Read Online The Keeper by David Baldacci - Free Book Online Page A

another bladder or aero ship.”
    Delph whispered in my ear, “What are you planning to do, Vega Jane?”
    “Escape this place and make sure he can’t attack Wormwood,” I said flatly, as though it were obvious. And it was to me.
    I had expected Delph to simply nod in agreement. Only he didn’t.
    “ ’Tain’t that simple, Vega.”
    “What?” I said, startled.
    “What about the ekos and gnomes?” He rubbed the face of the grubb. “And these here creatures?”
    “I don’t understand you, Delph.”
    “You heard Luc. Thorne has spies. Those loyal to him. If we escape and ruin his plans, you think he won’t take it out on them? On Luc, and Cere and little Kori?”
    I couldn’t look at Delph because I knew he was right. My heart was being torn in half with this dilemma. “We … we can’t save everyone, Delph. It’s impossible.”
    “Well, we can try,” he replied matter-of-factly.
    I started to snap something back at him, but then I realized that he was entirely in the right. I felt both relieved by this but also like a mountain had settled upon my shoulders. We had come in here with the goal of surviving the Quag. Now we would be committing to saving a bunch of others as well. But Delph was right. We had to at least try.
    I said slowly, “We can try, Delph. But I’m going to need help. I can’t do this alone.”
    “That’s why ya got me, Vega Jane.”

F OR THE NEXT five lights, I carried Thorne in the harness and taught him the intricacies of flying. And each night, we were visited by Luc, sometimes accompanied by Cere. They had continued to provide us with information about Thorne.
    Delph and I were doing our best to come up with a plan. We had parts of it in good shape, but how could we ensure that once we left, Thorne would be king no longer?
    And I did have one unanswered question that was driving me mad.
    Why did Thorne want to go to war with his own kind? What would make a Wug hate other Wugs so much? I talked to Delph about this one night.
    “Well,” he said. “Seems to me that to answer that question, we need to know why the bloke came into the Quag in the first place. Pretty desperate thing to do. And he told us that he was forced to leave.”
    “That’s right. Although I think he had to flee. If he had done something bad they would have put him in Valhall, not made him go into the Quag.”
    “Whatever he did musta been pretty bad, then, to make him choose the Quag. They were probably going to lop off his head if he stayed in Wormwood.”
    I shivered a bit. That had almost happened to me.
    “So maybe one ties into the other?” I said. “He’s getting back at them for making him leave?”
    “Way I see it, yeah.”
    An idea came to me. I quickly told Delph about it.
    He said thoughtfully, “It may work, but we need to know more.”
    “We know who to ask, then,” I replied.
    The next night, I queried Luc if he knew why Thorne had come into the Quag.
    Luc said, “Well, when he’s been far into the bottles of mead some nights, I’ve heard him say things. Spouting off names and such.”
    “What names?” I asked anxiously.
    Luc rubbed his cheek, staring off. “Me— Let me think now. Mer. No, Mur–Murgatroyd. Yes, that was it. Murgatroyd.”
    The name meant nothing to me. I looked at Delph, who shook his head.
    “Anything else?”
    “He would go on about Wugs not seeing him for the great leader he was. Oh, he did mention another name, ’cept you already know it.”
    “What?” I asked.
    “Virgil.”
    “They were friends, I guess.”
    “In his mead cups, he didn’t sound none too friendly toward him.”
    I puzzled over this for a bit. “Luc, is there any way I can get into Thorne’s sleeping chamber?”
    “Don’t see how. Keeps it locked when he’s out of it and locked when he’s in it. Why?”
    Delph said, “We think the reason he came into the Quag might be in there.”
    “Aye, if he wanted to keep it secret, that would be the place, for no one goes in there but