Glitch Kingdom

by Sheena Boekweg

  Ryo’s head turned away.

  It didn’t matter. I couldn’t stay in these clothes. My bloomers and corset were clean, but blood and dirt stained my arms and I’d left bloody footprints to and from the basin. I pumped water and scrubbed my arms until my skin ripped raw. Blistered.

  The pump slowed to a dripping.

  My hands were clean and Ryo’s wound was tended, so I could move to the next item on my to-do list.

  Panic.

  OH, MY LOST SAINTS, what had I done?

  I axed the king. I slammed an axe into the king’s stomach. I murdered a king. No matter how many times I said it, it still didn’t make sense. I was not the kind of girl who committed treason. I had a life. I read, I baked, and I was saving money to buy a dog. And yes, I mostly stayed in my room, but I liked my life behind walls I’d decorated with my own coins.

  And now it was over. If the wrong faction won control of the city, I’d be executed for this. I’d betrayed my family’s title and my kingdom for a boy I loathed.

  But I couldn’t stop the feeling my father would have wanted me to save Ryo. My father must have had a good reason for signing. No matter what rumors whispered, I had to believe my father would never betray me.

  I placed my head in my hands. There. I’d panicked. Now, perhaps, I could move on.

  I gathered my thoughts with my breaths and pulled my market dress from the chair where I’d left it and covered myself with the cool silk. I slid my arm into one sleeve, and the other, tying the ribbons closed. The dress was covered in pockets, the ones over my thighs heavy with coins and the weight of a jar of seer water.

  I’d almost forgotten my earlier trade. If anyone needed answers, it was me.

  I licked my lips then cocked my head.

  The tunnel was too quiet. It took me a moment to recognize the missing sound.

  Ryo wasn’t breathing.

  I knocked over the jug as I rushed to his side. Ryo’s skin had gone cold, his eyes glassy. I pressed my fingers to his neck and his blood was still. No pulse. No life.

  I punched his arm. “No!”

  I axed the king for him and he still died?

  That jerk.

  I had an itemized list of rude things Ryo had done, but this. This was uncultured.

  I fell back on my heels and let out a breath. A tug of grief and loss tightened my throat, but my eyes refused to water.

  No. No.

  I was still panicking; I did not have time to grieve.

  It was just a goodbye. I’d said those before. I didn’t even like him, so what did it matter?

  But it mattered. I didn’t want to face this on my own. I wanted to face this with him.

  I reattached my belt and dagger before I stepped into my lace slippers. Everything about me had gone cold, and a part of me wanted to sit on the ground and give up. Let Edvarg come back from the dead and rule our kingdom. Let the Savak wage their war.

  The King’s Executioner might be able to do something, but I was only one girl.

  I stood. Nothing had changed. I still needed to find my brother. I pulled a dusty leather bag from the top of a cupboard and opened a drawer. I needed supplies.

  “Wait,” Ryo called.

  I slammed backward into the cupboard.

  The lantern light warmed the curve of his cheek. He sat up in the bed. “Are you leaving?”

  I screamed. I pointed at him and screamed again.

  Ryo chuckled.

  “What was that?” I yelled when I found my voice.

  He blinked. The man blinked. He blinked and he looked at me like I was the crazy one when he was dead.

  “You were dead. You died.” He did die, right? I wasn’t losing all sense?

  Ryo closed his eyes and pulled his legs over the side.

  I brought the lantern closer. “I saw it.” He was dead. I’d touched his cold skin, his chest not breathing, and his lack of pulse. I knew it. I reached for his throat to check his heartbeat.

  Ryo raised his chin and met my eyes.

  I curled my fists and stepped away. “What are you? How is this even possible?”

  He stood, the color returning to his face. He pulled the wrappings off his shoulder, wiping away the fresh blood. His skin wasn’t raised. There wasn’t even a scar on his cheek from when I’d nicked him. He smiled, but his eyes were a storm of emotion.

  “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?”

  “No!”

