Dicing with Death (9 page)

‘That's not a bad idea,' Tom grinned, ‘since I nearly died when I fought over Liah.'

‘What was the name of the girl you actually died for?' Max said, as innocently as he could.

‘Sarah,' replied Tom.

The silence that followed was even thicker than one of Liah's stews.

‘Sarah?' Liah finally whispered. ‘I thought
I
was the love of your life?'

‘You are,' Tom said hastily. ‘Sarah didn't mean a thing compared to you.'

‘Well, she was worth dying for,' Max pointed out, laying down his dad at the top of the stairs.

‘While I was slogging in the kitchen so you could be saved,' Liah hissed.

‘But I was willing to die for you first!' Tom said plaintively.

Max made a swooping action with one of his hands. ‘You have crashed and burned, my friend.'

‘And,' Liah added furiously, ‘I note that you've never once looked me up in the Underworld.' She turned to Max. ‘Get him away from me – now!'

Max was happy to help. He seized Tom's arm and dragged him over to the balcony doors. Inserting Death's key into the lock, he opened the doors. Instead of the welcoming glow of the night sky, he saw a familiar staircase lit with an ominous red glow. Tom began to struggle, determined not to return to the Underworld, but his ghostly strength was no match for a living human.

‘You know what they say,' Max panted as he shoved Tom through the doorway. ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.'

He banged the door shut and turned the key again before turning back to Liah and his unconscious father. Two bright spots of colour burned on her pale cheeks. ‘Are you okay?'

Liah nodded and tilted her chin. ‘Never better.'

At that moment, a catch clicked and Ralf and Larry pushed open the doors at the far end of the room.

‘What the hell!' roared Ralf, pulling the gun from his pocket.

‘Watch out!' Max cried as the man aimed at Liah and began to close in on her.

‘Ow, my head,' muttered Max's dad, dragging himself to his feet by the stairwell. ‘What's happening? Ralf?'

Liah held up the elixir. ‘Come any closer and I'll smash it,' she warned.

Ralf laughed unpleasantly. ‘Do that and you won't have anything left to bargain with.'

Liah narrowed her green eyes. ‘I'm done with striking bargains.' She opened her fingers and let go of the glass bottle.

‘No!' Greg, Larry and Ralf shouted in unison as the glass tumbled through the air and smashed into tiny shards on the floor.

‘You little…' Whatever bad name Ralf called Liah was drowned by the sound of a gunshot.

Liah looked down and then back at Max. She frowned slightly as a scarlet stain spread over her chest. ‘I don't feel very well,' she said.

Max got to her just as she hit the floor.

‘What were you thinking! She's just a kid, Ralf!' Max's dad yelled.

Max heard the sound of running feet, followed by his father's fist connecting hard with Ralf's face, but all he could focus on was Liah. Frantically he dipped the corner of his robe into the rapidly evaporating elixir and squeezed out a drop on to Liah's wound. ‘Come on, come on,' he muttered. ‘Heal.'

When nothing happened he shouted again, ‘Heal, will you!' He felt tears burning his eyes. Liah couldn't be dead – she'd had never really had a chance to live.

‘Steady,' Liah muttered without opening her eyes. ‘I'm beginning to think you care.'

Max hunkered back on his heels and let out his breath. ‘You're okay.' He helped her up as another rumble of thunder sounded overhead.

Ralf staggered past them, his hands cupped over his bloody nose. He stumbled against the wall and slowly slid to the floor.

Max spun around in time to see his dad wrestle a briefcase away from Larry and swing it at his head. Larry's eyes rolled up and his knees buckled. Before he'd hit the deck, Max's dad had sprinted out of the room.

‘Oh no you don't,' Max muttered as his father's footsteps rang out down the spiral staircase. ‘You're not running out on me for a second time without saying goodbye.' He pulled the whistle out of his pocket and blew into it.

Lightning flashed outside the balcony windows, illuminating the outline of a rearing winged horse. Seconds later its hooves thudded down on the balcony doors, the glass shattering from their frames as they burst open. Buttercup trotted into the room and pawed the ground dramatically. ‘How do you always get here so fast?' Max wondered out loud, before grabbing a handful of mane and pulling himself up.

‘Don't go without me.' Liah put her foot on top of Max's and used it to scramble up behind him.

Max leaned forward, trying to ignore Liah's fingers digging into him. ‘There's a bad man I need you to find, Cuppy,' he said. ‘I don't want you to hurt him but I don't mind if you want to play with him a bit.'

The pegasus pawed the ground again before turning and launching itself off the balcony.

‘Hang on!' Max shouted to Liah as Buttercup swooped from the tower.

‘What are you going to say to him when we catch him?' Liah shouted in his ear.

Max didn't know. ‘I guess I'll find out when it happens.'

Cuppy circled the house until Max's dad burst out of the main entrance and ran towards the car, his speed hampered by the heaviness of the case he was carrying.

Galloping through the air, the great horse's hooves were noiseless as he bore down on the desperate figure. As soon as Cuppy drew close enough, he dropped out of the sky like a stone. Baring his teeth, he grasped Greg's jacket, pulled him from the ground and started shaking him from side to side like a rag doll. The briefcase flew from his hands and hit a tree. Bursting open on impact, wads of notes spilled all over the ground. ‘My money!' screamed Greg.

