CHAPTER FIVE
“Phoenix? Phoenix? Wake up, please?” Jade knelt anxiously over the fallen warrior, slapping his face lightly and experiencing a strong sense of déjà vu. Biting her lip, she frowned down at him. She had done her best. The knife was out, his wound healed to a faint scar. Why wouldn’t he wake up? She didn’t want to be left alone here. Night had fallen and the small barn jumped with shadows cast by the tiny, flickering candle lantern. It no longer seemed a safe, innocent haven in this bizarre world. Two of their attackers were definitely dead, the third probably as well. They had to leave.
She pushed open his coarse woollen shirt, searching for other wounds. Maybe she’d missed one. A glitter at his throat caught her eye and she gasped. Her necklace! She fumbled at her own neck, finding the slim chain she had clasped on only hours before. No, her own teardrop amulet was still there. She tugged it out and craned her neck to stare at it; then looked closely at Phoenix’s. It wasn’t the same. In fact, they looked like two pieces of a puzzle – as if they should fit together. That made no sense! How could they even be here, in this reality? Why did he have one, too?
What did it mean?
Her sharp ears caught two voices at some distance outside: one light and familiar – the weasel-faced man who had stolen her purse - the other deeper and lower-pitched. She slipped to the door and peered out into the darkness. The rain eased and the cloudcover broke, allowing faint moonlight to illuminate the small courtyard between the inn and its outbuildings.
With her Elven eyesight, Jade could just make out what seemed to be three people: two larger men struggling together; a third, smaller figure, off to one side, watching. A knifeblade gleamed in the moonlight. What was happening? What if more thugs came? What was she supposed to do with Phoenix out cold?
Scuffled footfalls on wet earth were followed by a soft, muffled moan and the squishy thump of a body hitting slushy ground. One of the men was down. The other stood over him, hands on hips. He kicked the fallen figure. It didn’t move. The smaller person sauntered forward, fingers reaching, perhaps for a pulse. There was some low-voiced conversation she couldn’t quite make out. The taller man pointed back toward the barn before striding away into the Inn.
At that moment, Phoenix groaned, moving his head restlessly. Jade ran back to him, still casting quick looks at the door. His blue eyes opened and stared blankly at the thatched roof. Realisation flooded into his face and he sat up so fast he almost clashed heads with her. Pushing a long lock of hair back, he looked around in wide-eyed astonishment.
“It wasn’t a dream! I’m still here!” He blinked at her then poked a finger at his shoulder, obviously relieved to find it undamaged. “Thanks.”
She nodded absently. A new noise drew her attention. It was hard to tell what was going on but it sounded like something heavy being dragged toward the barn by someone who grunted a lot and slipped in the mud frequently.
“There’s someone coming,” she whispered.
He grimaced. “Man, what is this place, Grand Central Station? Where’s my sword gone?” Clambering to his feet, he grabbed the weapon and faced the opening again. Jade picked up her staff, feeling sick at the memory of how easily she had cracked heads last time.
“Hello the house!” A light, cheerful greeting floated through the door. It didn’t sound like someone intent on attacking them. There were a few more grunts. The straining back and shoulders of a very grubby short person appeared in the half-lit entranceway. Whoever it was, they dragged the muddy and bloody remains of the weasel-faced man who had stolen Jade’s purse moments before.
A few more feet and the newcomer dropped the body with an exaggerated sigh of relief. It flopped unpleasantly onto the floor. It was hard to tell through all the mud but the carrier seemed to be a young boy. Turning to face them, he grinned impishly, showing two missing teeth. Jade relaxed a little. He didn’t seem dangerous. He looked to be around ten years old; wiry but small for his age. His skin was sunburned nut brown and his sparkling brown eyes were almost hidden behind a thick fringe of dark auburn hair. The much-patched homespun clothes he wore were two sizes too big and his feet were bare.
“You’re the kitchen boy,” Phoenix cried and she recognised the impudent youngster from the bar, earlier.
The boy grinned. “Sometimes.” He held out a hand. Jade’s purse lay on it.
She took it, hefting it as she eyed the boy. “Thankyou. What’s your name?”
“Brynn the Leidyr,” he replied with a quick bow.
Jade exchanged a glance with Phoenix who smiled.
“Brynn the Thief, are you?” she returned wryly. “Is that why my purse is lighter now?”
The boy shrugged, quirking a grin. “Call it a fee for getting it back. Now,” he turned away and, began matter-of-factly to search the bodies.
Jade looked on in horrified astonishment. When he was done, Brynn hefted a reasonable dagger, a bronze bracelet and a few other small pieces, which he stored in apparently endless pockets. She snatched up her pack and cloak before he could rifle through them, too.