  “Really? Girls usually believe whatever I say.” He glanced down at his chest. “Perhaps it’s all the blood. This is not my best look.”

  As he crossed to the pump, I remembered my legs could move, so I moved. Away. From whatever that was that was scrubbing his blood off his skin as if he’d never been injured.

  I shook out my hands. “Good luck to you, Prince Ryo. Undergod’s demon. Whatever you are. This is where our paths end. I need to find my brother.”

  “Stop,” he commanded. I turned, and he offered me a forced smile. “I’m afraid my blood has dirtied your cheek.”

  I scratched my nails down my cheek, and then I remembered I didn’t care. I didn’t care if Ryo never answered my questions. I didn’t care if he was the Undergod reborn. I tugged the bag up my shoulder and loaded whatever I could find that might be of use to find my brother, or to lie low until my father returned, or to stage a rebellion against the factions I’d made my enemies. Knives I’d need. Spyglass? Possibly. Bandages and oats. I shoved them in my bag.

  Ryo stepped closer and I abandoned the cupboards, my hands flailing for the walls.

  “Stop this ridiculous reaction. I need to find your brother too. I need him. You too.”

  I shook my head and kept packing. “I don’t know where he is.”

  I didn’t even know where to look. I’d already searched everywhere for my brother, and all I’d found was a pile of unpaid debt from the tables.

  I glanced at my hands. “I haven’t seen him in twelve days.”

  “He couldn’t go home.”

  “What do you mean he couldn’t go home?” I drew my dagger. Prince Ryo had seen my brother last. And if Ryo ended up in the dungeon, then where would my foolish brother have ended up? I fought the image in my head of my sweet dumb brother’s body bobbing under the docks. If Ryo’s foolishness had hurt my brother, I would hate him until I died, and then I’d come back and haunt him until his healing finally stopped. I held the knife to his throat. “Home from where? Where was the last place you saw him?”

  He yawned, big and wide as a cat. “You do know how pointless threatening me is, right?”

  “This knife has a point.”

  He pushed the dagger away, and he ducked his head under the pump. “I’ll tell you everything, once I know I have your loyalty.” He washed the blood from his hair, and then flipped his head back, splashing my family’s things like they meant nothing.

  I sheathed my dagger in my belt. “I’ve no need for your assistance. I’ll find him on my own.”

  “Don’t leave; I know his haunts better than you do.”

  I let out a laugh. “Haunts. Well-chosen word, you spawn from hells.”

  “That line of insult is both blasphemous and tedious. I heal. I don’t know why. It is a new development, but I’m still human. I’ll lead you to him when I’m good and ready.”

  I clenched my fist. “You’re the Devout’s biggest enemy. It’s best to stay here where you are hidden. I’ll save my brother and we can regroup.”

  He scoffed. “I’m not going to be left here like some damsel in a tower.”

  That’s it. I threw a clay pot at his face. He dodged and the thing shattered. But not loudly enough. “If he truly was your best friend, then perhaps you should have thought of him before you betrayed us all.”

  He winced. “But you … You saved me. I thought—”

  “You thought you’d flirt your way into my heart, and you’d walk all over me like you do all the others?”

  “Well … Yes.”

  His ey
es widened as I stepped forward. “I didn’t save you because I had some twitterpated foolish feelings for you, you smug fool. I saved you because Edvarg needed to be stopped. I did it for your father, who is a good man and a great king.” I pointed my finger into his chest. “You are not what you were supposed to be. Not by miles.”

  I let out a breath. That was good to get off my chest.

  The glass bauble around Ryo’s neck glistened in the light. I brought it closer. It was Savak. I was sure of it; the thing was covered in tiny white birds. Perhaps the Savak had found a way to heal him. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and turned away.

  “I will not trade one dark dungeon for another,” he said. “I will not be left alone to die again. And I have a task set by my father, the rightful king. I will face what’s coming on my feet.”

  “It’s not your choice, Ryo.”

  His eyes flashed. “Your Highness.”

  “What?”

