Phoenix leapt to his feet and strode forward, only to stop a few feet away, looking awkward. Xinyu was dressed in beautifully embroidered, courtly robes of blue silk, a gold sash around her narrow waist. Her hair was done in an ornate style that glittered with gems and gold hairpins. She looked exquisite; untouchable. She smiled shyly at Phoenix and bowed her head a fraction.
“The Emperor has offered me the position of Grand Vizier,” she said.
Phoenix shuffled his feet. “Er… congratulations?”
She shook her head. “I have refused, as my father did. Court life is too full of politics and machinations for the White Dragon to remain pure of heart. My place is amongst the people. I cannot protect them if I become the very Evil I am sworn to fight.”
Jade got slowly to her feet. “I’m glad but what did you mean when you said ‘the answer is ‘yes’’, before?”
Xinyu’s sweet smile widened. “You were about to ask if I inherited enough of my fathers’ magic to return you to your homeworld. Since you summoned me with the Horn’s call, the answer is ‘yes’.”
Jade gasped, covering her mouth in shock. Marcus stood abruptly and left the room without a word. She hesitated, wondering if she should go after him.
Xinyu laid a hand on her arm. “Do not worry. He will come back before you leave. Now, there are some friends waiting to see you off. The Horn called them as well. Outside. Come.” She gestured for them to precede her out into Zhi Hui’s small courtyard.
Now that she was listening, Jade could hear a babble of voices, speaking in all different languages, rising as they tried to make themselves understood. A girlish giggle rang out. She exchanged astonished looks with Brynn as they emerged into the lamplit open space outside.
“Truda?” Jade gasped, catching sight of the young Norse goddess. The redheaded girl tugged at the hand of her enormous father, who was deep in conversation with an attractive Egyptian woman. “Thor? Anuket?” Jade named them, astounded by their presence here, in China. “The Horn brought you, too?” They waved in greeting.
“Hey,” Brynn pulled at her sleeve. “There’s Asulfr, too, talking to Heron! And is that Vasi over there with …hang on, that’s Cadoc! I thought he’d gone to Rome.”
“And Aurfanon and Arawn, too,” Phoenix added wryly. “Hey hey, the gang’s all here.”
Then they were in amongst friends, being hugged, thumped, hair-ruffled and kissed by one and all. Questions and answers flew in a confused jumble until Thor finally inserted two huge fingers into his mouth and blew an earsplitting whistle. Silence fell as even Arawn, mighty King of the Light Elves winced in pain and covered his sensitive ears.
“I think we all deserve to know exactly what has happened to you,” the Thunder god said bluffly, “but perhaps it’s best if just one of you tells the story. Brynn, I hear you’re a fine sagatala. Will you do the honours? Someone get me some wine.”
So, for the next hour, Brynn talked himself dry relating their adventures from start to finish. It was not without interruption as various audience members broke in to correct or draw attention to their own contributions but at last the story was complete. Brynn sat down with a sigh of relief as the chatter began again.
Arawn approached Jade, his inhumanly beautiful features making her nervous all over again. He looked down at his daughter and smiled. “And so we meet again, as I foretold. You have done well, child. We are all proud of you.”
Jade curtseyed deeply, blushing at his praise. “Thankyou but we couldn’t have done it without help from all of you.” He bowed in return, nodding at the others, hovering around, waiting to talk to her.
“Your time here is almost ended. A few moments more and you will have to leave. Say your goodbyes, child.”
She nodded and reached out to hug him gingerly. The Elf-King seemed surprised then he returned her affection and smiled down at her, kissing her forehead lightly. “Your other-world father is a lucky man. You will be remembered, child.”
One by one, the others came up to say their farewells.
Cadoc approached Jade and Phoenix and shook their hands, grinning. “Every blog and chat site out there is talking about you two. You’re the only ones to make it all the way through, you know. This is now officially the toughest game ever written. I hacked back into the system and rewrote myself as a Non-Player Character after I got killed in Rome. Couldn’t get you on any of the chatsites, so figured I’d come and congratulate you in person – kind of, anyway.”
