The Game Masters of Garden Place Read online

  Cammi spoke, his voice barely a whisper. “You don’t think it’s possible—”

  “That they are, like, real? Like from another dimension or something?” snorted Noel.

  “You don’t have to be so snotty about it,” Persephone said, holding Cammi’s hand.

  “We made them up,” Ralph insisted. “I mean, we did. It’s just…impossible. This isn’t Narnia. It’s Brooklyn.”

  “Actually, a lot of fantasy books take place in Brooklyn,” Noel said. “I was just reading one about vampires.”

  “Whatever,” said Jojo, crossing her arms. “This is stupid. They can’t really be from another world. Things like that don’t happen.”

  “But wouldn’t it be cool if they did?” mused Persephone.

  They thought about that for a moment.

  “I…I don’t know what to think,” said Noel finally. For the first time he seemed unsure of himself.

  “Your dad’s a scientist,” Ralph said. “What would he say? Wouldn’t he insist that there’s a logical explanation for all this?”

  Noel looked back toward the living room. “Actually, he likes to say there are all sorts of things science just can’t explain.”

  “That doesn’t make them magic,” insisted Ralph.

  “Then what is it?” demanded Persephone.

  Ralph thought for a minute. He thought of rolling the dice, of the spell, of all the possibilities they had rejected. “I guess that’s for us to find out, right?”

  He pulled back the sliding door quickly, and the halfling, who was leaning on the door, fell into them. He’d been listening on the other side. Instead of hitting the floor, he did a graceful roll and flipped back onto his feet.

  Persephone and Cammi applauded and he bowed.

  “He does have a high dexterity score,” remembered Ralph.

  “Jandia is becoming hungrier,” Bram said, looking around.

  “Come on, the kitchen is this way,” said Ralph, pushing him across the dining room.

  Bram had paused in front of the kitchen. He carefully put a hand out and drew it back quickly. He then dipped a toe into the room and gingerly tapped the floor.

  “What the heck are you doing?” asked Ralph.

  Bram looked at him and raised a warning hand. “Checking for traps, of course. You have much to learn, young human. Never enter a room without checking for traps. We rogues are especially good at this.”

  “Yes, I know!” said Ralph, pushing past him. “But it’s my house. There are no traps here.”

  “What’s the fun of that?” asked Bram, following close behind.

  Ralph loaded himself down with everything that looked vaguely snacklike.

  Whenever his parents did a commercial shoot, they brought home stuff from the craft services table, which was the free food table set up for the cast and crew. There were always bowls of fruit and fiber bars and wedges of cheese left over at the end of the day. He got out a tray and was about to hand it to Bram, who was busying himself pocketing silverware from one of the drawers.

  “Put those back!” ordered Ralph. “They don’t belong to you.”

  Bram looked crestfallen. He emptied his pockets. “Not even one of these?” He held up a bread knife.

  “Just put it on the tray. We can use it to cut the cheese.”

  Bram sighed and did what he was told. It was odd. Ralph didn’t think the rogue usually listened in the game when someone told him not to steal.

  They walked back into the living room, to find Torgrim and Gerontius deep in conversation with Noel. Persephone and Cammi were admiring Mirak’s harp.

  Jandia stood apart, glowering, but she brightened when she saw the tray of food.

  She reached over and took a handful of grapes and shoved them in her mouth, then took about half the cheese.

  “She doesn’t have the best manners, does she?” whispered Ralph.

  “I wouldn’t bring that up,” counseled Bram. “The last person to do so found his head severed from his body.”

  “Good point.” Ralph nodded.

  Jojo stood by the barbarian, looking protective. “Maybe she’s just hangry.”

  Bram looked puzzled. “I do not know this word.”

  Ralph sighed. “It’s a combination of hungry and angry. Like when you’re so hungry you’re cranky and snap at everyone.”

  Bram laughed. “Oh no, she’s always like that.”

