"What do you mean—
hole?
" Cornelius asked.
Feordin elbowed him aside. "Let me handle this. What do you mean—hole?"
"We went exploring in the dungeon," I said. "We walked into this one cell, and there was nothing there."
"Nothing," Robin repeated for emphasis.
I paused to let that sink in.
Feordin looked from me, to Robin, to Cornelius.
"Nothing," Robin said yet again.
Cornelius shrugged. "Some kind of ... optical illusion—"
"No," Robin and I chorused.
"Or a spell—"
"No." We got it in unison again.
"Or a..." Obviously Cornelius couldn't think of any other explanation.
"Hole," I suggested.
"Hole," Robin said.
Cornelius sighed.
"You're missing a level," Robin told him. "You copied the program and you missed a whole stinking level. We're stuck here for what's going to feel like five days, and there's nonplayer characters looping, and gaping holes in the program, and ... and who knows what will go wrong next." He threw his arms up in disgust.
"Shhh, keep it down," I warned, Thea's anxious face reminding me that we were in hostile territory. "1 don't think it's
that
bad."
Robin gave this highly betrayed, I-can't-believe-you're-on-his-side glare.
"Listen. How did we end up in that dungeon? Inept playing." Now they all looked ticked-off at me. "I mean, think about it: we were captured because we didn't fight off the ambush well enough—"
"Well, excuse me," Marian cut in.
I ignored her. I was already saying "we" to be polite. What more did she want? "Why didn't we fight off the ambush? Well, for one thing, we declared ourselves to be at much higher experience levels than we really are."
"
That
—" Cornelius started.
"And secondly," I talked over his objection, "we were short two players because we inadvertently got them looping."
"Does all this have a point?" Robin asked me. Boy, he was OK alone, but get him near Marian and he turned into a real pain.
"The point is, in normal circumstances we wouldn't even be here. There was nothing in that cell because Rasmussem didn't think we'd even see the fortress, much less go exploring in the lower levels. If—
if
—this were a regulation game"—I paused to let that sink in—"there'd have been someone monitoring, someone who would have switched us over to some subroutine."
It took a moment for that to settle. Then Marian said, "But we are on our own, children." Tenth-graders. But she was right.
We all looked at Cornelius. "Oops," he said. Then he grinned. "But think of all the money you saved."
Everyone groaned.
"Come on, let's get out of here," Thea said. "Before those creeps find us and drag us all in there and we all get to spend four days doing nothing."
"What about," Feordin said, "my mace?"
What was this, Riddle Time? "Ahh, I don't know," I said. "What about your mace?"
Feordin gave me a dirty look. "I was using it back there, during the battle where we stopped for lunch. I killed three of our attackers, and then one of the miserable dogs knocked it out of my hand."
"One of the ones you'd killed?" I asked.
"Funny, Harek. For someone who wasn't even there. Where were you, by the way?" He gave me about half a second. "Never mind, tell me later. Anyway, we had to make a temporary retreat. Then, when we came back, my mace was gone. One of those louts must have taken it." He nodded toward the bandits' fortress. "It's got to be here."
We all gave each other anxious looks.
"We're not going back in there, Feordin," I said. "For all we know, that part of the program may dissolve while we're in there." All around me, our companions nodded.
"That's my mace," Feordin cried.
"Yes," I said.
"Don't you remember my name?"
"Ahh—"
"I'm Feordin Macewielder—"
"Yes, but—"
"—son of Feordan Sturdyaxe"—Oh, no, he'd gone and started—"grandson of Feordane Boldheart, brother to Feordone the Fearless, great-grandson of Feordine Stoutarm who served under Graggaman Maximus."
"Yes," I said, "but—"
"Feordin
Mace
wielder," he repeated.
Not again,
I thought, but he left it at that. "
Mace
wielder. I'm Feordin Macewielder, and now I don't have a mace."
"Well," I said hopefully, "maybe you can get another."
He growled at me, and for a moment I actually thought he was going to bite me. "Cowards. Then I'll go alone."
"No, Feordin. This has nothing to do with fighting the campaign. This is the program's seams showing."
