Vega Jane and the Maze of Monsters by David Baldacci

Author:David Baldacci
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

28

BETRAYAL

We followed Astrea’s slow footsteps down the hall and watched her open the door and go inside. A few moments later, I was knocking on that same door.

‘Please go away,’ she said from inside the room.

‘We’d like to talk to you,’ I answered.

‘I have talked enough. Please go away.’

‘We’ll stay here for as long as it takes.’

The door slowly swung open.

I had never been in Astrea’s room. As I glanced around, I was struck at how barren and empty it looked. I had expected a haven of comfort and clutter.

Astrea was in the bed with the covers pulled up high to her rapidly softening chin.

I sat in the rickety chair next to the bed while Delph stood next to me. She didn’t look at us. She simply stared at the ceiling.

‘Well? What is it?’ she said.

The ancientness of her voice was painful. As powerful as the elixir was, its effects wore off rapidly.

I glanced down at her. ‘We need you.’

‘I have instructed you as best I can. Now it is up to you.’

‘But we’re not ready.’ I glanced at Delph. He shook his head in agreement.

She glanced at me. It wasn’t a harsh look. She let out a long breath. ‘Do you know why we build walls? Either real ones or ones simply in our minds?’

I mulled this over. ‘To keep folks in or out,’ I said at last.

‘We build walls because we are afraid. We do not like change. We do not like it when others who do not look or think like us come along and try and change things. Thus, we run from it. Or, even worse, attack it.’

I thought back to my time in Wormwood. I had seen that very thing.

‘It was awful, really, what we did to all of you,’ she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

‘You . . . you took away our . . . history,’ I mumbled.

She lifted herself up on the pillows. ‘We took away your identities. It was as bad, actually, as anything the Maladons could have done to you. I see that now.’

‘They would have killed all of you.’

‘We also took your lives, and then merely required that you keep on living.’

‘But you’re letting me cross the Quag. You’re giving me a chance.’

She lifted a hand and touched my cheek. ‘I did that for one reason only, Vega.’ She drew in a long, painful breath. ‘Because You Will Not Be Beaten.’

Her hand fell away.

Tears filled my eyes. ‘But we still need you, Astrea. I need you.’

She closed her eyes and shook her head. ‘The youth elixir has been exhausted. Archie took the last of it. And I was so busy teaching you that I waited too long to get more. I am not up to dealing with the needed ingredients.’

I saw that befuddled expression on her features once more. She gripped her head. ‘It’s not . . . pleasant,’ she said. ‘Ageing this quickly.’

‘If you tell me how to get the ingredients, I will make the elixir.’

Her face took on an expression of awful sadness.

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