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

by Quil Carter

  Ben swore and held himself back from kicking another tree. He looked up at the stars and let out a few choice swear words; to his amusement he realized they were all Alcovian.

  “Pure shekin’ Elronian now, aren’t you? Are you done adjusting to this crazy place?” Ben muttered to himself. He closed his eyes and leaned up against the oak he’d been tempted to hit.

  He remembered back to the moment, so many months ago, when he had finally snapped and opened Erick’s box of belongings.

  Tav had been right there with him; he had always been right there. He owed it to Tav to be there for him. Sure, Alcove would be scary as hell, but after the war was over and the Jewel of Elron was put back together… it would be safer. He could get a small holdfast, raise… goats, or… something, or they could all become candy makers and sell it to Grady when he became the Lord of Valewind.

  All four of them could. Tav would like it – Tav would love it here.

  Ben reached inside his cloak, feeling the outline of his stapler. He just wanted to take care of that stupid kid. Teal would love him eventually; they could be quiet together.

  They were alike in a lot of ways.

  Ben stared into the silvery darkness finding himself lost in thought, when suddenly he could feel the hair on the back of his neck begin to prickle and his instincts started to rise to the surface.

  He suddenly became aware that he wasn’t alone. A spark of anger flares inside of him, making oaths to himself that if it was Teal following him he was going to punch the little bastard in the mouth.

  “What do you want?” Ben growled; he could here bushes snapping behind him.

  And like someone had dunked his body in ice water, he realized that it wasn’t Teal.

  A dark figure stalked towards him, its eyes large orbs in Ben’s night vision. He could hear a low growl emanate from the beast, and with that sound, Ben recognized it immediately.

  It was a jare.

  Ben’s feet became welded to the ground as he stared forward, stunned, but thankfully his time in Alcove had sharpened his senses. Not taking his eyes away from the silhouette that was slowly stalking towards him, he reached behind his back for his sword.

  There was nothing there.

  There was nothing fucking there. Ben cursed himself when his memories took him back to the camp; he had heard Teal screaming at Malagant and had grabbed the desoni and ran after him. Everything had happened so fast Ben hadn’t even thought to grab the sword resting beside the fire.

  He was face-to-face with a jare cat, with nothing to protect him, nothing to defend himself with.

  So Ben did the only thing he could think of.

  He bolted.

  Ben turned around and made a mad dash for the camp site. He knew he would be leading the animal straight to his friends, but they were well-armed and Gorat was a fortress himself. There was no other choice, he had to run and run quickly.

  He didn’t even get five steps before he heard crashing behind him. The jare was already pursuing him and quickly.

  “MALAGANT!” Ben yelled at the top of his lungs. He desperately jumped over a rock but as his feet left the ground he felt an impact that knocked him off-balance. Ben stumbled and gasped in shock, then fell onto the ground.

  The jare was on him in a second; it pinned him to the ground and started biting and ripping at his clothing. By instinct Ben put his hands up to his face and neck, trying to shield them from the giant cat, and tried to make himself as small as possible.

  He could smell its rotting rancid breath as it sniffed him; its front paws on his shoulder and arm as it analysed this new and unexpected prey. Ben closed his eyes and locked his teeth, hoping beyond hope that playing dead might at least buy him some time.

  But there was no hope. The jare clamped its teeth down on Ben’s arm, Ben tried to pull it away but the animal was too strong. It yanked Ben’s arm back with a throated growl and shook it.

  Ben heard the snap.

  Like the snapping of his own bones was a dam breaking, fear and desperation suddenly flooded him. He clawed at the ground with his good hand, trying to unwedge himself from underneath the beast. But it was too heavy, he was pinned and barely able to move.

  This was it – this was where it ends… god dammit, why didn’t I pick up that fucking sword!

  Thankfully, the panic raging inside of him brought on its heels a burst of adrenaline. Ben raised his good hand off of the ground and started punching the black cat in the head, but it was like hitting a rock. The jare seemed unphased, it only leaned further onto Ben’s chest, its weight threatening to cut off Ben’s oxygen supply.

  It leaned down further, streams of rotting breath blowing onto Ben’s face. Then, to Ben’s horror, it started licking and nipping at the bleeding wounds on Ben’s chest.

  Ben groaned; he tried to muster up all of his strength to struggle, but he was still pinned.

  “MALAGANT!” he screamed again. He dropped his head down to the forest floor and moaned.

  Then a new sensation came, painful little jolts coming from his chest. Ben looked down and realized the jare had started eating him, pulling at the pale skin until it ripped free of his bleeding lacerations, before it disappeared down its throat.

  It’s eating me alive; it’s fucking eating me alive. Ben stared in a stunned stupor. The horrible wounds running down his chest, all from the beast’s claws, were getting ripped open further as the jare devoured his skin.

  “MALAGANT!” Ben cried. As he watched himself being eaten alive, another burst of adrenaline shot through him. He knew this might be his only chance to get away, soon the blood loss would zap any adrenaline reserve he might have left.

  Ben’s hand groped the ground. He felt it resting on something cold and hard; it was a rock.

  He picked it up and cracked the jare over the head with it; the jare squealed and sprung off of him, hissing and spitting as it did.

  Ben sprang to his feet and began to run; his run now was nothing more than a fast limp. Dizziness was creeping up to his brain in the form of a sickening red haze, but he pressed forward; there was nothing more he could do.

