The Ascension (15 page)

Jack wished he could just ignore that caring note in Gem’s voice.

“Devon wil be al right,” he said instead. “My mother wants him to lead her forces in the war. He can’t do that if she hurts him too much. It’s not like he would have time to heal.”

“Why not?”

“Another rumor,” Jack said. “The war starts tonight with some special mission. I don’t think I’m supposed to know. You didn’t answer the question though. What is this about?”

“Maybe I’m just not ready to marry anyone, Jack,” Gem said. She half turned from him. “It has al been so hectic, the last couple of months. One minute, I’m sorting out my kingdom’s
agriculture
, the next I have people proposing, and talking about ensuring the succession, and swearing to be my knight. I should be worried about col ege, not al that.” Jack hadn’t thought of it like that. Because Gem was older than him, and because she had spent so much of her time before
allaying
the fears of others, it was easy to forget that she wasn’t
that
much older than him. For al that she was a ruler, she was also stil young, and probably didn’t deserve to spend her time bound up in the marriage politics of at least three kingdoms. The trouble was, Jack couldn’t think of much he could do to
alleviate
things for her.

“So, what do you want, Gem?” he asked.

Gem sighed.

“Right now, the only thing I want is to find my father and get this Myriad mess cleaned up.” Jack nodded. He could understand that.

“Let’s begin by getting Kat,” he said. “She can probably help.”

Starting along the corridors of the castle again, Jack set a quick pace. They managed to avoid any more guards, which suggested that at least there wasn’t an active search for Gem going on, though they did run into a few servants, herding a smal flock of penguins out of the way while they polished the ice with dusters. Jack was surprised to find them treating him
deferentially
, moving out of the way and bowing as he passed. At least one of them smiled at Jack before going back to their work.

“They like you,” Gem said.

“I think they’re afraid of my mother,” Jack guessed. Gem shook her head.

“They would bow if that were true, but I don’t think they would smile.”

“Nice to know we might have some al ies,” Jack decided. “Now, we’ve just got to get Kat.” That was easier said than done. Jack led Gem to the door to Kat’s room, only to find that it had a pair of guards in front of it. They held swords while looking around vigilantly. Jack didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to have to fight his way past.

“Try the ring,” Gem suggested. Jack nodded.

“Wait here. And if this goes wrong, remember; we could always get the marriage annul ed.”

He tried to stride forward purposeful y, stopping just short of the guards.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Orders, Your Highness. With the war coming, there might be dangers. We’re to guard the Princess. Aren’t there guards on your room?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been back. Perhaps you could go and check for me? Both of you.” The guard shook his head.

“Sorry, Your Highness. Can’t leave without authority.”

Jack raised the ring Devon had given him.

“Does this count?”

It seemed it did. Authority, even if it was authority received
vicariously
through Devon, was enough to get the men moving. Jack waited until they had hurried off before waving Gem forward.

“Now we just have to hope that Kat is in a good mood,” Jack said, and pushed the door open.

Gem had never seen genuinely black ice before, or ice that glowed a deep red either, for that matter, but the wal s of Kat’s room mixed both in an effect that was not unlike a particularly Goth dessert.

Since Kat was currently sitting cross-legged on a large black lace bed, a book entitled
Fairy Ice
Magic for Fun
held in her hands, it was fairly obvious how the décor had come to be that way.

“Kat,” Jack said.

“What is it?” Kat asked, without looking up.

“I’m trying to work this out. Honestly, why do they have to make these things so
abstruse
?” Gem decided to give it a try.

“Kat.”

Kat looked up then, grinning widely. With an
agile
leap, she was off the bed and sweeping Gem into a hug.

“Gem! Oh, I’m
so
glad you’re here. You have no idea what it’s like. I’ve had no one to talk to.

Jack’s al right, but the rest of them? The place is ful of polar bears and penguins. Penguins of al things…and they’re menacing. Not at al the cute and cuddly sort you imagine, but the Winter Court variety.

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a penguin? And the maids won’t talk to me-”

“Maybe if you didn’t say quite such
acerbic
things to them?” Jack suggested. Gem tried not to smile at the look Kat shot him.

“Oh yes. I’ve acquired an irritating brother.”

“I heard that from Jack,” Gem said, moving into the room and shutting the door behind her.

“What’s it like being a fairy princess?”

“Weird,” Kat replied. She moved back to sit on the edge of the bed. “And occasional y scary, what with al this talk of war. At the start, I thought that this would just be more… me, but I didn’t realize that I would have to
efface
the old me to have this one. I miss just being me, some days, playing Wordwick on my computer and the rest of it. I suppose I’m a bit
disaffected
. Being able to make ice pretty colors doesn’t match up.”

The wal s certainly didn’t, Gem thought. She was just about to ask Kat about Henry Word when Kat started up again.

“Did Rio make it through with you?”

“He’s here in Myriad, but he’s with… some people he fits in with.” Gem didn’t know why she didn’t say the word “werewolf”. Maybe she just wasn’t sure if Rio would want Kat to know.

“That’s good,” Kat said. “I mean, there are one or two cute guys round here, but there are always problems. Like Devon, he turns out to be my
cousin.
Life isn’t fair, sometimes. Anyway, I’ve been missing Rio since I got here. Back home, we’d talk almost every day online.”

Gem was starting to remember what an
eclectic
affair a conversation with Kat could be. She also found herself thinking about Rio. Did Gem mind that he and Kat seemed to be close? As much as Gem thought that she ought to, she had to
concede
that the news didn’t particularly hurt. If anything, it felt like a relief. She forced a smile.

“Sparks is here too. He’s a fairy prince, like you two.”

