Game Alive: A Science Fiction Adventure Novel (9 page)

Virtual, recorded “projection” or not, he and Des had seen her yesterday. They had been the last ones to see her the day before as well, before she fell into this coma. Surely that meant something. Why would anyone go to all the trouble of fooling him and Des into believing she was in the program yesterday if she was actually in the hospital. That didn’t make any sense. A thought struck him, and he stood up and moved to the center of the room.

“Com to Des,” he ordered the system. A low tone sounded twice before being replaced by Des’s voice, distorted slightly by the digital speaker.

“Hey, Jake.” Des sounded sad.

“Des. What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” was the reply. “What are you doing?”

“Going to look for Kari,” said Jake with grim determination.

“Huh? What do you mean? Her parents didn’t want us to visit her at the hospital, remember?”

“I’m logging in to Xaloria.”

“Jake, don’t be stupid. You know she’s not there.”

“She was there last night, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, I guess…I mean…” Des trailed off, confused.

“So maybe she’s still in there, Des. Maybe if we can find her in Xaloria, we can find out what’s wrong with her for real. Did you ever think of that?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” protested Des over the com line. “Even if we do find her in the VR program, Kari’s in the hospital. The hospital, Jake. That’s not her in Xaloria.”

“Maybe not,” Jake allowed. “Maybe somebody else made her appear in the game. But why would they do that? And even if that’s what happened, then they’d have to be the same person who’s messing with my game. So the answers are still in Xaloria.”

“I don’t know, Jake,” said Des uncertainly.

Jake hesitated. He didn’t believe someone else had projected Kari’s image. He just couldn’t think of any reason to do that. But he was afraid to tell Des what he was really thinking, because Des would probably say he was crazy. But it might be the only way to convince Des to come with him. It looked like Jake didn’t have a choice.

Go figure,
he thought bitterly. Then he took a deep breath and told Des about his theory.

A windblown plain replaced the blank VR room walls. Jake stood confused on a bare patch of earth, looking around at the tumbled stone ruins surrounding him. Hidden by the low grass around him, he could see a few blackened cobbles. Half a scorched wall stood to his right, and before him a single shattered window remained in another broken wall. Nearby, he saw further ruins – stones, broken pottery…even bones. He shook his head as if to clear it, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

Des materialized beside him, brown leather armor snug over his skinny frame. His face registered the same confusion Jake felt. “Where are we?” he asked, peering around at the destruction.

Jake reached into his pouch and took out the magical map he always carried. It was actually a part of the game mechanics, and never failed him. He unrolled the map and then stared at it in shock. Two orange dots glowed below a title inscribed next to a sketch of a broken tower.

“Myrrordom,” Jake breathed in disbelief. “This is Lord Ryden’s castle, right where we left off last night.”

Des snatched the map from Jake’s hand, running his eyes rapidly over it. “It can’t be. Where’s the castle? What about the people, Lord Ryden and his guards and…everything?” Des trailed off, lowering the map and looking around again at the tumbled stone ruins.

Jake looked to the ruins as well, tracing their shape with his eyes and imagining the walls before they had been pulled down by whatever force destroyed the castle. It was Myrrordom, alright. What was left of it, anyway. There was no sign of Ryden anywhere.

If only the wizard lord were there, Jake thought, maybe they could get some answers. Ryden could at least tell them what had happened to Myrrordom. Besides that, connected as he was to the main program AI, Ryden might have been able to tell them what was going on. Jake might have to fiddle with Ryden’s coding a bit first, but it should be possible. Except Ryden was nowhere around, and there was no sign of where he’d gone. Assuming, that was, the wizard was even still alive.

“There’s no way this is the same place,” said Des, still not believing it. He had walked a few paces away from Jake, and now he kicked at a thick clump of tall weeds growing through the shattered remnants of a massive flagstone that had been part of the floor. “Look at this wreck? No way this place has been abandoned for less than a hundred years. Maybe longer.”

“The map changed too,” Jake pointed out. “The drawing used to be a tower, but now it’s broken. Just like Myrrordom itself.” Jake walked over to join Des and take back the map to study it. Des peered over his shoulder, pointing out another familiar area.

