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

by Quil Carter

  Malagant, his black fur cloak flapping in the wind, turned around; an expression on his face that gave hope to Ben’s fears. Malagant Ahris looked every inch an Alcovian knight, or how Ben had always pictured them; an elf that was commanding and in control.

  “We need to push the horses,” Malagant yelled back. “Teal… this isn’t natural weather and though I don’t want to give voice to my theories… I do know we need to get to Lelan before night falls on us. If we don’t…”

  If we don’t, we may not see the sun rise.

  “Are you saying someone is making it snowstorm like this?” Ben said alarmed. He looked around him, at the trees now wearing robes of white, their branches bare from the wind blowing the snow back into the whirlpools of snowflakes and leaves. It was a vast change from the black woods he had spent so much time in. It had gone from black to white, but unlike the usual labels put on these colours, it was white that was the deadly omen this time.

  “This has shadowmagic written all over it,” Malagant replied. “It takes a grand mage to turn the weather, stronger than Tseer, and Nyte doesn’t know our physical location. Either way, it matters not. Ben, tighten your hold on the reins and follow me – kick these beasts in their ribs, if they start to slow, kick them again.”

  Then with a violent jab to his side, Malagant’s horse reared and started to gallop down the path, snow flying in the air from the horse’s hooves. Ben and Teal followed, and Ben held on for dear life as his horse started to follow the others.

  The world became a blur of white around them, only broken up by the black cloak of Malagant. As soon as Teal had realized Ben was behind him he moved his horse off to the side and motioned for Ben to ride in front of him. Teal hated riding in front of him and Ben knew Teal would feel better if he was always in his sight.

  They rode hard, Ben’s foot digging into the horses’ flank whenever he felt him start to slow. The horse had large puffs of steam erupting out of his nostrils like boiling kettles of water, and his skin was hot enough to melt the snowflakes, but Ben pushed him onward.

  Eventually however the hard kick wasn’t enough, the horse slowed and stopped responding to Ben’s commands.

  Malagant looked behind him and when he saw that Ben and Teal were falling behind, he slowed his horse. “Push him harder,” Malagant yelled, the wind snatching his voice even though he was only two feet away. His cloak and hood were both covered in snow, the only thing of colour on Malagant now was his blue eyes.

  “They’ll die,” Ben called back. “They’re overheating; he’s breathing incredibly hard.”

  “They’re going to die anyway,” Malagant yelled back. “We have to get every last store of energy before they do. We’re close… damned Anea, I know we’re close – We just need to keep pushing them.”

  Ben looked down at his black gelding and patted his steaming hot neck. He had grown fond of him throughout the weeks. The horse had been kind and understanding; he hadn’t seemed to mind having a beginner as a rider.

  With a lump in his throat that filled his mouth with a bitter taste, Ben looked ahead at what little he could see of the winding road. The sounds of the horses now swallowed up by the wind and snow. All he could hear was the deafening muffle of the snowstorm around him, and it was then that Ben realized it was from the two inches of snow that was now packed on top of his cloak.

  Ben shook it away and with a heeyah! He kicked his horse hard in the ribs and flicked the reins. He leaned forward and kicked him again, and with that, the horse charged faster until he was side by side with Malagant.

  Teal’s horse was the first to go.

  The black and white mare reared up on her hind legs, then when the legs tried to steady back onto the ground, now with over two feet of snow, she stumbled and fell to the side. Teal quickly leapt off of her as she landed hard, the snow flying up around her as she kicked and thrashed; the desperate and maddening movements of a dying animal.

  “Chaka!” Ben heard Malagant swear. Ben stopped his horse and jumped off of it. He ran to Teal and the three of them watched as the horse twisted and writhed; the other two horses nervously whinnying and pawing the deep snow.

  Malagant loaded his crossbow with one of his regular arrows and as he dispatched the horse to put her out of her suffering, Teal got onto Ben’s horse.

  “The snow is getting deeper…” Ben said nervously. “We’re not going to ma-”

  “Don’t say it out loud,” Teal suddenly said, his tone was nervous and strained; it scared Ben even more. “Let’s just keep moving.”

