Alex Bell - Fighting with fire

He hadn’t seen Lorella? the enchantress? arrive in the Wither City and so did not know what sort of transportation she was using. He sort of expected it to be another enchanted ship, similar to his own. After all, it was the method of transportation favoured by the enchanters and so it made sense that the enchantresses would use them, too.

But the minutes ticked closer and closer to midday and still there was no sign of an enchanted ship on the horizon, and Lex started to worry that she might not turn up at all. He was aware of Jeremiah looking more and more pleased as the moments crept by but that was because he was an idiot who thought it was only about winning, when actually it was about winning spectacularly, and that was that bit harder to do if the competition was severely reduced before the Game even began. A no-show from Lorella was therefore the very last thing Lex wanted.

At the same time, however, he didn’t want to be shown up by her. And so he was quite annoyed when, five minutes before midday, she finally arrived in a most unexpected way. When the rainbow suddenly appeared in the sky, Lex thought it was something to do with Saydi and her love of all things beautiful, but then he realised that no rainbow? even if it was Saydi’s sun that day? would ever race across the sky quite like that! It was like some sort of glorious shooting star in pink and blue and green, and there were a lot of oohs and aahs from the crowd below as the rainbow spread across the silver sky to finally end right over the pier. And then Lorella materialised from the end of the rainbow? a human shape suddenly forming out of the multitude of colours. There was a figure-hugging, blue velvet dress and masses of long hair that? for a brief moment? sported all the colours of the rainbow before Lorella herself stepped out of it and the multi-colours sparkling about her slowly faded, leaving behind an exceptionally beautiful enchantress who smiled and inclined her head just a little as the crowd of toffs went berserk.

Lex scowled blackly, thinking that both his own and Jeremiah’s arrivals had been most effectively upstaged. The thought made him glance automatically across to Jeremiah’s ship. The same sort of thing was clearly running through Jeremiah’s mind, for he turned his head to look at Lex’s ship at the same time and their eyes met briefly.

But what might have been a shared sympathetic moment was ruined by what had passed between them in the Wither City and they both hastily averted their gazes from one another, glaring back down at Lorella instead and the stunningly beautiful spectacle she was making of herself down on the pier. Well, she certainly knew how to work the crowds, Lex would give her that.

‘Arriving by rainbow!’ Lex scoffed to Jesse. ‘I’ve never heard of anything so grossly over-the-top in my life! It’s pathetic! Isn’t it? Jesse?’

The cowboy shook his head and said, ‘Sexy as all hell was the first thing that came to my mind, kid.’

Lex scowled at him, pointed a stern finger and said, ‘Don’t let yourself get taken in by her… by her feminine wiles! That’s what she wants and I won’t have you messing up the Game for me, is that understood?’

‘A fella can look, can’t he?’ Jesse protested, holding up his hands defensively.

‘No!’ Lex snapped. ‘That’s what everyone else is doing.’ He waved an arm to encompass the noblemen (and women) on the veranda all ogling the enchantress in rather an obvious way. Even Jeremiah was no longer glaring at her. ‘We need to be better than them!’ Lex went on, ‘if we’re to win the Game!’

Just the phrase win the Game sent surges of adrenaline rushing through him and? in that moment, when it was all brand spanking new and just about to begin? Lex practically had to stuff his fist in his mouth to stop himself from shrieking and jumping up and down in uncontrollable excitement at the prospect of what was to come. Another Game! Another Game at last!

Lady Luck was looking quite miffed when she appeared on the deck of Lex’s ship seconds later. No doubt she didn’t exactly appreciate having another player in the Game who seemed to have even more of a flair for the dramatic than Lex did himself.

‘Come on, then,’ she said rather sulkily. ‘Let’s get down to the pier.’

She plucked them from the deck of the ship and a split second later they found themselves standing on the pier alongside Lorella. A moment later, Jeremiah and his companion arrived with Kala and then Thaddeus appeared alongside the enchantress. The crowd fell hushed and the players, companions and Gods all stood looking at each other in a hostile sort of way. There had, after all, been quite a lot of upset and bitterness and the Game had not even begun yet.

Lex couldn’t help nurturing a mild hatred for both Thaddeus and Kala for the petty, cheating way in which they had tried to have him disqualified from the Game merely for being drunk. He found himself feeling unreasonably irritated by Kala’s silly sausage ringlets and little doll-like face? her entire appearance suggesting a sweetness and an innocence that was entirely false. And, as for Thaddeus? why, he practically looked like some sort of actor in a cheap production of a play about demons with that fussy little goatee beard and the OTT long dark cloak. Lady Luck oozed class when viewed beside them, Lex thought smugly to himself, what with her lovely white, toga-like dress and her elegant hairstyle, her masses of blond hair threaded through with strings of pearls. Yes, Lex decided grimly, both he and his Goddess were in an entirely different class from all the others here.

He cast his eye over the companions next. If they’d been at the feast back at the Wither City, he hadn’t noticed them and was not quite sure what to expect. He sort of thought that Jeremiah might have picked a posh fencing instructor with a silly moustache, or perhaps one of his stupid rich friends. What he did not expect to see standing at Jeremiah’s side was a pretty little girl who couldn’t have been more than nine years old. She had lovely long black hair and bright blue eyes. The physical resemblance between her and Jeremiah was undeniable. Unless he had become a father shockingly young, this girl must surely be Jeremiah’s little sister. Perhaps she was the reason Mrs East had looked so miserable. After all, rich people usually got quite excited at the prospect of their handsome, strapping young sons marching off to a noble and glorious death.

Lex stared at the girl. She noticed and stuck her tongue out at him. He grinned, liking her already. And loving the fact that Jeremiah, whether through stupidity, ignorance or accident, had landed himself with a useless companion and a horrible responsibility to have to carry with him through the Game, whilst Lex had practically the most perfect companion imaginable in Jesse? a swarthy, rough-and-ready cowboy. Once again, all the cards seemed to be stacked in his favour before the Game had even begun! When he was so naturally gifted, how could anyone even hope to go up against him and win?

He glanced at Lorella, realising it was probably too much to hope that she would have brought a useless companion, too, but almost half-expecting it just the same. But in fact, when he looked at her, he realised that she did not seem to have any companion at all.

Lady Luck noticed this, too, and said to Thaddeus, ‘Might I ask where your player’s companion is? You do realise she won’t be permitted to play without one?’

‘She has a companion, my Lady,’ Thaddeus replied in a scornful voice before looking at Lorella and saying, ‘Show her.’

The enchantress reached into her pocket and withdrew her hand with her fingers closed around something. When she opened them, everyone leaned forwards a little to see the sprite sitting on her palm. No bigger than the size of a thumb, the sprite wore a tiny pair of dungarees on top of a white t-shirt. Her pointed face and ears were surrounded by a mass of light, feathery hair, one half white and one half blue. A pair of silvery wings were tucked close to her back. And, now that Lex looked closely, he could see a tiny little Binding Bracelet on the sprite’s wrist. Lorella dropped her hand and the sprite fluttered up to sit on the enchantress’s shoulder.