Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games #1)

by Gow, Kailin

  Goolrick watched the departing group with a certain amount of thoughtfulness. For the most part, they seemed to be exactly what he had expected. But the girl, Gem… Goolrick found himself thinking a little of the former princess, Chelsea, as she had been in her prison in the woods. Yes, she might prove useful. They all might. For now though, he should fetch reinforcements, but maybe not too quickly. It would be good to see how useful the five of them might be…

  Chapter 4

  The Wickedly Woods seemed to brood as the five of them made their way along rough track ways designed more with deer in mind than people. What they brooded on, Gem couldn’t guess. Maybe on why anyone would want to trek through a set of woods that were so dank, or on whether they should be allowed to leave again. The very trees seemed to hate, to abhor, the presence of people, and to Gem’s eye seemed to shift around, confusing the path.

  Still, they kept going, following the map as best they could. Surprisingly, the conditions seemed to foster a sense of camaraderie among them, a trust in the group that soon had even Rio making an effort. He joked with Jack about how many trees Jack would crash into without his glasses. Jack, for his part, was busy muttering under his breath.

  “What are you doing, Jack?” Gem asked. The boy looked up, startled, as though he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

  “I… that is…um…”

  “He was saying random words,” Kat supplied. “I don’t know why.”

  Gem could guess.

  “You were trying to discover more ruler words by trial and error?”

  Jack nodded mutely.

  “That’s clever, but maybe we need somewhere with a bit more space, just in case something dangerous happens.”

  “I…I don’t think that it works like that,” Jack said. “I think that maybe you have to think of the results when you say the word. So it shouldn’t be dangerous. Um… I think.”

  Gem wasn’t about to argue. Especially since that was one of the longer sentences he’d uttered around her. She let him get back to his muttering.

  In any case, they soon had more room. At least, the trees thinned out a little, letting the five of them walk between without any trouble. There was a space between a cluster of oaks that formed a clearing of sorts, and Gem decided that it looked like a good place to stop for a bit. She had lost track of how long the five of them had been walking, but it seemed like hours.

  She was just about to call a halt when the howl came. It started off alone, then built up as more voices joined it and the sound converged into a single howl that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

  “What’s that?” Jack asked.

  “Probably just wolves,” Rio replied, though Gem noticed that he unsheathed his sword.

  “What if it isn’t?” she asked. “We should be wary.”

  “Cautious is practically my middle name,” Rio said. He smiled, but it faded as he looked over Gem’s shoulder. Gem turned, following his gaze.

  She quickly wished that she hadn’t. More than a dozen large, ugly figures were making their way forward, holding a variety of weapons. Some had axes, others swords, but all of them looked brutal and vicious. Ogres, Gem guessed, thinking back to what Goolrick had said at the castle. One held the leashes for a pack of what could only be wolves, because no dog ever looked quite that dangerous.

  The ogre with the wolves seemed to be in charge. He held up a hand, and the others halted. He spoke roughly, as though human speech weren’t easy for him.

  “What tribe are you?”

  “I’m not sure,” Gem said. “I don’t think we really have a tribe. We’re not from Anachronia.”

  “What tribe?” the ogre demanded, raising his voice. On their leash, the wolves strained and snapped at one another. Sparks stepped between Gem and the ogre, his sword drawn. To Gem’s surprise, Rio joined him.

  “Perfidious,” Sparks said. “What’s it to you?”

  “Bad choice,” the ogre replied. “Surrender, and we’ll take you to Spurious. Don’t, and we’ll see how your bones taste.”

  “Do we look like the submissive types?” Sparks asked. The ogre looked puzzled. He turned to another of them and whispered. The other one shrugged.

  “He means do we look meek and mild and likely to give in?” Gem supplied. “But honestly, can’t we settle this in an amicable way? That means friendly, agreeable,” she added, as the ogre turned back to his whispering. He looked up sharply.

  “I knew that! I was just thinking about which of you to eat first.”

  The ogre with the wolves pointed to the five of them even as Gem watched.

