Into Tordon Read online

  6thDan—What, so Kaleski’s ghost can explain how cheaters win? Sounds good.

  VlahPaul—Ha! I’ll be there.

  Zane007—Me too.

  Beth slammed her finger on the word ‘logout’. Cheater? It was a strategy game! 6thDan probably didn’t even have a real sword. Who’d be the cheater then? And why bring a candle?

  The gate bell rang.

  ‘Can you get it?’ her father called. He was back in front of the TV, with two glasses and the fizzy drink bottle resting beside him. He hadn’t even poured it.

  With a sigh, Beth rose and went to the front door, wincing at their shabby furniture and worn carpet, even if it was only the delivery man. She buzzed the driveway gate open and it rattled across with age and rust. The smell of roast chicken wafted into the house and her stomach grumbled. Although she had to unpack the shopping, at least lunch would be quick and she’d have plenty of time to meet the Tordon players she’d beaten earlier.

  That’s right—beaten.

  No matter what they thought, she’d won, and it would be exciting to meet other gamers as a winner. Surely not everyone would think like 6thDan. Zane007 had already stuck up for her. She’d have plenty of fans on her side. Some of them might even turn out to be the friends she’d been waiting to win over.

  On the other hand, how were they going to react when they met the anniversary champion, already labelled a cheat by some, and it was her?

  Chapter 3

  Beth pulled down her sleeves as she hurried to Daintree Street. Behind tall fences, in tree-less backyards, little voices filled the air along with the floral scent of government-issued sunscreen. Children were allowed to play outside during the afternoon let-out, but only younger kids generally did. Most kids Beth’s age were on their devices this time of day, playing in some virtual space. Beth yanked down her sleeves some more. The sun was really pressing down today. Most kids her age also got new tops every growth-spurt, but Dad had been out of work so long now… He’d once been a manager at the tree-farm, but since he’d lost his job, everything had changed. He’d changed. Mum had died when Beth was four, still he’d kept his job—his parenting responsibilities keeping him focussed. Now with this latest set-back he was falling apart. Was it because she was old enough now to take care of herself?

  Beth straightened her back. He’d get another job soon, she was sure.

  Well, he would if he stopped moping around watching the dumb footy.

  Someone sneezed behind a fence, making Beth jump. The permanent haze of dust and pollution that hung over her suburb often worsened people’s allergies. At least Beth had zero allergies—not to pollen, dust mites, pets, mosquitoes, wheat, nuts, dairy, food colouring, egg, fish, soya or mould. These days, her teachers said, she was a rarity.

  Ten minutes later she hurried into Daintree Street—a quiet road with fewer houses, where the fences were lower and wild grass crept through. Sweat broke on her brow from the sun. When she was younger, quiet streets like this one would have been lined with trees offering shade. They were all gone now, even from this older area, chopped down by thieves when the Tree Protection Laws made raw wood valuable enough to be stolen.

  Beth spied a group of teens gathered around someone wearing a complete Kumdo outfit—billowing blue pants and a heavy blue jacket bound by a brown belt. Above his head the boy brandished a long thin Juk-To practice sword. She read the back of his jacket—Lee Sang Hwan Academy. It had to be 6thDan.

  Reaching the group, she glanced around. There were so many people here. Some wore allergy-masks and it seemed everyone could afford long sleeves. Her stomach clenched. Where was Zane007?

  ‘I knew it wouldn’t be a real sword,’ someone behind her said.

  She turned to see a tall boy with curly blond hair and a mass of freckles covering his face. VlahPaul. Behind him was another tall boy—olive-skinned with dark hair and blue eyes. It had to be Zane007! His clothes were stylish too, just like his avatar, though he was a bit pudgier in real life.

  ‘Zane007?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ He glanced at her. ‘But it’s just Zane.’ Beth coloured. Of course. How stupid of her.

  ‘Hi Pauly!’ cooed a girl with perfectly smooth long brown hair. She raced over, linked her arm through VlahPaul’s and planted a kiss on his cheek.

  ‘Hi Wolk.’ VlahPaul grinned, winking at Zane.

  Beth smiled even as Zane scowled. Now she would meet four players from this month’s championship. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Wolk.’

  The girl ignored her. ‘Check out the cool sword, Pauly.’ ‘It’s not a proper sword,’ Zane growled. He flicked his hair and the crowd parted. ‘I thought you were bringing real steel.’ He glanced around, but Beth noticed his gaze rested on Wolk. ‘You can’t fight with that.’

