‘She’s not as big as I would’ve thought,’ Jesse said, nevertheless looking impressed for the first time since boarding the ship. ‘Baby, is she?’
‘Three months,’ Lex replied. ‘Her brothers are much bigger? they’re almost full grown already. They’re probably out on deck. Come on, Silvi.’
The griffin jumped off the bed, loped over to Lex and stayed by his side as they went out to the open deck. The other two griffins were indeed there and were much larger than their sister, coming up to Lex’s shoulder. They were both lounging contentedly in the sun, although they lifted their heads when Lex and Jesse came on to the deck.
‘The grey one is Lukah,’ Lex said, pointing. ‘And the black one is Monty. Watch out for him; he’s really bad tempered and he doesn’t much like anyone but me. They’ll probably get used to you in the end but for now don’t touch any of them except Silvi.’
The only other people who had met the griffins were Lucius? who’d practically cringed in terror whenever one of them came near him? and Zachary, whom the griffins had all taken an instant dislike to, quite possibly because Lex had turned the man into a ferret during the course of the last Game. The griffins seemed to be able to smell it on him still, even now. It made a pleasant change to show them to Jesse when the cowboy was quite obviously as impressed by them as he should be.
They had been up on deck for only a few minutes when Lady Luck appeared beside them.
‘This is-’ Lex began, intending to introduce Jesse.
But the cowboy, it seemed, needed no one to do the introductions.
‘The Goddess of Good Fortune, of course,’ he said, sweeping off his hat with a flourish and giving a gallant bow. ‘My Lady, I would recognise your beauty anywhere.’
‘Dear me, how sweet you are,’ Lady Luck fluttered girlishly. ‘Lex, who is this charming-’
‘Jesse Layton, ma’am. At your service,’ the cowboy said, straightening up and actually taking one of the Goddess’s gloved hands to press a kiss to the back of it.
Lex was quite, quite horrified. How had he not foreseen this? Lady Luck loved scoundrels and rogues and rotters and rascals. Lex himself was, of course, all of those things but so, clearly, was Jesse. And whilst Lex was usually glad of his honest face? for it made scams so much easier when you looked like a gutless twerp? he had to admit that, on occasion, the scarred, stubbled, rugged look would come in handy, too.
‘Oh, good choice, Lex,’ Lady Luck gushed. ‘I like this one much better than that lawyer.’
‘Yes, I’m sure he’ll do just fine,’ Lex said, practically slapping Jesse’s hand out of the Goddess’s and giving him rather an evil look as he did it.
He did not mind double-crossing Lady Luck and, indeed, he had done it before, but he was not favourably inclined towards being double-crossed himself and a God could only have one player. Lex didn’t like the way the Goddess was looking at Jesse? not one bit.
‘Is there something you want particularly or have you just dropped by to get in the way?’ Lex snapped.
‘Someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning,’ the Goddess huffed and Lex cursed himself for being bad tempered when Jesse, drat him, was being so pleasant.
‘I just thought you’d like to know,’ Lady Luck said coolly, ‘that I have it on good authority that Kala is planning to use Jeremiah East as her player.’
‘Jeremiah… East?’
‘That’s right,’ the Goddess said with a smile. ‘The grandson of the famous Carey East himself.’
CHAPTER THREE
This was the first occasion in a long while that the Game had been announced ahead of time. Since the last Game, and Lex’s spectacular victory, interest seemed to have increased in the players themselves and it was now a little bit about hero-worshipping as well as about the gambling. There was even to be a feast, two nights before the Game was due to start, when the Gods would officially name their players.
Lex was quite beside himself with excitement to hear that Kala, Goddess of the Stars, was going to be using Jeremiah East, the grandson of the great adventurer about whom he? and, indeed, the rest of the world? had heard so many stories, most of which had been written by Lex’s own grandfather, Alistair Trent, as Carey East’s Chronicler.
Lex was not the only one who had found out about Jeremiah ahead of time. Word had got around that the young nobleman was coming to the Wither City and it was not all that hard to put two and two together. Carey East and Alistair Trent had been a famous pair in their time and already the newspapers were making a big to-do about the possibility of their grandsons being pitched together in a thrilling Game of wits and derring-do.
Jeremiah’s ship arrived in the Wither City the next day. Quite a little crowd had turned out to welcome him and people lined the harbour, stuffed in like sardines around the closed-up stalls of the midnight markets. Lex had considered watching the proceedings from the deck of his own ship so as not to get jostled and shoved by the masses but decided against it for the simple reason that he just couldn’t wait to meet Jeremiah. So he went down to the docks and Jesse went with him to see what all the fuss was about.
Lex had met Carey East just once, almost eleven years ago, when he and Lucius had been six years old. Their parents had been killed about a year previously when a water witch sank their boat, and Alistair Trent had retired from adventuring to look after them. When Carey East came by for a surprise visit one day, he brought presents for both Lex and Lucius and stayed with them until the next morning. Lex had never seen his grandfather so happy and he remembered Carey East being a large, loud, bluff, yet refined man. Of course, Carey East died two years later whilst battling with a sea serpent. But he had been the most famous, the most noble adventurer the world had ever seen and Lex was extremely proud of the association the Trents had with the Easts — a strong, unbreakable tie between two fine families stretching back across three generations…
So, when the gangplank was lowered over the side of the grand ship, Lex was right there beside the red carpet, next to the mayor himself. When Jeremiah appeared at the top of the gangplank there could be no doubt whatsoever that it was him. He was, to put it frankly, the most handsome person Lex had ever seen in his life. People started to cheer and wave flags. It didn’t matter that the only noteworthy thing Jeremiah East had done so far was to appear in view; he simply looked like the sort of person people cheered and waved flags at. The people who didn’t have flags waved their hats. Lex had neither a flag nor a hat so he merely contented himself with grinning stupidly. Usually he would have been a little bit jealous? all right, extremely jealous and irate and resentful? that someone other than himself was basking in the limelight. But when people cheered for Jeremiah and his family, Lex couldn’t help feeling that they were cheering for his family, too. For weren’t the Trents, after all, indistinguishably bound up with the Easts?
Jeremiah momentarily looked taken aback by the crowd’s reaction but then raised his hand to gracefully acknowledge the applause before walking down the gangplank. He wore a royal-blue coat with shiny golden buttons that was probably worth more than all the items of clothing Lex owned put together. He must have been at least six foot, with black hair swept boyishly back from his forehead, blue eyes, white, even teeth and the fine-boned features of a true aristocrat. You could even see it in the way he held himself? with his shoulders back and his head high so that he sort of looked down his nose at everybody. He looked much older, somehow, than his twenty-one years.
‘He fancies himself something rotten, doesn’t he?’ Jesse remarked. He stood on Lex’s left hand side, lounging with his hands in his pockets. ‘Snot-nosed kid, if ever I saw one.’
Lex gaped at him. ‘Snot-nosed-That’s Jeremiah East! He’s refined, that’s all! He’s from one of the most noble families in the world!’
Jesse shrugged placidly and said nothing. Lex turned back in time to see Jeremiah step on to the harbour and shake hands with the mayor.
‘Welcome to the Wither City, Mr East.’
‘I’m very happy to be here,’ Jeremiah replied graciously.
‘This is Lex Trent,’ the mayor said, indicating Lex at his side. ‘He, of course, is-’