  Ben, now sitting behind Teal since he had more experience with horses, patted the snow off of his friend’s cloak, and shook his own. After Malagant had killed the horse they continued to ride, nothing ahead of them but white. Ben couldn’t see the road, the only indication that they were still on it was that they hadn’t run into any trees.

  “Go faster, beast!” Ben could hear Malagant yell, the horse now trudging through the snow, unable to gallop or even canter. Both of the horses were struggling now, but still they carried on forward.

  Ben watched as Malagant took the arrow he had used to kill Teal’s horse; it was glistening with blood that showed its colour brightly against the snow on Malagant’s gloves. Malagant clenched the tip of the arrow and pricked the horse in the flank. The horse whinnied and thrashed its head back, but it started to trudge faster.

  The lump inside of Ben’s throat turned into a boulder of panic when he saw the anxiety in Malagant’s movements. As Ben’s horse gained on him he could see a flow of blood now dripping down the horse’s side from Malagant’s desperate jabs. He felt so much fear and panic in that moment his already quickened breath got shorter.

  Then Malagant’s horse fell.

  The horse collapsed as he was struggling to get up a snow drift that had formed in the road. His back legs gave out from underneath him and he fell backwards into the snow. Malagant jumped off just in time and sprinted to the side as the horse rolled over onto its side. The horse’s head rising up just once, before falling down into the snow.

  “Damn it!” Malagant snarled. Ben and Teal jumped off of Ben’s horse and ran to him. Malagant put his hand up to his head and let out a frustrated scream, one that sent a chill down Ben’s spine, colder than the driving wind.

  The stoic and calm ex-Alcovian knight was losing his resolve, this scared Ben more than he cared to admit.

  “Are you hurt, Malagant?” Teal asked.

  “No,” Malagant said. He turned to the horse and ground his molars. Ben looked and saw that, unlike Teal’s, there was no death thrash or twitching to be had – the horse was stone dead.

  “Bloody creature couldn’t have held on for a little longer?” Malagant snapped, kicking the dead horse in the side. “Ben’s horse won’t make it more than two steps with all three of us on him.”

  “Is there any way we can contact Lelan Castle?” Ben asked.

  “No,” Malagant said, drawing his hood back over his head. “All we can do now is go on foot and hope beyond hope there are some Lelans out patrolling. Or a shack.”

  Ben swore, not really knowing what else to do. He drew his cloak closer to him, the chill was being kept out by the cloak but his face was numb and his lungs frozen from the cold air.

  As Ben tucked his hands into his cloak, he found his fingers grazing something in his pocket. Ben reached in and brought it out. It was none other than the Jewel of Elron. He must’ve accidently put on Teal’s cloak this morning. They had all been sleeping together with their cloaks layered over them and his and Teal’s were practically identical.

  “We’re in trouble, and you just sit there being a glorified rock,” Ben muttered to it, turning the stone around in his hand. “Some good you did.”

  “Oh really?”

  Ben jumped in surprise as the voice echoed in his head. He looked at the snow-covered Teal, who was having a grim discussion with Malagant. He didn’t look like he heard anything.

  “What did you say?” Ben
whispered. “Kelakheva? Is that you?”

  The jewel started to get warm.

  “I’ll show you what a glorified rock can do,” it whispered again.

  Ben stared at it, wondering if he had gone mad from the sheer stress of the events going on around him, when suddenly a rip of pain shot from his feet, up his spine, before focusing inside of his head. Ben screamed and stumbled back, his entire body starting to convulse.

  Unable to stand under the agonizing pain, Ben collapsed onto the ground, face first into the snow. He screamed again, through teeth clenched shut, and grabbed his head, claws extended. Every inch of him felt as if it had caught fire. But the pain wasn’t just focused to his body, it seemed to be all around him, like he didn’t have a body anymore.

  “BEN?” he could hear Teal’s voice scream but it sounded a million miles away.

  Ben gagged under the fiery pain and tried to rise to his feet. His mind kept telling him to run away from whatever was doing this to him, but he couldn’t get his footing right. He was reduced to a thrashing howling mess.

  “Some good you did,” the voice whispered in amusement; it now sounded like it was right in front of him, instead of in his head.

