by Alex Bell
That got the outlaw’s attention. He sat up, swung his legs on to the floor, leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees and said, ‘And why’s that, friend?’
‘Well, it’s a Game. Obviously I need someone who can take care of themselves. But, more importantly, I need to learn how to pass myself off as a cowboy within the next few weeks.’
‘You?’ Jesse said, looking Lex’s skinny frame up and down. ‘That won’t be easy.’
‘I’m a good mimic,’ Lex said. ‘And a quick learner.’
‘Why do you want to learn, anyway?’
‘I have it on good authority that the final lap of this Game will take us to Dry Gulch. I want to get into the house.’
‘Oh, you’re a treasure hunter,’ Jesse replied with a grin. ‘I have to say you don’t look like one. Take it from me, kid − Dry Gulch House ain’t your kind of place.’
‘Have you ever been there?’ Lex asked, hopefully, for it was always better to have a guide with first-hand experience.
‘Sure,’ Jesse replied. ‘Once or twice. But you heard what I said to the police back there. I ain’t never going back to Cactus Valley.’
‘I don’t want you to go back to Cactus Valley, you simpleton. I want you to come to Dry Gulch. Besides, I hate to break it to you, but you are going back. You’re sitting here in a prison cell! So either you return to Cactus Valley in handcuffs with the authorities or you go back to Dry Gulch a free man with me. You’ll have to play the Game and teach me everything you know whenever we get a spare minute. If you don’t think you’re up to it, say so now and I’ll find someone else.’
‘Hey, I never said I wasn’t up to it,’ Jesse said. ‘And I guess Dry Gulch is a fair few miles away from Cactus Valley.’
‘You understand that once you start the Game you’re in it for good? These bracelets will keep us tied to each other.’ Lex held up his wrist to emphasise the point. ‘So don’t think about trying to run away because it won’t work. And I’ll be in charge, understand? You’ll have to do as I say, not just because I’m saving your neck by getting you out of prison here today, but because I’m the player and you’re the companion, and companions must always do as they’re told.’
‘You’ve got an awful lot of arrogance and self-confidence for such a youngster, don’t you?’ Jesse said mildly. ‘Still, anything’s better than getting sent back to hang.’ He folded his arms and looked at Lex through the bars. ‘Well? Aren’t you going to ask me what I did to make ’em send out those reward posters?’
‘I don’t care about what you’ve done,’ Lex replied. ‘All I care about is how you’re going to help me.’
Jesse grinned and then shrugged. ‘Well, all right then. I can tell already that you and I are going to get along just fine.’
Lex had to agree. He may not have trusted Jesse − for he could recognise another scoundrel when he saw one − but he did like him.
‘I do have one condition though,’ Jesse said.
Lex stared at him. ‘You’re hardly in a position to be making conditions.’
‘I dare say not, but I’m making one just the same. My horse, Rusty: he’ll have to come with us.’
‘I’m not sure that’s a terribly good idea,’ Lex replied. ‘You see, I have three griffins and they try to eat just about anything that moves.’
‘I don’t go anywhere without him,’ Jesse replied firmly. ‘I even brought him with me when I fled from the West. I sure as hell ain’t leaving him behind now.’
Lex sighed. ‘All right; I suppose we can keep him separate from the griffins. He was picked up on the road and taken to the city stables earlier today. I’ll pay the release fee to get him out.’ He pulled off his glove, extended his hand through the bars and said, ‘Now, if that’s all, I’d like to make this official. This is your last chance to back out.’
But Jesse looked at his hand for only a moment before clasping it firmly with his own. Instantly, the Binding Bracelets split in half. The black one remained firmly fastened around Lex’s wrist whilst the white one shot off on to Jesse’s. Lex felt a profound sense of smug satisfaction for he was sure he had chosen the perfect companion. Jesse was tough and big and seemed relatively smart for someone with such a lot of scars and stubble. And to think that he had almost chosen one of those wimpy, peanut-fearing writers. He shuddered at the thought of it . . .
Jesse smiled and said, ‘So are you going to get me out of here or what?’
Lex explained very carefully to Jesse how the Binding Bracelets worked − if they didn’t eat every meal together they would switch bodies and they would stay in each other’s bodies until they managed to find their way back to each other and eat together again.
‘You don’t say?’ Jesse said, examining the white bracelet fastened to his wrist. ‘But I can still drink, right?’
‘Yes. You just can’t eat on your own.’
‘What about chewing tobacco? Will that make us switch?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Lex said, frowning. ‘You don’t swallow it, do you?’
‘Jeepers, kid, ’course I don’t swallow it!’ Jesse said, grimacing at the suggestion. ‘You gotta spit it out.’
‘A disgusting habit,’ Lex replied scathingly. ‘But not one that should make us switch. Chew and spit all you like.’
After collecting Rusty from the stables, Lex and Jesse made their way back to the harbour. Several people shot the cowboy sharp looks, for many had seen him galloping through the town just that morning with the police giving chase behind him. A couple of particularly slow-on-the-uptake people even felt the need to shriek, ‘It’s him! It’s the outlaw, Jesse Layton! He’s getting away!’