  VlahPaul snorted. ‘Reckon you could show him, 007? You just love all that fighting stuff.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ sneered Wolk. ‘Your army dad must’ve shown you loads.’ And she threw such a venomous look at Zane that Beth drew back.

  ‘Sure. I know a few moves.’ Zane clenched his jaw before striding forward. He towered over most of the group. 6thDan smiled and started to bow in greeting, but paused when Zane reached out and twanged the yellow string stretching along the sword’s plastic spine. ‘Except this is a cheap kid’s toy.’

  ‘It’s a modern competition sword,’ said 6thDan, turning red. ‘I have a steel Jukkum at home, but Father said I’d be arrested if I brought it onto the street.’

  Fair enough, thought Beth.

  ‘Sounds like dog’s buns,’ Zane said to 6thDane, making some of the others chuckle. ‘Is that what you are too—dog’s buns?’

  More laughter.

  6thDan lowered his eyes.

  Beth stepped forward. ‘You said to bring a candle?’

  She offered him a long white candle she’d found under the kitchen sink.

  6thDan glanced up at her. ‘Thanks.’ He nodded to a few other candles on the pavement, bound in an elastic band.

  ‘I have a match,’ said VlahPaul to murmurs of surprise. ‘A match! Is it made of wood?’

  ‘How did you get one of those?’ asked Zane.

  ‘I have my sources,’ said VlahPaul smugly.

  ‘Could you light the candles then?’ asked 6thDan. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I just brought it to show you.’ 6thDan rolled his eyes and passed a lighter to Beth.

  ‘Could you please light them while I get ready?’

  ‘Isn’t there a fire ban?’ said Zane and he glared at Beth like she was dog’s buns too.

  She looked away. ‘Not at the moment.’ She crouched to add her candle to the stack, then lit all the wicks. When enough wax had melted, she dripped it onto the pavement and pushed the upright stack into it. The wax cooled, held the candles steady, and their flames united in a smoky yellow column. Satisfied, Beth stepped back, and realised everyone had been watching. Did they recognise her yet?

  No, their eyes were fixed on the candles, expectation in their faces. Beth had a sense that even the dark windows of the old houses around them watched. Wait, weren’t they supposed to be outside Kaleski’s house? Her gaze scanned the street. Which house was his?

  A groan erupted beside her and she turned to see 6thDan gripping his weapon as if wringing out a towel. He moved forward and wafted the sword over the flames. The movement didn’t even make the smoke stir. Slowly he raised it above his head and took a deep breath.

  ‘Kum Ki,’ he explained, ‘is achieved by joining internal and external energy into oneness. To do it, you have to master Danjun, breathing as well as absorbing the earth’s energy through your hands. Ki moves around, over and in the body, and then,’ he yanked the sword through the air like an explosion, stopping just before the candle’s flame. It went out instantly.

  Beth gasped along with the crowd.

  ‘Everyone has inner energy,’ he looked around at the amazed faces. ‘They just don’t know how to release it.’

  ‘Looks like a cheap trick to me,’
Zane scoffed. ‘Could you do that?’ Beth asked him.

  Zane peered at her face. ‘Do I know you?’ ‘I’m Beth, Bethlyn Gatise.’

  ‘And that’s supposed to mean something to me?’

  ‘My initials are BG. I’m BGwarrior. Remember I said I’d meet you guys here?’

  Zane snickered and shook his head as if enjoying a private joke.

  VlahPaul stepped closer, looking her up and down. ‘You’re the champion of The Chameleon Chart’s first anniversary game?’

  Beth smiled. He was the first person to say it aloud. ‘Hey, aren’t you from my school?’ someone called from the back of the crowd. ‘The one whose dad got fired from the tree-farm?’

  Beth’s chest tightened. ‘He quit!’

  ‘That’s not what I heard—what a loser!’

  ‘Yeah, loser!’

  ‘Come on, Pauly.’ Wolk wrinkled her nose at Beth.

  ‘There’re too many fakes around here.’

  A murmur of agreement spread through the crowd and some began drifting away.

  Beth watched in disbelief. ‘I am the Champion!’ VlahPaul just looked at her in disgust. ‘As if.’

  Beth searched the faces of the others. How could she prove it to them? Her eyes stopped on 6thDan still swishing his sword. ‘Can I have a go of your Juk-To?’