  Ralph took what was left on the tray and approached Gerontius and Torgrim, who were listening raptly to whatever Noel was lecturing on.

  “We did have horses here, until the last century. But they have given way to the automobile.” Noel was clearly in heaven, having an audience.

  “You mean those objects of metal and glass we see through the window?” Torgrim asked, stroking his beard again. He took a carrot stick from the tray and chewed it thoughtfully. “They are pulled by invisible horses?”

  “Not exactly,” said Noel. “They move by themselves.”

  “What sorcery is this?” marveled Gerontius. “So many wonders!”

  Ralph moved over to the bard, who was admiring Persephone’s braid.

  “It’s called a fishtail braid,” she was saying. “All my friends do it. We sometimes braid Cammi’s hair when he lets us.”

  Cammi reddened. “Persephone!”

  “What’s wrong with that?” Persephone asked.

  Mirak looked gently at Cammi. “Nothing at all, youngling. Why does this cause you such alarm?”

  “It doesn’t,” said Cammi. “I guess it’s not a big thing where you come from. But it sorta is here.”

  “Our people do not choose to wear our hair in such a fashion, but I can see how it would be quite becoming on you.”

  Then Mirak caught a glimpse of Ralph. Her eyes widened and she peered at his teeth. “But, young master! What horrible affliction has befallen you!”

  Ralph looked at the others. “What are you talking about?”

  Bram raised his hands to his mouth. “By the gods, I hadn’t noticed. Who has cursed you thus?”

  Noel came over and peered at Ralph and laughed. “RPG, I think they mean your braces.”

  Mirak looked with pity at Ralph and shook her head. “What manner of villain is torturing you thus, caging your teeth in bands of metal?”

  Ralph rolled his eyes. “His name is Dr. Falatko, and he isn’t torturing me. They’re called braces, and they help to straighten my teeth.”

  “How barbaric!” declared Mirak. Catching a glare from Jandia, she added, “No offense.”

  Noel turned to Mirak. “People who have giant tusks growing out of their lower lips shouldn’t throw stones, if you know what I mean.”

  Mirak’s hand fell on her bow, and then she stopped herself.

  “You should consider yourself lucky, youngling,” said Gerontius. “Mirak takes the counsel of her human father’s blood, rather than the brutal orc ways of her mother’s race.”

  “That’s one of the things I like about her,” said Persephone, hugging the surprised bard.

  “It is a struggle, but I reject my orc ways whenever I can, unless in battle.”

  “My parents have always taught me to respect the cultures of both their races,” Noel said.

  The five adventurers all looked confused.

  “You’re two races?” asked Bram.

  “Yes. My mom is black, from Grenada, and my dad is white, from Boston,” he said.

  “White elf?” asked Jandia.

  “Nope,” said Noel. “They’re both human.”

  “Then why do you say you are of two races?” asked Mirak. “I am of human and orc: two races. You are human and human.”

  “It’s different for us,” Jojo tried. “We’re all humans, so—”

  “So you are all of the same rac
e!” said Torgrim impatiently.

  “Well, yeah, we’re all humans, but people see us differently,” said Jojo. “Like, I’m white.”

  “And I’m Asian,” added Persephone.

  Ralph chimed in. “And I’m Jewish!”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Jojo asked.

  Ralph reddened. “I dunno, but for some people it makes a difference.”

  “But you are human. And he is human. You are all human. I do not understand,” said Jandia, shaking her head.

  Cammi sighed. “Yeah, it’s complicated.”

  “That’s the most foolish thing I’ve ever heard,” said Gerontius. “A human is a human. And a halfling is a halfling, and a dwarf is a dwarf.” The wizard clapped his hands briskly. “But enough prattle,” he added. “We must get down to business.”

  Gerontius turned his piercing gray eyes on Ralph. It was unnerving, as they seemed to have endless depths and yet to be so friendly at the same time.