“So he’s Summer Court?” Jack asked. He’d obviously worked out that, with only two courts, there weren’t many other options. Gem nodded.

“That’s right.”

“That fits with my theory,” Jack said, “that somehow Wordwick is bringing about this
confluence
of people linked to other worlds.”

“I’ve been thinking about that too,” Gem admitted. “I was wondering if maybe something about the worlds was built into the game, so that people like us would recognize it?” The
surmise
was a bit of a stretch, but she thought it made sense, particularly given Henry Word’s talents for building actual paths between worlds.

“Hmm…” Jack appeared to consider it. “It might be possible.”

“Guys!” Kat interrupted. They looked at her.

“Sorry, but I could see you wandering off, and I think we only have time for the
concise
version. Gem, I take it that you showing up means something is wrong?”

“Kat,” Jack pointed out, “around here, what’s right? We’ve got a mother who wants to start a war, who freezes people she doesn’t like, and who frankly would probably prefer it if we were both more like Devon.”

At Devon’s name, Gem found herself worrying.

“Wil he be al right, do you think?” she asked.

Jack shook his head sadly.

“I wish I could say I knew,” he said, “but the Queen doesn’t real y feel any
compunction
about hurting people.”

“She kil ed Devon’s father,” Kat said.

“What?” Gem pointed out the obvious.

“I thought you said that no one talked to you?”

“No. I said the
maids
didn’t talk to me, and that there were only stupid penguins around. They wander round fol owing one another and taking orders. They’re loyal to the Winter Queen. It’s so
conformist.
Anyway, she kil ed both Devon’s parents. Actual y, I think I remember one of them saying, or flapping, or whatever, that his mother was Anachronian. I thought it was a bit of a coincidence.” Gem shook her head.

Gem shook her head.

“I’m beginning to suspect that nothing around here is a coincidence.”

It explained a lot about Devon’s wil ingness to go against his aunt though. Despite that, Gem couldn’t help feeling even more impressed by the fact that he had declared
her
his lady. He would have been brought up practical y as the Winter Queen’s son, certainly to be loyal to her, and yet he was wil ing to risk it al for Gem whether it was because of the healing pul or not. Gem could only hope that he would be al right as a result of it. There wasn’t anything she could do to help. The only
consolation
was that Jack had probably been right out in the corridor; the Winter Queen probably wouldn’t kil Devon while she needed him to fight.

As for Gem, al she could do was try and find her father.

“So what now?” Kat asked. “We can’t just sit back and wait for this war, can we?”

Jack shook his head.

“If Sparks is in the Summer Court, no way am I fighting them.”

“Me neither,” Kat said.

“The trouble is,” Gem asked, “how much difference wil it make? The Winter Queen seems pretty formidable, and she wants to
defile
everything she can with her cold. Even if you two don’t fight, her armies wil stil march on the Summer Court, and then on Anachronia. They wil conquer and
pillage
.

So many people wil die.”

It was Kat who nodded first, though Jack joined in.

“We have to stop her,” she said, “but how?”

“I want to find Henry Word,” Gem said.

“Wel , yes. That’s what we’re here for.”

“I mean that I think he is somewhere in the Winter Court.” In fact, given the way the Winter Que e n
coveted
other worlds, Gem was almost certain of it. Where else could he be? Jack didn’t seem so sure though.

“The trouble is, I’ve been round this castle, and I haven’t seen any sign of him. Are you real y that convinced that he’s here?”

“The werewolves and the Summer Court both seemed to think it,” Gem replied. She didn’t know what else she could say. Jack didn’t look convinced.

Kat, on the other hand, looked thoughtful. “What is it, Kat?”

“I… I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I might have seen something.”

“What?”

“Wel , I was doing my own exploring, and I went a bit further than Jack, down into some
derelict
bits of the castle. I thought maybe I could
requisition
somewhere to skate down there with my new royal status, you know?”

Gem nodded. It would be like Kat to look for an ideal place to skate. Even if it was on ice.

“Anyway, I was down in what I thought was some
defunct
area, and I saw al these cables.”

“Cables?” Gem asked. “Power cables? What would they be doing
here
?”

“That’s what I thought, so I started to fol ow them. They led to this big barrier of ice, and through it, I could see computers and stuff. I thought I could see a man there too.”

“Henry Word?” Gem asked hopeful y. Kat shook her head.

“I couldn’t make out much through the ice, but this man was walking. There was no sign of a wheelchair.”

That was a blow to Gem’s confidence. What if they couldn’t find her father in time to stop whatever it was that the Winter Queen had planned? Would they have to fight in this war? Gem suspected that it would come to that, because merely
decrying
the Winter Queen’s actions hadn’t achieved much. Of course, Gem had to ask herself if she real y wanted to go another round with someone who had already frozen her once. To Gem, it was no kind of choice.

She couldn’t just sit there
demurely
while the Winter Queen hurt so many people, and besides, so many people that she cared about were at risk.

Of course, if she fought against the Winter Queen, it would probably mean fighting against Devon.

That thought was enough to make Gem pause, hoping for another answer.

“Kat, are you
sure
there was no sign of my father?”

“Not that I could see,” the other girl said, “but I suppose the man I saw could have been like… a research assistant or something. I suppose if he research assistant or something. I suppose if he pointed out that it was this
seminal
work in the field, Henry Word wouldn’t have trouble attracting help.

Plus, he’s rich, of course.”

That seemed just about
tenable
to Gem, and it was certainly the best that they were going to get.

Stil , the only way to check the idea’s
veracity
would be to get down to this computer room and look.

“Where is this room?”

“I can soon find it again,” Kat said. “I have a very good sense of direction.”