Anger rushed through him, and a horrible sense of loss. “My system! What do you think you’re doing?”
The Bug scuffed his shoe against the cement floor. “Marny said it was all messed up.”
“Well, now it’s really messed up. Damn it!”
He wanted to take his brother by the shoulders and shake him. Hard. So hard he’d fly into as many bits as the computer scattered across the floor. Instead, Tam took a deep breath. The Bug was too fragile for that - and besides, Tam was the one who held the family together.
“I’ll put it back.” His brother sounded on the verge of tears. “I didn’t think it would be so hard to fix, Tam. I thought maybe, you know…” He curled his shoulders forward.
“Aw, man. Don’t cry.” There were enough other things in their life to cry about. “The system was about to die completely, anyway.”
He tried to make himself believe it. And maybe the Bug could actually get the thing up and running again. Stranger things had happened.
“Ok.” His little brother sniffed, his voice still strained.
“Here.” Tam pulled him into a rough hug. “Let’s get you upstairs and ready for bed. You can work on putting it back together tomorrow after school.”
Just before waving off the lights and locking the door, Tam couldn’t help glancing once more at the ruins of his system. So much for his gaming.
Everything around here was falling apart. The stairs were getting more treacherous by the day, the neighborhood was disintegrating, and his brother had a disease nobody could fix. His mom was barely functioning. And now his sim-system was officially dead.
Tam shoved his anger deep down.
“How’d you cut yourself?” the Bug asked, one hand on Tam’s arm.
“What?” He glanced down, to see his brother was right. There was a red gash on his forearm. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was long and deep. “Oh, that. Don’t worry about it. Jammy time, Bug.”
While his little brother was getting into bed, Tam went into the bathroom and examined the cut. It throbbed, now that he knew about it. He didn’t remember cutting himself.
For a second, the image of the Black Knight flashed before his eyes. That faceless black visor stayed there, floating in his vision, as if it were looking at him. With uncanny clarity Tam recalled their battle - the moment the knight’s sword had slid into the gap between his armor….
A sick, shaky feeling moved through him. No way. You didn’t get injuries that carried over from computer games into real life, no matter how intense the virtual reality was. It just didn’t happen.
He had cut himself getting out of the grav-car, or downstairs, and just hadn’t noticed. Yeah, that was it.
He gulped back a glass of water, and then splashed more on his face.
“Tam?” The Bug’s voice was lonely.
“Coming.” He slapped some all-purpose ointment on the cut, then went out to tell his brother goodnight. It was time they both got some rest.
“’Night to you, too,” his brother murmured sleepily.
Tam curled into his old sleeping bag, and weariness hit him heavy in the chest. A crazy mosaic of his day flitted through his head. Jennet, smiling at him. The hairy brown man. A ring of pale mushrooms. Marny, stuffing his cash in her pocket. His system, the guts of his life, spilled everywhere.
Just before he slipped into sleep, he thought he heard the Black Knight’s laughter echo in his mind, low and menacing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jennet smiled at her reflection as she got ready for school the next morning. Hair a brighter shade of gold, eyes that sparkled - yes! She felt better than she had in weeks. Somehow, being back in Feyland had restored some of her energy.
Conviction rushed through her. She was going to win, going to make it all the way to the Court and get back the piece of herself she had lost.
Then her mood dimmed, the glint fading from her reflection’s eye. That was, assuming she could enter the game by herself. She’d been so certain she was in - but then she’d tried to go in-game again, after Tam had left.
Once again she’d been stuck, trapped at the first level with no quest-giver and no way forward. Which meant that she still needed Tam.
And she had to tell him the truth about Feyland - that it was an actual place, somehow connected to the real world. She couldn’t ask him to go any further in-game without knowing what he was getting into. Though there was no guarantee he’d believe her, and the thought of telling him made her feel sick. She squeezed her eyes tight and concentrated on keeping her breakfast down.