Vasi stepped in, holding Jade’s hand and bringing it to his lips with courtly grace. “My lady, I had to beg Vishnu to send me here in his stead when I heard the call of the horn. I was too late to help you but if you should want to stay in this realm…” he let the sentence hang in the air between them. Jade blushed and shook her head.
“Thankyou, Vasi. You’re kind but I…”
“But you’re already taken,” Cadoc stepped in and put an arm around her shoulders protectively.
Jade made a noise of protest. Vasi bowed and turned away, obviously disappointed. Cadoc dropped his arm, grinning at her discomfort. Jade punched him, hard. He winced.
“I didn’t mean me, woman. I meant him,” he jerked his head at Marcus, standing in the shadows behind her. “Go say goodbye. You on Facebook? I’ll look you up on the outside one of these days.” He saluted her jauntily and went to chat to Anuket, towing Phoenix with him.
The Roman approached and drew Jade aside. “Are you sure you have to go?”
She nodded, her eyes swimming in unshed tears. “I’ll miss you so much, Marcus. I wish you could come with me.”
He sighed. “And I. Could I not?”
She shook her head. “It wouldn’t be fair to drag you into our world, even if it were possible - which I’m not sure of at all. It’s more likely you’d just never make it through to my world at all and I’d be left wondering if you were alive or dead.” She looked at him straitly. “I’d rather know you were alive somewhere and at least had a chance of happiness.”
With a short nod, he held her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Then, good-bye, my Fair one. Be happy.” Swiftly, he kissed her, his lips briefly warm against hers, his fingers holding her face gently. Then he was gone, vanishing into the darkness of the house without another word.
Turning away, she ran into a broad chest and sobbed into Phoenix’s shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly until Brynn interrupted by tugging on her sleeve.
“I’d better go make sure he’s ok,” the boy said when she crouched and pulled him into a tight hug.
Jade dropped her arms and nodded, sniffing. “Look after each other.” She wagged a finger at him. “And don’t go stealing any more. I won’t be around to rescue you.”
Phoenix swatted him across the head. “She’s right, kid. Be good.”
Brynn ducked and grinned at them. “You know me. Always good. See ya.” He kissed Jade shyly on the cheek, shook hands manfully with Phoenix and shoved his hands into his pockets. “By the way,” he added, looking at Phoenix with his usual sparkle of mischief, “you beat me: eight to seven.” Without a backward look, he disappeared into the house after Marcus.
Phoenix laughed.
Jade stood up, looking after them. “I guess that’s that,” she said, resignedly. “It’s time to go.”
“Yeah. Guess so,” Phoenix agreed, still smiling. “’Sbeen fun, huh?”
She sent him a sour, resigned look. “You still have a strange sense of fun.”
“Come this way,” Xinyu appeared at his side and pointed toward the front entrance to Zhi Hui’s house. The old woman smiled and waved at them as they passed through, followed closely by the oddest entourage of gods and humans this part of the world had probably ever seen.
They made a merry enough group, traipsing through Xijing that spring evening. Thor, full of unfamiliar alcohol, led a round of singing. Thankfully, the rather rude lyrics were only understood by half the group. Everywhere they went, doors and windows slammed hastily shut as skit
tish citizens hid from the strange foreign devils that stalked their streets.
At last, they reached the palace and halted in front of the very servants’ entrance through which Jade and Phoenix had escaped with Baiyu just the night before. Silently, Xinyu pointed at the distinctive, three-stone formation of the doorway.
“You have to be kidding,” Phoenix complained. “How do we keep missing these things?”
Jade laughed. “We weren’t exactly looking at the time.” She turned to her friends, holding back more tears by dint of sheer willpower as she looked at them for the last time.
One by one, the gods, goddesses, mortals and Elves stepped forward and activated the Portal back to their own lands. In Cadoc’s case, he just winked at them and vanished as he deleted himself from the game. That took even Thor by surprise but Jade decided it was too hard to explain.
Thor was about to step through the portal when Phoenix called out to him. With obvious reluctance, he drew Blódbál from its sheath. “I guess I should give this back to you,” he offered it once more to the Thunder god. Thor took it between his great hands and turned it over. Finally, he grinned.
