possibly weeks? to get to the top, and by that time he would have missed the start of the Game. No doubt, that was what they’d intended.
But, as it was, he was not overly worried about the penalty round. After all, it wasn’t even a race between him and the other competitors this time, it was just a question of completing the task, and Lex had complete confidence in his own capabilities. He’d get that blasted egg, he’d jump through hoops if they wanted him to, and it would only make his eventual glory and triumph all the sweeter…
Lex and Lady Luck were sitting in the squishy armchairs on the bridge. Jesse was there, too, sprawled on the floor with his back against the wall because he said he found it more comfortable than sitting in the chairs or perching on the window seat. To Lex’s irritation, Silvi? the female griffin? had settled herself down next to Jesse and was currently sleeping with her head on his lap.
‘You do realise she’s dribbling on you, right?’ Lex said, hoping that the cowboy would push Silvi away and that she’d then go over to him instead.
But Jesse just gave a lazy shrug. Lex hated it when Silvi dribbled on him but that was because he was an absolute stickler for cleanliness whereas Jesse did not seem at all bothered. After all, he was a rough-and-ready cowboy, sorely in need of a shave and a haircut, so what was a bit of griffin drool to a person like that?
When he first sat down, Jesse had lit up a thin, vile-smelling cigarette but Lex ordered him to put it out, on principle. If Lex was going to learn how to be a cowboy then he was going to have to get used to the disgusting scent and taste of tobacco but he was damned if he was going to allow his bridge to smell like an ashtray.
‘You smoke outside or not at all,’ he told Jesse sternly, whereupon Lady Luck had simpered that she’d always liked a man with a cigar.
‘It’s not a cigar! It’s a weedy cigarette; a disgusting habit and a mark of gross stupidity! Don’t you know those things kill you?’ Lex demanded.
But Jesse just said, ‘We all gotta go sometime, partner.’
Lex felt his lip curl in derision at the obtuseness of that statement. It was a sign of an amateur not to think things through and Jesse’s remark clearly showed that he didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. Lex knew everyone had to die sometime, but he did not particularly fancy dying slowly from some Gods-awful disease of the lungs, coughing and spluttering in agony all day and night, wishing to the Gods that he’d smoked a few less cigarettes and done a bit more exercise. Lex loved reckless adventuring so much that he was absolutely determined to continue it for as many years as possible. There was therefore no way on earth that he was smoking so much as one single cigarette, not even to achieve the scam of convincing other cowboys that he was one of them. He would find some way around it. He would find some way to cheat. He wasn’t going to poison his own lungs for anyone or anything.
‘Well, I’d better be off,’ Lady Luck said once the penalty round had been explained. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Lex.’
She stood up but, before she could leave, Lex said, ‘Is there anything else I need to know? About the Game, I mean? Seeing as I missed most of the feast.’
‘Oh, no, dear. You’ve done it all before; you know what to do.’
Jesse looked up. ‘Er… some things are gonna be different this time round though, ain’t they?’
‘What do you mean?’ Lex asked sharply.
‘There were some new rules announced at the feast.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Lady Luck said. ‘So there were. Dear me, how silly to forget that.’
She sat back down in the armchair and started fussing, rearranging her long white skirts whilst Lex resisted the urge to throttle her. New rules! New rules and they’d only thought to mention them to him now! If it hadn’t been for the cowboy he wouldn’t have found out at all!
‘Tell me everything,’ he said. ‘That’s if you think you can remember it all correctly.’
The Goddess pouted and said, ‘Don’t be churlish, Lex. I must say I’m starting to tire a bit of all this sulking. You were so excited and delighted when I told you there was going to be another Game and I thought we were going to have such fun together, just like we did last time.’ She almost looked tearful for a moment and Lex was just experiencing a faint flicker of guilt when she suddenly turned cold and said in rather a vicious voice, ‘I most certainly can remember the new rules if you think you can sit still and listen to them without interrupting me!’
