Fighting with fire lt-2 Read online

  The next morning, however, Lex was aware of a flurry of activity as soon as he stepped out on to the harbour. Something was obviously going on, but then something usually was so he didn’t pay it much heed as he pushed his way past the closed-up stalls, being careful to keep his arms tucked in and not touch anybody.

  He was in a little winding street about five minutes away from the Chroniclers’ Guild when there was a shriek and someone yelled, ‘It’s him! It’s the outlaw, Jesse Layton! He’s getting away!’

  Lex’s ears pricked up and his head snapped round just in time to see a palomino horse come galloping around the corner, hooves skidding on the cobbles, nostrils flaring, eyes rolling. It was a magnificent creature quite unlike the workhorses Lex was used to with their dull eyes and lowered heads.

  And the man on its back was just as conspicuous for, in his flared trousers, checked shirt and wide-brimmed hat, he was a cowboy straight out of the pages of a Wild West novel.

  Lex only had time for a brief look before he had to jump back against a shop, flattening his back against the wall to avoid being trampled by the huge horse. They fled past and, without a second’s thought, Lex raced after them. When he reached the square with the Chroniclers’ Guild and the Royal Monument he saw a whole lot of policemen rushing off in the direction of the city gates. He was about to follow but he stopped. It was too obvious. To escape the police, you had to do what they weren’t expecting you to do, and, if this cowboy had ever been chased before, he would know that. Lex looked around the square. What would he have done? Sent the horse off in the direction of the road leading out of the city, that much was obvious. And then… His eyes swept the square until he found what he was looking for: The Old Bear pub wedged in beside the Monument Restaurant in the far right hand corner.

  Lex headed straight for it, went inside and? because he knew what he was looking for? found him at once. Right at the back, at a table all to himself, sat the cowboy, his hat pulled down low over his face and a pint of ale in his hand already. Lex walked over, pulled up a chair and sat down opposite him.

  ‘Are you really an outlaw from the Wild West?’ he said.

  The cowboy looked up slowly, tipping his hat back with his thumb. Now that Lex could see him properly, he judged him to be about forty years old, with an unshaven face, a nose that had clearly been broken at some point in the past, crow’s feet at the corners of his blue eyes and a long pale scar that stretched from just below his right eye all the way down to his square jaw.

  ‘Is it that obvious?’ he asked. He spoke with a drawling accent Lex had never heard before.

  ‘Take your hat off!’ Lex said urgently.

  The cowboy stared at him. ‘Now why ever would I do that? This here is my lucky hat.’

  ‘It’s going to get you caught!’ Lex replied, forcing himself not to glance nervously around the bar. ‘They probably won’t recognise your face but they’ll be looking for your hat. Your best bet would be to give it to someone else. Preferably someone who’s of a similar height and build to you.’

  A gleam appeared in the cowboy’s eyes. ‘The old decoy gag, eh?’ He whipped off the hat to reveal untidy, longish brown hair. ‘You’re not as honest as you look, are you, friend?’ he said. ‘I take it you’re not thinking of trying to turn old Jesse Layton in to collect the reward money?’

  ‘I think you can help me,’ Lex said.

  ‘Probably, but I don’t help anyone but myself for free.’

  ‘Perhaps we can help each other.’

  ‘Can you make the sheriff and his men disappear into thin air?’ Jesse asked, staring out of the nearby window.

  ‘No, but I can-’

  ‘Then I don’t think you can help me much, kid,’ the cowboy said. ‘Just keep your mouth shut, eh?’

  And with that he grabbed his hat and ducked under the table. A moment later the door opened and five police officers walked in, staring suspiciously around the room. Everyone fell silent at the realisation that there was about to be trouble.

  ‘Listen up,’ one of the officers said. ‘We’re looking for a dangerous outlaw by the name of Jesse Layton. Someone said he came in here. Any of you lot seen ’im? He’s a big fella with one of them cowboy hats, spurs on his boots and the like.’

  ‘He was here,’ Lex said before anyone else could speak. ‘But then he left. Went out the back door not five minutes ago. If you hurry, you can catch him.’

