He opened his fist to reveal the pocket-sized crystal ball, which he then held out to Lucius. Lady Luck held an identical one out to Lex and the Judge pressed one into the gloved hand of the prophet.
‘Are we being broadcast to the stadiums now?’ Lucius asked, peering nervously into his own dark ball.
‘Of course not,’ Jezra replied impatiently. ‘We don’t broadcast footage live. Haven’t done for years. It’s better for everyone all round if a bit of editing is done first.’
Lex managed not to snort. He knew it was vanity on the part of the Gods. They all wanted their players to look fearless. They did not want them breaking down in tears in the middle of a Game, so anything like that would… hit the cutting room floor, so to speak.
‘Now, this,’ Jezra gestured dramatically to the looming castle, ‘is a sky castle, as you can see — a relic from the days of heroes. There is a broken mirror inside. I would like you to fix it. The first one to do so, wins.’
Lex said nothing, keenly suspicious of the seemingly simple task.
‘Is that all?’ Lucius asked in obvious relief.
‘That is all,’ Jezra confirmed, spreading his hands and smiling an honest man’s smile that Lex did not trust one bit.
‘Well, that doesn’t sound too dangerous,’ Lucius said, glancing at Zachary who merely nodded.
‘From here on in, the help we can give our playing pieces is limited,’ Jezra said. ‘I trust we all understand that?’
The Lady and the Judge both nodded.
‘After all, if we were to use the full extent of our powers,’ Jezra went on deliberately, ‘we would, of course, easily destroy each other’s players but no one would actually win. And I believe that is why we are all here?’
Lucius was looking quite cheered at this but the distrust and suspicion that was rife in the air was quite obvious to Lex. The Gods were cheaters too, almost by definition.
‘All right. Let it begin,’ Jezra said.
He and the Judge disappeared and, at once, Lucius and Zachary were running towards their exhausted drayfus, and the prophet and Theba were running towards their bat and, after some persuasion on Zachary’s part, the animals were rushing off towards the castle as if this was merely some kind of race.
‘How simple minded,’ Lex murmured.
‘What do you mean?’ the Lady demanded. ‘Don’t just stand there, Lex, get a move on; they’re going to beat you!’
‘Jezra is the God of Wit and Daring, my Lady,’ Lex said patiently. ‘His round would never hinge on such a simple thing as fixing a mirror. There could be anything inside there. I certainly don’t intend to rush in unprepared. ’
‘I suppose you have a point.’
‘Don’t worry, I fully intend to win this round,’ Lex replied, his mind already going back to a story his grandfather had once told him about a huge castle that hung in the sky. Then he turned and sauntered back to the door, relishing the cold air that blew out from within when he opened it. He was a little worried about the heat. His own clothes were damp with sweat from the few minutes that they had been out on deck and he never had liked Heetha’s sun, always doing his best to avoid it and it was even worse at this altitude. The sun could make you slow and sluggish. But the beauty of it was that Lucius was a total pansy when it came to heat and the prophet probably wouldn’t fare too well with all the layers of black clothing he was wearing. He even had gloves for Gods’ sake! The other players weren’t prepared, they didn’t have anything with them. Lex laughed softly. This was going to be all too easy.
‘So what do we have to do?’ Schmidt asked when Lex entered the bridge.
‘Fix a mirror,’ Lex replied briefly. ‘Why don’t you ask Lady Luck if you can stay here?’
‘I’m not staying here!’ Schmidt protested.
‘Why not?’ Lex asked, glancing at him in surprise. ‘It’s hot and dangerous out there, you know.’
‘If you die then I will have to complete the Game by myself!’
‘Oh that,’ Lex said dismissively. ‘Don’t worry about that; I won’t die. I’m going to win.’
‘Convince yourself if you want to, but I’m not staying here. For all you know you might need a second person in there.’
Lex hesitated. It was a possibility. ‘I suppose you’re right. Well, you’d better hurry up and get ready if you want to come.’
‘I don’t want to come!’ Schmidt snapped. ‘But I don’t have any choice, thanks to you! I should be at Lucas, Jones and Schmidt right now preparing for the Johnson case. If you’ve got some kind of death wish… if you want to die, then that’s your business, but I’m absolutely astounded that anyone could be so outrageously selfish as to drag somebody else unwillingly into such-’
‘Oh give it a rest,’ Lex said mildly. ‘I didn’t know how the bracelets worked. I can assure you that I would much rather be playing this Game on my own. But I won’t be slowed down by anyone. Meet me on the deck in fifteen minutes.’
The sky castle had a row of steel rings set into one side. From the deck, Lex could see the drayfus and the desert bat already tethered, at a safe distance from one another, to a couple of these rings. Although they were clearly meant for animals, Lex saw no reason why the ship could not be safely anchored there too and, as they approached, a rather delicious idea occurred to him. He closed his eyes and revelled in the sensation of the boat shifting in response to his thoughts. It made him feel God-like.
‘You’re going too close to the drayfus, Lex,’ Schmidt said from where he was standing beside him. ‘Pull back.’
Lex ignored him but opened his eyes to watch the entertainment. The drayfus had been resting on the platform, but it raised its large head now, watching the impending ship in alarm.
‘Pull back!’ Schmidt ordered.
‘Shut up; you’re ruining the moment.’
‘You’re going to hit it!’
‘I’m only going to scare it. Just watch; it’ll be fun, I promise.’
As the ship got closer, the drayfus at last staggered to its feet and tried to fly away. Unfortunately, it was tethered to a steel ring. But whilst the ring might have been made of steel, the castle was made of sand. Sandcastles, as every small child knows, are not built to have huge slavering beasts tethered to their walls. After some moments of agitated and terrified straining, the ring tore away from the side of the castle in a shower of sand and the drayfus flapped off, probably profoundly relieved to be free.
Lex laughed. ‘I told you it would be fun.’
There were many doors into the castle. Most of them were huge, grand, ornate things. There was one door in particular, around the front, that was clearly the main door and Lex guessed that Lucius and the prophet would have entered via this one. Schmidt headed for it automatically but Lex ignored it and set off round the back in search of the obligatory, innocuous little back door. He smiled when he found it.
‘Are you sure that’s right?’ Schmidt asked, coming up behind him.
‘Oh, no, it’s all wrong,’ Lex replied. ‘They won’t be expecting us to use this door, so hopefully this route will have fewer traps.’
‘Traps?’ Schmidt asked sharply. ‘I thought we just had to fix a mirror?’
‘Yes, but there will be traps, trust me. Keep your eyes open.’
Lex grasped the metal handle and dragged open the door to reveal about twenty people all rushing madly towards them… Well, not quite. None of the people were moving. They were statues — frozen in a desperate rush towards the door, with expressions of abject terror on their carved faces. As if they were being chased…
‘What a curious choice of decor,’ Schmidt remarked.
‘Hmm. Curious,’ Lex responded at once, taking particular care to keep his voice level, for the lawyer clearly did not realise that these were no mere statues but something much, much more sinister.. One might call that an irresponsible attitude on Lex’s part. After all, if Schmidt wasn’t warned about what was in the castle with them then he would not be adequately prepared to defend himself… But they’d be all right as long as they stayed in the cold rooms.
The long sandy corridor stretched away into the castle — the walls, ceiling and floor were made entirely of sand, with wooden brackets on the walls holding flickering torches to provide some light. And there were doors all the way along the corridor — blue or red, which meant that Lex’s hunch had been right. He put down his bag and
