Reaper

by Janet Edwards

  “Put him on trial for breaching the rules of Celestius. If he was found guilty, then he’d be punished by a suitable period of being confined to his castle. Hercules would normally have the option of leaving Celestius to live on another Game world until his sentence was completed, but that won’t be possible given the current situation with the Reaper.”

  I was puzzled. “Surely someone under house arrest can’t just change world and live freely again.”

  “These punishments aren’t proper house arrests,” said Hawk. “The guilty party is just warned to stay in their castle.”

  “So what happens if Hercules ignores the warning and leaves his castle? Things aren’t the way they were during the ten year trial period of Game. The Sisterhood can’t send a mob of their friends and husbands over to kill him.”

  Hawk didn’t say a word. He had an expression of exaggerated innocence on his face.

  I stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t believe the Game Techs would let that happen.”

  Hawk led me into a flower covered arbour and we sat down on a wooden seat. “The Game Techs accept that there has to be a system of keeping order on Celestius. They don’t like us killing people, but things very rarely go that far these days.”

  “Can’t the Game Techs enforce the house arrests themselves?”

  “According to Game Tech regulations, they can only impose house arrest on players in cases like Chiron and Marcus. Other Game worlds remove resident status from troublemakers, which usually makes them behave better on their next world, though stubborn cases end up somewhere like Havoc or in Game prison. The Game Techs don’t want to set the precedent of removing Celestius resident status from a Founder Player, or throwing one of us in Game prison, so they put up with us dealing with our problems ourselves.”

  He laughed. “The Game Techs do use the odd minor sanction themselves from time to time, like when Poseidon woke up and found his castle was infested with ants, but ...”

  He broke off his sentence as two people looked into the arbour. I tensed, but Hawk’s smile reassured me that they were his friends not his enemies.

  “Jex, meet Artemis and her husband, Sword.”

  They said a few words of welcome to me, and then Artemis turned to Hawk. “I heard you’d been fighting the Kraken again. I thought you said that fighting it once was more than enough.”

  “I did,” said Hawk, “but I had to kill it again to impress Jex.”

  I blushed.

  “You had to kill the Kraken to get Jex to agree to having an exclusive relationship with you!” Sword glanced at Artemis. “I’m deeply thankful you didn’t insist on anything quite that dramatic from me.”

  “So you should be,” Artemis teased him. “You wouldn’t last thirty seconds against the Kraken.”

  “Actually, it was fun fighting it again,” said Hawk. “I’m getting nowhere tracking down the Reaper, so I could vent my frustration on the Kraken.”

  There was a moment of depressed silence at the mention of the Reaper.

  “We’ve a message for you, Hawk,” said Sword. “Beowulf wants to warn you that Venus is planning to have a chat with Jex.”

  Hawk raised an eyebrow. “Since when is Beowulf on my side against Venus?”

  “Since you saved his life, Hawk,” said Artemis. “As you’ve been roaming round the other worlds, acting as bait for the Reaper, you won’t be aware there’ve been a few dramatic shifts in allegiances. Beowulf was critically ill when he entered Game, he’d have been killed by a high-speed defrost, so his opinion of you has changed.”

  “Beowulf isn’t the only one feeling that way,” added Sword. “A lot of the family appreciate what you and Jex did to save Celestius. What you’re still doing, attempting to trap the Reaper. Sadly, your increasing popularity has angered Venus.”

  Sword turned his head, looking at something out of my view down the path. “That’s unfortunate.”

  Hawk stood up. “Venus is coming?”

  “No,” said Sword. “It’s Hercules. If you want to try to escape, we can delay him for you.”

  Hawk nodded, grabbed my hand, and he towed me out of the arbour. We ran off down a narrow path lined with fragrant flowering roses, my speed limited by my long dress and the fact I was helpless with laughter.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  After we’d taken three random turnings, Hawk stopped by a large pool. A low, stone wall surrounded it, and in the centre a fountain shot jets of water droplets high into the air.