  The police were halfway to the door when a nearby woman pointed and shrieked, ‘There’s a man under the table!’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about him. He just can’t hold his drink-’ Lex began, but it was no good. The police were doggedly coming over to check it out.

  Sensing what was about to happen, Lex jumped up from his seat and hurled himself to one side, thereby narrowly missing getting hit in the face with the table as Jesse burst out from under it, knocking two policemen down before they even knew what had happened.

  And then there was a bar-room brawl.

  Lex had seen fights break out like this before but he had never seen anyone as quick on their feet as Jesse Layton. Despite the fact that there were five policemen there, he very nearly got away. Lex ducked behind the bar as soon as the fighting started, whilst all the other customers headed straight for the doors. Lex was rather disappointed that no one got thrown along the bar, knocking all the glasses off to smash on the floor, for it was the kind of thing you expected in a brawl. Jesse got cornered against it at one point, though, whereupon Lex promptly handed him a glass bottle.

  ‘Thanks, kid,’ the cowboy said. He actually took a swig from it before smashing it down on the counter and then wielding it in such a threatening manner that the advancing policemen took a few nervous steps back.

  ‘I ain’t going back to Cactus Valley! You hear me? Not now, not ever! I’m dangerous and I’m desperate and the first guy who tries to arrest me is going to be eating broken bottle for dinner!’

  Oh yes, Lex thought, this is the man I need, no doubt about it. He was perfect! What luck that he should have come to the Wither City right at this particular time! Lex even wondered whether Lady Luck herself may have given a helping hand in bringing the two of them together. The cowboy certainly looked like the sort of person she would choose.

  ‘I’m going to back out of here nice and slow,’ Jesse said. ‘You goons stay there and we won’t have any upsets.’

  He made it right to the doorway when a sixth policeman appeared behind him and whacked the cowboy so hard round the head with his truncheon that Lex wouldn’t have been surprised if it had actually come off his shoulders. He couldn’t help but wince as the bottle fell from Jesse’s hand to smash at his feet and, still looking faintly surprised, the cowboy thumped down on to his knees to crumple, face down, on the floor.

  The policemen all started cheering and congratulating themselves but Lex was livid with anger. ‘You better not have done him any serious injury!’ he fumed at the officer with the truncheon.

  But the policeman just shrugged and said with a grin, ‘The reward poster says, “dead or alive”.’

  ‘Clearly you don’t know who you’re dealing with,’ Lex said coldly. He pointed at the prone cowboy. ‘This man is a companion to one of the players in the upcoming Game.’

  ‘Huh. What would you know about it, boy?’ the officer sneered.

  Lex drew himself up to his full height? which still wasn’t really all that impressive? and said, ‘I am Lex Trent, sir, and as you no doubt know, Lady Luck is my patron. This man was supposed to be my companion and your idiot henchman has fair near bashed his head in! If he’s not fit to play I will be very unhappy indeed and, what’s more, Her Ladyship will be extremely upset with all of you! And you’d be simply amazed at just how unpleasant your life can become when Lady Luck is upset with you! I hope the reward money turns out to be worth it!’ And then, because these were policeman who couldn’t be counted upon to understand sarcasm, he added bitingly, ‘But I doubt it very much!’

  Le
x was pleased to see that they were now all looking rather worried.

  ‘I had no idea,’ the officer with the truncheon said, dropping the thing as if it had suddenly burnt him. ‘None at all. I’m ever so sorry, Mr Trent, truly I am. Please give my apologies to Her Ladyship, too. We’ll take your friend to the hospital straight away-’

  ‘Hospital?’ Lex interrupted. ‘Don’t be silly. It was only a little knock on the head; I’m sure he’ll be fine. Take him to a prison cell.’

  The policemen exchanged uncertain looks.

  ‘But… sir… you said-’

  ‘Look, I’m not going to ask you again. Put him in a cell and send for me as soon as he wakes up. And don’t say anything to him in the meantime.’

  The officers still looked rather confused but they readily agreed to what Lex had said. No one wants to be plagued with bad fortune for the rest of their days and everyone knew that Lady Luck was one to hold a grudge.

