Glitch Kingdom

by Sheena Boekweg

  Each lit candle made the disappearing shadow more substantial. I lit another. The crypt brightened and the shadows lost the dark they hid inside. There were three shadows. The horned one in the center seemed twice the height of a man, the other two, maybe ten feet tall.

  Candles lit, I thrust the torch into a crevasse and started searching for the boots. I lifted the shroud covering one of my musky ancestors. Nothing. I moved to the next slab and pulled off the shroud. A skeleton with wiry silver hair and a vivid green silk dress. No league boots. I puffed out my cheeks. The next had a bronze crown and deep red, moth-eaten robes.

  The sharp dragging footsteps quickened, the sound rising as it moved toward Dagney. She lifted her axe, a smile curving her lips as she raised it and waited for the shadow to reveal itself.

  My pulse raced. I needed to find those boots.

  At the center of the circle, the horned shadow solidified, colors shining through the darkness. It looked almost human, except its pale gray skin sunk into deep eye sockets and its mottled cheekbones looked almost mummified. My stomach churned as it lurched forward. Those weren’t horns.

  They were a crown.

  “Hello, Nephew.” The voice sent a chill up my neck. The shadow receded as King Edvarg stepped into the light, taller in his second form than when he was alive. His bony features seemed to drip ghostlight.

  “Uncle Edvarg,” I said. “You’re looking unwell. I must say death does not suit you.”

  Edvarg laughed. The sound was as shrill as a ref’s whistle. His head rolled off his shoulders and down to his hand, and then back up to his neck. I couldn’t speak. My throat tightened. I couldn’t look away from my uncle’s glowing eyes.

  My hands trembled.

  What would it feel like to be eaten?

  Beside me, Dagney smiled. “Didn’t I kill you already?” She moved forward, her battle-axe lifted like a baseball bat. Two Lurchers appeared at Edvarg v.2’s side. Smaller, their heads spinning in time, their ghastly bodies sunken into spiny skeletons.

  Edvarg v.2 disappeared.

  Dagney swung an axe and knocked off a Lurcher’s head. That didn’t even slow it down.

  It grabbed at Dagney. She twisted out of its grip. She swung her axe again, this time into where its stomach should be.

  I thrust my hands onto a bone ankle. Nothing. I needed those boots so I could actually help! Charisma couldn’t do much against ghosts.

  Think. What could I say to keep Edvarg distracted and substantial enough that Dagney could kill him?

  “UNCLE!” I shouted. “You’re no king! You don’t belong here!”

  A roar shook the royal corpses. Uncle flashed visible. Gotcha. I threw a femur at his too-long neck. He vaporized, and the bone went right through him. He watched the bone shatter against the wall. “You always were a disappointment.”

  “Oh yeah, well, your character development is shallow.” From this angle, I could see a circle of ghostlight at the back of his shoulder. “Aim for his back!” I shouted.

  Dagney nodded and ran forward. A Lurcher reached for her, but she ducked under the swinging arms, jumped on top of the slab, and threw her axe. It landed right between Edvarg’s shoulders.

  He let out a primal scream. The candles flickered and then Edvarg disappeared. Dagney landed. She looked at me, her face lit in a grin as the bar marking Edvarg v.2.’s health cut down by a third. The axe fell to the ground with a thud.

  Dagney raced to rearm herself.

  The other Lurcher appeared behind her. My breath caught. “Behind you!”

  She picked up her axe and swung it behind her, then backkicked that Lurcher in the stomach. Impressive.

  While she fought, I ripped off the next shroud. A metal plate covered a body—solid iron and covered in Devani symbols. Finally. I wrapped my fingers under the plate and lifted.

  Edvarg reappeared. Dagney didn’t see him reaching for her.

  “You never deserved to be king!” I shouted.

  Edvarg’s beady corpse eyes met mine. They flashed a furious green. Ghostlight swarmed around his spindly fingers as he called the bones in the crypt and threw them toward me.

  I shoved the plate up, like a shield, and climbed onto the slab on top of a royal corpse. Yuck. I didn’t even have time to be disgusted before bones slammed against the metal, the ghostlight tugging at my clothes as it rushed around me.