“This old thing? No, it’s too small for me. Here,” he handed it back to Phoenix. “I think there’s someone else you know who can truly keep it under control, don’t you? Someone who could use a good sword. Never thought it would end up in the hands of a Roman, though.” He shrugged, waggled his great hairy eyebrows and stepped blithely through the portal without a backward look. Truda giggled and waved as she dashed through after him.
Jade caught Phoenix’s look of surprised regret as he half-turned toward Marcus. “Marcus?” he asked, holding the sword out. Hesitantly, the Roman boy took the handle, hefting it, testing the balance. He grimaced as the sword sang in his head. With a frown, he laid it back in Phoenix’s hands and shook his head.
“Oh no, I saw what it did to you. Find another, more worthy.”
Xinyu smiled. She stepped forward and laid a hand on the blade. There was a brief flash of brilliant white light, tinged faintly purple.
Dazzled, everyone blinked rapidly to dispel the glittering red afterimages. Phoenix swung the blade experimentally.
“What did you do? The song is gone! It feels...strange.” The question sounded more sharp than he probably intended.
Xinyu sighed. “I merely took away its lust for blood. It is still unbreakable; still magic. It will simply no longer have power over its owner. They will control it, not the other way around. Now Marcus can use it with impunity, if he will.”
“Well, if he won’t then I will!” Brynn reached out to grab the handle, only to be forestalled as Marcus reached over his shoulder and wrapped his hand around the hilt first.
“I don’t think so, little brother,” Marcus grinned down at the boy. “You’d either chop your own leg off or mine. Come.” He draped an arm around Brynn’s skinny shoulders. “I believe we have some Romans to throw out of your country.”
With a grave nod for Xinyu, a small salute for Phoenix and a long, slightly wistful look at Jade, Marcus ushered his young companion through the Portal, back to the tumultuous land of the Bretons. Maybe, Jade thought, in this world Marcus would even succeed and the Romans would never get their 400 year dominion over Britain. This world would certainly be a very different place in the future if that happened.
Finally they were all gone except Xinyu.
She bowed. “Now it is your turn.”
Jade and Phoenix exchanged puzzled looks. “But what do we do?” Jade asked, touching the stones lightly. She could feel the magic pulsing through it.
“Give me your life-daggers. You don’t need them any longer.”
They handed them over reluctantly. Xinyu slid the blades into almost-invisible slots on each side of the doorway until only the hilts, decorated with now-dead rubies, protruded from the grey stone.
“Now, just hold your amulet in one hand and lay the other on the handle of your knife. Think of your home and say its name,” Xinyu instructed. “The Gate will know where to send you. Goodbye and thankyou.” She brushed Phoenix’s cheek with a kiss and hugged Jade quickly.
Hesitantly, Jade and Phoenix both laid hands on their knives. Together they looked at each other, took a deep breath and said, “Cambridge.”
The Portal flashed into life, its mysterious liquid-looking surface shining in the darkness.
“Wait!” Xinyu stopped them. “You do know you still have one task left to complete before you are truly home, don’t you?”
“What?!” Jade and Phoenix exclaimed together.
“Nobody said anything about that. What is it?” Phoenix sounded outraged.
Xinyu blinked at his expression. “You must place the amulet where Jade will find it, of course. Otherwise none of this will happen. When you have done, the portal will open one last time to take you to your true home. After that, the portal will be gone and you will not be able to return here. Now go.”
Confused, they stepped through the portal with no idea of what would come next.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Oh man, my head hurts,” Phoenix groaned, sitting up. He looked around, squinting against the too-bright sunlight. Where was he? It looked vaguely familiar. Slowly, sights and sounds that were, indeed, both familiar and strangely alien began to filter through the fog of disorientation. Recognition set in. He clambered unsteadily to his feet, staring about in disbelief. They were home.
He drew a deep breath of air, smelling rain and the acrid tang of smog. Nearby, a car engine revved followed by the strident beep of a horn. He jumped in surprise, turning circles in an effort to see everything. The skyline was jagged with houses and highrise officeblocks behind the trees that surrounded him. He was in some sort of public park.
