‘How dare you raise your hand against my sister!’ Jeremiah roared. ‘A defenceless child less than half your size! You are a coward, sir!’
Tess was on her feet now, staying close to her brother’s side. And clutching the medallion. Jesse must have dropped it when he’d grabbed the octopus from her.
‘Shut up, you prat!’ Lex snapped. ‘Don’t you know what just happened? Your sister was holding one of the most toxic creatures in the world!’ He looked at Tess and said, ‘It didn’t bite you?’
She shook her head silently, her eyes wide.
‘My companion just saved her life!’ Lex raged at Jeremiah.
Jeremiah? because he was, after all, something of a twit? looked suspiciously at Jesse, who was still nursing his jaw, and said cautiously, ‘Well, if that’s true then I… I’m in your debt.’
The cowboy shrugged. ‘Think nothing of it, kid. I-’
But that was as far as he got before breaking off to clutch at his chest with a horrible gasp. And that was when Lex first noticed the ugly blue rings rising up on the cowboy’s right hand.
‘Oh my Gods,’ Lex practically whispered. ‘It bit you!’
Jesse tried to croak a reply but no words came out. He was still staring in horror at his hand as his knees hit the floor and he crumpled to the deck.
CHAPTER TEN
The Scurleyshoo Death burst above the surface into the glittering sunlight. The force field above them vanished, the water all around them disappeared and suddenly the ship was floating on the surface of the ocean for the first time in hundreds of years. The toffs over at the teashop were cheering their fool heads off, clearly quite delighted by the sight of the ship shooting to the surface in an explosion of foam, especially as it currently had a giant octopus entwined all around it. But the only thing Lex was aware of was Jesse, crumpled motionless on the deck. No known antidote, wasn’t that what the book had said?
Of course people died in the Games. That was partly what made them exciting? there was genuine danger and genuine peril. But it was not supposed to be Lex’s companion who died.
A bare moment after the ship broke the surface, the captain succeeded in driving a spear right through one of Gloria’s tentacles and was standing there, roaring his triumph in the middle of the deck, when another tentacle suddenly curled around him and plucked him up and over the side of the ship. Suddenly all the tentacles were gone, Gloria was gone and Captain Jed Saltworthy was gone. A matter of seconds later, the crew all vanished: faded away like wandering ghosts. People said later that it must have been because Gloria had bitten the captain’s foolish head off and that his death, too, was sufficient to break the curse over the crew, who were finally free to rest in peace.
But Lex was aware of none of this, for he was too overcome with horror at the sight of Jesse, sprawled on the deck. One of the companions in the last Game had been killed by the medusa during the first round but Lex simply hadn’t cared. After all, the man had been a mean-looking gangster. He’d probably had it coming. But Jesse had only been trying to save a little girl. It wasn’t fair that he was dead. It wasn’t right.
Matters were not improved when the three Gods appeared beside them on the now-deserted deck. Kala practically snatched the captain’s medallion from Tess, smirking with glee over her prize whilst the other Gods stood by sulkily looking distinctly unhappy? as losing Gods usually did.
‘The first round goes to me!’ Kala crowed gleefully.
Jeremiah? to his credit? did not look particularly pleased about winning. His hand was gripped tightly around his sister’s and he didn’t appear to be able to tear his eyes away from the cowboy at his feet.
‘You humiliated me at the Wither City!’ Lex hissed in a voice that was full of bitterness. ‘You cheated me out of the first round! And now my companion is dead because of you! I’ll make you pay for this, if it’s the last thing I ever do!’
‘Give it your best shot, thief!’ Kala said with a horrible smile. ‘We’ll be ready for you!’ She placed her hand on Jeremiah’s shoulder and they, and Tess, disappeared. The round now over, they had presumably returned to Jeremiah’s ship.
‘Bad luck, my Lady,’ Thaddeus said with mock sympathy. ‘But you know what they say: there’s always someone who kicks the bucket in the first round. Just be grateful it wasn’t your player himself.’
‘At least my player came close to winning the round!’ Lady Luck snapped. ‘He did not fall at the first hurdle with those enchanted dolphins as your enchantress did!’
Thaddeus instantly looked less pleased with himself and disappeared from the deck with a scowl, presumably to go and retrieve his player. At the same time, the Goddess of Luck waved her arm and she, Lex and Jesse disappeared from the deck of the Scurleyshoo Death and instantly reappeared on the bridge of Lex’s enchanted ship.
‘How could you let this happen?’ Lex rounded on her at once.
‘Oh, my dear, I know it’s a horrible thing but… well…’ Lady Luck fluttered her hands miserably. ‘Little accidents do happen during Games, you know.’
‘Little accidents? Jesse is dead!’ He shuddered even to say it. The words were horrible in his ears, and horrible in his mouth. This was not the way it was supposed to be at all.
‘Lex, you know the reality of the Games. This is what you sign up for.’
That might be what other, less talented players signed up for, but it was not what Lex signed up for. After all, Mr Schmidt had lived through the whole of the last Game with no serious injuries whatsoever, and he’d been a doddering old lawyer. Jesse had been a swarthy cowboy. It just wasn’t fair. And, to make it even worse, Lex couldn’t help feeling that he was at least partially to blame for it. After all, if he hadn’t gone after Jesse and convinced him to play in the Game then he wouldn’t have been there in the first place. Or if he had just told Jeremiah and Tess about the poisonous octopuses then Tess would never have picked one up.
‘He shouldn’t have intervened!’ Lex raged angrily. ‘It was his own stupid fault! He shouldn’t have concerned himself about what Tess East was or wasn’t doing! She was the enemy! It was no concern of ours if she killed herself!’
‘I agree, dear,’ Lady Luck said tearfully. ‘It was a silly thing for him to do. And it’s a dreadful shame. Really, it is.’
She glanced out the window at the sudden sound of cheers and noticed that Jeremiah’s boat was pulling out of the harbour.
‘We’d better set off for Olaree, dear,’ she said. ‘That’s where the second round is to take place. We’ll go up on deck and bury poor Jesse at sea along the way.’
Lex stared at her dumbly. Would she be this fickle when Lex himself finally died? Shed a tear or two, look suitably pained for five minutes and then flit off in search of the next thing to occupy her flighty mind?
‘Look, I can’t just tip him over the edge of the boat-’ he began, but then he broke off suddenly, eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Did he.. Did he just move?’
‘Move?’ the Goddess replied blankly. ‘He’s dead, Lex. There are blue rings all over his hand.’
‘I thought I saw him move just then.’
‘Oh, my dear, I know that’s what you want to believe, but I’m afraid that-’ But then she, too, broke off with a startled exclamation.
They had both seen it this time. Jesse’s hand had definitely moved.
‘Perhaps that’s a death twitch,’ Lady Luck said, peering a little closer.
‘Gahhhh!’ croaked Jesse.
‘Perhaps that’s a death rattle,’ the Goddess suggested.
Lex pushed her aside impatiently. ‘No, he’s alive! How is this possible?’
The cowboy was, indeed, alive. As Lex and Lady Luck goggled at him in astonishment, he suddenly propped himself up on his elbows with a great shuddering breath that sounded extremely painful.
‘He’s alive!’ Lady Luck screeched in alarm. ‘What wizardry is this? Don’t get too close, Lex! He might be a