  “You should call me Your Highness.”

  “I should have dropped the axe on your skinny neck.” I curtsied deeply. “Your Highness.” I met his glare with one of my own. “Now tell me where my brother is.”

  “I won’t. But I will lead you there.”

  He was impossible. I forced out a puff of air. “Fine. Get dressed.”

  Father’s old clothing should fit him. I crossed to the cupboards and threw a white cotton shirt at him.

  “Why?” He plastered on a grin. “Do you find me distracting, Lady Tomlinson?” He gestured to his naked chest, now clean and very distracting.

  My cheeks flushed. “Let’s keep one thing clear. There will be no flirting. I am not interested in a spawn from hells, nor a prince who is more card shark and womanizer than royalty. I wouldn’t dance with you if you asked, wouldn’t help you if you were on fire, and I wouldn’t flirt with you if you turned into a whipped pie.”

  He pulled the shirt over his head. “Do you often flirt with whipped pies?”

  “More often than I’d flirt with you.”

  His lips twitched into the shadow of a grin, which I did not find amusing. He sat on the edge of the bed he died in and tugged his boots back on. “We’ll need supplies first. Stay close to me on the way. I know how to navigate these streets, and if we happen upon an Everstrider, let me do the talking. We’re going to need them in order to survive what’s coming.”

  I opened a trunk. It was mostly empty except for two identical training swords. I grabbed the plain wooden hilt and offered the other sword to Ryo. “Why? What’s coming?”

  He tested out the sword by slicing the air twice, and then he grinned. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it. You’ll be safe at my side. I will protect you.”

  I narrowed my eyes and stood my ground.

  He didn’t know me at all if he thought I’d be led by someone who wouldn’t treat me as a partner. I was done being left in the dark. I could find my own answers without him.

  I pulled the seer water from my pocket and glared at Ryo as I drank every drop. The spring water tasted crisp, like sunshine, but the aftertaste was sour, almost metallic.

  Ryo’s jaw dropped. Take that, you pretty boy.

  The world shifted green.

  Oh no, what did I just do?

  5

  DAGNEY

  I was dreaming. I knew it.

  Symbols and letters swam past like a school of fish, before the images multiplied into a swarm with sharp teeth that nipped at me as they rushed past. My nerves ached and my toes trembled.

  The flow silenced and the world brightened.

  The ground beneath me disappeared and I soared over a castle. My stomach sunk at the heights. A Whirligig zoomed past me, all gears and ghostlight and flapping wings. Then an image of a gigantic girl filled the whole sky. She was about my age, lounging in a throne, holding a bloody sword thicker than her waist. The Savak queen, I guessed.

  A man’s voice filled the sky, “Welcome, adventurers, to the land of traitor kings and vicious queens!” The image shifted to a battle on the ground between ghosts and machines, and then shifted again to a Whirligig’s view of an island filled with jagged mountains. “Who will win the throne in this epic RPG by the makers of Ashcraft?”

  There was a flash, like static from a Whirligig. The briefest of glimpses into a dim world filled with people wearing the strangest clothes.

  A man walked past dressed in plain blue linen, a shirt with a V at the neck, and simple cotton trousers. A silver necklace lounged like a snake around his neck. He removed it quickly, placed two ends in his ears, and a third he held to the chest of a woman in a bed. He placed the end on her chest and turned his ear to one side like he was listening, perhaps to her heartbeat.

  My bright vision came back and the voice with it: “… is great, but so is your victory. You’ve selected the Trader class. You will aid your party by—”

  Sparks and static cut through the bright picture.

  I was in the dim world again. Strange machines lined the walls, each with lit mirrors, or windows open to strange worlds. A disembodied voice shook the walls.

  “Dr. Garcia to the players’ hall. Dr. Garcia to the players’ hall.”

  I retreated three steps back. Something cold and metal pressed against my skirts.

  I turned. It was the curve of a bent bed. A young woman lay beneath blankets, silver jewels attached to the end of her eyebrows, a silver band twisting across her forehead like a wire crown. She appeared to be sleeping, but I stared at her like she was a monster reflected.