  I couldn’t see it, but I heard the thrash of an axe, and Edvarg’s yell. The rush of bones stopped, so I peeked from behind the iron shield. Dagney’s axe was glowing with a soft green mist, and Edvarg’s health had dropped by another third. We almost got him.

  So maybe I should get off the dead guy. Beneath me, the golden boots were pristine against my grandfather’s dusty bones. I picked up the boots and stood. The metal was etched with Devani markings similar to the ones on the gloves. The boots formed with no ties, just a latch around the ankle.

  The plate slid off the slab and landed with a crash.

  The monsters reappeared. And their attention was focused on the dumb guy holding golden boots in the center of the room.

  Edvarg’s eyes lit with greed. All three ghastly monsters zoomed toward me. Gah!

  “Dags! Catch!” I chucked those boots like they were footballs, perfectly spiraling into Dagney’s waiting hands. But the Lurchers and Edvarg didn’t stop coming for me.

  I had to defend myself. I drew my sword.

  Problem was, any injury might hurt my body back in the real world. I yanked the iron plate up as a shield. The Lurcher slammed into it, forcing me down to one knee. The iron sizzled against its mottled skin, where it touched suddenly turning back to shadow. The pressure let up. I sliced into the dark where the iron had touched. The thing screeched.

  The other Lurcher loomed behind me, its talons sharp as knives. I twisted and swung my sword into its chest, then I knocked its head off with my shield. It spun off the thing’s shoulders, crashing into the wall, and dissolving like a ball of smoke.

  The iron could hurt them.

  Edvarg and the Lurchers disappeared.

  Dagney stood in the boots. “The boots don’t work!” She stomped her feet. “They aren’t even showing up in my inventory.”

  I checked out my inventory. Traveling Boots. I wasn’t wearing the item, but I was the one who found them. “They’re in mine.”

  A Lurcher and Edvarg reappeared. The headless one was too injured. Edvarg lifted his hands, and green mist began to form.

  “Hurry,” Dagney said as she tried to pull the boots off her feet.

  There was no time. “Trade me for them.”

  She dropped her foot and then looked at the axe in her hand. “Catch!” She threw the axe, and I caught it. I turned with a grin and I ran for Edvarg. I swung the iron shield into the Lurcher that blocked my path and knocked its head clear off, then, while Edvarg raised his mist-clouded hands above his crown, I slammed that gorgeous axe into the glowing circle on his shoulder.

  He dropped his hands, his bar of health dimmed to a speck. I shoved the shield into his chest, and Edvarg fell back to the ground. I stood over him.

  “I’ll kill you for this,” he said, trying to push up to sitting. I stepped on his chest and held him down.

  “Not this time.” I slammed the iron plate into his neck and trapped him down to the floor. His body shuddered, arms flailing, fingers outstretched and then curling upward. The damage bar drained to empty. His body disappeared in a flash of green gas, sharp and acidic. My axe clattered to the ground.

  My skin lit as I leveled up. Yes! I defeated a boss! My hand lifted, but I dropped it. My dad wasn’t here to give me a high five.

  This was why I never played video games anymore.

  My lungs tightened as I breathed in the rotting green gas. My skin flashed cold, and I coughed. Once. Twice. I couldn’t breathe. The gas was poison. “Stay away!”

  Dagney’s face paled. She rushed into the gas. I flinched. She should stay back; I could find a way out on my own. If I could only
breathe. She didn’t listen to my pleading thoughts. Instead she grabbed my jerkin and pulled us backward.

  The witch-made boots teleported us out, like a tunnel of multicolored lights. Warm electricity surged, binding us tighter together. But Dagney didn’t stop. Her golden boots stepped backward again.

  Her skin glowed as she leveled up. The spark of energy heightened my senses—the sweet smell of sweat at the base of her neck, the taste of sunshine on my tongue, the purple-and-red nova of lights behind my closed eyelids. My foot hit solid ground, and a flash of stinging heat burned my shoulders as we stilled.

  We’d moved about five miles away from the King’s Crypt, to a long open stretch of sand and desert heat. I coughed again and green vapor released from my lungs, like a dragon snorting. I gasped a long deep breath of air. My shoulders wound tight.