“It is time to depart for school, Miss Jennet.” HANA’s even tones rang through the bedroom intercom.
“Ok, I’m coming.” Jennet hurried out of the bathroom and grabbed her satchel, then paused in front of her bookshelf. Her Dad thought she was crazy for still wanting the paper books that lined the shelves.
“It makes no sense,” he had said, watching the hired movers carry the last of the heavy boxes of books away from their old house. He’d slipped his tablet out of his pocket and waved it at her. “This is where all those books could be - plus thousands more. Instead you’re going to give the workers a hernia.”
“I like old tech, Dad.” Especially since some of those books were too old, too rare. They didn’t exist in e-form. Neither she nor Dad would mention Thomas, or the fact that some of those books had belonged to him. Since he’d died, they never, ever talked about him.
She ran her fingertips along the bumpy spines until she found Tales of Folk and Faerie, a collection that was nearly three-hundred years old. It had belonged to Thomas. She’d salvaged the aging binding and done what she could to reinforce the delicate paper. With a whispered apology, she slid the book out and tucked it into her satchel. Tam needed to see this, needed to look at the stories and illustrations and have it all start to make sense. The way it finally had for her.
“Miss Jennet? Is there a reason to delay?”
“I’m on my way.” Sometimes she wished HANA would lose that machine patience and sound irritated. Just once. So that Jennet could pretend there was a real person there, who actually cared if she was late to class.
# # #
She made it to school on time. The only problem was, Tam wasn’t there. She was sure at lunch, when she saw Marny sitting in the cafeteria. Alone.
Jennet took a deep breath and swallowed back the bitter tang of worry. There could be a hundred reasons Tam hadn’t made it today.
Too bad all the things she could think of went from bad to horrible. Something had happened, she just knew it - somehow the game had harmed him already. Feyland had been completely unpredictable last night. It wasn’t such a stretch to think the game had done something to Tam.
And it was her fault.
Maybe Marny knew something. Jennet grabbed her tray and walked over to the big girl. Without waiting for an invitation, she set her lunch down across from Marny and took a seat. A shocked little buzz of attention followed her, making the back of Jennet’s neck prickle - but there was no way she was waiting until the end of school.
“Hi,” Jennet said.
Marny had set her fork down as soon as Jennet approached, and gave her a level gaze across the table. “You sure you want to be over here?”
“Yes. Unless you want me to leave.”
Marny lifted one shoulder. “As long as the gossip won’t bother you. I don’t care. Sit where you want.”
Jennet looked across the cafeteria, saw the faces quickly turned away, the giggles hidden behind lifted hands. “It’s not like I’m exactly popular. Being a Viewer and all. Listen, do you know—”
“Where’s Tam today?” Marny’s question collided with hers.
“What?” Her worry spiked. “I thought you’d know.”
“I had to leave before he made it home last night. If he made it at all. What did you do with him?” There was a challenge in her voice.
“Nothing! Ok, he was a little late, but my Dad’s driver dropped him off at
his house no problem. Really, you don’t know where he is?”
“I’m not his keeper. Like I said, I had to leave. I hope everything’s alright.”
Jennet pushed her tray aside. “I have to go find out.”
“He never answers his messages - reception in the Exe is way spotty. There’s no way to get in touch with him.”
“I’m going to his house.” Jennet stood. Having a plan helped clear some of the anxiety, made her feel a little more in control.
“What - now?” Marny glanced side-to-side. “You don’t seem like the type to ditch your classes.”
“This is more important.” She had to make sure Tam was all right.
“Maybe he just got sick,” Marny said, though she didn’t sound very certain. “Or his brother did - their mom isn’t around a lot, so stuff falls on Tam. It could be no big deal.”
“Could be.”
“Look. You can’t just head into the Exe and hope to find Tam.”
“Come with me, then.” That would make things a lot easier.
“I wish I could, but…” Marny made a face, like she’d bitten something sour. “I can’t miss the test in World Markets today, or they’ll flunk me out. I’ll take you over there after school though.”
