The Stars Below, page 6
part #4 of Vega Jane Series
“How do you know that?”
“Because, well, because what else could it be?”
She snapped her fingers, and the bird vanished.
“You were the bird that came to me that day. Appearing on a battlefield and in an era where you had no other reason to be. And I thought, who else could it be, other than you, Vega Jane, my descendant?”
“I still don’t understand.” And I truly did not. I didn’t consider myself dim-witted, but I was feeling such.
“Then let me make it crystal clear.” She paused. “Your ancestor Jasper Jane?”
“What of him?”
“You have met his spirit?”
“Yes. He helped save my life in the Quag.”
“He was a brilliant man, expert in many magical fields, including the darker ones inhabited by the Maladons. Shortly after the war with the Maladons commenced, he too took a trip through time. But not to the past.”
“Then he went into the future?” I said.
“It is the only alternative,” she said tersely.
“And what did he see in the future?” I said, slowly, though the answer was dawning on me as I asked the question.
“He saw … you.”
THE REVELATION THAT Jasper had seen me in the future had been a stunning one. But what Alice had refused to tell me was what Jasper had seen of me. I had implored her to do so, but she had vanished without answering.
I walked mutely back to my room that night and spent the next several days in a sort of mental limbo. Nothing that I had learned from either Astrea or Alice could aid me in my principal endeavor: winning the war against the Maladons.
I had canceled all missions and had my dwindling forces alternating polishing their fighting skills and resting. But that was no strategy. While we sat here twiddling our thumbs in essence, the Maladons were out there, plotting to finish us off. Even now they could be devising ways to find and penetrate Empyrean. They had done so with the dome around the Quag. And if they could do that, then nowhere, not even Empyrean, was safe.
Thus, I had sentries posted day and night whose sole job was to watch for any suspicious activity. But it was not enough. At some point we would have to leave the relative safety of Empyrean and take up the fight once more. Only, I still had not conceived of a way to do so that would not result in our absolute destruction.
It did not help my mood that I also saw Astrea talking to quite a few of the others, in the halls, in the library, and over meals. I frowned whenever I saw this. Once, she saw me watching, and she merely smiled and continued on with her conversation with Anna Dibble.
When I questioned several of my warriors as to what they had discussed, they all said that Astrea was only interested in their confrontations with the Maladons, how they fought, what sort of tactics they used, what their magic was like in battle. What spells did they seem particularly vulnerable to and that sort of thing. They were universal in telling me that Astrea was highly complimentary of what I had accomplished, and was in no way trying to undermine my authority.
I could not maintain that her queries were unreasonable. She could just be updating her knowledge of the Maladons from the days when she had taken up her wand against them.
I discussed with Delph what Alice had told me, one night after everyone else had gone to bed.
“They have control of garms and jabbits,” I said. “They can make the Elixir probably forever. Whereas, we can’t.”
“Well, we’ll just have to beat them before we die,” said Delph.
“Easier said than done. And now Astrea is here to, I don’t know, second-guess me on everything.”
“We follow you, Vega Jane, not bloody Astrea.”
“Thanks, Delph.”
As I rose to leave, Delph took my hand.
He said, “Have you thought about life after the Maladons are no more?”
I felt myself taken aback, because I hadn’t thought about it at all.
My look had evidently been answer enough because Delph said, “I have. I mean, you have to make plans, right?”
I stroked his hand with mine. “What sort of plans are you thinking about, Delph?”
I expected him to grow reticent, or hem and haw or be confused, because while Delph is brilliant and can articulate things I never could, he sometimes places his very large foot in his mouth when discussing things of a highly personal nature, which is where I believed he was going with this.
Yet he surprised me.
“My plans include you, Vega Jane. Being with you, until I breathe my last.”
My eyes widened and then moistened as I grasped all of what he was saying. But I was terrified too because of the phrase he had used: breathe my last.
“We, um, we have, I mean, don’t you think we have time to, um, sort those things out, Delph?” I said. Now it was me with my big foot in my mouth.
“Do we?” he said, his gaze fixed on mine. “I think we have a great many things, but time may not be one of them.”
“I … I know.”
“I just want you to think about it, okay?” he said, gripping my hand tightly.
“I will, Delph. I promise.”
I sighed and took my leave of Delph, heading to my room. I was all wonky in the head. So wonky that I almost didn’t see him coming.
He stepped from the shadows so suddenly that I had half drawn my wand from my pocket.
“Don’t do that again,” I snapped. “Unless you want a curse dangling around your neck.”
Archie Prine didn’t look the least bit put off by my warning.
“We need to talk, Vega.”
“What about?” I snapped. My thoughts were still back with Delph and all that his words had done to affect me. I didn’t want to have to focus on this git now.
“You needn’t take that tone with me. We are on the same side after all. You act like I’m your enemy or something. It’s not fair.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Archie,” I said with mock contriteness. “I guess it must have to do with the time you tried to bloody well murder me.”