He rubbed his eyes, finding it hard to believe he was back in the real world. The colours seemed too bright; edges too sharp; sounds too loud. It made his eyes and ears hurt as well as his head. Wonderingly, he knelt down and picked up a discarded drink can. It felt real. Too real, almost, as though his senses weren’t used to this much input and were having trouble coping.
Someone coughed and moaned behind him. Jade probably. Yes, there she was, pushing long, pale hair aside so she could rub her forehead. She leaned up against a three-stone portal – a park decoration that looked eerily out of place in this modern world. Almost as out of place as she looked, herself.
Phoenix replayed what he had just thought, trying to work out what was wrong – for something was very wrong. Jade glanced up at that instant. Her eyes widened. She looked at him first then at the buildings then back at him.
“But…” she stammered, pointing at him before catching sight of her own hands. “But…I’m not me and you’re not the real you, are you?”
Then it hit. Phoenix reached up and touched his own face, feeling the long hair, the scar on his cheek, the leather and rough linen of his clothing. They were still in their avatar bodies. He was still a warrior and she a Half-Elven Spellweaver from another realm entirely. But how?
Jade sank to the ground as though her knees had suddenly given way – which they probably had. Phoenix joined her gratefully.
“I don’t understand,” she finally admitted. “How are we home but in the wrong bodies? And why?”
“Xinyu did say we still had to put your amulet where you would find it,” he reminded her.
“But I could have done that when I got back any…oh,” she sat up, staring around. “No, I couldn’t, not unless we’re back in our own world but not in our own time. She said the portals would take us to our true home after we’d completed the task.”
“Huh?” he said intelligently. His head throbbed.
“When I found my amulet,” she explained, standing up and hauling him to his feet, “it had to have been put there before my family moved into the house. So this has to be at least a year or two before the time we were playing the game. Do you get it?” She glanced around, trying to get her bearings. “We have to f
ind my house and put my amulet in the cupboard so I can find it in two years. That’s the only way to complete the loop. Come on. I’m pretty sure it’s just a block or so this way.” She tugged on his arm.
Phoenix stayed where he was, gazing at his own toes as an awful thought froze him in place. He raised haunted eyes to Jades. “No, I don’t think you’ve got it quite right.”
“What do you mean? It must be right. We put my amulet in place and it’s over,” she stood before him, hands on hips.
“No,” he repeated bleakly, “didn’t you say you’d found the amulet on a broken chain?”
“Yes but..” she began.
“It wasn’t your chain, was it?”
She shook her head, so he continued, wishing with all his heart that he was wrong but knowing he wasn’t. “It’s my fathers’. We have to put my father’s amulet in place for you to find.”
“But…”
He cut her off short. “It must be. It explains why his amulet disappeared the day he died. It explains why this park looks so familiar. My mother brought me here after the accident. We planted a tree over there in his honour.” He pointed at an open patch of ground near the swingset. “Most of all, it explains why the police reported two strangely dressed people with him at the car accident site as they arrived. We must be those two people with him. We have to go and take the amulet from my dad. Today must be the day he dies; almost three years before we ended up in the Game.”
Jade covered her mouth with her hand in distress. “Oh Phoenix, I’m sorry. Oh no. What do we do?”
He shrugged bitterly. “We do what we have to.”
She nodded, her green eyes clouded with worry for him.
“This way,” he began to walk quickly in toward the city, setting his face against the tumult of emotion in his chest. Jade hurried to keep up.
They were silent awhile then Phoenix glanced up at the sun. “It’s almost noon and that’s about when the accident happened. We’ll have to run.”
Together, they began to lope in the same ground-eating jog they had used when they first began to travel in 80AD England. This time it was to a far grimmer, more certain destination. Finding a pathway, they dodged pedestrians, joggers and cyclists with single-minded intent, ignoring curious stares at their outlandish costumes. It seemed surreal. Their own world felt as foreign now as 80AD had almost four weeks before.
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