Lex nodded, accepting the dressing-down meekly because it didn’t do to upset any of the Gods too much, even his own.
‘Right then,’ Lady Luck said? the angry look instantly gone from her face and replaced with a pleasant smile. She plucked at her skirts and patted her mass of blond hair, checking that the strings of pearls threaded through it were all in place. Then she lifted her head and said, ‘After the last Game and your spectacular victory there was a lot of renewed interest in the Games not just for gambling purposes but for the sake of pure entertainment. You simply wowed everyone with what you achieved last time, my dear.’
Lex usually lapped up praise but even this didn’t make him feel much better as he recalled how people had been pointing and sniggering at him back in the Wither City. They may have loved him for a while but fame was a fickle thing and it seemed quite clear that everyone was absolutely determined to transfer the adoration they’d once had for Lex on to Jeremiah East for no other reason than that he looked the part and had a famous grandfather. Sometimes it just seemed like there was no justice in the world at all.
‘So this time,’ Lady Luck went on, ‘we have changed things a little and added a few extra rules, just to spice it up and make things more interesting.’
Lex thought it had already been pretty interesting, what with the constant mortal peril and threat of a sticky, messy death, but he listened intently to what her Ladyship was saying, anyway. Change was always a good thing for Lex because it gave him an advantage in that he adapted very quickly to it? much quicker than most people did, in fact. So the more different it was, the better, because Lex could embrace change whilst everyone else got thrown by it. It was just like when he’d been at school and always preferred unscheduled closed-book exams because, whilst his classmates had been twiddling with their pens, desperately trying to remember a few pertinent facts, Lex had been scribbling away, reading from the library in his head, for he could remember practically every word he’d read.
‘The basic structure will be the same,’ Lady Luck said. ‘There will still be three rounds, each one chosen by a different participating God. But this time the dates and locations of the rounds were announced in advance at the feast. This was so that people could start getting excited about it but also so that they’re better able to book time off work. We want as many spectators as possible, after all-’
‘Hang on,’ Lex interrupted. ‘Are you saying that everyone already knows where the rounds of this Game are going to be?’ He bit his tongue to keep from adding? ‘Everyone but me?’
‘Yes, dear. They don’t know exactly, of course, that would ruin the fun. But they know the rough area. Kala is up first. Her round is to be at the Sea Volcanoes. Thaddeus’s round will be on one of the Lost Islands. And mine will be at Dry Gulch.’ The Lady patted down her dress absent-mindedly and said, ‘I think I have a spare copy of the itinerary in here somewhere… Yes; here it is.’
She pulled a crumpled piece of paper out from the front of her dress and handed it to Lex, who just about managed not to grimace. ‘What else do you keep down there?’ he asked.
The Goddess rolled her eyes and said, ‘You’ll find the dates written down on that. The rounds are each a week apart? we thought it would be easier for the spectators to get days off from work that way? so you’ll have a bit of time in between and there are inn rooms booked for each of you at every location to make use of or not as you like, but I thought you’d probably just choose to stay on the boat.’
‘I will,’ Lex replied. ‘Everywhere but Dry Gulch. I want to stay in Dry Gulch House the week before the third round.’
‘Don’t be silly, dear,’ Lady Luck laughed. ‘Only cowboys are allowed to stay there. Surely you know that? There are enough stories told about the place, after all.’
‘Exactly. Jesse’s going to teach me how to pass myself off as a cowboy so that I can look for the Sword of Life.’
‘Oh, I see,’ the Goddess replied, sounding unsurprised. ‘Well, if anyone can find it, dear, it’s you.’
‘Right.’ Lex pocketed the itinerary, intending to examine it more closely later, and said, ‘Well, what other new rules are there?’
‘We’ve altered the way the points’ system works slightly,’ Lady Luck replied. ‘Now you don’t just get points for winning the round? you can also get hero points, too.’