The anxiety sizzling through Jennet wouldn’t wait. “No. It has to be now.”
“You’re not big on sense, are you fancy-girl?” Marny blew out a breath, then pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and scribbled something down. “Look, here’s a map. That’s my number at the bottom. Message me if you get totally lost. And when you find out what’s up with Tam.”
Jennet folded the paper and tucked it in her pocket. “I’ll let you know.” She grabbed her tray and stood up.
“One more thing,” Marny said.
“What?”
“Try not to get killed out there.” The big girl gave her a wry smile.
“Um. Ok, I’ll do my best.”
Jennet scraped her lunch into the bin, then set her tray on the stack with a clatter that seemed to echo around the room. People were still looking at her - but she had bigger things to worry about. There was only one person who mattered right now, and the sooner she slipped away, the sooner she’d know if he was all right.
# # #
Boarded-up buildings loomed on either side of Jennet. She swallowed back the metal taste of fear and glanced at the directions Marny had scribbled out. Did that line there mean she was supposed to go left, or right? According to the sort-of map, she was getting close to Tam’s. So far things had been quiet in the Exe.
Before leaving the school grounds she’d taken off her jewelry and folded the cuffs of her sweater down over her wrists, trying to hide her chip. True, she still stood out, with her too-clean designer clothes, but so far she’d been left alone. If her luck held, in a couple minutes she’d be knocking on Tam’s door. Provided she could find it.
George knew how to get there, but she couldn’t call him and say, “Hey, I’m ditching my classes, could you give me a ride?” Dad would send her straight back to Prep.
A clank of metal-on-metal drifted from down the street to the right. Ok then, she’d go left. The pavement had chunks missing. The smell of something rotten lodged in the back of her throat, but this felt like the right place. The empty, brownish building on the corner seemed familiar. Wasn’t Tam’s just down -
“Hey, girly.” A man stepped out into the street in front of her, his voice hoarse and low.
Jennet took a step back, her whole body going tight with fear. Run! She whirled, only to find another man flanking her. Oh god. Oh god. This was severe. Stomach clenching, she sidled toward the middle of the street.
The first man spread his arms wide. He and the other guy both had weird, yellowish eyes, where a crazy wildness lurked. They smelled, too - a thick, cloying stench that made her head spin.
“You look like you got loot,” the first man said.
“No.” She fought to make her voice firm, the way you’d talk to a menacing dog. “Go away.”
“Nuh-uh. Not until you hand over that fancy purse,” said the one behind her. “Hey man, check out her wrist. I think we just hit the jackpot.” He laughed, a rusty caw.
The first man’s eyes gleamed and his hand went to his belt. He had some kind of weapon there. Gun, knife - either way she was in deep trouble.
Jennet’s body was a drum, filled with the heavy thump of fear. She should’ve waited for Marny. If only she had a weapon, just a stone or a stick, something to fight with. Or her staff. She could almost feel it in her hands - the heavy, comforting weight, ready to zap whatever creatures menaced her.
Wait. She could feel it. She glanced down to see the smooth, dark wood, the crystal glowing blue-white at the tip. Her mage staff from Feyland.
No way. Fear was making her imagine things. But the man in front of her was staring at her hands, too. Staring at what she now held.
“What the…” He took a step back and drew a knife. “Where’d that come fr—”
Jennet hit him with a sizzling bolt of light, square in the chest, sending him flying backward ten feet. He lay moaning on the broken pavement.
Never hesitate when confronting your enemies - she’d learned that in-game. Pivoting, she leveled her staff at the second man, but he was already running away, down the street. She nearly went after him, but caught herself. She had to find Tam. And this wasn’t Feyland.
It was the real world - so what was her staff doing, appearing in her hands and shooting magical bolts? Things like that just didn’t happen. They couldn’t.
As if sensing her disbelief, her staff disappeared. There one second, gone the next, leaving her fingers curved around empty air.