  “No. Not amicable. Get them,” he ordered. “Kill them.”

  With a snarl, he let go of the leashes.

  For a moment, Gem didn’t react as the wolves bounded forward in a single gray furred mass. Then, without thinking about it, she pulled her bow taut and sent an arrow flying into the pack. Rio and Sparks stepped forward, Sparks putting his shoulder behind his shield to hit a wolf like he was blocking a tackle, Rio swinging his broadsword in wide sweeps. An arrow from Jack’s bow flew out to hit one of the ogres, sending it crashing to the earth.

  It was Kat who reacted most furiously though. With a cry she leapt forward, stabbing and blocking, charging into the middle of the ogres and their wolves. A mass of them closed around her and Gem couldn’t spot her anymore. Fitting another arrow to her bow, she fired, hitting a wolf in the leg.

  There were too many ogres. Too many wolves. Rio and Sparks were attacking furiously, but for every blow they got through, they had to parry three more. For all that they were strong and athletic, it took skill to wield a sword against so many attackers, skill they’d never had chance to learn. If the ogres came at them all at once, they would never win.

  Gem reached forward, grabbing Rio’s shoulder.

  “We need to pull back. Into the trees. Split them up.”

  She did the same with Sparks, then turned and bolted into the trees. Jack was already there, having climbed an oak so he could send down arrows at the ogres. Gem decided to dodge and dart, hoping to draw a few of the ogres’ attention.

  It worked. Three of them peeled off, along with a couple of wolves, chasing her into the trees. Gem fired a shot as she ran, hitting a wolf more by luck than skill. Glancing back, she saw that Rio and Sparks had split up. Rio was dodging around trees, hitting ogres who couldn’t keep track of where he was. Sparks was fighting toe to toe with a pair of ogres, using his shield to keep them off. Kat was still buried somewhere in a scrum of attackers. As for Jack, he seemed to be enjoying staying out of reach in his tree, firing down even if he didn’t always hit.

  Gem decided that it seemed like a good plan, especially as the ogres were gaining on her. With a shot at the remaining wolf that missed it by a hairsbreadth, she sprinted for a likely looking tree. She hadn’t spent a lot of time climbing trees, but it couldn’t be any more difficult than the more acrobatic things she’d done when cheerleading, surely?

  Of course, Gem didn’t do most of them while wearing a long dress. The first leap found her feet tangling, and Gem stumbled, falling at the base of the tree.

  She rolled, rising, knowing that she couldn’t just lie there. She managed a shot with the bow that sent the last wolf falling, and lined up another on one of the chasing ogres, taking it through the heart. She took too long though, and the next of the ogres to reach her swung a hand around, knocking the bow from her grasp. It raised the axe it held, obviously planning to split her like a fallen log. There was no way out that Gem could see. The fall of the axe seemed inevitable, impossible to avoid.

  She thought of the vase Sparks had destroyed. Would it work? It had to, if she wanted to escape in one piece. With no other option, Gem raised her hand.

  “Deleterious.”

  The ogre’s face contorted. It made a strangled sound. Finally, with the grace of a falling tree, it toppled backwards, dead. Gem looked at her hand as though she had never seen it before.

  Maybe
if there had only been two ogres, it would have been enough. Maybe if she hadn’t been so shocked at the idea of having killed one with nothing but a word, Gem would have been fast enough. As it was, the last of the ogres leapt at her, grabbing her and lifting, clamping one hand over her mouth. Restrained as she was, Gem couldn’t say anything, let alone use a word of power.

  “Now, I’ll eat your bones,” the ogre taunted. So close, Gem could smell the stench of it, which was somewhere between sweat and worse things. “Time to die, little-“

  It didn’t finish the sentence. It didn’t have anything to finish the sentence with. One moment, it had a head, the next, it was falling backwards headless, letting go of Gem as it did so. Behind it stood Goolrick, a sword in his hand. The young wizard was still wearing his ornate robes, but was now rubbing at a splash of blood on them.

  anytHonestly! You can never get it out, you know.”

