Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games #1) (7 page)

Chapter 6

K
at was starting to lose her temper. Not that it was particularly difficult. Her temper, as her parents would probably have agreed, was generally shorter than the lifespan of the average mayfly, and it was never at its best when she was bored. They were supposed to be taking over a kingdom, not sitting around. What sort of game was it where all you did for hours was wait while all around you village life carried on as normal? She had come into the game to win, not to sit around watching people herd animals and chat to one another in the village square. It was all so ordinary… so mundane.

Sebold wasn’t much help either. Kat had hardly seen him since she had arrived. When Kat had, he had been busy talking to other people, persuading them to do what he wanted like some lobbyist talking round a government official. Either that or he had been casting runes, looking for signs. He’d been so busy with both that he’d more or less ignored her, like she didn’t matter, like she was inconsequential.

That wasn’t something Kat would have put up in real life, let alone in a game. Now, Kat losing her temper tended to result in one of three things: slammed doors, Kat storming off to her room, or blazing arguments. She had tried slamming the doors she passed through on her way around the village, but it didn’t really make her feel better. At this point, Kat’s room was in another world, so storming to it wasn’t much of an option either. That left one option…

Kat stamped her way over to the longhouse that Sebold called home, then stomped her way up to the table where he was currently talking with a couple of his men, then, when he didn’t acknowledge her, brought her hand down sharply on the hard wood. It didn’t make as much noise as Kat had hoped. It did make her hand sting painfully.

Sebold turned his attention to her, regarding her with scorn, even disdain. With the weird layers of clothes he wore, to Kat it made him look like a disheveled starling looking down its beak at her.

“What is it, girl?”

“Don’t you take that condescending tone with me! I’m not here to be patronized.” Kat felt it was a good opening. Apparently Sebold didn’t think so. His eyes narrowed.

“Then what are you doing here, interrupting me when I’m making plans?”

“You’re making plans? You shouldn’t be the one making plans. I’m the one whose game this is. I’m the one who is supposed to be trying to become ruler, but all I’ve been able to do since I got here is sit around doing nothing. I
hate
sitting around doing nothing.”

Sebold drew himself up to his full height, which turned out to be a lot taller than Kat had thought. He stared down at her with undisguised anger.

“Ruler? Girl, you can’t even rule your own emotions. And you’re lazy. You haven’t had anything to do since you got here? I didn’t see you helping with any of the things that needed doing around this village.”

“Chores?” Kat managed to give the word roughly the same inflection most people would have given “swimming in the piranha tank?” though possibly she might have preferred that. At least then something would have been happening. “No, what is going to happen is this. I’m going to take all the soldiers you can find and-“

“And nothing.” Sebold motioned to the two men he had been speaking with. They leapt forward to pinion Kat’s arms before she could react.

“Hey, let me go!”

Sebold ignored her and reached down, snatching the glowing ring from her finger. “There. Obviously I made a mistake, thinking I could use a haughty, arrogant little girl like you in my plans, but there are other options. Maybe I should have settled for this in the first place. After all, enough of these rings will give me the power to rule this world,
and
yours.”

“What? That’s not how this is supposed to-“

At a nod from Sebold, one of the guards clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Much better,” Sebold said. “You really are very irritating. And it will stop you trying any of those ruler words of yours. Not that they would work. I have more than enough charms to protect me. Now…”

He fished around in Kat’s pockets until he found her lipstick. Taking a sheet of parchment from the table, Sebold started to write.

“Let me see. Sorry to run off. I found a shortcut. Come to the edge of the Woods. I’ll meet you there. It won’t work for more than two, so come alone. Kat. Yes, that should do it.” Sebold passed the note to one of his men, along with the lipstick. “You know what to do.”

Since there was now only one man holding her, Kat tried struggling, and got her arm twisted painfully for her efforts. Sebold obviously heard her muffled sound of pain.

“Oh yes. You. Put her somewhere safe for now, until I decide what to do with her.”

Kat tried to protest, but with a hand still clamped over her mouth she couldn’t. The worst part, the absolute worst, was that this was all far too close to what usually happened when she lost her temper. She wasn’t being sent to her room, exactly, but it would definitely be someone’s, and she doubted if getting out of this one would be as simple as climbing out of the window when no one was looking.

Gem
was finding the marching easier now that they had been doing it for a while. They’d packed up the camp early in order to keep going, making their way along twisting forest paths, and then along the sort of road that only qualified as one because it was wider than the paths. She hadn’t expected to find an inn on it, mostly because Gem couldn’t see where the customers would come from in the middle of a forest. There was an inn though, occupying a small space by the road, and hanging out a sign that said “The Ephemeral Inn.” Gem frowned.
Ephemeral
meant fleeting or temporary, but the inn hardly looked it. In fact, it had a solid, permanent sort of look. Maybe it was someone’s idea of a joke.

“I’d half hoped this would be here,” Goolrick said. “We’ll rest for an hour or so before we move on.”

Everybody quickly spread out, with some of the Perfidious men staying outside, cleaning weapons and knocking the dents out of their armor. Gem and the others went inside. In spite of the humble look of the outside, the interior was large enough to hold them all with ease.

 
They found themselves met by a woman in her forties, wearing a heavy, layered dress and more jewellery than Gem had ever seen anyone wear at once. She looked like one of the fortunetellers you got sometimes at fairgrounds.

“Oh I am,” the woman said. “I’ve been clairvoyant now for years. Being able to see the future is a big help with this place. Let’s me see where to set it down.”