  Lex wanted Jesse Layton as his companion for the Game and he was certainly not averse to forcing him into it using the Binding Bracelets, but he would much rather that the cowboy came willingly. He knew from experience that unwilling companions tended to complain an awful lot, and if there was any complaining to be done then Lex liked to be the one to do it. Besides which, Jesse teaching Lex how to be an outlaw was probably going to work much better if the cowboy didn’t hate his guts for dragging him along on the Game against his will. So the trick was to make Jesse believe that going with Lex was a good thing? something that was most definitely in his own interests. And that was likely to work better if he believed the alternative was getting shipped back to Cactus Valley in handcuffs, ready to face the noose. So Lex had him packed off to the police station and didn’t even feel the tiniest bit guilty about doing so.

  When word was sent to his ship about an hour later that Jesse Layton had woken up, Lex did not rush down there straightaway but left it several hours until the evening. Better to let the cowboy stew a while, thinking about the fact that he’d been caught and was going to be sent back home for the reward money and then hanged by his neck until he was dead. A few hours spent dwelling on that was bound to make any alternative that didn’t involve getting strung up seem extremely attractive.

  When Lex turned up at the police station at about six o’clock that evening he was slightly disappointed to find that Jesse Layton did not appear to be as distraught as he’d hoped. Lying on his narrow bed in the cell, his hands were clasped behind his head, his hat was pulled down over his eyes, his long legs were stretched out with his ankles crossed and he was singing a rather cheerful little song about a bandit who killed an awful lot of people before setting fire to a village and riding off into the sunset.

  ‘He’s been singing like that for the last hour,’ the policeman whispered.

  Lex gave him a cold look. ‘Perhaps that whack on the head from earlier has left him brain damaged. Go away. I want to talk to him in private.’

  The policeman hurried off and Lex stopped outside the cell. ‘Hey,’ he said, looking through the bars. ‘You in there. Remember me?’

  Jesse stopped singing and tipped back his hat. ‘ Why, if it isn’t the kid from the bar come to visit me.’

  ‘I’m not a kid. I’m seventeen. My name’s Lex Trent.’

  ‘Jesse Layton,’ the outlaw replied pleasantly.

  ‘Haven’t you heard of me?’ Lex demanded.

  ‘Should I have?’

  ‘You do follow the Games in the Wild West, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, sure. If it’s anything to do with gambling, we’ve got it.’

  ‘Well, I played in the last Game and won it.’

  Jesse raised his eyebrows. ‘And you still have both arms and legs. Good for you.’

  ‘I’m about to play in another one. I’d like you to be my companion.’

  That got the outlaw’s attention. He sat up, swung his legs on to the floor, leaned forwards with his elbows on his knees and said, ‘And why’s that, friend?’

  ‘Well, it’s a Game. Obviously I need someone who can take care of themselves. But, more importantly, I need to learn how to pass myself off as a cowboy within the next few weeks.’

  ‘You?’ Jesse said, looking Lex’s skinny frame up and down. ‘That won’t be easy.’

  ‘I’m a good mimic,’ Lex said. ‘And a quick learner.’

  ‘Why do you want to learn, anyway?’

  ‘I have it on good authority that the final lap of this Game will take us to Dry Gulch. I want to get into the house.’

  ‘Oh, you’re a treasure hunter,’ Jesse replied with a grin. ‘I have to say you don’t look like one. Take it from me, kid? Dry Gulch House ain’t your kind of place.’

  ‘Have you ever been there?’ Lex asked, hopefully, for it was always better to have a guide with first-hand experience.

  ‘Sure,’ Jesse replied. ‘Once or twice. But you heard what I said to the police back there. I ain’t never going back to Cactus Valley.’

  ‘I don’t want you to go back to Cactus Valley, you simpleton. I want you to come to Dry Gulch. Besides, I hate to break it to you, but you are going back. You’re sitting here in a prison cell! So either you return to Cactus Valley in handcuffs with the authorities or you go back to Dry Gulch a free man with me. You’ll have to play the Game and teach me everything you know whenever we get a spare minute. If you don’t think you’re up to it, say so now and I’ll find someone else.’

