"No, Your Grace."
"I want to destroy the GSA."
"I want that too, Your Grace."
The Queen laughed derisively and a cold chill went down Gabby's back.
"Do you now?"
Gabby swallowed.
"What do you have against the GSA?" asked the Queen.
Gabby carefully formed the answer before she spoke. The Queen was testing her. And based on the Pain Sticks game, Gabby knew the Queen would know her lies. So Gabby stuck as close to the truth as possible, because it was true, Gabby did hate the GSA.
"They lied to me about LifeGame. They took my friends from me. They took my best friend Zaela."
"Zaela? Hmm."
"You know her?" Gabby asked hopefully.
The Queen nodded. "I do, but we're not discussing her right now, we're discussing you."
Adrenaline surged through her body. She was right for joining the Coders and coming to the Southlands. Zaela was within reach. If she could find her, they could escape the Southlands and return to the Blood Farm, so she could see Michael again. She'd do anything the Queen wanted if she could get her friend back.
"If you're so adamantly against the GSA," said the Queen. "Then why did I detect you in the Double Eagle, working with that Coder?"
Gabby paled. Zaela suddenly felt out of reach again. When Gabby opened her mouth, the Queen made a slicing motion. "Careful. I'll know if you lie to me. Tell me everything."
If the Queen knew about Double Eagle, then she probably knew about the battle when she was a Coder. Then Gabby remembered smelling lilacs during both encounters. The Queen was the presence she felt in Double Eagle and again in the fog surrounding the factories.
Then Gabby knew what the Queen was doing. This was just another game of Pain Sticks.
"I didn't know he was a Coder when we were working with him."
"Lies," said the Queen. "If you didn't know he was a Coder, then why did you go back to the GSA with him? That's what I thought. You've been a spy for them all this time."
Gabby thought about running but two guards appeared at her side. Malthon had an amused smile on his face. He must have known what the Queen was going to do all along.
"I'm not, really. I've just been using them to find my friend Zaela."
The Queen narrowed her eyes. "That's not what Zaela said when I questioned her about you. She says you used her and then abandoned her at her time of greatest need."
"What? That's not true. I've spent every waking moment since Final Raid trying to get her back."
The Queen waved her hand dismissively. "I'm not here to talk about you and your so called friend. You're a spy for that rat Cassius and I mean to know the reason why. What are you here to do?"
When Gabby glanced around, she found the throne room had filled with soldiers. Sarth had his arms across his rifle while Bump just stared, which was disconcerting considering his lazy eye.
"I'm not. I was just using them."
The Queen's eyebrow raised. "I heard your little game of Pain Sticks. You just want to be the hero."
"I don't, really." The protest felt weak.
"I'm launching my attack on the GSA soon. I want that failed system destroyed. But I want to know what Cassius is planning first. You must tell me."
Gabby held her hands up. "I don't know. I was just a newbie Coder."
"Shall I send you to the Delvers to find out?" Gabby paled and the Queen asked again, this time to the soldiers standing around the throne. "Shall I send her to the Delvers?"
The soldiers cheered. Malthon kept looking at her with disinterest. The images of the sores and oozing rose up in her mind.
"If I knew something, I would tell you. I have no loyalty to the GSA."
"You're only loyal to yourself, Gabriella DeCorte." The Queen's smiting judgment felt like a whip across her back.
"Even if I knew something, I could not say. Cassius can destroy me through my sense-web anytime he wants."
"You see," the Queen said to the soldiers. "She knows something. But don't worry about that little thing. I can suppress Cassius' tricks. Why do you think so many spies disappear?"
The Queen paced around the dais. Gabby sensed the delay was for effect.
"You like games, don't you Gabriella?"
Gabby meekly said, "Yes."
"Since you don't want to tell me, maybe we should play a game instead." The Queen turned to her soldiers. "We like games in the Realms, don't we? Many of us came from the GSA. Raised on games, weren't we? Games keep us sharp. Allowed us to challenge ourselves, challenge each other."