“I had my reasons,” he said offhandedly. “And I didn’t actually end up murdering you, did I?”
This bloke was really something.
“Not for want of trying. If it weren’t for Delph, I would be dead at your hands.”
Delph again.
I think we have a great many things, but time may not be one of them.
“Vega, are you listening to me?” Archie snapped.
Delph’s image vanished from my thoughts, and I focused on Archie. “What do you want? I’m busy.”
“You’ve been very cavalier with my mother’s offer to lead our forces.”
“Really? I thought I was pretty clear that I had rejected her offer.”
“She is far more experienced than you are in a war with the Maladons. You have to admit that.”
“Eight hundred years ago, yes. But I’ve been battling them for the last two years. And my blokes have killed far more of them than they have of us, so there.”
“But as she pointed out, that is a losing proposition.”
“Your mother didn’t have to point it out. I was well aware of it. So, unless you can ruddy conjure me some more magical folks who will fight with us, or else make the Maladons lay down their wands or better yet bloody well disappear, then I’m not sure how Astrea can lead any more effectively than I can.”
“She is a great sorceress.”
“So am I,” I said heatedly. “I’ve faced Endemen and Necro and been outnumbered a dozen to one and survived. And, unless you forgot, your mother lost her war. So, Archie, tell me why should I assume the outcome will be any different this time?”
I struck home with this point. Archie’s face scrunched up in uncertainty and confusion.
I decided to take the opportunity to put an end to this nonsense. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I pushed past him and went to my bedroom and slammed the door behind me.
“What a git!” I said to Harry Two, who lay on my bed. I really was seething. Astrea and Archie seemed to have completely discounted the fact that I had been fighting the Maladons all this time and had more than held my own. Indeed, if I had fifty more warriors, I was convinced we would wipe the field with them. But I didn’t have fifty more warriors. I didn’t have five more.
I sat on my bed and stroked Harry Two’s head. My dog had an amazing power to calm me, and calm was what I needed right now.
“It’s a real conundrum, Harry Two. It seems impossible, it really does. I can make neither heads nor tails of it, but I have to, in the end. We have to find a way to beat these blokes.”
In answer, Harry Two did something unexpected. He rose, hopped off the bed, went to my wardrobe set against one wall and scratched at the door. He had never done this before.
I rose and crossed the room. “What is it, Harry Two? What’s the matter?”
His answer was to scratch more furiously at the door.
I opened it and he pawed at a drawer inside. I opened the drawer, and a smile creased my features.
I pulled out the old parchment and closed the drawer. Embedded inside the parchment was a sometimes cranky but more often helpful spirit, or some such oddity. Actually, I had no idea what the thing calling himself Silenus actually was, but I was glad Harry Two had drawn my attention to him.
“Thanks, Harry Two.”
Only, Harry Two remained staring at the wardrobe. But I didn’t really focus on this because I was excited about the prospects with Silenus.
I carried the roll back over to the bed, sat down and touched the parchment.
“Silenus? I’d like to talk to you.”
A moment later, a face appeared on the paper. The features were old, but the eyes were very sharp indeed. I had found that there was much wisdom in Silenus.
“Yes, Vega?”
I explained to him my dilemma.
“I can see no way to defeat the Maladons by staying the course that we’re on. Even with the addition of Astrea and Archie, that only gives us two more wands in battle. It’s not enough. By my calculations, by the time the last of us fall, there will be hundreds of Maladons left. I would appreciate any advice you have to give me.”
Silenus mulled over this for a long minute. I went from looking at him hopefully to gazing at him helplessly.
When I glanced at Harry Two, he was paying us no mind, but still sat staring at the wardrobe door.
Finally, Silenus spoke. “You are assuming that you can summon no others to your aid.”
“If I can find my parents, that would be helpful, but apparently one of them is injured, and I have no way to locate them.”
Silenus looked at me in a disappointed fashion. “Have you tried to find them?”
I felt my face flush. “Of course I have.”
“How have you done so?”
I sputtered, “I almost found them when a scouting expedition I sent out was told that my mother had been looking for some healing herbs. I immediately went to the spot and searched for her. I found a bit of cloth with some blood on it that I know belonged to her.”
“But you did not find her.”
“No, that was when I ran into Astrea and Archie.”
“So, you stopped searching at that point?”
I felt my face flush once more. “There was no sign of them. I tried to send my mother a message, but she didn’t reply. And I … I had to get Astrea and Archie back here to safety.”
“Really? Why was that? Could you not have employed them to help you search further for your parents? After all, the blood on the cloth indicated that they were in some peril, did it not?”
I simply stared at him. I had come to him for help, and all I was getting were accusations about my poor performance with regard to finding my parents.
“I believe that I did all I could.” The defensiveness in my voice made me feel all the more guilty, because I suddenly realized that he was right.
Silenus did not even deign to answer this statement.
After a few moments of silence, I said tersely, “Can you not help me, then?”
“I think, Vega, that the best thing you can do is think about what you want to accomplish and study the tools you have at your disposal to meet your goals.”