  “Goolrick? When did you show up?”

  “Oh, not long ago. I used a quick charm to mask myself as I crept up. Not as efficient as the “surreptitious” word, but it works.”

  There was part of Gem that wanted to hug Goolrick for saving her, and part of her that wanted to hit him for wasting time working at his robe.

  “The others-“ she began, but Goolrick held up a hand.

  “They should be fine. I brought help. First though, are you all right?”

  Gem nodded and Goolrick led the way back through the trees. He had indeed brought help. Men in armor stood around holding swords and staffs. Sparks, Rio and Jack sat among them.

  “Behold,” Goolrick said, “the men of Perfidious. Some of them, anyway. All I could get at short notice.”

  “They were great,” Jack said. “Some of the wolves had me trapped in the tree, and then they just… arrived.”

  “I’m glad,” Gem said, but she bit her lip. She looked around the trees again, in case she had simply missed something, then turned back to the others. “Where’s Kat?”

  “I don’t know,” Rio said. Sparks shook his head.

  “The last I saw of her, she was charging those ogres.”

  A sinking feeling hit Gem in the pit of her stomach. She looked to Goolrick, but the young wizard was already ordering his men to start the search.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “If she is here, we will find her. Just wait.”

  Gem couldn’t bring herself to do that. She set off instead, determined to help. She wasn’t sure how far she’d got before there was a shout from one of the searching men, but there hadn’t been any sign of the other girl by that point. She rushed towards the sound, hoping for better news.

  What she found instead was a pile of dead ogres and wolves. All showed signs of having been struck down by the short sword Kat had been carrying. It seemed that the other girl was a ferocious fighter, but that wasn’t what made Gem stop, made her stare at the pile of dead creatures.

  What was on top did.

  It was a satchel. Gem recognized it instantly as Kat’s. It had everything in it of hers except the black lipstick. The comb lay a few feet away. There was blood on both it and the satchel. Far too much blood.

  “I’m sorry,” the man who’d found it said, “I think she might be dead. No one could have survived a wound like that.”

  Maybe it was the way he said it, but Gem found herself taking hold of the satchel. She lifted it, examined it, turned it in her hands. It was too real. It was all too real. She didn’t care how good your technology was, no one could make people in a capsule experience things this vividly. No one could make a gamer bleed like this. The truth came to her, inevitable, unstoppable.

  It was real. It was all real. Anachronia wasn’t a level. It was a world. Henry Word had lied to them. He hadn’t made a game. He had made a way in. It was all real. And that meant…

  That meant Kat was really dead.

  For Sparks, the walk from the battle site wasn’t as exhilarating as it should have been. Gem seemed upset, on the verge of tears. He did his best to comfort her, reminding her that it was just a game, but it didn’t seem to help…

  Gem kept staring at the bloodied satchel as she walked. Anachronia didn’t seem like such a big adventure now. Not when Kat was gone…

  Rio was glad to be getting away from the battle. It had seemed so real that it had brought back memories he didn’t want. Of a gang fight that had featured his father. Of a knife coming out of nowhere. Gem looked almost as grim. Strange that a rich girl should get it…

  Jack was probably the most upbeat of them. He had done something he had never thought he would be able to. He had fought off ogres and wolves. Well, he had sat in a tree and shot at them, but as far as he could see it was pretty much the same thing…

  And, somewhere away from the track, moving carefully to avoid being spotted, the ogre who’d released the wolves led the way, while a second, smaller figure followed warily behind…

  Chapter 5

  Sebold had been the ruler of the Spurious tribe for a long time, here on the border between the Woods and the Fertile Lands, through adversity as well as good times. He had built the long house he now stood in, and had seen much of the village grow up around it. He thought of himself as a canny, careful ruler, though he also knew that there were some who would have used the word ruthless about him instead. Either way, he knew enough to pay attention to signs, and had taken the time to learn Anachronia’s legends.