  I stared at her, at the round curve of her cheek, the light in her eyes, her dark hair wild. I wanted to take a picture of her, remember the way she looked for the rest of my life. “I can’t believe you ran into poison to save me.”

  Her lips were tinted with a soft green powder. “Of course I did, you d—”

  I rubbed her bottom lip with my thumb, wiping off poison like I was wiping off her lipstick. She broke off before she could land whatever devastating insult she had planned.

  “Are you certain you are all right?” I wiped the poison on the shoulder of her dress.

  “I’m okay,” she said, her eyes wide. “We’re okay.”

  Now perhaps I could breathe. No monster was about to kill us. We had the boots and we weren’t locked inside my mother’s crypt. Dagney was standing on her own feet.

  Very close to me.

  I let out a relieved laugh. One hand still brushed her cheek, and the other held her waist close.

  I couldn’t stop looking at her mouth. The corner of her lip pointed up, and her dimple tucked inside her cheek.

  A question awakened between us, a question I didn’t say out loud. I traced her neck with my fingers and she closed her eyes, her body arching up. Her fists clenched around my shirt, coaxing me toward her.

  Well, if she insisted.

  My lips brushed against hers. She growled softly and kissed me the way she argued, with every bit of her. Her body pressed against my chest and I cinched her waist tight, my fingers entwined in her stays, but not close enough.

  She stepped toward me. The tingle from traveling electrified every sense, the taste of her sweet as whipped pie, sparks crackling between my fingers and trailing every inch of her, my lips burning embers against her mouth, her neck, her jaw.

  In a tunnel of speckling light, I lost all sense of direction, but she didn’t stop moving, rocketing us through step after step. One step wading through rivers, while her fingers gripped my hair and lights shot past us. The next step thrust us through a circling wind. It rattled my clothes and froze the sweat up my back. She tugged my shirt up and touched the bare skin. I flooded with heat. Those enchanted boots transported us farther through a snowbank, a crunch of snow pressing to my knees as I lifted her higher by the slope behind her thighs and we stopped shooting forward. I walked us instead, until her back hit a stone wall, and finally, finally, we were close enough.

  And right when I was about to surrender all sense, her lips parted into a smile.

  I pulled back and we breathed together. Her cheeks flushed pink, and she wouldn’t look at me.

  I cocked my chin. “’Sup, girl.”

  She threw her head back and laughed.

  I chuckled with her, everything else in the world forgotten except the way her lips curled into a smile.

  20

  GRIGFEN

  There were seven Savak Wingships, all aiming bursts of fire at the King’s Crypt. They flew above the ruins of the burnt town while Dagney and Ryo ran into their flames.

  I’d have to set a distraction. A right good one too—fierce, strong, and quite a ways from where I hid. I climbed up a shadowed tree and made my way out onto the largest branch, arms held at both sides for balance. Through the cover of the leafy branches, I called for the spirits, bones, and ghost beasties hidden in the forest surrounding me. Indicators lit over the bones. I glanced through my list of spells until I knew just the song to sing and words to say to enchant them.

  I settled down on the branch, legs dangling, and gathered my balance on the swaying branch. I twisted my fingers. The flame-parched earth cracked. Dusky skeletons emerged from the billowing ghostlight. First a human arm, an antler, and then a skull. The bones congealed into one creature. But it wasn’t distraction enough. I hummed an ancient made-up word, and a cyclone surrounded the bone monster, spinning ghostwind swirling in a dance around the distraction.

  It worked. The Savak turned away from Ryo and Dagney’s goal and attacked the creature.

  I grinned and popped a hibisi in my mouth, watching the battle like it was a movie. The battle could last for as long as my health held on, so I kept chewing on hibisi blossoms as my magic usage dimmed my health, creating new skeletons whenever my magic and health were strong enough.

  I kept going until my head ached and my fingers stiffened in a chill that didn’t seem to be caused by the weather. Even healing couldn’t repair the exhaustion that settled into me.

  I couldn’t hold the bones any longer. The skeleton collapsed in a scattered heap. Oh. A nap would be so fine right about now. I settled back against a branch. Well done, Griffin.