“Look at Everheart,” he said in a hushed voice. “It’s turned into a huge city. That’s not right, either.”

“Something is really wrong,” Jake agreed, lowering the map and staring off into the distance with worry plain on his face. “The program keeps changing, and I’m not the one doing it.”

“So who is?” Des asked, nervousness creeping into his voice. They had all gotten used to being powerful adventurers in Xaloria, but all that strength and confidence was fading in the face of this troubling mystery. Des no longer sounded like Des the Hand, prince among thieves. He sounded like Des, the thirteen-year-old boy.

“I don’t know,” Jake told him, forcing himself to stay calm and at least act like he was still in control. “Whoever it is, I’ll bet he knows what’s happening to Kari.”

Jake locked eyes with Des, who nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “You’re right.”

“So let’s find out who’s messing with our world,” Jake said angrily.

***

An hour later, Jake and Des were huddled together in an alcove behind Everheart Manor.

“I can’t believe he wouldn’t take our money,” Des said for at least the fifth time. “You
built
that place.”

“I know,” Jake said. “But it’s completely different now.” He peered out around the edge of the building, looking across the city commons to study the tall, white marble mansions that had been built up all around delicate, hand-carved fountains. The Everheart he had built just a few days ago was a memory. “Everything’s different.”

No one in Everheart had ever heard of the noble Sir Xend or his companion, Des the Hand. Jake’s quaint country village had vanished, replaced by a massive city filled with wealthy merchants and scheming noblemen. The new breed of citizen had little use for a steel-plated knight and his seedy thief companion. When the boys had tried to rent a room at the Everheart Inn, the highbrowed host in the richly cut black suit informed them with exaggerated and utterly false politeness that their antiquated coins no longer had any value. He added quickly that, until they had some of the High Emperor’s currency, they would have to sleep elsewhere. Behind the man’s cold smile, a framed portrait of Innkeeper Albred Gordor hung on one wall of the common room.

“Where’s he?” Jake asked the man, pointing to the painting. “Where’s Master Albred?”

The man’s already arched eyebrows rose even further. “Albred Gordor, the founder of Xaloria’s Guild of Innkeepers?” The man turned halfway around to look incredulously at the framed portrait. “Are you daft? He’s been dead for more than a thousand years!”

Stunned, the boys had said no more. They left the inn quickly and searched for some place of seclusion where they could get out of sight and figure out what to do. Des had started complaining immediately.

“Thousand years,” he said now, again repeating himself. “That NPC in there thinks we’re a couple of dumb kids, that’s what he thinks. A thousand years. That’s not possible!”

“No, it’s possible,” Jake said. “Don’t forget, time in the simulation doesn’t have to match real time. Especially if nobody’s in the sim, but even when you’re here the VR can fool your mind the same way a dream can.”

“Okay,” argued Des, shaking his head, “so where’s Kari? Shouldn’t it have to wait for her if she was in here the whole time? I mean, sure, it could run a little fast or slow if you like, but
a thousand years?
”

“You’re right, that shouldn’t happen.” Jake sighed. “But someone’s been overriding the other settings, I don’t see why he couldn’t change that one too. Whoever it is, he probably doesn’t care whether this world seems real to Kari or not.”

Jake paused for a moment, then made his decision. Standing up, he moved out of the alcove and started across the main square. He was headed for the city gates.

“Come on,” he called back to Des over his shoulder. “Sitting here isn’t getting us anywhere.”

He led the way out through the broad, white stone gate in the thirty-foot high wall surrounding the medieval metropolis. On the other side of the gate, Jake turned toward a large stable built up against the outside of the city wall. A stable-hand leaned against one of the posts holding up the slanted roof, chewing a piece of straw. Behind him in the stall, a big gray gelding with black mane and tale was also chewing straw. They made quite a pair.

“Hello there,” said Jake, forcing himself to sound cheerful as he approached the stable-hand. “We’ve just arrived here, and were hoping to find news of our friend. It’s been some time since we saw her last, though we were to meet near here. Have you heard any news of the Lady Alista?”

The man nodded absently, shifting the long piece of straw from one corner of his mouth to the other. “Alista, eh? I’m not sure about any Alista…what does she look like?”

