The Gods' Games Volume 1 & 2: Graphic Edition (The Gods' Games Series)

by Quil Carter

  “Not my chaylen.” Ben shook his head. Chaylen, Ben had learned, was the word they used to describe same-sex partner. “But we were heading in that direction. His name was Tav and he was my roommate, meaning we lived together to save coin. He was from a different country and he came to my country to study at our college. He probably thinks I’m dead and he doesn’t deserve that – I can’t just let him live forever thinking something bad happened to me.”

  Malagant gave a sympathetic nod. “I understand. I hope I can visit you then. I–” He paused and looked past Ben. “Are you okay, Teal?”

  Ben glanced over and saw Teal was already several paces in front of them, clutching the straps of his backpack, his face flushed.

  “I’m just going to make sure the road is clear,” Teal mumbled, then, in an instant, he was gone; sprinting ahead of the two of them without a look back.

  Malagant looked ahead, his lips pursed before moving to the side of his mouth. “He doesn’t want you to go back to your world I think.”

  To show off his complete ignorance to Teal’s feelings, Ben’s eyes widened in surprise. “You think so?” Ben blinked. “I don’t see why – he must know that I need to go home after this is all done. My entire life is there… and I need to bring Erick home. I’m assuming you guys don’t really want to keep him after King Calin takes his throne back.”

  A troubled expression crossed Malagant’s face; he scratched his prickly stubble before adjusting the leather strap that was holding his crossbow and quiver to his back. “I was hoping to… kill him.”

  Kill him? Malagant’s words sat like brine inside of Ben’s stomach, making it churn unhappily. In a way Ben was angry at himself for being surprised that they wanted to kill his brother. Why wouldn’t they? King Erick of House Zahn had killed thousands of Alcovians.

  “It would be wrong of me to try and convince you that he should die, my friend,” Malagant said soberly. “Even if he had killed innocent elves I would stab anyone who threatened to kill my brother Josiah. You must understand though Erick’s been–”

  “Erick would’ve never done this,” Ben suddenly snapped; Malagant flinched under his harsh tone. “Erick is a pawn not a king. He was a loser, a lowborn in my world, Malagant. He could’ve never have done this. He is someone’s tool. When you find the puppet master you can have your revenge, but give the puppet back to me.”

  Only the insects and the snapping of twigs could be heard as the two of them walked in silence. It was an awkward silence with tension so thick it seemed to fog Ben’s vision, though perhaps it was the mist descending from the thick canopy of trees above him.

  “Do you think perhaps…” Malagant paused, his dark blue eyes troubled. “The high priests brought Erick here because he’s part of the prophecy? Like Teal had come to get you to fulfil yours?”

  Ben had never thought of it, but as he mulled it over in his mind it seemed like this was the only explanation that made sense. But why Erick?

  – and why Ben?

  The million dollar question.

  “I think you’re right,” Ben said. “The only elf who can move through worlds is the demigod, right?”

  Malagant nodded. “The gods left thousands of years ago, leaving Kelakheva in charge of Elron and the jewel.” Then his eyes widened. “And Kelakheva is a neutral, he has no sides because he knows no good and evil. What is, shall be what is. That’s an old proverb said to be a quote from Elder God Anea himself. It is what it is, meaning when you look at it through the gods’ eyes, there is no bad side or good side, or sides at all. Kelakheva brought your brother to Alcove, or aided the elf or elves who did.”

  “But why?” Ben whispered.

  “The gods’ games,” Malagant said in a voice that hinted umbrage. “Even with the gods gone from Elron the prophecies still write sometimes. My father and Teal’s father were a part of a prophecy before Teal and I were born; my father sacrificed everything in order for his prophecy to be fulfilled. And Dad thought all was lost when Teal’s family was killed – he never let me forget that. The gods’ games may be unfair but we’re not in the position to judge the deities that gave us life and a nice place to live, so perhaps–” Malagant paused and suddenly swore loudly. “Teal’s on the ground – Teal’s on the sheking ground!”

  Ben looked ahead and his heart leapt into his throat. Further on, on the side of the approaching dirt road, barely visible through the rows of black trees… was Teal, lying on his stomach with his satchel clasped in his hand.