  It was a minute or two before I finally managed to stop laughing and speak. “Why did we run away from Hercules? I thought we’d agreed he wasn’t a problem any longer.”

  “I wasn’t running away from Hercules,” said Hawk. “I was running away from that conversation with Artemis and Sword. They were bound to start talking about the Reaper again, and I don’t like lying to my friends.”

  I perched on the stone wall, and watched the constantly shifting patterns of the fountain. “I like Artemis and Sword.”

  “Cassandra, Artemis, and Sword are three of my closest friends.”

  “Cassandra still seems to be on good terms with her first husband, Pendragon.”

  Hawk sat next to me. “Yes, that marriage was always a friendship more than a passionate affair, so they remained friends after the split. Venus keeps making snide comments about that, but Thor is much too sensible to listen to her.”

  “Venus again. Why were Sword and Artemis warning you about her?”

  “Because she’s likely to be as big a problem as Hercules.”

  “I’ve seen lots of images of Venus, but I don’t know much about her.”

  “Oh, yes,” said Hawk sourly. “There are plenty of images of Venus around, with her famous cascades of blonde hair. Usually images of her surrounded by her adoring fans. Venus likes being adored.”

  “You clearly don’t like her. She doesn’t like you either?”

  “Venus hates me even more than Hercules does. I failed to adore her enough. In fact, I once turned down her advances.”

  “You turned down Venus?” I shook my head. “I thought you said that none of the female Founder Players had ever been interested in you.”

  “Venus wasn’t interested in me as a person. It happened the first year I fought in the Battle Arena, and half the family came to watch the final duel. Venus offered me her ribbons as a favour to carry in combat, but I turned them down. I’d been wearing Cassandra’s scarf in all my previous duels. It would have been horribly rude to toss it aside for Venus’s ribbons.”

  He shrugged his right shoulder. “Anyway, everyone knew Venus was offering me more than her ribbons. She’d always sneered at me until then, but if I won the champion’s crown of the Battle Arena then she’d forget about ghastly Michael and reward me with her attentions for an hour or two.”

  “You didn’t like that idea?”

  Hawk shuddered. “Definitely not. If it had been one of the other female Founder Players who have a rapid succession of partners, such as Helen, then it would have been a different situation. Helen’s relationships are brief, light-hearted fun for both parties. The problem with Venus is that her favours come with a price tag. I’ve watched her pressure several of my friends into doing things they deeply regretted.”

  He paused. “So I turned down Venus’s offer. I tried to be polite about it, but she took the rejection as the ultimate public insult. She’s hated me ever since. She won’t like you either, because she’ll see you as unfair new competition on Celestius.”

  I frowned. “Cassandra said the Sisterhood voted unanimously in favour of making me a Founder Player. If Venus didn’t want me coming here, why didn’t she vote against it?”

  “Venus had no choice but to vote the same way as the rest of the Sisterhood. She’s had a lot of conflicts with Sword over the centuries, and the situation came to a head at the last party here in the Grand Ballroom. Venus ambushed Sword in one of the bowers, and managed to kiss him just as Artemis arrived. Fortunately, Artemis wa
sn’t fooled for a moment. She and Sword complained to the Sisterhood, and Venus was confined to her castle for three months. Her sentence has only just ended, so Venus has to play the good girl for a while.”

  “Oh.” I thought that over. “So Sword and Artemis are enemies of Venus, and friends of yours. That’s why Beowulf gave them the message for you?”

  “Exactly. Beowulf wouldn’t want to talk to me directly because there’s a bit of history between us. Quite a lot of history in fact. I cut off his head once.” Hawk grinned. “I’m afraid the family feuds and allegiances get complicated.”

  I decided not to ask why Hawk had cut off Beowulf’s head. “If it was possible to get a stress headache in Game, I think I’d get one from trying to understand your family politics.”

  “All you really need to know is that Venus will grab any chance to talk to you tonight, and she’ll do her best to turn you against me. Please, Jex, if anything worries you, give me the chance to tell my side of the story. I’ll do my best to be honest with you.”