The boy reviewed the carnage they had created.
“You might want to consider finding somewhere else to lay up for the night and get out of the village fast tomorrow.” He picked up the small candle lantern and extracted the lit candle. Shadows jumped as the flame flickered in the breeze.
“Why?” Jade glanced around, bewildered.
Brynn tossed the candle into the nearest pile of dry hay.
“Because the barn is going to have an unfortunate accident and burn down. Oh,” he pointed at the dead man he’d dragged in, “and because he’s an informant for the Romans. He’s already sent word to Londinium about you. Governor Agricola’s Chief Comite will send troops. They’ll be here by midmorning tomorrow.”
Flames began to eat their way up the dry haystack toward the timber walls. Brynn strolled over and untied the cow, turning to lead her out of the barn. He paused, blinking at them in surprise.
“You’re still here?”
“You killed that man and now you’re burning down the barn to hide the bodies!” Jade blurted, overwhelmed by the speed with which events were unfolding.
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Actually, you killed those three and Llew, the innkeeper, killed the other guy. I just dragged the body in. If you’re lucky, once the barn burns, the Romans will think two of them are you and stop chasing you. I don’t like your chances, though. The Romans are pretty keen to be rid of your Folk.”
“Her ‘Folk’?” Phoenix voiced her next question for her.
Brynn tugged on the rope, towing the protesting cow past leaping flames. A chicken flew by, squawking indignantly. “Y Twlwyth Teg. You know,” he frowned at their blank looks, “The Fair folk of the forests: elves, wood-nymphs and the like. The Romans hate you because you try to help our people against them.”
“But…” Jade began then coughed as smoke billowed up and flames began to take serious hold of the barn.
“Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else.” Phoenix grabbed her arm and towed her outside.
Brynn slapped the cow on the rump. It mooed. Jade hurried to keep up. The boy seemed to be the only person who was willing and able to give them any sort of insight into this world.
When he turned around from tying the cow to a post behind the inn, Brynn saw them hovering and sighed. He cocked his head, put his hands on skinny hips and pursed his lips.
“Alright then. There’s an abandoned house on the edge of the woods west of town. You can stay there tonight. You’re obviously new to town, so I’ll give you some tips,” he paused, casting a sly look from beneath long lashes, “for a fee, of course.”
With the light of fire leaping behind and the sound of voices upraised in alarm close on their heels, Brynn led them silently
through darkened fields, into the night. After close on half an hour, as far as Jade could tell, a dark, regular shape loomed. He slipped in and soon a faint, flickering light beckoned them to join him.
As they entered, she realised that, although the farmhouse was obviously abandoned, someone had chosen to make it their home. Against one curved wall huddled a straw bed and a small fire crackled cheerfully in a central hearth. A few broken pieces of pottery and poorly-repaired chairs were a feeble attempt at home-making.
Phoenix opened his mouth to as though to comment. Jade elbowed him sharply. He shot her a frown then shut his mouth as she shook her head. For some reason, Brynn was living here, alone by the looks of it. It wouldn’t be polite to say anything.
The boy waved them in. “Make yourself at home. I’ve got to go back and make sure Llew gets the fire out all right. I’ll hoot like an owl when I return. Keep the door shut to hide the light.” He vanished back into the darkness, leaving Jade and Phoenix to stare at the closed door.
Jade sank to the ground beside the fire, warming her chilled hands. After a moment, Phoenix did the same, his leather greaves and body armour creaking. They were silent for awhile, numb more than relaxed.
Jade gathered her thoughts and asked the question uppermost on her mind.
“Do you think we’ll be able to get home soon?” She said it now with little hope of a positive answer.
Phoenix shrugged, not seeming particularly concerned one way or the other. “Dunno. I don’t know how we got here in the first place.”
She pulled out the chain around her neck. “Maybe it has something to do with these. I noticed you’ve got one too and I remember thinking that weird lightning had somehow stabbed me right in the chest when it brought me here.”
With a choked gasp, he tugged out his own and glared at her. “Where did you get that? It belonged to my father. It disappeared when he died three years ago.”
Frightened by his anger, Jade hurriedly explained how she’d found it.
He frowned. “If that’s true then you’re probably right: somehow these amulets brought us into the game, which means we must need them to get back out. It just doesn’t make sense, though.”
“Which bit?” she said with heavy irony, “the fact that we were brought here by magic amulets or the fact that we’re now inside the bloodthirsty sword-and-sorcery digital fantasy game we thought we were just playing for a bit of fun.”
“Both, I suppose.” He smiled, fingering the smooth face of his swordblade. “You have to admit it’s more fun on the inside than the outside, though, huh?”
“You have a warped sense of fun,” Jade grimaced, going back to staring into the flames.
