‘I want to see that gold,’ Lex whispered. ‘It must be the most amazing sight.’
‘But it isn’t worth anything,’ Lucius grumbled. He pulled out a note of m-gold and held it up to the moonlight. ‘We use paper money, now.’
Lex snatched the note from him and examined it as best he could in the dark. Paper money! He sneered at the sight of it. What intrinsic worth did it have? What intrinsic beauty did it possess? There was nothing rare or unique about paper notes. Lex tossed it back to his brother dismissively.
‘And I thought people weren’t allowed to go there now, anyway,’ Lucius said.
‘The Gods want us to go,’ Lex said. ‘Isn’t that enough?’
‘Well, yes, I suppose. I’m glad to see you’ve maintained some respect for the Gods.’
Lex suppressed a smile. If Lucius could only hear how he spoke to Lady Luck when it suited him. Although, to be fair, he probably would not have tried it with any of the other Gods.
‘Go to sleep,’ Lex said. ‘We’ll get there tomorrow or the day after and I want to be ready.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘Rise and shine!’ Lady Luck exclaimed in a horribly cheerful voice for such an early hour.
Schmidt and Lucius were already awake from the sounds of things, but Lex was not a morning person and under normal circumstances would have buried his head under the pillow with a groan. But because he was currently in the middle of a Game he sat bolt upright and said, ‘It hasn’t started already, has it?’
‘No dear,’ Lady Luck replied. ‘There’s still another hour to go.’
‘Well then, what the heck are you waking me up for?’ Lex snapped. ‘I only need half an hour to get ready! I could have had a whole extra half hour of-’
‘You’ve made the headlines again, dear,’ the Goddess interrupted him. ‘I thought you might like to have a little gloat over breakfast.’
Lex saw that she was holding a newspaper out towards him and, because there was nothing he liked better than having a little gloat over breakfast, he snatched it from her eagerly, expecting to see something about the current Game. He was therefore surprised to see the headline: Shadowman Strikes Again!
At first he thought it must be something to do with the museum break-in back at the Wither City. But then he noticed the date printed at the top of the page and saw that this was not an old newspaper at all. In fact it had only been printed that very morning and was about a different theft altogether. It appeared that the famous Blue Diamond had gone missing from the jewel vault in one of the Bandy Towns, and Shadowman calling cards had been left at the scene of the crime. Lex stared at the page, dumbstruck and horrified.
Being the nosy snoops that they were, Schmidt and Lucius came over at once to peer over Lex’s shoulder at the front page. They both gave predictable, and rather irritating, gasps and then Schmidt said, in an outraged voice, ‘So that’s where you were when you went missing yesterday! Hand over that diamond, Lex, right this instant!’
‘I’d sooner give myself a lethal dose of poison than hand a precious diamond over to you!’ Lex snarled. ‘But, as it happens, I don’t have it. Which you would know if you had an ounce of common sense in your thick head!’
The Bandy Towns were on the edge of the Wild West and they boasted the most impressive collection of jewels anywhere on the planet (with the exception of the Golden Valley). They also happened to be about four thousand miles away.
‘How do you think I got there, eh? You must think I’m a truly awesome magician with spectacular, superhuman powers to be able to achieve such a magnificent feat! I suppose I should be flattered.’
‘All right, Lex,’ Lucius said, in what he obviously thought was a soothing manner. ‘There’s no need to be offended. You can’t blame Mr Schmidt for jumping to the wrong conclusion. After all, you have stolen things before, and even if you’ve turned over a new leaf now, you-’
‘I have not turned over a new leaf, you twit!’ Lex said, swatting Lucius’s hand away from where he’d been trying to pat him on the shoulder. ‘I am the Shadowman! I’m not upset because Schmidt thought this was my doing,’ — he waved the newspaper around — ‘I’m upset because it wasn’t!’ ‘You mean you didn’t steal the Blue Diamond?’ Lady Luck said, finally catching up with things.
‘No! Someone is impersonating me!’
‘Oh. Well, I suppose it’s natural to get copycats — after all, you are becoming quite notorious.’
‘But it’s my notoriety! How dare someone steal it like that?’
The irony of that sentence was not lost on Lex. But Schmidt looked very much like he was about to start pointing it out for the benefit of everyone present, so Lex screwed up the newspaper, threw it away from him and, before Schmidt could say anything, went to the window and said loudly, ‘Where the heck are we anyway?’
But as soon as he saw the sight below he needed no answer. Lady Luck gave him one anyway: ‘We’re in the Golden Valley.’
And Lex decided that resolving this Shadowman business would have to be postponed. In fact, he was already seeing how this could be of benefit to him. Presumably the authorities back at the Wither City would know that he was playing in a Game by now. And so he had an alibi for this most recent theft. He could once again deny being the Shadowman. The so-called ‘witness’ Schmidt had found would be discredited. Lex would say he fled the Wither City because he was scared of the upcoming trial, not because he was guilty as sin. Yes.. there might just be a way out of this yet.
As soon as the Game was finished he would get stuck right back in with his thefts and his scams, but he would drop the Shadowman and come up with something else. A new name, a new identity and a better calling card next time — one that could not possibly be replicated by some contemptible copycat who wasn’t original enough to come up with his own alterego.
But for now all that could wait. He was in the Golden Valley. Finally he was going to see it with his own eyes. He left the others dawdling about in the observation room and legged it up to the deck.
Humans liked being kings for it made them feel closer to Gods. There had been a time, before the physical split of the Lands Above from the Lands Beneath, when humans all over the Globe had started proclaiming themselves as royalty, commanding over anyone who would listen and making their own crowns out of twigs and coloured glass and beads and anything else they could find. In the end, the Gods had been moved to put a stop to it. There could only be so many kings, they said. To limit the number, the Gods presented humanity with twenty crowns. Only the wearers of these twenty could be considered true kings — the missing link between divinity and humanity. And so the bloody battles commenced until the day when the kings were kicked out once and for all.
Lex had heard stories of these twenty crowns. His grandfather had even seen one once, from a distance. They were not made from gold, it was said, but from something even more beautiful. Just the joy of being able to brush one with his fingertips would have been immeasurable to Lex.
As an appreciator of beauty, it had always been Saydi’s sun that Lex had loved the most, for, as Goddess of Beauty, she was a deity after Lex’s own heart and she could do the most breathtaking wonders with her sun. Sometimes she cooled its rays enough for a soft, powdery snow to fall whilst the sky remained blue and bright, and at others she painted the sky with rainbows and golden-hued warmth or scented the air with honey and pollen and summer. Saydi seemed to understand that, in order for beauty to be appreciated in full, it must not impact on comfort and so her sun always heralded the most amenable weather on the Lands Above. There would never be any sunstroke or frostbite whilst Saydi’s sun was in the sky and Lex would have loved her for that alone. He recognised her sun as soon as he stepped out onto the deck of the enchanted ship on the morning they arrived at the Golden Valley. The air was clear and cool and beautifully fresh. It seemed incredibly sweet and oxygen rich — as to normal air what distilled spring water is to sewage. The gentle, golden light from the sun had liquefied in its purity and was splashing down upon the deck in soft smatterings of what the people knew as sun drizzle — a kind of golden rain that gently warmed the skin rather than wetting it.
The day was beautiful, as one would expect from Saydi. But what Lex had not been prepared for was the utterly astonishing sight of the Golden Valley. He had always had a greedy streak, even as a child, but he had never realised until now just how savage greed could be. His fingers itched at the sight of what lay below.