  “Teal?” Ben shouted. He ran so fast towards Teal that it felt like he was flying; he leapt over moss-covered rocks and jumped over a steep ditch that separated him from the road. He got to Teal before Malagant did and knelt beside his friend.

  “Teal? Tee?” Ben shook him, and when Teal opened his eyes he felt a rush of relief flood him.

  To Ben’s surprise, as soon as Teal saw him his eyes hardened. He jerked his shoulder away from Ben’s touch and quickly stumbled to his feet, but he was unsteady on them and ended up tripping and falling to his knees.

  “Get away from me. I’m fine,” Teal snapped; once again pulling his arm away from Ben’s outstretched hand. Then when Malagant climbed onto the main road, he got his own poisoned glare from Teal.

  “And you can keep your mouth shut, I’m just fine,” Teal said acidically. He rose to his feet, this time keeping himself steady, and started walking down the road.

  Ben and Malagant exchanged confused glances and at the same time they shrugged at each other.

  “Did you pass out? It’s been six days now since the attack at the cabin – I would think it’d show up by now but still–” Malagant began, but Teal whirled around.

  “I just blacked out for a second; my head is sheking pounding right now. Can you just leave me be and stop nattering for a while?” Teal said angrily. He picked up his speed as he tried to create a distance between them. “I need some quiet.”

  Malagant held up his hands defensively. “Go have your quiet then.” And Teal did just that, walking so far up ahead that he was just a shrouded phantom under the mist of the forest, the natural darkness making him almost invisible to Ben and Malagant.

  Late in the afternoon, after leagues of twisted forest were put behind them, they stopped for lunch and to change Ben and Teal’s bandages. Teal made a small smokeless fire to boil the bandages and also fried up some salmon and cheese sandwiches, a weird combination but it seemed to oddly work.

  “How’s your headache?” Ben asked, trying to make friendly conversation while Malagant was in the woods relieving himself. Teal had been silent the entire time but the scowl seemed to be gone from his face, so Ben decided to throw caution to the wind.

  Teal sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it. I keep seeing flashes inside of my head of different events in my life…” His voice trailed for a second, then he shook his head as if snapping himself out of something. “Some of them… most of them, are ones I’ve been trying to forget.”

  Ben thought for a second. “Did you ever hear about post-traumatic stress disorder in my world?” he asked.

  Teal nodded, glancing behind his back as they both heard Malagant coming back to the camp. He dropped his voice, obviously not wanting Malagant to hear. “I did. We call it something different here. I already know I have a bit of that, but this is different.” He rubbed his head and grimaced. “I’ll give it another few hours and if it still is bothering me I’ll make myself a tonic.”

  Malagant came back with a welcoming smile, before he clapped his hands together. “Alright, let’s see how those wounds are healing.” He got down on his knees beside Ben and gently started unwrapping the binds on Ben’s thigh.

  The wounds were indeed healing, the inflammation had gone down and there was no smell of infection. The two of them were barely walking with limps now, and even with their strenuous walking schedule in order to make it to Alé in the next couple days, the stitches were holding up and the skin seemed to be knitting together nice
ly.

  “They have good tonics in Lelan Castle,” Malagant said. He had finished Ben’s wounds and was now onto Teal’s. He balled up the dirty bandage, made of a material he called soft cloth, and he threw it into the boiling pot.

  Malagant poked Teal’s half-exposed wound before taking a bite out of his sandwich. He didn’t seem fazed that his hand was covered in Ben’s sticky blood, he was an odd duck. “However by the time we get there I reckon you two will be mostly healed anyway.”

  “For shek sake, watch it!” Teal suddenly exclaimed as Malagant accidently took a piece of Teal’s scab with the soft cloth. “You don’t need to brutalize me, knight!”

  Malagant looked at him, obviously taken aback. “Sorry, sorry… the dried blood fuses the skin to the soft cloth. It can’t be helped.”

  Teal grunted but didn’t say anything back. Ben eyed him suspiciously.