  Ben groaned, everything around him was black and it was then he knew his mind had been pulled away from his body.

  And there was only one elf who he knew could do that, even if the voice didn’t match.

  “Trying to kill me and my friends again?” Ben whispered to who he was sure was Tseer.

  The voice laughed. “I am no Dashavian bounty hunter, Ben, nor am I your enemy.”

  Ben looked around but there was no physical body to his voice, only blackness.

  “Who are you?” Ben asked. He tried to turn around but he had no body to turn.

  “I am Kelakheva,” it responded. “You were right the first time.”

  “Are you going to help us?” Ben asked hastily. “We’re about to die – we need your help.”

  The voice was quiet, but Ben got the odd feeling that it was smiling at him. “Yes, you certainly will die soon.”

  “Then do something to help us!” Ben snapped. Even though he was new to Elron he was smart enough to know not to snap at the demigod, but the stress was heavy on his shoulders. He couldn’t let his friends die in this snowstorm, the prophecy couldn’t end here.

  “I am indeed allowed to help you, Ben,” Kelakheva replied. “Since those on the other end of the prophecy have decided to step outside of the prophecy to… fuck with you, as they called it. I am now allowed to aid you today. And I plan on doing just that.”

  Suddenly Ben felt like he was being snatched and pulled back. He managed a single scream of surprise before he flew backwards like he was being sucked through a heavy suction.

  Then white, lots of white.

  “Teal? Malagant?” Ben cried, his head thrashing from one side to the next as he tried to locate his friends in the white-out blizzard, still raging on like no time had passed at all.

  But oddly – when he said those words no sound came out of his mouth, and oddly still… he was no longer cold, not even his face.

  Ben tried to rise but fell back down into the snow; he immediately rose and tried to stand, only to fall again. Ben let out a frustrated noise and to his shock… the noise translated to a deep growl.

  “Ben, Ben, calm down!” Teal cried. “Stay still – stay absolutely still.”

  Ben looked up at Teal and his eyes widened. Teal looked different; his friend was now shades of blue and grey. Ben squinted his eyes and looked to Malagant but he was the same, his eyes were different – everything was different.

  “What the hell is going–” Ben stopped mid-sentence when he realized all that was coming out was a growling meow.

  A – growling – fucking – meow?

  Teal got down on his knees; Ben’s alarm deepened realizing he was now much smaller than Teal. “Ben…” Teal said slowly. “I think the demigod turned you into an Aryd cat. Just take it easy for a moment, you can understand me, right?”

  Malagant, who was behind Teal, had his hand over his mouth. It appeared he was trying to hide a look of shock, until Ben looked closer and saw a corner of his lip – he was hiding an amused smile.

  I’m going to bite that knight’s dick off if he dares laugh at me.

  Ben ignored Malagant and turned to Teal. He nodded at him, telling his friend he could indeed understand him.

  Then Ben looked down at his hands, only to see that, indeed, he no longer had hands. It was a grey paw, a gigantic grey paw that had webbed toes and long tuffs of fur, perfectly designed like snowshoes to trudge on top of the snow.

  Then an idea popped into Ben’s head, one so specific he knew it was the demigod’s doing. Ben looked to Teal’s hand and saw he was holding the Jewel of Elron. Ben nudged the jewel with his nose before opening his mouth.

  Teal stared at him for a moment before slipping the jewel inside of Ben’s mouth.

  “Can you understand me now?” Ben asked.

  “Don’t you mean… can you understand me meow?” Malagant chimed.

  Ben charged at Malagant. Malagant yelped and leapt away laughing but Ben managed to get a claws-sheathed swat on his leg. If Ben knew how to roll his eyes he would’ve; he guessed his friend was feeling better with the knowledge that the demigod was here to help them.

  “You are in there!” Teal exclaimed. “It was the demigod wasn’t it? What did he say?”

  “He says what we suspected. Someone on the other side of the prophecy did this but he didn’t say who,” Ben replied. “Because of what they did, he can help us.” Ben looked down at his giant paws then back at his friends. “I’ll make a break for Lelan and get help. Get all of the spare clothing and blankets we have and try and keep warm.”