‘Oh, give it a rest,’ Lex replied. ‘He’s not getting away, he’s playing in a Game. Look.’ And he grabbed Jesse’s wrist to hold it up and display the bracelet. That promptly made people back off and leave them alone. No one tangles with the Gods on purpose, after all.
‘This is my ship,’ Lex said with a flourish once they’d reached the harbour.
The gigantic, gleaming silver thing was tied up like the rest of the boats but, unlike the ships belonging to the gypsies, traders and tourists, Lex’s ship didn’t bob on the water but floated in the air instead. For it was, of course, a magic ship that Lex had stolen from an enchanter during the course of the last Game. The enchanters were powerful, magical men and so stealing from one of them was extremely dangerous and practically unheard of. Most people were therefore terribly impressed and even a little in awe of Lex when he showed them his ship.
He was therefore less then happy when, after regarding it for a moment, Jesse said, ‘Ugly-looking thing, ain’t it?’
‘Ugly?’ Lex spluttered indignantly. ‘Ugly? You’ve got to be kidding! Can’t you see how large and powerful and silver she is?’
Jesse shrugged. ‘Prefer the gypsy boats myself.’
Truth be told, Lex had preferred the gypsy boats too at one time, for they were decorated in many fluttering flags and painted with colourful sea monsters. But whilst they may have looked pretty, they couldn’t fly over land or travel across a frozen sea or soar up into the sky or survive being attacked by sharks or water witches. Plus, anything Lex owned instantly looked all the more beautiful to him for the simple fact that he owned it.
‘I stole it from an enchanter,’ Lex said, just in case Jesse had somehow missed that point.
But the cowboy just nodded. ‘Yep. That’s what I figured.’
It seemed he really was determined to be distinctly unimpressed. It occurred to Lex that a writer would probably have been falling over themselves to congratulate him and tell him how wonderful he was and how heroic and daring and brave and the like. In reality Lex would have been thoroughly sick of this within about five minutes but still he couldn’t help wishing that Jesse would be just a little bit impressed with the ship. He sighed and said, ‘Well, come on then.’
The ship’s gangplank had been destroyed during the course of the last Game so, for much of it, the ship h
ad only had a ladder running up its side. This did not make for happy disembarking, especially when it was raining and slippery. So Lex had had a new gangplank put in. It was only one of many improvements he had made to the ship once he’d known for sure that the enchanter wasn’t coming back for it (on account of being turned into a little doll and imprisoned in a glass bottle).
He had spent some very happy days during his three months back at the family farm working on and improving the ship. There were still a lot of rooms inside it that he’d never been into and these were all marked with a giant X. He’d originally intended to go through them all but, after one slightly unfortunate incident when he tried to remove the rabid, fire-breathing rabbit that had attacked him once before, and the thing got out and . . . well . . . set fire to the barn, Lex’s brother, Lucius, had forbidden him from going into any of the other unsafe rooms. Of course, Lex didn’t usually listen to a word Lucius said but, on this occasion, he had to agree. An extremely flammable farm really wasn’t the place to have fire-breathing things running amok in a livid rage. So he had left the doors with strange noises behind them well enough alone. For all he knew, this might mean that he’d have a ship full of dead monsters at some point for, if they were sealed into little rooms with nothing to eat, they would surely starve. But the fire-breathing rabbit had been sealed in the room for at least four months without food and, nevertheless, seemed to be extremely active when it finally did get out.
‘Some parts of the ship are off limits,’ Lex said as he, Jesse and Rusty walked across the gangplank. ‘You can’t go into any room with an X on the door.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I haven’t had the chance to check what’s in there and it’s usually something dangerous that wants to eat you. But the corridors are safe and any room that doesn’t have an X on the door is fine.’
Lex opened the door, they stepped into one of the ship’s corridors and were immediately enveloped in the scent of carpets. When he’d first got the ship it had been covered in mirrors and marble − even the floors − which hadn’t made for a very cosy feel. So Lex had had carpets put into all the rooms he was able to use. It had cost him a pretty penny, of course, for the corridors alone required several huge rolls of carpet. But Lex had sold some of the treasures he’d found on the ship to raise the money. Lucius pointed out that Lex could have spent the money on improving and modernising the farm, not to mention replacing the barn that had been burnt down. Lex resisted this particular line of thought most strenuously at first for the very idea of spending his ill-gotten gains on a barn of all things was quite sickening. And it was hardly his fault that the rabbit had headed straight for it, damn the thing . . . But, in the end, he gave Lucius some money for a new barn just to stop him from going on and on and on about it. You let one fire-breathing bunny loose and no one ever lets you forget it . . .
But the corridors, kitchen and bridge were now all carpeted. And Lex was very pleased with the result. He had even rolled around on the new carpets a bit when they’d first been put in − after vacuuming them first, obviously, so that he wouldn’t get all those little bits of fluff sticking to his clothes and hair.