Of all people, it was Marian who came to my rescue. "Feordin, you've got to think of the good of the company. You go in that fortress and you may not come out again. We're already two people short."
He was considering trying it anyway—you could tell by his expression. But finally he relented. "All right," he mumbled.
"Good," Cornelius said. "Let's get back to the camp."
"Is that where the others are?" I asked. "Nocona and ... Felice?"
"Yes," Thea said. "Felice was feeling so wretched, we decided it'd be best if she stayed behind. Nocona stayed with her in case there was any trouble."
Nocona?
They'd left a wounded man to protect my mother? I was furious, but I only said, "Still has her headache, huh?"
Thea gave me a sharp look, then nodded without saying whatever was on her mind.
Darn, I thought. Somehow I'd hoped that in the hours Robin and I had been held captive things would have changed, improved—would have worked themselves out for the best.
All things considered, I should have known better.
At the camp, Robin, who hadn't had anything to eat since lunch, and I, who hadn't had anything to eat at all, got a cold dinner of everybody else's leftovers. The only good thing was that the group decided that I—along with Robin, Mom, and Nocona—needed to rest to regain our strength. So the others divided up the night watches among themselves, and I got to sleep.
In the morning I awoke to Feordin muttering to himself as he went along, scuffing his feet and bumping into people and pushing them out of his way.
"
Mumble, mumble
mace," was the first I caught. "How do they expect me to do my job without a mace?" I missed part of the next, but then heard the names Feordan Sturdyaxe and Feordane Boldheart. Then he called someone—probably me—a lazy, stupid wimp. "
Mumble, mumble
sword or bow." And then he said something about the good old days of Graggaman Maximus, but by then he was loading up his horse, too far away for me to hear clearly. In any case I was less interested in listening to Feordin complain than in finding out how my mom was doing.
But as soon as I saw her, I could tell that her headache hadn't gone away.
She was sitting up, with her blanket wrapped tight around her, her knees drawn up to her chest, resting her head in her hands. Marian hovered over her, trying to get her to drink from a tin cup.
"Harek!" Mom called as soon as she spotted me. But the effort, or the noise, must have hurt, because she winced and pressed her hands tighter to her head.
"Here, let me make a fire," Cornelius offered, "then we can have some nice hot—"
"No!" Nocona and Thea said together. Thea added, "We can't risk a fire being seen. We'll have to have a cold breakfast."
By then I'd made it to Mom's side, and she reached up to take my hand. "Are you all right?" she demanded in a quivery whisper-voice. "I woke up during the night, and Cornelius told me you were all right."
"Yeah, I'm fine." Considering how she looked, it seemed pretty stupid to ask how she was, and I didn't know what else to say. "What's the plan?" I asked Cornelius.
"No fire."
"Yeah," I said, "no fire. What else?"
He shrugged.
"You going to try some magic on her headache, or what?" I was fast losing my patience and I still couldn't bring myself to call Mom Felice.
"I tried already," our wizard said. "While you were busy snoring away."
How come I always ended up looking like a fool, no matter what?
"I tried the Deflect Evil spell, and I tried the Ward Off Magic spell."
"No effect at all?" I asked, though I could see for myself. Something was wrong. Seriously wrong.
"I'll be all right," Mom said. "Only ... what? Four more days of this? That comes to ... ninety-something hours." She groaned. "How many minutes does that make?"
Who knows?
I thought. She was always the one who was good at doing math without a calculator.
"Can we get out early?" she asked. "Can I get out early? I'm sorry to be spoiling everybody's fun, but if you can't make this headache go away, I don't think I can stand four more days of it."
We all looked at each other hopelessly. Even Feordin, who was mad at us, was clearly upset.
"I'm sorry," Cornelius said.
"
There's no way to get out?
" Mom demanded, sounding somewhere between wanting to cry and wanting to shake him.
"Well, if we were at Rasmussem—"
Almost everybody groaned. We
all
glared.
"Well, now we know for next time. If we just leave someone by the equipment to—"
"Quit while you're ahead," Nocona warned.
"Sorry," Cornelius said again.