The Crimson Queen paused at the edge of the dais. "We should have a game in celebration of our impending invasion." She raised her hands above her head and the soldiers cheered. "Wouldn't you like that, Ms. DeCorte?"
Fear clenched around Gabby's heart.
"Unlike yourself, I'm a fair competitor. Let's say we have a competition. You win, I let you see Zaela again and you can become a productive part of my Realm. Lose, and I send you to the Delvers."
The Queen put a delicate hand to her chin. "Or you can end the game at any time by telling me what Cassius' plans are for stopping me."
"But I don't know anything."
"Well then, I guess we're playing for keeps."
The Crimson Queen waved her hand. The assembled turned, facing toward a procession being led into the chamber. Gabby put a hand to her mouth at the sight of the first person in line.
"Oh, no."
It was worse than she thought.
Chapter Twelve
"He's not supposed to be here," Gabby whispered.
She'd left him on the plateau, riding away on the Caterpillar.
Michael paused when he saw her. His worn blue eyes, practically turned gray, sent a cold dagger into her heart. The guard pushed him, making him stumble.
Up close, she saw how gaunt he'd become. A skeleton of his former self. She was about to run to him when she saw the others being led in.
Mouse hid her face behind her hair. The twitch of a grin formed on her face, but disappeared as she noticed the Queen.
Cat calls filled the air as Milton, in his street-walker form, strutted behind Mouse, keeping the guard at bay with cutting looks. Milton winked at her, so Gabby nodded.
Avony brought up the rear, yanking her arm away from the guard as he tried to lead her in. She seemed bewildered and angry, until she saw Gabby.
Gabby looked to see if there were more coming, but there was no Drogan or Celia. Gabby tilted her head at Michael and he responded with a tight head shake in the negative.
Judging by the way the Frags ignored the sights of the throne room, Gabby guessed they'd been here before. Maybe even since she'd left them. Avony, on the other hand, stared at the ceiling with her mouth open.
When Gabby looked back to the throne, she caught the Queen in a long lingering look of hate toward Avony. Then her eyes narrowed as the assembled rotated toward her, the procession complete.
The soldiers formed a ring around Gabby and her friends. The Queen lorded over them, her sneer marring the beautiful pale face.
"For my soldiers' amusement, I offer a competition of squads. This arrangement should not be unlike your Final Raid that you so cherish. The winner will be the first squad to achieve the final goal."
Gabby couldn't help think the whole thing a farce. The Queen was clearly acting to some script. If it'd been LifeGame, she would have silently derided the coding behind the part. But it wasn't LifeGame and this wasn't really a game. It was probably a death sentence disguised as a game. And the Queen was only acting the part of the malevolent villain to serve a purpose Gabby hadn't yet fathomed.
The Queen looked down upon Gabby. "And what is this final goal, you want to ask?" The Queen strolled around the dais smiling at her soldiers as if they shared a private joke.
"The goal of the competition is to destroy the black heart in the spire, by whatever means you can." The Queen threw a rolled parchment to Gabby. "Is your team a
cceptable to you?"
Gabby glanced to her friends. They each tried to return a reassuring smile, but none of them were up to it. Gabby found herself not surprised by the Queen's words.
"Or should I have asked first who the leader was?" The Queen smirked.
They averted their eyes and the Queen addressed the soldiers. "Who among my army would like to compete against these spies? Show them who the superior army is?"
A tall soldier with a bushy beard stepped forward. "Black Knife squad reporting for competition!"
"Accepted!"
The three men and two women in the squad grunted a short cheer, raising their fist to their shoulder. Right after the Black Knife soldier stepped back, another called out, "Dervish Crew!"
Squads continued joining the competition, one after another in orderly fashion, each cheering as the Queen accepted. The charade of decision was woefully thin.
After the squads announced themselves, the Queen looked around to them. "Eight squads reporting. Is there not a ninth so we can make this an even ten?"