“Set what down?” Sparks asked. Gem thought she got it.

“You mean the inn moves about?”

“Oh yes.” The woman nodded as she said it. “It’s easier to catch the passing trade that way. I’m Svetlana.”

She looked them all over. There was something essentially benevolent about Svetlana, a sense that she was both friendly and helpful that automatically made Gem want to trust her.

“Now then,” Svetlana said. “You all look so thirsty. Practically dried up. Positively parched. What will it be? I imagine beer for those louts out the front. Not for you,’ she wagged an admonishing finger at Rio and Sparks, who’d both opened their mouths to speak simultaneously. “I have some elderberry cordial for you. Hot chocolate for you,” she said to Jack, “wine for the wizard with the florid, ornate taste in clothes, and for you dear,” Svetlana looked Gem over again, “probably some nice herbal tea.”

“That would be nice,” Gem said.

“And while you’re drinking it, you can come and have a chat with me. That will be nice, won’t it?”

Gem suspected that it would. The other woman spread goodwill the way a radiator put out heat. They sat at a table off to one side of the room, both sipping at cups brought out by an ogre who had half the people there reaching for their weapons when he first entered the room.

“Oh, do calm down,” Svetlana instructed. “It’s only Grumble. He won’t hurt anyone. Well, not unless you forget to pay. Just my little joke.”

The tea was nice, Gem thought, though the way Svetlana stared at her was a bit disconcerting.

“So you’re a clairvoyant,” Gem started, deciding that it was as good an opening as any. Svetlana waved a hand dismissively.

“Oh, that’s nothing. I can barely see enough to put this place where it’s needed. What you
really
need in this business is
empathy
, the knack of feeling what someone else is feeling, putting yourself in their position. Take you, for example. You’re obviously upset about something, and you’re also worried, probably about more than one thing.”

Somehow, Gem found herself telling the other woman everything, from discovering that Anachronia was real, to Kat’s death, to the way Rio and Sparks seemed to be interested in her.

“Don’t forget the other one, Jack is it? Just because you think it’s a crush, doesn’t mean he isn’t feeling it.”

Gem looked over to where Jack was sitting. He seemed to be reading something that had been given to him by one of the men. Something about the history of the place probably, given how absorbed in it he looked. The last thing she wanted was to hurt Jack’s feelings. Even so, she thought of him more like a little brother, while Sparks and Rio…they were different.

“Yes, they are,” Svetlana said, taking another sip of tea.

“Are you reading my mind?”

“Oh no, child. Just your face. I’ve gotten rather good at it over the years. Now then, I imagine there are things you want to ask.”

Gem shut her eyes for a moment. There were, but should she ask them? It would be so easy to ask if it all turned out ok. She thought about it for a second longer, then smiled.

“I’m supposed to say that I’d rather not know, aren’t I? This is a test.”

The other woman smiled back.

“Sort of. Most things are, if you look hard enough. As for the future, well, I could probably manage to tell you
something
, but do you really want to spend your time like that? Constantly looking out for what is coming? You strike me more as the sort of girl who makes her own future.”

Gem nodded.

“I am. I hope I am, anyway.”

“Oh, you are. Now run along. I’ve got a pub to run.”

Gem left Svetlana to her tea. She wandered over to Jack, who was still staring at his piece of paper.

“Hi Jack.” She knew she needed to make more of an effort with Jack if he was ever going to be less nervous around her.

“H-hi.”

“Got anything interesting?” Gem asked him.

“What? No!” Jack all but shot up from the stool he was on. “Just some… just some history stuff. Pointless, boring history stuff. Um… I’ve got to…I’ll be…”

Jack more or less ran off. Gem thought about going after him, but Sparks and Rio seemed to be working their way up to another argument. She weighed it up, and decided that stopping the two of them from fighting was probably more important. After all, Jack was just being his usual nervous self, and at least he probably wasn’t going to end up brawling with anyone.

With a sigh, Gem headed for the other two boys. She didn’t see Svetlana shaking her head sadly behind her.

Kat
squirmed in the ropes they had used to tie her hands, but they wouldn’t budge. The only thing worse than being tied up was
where
they had tied her up. Apparently, they had decided that a stone walled cowshed would work as a prison. Kat scowled. What sort of ruler not only didn’t have a castle, but also didn’t even have a proper
dungeon
?

Jack made his way through the Woods as quickly as he could. He had hardly believed Kat’s note when he’d got it, but it had been in her lipstick. Lying to Gem about it had been hard though, but thoughts of Kat and her shortcut kept him busy enough that he didn’t have to think about it. So busy, in fact, that he didn’t even notice the burly figures creeping up on him as he walked…

Sparks tried not to sulk as Gem told him and Rio to stop being such idiots. Deep down, he knew she was right. It was just that he
also
knew that he didn’t like the way Rio looked at her. It was so obvious what he wanted, but Gem couldn’t seem to see it. Still, at least when Rio walked out, that left the two of them sitting next to one another…

Gem found herself torn between wanting to go after Rio and staying there with Sparks. She decided on the latter, both because it would let Rio cool off, and because she had to admit she was happy just sitting next to the handsome jock. When his hand reached out for hers, she didn’t stop it…

Rio leant against the wall of the inn, feeling his anger bubble. Of course Gem had sided with the farm boy. It was too much to think that she felt anything for him, even after all she’d said. When the guard came up to him holding a note written in black lipstick, he barely even glanced at it before setting off…