but then stopped and looked down at his wand. His hand shook just a bit. His brow creased in worry. This garnered his full attention.
And that was all I needed.
I flexed my shoulders. And at the same time I willed something to happen that I never had before.
Destin, freed from my body, shot straight out at Necro. The chain wound around and around his wand. With a sweep of my hand, Destin propelled into the air, taking Necro’s wand with it.
“No!” screamed Necro.
I willed the Elemental to full size. I took my time in so doing. And I had no need to even tell it what to do.
It already knew.
The Elemental hurtled directly at the now-defenseless Necro.
He didn’t have time to scream again.
When it struck him, I have never seen a flash of light that bright. It was every color of the rainbow and then some.
Out of this burst of light wheeled the Elemental.
It flew straight and true right back to my waiting hand. To its rightful owner, where it once more became my wand.
When the lights fell away, Necro was no more.
I stared at the spot for a few moments, just to make sure.
Then, recalling Destin to me, I took Necro’s wand, pointed the Elemental at it, and the thing simply vanished, never to be wielded again.
I lifted into the air and set my route directly back toward Empyrean.
I didn’t use the Pass-pusay spell because I had something to do.
I reached the wall at the end of the Quag and breached the seam.
On the other side of the wall, I read the words I had burned there before.
THIS TIME WE WILL TRIUMPH
I used my wand to erase this and then used it to burn new words in their place.
PEACE HOPE FREEDOM
Then I rose into the air and headed home.
MY FEET STRUCK the dirt in front of Empyrean.
I was feeling exhausted but thrilled.
Our enemy was gone.
I walked through the hole where the door had once been.
Inside the hall, a group of people was waiting.
Delph gave a cry of delight and rushed toward me.
He lifted me off the floor in a bear hug and spun me around.
“I knew it,” he cried out. “Didn’t I tell you?” he called out to the others. “Didn’t I?”
“You did indeed,” said my mother. She rushed over to give me a hug once Delph let me down.
“I’m so very glad to see you back, Vega,” my mother said.
Petra joined us and took my hand.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I was about to ask you that,” I said. “You look very pale.”
She touched her chest. “I felt funny here,” she said. “It was like something had …”
“Had died inside you?” I said.
She shot me a glance. “How did you know that?”
“It’s a long story. But I will explain it to you later.”
She touched my ring. “Delph told me the wonderful news. Congratulations, Vega.”
“Thank you, Petra.”
“So, what happened with Necro?” asked Delph.
I told them briefly about what had taken place between us back in Wormwood. I left out the part about dying. That one would take a bit of explanation, which I didn’t care to get into right now.
“That is bloody amazing, Vega Jane,” said Delph.
“I’m just glad to be back.”
I looked around at the remains of Empyrean.
“We have a lot of work to do on this place. To get it back up to snuff.”
My mother nodded. “But we will.”
“There aren’t many of us left,” I pointed out.
“There will always be new ones to come along,” said Delph.
I touched his arm and smiled. But he didn’t smile back. In fact, he looked pale and sad.
“Delph, what is —”
But at that moment, I saw John come into the room, and I ran over to him. “John, where have you been?”
“Tending to some of the wounded. I quite think I’d like to be a Healer, Vega.”
“That’s wonderful, John. Our lot is certainly battered and bruised. Why, if —”
The rest of my words got caught in my throat as I saw Delph coming toward me.
He was carrying a limp body in his arms.
As he grew closer, my lips started to tremble and large tears gathered in my eyes.
Delph drew to a stop in front of me and then gently set the body down on the floor.
Now I knew why Delph had been pale and sad.
I dropped to my knees.
“Oh, Harry Two,” I moaned. “Not Harry Two.”
My beautiful dog was lying in front of me. His glorious mismatched eyes were open and glassy, his chest was not moving. Harry Two had never failed to rise from his wounds. Several times he had been so close to death, usually after saving my wretched life, but he had always managed to get to his feet and labor on.
Always.
Until now.
I put my hand on his head and ruffled his fur.
“Wh-what h-happened?”
“He was fine,” Delph said. “He got hurt some in the fighting, but nothing bad.”
Petra added, “But then a few minutes ago, he got really tense and his eyes focused like I had never seen before. And … and …” She looked miserably at Delph.
“And he just fell over, Vega. And died.”
Petra said, “But there was something shimmering around him.”
“Something shimmering. What are you talking —”
I stopped in midsentence.
I knelt down close to Harry Two and stared directly into his still blue eye.
And somewhere in those depths, I saw something, just a glimmer of something that I had seen once before there and that reminded me of someone I dearly loved. And dearly missed.
My grandfather Virgil.
I sat back and looked at my wand. I recalled the power that I had felt upon coming back from the dead. Right when I was to battle Necro for the last time. It was as though the entire Jane family was inside me. And maybe they had been.
