Lex Trent: Fighting With Fire

by Alex Bell

  ‘Just get on the ship and start heading for the Jespa Mountains,’ she ordered before disappearing.

  So Lex and Jesse made their way back to the ship in silence. Lex regretted being rude to her Ladyship at once, for it meant he had to walk back through the town himself rather than being magically put back straight on to the ship and he was utterly horrified to realise that people they passed in the streets were actually sniggering at him! Him! Like he was some sort of loser! Some no-hoper who was bound to die some horrible death or at the very least suffer some disfiguring accident in the very first round! All because he had let his guard down just long enough for Jeremiah East to spike his drink! It was almost more than Lex could bear and he had never been more utterly determined to beat someone in his life than he was to absolutely thrash Jeremiah in the upcoming Game.

  He did his best to ignore the sniggering and pointing, and walked through the town with his head held high. Soon they were back on the ship preparing to depart for the Jespa Mountains. There were no cheering crowds, no screaming fans to see him off at the start of the Game − just a few dockhands dawdling about on the pier, eating their pies and smoking their cigarettes.

  Lex threw the ivory Swann of Desareth into the basin on the bridge. With the ship then able to read his thoughts and respond to them, he went up on deck to check that all the griffins were on board before taking off. Unfortunately, Jeremiah was also on the deck of his own ship at that moment and, as the two ships were moored side by side, he was close enough to see Lex appear. The nobleman gave him a wave and called across a cheerful greeting. ‘Hello there, Trenty! Awfully sorry about last night, old chap. Bit of a misunderstanding! But don’t worry − if you faint again, I’ll catch you and earn myself some extra hero points!’

  ‘I can tell you’re a newbie,’ Lex called back in a voice of ice. ‘There’s no such thing as hero points, you idiot! There are just winner’s points. I’ll get you back for last night, though. Have no fears about that. You’ve no idea what you’ve started.’

  Jeremiah just laughed and looked supremely unconcerned. Lex couldn’t stand talking to him a moment longer so he threw out his arms in a dramatic gesture and commanded the ship to rise. It shot up into the sky so fast that Lex’s hair was whipped back from his head. It occurred to him belatedly that he should probably have given Jesse some warning, but it had been worth it to cut Jeremiah’s laughter short and get a glimpse of the startled look that came over his face.

  Lex knew − as a cheat and a fraud − that it was always a good thing to be underestimated by people. It was definitely a good thing to be underestimated by a fellow competitor. But for some reason having Jeremiah East look down at him like that hurt his pride. As the enchanted ship sailed up into the clouds, Lex sternly told himself that, not only must he accept Jeremiah’s low opinion of him, but that he must cultivate it and, at all costs, resist the temptation to show off like that again.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE SEA VOLCANOES

  Lady Luck caught up with them on the ship later that evening and told Lex the penalty round was that he must retrieve one of the giant mountain eagle’s golden eggs from one of their mountain nests: difficult and dangerous for most normal people, but not too much of a problem for Lex because the fact that he had a magic flying ship meant that he could start right at the top of the mountain rather than climbing up it by foot. Clearly Thaddeus and Kala either didn’t know about his ship or they’d forgotten it. Without it, it would have taken Lex days − possibly weeks − to get to the top, and by that time he would have missed the start of the Game. No doubt, that was what they’d intended.

  But, as it was, he was not overly worried about the penalty round. After all, it wasn’t even a race between him and the other competitors this time, it was just a question of completing the task, and Lex had complete confidence in his own capabilities. He’d get that blasted egg, he’d jump through hoops if they wanted him to, and it would only make his eventual glory and triumph all the sweeter . . .

  Lex and Lady Luck were sitting in the squishy armchairs on the bridge. Jesse was there, too, sprawled on the floor with his back against the wall because he said he found it more comfortable than sitting in the chairs or perching on the window seat. To Lex’s irritation, Silvi − the female griffin − had settled herself down next to Jesse and was currently sleeping with her head on his lap.

  ‘You do realise she’s dribbling on you, right?’ Lex said, hoping that the cowboy would push Silvi away and that she’d then go over to him instead.

  But Jesse just gave a lazy shrug. Lex hated it when Silvi dribbled on him but that was because he was an absolute stickler for cleanliness whereas Jesse did not seem at all bothered. After all, he was a rough-and-ready cowboy, sorely in need of a shave and a haircut, so what was a bit of griffin drool to a person like that?

  When he first sat down, Jesse had lit up a thin, vile-smelling cigarette but Lex ordered him to put it out, on principle. If Lex was going to learn how to be a cowboy then he was going to have to get used to the disgusting scent and taste of tobacco but he was damned if he was going to allow his bridge to smell like an ashtray.

  ‘You smoke outside or not at all,’ he told Jesse sternly, whereupon Lady Luck had simpered that she’d always liked a man with a cigar.

  ‘It’s not a cigar! It’s a weedy cigarette; a disgusting habit and a mark of gross stupidity! Don’t you know those things kill you?’ Lex demanded.

  But Jesse just said, ‘We all gotta go sometime, partner.’