The Queen glanced at Malthon even before he spoke.
"Red Wolf," Malthon said before saluting, a lazy droll salute that only served to belay his confidence about the competition. Malthon kept his gaze firmly locked onto Gabby's, the mocking smile showing a hint of teeth.
Instead of just his squad cheering, the whole crowd of soldiers gave the grunting cheer. Men and women patted him on the shoulders as he smiled.
"And what shall we call your little squad?"
"The Frags," Gabby said without hesitation. None of them saluted or cheered.
The Queen chuckled. "Any questions before I set you on your merry way?"
Mouse made a noise slightly above a squeak and the Queen leaned forward.
"Did she say something?" the Queen asked the assembled soldiers. Many of them shrugged and stepped forward to hear.
"Speak up girl. I couldn't hear you."
Mouse pushed the hair away from her face. "Are we going to get weapons or are you afraid we'll win?" Mouse flashed Gabby a smile before retreating behind her hair. Gabby stifled a laugh.
The Queen blew malice out her nostrils, forcing Gabby to hold back another chuckle.
"I'll be much fairer to you than the Coders for LifeGame ever were," said the Queen, "but I can't have you carrying weapons in my presence. You'll get them when the time comes."
And there it was. Gabby knew why the Queen was overacting. She mocked LifeGame and the seriousness imposed to sometimes trivial games. She was performing her role as the villain ironically.
Without being focused on it, the memory she'd been trying to dredge up partially came back. The persona of the Queen was a variation of a character in a popular game in LifeGame. She only remembered because Zaela passionately hated it. She couldn't remember the name, but she was sure it was the reference.
The Queen snapped her fingers and a ring of tunnels formed around the dais. Distant white lights formed at the center of each one.
The soldiers formed up into their teams. Emblems with team names formed as badges on their chests. The exaggerated armor that Malthon had been wearing on the train reappeared on the soldiers, stylized around the emblem name. The shoulder pads on Malthon's team became wolf heads that snarled and growled. The Dervish Crew had faint sand storms forming around their feet.
"You have your goal, your map and your team. There are ten teams and ten tunnels. The tunnels will take you to a random location in the capitol. From there you will make your way to the goal. Inter-team fighting is allowed and encouraged." The Queen paused and let a grin slowly rise to her face.
"And since you LifeGamers have an advantage in this game, it being a game and all, I'm adding a little challenge for you. One of you will betray your team by the end of the game. That person doesn't know it yet, but they will."
Gabby caught herself looking to her teammates. They were doing the same.
The Queen raised her hand high above her head. "Ready. Set..." She swung it down like a guillotine. "—Go!"
Chapter Thirteen
Gabby turned to the group to figure out which tunnel to enter when a soldier slammed into her, knocking her off her feet. A foot connected with her stomach while another connected with her head. As she pulled her arms over her head to protect herself, heavy booted footsteps faded as the soldiers left.
Struggling to her knees, she looked around to find her fellow Frags in the same state. The other teams had ambushed them at the start and had disappeared down their respective tunnels.
The dais and the Queen were gone. The throne room replaced with a bleak concrete amphitheater.
"Which one's our tunnel?" asked Avony, her voice echoing off the walls. "If we go down the wrong one we might end up getting fragged by another team right from the get go."
Gabby didn't have time for tunnels when she looked into Michael's bruised face. She ran to him and placed her arms around his shoulders.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded while wiping blood off his lip. His cheeks made craters on his face.
"I..." She touched his face. "We have to get moving. No time to catch up."
"Which one?" asked Milton with hands suggestively on his hips, pouting at the tunnels.
"Pick one. I don't care," said Gabby. "We just need to get moving."
"I always wanted to have this many holes to choose from." Milton winked, while the others groaned and Gabby rolled her eyes. Avony scrunched up her face and glared at Milton.
"No time to explain," Gabby said and started running toward one of the tunnels.
The concrete reflected their footsteps, annoying Gabby to no end. They were a herd of stampeding wildebeest. If another team had set up an ambush, they'd know they were coming.
