‘Like it?’ Lex’s Goddess asked, appearing at his side.
Lex nodded speechlessly.
‘Saydi’s sun adds magnificence to an already spectacular sight,’ Lady Luck said.
The valley was full of white palaces. Lex loved palaces and fully intended to own at least ten before he died. They were made out of white gold and were of all different shapes — the western kings preferring spires and turrets and sparkling turquoise moats, and the eastern kings favouring jewelled domes and carved images of spirit- hosts and huge glittering stone elephants. There were fountains and emerald walkways and a vast enchanted forest for the kings to hunt in.
‘Can I have it?’ Lex asked — because if you don’t ask you won’t get. ‘Please?’
Her Ladyship laughed. ‘The Golden Valley belongs to kings, Lex; you know that. You can’t have what’s down there unless you happen to be royal.’
She turned away from the railings with a strange little smirk, telling Lex that he’d better go and get ready before he ran out of time. So Lex went back down to the observation room and ate a hurried breakfast with Schmidt before checking and rechecking his bag and then going back up to the deck with the others.
The prophet arrived a few minutes later, landing his desert bat on the deck of the ship, looking a little bedraggled after what must have been a long and harrowing journey. The Judge appeared on the deck beside him instantly.
This was Lady Luck’s round and although Lex had pestered her for some kind of hint as to what to expect, she had staunchly refused to tell him anything until everyone had reconvened at the Golden Valley. Lex was currently in the lead, of course, having won the first round as well as losing Lucius his companion. To Lex’s delight, Lucius had actually made a little halter for Zachary, complete with nametag and shiny, sparkly studs. Although not usually completely stupid, Lucius did seem to have something of a blind spot when it came to small, soft animals, no matter how sharp their teeth might turn out to be. The ferret looked ridiculous in the halter and, what was more, it was quite clear that Zachary knew it. He had tried to bite Lucius when the halter was first put on before finally being persuaded to wear the thing and thereby bid farewell to whatever last scrap of dignity he might have been vainly hoping to retain. The ferret was now slumped moodily at Lucius’s feet in such a stance of hopelessness and embarrassment that Lex almost… almost felt sorry for it.
The Goddess of Luck cleared her throat and glanced round at everyone, looking well pleased with herself. ‘As we all know,’ she began, ‘royalty is blind. It is not based on intelligence or valour or merit. It is based on blood. It is based on luck, in other words.’
‘Royalty is valueless, in other words,’ Jezra said contemptuously.
The God was in a foul temper that morning and it was not difficult to understand why. Jezra was a master gamesman but in this case it seemed all too clear that not only was he going to lose but he was going to lose spectacularly. If he had nurtured some faint hope that Lucius might turn out to be more like Lex than people thought, he had been sadly disappointed.
‘There are twenty royal crowns left on the Globe as I’m sure we’re all aware,’ the Lady went on, completely ignoring Jezra’s petulant comment. ‘At the end of this round Lex will be one of the Globe’s Kings.’
She paused, hoping for a dramatic outburst of protest from the others, but a slight raising of the eyebrows was the only response she got from Jezra; the Judge’s face was hidden behind his expressionless mask; Lucius looked like he couldn’t have cared less about anything that was being said; the prophet was incapable of speaking and no one was too sure about exactly how much Zachary could understand in his current… state.
The Goddess of Luck sighed, apparently deciding that everyone’s lack of enthusiasm had rather taken the fun out of the thing. ‘All right, there’s a crown hidden in the depths of the Royal Forest.’ She pointed down at the valley below. ‘First one to put it on is King.’
Once again, apart from Lex’s broad grin, the others seemed distinctly unimpressed.
‘Was there a royal death last night of which I am as yet unaware?’ Jezra asked, in an exaggerated tone of politeness. ‘Because if not then where has this crown come from?’
‘I was granted special permission to create one for the purposes of the Game,’ Lady Luck said sweetly.
