Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games #1) (6 page)

Chapter 5

S
ebold had been the ruler of the Spurious tribe for a long time, here on the border between the Woods and the Fertile Lands, through adversity as well as good times. He had built the long house he now stood in, and had seen much of the village grow up around it. He thought of himself as a canny, careful ruler, though he also knew that there were some who would have used the word ruthless about him instead. Either way, he knew enough to pay attention to signs, and had taken the time to learn Anachronia’s legends.

If the young woman who had come to him with one of the ogres that had sided with Spurious was a sign, then she was certainly an odd-looking one. Still, there was no denying what she was, not with the redly glowing ring on her finger. The power of outlanders to use words was too great a gift to pass up.

In any case, Sebold could hardly comment on the appearance of others. His own was too craggy to be handsome, while his wiry frame held a few too many scars for comfort. Even in the way he dressed, in layers of shifting cloth to match the shifting truth, he was at least as strange as the visitor to his hall.

“They call you Kat?” Sebold asked.

“Yeah.” The young woman looked bored, glancing round his hall like she had seen it all before. Sebold doubted it. After all, how many outlanders spent their time in long wood and stone houses with low turf roofs? How many had axes and armor between the places at the table, so that they could be grabbed quickly? Sebold gestured to it.

“You don’t like my home?”

Kat shrugged.

“I was just expecting something… grander.”

Sebold kept his temper. Just.

“Like the castle? This is a pragmatic choice. The village has walls, so I have no need of more of them. In any case, remember that the Perfidious have done us much harm. If our prosperity, our wealth, is not up to producing castles, blame them for it.”

“Well maybe I can do something about that.” The girl sounded confident about it. Sebold supposed that she was allowed to be.

“You want to join us?”

“The way I see it, the only way I have of winning this thing is if I don’t work with the others. They might all want to collaborate, but I’m not here for teamwork. I’m here to win. It’s not like any of them care about me.”

Sebold nodded, hiding his smile. He could see what would be needed to manipulate the girl even now. A little sympathy and compassion, a little forbearance, putting up with her self-centered moments, and she would quickly help the tribe. With the help of an outlander as well as the ogres, the Perfidious tribe would soon capitulate. Sebold would enjoy their surrender. And if it didn’t work out, there were other options. He signaled to one of his servants.

“Take Kat and help her to settle in. She is to have anything she needs. Anything at all. She’s going to win this war for us.”

The
track through the Wickedly Woods wound on, and Gem trudged along it. She wasn’t the only one. Rio, Sparks and Jack were all close, as was Goolrick. His men had spread out around them in a line along the track. Of course, none of them were wearing dresses whose hems were getting heavy with mud. Maybe she should have listened to Kat after all. Just the thought that Kat would have been happily saying “I told you so” sent a cold stab of pain through Gem. She looked for something to distract herself from it.

Jack, walking alongside, seemed lost in thought.

“What are you thinking about?” Gem asked, hoping that it would take her mind off things. Jack looked up, obviously startled.

“I-I…”

“Jack,” Gem smiled at him as she spoke. “It’s ok. You don’t have to be so nervous around me.”

“C-can’t really help it.” Jack shut his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I was thinking…” he shot a look at Goolrick where the wizard walked on ahead, ‘should we really be trusting the Perfidious tribe? I mean, doesn’t that mean disloyal?”

“Yes,” Gem agreed, “but since Spurious means false or untrue, it’s not really an improvement, is it? Anyway, they saved us from the ogres.”

“I suppose so.”

They walked on in silence for a little while after that. Finally, coming to another clearing, Goolrick called a halt. His men started setting up tents. While they were doing so, Sparks came over to Gem and Jack.

“I haven’t seen this much mud since the last time we were scrimmaging,” he said.

“You like football a lot, back home?” Gem asked.

“A bit. I used to love it. I just wish there weren’t so much pressure sometimes. In theory, I’m supposed to be working hard, because everyone says I could get a scholarship out of it. I suppose it’s just not as much fun when you’ve
got
to do it. Most of the time, I’d rather work with machines. They make sense. What about you, Gem? You haven’t said much about yourself since you arrived at Henry Word’s castle.”

“I’m not sure that there’s much to tell,” Gem said, cautiously. “Anyway, I was a bit… embarrassed about some of it. My dad… he works for Henry Word. Well, not directly. He’s a lawyer, and he does a lot of work for him. I thought if I mentioned too much about myself, you might think that was why I got here.”

Sparks started to say no, but then nodded.

“All right, I might have. But you’ve done pretty well so far. Anyway, that wasn’t what I meant. I want to know about you, not your family.”

There was something about the way he said that, and particularly about the way he looked at her when he did. Sparks was interested in her. Gem had no doubt about that.

“Well, I used to be a cheerleader, so I suppose that fits with you being a football player.”

“I wonder what Rio did at school,” Sparks said. “Hanging around gangs, I suppose.”

“What’s it to you, farm boy?” Rio demanded. Gem hadn’t heard him approach. Jack cleared his throat.

“Those were some good moves you two used in the fight. I don’t think I’d ever be able to fight like that.”

Gem smiled at the younger boy trying to distract the two of them like that. Not that it worked that well.

“Yeah,” Rio said to Sparks, “nice moves. You should show me some of them some time.”

“Maybe I will.” The blonde-haired boy narrowed his eyes as he said it. Gem decided that the rancorous, hateful bantering between the two had gone far enough. She was about to tell the two of them to cut it out when Jack broke in again, speaking to Sparks.

“Maybe you could show me some of those moves,” he suggested. “There might not be a tree I can hide in next time.”