  “It’s not like you to snap like that, your head must really be hurting you,” Ben said, just as surprised as Malagant at Teal’s outburst. Teal was meek, neurotic, and extremely polite. He wasn’t the type of hibrid to be confrontational or make waves, he seemed to prefer an air of polite silence.

  “I’m fine, Ben,” he said. “No need to hover over me.”

  Even though it was undoubtedly brought on by the pain in Teal’s head, Ben felt a prick of annoyance. “He was also saying his head was hurting as well earlier, and he was getting flashbacks that were rattling him.”

  Teal shot him a death glare, one so full of venom it would make paint peel. “Thanks, asshole. I’m just fine.”

  Ben slammed his sandwich down and stood up. “Then can you give me the jewel, so we don’t forget it when you drop dead from a concussion? Or fall into insanity over those damn flashbacks and night terrors?”

  The tips of Teal’s ears went red. “I’m not one of your drug peddlers, Benjamin,” he said lowly, “you can’t order m-”

  “Okay!” Malagant said loudly. He placed the soft cloth to the side and knelt back down beside Teal. “You guys have pushed yourselves hard enough over the past several days. We’re making good time. Want to make camp here?”

  “Good idea,” Ben said with an edge to his voice.

  “I would be okay with that,” was Teal’s reply.

  Then something odd happened. Malagant rose to standing and took Teal’s chin into his hand. Malagant looked right into Teal’s eyes, his own narrow like he was looking for more than just dilated pupils.

  Teal stared back unblinking, perhaps seeing it more as a challenge of wills than just a health check.

  “Ben, toss me the medicine bag we put into Teal’s pack,” Malagant said after a few moments.

  Ben grabbed Teal’s backpack and brought out the now familiar leather satchel Malagant owned. It was dark brown and held shut with a buckle. Inside were rows and rows of medicine bottles of all shapes and sizes placed inside little stitched leather pockets.

  Malagant took the satchel and opened it up.

  “Concussion?” Ben asked. He started bringing out their sleeping gear from Teal’s backpack as he half-watched Malagant thumb through his collection. His mood was still soured by Teal’s bitchy attitude problem. If he was back in his world they would’ve probably come to blows, but he wasn’t on his turf and he respected Teal more than most of his friends. However that respect didn’t mean he’d let his new friend continue to act like a little shit.

  Malagant nodded and picked up a dusty yellow bottle. He cleaned it off and popped the cork open with his mouth. He then reached over to a goblet of water Teal had been drinking from and dropped a small splash into it.

  “You, drink this,” he said to Teal.

  Teal grumbled. Ben opened his mouth, fully prepared to tell Teal to get over it when he shut it. He let his own derisive comment stew inside of his head and ground his teeth in vexation instead.

  “Come over here, Benny. I have something for you too,” Malagant said, an odd tone to his voice. “It tastes like feet but try and get a half-swig down your throat.”

  “Your measurements are so exact here in Elron,” Ben mumbled

  “Next time I’ll be sure to pack measuring spoons for you,” Teal snipped, grabbing the hammock and climbing up the tree nearest to them.

  Forcing down a remark that would start a fight, Ben took the vial and dipped the contents back and forth, then, with a shrug, he downed it and gave it back to Malagant.

  Immediately his body became cold and shivery, Ben shuddered and started running his hands up and down his arms. The internal frost was giving his body a physical reaction, he was even getting goose bumps.

  “Good,” Malagant said with a fake cheery smile. Ben was almost sure Malagant was biting back remarks just as much as he was. He had to respect Malagant for not snapping on Teal. Malagant used to be a Serpent knight in the company of soldiers, trained elves who had hard noses. No doubt a five-foot-six meek hibrid with a stick up his ass wouldn’t have lasted long in his company. Ben hoped one day he could have patience like that.

  “Are you going to bed now, Teal?” Malagant glanced up. Teal was making his hammock only twenty feet from the road but neither of the two dared to ask Teal to move deeper into the forest. By now any robber or soldier who came to cause trouble would run in the other direction when they encountered the pissy little hibrid.

  “What do you think?” Teal called down.