They sat in silence for a while, absorbed by the dancing orange lights.
Jade sat up straight, excited as a new possibility occurred to her. “Maybe could we contact other Players for help to get home?”
Phoenix narrowed his blue eyes then shook his head slowly. “Probably not a good idea. If you were an adult and a kid came to you with some story about kids being stuck in a computer game, would you believe them?”
She slumped again. “Guess not.”
“Besides,” he added, “I told you we’re on our own for another couple of days. There aren’t any other players here yet – not until the full release. Heck, we shouldn’t even be able to see each other.”
“So what do we do?” she asked, not really expecting any sort of useful answer out of him. He seemed determined to stay.
“Well,” he spread his hands, “we can make the best of it. Maybe we’re here because we’re supposed to play the game? Maybe that’s the only way to get home. ”
“What?” Her voice came out as a strangled squeak. “All five levels? That’s insane.”
“Maybe it’s just this one level,” Phoenix said soothingly. “Maybe we just have to steal the Jewel of Asgard from Stonehenge – that’s the task for Level One. Maybe once we do that and the full release is opened up we’ll automatically go home.”
Jade wrapped her arms around herself. “That’s a whole lotta ‘maybes’.” She waved a hand back toward the village. “We nearly got killed in the first half hour of Level One! I’ve hardly ever played these things on the outside, let alone on the inside. There’s no way I’m good enough to win one level, let alone five.” She glared at him then pointed an accusing finger. “You just want to do it because you like computer games and you think this is fun.”
Turning away from his guilty expression, she wrapped her cloak around her body and stared moodily into the fire. She was tired, hungry and scared. There was no way she was going to play through the whole game to kill Feng Zhudai on the offchance it would take her home. Her limited Spellweaver skills would be hopelessly outmatched by the arch-wizard arch-badguy. There had to be another way.
Phoenix was silent awhile, poking a stick into the coals. “I suppose you’re right. It’s just…” He poked again, causing a shower of sparks to fly up then sighed. “I’d really like to try, y’know? I hate my real life. This one might be...better.”
“Better!” Jade gaped at him, appalled. “Getting attacked, stabbed, thieved and chased for weeks would be better? Man, your life must really suck.”
He shrugged and there was a long, awkward silence.
“Besides,” she added, trying another tack. “What’s happening to the real us while we’re in here trying to win? And what would happen if we lost all our lives? If this is the Pre-release version, do we even have seven lives? Then there’s the fact that we don’t even know what this Jewel of Asgard is. How can we steal what we don’t know anything about? There’s just no chance. There’s got to be another way to get home.”
Even to her own ears, Jade sounded more and more like she was trying to convince herself. The worst of it was, she had a growing conviction that Phoenix was probably right. In every book she’d read, the heroes had to complete their Quest. No matter how they tried to avoid it, they always ended up confronting the ultimate badguy in the end. This game was, after all, programmed by people who probably read the same books she did.
An owl hooted outside.
They both jumped. Phoenix laid his hand on his sword. The door opened just enough to admit Brynn’s thin body. He slipped in and joined them by the fire. He reeked of smoke but he hadn’t exactly been clean before anyway, so Jade ignored it.
“Right,” he said, pulling out a piece of what looked like beef jerky to gnaw on. “Fire’s out. Everyone’s gone to bed. You’re safe for the moment. So, here’s the deal. You answer my questions, I answer yours. Yes?”
Jade glanced at Phoenix, who shrugged and nodded.
“Where are you from?” He waved the jerky around as though to indicate the world outside the hut. They both answered easily enough, using their avatar lives. He nodded, handing them some meat and indicating it was their turn to ask.
“Where’s your family?” she asked nibbling on the tough meat.
A shadow passed across his mobile face. “Killed by Romans three months ago. Where are you going next?”
Jade looked at Phoenix for guidance. “We’re not sure. We’re trying to get home but…it’s complicated.”
“So why do you want the Jewel of Asgard?” Brynn shot at them.
They gaped.
“How…?” she gasped.
Phoenix frowned and reached for his sword.
The boy edged away, hands sliding for his own dagger. “Don’t get touchy. I heard some of your talk before I came in. You said something about stealing the Jewel. Why?”
“Why does it matter?” Phoenix returned.
Brynn eyed them, apparently assessing them in some way. He nodded once, as if he’d come to a decision.
“It matters because the Romans are after it, too. Word is that Governor Agricola’s sent out a full cohort of m
en to get it. Rumour is that whoever has the Jewel holds the key to ruling Albion. He’ll stop at nothing to get it. Since you’re clearly not Romans, I’d rather you got it than him. If you want it, you’ll have to move fast.”
****