Sparks frowned for a moment, then grinned at the younger boy.

“Ok. We’ll have you taking on ogres with your bare hands in no time.”

The two of them wandered off together, heading for the edge of the clearing, and a space where they could practice. It left Gem alone with Rio.

“Jack’s a good kid,” Rio said after a moment. “Reminds me a bit of my brother, Tomas.” He waited a few seconds. “I don’t, you know.”

“Don’t what?” Gem asked. “Don’t use a single unnecessary, superfluous word if you can help it? Give me a clue, Rio.”

A flash of anger crossed Rio’s features, but when he saw that Gem was grinning, it was quickly replaced by a slightly sheepish expression.

“I guess I don’t always say that much. I meant that I don’t run with gangs. My Nana makes sure of that. She’d kill me if she thought I did.”

“I never thought you ran with gangs,” Gem said, and it was true. There was something hard-edged about Rio, but she couldn’t imagine him being part of a gang.

“Really? I’d have thought a rich girl like you would have assumed everyone from East LA was in a gang.”

“What, the way you’ve assumed that I’m useless and dumb just because my family has some money, you mean?”

Rio looked away.

“Yeah, I suppose so. I guess I didn’t know how to react. Normally, girls…”

Gem could guess the rest of that. Rio probably had girls throwing themselves at him. Come to think of it, given how dangerously good-looking he was, there was part of her that agreed with them. Only part though.

“Oh, so because I don’t throw myself at you, I’m too stuck up?” Gem laughed, shaking her head. “Rio, I’m guessing that somewhere in there, there’s a nice guy. Real bad guys don’t spend their time talking about their little brothers and their grandmothers. It would just be nice if, occasionally, we saw more of him.”

Gem leaned over and kissed Rio on the cheek. It was a spontaneous thing, on impulse, but it felt like the right thing to do. Just like it felt like the right thing to pull away before he could get a chance to kiss her properly. Gem didn’t want him getting the wrong idea. Rio seemed almost shocked by it.

“I guess… I guess I’d better go and make sure the quarterback isn’t teaching Jack to body tackle ogres.”

“That’s a good idea,” Gem replied. “But Rio, will you
try
to be nice to Sparks?”

Rio didn’t reply to that as he hurried off. Gem turned, only to find Goolrick regarding her with an interested expression from a nearby tree stump.

“Doesn’t anyone around her make any noise as they move?” Gem asked. The young wizard laughed.

“Not if they can avoid it. I didn’t mean to startle you, though. I heard some of what you said. You handled them well. I hope you can help us to handle the Spurious tribe so well.”

“What is it between you and them, anyway?”

“Perhaps it is just my bias, my prejudice,” Goolrick admitted. “Perhaps it is just that I wish to make sure that someone from my own tribe of Perfidious takes the throne, but still, I fear what would happen if the Spurious ruled. You now, I think you would make a good ruler, Gem.”

Coming so suddenly, that made Gem blush, even though it was what she was supposed to be there to do.

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do,” Goolrick said. “You remind me a lot of someone from our world; Princess Chelsea, who would have ruled had she not died. I was very young at the time, but I can remember enough of her to think that she would have liked you. I suppose you must have great things planned on your own world.”

“Not really,” Gem said, feeling uncomfortable. “I’m still at school, and I’ve got college planned. Maybe after that… well, I hadn’t really thought about it that much.”

“But still, you must tell me more about your world, and about yourself. It isn’t often that I get to hear tales from afar.”

Gem didn’t know why, but it wasn’t something she felt all that happy discussing with the wizard. The trouble was, she couldn’t think of a way of saying no without being rude. After all, he had been nothing but polite, and he had saved them. An answer came in the form of Sparks, who came over from where he had been practicing with Jack.

“Please tell me you haven’t argued with Rio already,” Gem said. Sparks shook his head.

“Not yet, but we were working up to it. I thought I’d come and check on you before we did.”

“Wise,” Goolrick observed, then stood up. “I should get back to my men.”

Gem watched him go. Sparks raised his eyebrows.

“You don’t trust him, do you?”

“It’s not that. He seems nice. It’s just… Sparks, this isn’t just a game.”

Sparks’ brow furrowed.

“Of course it’s a game. Henry Word said so.”

“Then how are they doing it?” Gem demanded. “You said before that you like machines. Looking at how things work. How can they possibly be making this place work?’ She could see him thinking about it. ‘Look, just be careful. If this isn’t real, you don’t lose anything. If this is real, then we can be hurt. And try to get on with Rio. We need to work together.”

Sparks nodded.

“I’ll think about it.”

In the morning, when the march continued, Jack found himself wondering if it was really morning, or whether it was just a trick of the game pods. Did time run at the same rate in the game? Was he still asleep in his pod?

Sparks’ thoughts kept turning to Gem. If what she’d said were right, then things were a lot more dangerous than he’d thought. If she were right. There had to be another explanation though, didn’t there? The trouble was, even knowing what he did about machines, he couldn’t think how they could be doing all this…

Gem could see the change in Sparks. It was enough to make her wonder whether to tell the others too. No, not yet. She could imagine how scared Jack would be, and Rio might not even believe her. The best thing she could do was keep an eye on them…

Rio’s thoughts were mostly on the woods around him. It wasn’t the same as the city, but he’d learned enough to know when people were watching him. And someone was definitely watching them now…

For
her part, Kat was bored. Weren’t games supposed to have more to do than this? They were supposed to have puzzles and fighting and adventure, not sitting around in stupid stone cottages while weird men decided what to do next…