the noose clearly making it painful for him to speak.
‘Shut up!’ Lex snapped. Turning back to the cowboys he said, ‘I want the satisfaction of seeing that bastard hanged and then? if you don’t object? I’d like the body. I’d be happy to pay you for it, of course.’
That caused a pleased smile to spread across their faces. ‘Sure,’ one said, ‘we’ll sell him to you. He’d only be wasted on the vultures, otherwise.’
Jeremiah leaned closer and hissed in Lex’s ear, ‘Just what sort of rescue is this?’
Lex nudged him hard in the ribs to shut him up.
‘Look, fellas,’ Jesse said hoarsely, starting to sound rather desperate. ‘Ain’t there some way we can work this out?’
‘No, there ain’t, you good-for-nothin’ double-crosser! If you’ve got any final prayers, say ’em now, because your time in this world is done.’
‘ Lex — ’ Jeremiah tried once again.
‘Sshh!’
‘What’s the matter with him?’ one of the cowboys asked, staring at the nobleman.
‘Him? Oh, he just… he just heard this rumour, that’s all.’
‘What rumour?’
Lex rolled his eyes and said, ‘Some nonsense about that half-wit — ’ he pointed at Jesse? ‘learning some sort of dark magic on a library tree during the Game that we’ve been playing.’
‘Say, I heard he was in a Game,’ one of the cowboys said. ‘How about it, Jesse? Are you gonna curse us all a hundred times over before we hang ya?’
‘I was with him the whole time on that tree,’ Lex said firmly. ‘Almost the whole time, anyway. He didn’t see any magical secrets. And even if he did, he wouldn’t have the sense to know how to use them. Hang him. Go on. Do it now. What are you waiting for? I want him dead!’
‘Lex,’ Jesse croaked. Lex turned his head to meet his eye. There was a beseeching look in the cowboy’s face that was almost painful. ‘Please…’
With his face set like stone, Lex looked at Jesse and said coldly, ‘I told you? more than once? that there would be consequences if you crossed me. Well, you crossed me. And now you’re going to pay for it.’
‘This is outrageous!’ Jeremiah exclaimed standing up. ‘I won’t stand by and watch a man being killed in cold blood-’
He broke off as Lex gripped his wrist and yanked him back down. ‘Close your eyes, then!’ he snapped.
‘Any last words, Jesse?’ one of the cowboys grinned.
‘When I say “go”,’ Lex whispered urgently in Jeremiah’s ear, pressing the reins into his hand, ‘whip the horse up as fast as you can. Doesn’t matter which direction. Just get the cart out of here.’
Then he hopped down on to the ground, as if he wanted to get a closer view of the imminent hanging. As casually as he could, he moved a little closer towards Rusty.
‘Yeah, I got some last words,’ Jesse said, glaring ferociously at Lex. ‘You just better hope this rope don’t break, you little brat, because if it does then I’ll be coming straight for you, soon as I’ve finished with these guys.’
‘Brave words for a man what’s strung up by his neck,’ one of the cowboys laughed. ‘Shame you ain’t gettin’ outta this in one piece. Not this time. This is for double-crossin’ us. I sure hope it was worth it.’
And? with that? the cowboy kicked the stake out from beneath Jesse’s feet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The red Swann was already in Lex’s hand and he started to mutter the wish under his breath as fast as he could the moment the cowboy’s leg moved towards the wooden stake, praying to the Gods all the while that the name on the coffin was correct.
‘I wish that Jesse Layton and Clint Davis would change places!’
To those watching, it seemed that, at the very moment the noose tightened around Jesse’s neck, the cowboy disappeared and some fat bloke appeared in his place, dangling lifelessly at the end of the rope. Everyone stared. Some yelled in fright. Others reached for their pistols. After all, nothing protects you from a swinging fat man like a few rounds of bullets.
Lex shouted, ‘ Go!’ and positively vaulted on to Rusty’s back. Jeremiah whipped up the horse with such zeal that the wagon shot straight towards the open desert. Lex paused just long enough to shout, ‘It’s all true! Jesse Layton has become a sorcerer! He’ll see us all dead for this!’
Then he dug in his heels and raced after the wagon. As he did so, he could just see, out of the corner of his eye, many of the other cowboys scattering towards their own horses, setting off in random directions in their haste to be away from the most unnatural hanging any of them had ever had the misfortune to witness.
They’d been riding for quite some time before Lex finally slowed Rusty down to a halt. In the blistering heat, such a mad-dash ride was extremely unpleasant. Lex’s shirt was clinging to him and he was so thirsty that his throat burned and itched like he’d been drinking sand. Jeremiah stopped the wagon beside Lex and looked over at him with a slightly wild expression on his face as he said, ‘What in the world just happened back there? Where’s Jesse? Is he in the coffin? Is he all right?’
‘I dunno,’ Lex replied. ‘Let’s ask him.’ He slid off Rusty’s back, then clambered up on to the back of the wagon, thumped on the wooden lid of the coffin and said loudly, ‘Hey, Jesse! Are you in there and, if so, are you all right?’
‘Let me outta this thing!’ Came the muffled response. ‘I feel like I’m being cooked! And it stinks like the bejesus, too!’
‘For Gods’ sake, Lex, let him out!’ Jeremiah said.
‘First things first,’ Lex replied firmly. He rapped on the lid of the coffin again and said, ‘What did you do with my sword?’
‘Sword?’ Jeremiah said. ‘What sword?’
‘Here’s the deal, Jesse,’ Lex said calmly. ‘You’re not getting out of this coffin until I say so. And, believe me, I’ll see you buried in it before I let you out without getting my sword back first.’
There was a long moment of silence before Jesse’s voice came out reluctantly. ‘Rusty’s got it, dammit. Didn’t have time to do anything with it. It’s in one of the saddlebags.’
Lex hopped off the wagon and went straight over to Rusty. Inside the larger saddlebag he did, indeed, find the sword, along with his black Swann.
‘Lex, what the heck just happened back there?’ Jeremiah demanded. ‘How did you manage to switch them like that?’
‘I’m a great magician,’ Lex replied, transferring the Swann to his pocket and the sword to his bag which, being magical, easily accommodated it.
‘What is that black swan?’ Jeremiah asked. ‘It looks like our Dragons. And that sword, Lex? where did you get it?’
Lex ignored the questions and went back to the coffin to undo the brass clasps and let Jesse out before he could be cooked to a crisp.
‘You wretched little brat! I’ll get you for this!’ were the first words out of the cowboy’s mouth.
He sat up in the coffin, looking hot, sweaty and dishevelled. An angry red mark ran all the way around his neck. It looked extremely painful, which pleased Lex. Even though Jesse hadn’t actually been responsible for the blow Lex had taken to the head, he felt a bit of resentment towards him for it, anyway.
‘Get me for what?’ Lex replied carelessly. ‘Saving your life? You ought to be thanking me!’
‘You cut it too fine!’ Jesse snarled. ‘I almost had my neck wrung like a turkey whilst you were pratting about making your little performance!’
‘The performance is important, you simpleton!’ Lex replied. ‘Otherwise they might have thought I had something to do with your miraculous escape. They needed to believe I wanted you dead. Besides, don’t you think