They found a room down below to put Rusty in. Then Lex gave Jesse the tour − showing him the kitchen and the bridge and the room where he would sleep. Lex was planning on sleeping on the bridge as he’d done in the last Game. It was the only room in the ship that had windows, the other rooms all being rather dark, claustrophobic little boxes. As one of the biggest rooms, not to mention the fact that it was the highest, Lex felt the observation deck had rather a nice status-symbol feel to it and saw it as his due to sleep there. It, too, was now carpeted, with a grand four-poster bed and a wardrobe and a little coolbox with some food in it in case he fancied a midnight snack, and a couple of big, squishy armchairs. It was the perfect set-up.
Jesse’s room, on the other hand, was a small, sparse place with white marble walls and just a mattress and a blanket on the floor.
‘They’re new,’ Lex said, a little defensively. ‘The room isn’t big enough for a proper bed. And at least it has a carpet.’
‘Don’t matter anyhow,’ Jesse said. ‘I’ll sleep down below with Rusty.’
Lex shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’
When they went up to the bridge there was a white griffin the size of a small horse lying on Lex’s four-poster bed. Half eagle, half lion, it was sprawled there looking rather pleased with itself.
‘That’s Silvi. One of the griffins I told you about. She’s the friendliest. You can probably stroke her without her taking your hand off. But be careful around the other two.’
‘She’s not as big as I would’ve thought,’ Jesse said, nevertheless looking impressed for the first time since boarding the ship. ‘Baby, is she?’
‘Three months,’ Lex replied. ‘Her brothers are much bigger − they’re almost full grown already. They’re probably out on deck. Come on, Silvi.’
The griffin jumped off the bed, loped over to Lex and stayed by his side as they went out to the open deck. The other two griffins were indeed there and were much larger than their sister, coming up to Lex’s shoulder. They were both lounging contentedly in the sun, although they lifted their heads when Lex and Jesse came on to the deck.
‘The grey one is Lukah,’ Lex said, pointing. ‘And the black one is Monty. Watch out for him; he’s really bad tempered and he doesn’t much like anyone but me. They’ll probably get used to you in the end but for now don’t touch any of them except Silvi.’
The only other people who had met the griffins were Lucius − who’d practically cringed in terror whenever one of them came near him − and Zachary, whom the griffins had all taken an instant dislike to, quite possibly because Lex had turned the man into a ferret during the course of the last Game. The griffins seemed to be able to smell it on him still, even now. It made a pleasant change to show them to Jesse when the cowboy was quite obviously as impressed by them as he should be.
They had been up on deck for only a few minutes when Lady Luck appeared beside them.
‘This is—’ Lex began, intending to introduce Jesse.
But the cowboy, it seemed, needed no one to do the introductions.
‘The Goddess of Good Fortune, of course,’ he said, sweeping off his hat with a flourish and giving a gallant bow. ‘My Lady, I would recognise your beauty anywhere.’
‘Dear me, how sweet you are,’ Lady Luck fluttered girlishly. ‘Lex, who is this charming—’
‘Jesse Layton, ma’am. At your service,’ the cowboy said, straightening up and actually taking one of the Goddess’s gloved hands to press a kiss to the back of it.
Lex was quite, quite horrified. How had he not foreseen this? Lady Luck loved scoundrels and rogues and rotters and rascals. Lex himself was, of course, all of those things but so, clearly, was Jesse. And whilst Lex was usually glad of his honest face − for it made scams so much easier when you looked like a gutless twerp − he had to admit that, on occasion, the scarred, stubbled, rugged look would come in handy, too.
‘Oh, good choice, Lex,’ Lady Luck gushed. ‘I like this one much better than that lawyer.’
‘Yes, I’m sure he’ll do just fine,’ Lex said, practically slapping Jesse’s hand out of the Goddess’s and giving him rather an evil look as he did it.
He did not mind double-crossing Lady Luck and, indeed, he had done it before, but he was not favourably inclined towards being double-crossed himself and a God could only have one player. Lex didn’t like the way the Goddess was looking at Jesse − not one bit.
‘Is there something you want particularly or have you just dropped by to get in the way?’ Lex snapped.
‘Someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning,’ the Goddess huffed and Lex cursed himself for being bad tempered when Jesse, drat him, was being so pleasant.
‘I just thought you’d like to know,’ Lady Luck said coolly, ‘that I have it on good authority that Kala is planning to use Jeremiah East
as her player.’
‘Jeremiah . . . East?’
‘That’s right,’ the Goddess said with a smile. ‘The grandson of the famous Carey East himself.’
CHAPTER THREE
JEREMIAH EAST
This was the first occasion in a long while that the Game had been announced ahead of time. Since the last Game, and Lex’s spectacular victory, interest seemed to have increased in the players themselves and it was now a little bit about hero-worshipping as well as about the gambling. There was even to be a feast, two nights before the Game was due to start, when the Gods would officially name their players.
Lex was quite beside himself with excitement to hear that Kala, Goddess of the Stars, was going to be using Jeremiah East, the grandson of the great adventurer about whom he − and, indeed, the rest of the world − had heard so many stories, most of which had been written by Lex’s own grandfather, Alistair Trent, as Carey East’s Chronicler.