  ‘Hey, I never said I wasn’t up to it,’ Jesse said. ‘And I guess Dry Gulch is a fair few miles away from Cactus Valley.’

  ‘You understand that once you start the Game you’re in it for good? These bracelets will keep us tied to each other.’ Lex held up his wrist to emphasise the point. ‘So don’t think about trying to run away because it won’t work. And I’ll be in charge, understand? You’ll have to do as I say, not just because I’m saving your neck by getting you out of prison here today, but because I’m the player and you’re the companion, and companions must always do as they’re told.’

  ‘You’ve got an awful lot of arrogance and self-confidence for such a youngster, don’t you?’ Jesse said mildly. ‘Still, anything’s better than getting sent back to hang.’ He folded his arms and looked at Lex through the bars. ‘Well? Aren’t you going to ask me what I did to make ’em send out those reward posters?’

  ‘I don’t care about what you’ve done,’ Lex replied. ‘All I care about is how you’re going to help me.’

  Jesse grinned and then shrugged. ‘Well, all right then. I can tell already that you and I are going to get along just fine.’

  Lex had to agree. He may not have trusted Jesse? for he could recognise another scoundrel when he saw one? but he did like him.

  ‘I do have one condition though,’ Jesse said.

  Lex stared at him. ‘You’re hardly in a position to be making conditions.’

  ‘I dare say not, but I’m making one just the same. My horse, Rusty: he’ll have to come with us.’

  ‘I’m not sure that’s a terribly good idea,’ Lex replied. ‘You see, I have three griffins and they try to eat just about anything that moves.’

  ‘I don’t go anywhere without him,’ Jesse replied firmly. ‘I even brought him with me when I fled from the West. I sure as hell ain’t leaving him behind now.’

  Lex sighed. ‘All right; I suppose we can keep him separate from the griffins. He was picked up on the road and taken to the city stables earlier today. I’ll pay the release fee to get him out.’ He pulled off his glove, extended his hand through the bars and said, ‘Now, if that’s all, I’d like to make this official. This is your last chance to back out.’

  But Jesse looked at his hand for only a moment before clasping it firmly with his own. Instantly, the Binding Bracelets split in half. The black one remained firmly fastened around Lex’s wrist whilst the white one shot off on to Jesse’s. Lex felt a profound sense of smug satisfaction for he was sure he had chosen the perfect companion. Jesse was tough and big and s
eemed relatively smart for someone with such a lot of scars and stubble. And to think that he had almost chosen one of those wimpy, peanut-fearing writers. He shuddered at the thought of it…

  Jesse smiled and said, ‘So are you going to get me out of here or what?’

  Lex explained very carefully to Jesse how the Binding Bracelets worked? if they didn’t eat every meal together they would switch bodies and they would stay in each other’s bodies until they managed to find their way back to each other and eat together again.

  ‘You don’t say?’ Jesse said, examining the white bracelet fastened to his wrist. ‘But I can still drink, right?’

  ‘Yes. You just can’t eat on your own.’

  ‘What about chewing tobacco? Will that make us switch?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Lex said, frowning. ‘You don’t swallow it, do you?’

  ‘Jeepers, kid, ’course I don’t swallow it!’ Jesse said, grimacing at the suggestion. ‘You gotta spit it out.’

  ‘A disgusting habit,’ Lex replied scathingly. ‘But not one that should make us switch. Chew and spit all you like.’

  After collecting Rusty from the stables, Lex and Jesse made their way back to the harbour. Several people shot the cowboy sharp looks, for many had seen him galloping through the town just that morning with the police giving chase behind him. A couple of particularly slow-on-the-uptake people even felt the need to shriek, ‘It’s him! It’s the outlaw, Jesse Layton! He’s getting away!’

  ‘Oh, give it a rest,’ Lex replied. ‘He’s not getting away, he’s playing in a Game. Look.’ And he grabbed Jesse’s wrist to hold it up and display the bracelet. That promptly made people back off and leave them alone. No one tangles with the Gods on purpose, after all.

  ‘This is my ship,’ Lex said with a flourish once they’d reached the harbour.