"What's on the map, Avs?"
Avony ran while holding the map unfurled in front of her face. "I can't make sense of it. I'm going to need a bit to figure out what it's trying to say."
"That's fine. We're just running through a long tunnel. No decisions yet."
Michael held his side as they jogged. Gabby slowed to run next to him.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"I'll make it." His face was etched with grim lines. His sickness, whatever it was, had debuffed him to the core. In the months since she'd seen him, he'd become a walking skeleton. The competition would only make it worse.
"Avony, our priority needs to be getting transportation once we get out of this tunnel."
Avony shook the map at Gabby. "You look at this thing. It's like no map I've ever seen before. And I don't even know where we are."
"When we get out of the tunnel," Gabby added. "Until then, keep studying it."
"Why don't you have one of the others look at it? I have no idea."
Gabby put her hand up and brought the Frags to a stop. Avony spread the map wide so they could see it.
"What?" asked Mouse, while others murmured noises of disbelief.
"See," said Avony.
Shapes moved around on the map. On the top was a dark tower that seemed to pulse and Gabby could almost swear she could hear it beating. At the bottom, marked by a shining mountain, was the capitol. A faint 'X' was buried in the bowels of the mountain. In between the tower and the mountain were various sized sections, each with a name like 'The Island' or 'Reliquary of Harmony' or 'Shadow Twin.' The pieces moved around, slowly rotating and changing like an oil slick on water.
"That's easy," said Milton. "When we come out of the mountain tunnel, we'll be assigned an area to cross. Maybe we can even force a particular area through some method or game within the map."
Avony rolled the map up and slapped it against Milton's arm. "If it's so easy, then you be the map girl."
"Hey! I was only pointing out the obvious."
When the two "girls" puffed up, Gabby stepped between them. "Hey. We can't be fighting already. That's what the Queen wants us to do anyway."
"What do you mean?" asked Milton.
"All that n
onsense about a betrayal. The Queen was just doing it to cause discord, but it looks like she didn't need to, we're destroying ourselves already."
Gabby made eye contact with each Frag.
"But I know you all and I know none of you would betray the group. She was just baiting us. I know you and Michael don’t know Avony so well, and maybe I told some stories about her when we were at the farm, but right now I can tell you she's on our side. The same goes for the others. We're all in this together."
They each nodded.
"So we need to keep moving and figure this map out. I think it'll be the key to winning." Gabby paused. Avony was glaring out the corner of her eye at Milton. "And so we can use everyone's insight, everyone should take a turn with the map. Maybe someone can figure it out. Well, everyone but Michael, unless you're up to it."
Avony crossed her arms. "Why doesn't he have to do it?"
Gabby remembered she hadn't told Avony anything about Michael while they were in Coders together.
"He's dying."
Avony, who moments before had her chin high and was staring down Michael, looked away and said, "Oh."
"We'd better get moving."
Gabby fell in with Milton and spoke in hushed tones. "How'd you get them to let you keep your street walker skin?"
Milton shrugged. "I explained the epilepsy. They'd rather deal with a boy masquerading as a girl than mess with a broken boy."
"Are you talking in a higher voice?"
Milton cleared his throat. "Uhm, yeah." It came out a little lower, more normal.
"You're really taking to this girl thing, aren't you? Maybe I should be calling you Millie now."
Milton seemed to consider the name. "Hey, that's not half bad." He gave her a winning smile. "I guess I got lucky when that HR guy stuck me with that virus. Otherwise I would have never known. I just feel freer this way and the epilepsy thing's a bonus."
Gabby smiled. "Well, however you want to look. I'm happy for you, Millie. Though I'm not sure I would have made them so big."
Milton glanced at his chest. "Why not? I got to get rid of my biting rod so I have more view for the twins."
They shared a laugh.
After a few minutes of running in silence, Mouse surprised Gabby by speaking up. "You know what's so weird?"
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