  Lex felt his lip curl in derision at the obtuseness of that statement. It was a sign of an amateur not to think things through and Jesse’s remark clearly showed that he didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. Lex knew everyone had to die sometime, but he did not particularly fancy dying slowly from some Gods-awful disease of the lungs, coughing and spluttering in agony all day and night, wishing to the Gods that he’d smoked a few less cigarettes and done a bit more exercise. Lex loved reckless adventuring so much that he was absolutely determined to continue it for as many years as possible. There was therefore no way on earth that he was smoking so much as one single cigarette, not even to achieve the scam of convincing other cowboys that he was one of them. He would find some way around it. He would find some way to cheat. He wasn’t going to poison his own lungs for anyone or anything.

  ‘Well, I’d better be off,’ Lady Luck said once the penalty round had been explained. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Lex.’

  She stood up but, before she could leave, Lex said, ‘Is there anything else I need to know? About the Game, I mean? Seeing as I missed most of the feast.’

  ‘Oh, no, dear. You’ve done it all before; you know what to do.’

  Jesse looked up. ‘Er . . . some things are gonna be different this time round though, ain’t they?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Lex asked sharply.

  ‘There were some new rules announced at the feast.’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Lady Luck said. ‘So there were. Dear me, how silly to forget that.’

  She sat back down in the armchair and started fussing, rearranging her long white skirts whilst Lex resisted the urge to throttle her. New rules! New rules and they’d only thought to mention them to him now! If it hadn’t been for the cowboy he wouldn’t have found out at all!

  ‘Tell me everything,’ he said. ‘That’s if you think you can remember it all correctly.’

  The Goddess pouted and said, ‘Don’t be churlish, Lex. I must say I’m starting to tire a bit of all this sulking. You were so excited and delighted when I told you there was going to be another Game and I thought we were going to have such fun together, just like we did last time.’ She almost looked tearful for a moment and Lex was just experiencing a faint flicker of guilt when she suddenly turned cold and said in rather a vicious voice, ‘I most certainly can remember the new rules if you think you can sit still and listen to them without interrupting me!’

  Lex nodded, accepting the dressing-down mee
kly because it didn’t do to upset any of the Gods too much, even his own.

  ‘Right then,’ Lady Luck said − the angry look instantly gone from her face and replaced with a pleasant smile. She plucked at her skirts and patted her mass of blond hair, checking that the strings of pearls threaded through it were all in place. Then she lifted her head and said, ‘After the last Game and your spectacular victory there was a lot of renewed interest in the Games not just for gambling purposes but for the sake of pure entertainment. You simply wowed everyone with what you achieved last time, my dear.’

  Lex usually lapped up praise but even this didn’t make him feel much better as he recalled how people had been pointing and sniggering at him back in the Wither City. They may have loved him for a while but fame was a fickle thing and it seemed quite clear that everyone was absolutely determined to transfer the adoration they’d once had for Lex on to Jeremiah East for no other reason than that he looked the part and had a famous grandfather. Sometimes it just seemed like there was no justice in the world at all.

  ‘So this time,’ Lady Luck went on, ‘we have changed things a little and added a few extra rules, just to spice it up and make things more interesting.’

  Lex thought it had already been pretty interesting, what with the constant mortal peril and threat of a sticky, messy death, but he listened intently to what her Ladyship was saying, anyway. Change was always a good thing for Lex because it gave him an advantage in that he adapted very quickly to it − much quicker than most people did, in fact. So the more different it was, the better, because Lex could embrace change whilst everyone else got thrown by it. It was just like when he’d been at school and always preferred unscheduled closed-book exams because, whilst his classmates had been twiddling with their pens, desperately trying to remember a few pertinent facts, Lex had been scribbling away, reading from the library in his head, for he could remember practically every word he’d read.

  ‘The basic structure will be the same,’ Lady Luck said. ‘There will still be three rounds, each one chosen by a different participating God. But this time the dates and locations of the rounds were announced in advance at the feast. This was so that people could start getting excited about it but also so that they’re better able to book time off work. We want as many spectators as possible, after all—’

  ‘Hang on,’ Lex interrupted. ‘Are you saying that everyone already knows where the rounds of this Game are going to be?’ He bit his tongue to keep from adding − ‘Everyone but me?’

  ‘Yes, dear. They don’t know exactly, of course, that would ruin the fun. But they know the rough area. Kala is up first. Her round is to be at the Sea Volcanoes. Thaddeus’s round will be on one of the Lost Islands. And mine will be at Dry Gulch.’ The Lady patted down her dress absent-mindedly and said, ‘I think I have a spare copy of the itinerary in here somewhere . . . Yes; here it is.’

  She pulled a crumpled piece of paper out from the front of her dress and handed it to Lex, who just about managed not to grimace. ‘What else do you keep down there?’ he asked.

  The Goddess rolled her eyes and said, ‘You’ll find the dates written down on that. The rounds are each a week apart − we thought it would be easier for the spectators to get days off from work that way − so you’ll have a bit of time in between and there are inn rooms booked for each of you at every location to make use of or not as you like, but I thought you’d probably just choose to stay on the boat.’

