With a flick of her wand the images were gone and the wood was now simply wood once more.
Astrea and I locked gazes.
“You really should keep your nose out of things that do not concern you,” she said in a tone that managed to send chills up my spine.
However, I stiffened my resolve and snapped, “Well, it is my business if the consequences will affect me. And Wormwood. It might not be your home, but it is mine. Did you know that bloody King Thorne intended to invade and destroy Wormwood? Do you even care?”
“I would not have allowed—”
“Bollocks!” I shouted out. “You don’t care!”
“I would remind you—”
But I was not to be denied my say. “You may be safe under your emerald dome; not everyone has that opportunity, Mighty Keeper of the Quag.”
“You are safe here,” she retorted.
“Not by my choosing,” I shot back. I had anticipated her response. “And I did not enter the Quag to be safe. Only a fool would do that. And I’m no fool.”
The door was thrown open and Delph and Harry Two appeared. Behind them I could see Seamus’s huge eyes peering at me.
They came fully into the room and Delph shut the door.
“Everything okay?” he said nervously.
“No, everything is not okay,” I barked, keeping my eyes on Astrea.
“You’re acting very foolishly, Vega,” she said darkly.
“Oh, so it’s foolish in your eyes to care what happens to others? I suppose you didn’t care when Alice Adronis died in battle, then? I did. I cared. I was there. I guess you were already in your hidey-hole here by then, were you?”
“Better to hide than die!” she retorted.
“Better to fight and die than live as a coward!” I screamed in her smug face.
“Fight!” She chortled. “You wouldn’t last a sliver.”
“I can fight!”
“You are nothing! Even your grandfather understood that. It’s why he didn’t bother with the likes of you. He left you behind. Where you belong!”
I pointed a finger right in her face. “I am more than you will ever be, you insufferable cow!”
Her wand moved so fast I barely followed the motion. She said something I couldn’t quite catch and then I was catapulted across the room, slammed against the wall and fell to the floor, bleeding from innumerable slashes and cuts all over my body.
“Vega Jane,” screamed Delph as he raced over and knelt next to me. He looked up furiously at Astrea. “What did you do to her? What!”
Harry Two barked and growled and looked like he was about to attack her.
Delph held my head up. “Vega, the Adder Stone, where is it? In your pockets?”
I was in so much pain that I couldn’t tell him that the Stone was back in my room. I could see my blood pooling on the floor. I felt sick and light-headed.
Delph screamed at Astrea. “Help her!”
“Madame Prine,” said Seamus in a pleading voice.
Through my half-closed eyes I could see the horror-stricken look on Astrea’s face. To her credit she seemed unable to comprehend what she had done to me.
“Help her!” yelled Delph. “Please.”
But then something happened inside of me that I couldn’t fathom. It came from a place apparently so deep inside me that I had never before visited it. I had no idea it was even there. The pain was gone. My head cleared. Everything I had been feeling, all the anger and loathing, seemed as nothing to what was now swelling inside of me. It was as though I was no longer myself. I was someone else.
I easily threw Delph aside, rose on steady legs, waved my arms and screamed, “You will not beat me!”
Waves of light came out of my hands and exploded across the room. Everything seemed to have slowed down such that I could see exactly what was happening although it was occurring at tremendous velocity.
Astrea was lifted off the floor and thrown across the entire width of the room. She crashed into the wall and slid down battered and bruised, her wand falling from her fingers.
The vortex of light waves emanating from my hands engulfed Delph, Harry Two and Seamus. They were blown off their feet, sailed across the room and landed hard against the wall, crumpling to the floor. Every stick of furniture in the room, including the Seer-See, was blasted into smithereens. Wood and glass swirled around the room like confetti.
And then, as quickly as it happened, it was over.
I stood in the middle of the room, my wounds healed, my hands now at my sides. I gazed around at the devastation I had involuntarily wrought.
“Delph, Harry Two!” I screamed.
I was at their side in moments. I gripped Delph’s arm and Harry Two’s front paw. “Tell me you’re okay. Tell me, please. Oh my holy Steeples, what have I done?”
Tears poured down my face until first Delph and then Harry Two stirred.
My canine licked my face, and Delph gripped my arm, his smile crooked, but leaving me vastly relieved. I helped them up.
“Cor blimey!” exclaimed Delph. “Where did THAT come from?”
Tears still sliding down my cheeks, I said, “I don’t know. I just don’t know, Delph.”
I turned to see Astrea still lying on the floor, but conscious. She was staring up at me with emotions so complex flitting across her face I had no way of interpreting them.
She slowly rose, as did Seamus across the room.
Astrea took a few halting steps forward, her gaze never once leaving my face.
I walked over to her so that we stood toe-to-toe.
I was determined to let her speak first.
“How did you do that?” she demanded.
“I can fight,” I said quietly. “All I need is the chance.”
Her face sagged and I saw her eyes blink rapidly. Her free hand went to her trembling mouth. And before I could get out another word, she had rushed from the room. We heard her clattering down the hall.
I raced after her, but she was already out of sight.
She wasn’t in her room. She wasn’t in any room of the cottage to which I had access.
I finally found her outside. She was over by the dome, sitting on a large rock, her wand held loosely in her hand.
I slowly walked up to her and sat on the ground next to her.
She had heard me approach but didn’t look at me.
I said, “I hope I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t intend to.”
“You very clearly did,” she replied calmly. “But then I certainly hurt you first.”
“It just came upon me,” I said slowly. “I still don’t understand it.”
Our gazes fixed on each other. “Don’t you, Vega? Well, I understand it quite clearly.”
A few slivers passed before she spoke again.
“I do care, Vega. I care very much. I have spent the last eight hundred sessions of my life caring about others.”
“I know,” I said quietly.
“Do you know why I’m so small even though I take the elixir?”
I shook my head. “I just assumed that you were always short.”
“I was nearly as tall as Alice once.”
“What happened?” I said in a perplexed tone.
“Eight centuries of responsibility have literally weighed me down, Vega. And taking the elixir, while it gives one life, robs you of other things, important things.”
“Like what?”
“Perhaps compassion. Perhaps understanding of others’ points of view. Perhaps things that I need more than ever right now.”
I said nothing because I sensed that she just needed to get this out.
“And I also know that one can reasonably dispute my methods, even my goal, as you did.”
“But I did it in the wrong way. I shouldn’t have used the words I did.”