“What do you think I’ve be—”
I stopped because Silenus had vanished.
“Git!”
I stuffed the parchment back into the drawer and slammed shut the wardrobe door.
I was breathing so heavily I felt as though I might be sick to my stomach.
“Well,” I said to the walls of my bedroom. “I guess I better simply carry on and see what can be done, since certain people do not wish to help me.”
I undressed and climbed into bed.
Harry Two usually curled up next to me, but this time he didn’t. He was sitting on the floor still staring at my wardrobe.
I sat wearily up in bed and looked at him. Whenever Harry Two did this, it meant he wanted me to do something. But I was simply too knackered.
“Harry Two,” I said. “Come to bed. I’ve already tried to talk to Silenus. It was no help, and I’m not going to bother with him again.”
My dog didn’t move.
I angrily punched my pillow into a more comfortable shape and slumped back.
Time ticked by. Every once in a while, I would glance over at the wardrobe.
Harry Two was sitting there like a rock, staring at it.
But there was nothing in there that he could need. I just thought he was being stubborn about something.
I slumped back again.
An hour passed, and it must have been about three in the morning when I heard a scratching sound.
I looked up, and Harry Two was sliding his paw up and down against the door of the wardrobe.
I sighed, slowly climbed out of bed and stood next to him with my hands on my hips.
“Harry Two, what is wrong with you? What are you trying to tell me?”
He scratched at the wood again.
“There’s nothing else in there that you would want.”
He ignored me and scratched again.
I opened the door. “See? It’s just clothes.”
The next moment I watched in amazement as he leapt up and snagged something off a wall peg in the wardrobe.
Stunned, I could see that it was the bit of bloody cloth of my mother’s that I’d found in the woods the day I’d run into Astrea and Archie. It still had the flower and message that I had etched into the fabric with my wand.
With the cloth in his mouth, my dog rushed over to the door and stared at it.
Realization as to what Harry Two wanted to do spread over me.
Excited, I quickly dressed, grabbed my wand and opened the door.
Harry Two raced down the stairs to the front door. No one was about at this late hour. We stepped outside, I harnessed him to my chest, twisted the ring of invisibility around and we took to the air.
I HAD BEEN SUCH an idiot not to think of this myself.
I well knew the power of smell that dogs had.
I used the Pass-pusay spell to take us directly to where I had found the cloth.
We landed, and I unharnessed Harry Two but created a magical tether so that he would remain invisible along with me.
I had no idea who might be around. I already knew that Maladons had visited this area, and they might come back at any time. Hence, my wand was held at the ready, even as I rushed after Harry Two, who was nimbly sprinting over the uneven terrain.
He must already have the scent of my mother in his nostrils, I thought excitedly. He bounded around a tree and then up an incline slicked with rain on top of low ground cover. I struggled up after him. When he reached the top, Harry Two stopped and gazed around, sniffing the air with his big nostrils, sucking in what I hoped was a replenished portion of my mother’s scent.
But Harry Two seemed confused. He turned and looked up at me. In his mismatched eyes, I saw uncertainty, and this made my spirits wilt. Had we come here for nothing?
I peered around the area. It looked just the same as the last time I had been here. I took a few tentative steps forward and risked calling out to my parents.
“Mum, Dad, are you out there? It’s me, Vega. Can you send me a signal? I want to help you.”
There was no response.
I pondered what to do and finally decided to do a bit of reconnaissance. I led Harry Two back to the cottage where I had gone earlier. There was a light on inside, which seemed strange for the time of night.
I approached cautiously and knocked on the door, my wand at the ready while Harry Two was showing his fangs.
Right before the door opened, I turned the ring around so that Harry Two and I became visible once more.
The door creaked open, and the same old woman appeared there.
“You’ve come back,” she said.
I nodded. “I came looking for Helen, my mother.”
The old woman nodded.
“Have the others been back since I was last here?” I asked.
She shook her head. “But I’m afraid they will return.”
I happened to look over her shoulder and saw something small and huddled in front of the meager blaze burning in the stone fireplace.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“My grandson.”
“Where are his parents?”
“They were taken.”
“Did they have the mark on their hands?”
“Marks? No.”
“Does he?” I asked, glancing at the huddled figure.
She looked puzzled. “There is something there, yes. It’s faint.”
I said, “Can I speak with him?”
She nodded and stepped aside to let me pass.
I approached the boy, who I could hear had a racking cough.
“He’s sick?” I asked the woman.
“Since yesterday.”
“What’s his name?”
“John.”
I nodded and drew closer.
He had my brother’s name, though he was far younger. By the size of him, he looked to be perhaps six or seven at most.
“John, my name is Vega. I can make you feel better.” I took the Adder Stone from my pocket. The Stone held the magic of a powerful sorceress. You waved it over the injured or sick person, thought good thoughts and it could heal pretty much anything. But if you ever thought bad thoughts while using it, I had been told the results would be catastrophic. Fortunately, I had no desire to use it for harm.
