supposedly didn’t turn up, the round would simply commence without him and there wouldn’t be a damned thing Lady Luck could do about it. Ha! How perfectly delicious it all was.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lex (as Lucius), Schmidt, the prophet and the Gods had been at the Ladder Forest for fifteen minutes when the Judge at last said, ‘Lex Trent is not here. The round will commence without him.’
The Goddess of Luck fluttered her hands agitatedly. ‘I just don’t understand it,’ she said. ‘He should have arrived just in time, he always does.’
‘You’ll have to go on to the companion,’ the Judge said with a dismissive wave of his gloved hand. ‘The object of this final round is to locate the griffin that lives in the Space Ladders. The first of you to return its black feather to me, wins.’
The shock on Lex’s face was genuine, for humans weren’t allowed on the Space Ladders. It was expressly forbidden. Excitement bubbled up inside him and he wanted to laugh with delight at the mere thought of stepping out onto those ladders. But he had a part to play before the sharp-eyed Gods, so he gasped just as Lucius would have done and turned to Jezra with a wail. ‘My Lord Jezra, I beg you! A griffin! It’ll kill me; I know it will!’
‘Hold your tongue!’ Jezra snapped, smacking him round the back of the head. ‘You disgrace me with your cowardice!’
Lex bowed his head in silence.
‘Well, at least my player had the guts to turn up,’ Jezra said to her Ladyship. ‘I guess Lex Trent isn’t as brave as you thought he was.’
‘Lex is the bravest player I’ve ever had!’ the Goddess stormed — Lex could hear the angry pride in her voice and couldn’t help feeling just a little ashamed at the way he was repaying her. ‘You’ve sabotaged him again somehow!’ the Goddess went on.
‘I’m afraid I can’t take the credit for Lex’s untimely disappearance,’ Jezra said with a shrug. ‘Perhaps that enchanter caught up with him at last.’
The Goddess blanched at the suggestion and opened her mouth to say more but the Judge interrupted her: ‘Continue to dispute this between yourselves, if you wish, but as of now the round has commenced.’
With Lex supposedly gone, the players were all now to start at the same time, for a stand-in companion was forbidden to take advantage of the headstart that had been won by the player. The Judge disappeared and the prophet turned and set off in the direction of the Space Ladders.
‘What are you waiting for?’ Jezra snapped at Lex, aiming a kick at him to get him going. Lex hurried off, leaving the Gods to argue.
‘Well, there’s one way to settle this,’ the Goddess of Fortune snapped. ‘You there!’
Schmidt looked up and caught the apple the Goddess threw him.
‘I want to talk to Lex!’
‘My Lady, if Lex really has been compromised by an enchanter then I’ll become trapped in his place,’ Schmidt protested. ‘Punished for something I didn’t do-’
‘That’s the price of being a companion!’ the Goddess snapped. ‘If Lex isn’t here then you have to take his place. I only need a few minutes. Now do as you’re told and swap places with him!’
Unwilling to bring a deity’s wrath down upon himself, Schmidt reluctantly raised his hand and bit into the apple. Of course, Jezra and Lex had not been foolish enough to forget the Binding Bracelets when they were making their plans. They had simply factored them in. As soon as Lex got past all the warning signs that were stuck in the mud around the perimeter of the Space Ladders, he had taken some handkerchiefs out of his bag and gagged and blindfolded himself with them. Then he’d bound himself hand and foot with the rope — which had been no easy feat, considering the fact that he couldn’t see. The ropes didn’t need to hold for long — only a few moments, for Lex had broken off a piece of biscuit and put it on his tongue and he knew that the lawyer would automatically swallow this almost as soon as they changed places.
He didn’t have to wait very long before he was suddenly standing before the two Gods in Schmidt’s body, the taste of apple still in his mouth. ‘My Lady,’ he gasped. ‘Help me, I don’t know where I am! I woke up in this strange-’
And that was all he had time to say before Schmidt swallowed the biscuit and they changed back.
‘You imbecile!’ the Goddess raged at him. ‘That wasn’t enough time! What did you do, stuff the first piece of food you saw straight into your mouth?’
‘I couldn’t see anything,’ Schmidt protested. ‘He’s tied up and blindfolded. I don’t know where. I doubt Lex knows.’
‘I told you the enchanter would get him,’ Jezra said with a smirk. ‘It’ll take you a while to find him, you know. The Game will be long over by then.’
Then Jezra disappeared, apparently quite oblivious to the fact that the Goddess of Luck was staring daggers at him. After ordering Schmidt on to the Space Ladders, the Lady went to go and look for Lex herself and Schmidt was left standing alone at the edge of the Ladder Forest. The Space Ladders were usually a favourite tourist spot, and parents brought their children to see them stretching away into the dark, inky blackness, but today the area had been kept clear for the Game.
Schmidt laughed softly under his breath and then turned and strode towards the Space Ladders. It was normally forbidden to get too close — people were only allowed onto the carefully positioned viewing platforms. There were warning signs written on wooden boards and stuck into the mud all around, which tended to go along the lines of ‘DANGER’, ‘TURN BACK’, ‘MORTAL PERIL’ and so on. They got the job done anyway. Schmidt weaved between them and carefully rested his hands on the fence that guarded the perimeter. When he looked down over the edge, there they were — thousands and thousands of ladders stretching down towards the bottom half of the planet. It was a maze — there were just so many of them, so many different routes to take. The griffin could have made its home anywhere.
Schmidt couldn’t see the prophet — his black robes camouflaged him perfectly in the dark skies of space. But he could still see Lex, standing below on one of the central platforms, obviously trying to decide which way to go from there. There were rope ladders, wooden ladders and a whole steel staircase all leading off from the one platform, going down in different directions.
‘Hey!’ Schmidt shouted over the edge.
He saw Lex look up. ‘Mr Schmidt?’
‘Wait there for me!’ the old lawyer called.
Then he swung his leg over the fence and stepped onto the uppermost staircase. Lex stared up in horror as he realised that the old fool was actually intending to join him! That was no good — as Lucius, he would be expected to actually be polite! And slow and useless and to lose! He stood there, fuming, trying to remain calm as Schmidt slowly scaled the ladders to catch up with him.
‘Mr Schmidt, this really isn’t necessary,’ Lex said once the lawyer had joined him on the platform. ‘I can’t let you put yourself in danger on my account. Please, go back to the ship.’
‘Nonsense, my boy,’ Schmidt said, in the kindliest tone Lex had ever heard him use. ‘I couldn’t abandon you down here alone. Especially since Lex spitefully lost you your companion. Besides, I have to take Lex’s place now that he’s gone. We might as well go on together. Accompanying you is the very least I can do.’
Lex stared at the lawyer. He had not been expecting this. He’d expected Schmidt to be glad of the opportunity to escape the most dangerous round. Surely he couldn’t be that fond of Lucius?
‘I’m grateful for the thought, sir,’ Lex said desperately, ‘but I just couldn’t… these ladders will be so difficult for you to climb and… The Gods won’t like it if we go on together.’
‘I hardly think that matters now, Lucius,’ Schmidt said. ‘We both know the prophet is going to win, so we might as well travel together.’
Lex just about managed to resist the urge to wring his hands in frustration. He simply couldn’t think of any way around this without admitting to Schmidt who he really was. If they continued together, Schmidt would be sure