‘By who?’ Jezra demanded. ‘The only God who could give you that permission would be-’
‘Goban,’ Lady Luck said with a smug smile. ‘God of Royalty. Yes, he gave me his permission. Do feel free to ask him if you don’t believe me, but I think we’d all like to get on with the Game now.’
‘Well, what use is it anyway?’ Jezra asked, throwing up his hands. ‘When the winner will only be subject to an instant and permanent exile?’
The smile faded from Lex’s face, for Jezra was right. All kings were exiled to the Golden Valley and were never allowed to leave. It was hoped that one day they would eventually die out although the royal bloodlines seemed to have been doing well so far.
‘Goban has agreed that, in this case, the royalty will only be temporary. The winner will be allowed to leave the Golden Valley after they have removed the crown.’
‘I must say there seems to be a lot of rule bending going on!’ Jezra said sharply. ‘Aren’t you even going to say anything?’ he said, rounding angrily on the Judge. ‘Are you just going to let her do this?’
The Judge spoke out from behind his mask then for the first time since the Game had begun. It was a deep, velvety voice that sent shivers down Lex’s spine. ‘If Goban has given his permission, I do not see that there is anything we can do.’
After a moment when it looked like it might go either way, Jezra bit his tongue and was silent though the expression on his face made Lex distinctly uneasy. This was the God of Wit and Daring. Ultimately, the Goddess of Luck was no match for him in the Games, for luck could only last so long. Jezra was becoming angry and it was Lex Trent upon whom he was likely to turn his anger.
‘What do you think I should pack?’ Lucius fussed once they were back inside the ship.
‘Pack whatever you like,’ Lex said dismissively. ‘What do I care?’
‘But Lex!’ Lucius whined. ‘You’ve got more of an idea about what to expect than I have. I might run into trouble down there.’
‘I very much hope you do,’ Lex said, stuffing food into his bag. ‘We’re not on the same side.’
Lucius sighed. ‘All right. Well, I’ll just take some food and water then but if I-’
‘No, you don’t,’ Lex said sharply as Lucius reached out for the sugary energy cake on the middle shelf. ‘That’s my food.’
Lucius stared at him. ‘But you’ve got more than enough here for everyone!’
‘That’s hardly the point,’ Lex said. ‘We’re competing against each other, Lucius, you twit! I’m not going to do anything that might help you.’
‘Well, it’s not like I’m going to win, is it?’ Lucius replied huffily.
‘Lucius,’ Lex said, turning towards his brother, ‘loath as I am to offer you any kind of advice at this stage, you’d better at least try to win or else Jezra is going to be very angry with you indeed.’
‘Can I at least take some water?’
‘No!’ Lex snapped, his voice turning hard. ‘If you were anyone else I would have sabotaged you by now. I’ve suppressed the urge to do that out of respect for the fact that we’re related, but I won’t go so far as actually helping you. I’m far too good at Games for that sort of weakness. I’m ready now, so I’m going to go ahead and start. Stay on the boat for as long as you like, but don’t take anything that doesn’t belong to you. Come on, Monty,’ Lex said to Schmidt who was lounging by the kitchen door.
With a shrug, Schmidt turned and followed Lex out along one of the mirrored corridors. ‘You really are a mean little sod, aren’t you?’ he remarked as they came out onto the deck. ‘You lost him his transport and his companion and yet still you would begrudge him having just a few bottles of water.’
‘I’ve done him a favour,’ Lex grunted. ‘Because he had no drayfus, he got to come with me, which means he’s well rested for this round rather than exhausted as he would have been if he’d travelled here on the drayfus, and to be perfectly frank, he’s better off without any companion at all than he was with Zachary.’
‘What do you have against the man, anyway?’ Schmidt asked curiously.
‘He thought he could tell me what to do,’ Lex said simply.
Eventually Lucius had asked Zachary to move into the farm house to help out on the occasions when Alistair became agitated. And Zachary had duly decided that this gave him the right to interfere in private family matters whenever he felt like it.