  I sighed. “I can see this is going to be a really fun party.”

  A group of men were walking down the path towards us. Romulus and Remus were at the back with their arms round each other, but I didn’t recognize the other three.

  Hawk stood up and pointed at each man in turn. “Jex, you’ve already met Romulus and Remus. These are Narcissus, Destin, and Louis.”

  I stood up as well. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

  The men murmured greetings, and Louis gave a formal bow that included an exaggerated flourish of one arm.

  “Hawk,” said Romulus. “We need to warn you that Venus is extremely displeased with you.”

  “As in even more displeased than usual,” said Remus.

  “I’d already heard about that,” said Hawk. “I don’t see why Venus is so annoyed with me. Given a high-speed defrost would have killed her ...”

  Louis spoke in a voice with a strong French accent. “At the risk of sounding like Hercules, I have to say you were never good with girls, Hawk.”

  Hawk gave him an angry look.

  Louis raised both hands in surrender. “Don’t slaughter me, oh mighty warrior. I just feel that given the current situation, someone should point out a fact you’ve been failing to notice for four centuries. Ever since you established your reputation as Hawk the Unvanquished, Venus has been more interested in you than in any other man. She’s obviously going to be furious about you declaring undying love for another woman. Hopefully not furious enough to risk the anger of the Sisterhood, but you should still watch your step.”

  I blinked. Nothing Hawk had said about Venus had suggested she was seriously interested in him. I turned to Hawk, and saw he looked equally bewildered.

  “But Venus has said so many dreadful things about Michael.”

  Louis sighed. “That’s because she kept making hopeful advances towards you, and you kept ignoring them.”

  Hawk waved his hands in disbelief. “I didn’t ignore any advances. Venus never made any. At least, not until that business at the Battle Arena.”

  Louis shook his head in a sorrowful fashion. “Ah yes, Venus finally despaired of the subtle approach, and bluntly offered you her favour at the Battle Arena. You didn’t gratefully worship at her feet. You publicly rejected her. Now you’re worshipping another woman instead. Think about it, Hawk.”

  He faced me, and gave another elaborate bow. “Enchanting Jex, please be careful. You’ve chosen an exclusive relationship with Hawk. His allies are now your allies, but his enemies are your enemies too, and the female Founder Players are far more deadly than the male.”

  He turned and walked away, and the other men followed him.

  Hawk stared after them. “Louis can’t possibly be right about Venus.”

  Romulus must have heard that, because he turned his head for a moment, and called back to us over his shoulder. “When it comes to family politics, Louis is always right.”

  I waited until the group of men vanished round the corner before speaking. “I’m beginning to think I’d be safer with the Reaper than your family.”

  “Don’t be silly. I realize that the ...” Hawk broke off and groaned. “Oh wonderful, Hercules has tracked us down.”

  The familiar leather-clad figure walked up to us. Hercules bowed and smiled. “Hawk.”

  “Hercules.” Hawk gave him a polite bow in reply, but their eyes met like duellists in the Battle Arena.

  Hercules turned to me. “I can’t understand why you’re settling for Michael, when there are hundreds of single men on Celestius. You could do so much better than someone who makes a habit of cutting your throat.”

  “I don’t make a habit of cutting Jex’s throat!” Hawk snapped at him. “You killed Fleur, but I ...”

  “Let me deal with this,” I interrupted, and gave Hercules my frostiest glare. “Why are you approaching me about this? I thought the rules on Celestius were that you accept a woman’s relationship decisions without an argument.”

  Hercules gave me a wary look. “I have accepted your decision, Jex. I only came to speak to you because of the message Michael sent to me this morning. He claimed the situation with Susanna doesn’t worry you, but if you knew the real facts then ...”

  “That’s enough!” I shouted. “Leave right now or I’ll make a formal complaint to the Sisterhood about you.”

  “As you wish.” Hercules turned and ambled away, with the smug air of someone who’d already said everything he wanted to say.