  “I don’t like this, Ben,” Teal said nervously. “Did Kelakheva say anything else?”

  Ben shook his head and tried to rub the ice crystals forming between his eyelashes. “Nothing useful, just that we’ll die if we don’t get help.”

  Teal’s face was as white as the snow and his big green eyes, now turquoise with Ben’s cat eyesight, looked terrified.

  “He’ll be fine, Teal.” Malagant smiled. “He stomped the bloody life out of that Serpent. Our little Benny is growing up. He can do this.”

  Ben tried to smile but found that his eyes squinted instead. “Try and spread my green blanket over the road and make sure it doesn’t get snowed on. That’ll signal the help – I’ll be right back.”

  And with those parting words Ben shot off like a bullet. To his relief he found that he didn’t need to concentrate on running properly, his instincts seemed to automatically know what to do.

  The demigod definitely chose the right animal; the Aryd cat was fast! And as Ben had noticed when he was looking at his paw, the shape and size of the mitt made him run on top of the snow; he barely sank as he dashed down the road.

  Ben looked around as he ran, but he might as well have been blind. But with those senses diminished Ben found that he was able to focus on the one sense that seemed the most enhanced out of all of them: smell.

  His sense of smell was amazing. The snow seemed to have its own scent and even the wind carried on it the dissipating fragrance of the forest. Ben had smelled pine and oak before but these scents seemed bright and vivid, like they held a colour to them unseen in the colour spectrum.

  Ben poured on the speed, his nose in the air; his body was so light and swift he felt like he could run through the entire forest without needing to catch his breath. Why couldn’t the demigod let them do this at will? They would be in Garas handing off the ring to King Calin in under a week!

  Well, perhaps not, but the energy flowing inside of Ben’s body made him feel like he could.

  On and on he kept running blindly down the road, plumes of hot breath bursting from his nostrils. Every once in a while he had to jump up snowdrifts created by the wind and a few times he lost the road and almost crashed into a tree, but beside
s that he was making great time and was on track.

  He wished he had taken a look at himself before he had started his marathon run to Lelan Castle. Ben had no idea what he looked like, but if he was as strong as he felt, he must’ve been one impressive creature.

  “I hope I never meet a wild one,” Ben said to himself as he trudged up another drift of snow. More walls of cottony white were forming on the road, and there were no signs of this artificially-created blizzard stopping.

  Suddenly after what felt like a lifetime of running, Ben got a hint of an interesting smell. A smell of warmth but it also held different element to it, aromatic like fresh leather.

  Ben stopped and sniffed the air. Yes, it was faint but it was there. Ben followed the scent with a new burst of speed. His instincts lit up his brain like torches, some telling him to seek out this scent to make out if it was a threat or not – and others telling him dinner was close.

  “No, no, damn cat,” Ben told himself. “You won’t save Teal and Malagant if you eat the Lelanders.”

  Ben raised a paw and wiped the ice crystals from his eyes, then sneezed and shook his head, the Jewel of Elron rattling around between his teeth.

  “I know they’re around here somewhere,” Ben said.

  “Did you hear something, Tass?”

  Ben’s ears perked up and he immediately looked towards the voice.

  “I think I did,” another voice said.

  “Hello? Is there anyone there?” Ben asked, walking towards the two voices.

  “Tass… it’s in our damn heads,” the voice said in a panic. “It’s a malkah!”

  Ben could see three dark figures about seven feet in front of him, just grey silhouettes in the snowstorm.

  “No, no… I’m not a malkah,” Ben said quickly. He was tempted to stop until he was sure they wouldn’t kill him but he found himself still walking towards the smell.

  “He says he… well, he doesn’t sound like a malkah, I’ll give him that,” a third one said.

  Ben could see the figures more clearly now.

  One had black hair, one blond, and one an odd tinge of blue whose colour was unknown under the cat’s vision. All of them had similarly styled combed back hair and they were dressed in the same matching uniform as well: black fur cloaks over leather jerkins, fitted brown trousers and knee high boots, and all three had formidable carved bows on their backs over black quivers full of arrows.