  Hopefully that was distraction enough.

  I felt the branch give before I heard the crack. I threw my hands back to catch myself.

  But it was too late.

  I more slipped than fell. I tumbled down. Thick branches slammed into my stomach. My head. My vision flashed black.

  When I came to, the world was drawn at an odd angle. The King’s Crypt had gone all scallywampus in the background.

  Two Savak Wingships marched toward me, just meters away. A pilot cocked her head to the side. They crept forward, their flamethrowers scorching the underbrush. I murmured curse words under my breath, and a weak fog rose from the ground. It only brought them faster. My fingers twitched, dark spells darkened my tongue, but I was too drained to raise more resistance. I couldn’t even pull a femur toward me.

  The flames burned through the mist and a Savak kicked through the splotchy fog. She stood over me, her arched metal wings pointing to the sky. She grabbed my arm and yanked me so close I could smell blood on her breath, sharp as a mouth full of coppers.

  “You are now the property of the Savak queen. Your life is hers to take or tailor. Congratulations on being used for her glorious vision.”

  Aw bollocks.

  21

  DAGNEY

  When our laughter faded, every unspoken thing echoed in the silence between us. I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t.

  So I just looked at my hands clasped in his cravat and waited for the world to stop spinning.

  That kiss. I drew a deep breath. Maybe it was the connection to the game or the thrill from traveling, or maybe it was Ryo himself, but this felt different from all the times I’d kissed people before. Kissing Ryo was better than a brownie Blizzard sundae, and screw everything I wanted another bite.

  But. Like. Priorities.

  What were my priorities again?

  Finally I met his eyes. His perfect hair was ruffled, his lips swollen, and his eyes, oh no, his eyes were as hungry as mine. He looked well kissed.

  And like he wouldn’t mind if it happened again.

  Infuriatingly kissable boy.

  I’d read thousands of books, written essays on interesting topics, and said swear words when I really meant it, but my favorite words I’d ever thought were those—infuriatingly kissable boy.

  Get a hold of yourself, Dagney.

  “We should probably…,” I said.

  “Right.” He released my waist and I let go of him.

  He ran his fingers through his hair, throwing glances back at me, like he was checking to make sure I was s
till there. It’d be embarrassing if it wasn’t so ridiculously adorable. I pressed my warm cheeks with my hot palms. There was nothing to be embarrassed about.

  Except that … um, his mom was probably watching. Oh gosh, I forgot we were on camera.

  “So … where exactly did we end up?” Ryo asked.

  I glanced around. We’d traveled someplace damp, someplace that smelled like dirt and blood, and somehow familiar, lit by a still-burning lantern. Somehow I’d walked us to the King’s Executioner’s tunnel under our own city. The walls empty of the maps in my inventory, his blood-soaked bandages still on the bed.

  I had no idea how these Traveling Boots worked. After the battle and during the kiss, I’d just moved out of desperation, by instinct and desire, but now I had these metal things strapped to my legs that could rocket me hundreds of miles away, through walls and distance, and I didn’t dare move my feet.

  Okay, game vision. Give me your magic.

  When I gained the Traveling Boots, a vertical column appeared on the left side view. Percentages were marked in lines up the column, like a ruler but marked in tens. 10 percent, 20 percent, and so on. I lifted my foot, and a pink line filled the column, and then lowered, up and down, up and down again. I’d have to time my distance like I was timing a swing. I gathered that at 100 percent it would send me the farthest distance away, and lower would send me a shorter distance.

  There had to be some sort of calculation I could use to make my steps less chaotic.

  I glanced at Ryo. I needed all the control I could get.

  His shoulder bobbed. “Hey, um, so … should we talk about—”

  “Nope.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh.”

  Shoot I didn’t mean … “Maybe. But let’s go find Grig first. I don’t like that we left him on his own.”

  “Right. Okay.” He took a loping step toward me. “How do we do that?”

  “Um, well, you moved with me before. I’m guessing it was because we were touching so…” He grinned. I made a face. “Do not look so eager.”

  He put his hand in mine. “You don’t tell me what to do.”