I looked at Harry Two again. I had never known where my beautiful dog had come from. He had just appeared in my life one day when I was all alone and really, really needed someone.
And Harry Two and I had found each other.
And then I remembered that my first dog, Harry, had been killed by a garm, sacrificing his life for mine. And my grandfather had been with us then. He had held me that day while I sobbed into his strong shoulder at my unfathomable loss.
I buried my face in Harry Two’s wonderfully soft fur and sobbed once more. I held on to him as tightly as I could. I didn’t want to let him go. Death, after all, was only a state of mind.
I don’t know how long I was there until Delph gently lifted me up into his arms.
At first, I fought him.
“No, I can’t leave him. You don’t understand. He needs me.”
“What he needs, Vega Jane, is for you to let him move on to where he needs to be. Will you do that? Because he loved you so much. You need to do that for him. He deserves it. Let him be at peace.”
I stopped fighting him. As he carried me up the stairs, I peered back down where the ball of fur lay on the floor with everyone gathered around it.
Finally, Geoffrey gently picked up Harry Two and took him away.
As I lay in bed that night, I stared up at the ceiling. I had finally stopped crying. I knew that some would think it silly that I was so heartbroken over a dog. But he and I had been through so much. He was often the only friend I had. And he had fought with me, helped me survive.
He was not simply a beast.
He was my friend. He was my family. And I would miss him till the day I died.
As it should be with those you love, beasts or people. It didn’t matter. What mattered was what was in your heart.
And in theirs.
THREE YEARS LATER
DELPH AND I walked hand in hand through the gardens of Empyrean. The fully restored Empyrean.
After discussing it long and hard with them, we had restored the household staff to who they had once been. Then Pillsbury and Mrs. Jolly and the rest died peacefully and gratefully. I, for one, thought they had labored long enough.
We had traveled to True and Greater True, and though it had taken a long time, we had finally freed everyone’s minds from the Maladons’ vicious handiwork. Now folks still scrubbed floors and washed windows, but they did it with a free mind and an ambition to seek other jobs if they so desired. The elites of Greater True had been made to understand what had happened, and they opened their fine homes, which had been given to them by the Maladons, to their fellow citizens.
The guards, both adult and boys’ divisions, had been disbanded.
The trains that ran from the countryside into the towns now did so merely to transport folks to and fro.
There were more magicals in the countryside and the towns, but they no longer sported the three-hooks brand, because when Necro had died, so had that curse.
Those magicals came to Empyrean to live and learn their craft, and to understand how to use their magic responsibly.
My brother became a Healer in record time and spent a great deal of his time treating folks in the towns and countryside. But when I saw him at Empyrean, where he had taken over Jasper Jane’s old digs, his face was still always buried in a book.
Some things never changed. And bully for that.
My mother lived with us at Empyrean and really managed the place. She also helped Delph with the teaching of those who came to stay with us.
Jason stopped taking the Elixir of Life and soon joined Uma in death. I feel that now she has no more regrets. And neither does he.
Elythia visited once and thanked me again for all that I had done. She blessed me, which I guess coming from a near goddess is not such a bad thing.
Sadly, once Necro was gone and the threat of the Maladons was vanquished, all the spirits that walked the halls of Empyrean left, never to return.
I had sat with Alice the night before she would leave for good.
With Necro dead, Gunther had finally returned to her and his home. They had both come to thank me for this. But for a few moments it was just Alice and me.
“Why do you have to go?” I asked.
“It is time, Vega. I have been around far too long. The old must give way for the new. You will do so one day too.”
“But I will miss you, terribly.”
“No, you won’t.” She had stroked my hair. “You need only look in the mirror, Vega. And I believe you will think of me.”
I have done as she asked, and she was right. Our resemblance is remarkable. But no one could ever truly be Alice Adronis. She was clearly one of a kind.
It took two years, but we magically worked our way through the Quag, ridding it of all the deadly creatures that my kind had conjured to protect us from the Maladons. And when that was done, we removed the dome over it so that anyone who desired could visit. It is actually quite beautiful now that one doesn’t have to worry about being eaten by a beast!
The surviving Wugs had wanted to return to their home, so Wormwood has been fully restored and Thansius is once more its leader. But unlike in the past, when our real history had been withheld from us, the new Council building has a complete chronicle of everything that happened. For all those who come, it stands as a critical lesson that when a people grow complacent and less than vigilant, evil can quickly take root and come to dominate. I do not wish to learn that lesson a second time. And I never want to live through again what I already have.
Russell and his group now live in peace. Some in True and Greater True. Some in the country. Some in the Quag. And a few even moved to Wormwood.
And Petra and Geoffrey seem to be growing very close. Another marriage may be in the works.