Jennet blinked and lowered her hands. Had she been dreaming? The guy lying on the street was pretty convincing evidence that it had happened. But her staff had vanished. No explanation.
The man moaned and Jennet ran, sprinting past him down the street. She didn’t look back. She skidded around the corner, and her breath whooshed out in relief as she saw the old mechanic’s shop with the rickety outside stairs. Tam’s place.
She checked the big metal door in back first, but it was locked. All right - upstairs it was. No matter how treacherous the stairs looked, they would be easy compared to the guys she’d left behind.
The railing swayed when she touched it, and the treads creaked wearily under her feet, but Jennet kept going. Maybe Tam wasn’t home, but she couldn’t stop now. The thought of going back through the neighborhood alone… no way. A shiver shook through her. At least it was the middle of the day. She couldn’t imagine how creepy the Exe would be at night. Maybe even worse than the Dark Forest in Feyland. She didn’t intend to find out.
No wonder Tam was so brave, if this was what he lived with every day.
A small landing at the top of the stairs led to a warped front door. There was a window in the wall beside it, but it was made of thick glass imbedded with wire, impossible to see through. Well. No use just standing here. She lifted her hand and knocked.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A shadow crossed in front of the window, and then a metal cover in the door slid open a bare inch. An eye regarded her.
“Hi,” Jennet said. “Um - Tam, is that you?” Somehow she didn’t think so. Unease tightened the back of her neck and prickled down her spine.
The eye looked at her a moment more, then the peephole cover closed abruptly. Jennet waited, but there was nothing else - no greeting or dismissal, no opening door. She bit her lip. Should she knock again? Maybe it had been the little brother, and he didn’t know what to do. Although, whoever had been looking at her, it hadn’t felt like a kid.
“Hello?” she called. “Is Tam home?”
The silence continued on the other side of the door.
She waited for what felt like forever. Finally, Jennet turned away. Disappointment was sour in her mouth. She took one step down the rickety stairs. Then another.
Behind her came the quie
t jangle of a chain, the clunk of a deadbolt being drawn back. Whoever had been standing there was opening the door. Half-afraid to look, she made herself turn around.
The door swung back to reveal a woman on the threshold. She clung to the knob, as if it were the only thing keeping her upright. She was tiny, and not just because she was emaciated, though that didn’t help. Her green eyes were ringed with weary circles. Brown hair, cut raggedly short, framed her too-thin face.
“Who?” she whispered, the question a bare thread of sound.
“I’m a friend of Tam’s,” Jennet said, making her voice soothing. This woman looked like she could be knocked over by a loud voice, an abrupt move. “Is he home?” Please, let him be here.
“Mom?” It was Tam’s voice, calling from inside.
Thank god - he was all right. Relief poured through her, making her knees weak. Tam was here. Not collapsed on the floor because the game had ripped out a piece of his soul. Not bleeding away from some game injury that crossed the boundary into real life.
“Hey mom, where are you?” he called again, sounding worried.
The woman glanced over her shoulder, and then looked back at Jennet. She nodded, once, and then Tam was standing beside her.
“What are you doing?” he asked, all his attention fixed on the wraith of the woman still clinging to the doorknob. “Come back inside now, Mom. You shouldn’t be up.”
Then his gaze moved past the woman. He looked unhappy to see Jennet standing there.
“Hi,” she said. “I wanted to see if you were ok.”
“I’m fine.” He put a protective arm around his mom and steered her back into the house.
Jennet took a hasty step forward, before he could close and lock the door in her face. “Can’t I come in? There are some crazies out there, you know.”
“Whatever.” He didn’t sound at all pleased about it. “I’ll be right back. Close the door, and make sure it’s locked.” Without looking back, he guided his mom inside.
“Nice,” Jennet said under her breath.
She hadn’t thought Tam would throw a party when she showed up, but she hadn’t expected this borderline hostility. Especially after running together in Feyland so successfully the day before. She’d thought they were allies, at the very least.