  “I am Gerontius Darksbane, wizard of the Forest Cloverdell. And this is—”

  Noel was not going to wait for introductions when he had a chance to show off. “We know who you are. And that’s Jandia Ravenhelm, barbarian warrior; Mirak Melodin, bard; the great cleric Torgrim Din-Mora; and Bram Quickfoot, rogue.”

  Gerontius regarded Noel for a moment. “We like to think of him as a scout, not a rogue.”

  “That is when I have not displeased them,” said Bram as he took a fork and a knife from his pocket. Clearly Ralph was going to need to keep a close watch on the silverware.

  “But how came you to know this?” asked Torgrim. “Have you a spell to look into our minds?”

  “We know because we—” Jojo began before a sharp look from Ralph cut her off.

  She realized that saying “we made you up” would probably be considered a rude and possibly dangerous thing to say to people with large swords and a giant war hammer.

  “Go on,” said Mirak.

  Persephone piped up. “Because your fame is known far and wide. Even in our, um, dimension, or land or whatever, your history is known.”

  Jandia looked like she wasn’t buying it. “How is this possible?”

  Ralph decided to run with this. “We have heard tales,” he added. “The stories of your search for the Seven Serpent Scepter has become a legend.”

  Bram gave a delighted laugh and grabbed an apple from the plate. “I told you we would be welcome here! You should trust me, Wizard!”

  “The last time you said we would be welcomed, a giant bear with antlers and poisonous claws almost ripped my leg off,” grumbled Jandia.

  Bram shrugged and took a bite of his apple. “That was just his way of saying hello.”

  “But you have us at an advantage, younglings,” Gerontius said. “We do not know what to call you.”

  Noel bowed. “Noel Carrington at your service.”

  Bram clapped. “Noel! What a fine name!”

  “I am Persephone, named for the goddess of spring,” exclaimed Persephone in her most “I have done many school plays” voice. She also read out loud in class with this voice, to the annoyance of everyone else.

  “Your name matches you—it is as lovely as you are,” said Mirak, making Persephone glow.

  “My real name is Johnna, but everyone calls me Jojo,” said Jojo simply.

  Jandia placed a giant hand on her shoulder and looked her square in the face. “Johnna. It is a good name. A warrior’s name.”

  Ralph winced when Gerontius turned to Cammi, who had pulled his baseball cap down onto his face. He hated to talk in class, and this was like ten times worse.

  Gerontius knelt down and gently pulled Cammi’s cap up. Cammi looked away.

  “The others called you Cammi. Is this your given name?”

  Cammi turned and looked at the elf’s face. It seemed as though he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life. A small shy smile snuck onto his lips. “My real name is Cameron,” he said.

  “That is a lovely name. But I prefer Cammi.”

  “So do I,” Cammi said in the quietest voice possible.

  Torgrim turned to Ralph. “And what, good lad, are you named?”

  “I am named Ralph,” he said.

  There was a pause.

  Then the entire group of adventurers burst out laughing.

  “Ralph!” Bram said. “What kind of name is Ralph for a hero?”

  Torgrim’s entire belly was heaving up and down, he was laughing so hard. “Ralph? That’s the name of the village idiot!”

  “First of all, it’s not cool to make fun of people with mental disabilities,” Ralph said, trying to stop the ridicule. “And second of all…really? Making fun of people’s names? Who’s the kid here, anyway?”

  Torgrim looked confused. “I wasn’t making fun of anyone. That was Ralph’s job in Barnsdale. He was the village idiot, and a very good one.”

  “Yes, you should be complimented!” said Bram with a smirk.

  This was not going at all well. Ralph wanted to tell Torgrim that he initially had named the dwarf Fartnose the Great before Declan made him change it. See how he liked that.

  “Deepest apologies, good young sir,” said Mirak, wiping tears from her eyes. “That was inexcusably rude of us.”

  There was another pause.

  “Ralph Ralph Ralph Ralph!” Jandia said, and they erupted in laughter all over again.

  “He’s not called Ralph,” Jojo said. “We call him RPG.”