  ‘I will,’ Lex replied. ‘Everywhere but Dry Gulch. I want to stay in Dry Gulch House the week before the third round.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, dear,’ Lady Luck laughed. ‘Only cowboys are allowed to stay there. Surely you know that? There are enough stories told about the place, after all.’

  ‘Exactly. Jesse’s going to teach me how to pass myself off as a cowboy so that I can look for the Sword of Life.’

  ‘Oh, I see,’ the Goddess replied, sounding unsurprised. ‘Well, if anyone can find it, dear, it’s you.’

  ‘Right.’ Lex pocketed the itinerary, intending to examine it more closely later, and said, ‘Well, what other new rules are there?’

  ‘We’ve altered the way the points’ system works slightly,’ Lady Luck replied. ‘Now you don’t just get points for winning the round − you can also get hero points, too.’

  ‘What are they?’ Lex asked suspiciously, remembering how Jeremiah had mentioned hero points to him back at the Wither City.

  ‘We’re trying to decrease the death rate a little, you see,’ Lady Luck replied. ‘It ruins the Game a bit if too many people perish in the first or second round. It doesn’t make the last round so exciting if the players aren’t all there. So, starting from this Game, if you see another player in mortal peril during the course of a round and you save their lives rather than leaving them to die, you’ll be awarded hero points, which will contribute to your overall score. Ditto if you perform some particularly noble or self-sacrificing or just generally heroic act during the round.’

  Lex pulled a face. He didn’t like the sound of that one bit. ‘But wouldn’t that mean that someone − say me − could win the round but end up with the same number of points as someone who didn’t win, just because they happened to perform a few so-called heroic deeds?’

  ‘Well, theoretically, I suppose,’ Lady Luck replied. ‘The hero points don’t apply to your companions though. Otherwise we could be in a situation where the player was constantly saving their own companion in a contrived manner and being awarded points for it. So the hero points only apply between players.’

  ‘Are there any other new rules?’ Lex asked, hoping that there weren’t, for he didn’t much care for the ones he’d learned about so far.

  ‘I don’t think so, dear. Do you remember any other new rules, Jesse?’ she asked the cowboy.

  Jesse shook his head. ‘Can’t say that I do, ma’am.’

  ‘No, I think we’ve covered everything, Lex. Now I really must go. You need to get a good night’s sleep before the penalty round tomorrow.’

  So the Goddess took her leave and Jesse went down to the hold below to sleep with Rusty. Silvi looked like she was thinking of following him but Lex called her back. She was his griffin after all and he was used to her sleeping on his bed. During the course of the last Game he had shared this room with Lucius and Mr Schmidt and it would have seemed quite lonely there all by himself without the griffin.

  Lex got into bed and Silvi curled up next to him. Lex lay awake for a while, stroking her feathers and thinking about the upcoming Game. He’d had rather an undignified start, it was true, but the Game itself would be glorious. He was quite sure in his mind about that . . .

  The next day, Lex completed the penalty task fairly easily with only the minor hiccup of almost falling to his death. Fortunately, the black griffin, Monty, saved him just in time and Lex completed the task all in one piece and with the golden egg that was his ticket back into the Game. The ship then set sail for the Sea Volcanoes where the first round was to take place − right at the very edge of the world.

  When the first Adventurers started exploring a hundred years or so ago with their Chroniclers, many did not come back. There were countless theories as to why this was the case. Some believed that they got lost; others thought the Adventurers settled in new, tropical lands full of lush greenery and beautiful, half-naked women serving them coconut milk all day long; and some believed that they simply got eaten by sea monsters.

  It was only later they suspected that most of the missing Adventurers had inadvertently sailed right over the edge of the world. The evidence for this was the sudden appearance of the Sea Volcanoes. They towered up out of the ocean and, like icebergs, there was even more of them beneath the surface. They were situated right at the very edge of the world, keeping the water in. And all along their base, down on the seabed, were the wrecks of thirty or forty sunken ships.

  But the strange thing was that the ancient maps had no record of the Sea Volcanoes, and some Adventurer
s swore that they’d been in that area before − almost close enough to see the Edge itself − but that the volcanoes hadn’t been there then. There was no official explanation but it was widely believed that the Gods had put the volcanoes there later because of the fact that the location and the currents in this particular area meant ships were susceptible to sailing right over the Edge and the Gods wanted to put a stop to it. It wasn’t difficult to believe. After all, the Gods did live in the Lands Beneath and anyone would start getting a bit fed up after the twentieth ship came crashing down from the Lands Above, breaking things and cluttering up the landscape. If any ship were to get near to the Edge now, it would just be smashed against the volcanoes and sink to the seabed.

  The Sea Volcanoes were a striking, majestic sight, rising up out of the water like noble guardians of the ocean and the men who sailed it. What made the sight particularly rewarding as Lex’s enchanted ship approached it was that Saydi’s sun was in the sky that day. As the Goddess of Beauty, Saydi’s sun made the air sweet and fresh, and brought loveliness to the landscape whether it was sunny or rainy.