"Well,
I
think," Marian said, "that we missed something."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"
Obviously
"—how come, I wondered, girls always have to talk in that irritatingly superior tone of voice whenever they're explaining something?—"
obviously
Felice wasn't meant to have this headache for two days.
Obviously
we were supposed to pick something up at the town and missed it."
And how come, even though she kept saying "we," I kept hearing "you bozos"?
"What sort of something, Marian?" Thea asked.
"Well, I don't know. Probably something magic."
Robin said, "That's pretty lame, Marian."
"Well, I'm not hearing anybody else come up with something better," she snapped.
Oh-oh. Trouble in Love City.
"Listen," Robin said. "Like Harek pointed out last night, we took one long side trip yesterday. I think we were supposed to find the cure yesterday afternoon, beyond where the bandits attacked us. If we get back on the road, we'll find what we need by noon today."
"Yeah," Marian said, her voice getting louder and shriller. "Fine. But what if it's behind us?"
"There was nothing in the town," Robin said, his snotty tone matching hers exactly.
"But if there was, we'll be pretty darn far from it by noon today."
The two of them stood glaring at each other.
Cornelius started, "I think—"
"
What?
" Both turned on him and he took a quick step back.
"I think," he suggested meekly, "it'd be best to cover both options."
"Separate?" Thea asked, her voice an incredulous squeak.
"Well," he said. "Yes."
We all thought about that for a while.
"I'm so sorry," Mom said.
"Shh, it's OK," Marian said. Pain that she was, I was glad she was there. Boys aren't good at comforting girls, and Mom needed all the comforting she could get. Marian stooped down to take Mom's hand, but what she said was for all of us. "I'll go back."
I figured Robin was probably right, that the answer lay ahead of us, not behind. Still—just in case—I was glad when Nocona told her, "I'll go with you."
"But you've been hurt," Mom protested. "What about your poor leg?"
"Almost all better." Nocona flexed his leg to show her. "Injuries here heal real fast, or the game would drag." He seemed suddenly to realize what he had said. "Generally," he mumbled.
"I'll go too," Feordin said in the uncomfortable silence. He glared at Marian and Nocona. "Keep them out of trouble." He glared at the rest of us. "Maybe find a replacement mace."
Robin looked at me and Thea and Cornelius.
"I'll go on," I said.
"Me too," Thea said.
Cornelius nodded.
"Then we should go as quickly as possible," Robin said.
I half expected Marian to back down, once she saw that Robin was going to be stubborn about it. But she didn't. We divided our provisions, gulped down another cold meal, packed the horses, then Marian, Nocona, and Feordin rode one way, and Thea, Robin, Cornelius, Mom, and I rode the other. And the worst part was my nagging fear that neither group was right.
We backtracked over a part of the forest through which we'd already traveled—even though I'd been unconscious for the trip—and we were fairly certain that the whole bandits' fortress had been one enormous dead end. So—assuming there'd be no new dangers, no clues, nor objects we'd need for later on in our quest—we pushed the horses to the limit.
No, take that back.
We pushed Mom to her limit. She ended up riding double with Thea, afraid she'd pass out or get jostled off.
We slowed when we got back to the road, to the previous day's ambush site. Cornelius's Wizards' Lightning had taken down branches and gouged trees and scorched the ground. The air was still smoky from it. Smoky and ... more. The bandits had abandoned their dead companions. An afternoon and a morning out there, and already the bodies gave off the stink of meat gone bad. Combined with the smoke, the effect was of a particularly sinister barbecue.
Robin was eyeing a body that was lying half on the road, like he was wondering what was in the guy's pockets.
"Don't even think of it," I warned. I didn't want to look at some one-day-dead guy's face.
Mom went back to her own horse. Now that we were on unfamiliar ground, we traveled more slowly. Besides, if anything happened that we had to try to outrun somebody—or something—any horse carrying double would be the first to falter. That's how come Mom had ended up with Thea anyway. Thea was the smallest and the least burden to her mount to begin with. Being an elf, I was the smallest of the men, and I'd been just about to offer to have Mom come over with me, when she announced she was well enough to go on her own.