‘Will you play for me, Lex?’ Jezra asked softly. ‘Will you trick Lady Luck as she tricked me and win for me instead of for her in a beautiful, spectacular double cross?’
‘My Lord, it would be an honour to win for you,’ Lex said, still grinning at his reflection and silently thanking his whiskerfish poisoning for giving him such a perfect, flawless disguise.
It was not a very difficult thing for Lex to convince Lucius to go along with the scam, for Lucius was afraid of the Ladder Forest even before he knew what the round entailed. There was, to be fair, something a little bit ominous about all those old ladders of various shapes and sizes just stuck into the ground, like trees without leaves or branches. The Ladder Forest was an accumulation of spares to replace worn-out Space Ladders. This was very important for, without the ladders, the two halves of the planet would drift apart and the Lands Above would lose their Gods. Some even said that the ladders were growing — getting taller and older and darker by the year. And that little ones had started sprouting up, too. People stayed away from them in the main, and the tourists gave them a wide berth when they came to gawk at the Space Ladders.
‘I got you into this,’ Lex said charitably to his brother. ‘And now I’m going to get you out.’
‘What about the Gods, though?’ Lucius whined. ‘They’ll be angry-’
‘They expect cheating,’ Lex said dismissively.
‘I know but-’
‘Look,’ Lex interrupted, ‘it’s simple. All you have to do is hide in the enchanter’s closet until the Game is over. You can manage that, can’t you? Otherwise you’ll have no choice but to go out into the ladders yourself.’
So Lucius had agreed to hide in the cupboard — taking Zachary with him since the ferret would have given the game away, for he wouldn’t let Lex pick him up and would always bite him at the first available opportunity.
The timing was perfect, for by the time they arrived at the Ladder Forest, Lex and Lucius had identical complexions thanks to the whiskerfish poisoning. They didn’t do the switch until the night before, so as not to give Lady Luck any more warning than necessary. Lex installed Lucius in the closet with Zachary that evening after dinner, then crept back to the bridge where Schmidt was about to lie down to sleep.
‘Where’s Lucius?’ the lawyer asked when Lex walked in.
‘I am Lucius, Mr Schmidt,’ Lex said, slipping easily back into the respectful tone he had once used every day with his employer.
‘Oh. Well, where’s Lex then?’
‘I don’t know,’ Lex replied, biting his lip and feigning worry as he glanced around the bridge. ‘He said something about going to look for scissors.’
Lex had explained his hair by saying that he’d been unable to find any scissors. He had enjoyed complaining bitterly about his resemblance to Lucius over the past few days, allowing the lawyer to believe he was in a foul temper and proclaiming that he would find something with which to cut his hair if he had to turn the ship upside down to do so.
‘Perhaps I should go and look for him?’ Lex said, fiddling with his hands in an exact mimic of Lucius when he was worried.
‘Lex will turn up,’ Schmidt said. ‘Don’t worry about him. Just go to sleep. And by the grace of the Gods, this will all be over this time tomorrow and we can go back to our lives.’
‘I hope so, sir,’ Lex snivelled. ‘I just want to go home to my farm.’
Lex hid a smile as he lay down to sleep. This was all going so perfectly. He was going to trick Lady Luck, he was going to win the Game, he was going to better everyone. Schmidt would be easy enough to fool, the doddering old twit. And afterwards Lex would be even more notorious and have the great Lord Jezra himself as his patron. Lex had agreed to Jezra’s proposal on the condition that he won the Game as Lex Trent and not as Lucius. He wanted to make his own name notorious, not his wimpy brother’s. Jezra had been more than happy to agree to this, for it would enhance his own reputation once it was known that he had bested Lady Luck by stealing her player right out from under her nose.
The players were due to meet at the edge of the Ladder Forest at sunrise the next morning. When Lex supposedly didn’t turn up, the round would simply commence without him and there wouldn’t be a damned thing Lady Luck could do about it. Ha! How perfectly delicious it all was.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lex (as Lucius), Schmidt, the prophet and the Gods had been at the Ladder Forest for fifteen minutes when the Judge at last said, ‘Lex Trent is not here. The round will commence without him.’
The Goddess of Luck fluttered her hands agitatedly. ‘I just don’t understand it,’ she said. ‘He should have arrived just in time, he always does.’
‘You’ll have to go on to the companion,’ the Judge said with a dismissive wave of his gloved hand. ‘The object of this final round is to locate the griffin that lives in the Space Ladders. The first of you to return its black feather to me, wins.’
The shock on Lex’s face was genuine, for humans weren’t allowed on the Space Ladders. It was expressly forbidden. Excitement bubbled up inside him and he wanted to laugh with delight at the mere thought of stepping out onto those ladders. But he had a part to play before the sharp-eyed Gods, so he gasped just as Lucius would have done and turned to Jezra with a wail. ‘My Lord Jezra, I beg you! A griffin! It’ll kill me; I know it will!’
‘Hold your tongue!’ Jezra snapped, smacking him round the back of the head. ‘You disgrace me with your cowardice!’
Lex bowed his head in silence.
‘Well, at least my player had the guts to turn up,’ Jezra said to her Ladyship. ‘I guess Lex Trent isn’t as brave as you thought he was.’
‘Lex is the bravest player I’ve ever had!’ the Goddess stormed — Lex could hear the angry pride in her voice and couldn’t help feeling just a little ashamed at the way he was repaying her. ‘You’ve sabotaged him again somehow!’ the Goddess went on.
‘I’m afraid I can’t take the credit for Lex’s untimely disappearance,’ Jezra said with a shrug. ‘Perhaps that enchanter caught up with him at last.’
The Goddess blanched at the suggestion and opened her mouth to say more but the Judge interrupted her: ‘Continue to dispute this between yourselves, if you wish, but as of now the round has commenced.’
With Lex supposedly gone, the players were all now to start at the same time, for a stand-in companion was forbidden to take advantage of the headstart that had been won by the player. The Judge disappeared and the prophet turned and set off in the direction of the Space Ladders.
‘What are you waiting for?’ Jezra snapped at Lex, aiming a kick at him to get him going. Lex hurried off, leaving the Gods to argue.
‘Well, there’s one way to settle this,’ the Goddess of Fortune snapped. ‘You there!’
Schmidt looked up and caught the apple the Goddess threw him.
‘I want to talk to Lex!’
‘My Lady, if Lex really has been compromised by an enchanter then I’ll become trapped in his place,’ Schmidt protested. ‘Punished for something I didn’t do-’
‘That’s the price of being a companion!’ the Goddess snapped. ‘If Lex isn’t here then you have to take his place. I only need a few minutes. Now do as you’re told and swap places with him!’