  If the young woman who had come to him with one of the ogres that had sided with Spurious was a sign, then she was certainly an odd-looking one. Still, there was no denying what she was, not with the redly glowing ring on her finger. The power of outlanders to use words was too great a gift to pass up.

  In any case, Sebold could hardly comment on the appearance of others. His own was too craggy to be handsome, while his wiry frame held a few too many scars for comfort. Even in the way he dressed, in layers of shifting cloth to match the shifting truth, he was at least as strange as the visitor to his hall.

  “They call you Kat?” Sebold asked.

  “Yeah.” The young woman looked bored, glancing round his hall like she had seen it all before. Sebold doubted it. After all, how many outlanders spent their time in long wood and stone houses with low turf roofs? How many had axes and armor between the places at the table, so that they could be grabbed quickly? Sebold gestured to it.

  “You don’t like my home?”

  Kat shrugged.

  “I was just expecting something… grander.”

  Sebold kept his temper. Just.

  “Like the castle? This is a pragmatic choice. The village has walls, so I have no need of more of them. In any case, remember that the Perfidious have done us much harm. If our prosperity, our wealth, is not up to producing castles, blame them for it.”

  “Well maybe I can do something about that.” The girl sounded confident about it. Sebold supposed that she was allowed to be.

  “You want to join us?”

  “The way I see it, the only way I have of winning this thing is if I don’t work with the others. They might all want to collaborate, but I’m not here for teamwork. I’m here to win. It’s not like any of them care about me.”

  Sebold nodded, hiding his smile. He could see what would be needed to manipulate the girl even now. A little sympathy and compassion, a little forbearance, putting up with her self-centered moments, and she would quickly help the tribe. With the help of an outlander as well as the ogres, the Perfidious tribe would soon capitulate. Sebold would enjoy their surrender. And if it didn’t work out, there were other options. He signaled to one of his servants.

  “Take Kat and help her to settle in. She is to have anything she needs. Anything at all. She’s going to win this war for us.”

  The track through the Wickedly Woods wound on, and Gem trudged along it. She wasn’t the only one. Rio, Sparks and Jack were all close, as was Goolrick. His men had spread out around them in a line along the track. Of course, none of them were wearing dresses whose
hems were getting heavy with mud. Maybe she should have listened to Kat after all. Just the thought that Kat would have been happily saying “I told you so” sent a cold stab of pain through Gem. She looked for something to distract herself from it.

  Jack, walking alongside, seemed lost in thought.

  “What are you thinking about?” Gem asked, hoping that it would take her mind off things. Jack looked up, obviously startled.

  “I-I…”

  “Jack,” Gem smiled at him as she spoke. “It’s ok. You don’t have to be so nervous around me.”

  “C-can’t really help it.” Jack shut his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I was thinking…” he shot a look at Goolrick where the wizard walked on ahead, ‘should we really be trusting the Perfidious tribe? I mean, doesn’t that mean disloyal?”

  “Yes,” Gem agreed, “but since Spurious means false or untrue, it’s not really an improvement, is it? Anyway, they saved us from the ogres.”

  “I suppose so.”

  They walked on in silence for a little while after that. Finally, coming to another clearing, Goolrick called a halt. His men started setting up tents. While they were doing so, Sparks came over to Gem and Jack.

  “I haven’t seen this much mud since the last time we were scrimmaging,” he said.

  “You like football a lot, back home?” Gem asked.

  “A bit. I used to love it. I just wish there weren’t so much pressure sometimes. In theory, I’m supposed to be working hard, because everyone says I could get a scholarship out of it. I suppose it’s just not as much fun when you’ve got to do it. Most of the time, I’d rather work with machines. They make sense. What about you, Gem? You haven’t said much about yourself since you arrived at Henry Word’s castle.”

  “I’m not sure that there’s much to tell,” Gem said, cautiously. “Anyway, I was a bit… embarrassed about some of it. My dad… he works for Henry Word. Well, not directly. He’s a lawyer, and he does a lot of work for him. I thought if I mentioned too much about myself, you might think that was why I got here.”