  I knew my own face.

  My memory was reversed, though, the freckle above my eyebrow on the other side. This odd world was a lie, or a dream, but I knew the scar on my eyebrow, and the faint bruising on my temple.

  I’d lived through that bruise, and I could remember it now, flashing white when Seth had shoved me into a locker.

  No.

  I covered my face with my palms and this strange world silenced under a flood of symbols.

  Ones and zeroes, I recognized now.

  That didn’t mean anything.

  “I know you were expecting a cut scene right here,” a woman spoke from a chair near the metal bed, “but I needed to send you a warning. Don’t get hurt.”

  I held on to my knees. I knew that face. Nao Takagi. She had smiled at me as I sat in a chair and they’d strapped the wire crown edged with sparks to the sides of my temples. I’d watched her turn away and flip a switch.

  Her face was the last memory of a different dream.

  And now her expression was tormented.

  I palmed my skirts.

  It was a trick of the Savak, that’s all. A lie called a vision, meant only to confuse me.

  “Don’t get hurt,” she repeated. “It wasn’t supposed to be very painful. But there’s a glitch in the safeties on the pain receptors.”

  “What do you mean ‘a glitch’?” I asked “What’s going—”

  “It’s okay. You’re okay.” Her voice cut me off. She wasn’t listening, or maybe she couldn’t hear me. “But you need to know this is the real world. These are your real bodies.” She gestured to the beds next to mine, where other teens about my age lay strapped to medical devices. “The world you know isn’t real. You’re inside a game.”

  Nonsense.

  It was nonsense.

  What sort of game? I swallowed and reached forward. My fingers broke through the numbers that formed her face, but didn’t interrupt her train of thought. Like her words, they didn’t stick; they were only mist.

  “We coded pulses to the medulla to make your experience inside the game truly immersive. We put safeties on the pulses, of course, so they would never go anywhere near high enough to really hurt any of you. But they would let you know when you’ve been struck, allow you to feel the sunlight, speed up your heart during action scenes.”

  My stomach knotted. I shook my head, but the mist was getting into me now, blurring my thoughts.

  “The safeties regulating those pulses were part of
the initial programming, buried deep inside the code. But when we launched the game we found a stowaway program. Someone added something to the neural net and it’s corrupted the source code. The safeties on the pain receptors were the first to go.”

  I didn’t understand what she was saying, but my pulse sped up like my heart understood before the rest of me caught on. My feet itched to run away, but how could I run from a vision?

  My hands balled up. I didn’t understand any of these words. They didn’t mean anything to me. They couldn’t.

  Wake up.

  The voice didn’t stop for me; she spoke on like a rock falling downhill, growing speed until a crash.

  “And we can’t pull you out. Now instead of sending an electrical pulse into your brains, your brains are sending information and neurons back through the neural network. It’s locked us out, and now we can’t break you free.”

  I crumpled to the ground.

  Her voice cracked. “What we know is that your brains and my game are linked. And those initial electrochemical pulses tightened the walls of the system. You’re stuck there. Your brains are convinced it’s real so you’ve forgotten you’re in a video game.”

  My heartbeat thrashed behind my ears.

  Video game.

  Those words didn’t exist, but I still knew them. How could I know them?

  Those two words rocked through my whole world like a hurricane, every inch of my brain stimulated, a rush of memories blowing back into the empty spaces, and only wreckage was left behind.

  I’d wanted Lady Tomlinson to be real—her life, her family, the whole world. I’d wanted it to be mine.

  But it wasn’t.

  No. It couldn’t be true. If it was true … I didn’t want to let this go. This world was kinder, this world made more sense. Wake up. Wake up. I covered my eyes with my hands but I could still hear the voice echoing with static and scratching feedback.

  “We never meant for this to happen. We had safeties in place. Dagney, tell Ryo I would never have put him in this position if I’d known it was dangerous.”