Max shook his head in disbelief. His dad had just been picked up and shaken around by a flying horse and all he could think about was money?

‘Put him down, Cuppy!' Max ordered.

The black horse just snorted and continued to shake his prey.

‘Now!' Max shouted.

The pegasus dropped Greg and then made what Max felt sure was a deliberately bumpy landing. He slid off and stared down at his dad who was sitting holding his head. ‘Why did you leave me and Mum?' Max asked. ‘And for once, would you give me a straight answer?'

‘Yeah,' Liah agreed, ‘or we'll set our pegasus on you.'

‘A straight answer,' his dad groaned. ‘That's ironic coming from the two of you.'

Buttercup stamped his hoof warningly.

‘OK, OK,' Greg said hurriedly. ‘The truth is, I'm not a location scout. I'm a night hawker. I travel the world searching for treasure. It's all about finders being keepers.'

‘That doesn't sound exactly legal,' Max replied.

His dad shrugged. ‘It was never going to be a career that fitted being a father or a husband.'

Max felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. ‘You were never going to come back, were you?'

‘I wanted to,' his father said. ‘I just couldn't.'

‘Yes you
could
,' Max said quietly. ‘But you chose money over me.'

His dad stared up at him. ‘I'd have come back to you once I'd sold the elixir. I
can
come back now.' He scrambled to his feet and ran over to the money. He gathered up armfuls of notes and clasped them against his chest.

‘You know what I think?' Max said. ‘I think that even if you had come back, it wouldn't have been long before you'd have found a reason to leave again. Did you know you haven't once asked me if I've been alright in all the years you've been away, if anything bad had happened, or if David's been treating me OK…'

His voice tailed off as the money on the ground suddenly lifted in the air and whirled around them like it was on a spin cycle. Max's robes whipped about him and Liah leaned against Buttercup to stop herself being blown off her feet. Faster and faster the tornado whirled, until all of the money, including the briefcase was spinning around them.

‘No!' shrieked Greg as the wads of money were torn from his hands to join the rest.

Suddenly the money burst into flames and almost instantly turned to ash. The wind disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived leaving small piles of smouldering dust. ‘The money,' Greg whimpered. ‘It's all gone.' He dropped to his knees, too caught
up in his grief over the burned cash to notice he was being observed by a seven-foot-tall skeleton.

Max stared down at his dad.
How did I ever think he was cool?
‘You know,' he said carefully, ‘bad things happen in life. What makes you a man is learning to deal with them.'

Death stepped forward. ‘It is time,' he boomed. Raising his scythe he cracked the handle into the ground three times. Instantly the whirlwind returned, whipping around the group in a fury.

‘Max,' his father cried, his voice sounding more and more distant. ‘I'm sorry.'

* * *

Moments later, Liah, Death, Max and Buttercup were standing in Death's throne room, where Mopsus was waiting holding a scroll.

‘You did it,' he congratulated Max. ‘You destroyed the elixir. I never doubted you.'

‘Liah was the one who destroyed it,' Max said, holding back the information that she had, for a short while, been prepared to use it to bring Tom back to life.

Liah shot him a grateful look.

‘Yes.' Death sat down on his throne and drummed his fingers against the armrests. ‘How exactly did you end up in the Overworld, Liah, when you were supposed to be in the kitchen?'

Liah shifted from one foot to another. ‘I, uh…'

‘I accidentally left the door open,' Max interrupted. ‘She must have gone into the cupboard looking for a mop and come out in Crete. What a shocker! Um. That reminds me – you might want to check the broom cupboard and see if anyone else has … er … accidentally got lost in there.'

Mopsus raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘Is there something you're not telling us,
assistant
?'

The very picture of innocence, Max shrugged. ‘Nothing that I can think of.'

‘I think…' Death stood up and walked across to Liah. ‘…you have served your time in my kitchen.'

Liah's eyes flickered nervously. ‘If I'm not going to be in the kitchen then – where am I going to work?'

Death swung his scythe so that the glowing blade rested gently against her chest. ‘Many people think they can cheat Death but they never can.' He leaned closer to Liah. ‘I always catch up with them. Understand?'

Liah licked her lips nervously. ‘I understand,' she whispered.

Max took a step forward. If Death wanted to take Liah's life because the elixir had been used to save her, then he'd have to get past Max first.

A gnarled hand shot out and grasped Max's wrist. ‘What are you planning on doing?' Mopsus asked with a maggoty smile. ‘Offering to play another game?' He tightened his grip. ‘Don't go jumping in with your size fives again.'

‘Sixes,' Max whispered.

‘Mopsus,' Death said without taking his gaze off Liah.

‘Yes Master Reaper?'

‘Give the boy his contract.'

Mopsus winked at Max and handed him the scroll. ‘Your job here is done. You are free to go.'

Max's spirits soared. Amy was safe, and he could go home! He'd never wanted anything more. Then they plummeted again. He couldn't leave Liah, not without knowing she was safe.

Death held out his hand. ‘Give me your robes.'

Slowly Max pulled his robes over his head. He handed them over, along with the whistle, cap and belt.

For a moment he was distracted by a bark and a scrabbling of paws. A familiar-looking dog scampered up, his plumy tail wagging. He grabbed the bottom of Death's robes and tugged on them, making playful growling noises.