  He shook his head, not even looking her in the eye. ‘You have no respect. Your courage has no courtesy.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘He means,’ said Zane, grabbing 6thDan’s sword, ‘that no true champion would jump off a cliff to win. Dying in the heat of battle is fine. But to win like you did is cowardly.’

  The blood rushed to Beth’s face. ‘But that’s not what you said in the chatroom.’

  Zane rolled his eyes. ‘Only idiots say what they really think online.’ He swished the sword around his body.

  ‘Okay, give it back now,’ said 6thDan, trying to snatch the sword.

  ‘Go 007!’ said VlahPaul with a laugh.

  Beth stepped forward, sick of them all. There were no friends to be made here. ‘Give it back, Zane.’

  ‘Why, you gonna win it back by throwing yourself off a cliff?’

  ‘You know,’ said Beth, clenching her fists, ‘it’s called strategy. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to win. The championship might be configured that way for all we know.’

  Zane pointed the sword at the house opposite them. ‘Go on then.’

  ‘Go on what?’

  ‘Go ask.’

  VlahPaul gave a bark of laughter.

  Beth stared across the road. So that’s where the famous Tordon developer once lived. Behind the low fence was a two-storey house, its lower windows sealed up with bricks and its yellow paint old and peeling. Weeds grew waist-high in the garden. A shadow flickered in the attic window and she shuddered, remembering hearing stories that only ghosts lived there now.

  ‘No one lives there anymore,’ she said quietly.

  ‘You sure about that?’ asked Zane, raising his eyebrows at the window.

  ‘I heard he moved to India,’ said 6thDan, finally grabbing back his sword. ‘Keeps this place ready so he can come back to it one day.’

  ‘India?’

  ‘Yeah, to Ripple headquarters. You know they’re the best in gaming now.’

  ‘I heard,’ said Wolk, sliding alongside Zane, ‘that Ripple fired him.’

  ‘No,’ Zane snapped. ‘They made him redundant.’ ‘Same thing,’ said 6thDan.

  ‘No it isn’t,’ Zane said.

  ‘What’s your problem, Zane?’

  ‘You.’ Zane glared down at 6thDan. ‘Wasting my time with this toy.’

  6thDan tensed and thrust out his sword. ‘Come on then.’

  ‘I heard,’ said Beth to break the tension, ‘that Kaleski discovered a gateway to another dimension.’

  ‘I heard that too,’ said Wolk, gazing toward the house. ‘It’s where he got his inspiration for Tordon. It’s based on somewhere real.’

  Zane rolled his eyes again. ‘That’s just dumb.’

  Wolk glared at him.

  ‘Either way, 007,’ VlahPaul smiled, ‘you should probably escort the champion over for a closer look, given she’s a girl and all.’

  Wolk’s grin was triumphant. ‘Yes! Surely by now your

  father’s taught you how to protect a lady.’

  Zane scowled at Wolk and VlahPaul. They stared back. ‘Of course!’ he suddenly said, tossing his head at Beth. ‘Coming?’

  Beth glanced at 6thDan, who still looked ready to chop Zane with his sword, then she looked back at the house. She was curious, plus there’d been that strange message at the end of the game. Only champions dare to enter.

  She nodded. ‘I am the champion.’ She stepped onto the road and Zane followed.

  When they reached the house’s low fence Beth hesitated, but Zane just slipped around its rotting gate and strode up the driveway.

  ‘Only champions dare to enter,’ she mumbled to herself before hurrying after him.

  ‘You’re trespassing!’ 6thDan called after them. ‘It’s against the law, you know.’

  Wolk and VlahPaul said nothing, just crossed the road and waited by the gate.

  ‘Keep walking,’ Zane said, glancing at the upstairs window.

  Beth nodded and squinted at a small rusted plaque set on the house’s front wall. Video Surveillance In Use. So was this place occupied or not? No sounds came from its grounds. No lights shone from inside. It certainly looked abandoned.

  ‘Don’t you think it looks a lot like the house in the game?’ asked Zane.

  Beth frowned and took a sideways step. ‘Yeah, maybe from this angle.’ The driveway led them around the side

  of the house to where its front door sat between two sealed windows. Upstairs were two more windows, lined up with those below. ‘And look at the door.’