“She’s about our age, with short yellow hair and blue eyes. She’s a powerful sorceress,” Jake told the man. “She would have been wearing robes and carrying a magical staff.”

“Sorceress?” echoed the man with some alarm. His jaw opened wide and the straw nearly fell out. “No, we don’t see many of those type around these parts. I’m sure I’d remember if a sorceress came through here.”

Something about the act struck Jake as being off-key. He noticed the stable-hand peering at him from the corner of his eyes, a speculative look on his face. Sighing, Jake reached into his pouch and fingered one of the obsolete coins. It was worth a shot. He pulled the coin free of the pouch, holding it up for the stable-hand to see.

“We’re not from Everheart,” Jake said. “Is gold valuable here?”

The man’s eyes lit up, reflecting the gold’s luster. “A bit,” he hedged. “Depends.”

“In Leiner Hills…our home kingdom, that is…all we use for trade are gold coins like these. But I’m told they’re worthless in Everheart.”

The man leaned forward, studying the gold in Jake’s hand. His eyes darted to the heavy pouch at Jake’s belt, gauging how many more of the coins might be hidden within. “I’ve seen coins like these in the museum,” he said thoughtfully. “I don’t know that they’d be good as money, but maybe for jewelry…real gold, you say?”

“Yes,” said Jake. “Solid gold.”

“Hm.” The man reached out a hand to take the coin, but Jake quickly closed his hand.

“About the Lady Alista…” he prompted the man, who eyed him thoughtfully again before finally nodding.

“Young girl, robe and staff? Seems like I may have seen someone of that description after all.” He scratched his head as if trying to remember.

Taking another gold coin from his pouch, Jake rubbed them together with his thumb and forefinger where the man could see. “What color were her shoes?” he asked.

“What?” The man’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Her shoes?”

“That’s right,” said Des, catching on. “Our friend is very particular about her shoes. Did you happen to notice them?”

The stable-hand leaned back his head, gazing up at the ceiling for a moment with his brow wrinkled. At last, he answered. “Red. She was wearing dainty, red slippers.”

“That’s her!” blurted Des. “That’s Kari, alright.”

Jake nodded, pleased. But he was not ready to hand over the coins just yet. “Do you have any idea where she might be now?”

“Well, now, it’s been awhile since she came through. At least a couple of years, I think.” The stable-hand shrugged helplessly. “What can I say? She was traveling with a group. I heard one say they were headed for Yeir’s Grotto, off to the north. But surely they’ve long since gone.”

Ignoring that last part, Jake pulled out his map. “Can you show me on the map?”

“Maybe,” said the man, his eyes going once more to Jake’s closed fist. With a sigh, Jake handed over the two gold coins. “One for the information,” he said, “and one for the map.”

“Fair enough.” The man indicated a sport north of Everheart, marking an imaginary X with his pointing finger. “Yeir’s Grotto beneath Vista Falls. But I doubt you’ll find your friend there after all this time.”

“Maybe not,” said Jake. “But it’s somewhere to look, and that’s a start. How much for two horses?”

“Ah, you’ll need real coin for those,” the man said, no longer so friendly. “The stable master won’t trade, not even for gold.”

“Well…” Jake couldn’t think of any way around that. “Alright. Thanks anyway.”

“It’s going to take forever to get there on foot,” complained Des. They had only been walking a few minutes, and the walls of Everheart still loomed behind them.

“Too long,” Jake agreed. “We need horses.”

“That guy’s not selling.”

“Yeah. We’ll just have to get them some other way, I suppose.” Jake stopped in the middle of the road, turning to Des with his arms crossed. Des returned the look blankly, and then understanding spread over his face.

“What, you mean…steal them?”

“You
are
a thief, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but…” Des shrugged. “That’s just, like, my reputation. In the game. I’ve never actually stolen anything.”

“Tough,” said Jake. “We’ve got to have those horses. If nobody’s going to sell them to us, it’s up to you. So, are we going to find Kari or not?”

Des scowled at Jake, but then his face fell and he heaved a sigh. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll steal the horses. But we’re going to leave some money behind, even if they don’t want it. Okay?”

“But then they’ll know who took the horses,” reasoned Jake.

“They’ll know it was us anyway. Who else has been asking for horses today?”