  “I’ll kill him,” muttered Hawk. “I’ll tear his head off and shove it where ...”

  “Hawk!”

  He turned guiltily towards me.

  “I told Cassandra that I was in an exclusive relationship with you. She told all the Founder Players about it. That was supposed to put a stop to the problems with Hercules. Why did you send him a message about me?”

  Hawk looked at me with a nervous expression that definitely belonged to Michael. “I wanted to make sure that Hercules understood the situation, so I sent him the news myself.”

  “You mean that you couldn’t resist sending Hercules a gloating message?”

  “Well, yes,” said Hawk.

  “So why were you mentioning Susanna in that message? She’s the ex-girlfriend you keep running away from, isn’t she? The one Game Techs warn you about?”

  “I didn’t mention her at all in the first message.”

  I groaned. “The first message? How many messages have you been exchanging with Hercules?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Hawk evasively. “A few.”

  I groaned again. “I thought that Hercules was the one keeping this childish feud going by sniping at you, but you’re just as bad as he is.”

  Hawk cringed. “I only intended to send Hercules the one message, but he threatened to tell you the details of what happened with Susanna.”

  “How does Hercules know about Susanna?”

  “I was on Starlight watching a concert years ago. Hercules turned up to annoy me, and then a Game Tech appeared and warned me Susanna was coming, so I left at once. Hercules promptly tracked Susanna down, started dating her, and talked her into telling him every awful detail about the past. He’s been holding the secret over my head ever since, waiting for the moment when he could use it to do the most damage, which is obviously now.”

  He paused. “I suppose I’d better tell you the whole humiliating disaster before Hercules does. It was ...”

  I held up a hand to stop him. “No! You don’t have to tell me anything about it. I know Hercules is just trying to cause trouble between us.”

  “I want to tell you anyway,” said Hawk. “You’ve threatened to report Hercules to the Sisterhood, so he won’t dare to cause more trouble himself, but I can guess his next move. Everyone’s going round discussing how angry Venus is, so Hercules will tell her everything about Susanna. Venus is bound to find a way to tell you about it, so it’s better if I tell you the story myself.”

  “If
you must.” I looked down into the water and saw the pool was full of tiny, multicoloured fish. A berry had fallen into the water from a nearby bush, and a shoal of fish chased it in circles, eagerly nibbling at it.

  “I should have known right at the start that Susanna wasn’t really interested in a mess like Michael. In fact, I did know it. When she started talking to me, I thought it was too good to be true, but after three weeks I was fool enough to believe she ...”

  He broke off and took a deep breath. “I’m making a mess of this. I should have started by explaining that my father was a teacher. You know how some teenagers get a crush on a teacher. My father was a handsome man and ...”

  Hawk’s words trailed off, and he frowned. “Your face, Jex. You aren’t understanding a word of this, are you?”

  “No,” I admitted. I’d assumed that the split with Susanna had been something to do with sex. Michael had said he’d never had sex in real life, so I’d added two and two together and been braced to hear the details of a disastrous attempt at seduction, but I was just hopelessly confused now.

  Hawk hit the palm of his right hand against his forehead. “Of course you don’t understand. I’m four hundred bleeping years out of date. So is Hercules. So is Susanna. So is this whole stupid story.”

  He let his hand drop and laughed. “These days, kids never physically meet their parents; they just get an occasional call from a shadowy figure in Game. They don’t get crushes on their teachers, because their teachers work from within Game using a controlled droid, and anyway kids leave school at ten years old.”

  I still had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. The fish in the pool had eaten their berry but were still hopefully swimming in circles. I reached up to pick another, tossed it into the water, and they instantly gathered round it.

  Hawk shook his head. “I’ve been worrying about Hercules telling you, terrified what you’d think about Susanna using me as a way to get to my father, but it has no meaning to you at all. Even if I explained the way society worked back then, explained all about families and schools, you still wouldn’t understand the humiliation.”