  The door was black and gleamed as if made of metal. It had no doorknob, handle or knocker—nothing to open it by, just like Tordon’s famous Black-Door-With-No-Doorknob.

  ‘That’s strange though.’ Beth pointed to a shiny silver keypad in the wall beside the door, its tiny buttons lit and glowing.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Zane, ‘because if the house is abandoned, why is the electricity still on?’

  ‘Security?’ Beth shrugged.

  ‘Come on, guys!’ 6thDan called again. ‘I’m leaving!’ ‘This is boring,’ Wolk whined. ‘Let’s go Pauly.’

  ‘Not yet,’ said VlahPaul, ‘I’m waiting to see what our winners will do. Maybe they’ll go in.’

  Zane folded his arms. ‘She’s the winner! If anyone’s going in, it’s her!’

  Beth ignored them all, her attention caught by the keypad. She leaned closer. ‘Whoa—check it out.’

  ‘What?’ Zane peered over her shoulder.

  ‘Oh, I get it,’ her eyes widened. Each keypad button was engraved with a number and a symbol, each of which resembled Tordon runes. There was the skull Rune of Self-Belief, a four-rods Rune of Death, the pentagonal Rune of Respect, the stone-bear Rune of Compassion, a petal Rune of Remedy…

  Zane started pressing buttons. He tried the number of the house followed by its postcode. Next he tried Beth’s final point score.

  ‘I think the symbols have something to do with it.’ Beth gestured at the engravings. ‘Which level did you get that Rune of Respect in, seven? What rune was in level one?’

  ‘The Rune of Survival,’ he said, pointing to the symbol of a ceramic jug.

  ‘What about the second level?’

  ‘I think I get it,’ he interrupted.

  VlahPaul called out then. ‘You’re right, Wolk, this is boring! Why on earth are we hanging out with these losers?’

  Wolk burst into laughter and they walked off, the rest of the group drifting away with them. As their voices faded into the distance, Zane tapped each keypad symbol in the order their respective runes had appeared in the game. ‘You’ll see!’ he muttered as if Beth couldn’t hear. ‘I’ll show
you who’s a loser.’ He pressed the last rune won in the game—the Rune of Death—and with a click and a whoosh, the door flew up into the ceiling, disappearing into a slot in the door frame.

  ‘No way,’ said Beth.

  Beyond the doorway was a hall of dark floorboards and a shadowy wooden staircase. On the walls was a floral wallpaper, covered in a thin coat of white paint and peeling away in places.

  ‘Time to claim your winner’s prize, BGwarrior!’ Zane grabbed Beth’s arm.

  ‘Hey, get off!’

  But Zane pushed Beth towards a huge cobweb that hung across the entrance. Beth pushed back, but Zane was too strong, his grip on her arm secure.

  ‘Stop it!’

  ‘What? Not gonna risk your life to win this one?’ Beth remembered the Chameleon’s message: Only champions dare to enter.

  ‘Actually, I do dare.’ She took a big step forward. With no resistance to his pushing, Zane tripped on the doorstep and tumbled into the cobweb himself.

  Beth laughed, then realised Zane’s was still gripping her arm. He pulled her down with him and she tumbled into the cobweb too. As her knees slammed onto the hall floorboards, the sticky web coated her face, hands and arms. Something flashed.

  ‘Yuck! It’s everywhere!’ Zane cried.

  ‘Ew!’ Beth cried, blinking and frantically plucking at her lips, eyelids and hair. It stuck like glue!

  Then a gust of wind blew over her body. A sliding noise sounded behind her, followed by a loud slam.

  ‘What the…?’ Zane said, sounding panicked somewhere nearby.

  Beth blinked as the tacky web cleared from her face. The floorboards beneath her were covered in brittle leaves that crunched as she sat back on her heels. She tried brushing the web from her hands but it wouldn’t come off, and the more she pulled at it the thicker it stuck, gripping her hands like the thin rubber gloves doctors used. Her plucking made its surface less sticky, but still the tough mesh remained.

  ‘What’s happening?’ cried Zane.

  Beth looked up, expecting to see the hallway staircase.

  Instead, trees towered around them and through a leafy canopy she could see blue sky. Her mouth gaped. Trees! So many of them, and not caged in a tree farm! Where was the house, the floorboards and staircase? The scent of smoke wafted towards her on the warm breeze. Birds called, insects buzzed, and in the distance was a low rumble that sounded like…men roaring?