Schmidt rolled his eyes at him and started to climb the nearest ladder back to the Lands Above. Lucius made to do the same but Lex stopped him. ‘I realise this doesn’t make much difference now,’ he said. ‘But if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t leave. It seemed easier to be selfish at the time but… now I wish I’d stayed and had those last months with him. You were much braver than I was. I’m sorry I left you to do it by yourself.’
‘I understand why you left,’ Lucius replied. ‘It doesn’t matter now. Look, will you come back to the farm with me? Just for a little while?’
‘Sure,’ Lex replied. ‘For a while. Schmidt certainly seems eager to get home,’ he remarked, looking up to where the lawyer was now clinging from a twisting rope ladder some way above them.
‘Well, I’m just glad it’s over and we all survived,’ Lucius said. ‘Now we can go home and just try and forget this ever happened.’
He moved over to the nearest ladder and put his foot on the bottom rung but when he glanced back over his shoulder he realised Lex hadn’t followed him. His eyes widened in fascinated horror as he saw what his brother was doing. ‘Er… do you think you should really be doing that?’ he called.
‘Their mother was killed because of the Game,’ Lex replied, picking up another griffin egg and placing it carefully in his bag. ‘They’ll die out here on their own.’
‘Yes but, Lex, you don’t know anything about looking after-’
‘I’ll learn,’ Lex replied, placing the last of the eggs in his bag and standing up. ‘Keep this under your hat, though, okay? I don’t think Schmidt would like it very much.’
When they climbed up the last ladder onto the Lands Above once more, Jezra and Lady Luck were waiting at the perimeter for them. Jezra was holding a trophy and a medal and wearing a smug smile but this was wiped off his face when Lucius climbed out from the ladders after Lex and Schmidt. He stared from one to the other, trying to work out which was which but they really did look identical now and in the end he was forced to address them both, ‘Which one of you is Lex?’
Lex raised his hand. ‘I am, Lord Jezra. Sorry but as she’s very graciously indicated that she’d be willing to have me back, I’ve decided to return to Lady Luck so I’m winning this Game for her now, not for you.’
‘But why?’ Jezra asked, looking baffled.
‘You told the enchanter Lucius was me and got him sent to the Lands Beneath,’ Lex said, raising an eyebrow. ‘Lady Luck saved all our lives.’
Jezra gave an impatient shake of his blond head. ‘But I did that to save you,’ he protested. ‘Would you rather I’d sent the enchanter after you instead?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, tough! I wanted you to win the Game. Lucius is of no use to me.’
‘But he’s of use to me,’ Lex said. ‘Occasionally.’
‘I clearly underestimated you,’ Jezra said coldly. ‘I thought winning the Game was the most important thing in the world to you and yet you jeopardised it all because of your useless, gutless twin.’
‘Yes, but I still won,’ Lex said calmly. ‘Where’s the Judge gone anyway?’
‘Back to the Lands Beneath,’ Lady Luck said. ‘I’m afraid he’s more suited to those simpler, more logical glass Races. He’s quite good at them, apparently, but he doesn’t understand humans, you see. And when his prophet was killed he didn’t think there was much point in sticking around. He always was a sore loser.’
‘So do I get my trophy now or what?’ Lex asked, greedily eyeing the large golden cup in Jezra’s hands.
‘Yes, come on, Jezra,’ the Goddess said, clicking her tongue impatiently. ‘Hand me the trophies so I can present them to my winner.’
Jezra scowled blackly and thrust the trophy and medallion moodily towards the Goddess.
‘Give me your crystal ball,’ she said to Lex.
He dug it out of his pocket and handed it to her. As she held it in her hand it seemed to get bigger so that eventually she had to put it down on the ground and it became as tall as she was. Lex saw the image of a stadium inside it. He thought he could practically smell the popcorn and the hotdogs as the roar of hundreds of spectators came through to him. They were watching the footage from the final round. Not only had Lex Trent obtained the griffin’s feather, but he had also been down to the forbidden Lands Beneath and lived to tell the tale before defeating an enchanter on the Space Ladders! The crowd was going wild — they had never, in the whole history of the Games, seen anything like this before.
Of course, the footage did not make it clear that it was Lex’s fault Lucius had been sent down there in the first place. Nor did it make it obvious that Schmidt was the one who had thrown the faery bottle at the enchanter and not Lex. All in all, the edited footage made him look even more dashingly daring and courageous than he really was. Lex Trent was the greatest player anyone had ever seen. He had won every round. He had defeated a medusa and a minotaur simultaneously; he had escaped from mad kings and draglings by the skin of his teeth; he had thwarted a wicked witch; he had climbed the Space Ladders; been down to the Lands Beneath and won the Game almost effortlessly. Lex’s ego swelled even further at the sight of the picture being painted of him. But — at the end of the day — wasn’t it all true? Had he not, indeed, done all of those things and more? What an extraordinary person he was!
Then the footage caught up to where they all were in real life — passing straight over the quarrel between Lady Luck and Jezra to the part where the Goddess of Fortune was standing ready to present the trophy to Lex. She nodded at him and he took the by-now-rather-squashed griffin feather out of his pocket and handed it to her. The gold medallion she held had a big, bold 1 ^ st engraved on it and shone impressively in the light from the sun. It was on a golden chain and as Lex bent his head for the Goddess to put it around his neck, the applause of the crowd ringing in his ears, he took a mental snapshot of the moment so that he could take it out and look at it for that special sense of smugness whenever he wanted to in the years to come. As the medal was placed around his neck and the trophy pressed into his hands, the Binding Bracelets on Lex and Schmidt’s wrists both fell off at the same time, signalling the fact that the Game had at last come to an end.
That evening, when the three humans and the ferret were settled on the bridge, eating dinner as the magical ship flew over the waves, Schmidt looked up and said to Lex, ‘You realise that if I ever see you in the Wither City again after this, I’ll have to have you arrested?’
Lex raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Does that mean you’re not going to keep chasing me?’
Schmidt made a hopeless little gesture. ‘It’s more than my life is worth to try and chase you. I really don’t want to know what kind of things you’re going to get yourself involved in next. Anyway I’m tired. I want to go home.’
‘Well, I’m turning over a new leaf anyway,’ Lex replied. ‘I’m not going to steal, lie or cheat any more. Once we’ve dropped you at the Wither City, I’m going back to the farm for a while with Lucius.’
This was true… in a sense. He was going back to the farm with Lucius. But he did not intend to stay there long. There was still the Shadowman to consider, and the fact that some copycat thief thought they could steal Lex’s notoriety. He had played the Game as Lex Trent but now it would be good to get back to the Shadowman (or some new, improved, superior version of him) for a little while before it was too late. Before — perish the thought — he forgot how to do it.
‘No more Games then?’ Schmidt asked, watching Lex intently.
‘Nope,’ Lex lied easily. ‘I’ve got my trophy. Now I’m going to try and do something constructive with my clever mind. Perhaps I’ll become a lawyer after all in one of the other provinces. From now on, Mr Schmidt, I’m on the straight and narrow.’
THREE MONTHS LATER
The crowd magically seemed to part for the hooded figure as it weaved its way through the bustling central square, stopping at the steps leading up to the huge stone tablet at the centre. At the top, some disgruntled schoolkids were resignedly copying down the names on all four sides of the tablet. By the time the hooded figure located the name he was looking for, the teachers had all rather hurriedly ushered the kids back down the steps, leaving the newcomer alone at the top.