  “Oh! Much better,” said Gerontius, completely unconvincingly.

  “Whoo! I don’t remember laughing that much in an age,” said Torgrim, trying to catch his breath.

  “So glad I could give you so much joy,” Ralph said drily. “And I really hate to break up this lovely party, but we should be getting you back to your own world.”

  Gerontius looked confused. “But clearly we were summoned here.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Jojo.

  Torgrim fingered the amulet around his neck. “It was the wizard who cast the spell to remove us from certain death, but he only cast the spell to send us to another place.”

  Mirak gestured around them. “Perhaps we are meant to be here.”

  Gerontius nodded. “I sense that someone has summoned us here. If not you, then what power has done this?”

  “The thing is, we kind of did summon you, I guess…,” said Noel. “Or at least, that did.”

  He gestured to the golden die. Now having completed its mission, it was silent and still, looking like nothing more than an average gold-colored metal die.

  “We don’t know that,” Ralph said. “I mean, it could have been a coincidence.”

  Gerontius picked up the twenty-sided die and looked at it curiously. “I have seen the likes of this before. You, Halfling. You have gambled our very souls with such a trifle, have you not?”

  He tossed the die to Bram, who caught it smartly in one hand. He held it up for the others to see. He peered at it, feeling the weight of it in his hand. “Yes, but mine is the simplest stone. In all my travels, this is my first time seeing one like this. I know gold, and this is solid and pure.”

  “Gold?” Torgrim’s eyes lit up in spite of himself.

  Ralph knew there was nothing dwarves in RoD liked more than gold. They lusted after it and lost all reason in pursuit of it. “Don’t get your hopes up. It was sent to me by a…stranger.” He grabbed it out of the rogue’s fingers.

  “A stranger?” said Mirak. “So then we don’t know where its powers are from.”

  “All I know is that something weird is going on,” Ralph answered. “And the sooner we get you back to where you belong, the better it is for all of us.”

  “We are meant to be here,” Torgrim muttered. “I know this is where we will find the las
t serpent.”

  Noel laughed. “If you guys want to find the Golden Serpent, you’re not going to find it here.”

  Jandia let out a low growl and stepped forward menacingly. “How do you know of our quest?”

  “Whoa, whoa!” said Jojo quickly, putting her hand on the barbarian’s arm. “Chill out!”

  Jandia placed her hand on the hilt of her sword. “She is casting a freezing spell! Cleric, protect me!”

  Torgrim held his amulet up in front of him and his lips moved silently; then he swept his hand in the air in front of him.

  Jandia jerked her head from side to side. “Your spell, Cleric. I see no glowing shield!”

  “Perhaps in his excitement, he mixed up his words?” asked Bram.

  “No Din-Mora in five hundred years has forgotten that spell,” choked Torgrim. “Which means my magic does not work here.”

  Gerontius stepped forward and drew himself up to his full height. His slate-gray hair, pale face, and blazing eyes made for an impressive picture. “Adventurers, gather near me! We cannot stay here if we cannot protect ourselves!”

  He held the orb aloft and chanted, “Ozymanthus crysantius!”

  Cammi turned to Ralph and whispered, “That’s the one to open a portal into another dimension.”

  There was an expectant hush. The orb came to life for a moment…then flickered and died.

  The adventurers looked at one another, then at the children.

  “Any other bright ideas?” asked Noel.

  Ralph felt he had to say something. He was good at telling stories. All he had to do was do it now. “The tales of your quest to find the seven serpents are so famous, they have even reached our world.”

  Torgrim regarded Ralph for a long moment. “I do not think these children mean us any harm.”

  “No way!” Noel piped up. “We want to help!”

  Jandia slowly lowered her sword.

  Bram hopped to the window. “Young Noel, if our magic does not work here, we must find someone in this place who can help us.” He turned to his fellow adventurers. “I say we move from this place.”

  Persephone turned to Ralph. “What time is it, anyway? I mean, they can’t be here when our parents get back, right?”