  Malagant’s lips disappeared into his mouth, then to Ben’s stifled delight he made a strangling motion at Teal’s turned back, then finished the motion off with a kick.

  “We’ll wait until he starts snoring and we can make a fire and have some down time before your tonic kicks in,” Malagant whispered. “I don’t want to make noise or the maiden will have our balls.”

  Ben clasped his hand over his mouth and elbowed Malagant in the side for making him almost laugh out loud. He shuddered to think of what Teal would do if he heard them laughing and enjoying themselves while he was in such a foul mood.

  When Teal’s light snoring could be heard, Ben and Malagant settled in beside their small but hot fire, passing the leatherskin of silverwine between the two of them and a pipe tobacco Malagant brought out an hour later called mocco.

  “So the jewel really helped you two go through the wall in Malla?” Malagant asked after Ben told him the entire story starting from after his panic attack outside of the small village. “Or the demigod at least?”

  Ben looked around the dark forest. The tree they were camped beside, a towering oak with many burls and notches, was so huge it completely blocked the fire and the two of them from the view of anyone passing on the road. The only thing they had to watch out for was food smells so there would be no hot meal tonight.

  “Teal brought the jewel out and asked the demigod to help us,” Ben replied, then added with a small laugh, “I just trusted Teal and kept running – I thought he knew what he was doing back then.”

  Malagant took a long drink of the wine and glanced up at the hammock strung up above them, the lump inside of it snoring peacefully. They hadn’t strung up their own hammocks yet, but because of the chilly air that came with the disappearing sun Ben was wrapped in his favourite green blanket.

  “You know… my father always hated the storybooks we had growing up, so much so he just read to us from a book he wrote. He hated them because they always painted the hero as some dashing warrior who never feels fear, who is handsome, heroic, and perfect. A hero who saves the world and gets the lady or the lad then lives happily ever after.” Malagant took another drink. “It’s not realistic, my father would say, that isn’t what a hero is. A hero is an elf or a ladyelf who overcomes their fear, or the obstacles they have, and does the best they can with what they have. A hero can be scared; a hero can be a coward at times – because being called upon by the prophecy is a scary thing. Hell, a hero cannot know what he’s doing most of the time but still he trudges along and does what he is supposed to do – a hero never gives up.”

  Ben looked down at t
he smoking pipe he had just taken a drag from, and slowly blew out the smoke. “Your father sounds like a wise elf.”

  “He is wise, insane, miserable, sarcastic, hilarious, and stubborn,” Malagant said back with a smile. “When he was a prophecy walker like we are now, he didn’t know what he was doing and neither did Cruz. Teal might not know what the hell he’s doing and truthfully I don’t either – but we’re trying and so far –” Malagant glanced up at the broken up twilight sky, the small shards that had managed to peek through the gnarled canopy glowed in the darkness like fireflies. “– so far we’ve lived another day. And… and we will wake up tomorrow morning.”

  Seemingly on cue, Ben yawned, suddenly feeling a wave of drowsiness come over him. Malagant noticed and patted his knee. “Let it take you, the tonic is kicking in.”

  Ben rubbed his eyes and placed the pipe down on a flattened moss rock near where he was sitting. His body was becoming warm and fuzzy, like his blood was its own blanket wrapping him in its constricting comfort.

  “We – we need to make our hammocks though,” Ben said sleepily. He jerked his head up, not even realizing it had started to bow. Like a series of small buttons were being pressed inside of his mind, he could feel every one of his senses start to switch off.

  “No, we will not being going near Teal tonight, my friend.” Malagant’s voice now sounded distant, far away. “Stay where you are, and whatever you do – do not move. Let me handle this, I know what I’m doing. I’ve done this before.”

  Done this before? With eyes full of sand Ben looked at the distorting image of Malagant, the ex-knight was giving him a grave and serious look.

  Then, with a groan, Ben fell forward, and he felt him get lowered to the cold, mossy ground.

  When Ben opened his eyes again everything was dark and as he looked around the pitch black forest he could feel the fine hairs on the back of his neck start to prickle. There was something about the way he woke up that set him into unease; he had a gut feeling that he hadn’t woken up on his own, rather something unknown had risen him.