  Then Ben’s legs gave out from under him and his face hit the forest floor. Ben struggled to rise to his feet, crying out in desperation, but was reduced to a crawl.

  A twig cracked. Ben looked up and saw the jare cat sitting in front of him; its milky eyes alight and a long, scorpion-like tail swishing back and forth behind it. It looked at Ben before its head twisted to the side and it reared up on its back legs. Then playfully, like an excited kitten, it patted Ben’s arm and swayed its head back and forth.

  Ben gasped for breath and tried to crawl another step. The jare cat took a step back before it reared on its back legs again, and pounced right onto Ben’s back.

  Another scream, at first Ben thought someone else was getting attacked by the cat, only to realize the scream was coming from him. Ben groaned, feeling another stream of breath on his ear, and managed to raise his head.

  Then, oddly, the jare cat crouched down, its black backside rising in the air. Ben didn’t understand why in his dazed state, until he saw the long stinger on the back of the jare cat’s segmented tail.

  Ben closed his eyes and whimpered. The images of Teal, Malagant, and Tav flashed through his mind. He held onto them, clutched them to his bleeding chest – and felt a blindingly hot and stinging pain in his shoulder,

  I’m on the couch. I’m in Tav’s arms, doing drugs, being carefree, just like how it used to be before Teal kidnapped me. I’m warm inside my apartment, I’m not cold, and I’m home, far away from here.

  Far away from here.

  I’ll bring you to Alcove, when this is all done. We’ll all live together and raise goats.

  Then the stinging venom started filling his body with an excruciating pain and the comfort was gone. Ben screamed again and again, long mournful screams of defeat.

  His veins felt like they had been filled with boiling water; they burned and blistered, spil
ling the toxic venom into his muscles, his bones – everywhere.

  Tears streamed down Ben’s face; tears of regret, of fear, and of wanting. Never in his life did he want so deeply to just be safe in someone’s arms… not here, not like this… not like this.

  To his desperate horror, he felt his breath become short. He grabbed his throat with his good hand and collapsed onto his side as a seizure overtook his body.

  He didn’t even hear the jare shriek; he didn’t even see it fall to the ground, an arrow sticking right through its skull.

  He didn’t even see Malagant.

  “Ben. Oh my gods, BEN?!” Ben could hear a faint but hysterical voice. He felt himself being picked up by the source of one of those voices. They were all full of terror, everyone was terrified.

  “Tav?” Ben cried faintly. He ignored the panic around him, and concentrated on the feeling of just being held.

  “I’m here – Tav’s here. Ben… I’m so sorry!” a voice that sounded a million miles away cried.

  But Ben was too far gone to hear it. It was alright though, he was being held. He was safe… safe in Tav’s arms.

  “Oh gods, oh gods,” Teal said, his voice hysterical. He was running behind Malagant, his hands shaking violently and his legs wobbling with every step. Ben was convulsing and seizing in Malagant’s arms, his chest bloody and heaving as he gasped for breath.

  “Grady!” Gorat called. He had run ahead of them. “Put the kettle on. I need hot water and bandages now.”

  Malagant laid Ben down on a blanket they had spread out by the fire; the camp was a flurry of activity.

  “What happened?” Grady asked calmly; the fire spat and sizzling as he threw the kettle into the coals.

  “Female jare,” Malagant said quickly, kneeling beside Ben. “He was stung too.”

  “Cursed Anea,” Teal whispered, not taking his eyes off Ben’s battered and bloody body. “I killed him.”

  “No, you didn’t!” Malagant yelled, grabbing his bag. He started throwing assorted bandages and bottles onto the ground beside Ben.

  “I never should have brought him here.” Teal shook his head, tears running down his face. “I brought a damn human to Alcove. He doesn’t belong here. I… I don’t care what that demigod said.”

  “Tee!” Gorat said. He had one arm holding down Ben, who was thrashing and twitching as he seized, the other arm was tearing off the remains of his jerkin. “Do you have the antidote for a jare sting?”

  Teal was too stunned to answer. All he could do was stare at Ben; his body shaking and his blood-smeared face stricken with terror.

  “TEE!” the Lord of Valewind roared; he grabbed Teal and smacked him across the face. “Do you have an antidote for jare stings? Answer me, boy!”

  Teal barely flinched; he slowly motioned to his backpack. “Purple bottle, it’s labelled.”

  “Malagant…” Gorat said dropping Teal. He kneeled back down beside Ben who was being held down by Grady. His thrashing had been reduced to jerking twitches, but he’d begun to turn blue.

  Malagant was already on it; he threw Gorat the purple bottle. Gorat caught it and popped the cork open with his teeth, then pried Ben’s mouth open. He shook a generous amount into Ben’s mouth.

  “Malagant, I need a needle and moonsilk thread,” Gorat called.

  Malagant wordlessly gave it to him. He then crouched down beside Grady, his lips pursed over an additional needle.

  The serum seemed to work quickly, the desperate jerking subsided and Ben’s breathing started to slow to a normal level.

  Gorat threaded the needle with a shiny, almost translucent, thread and began to stitch up Ben’s chest; Malagant reciprocated and started stitching the other side.

  “Maybe it’ll help if you don’t look at him,” Grady suggested to Teal. The red-haired elf rose to his feet and started to pour the hot kettle water into a bowl; his calm demeanor carrying through to even the most panicked situations.

  “My screaming attracted that jare, Malagant,” Teal said quietly; he was clawing his arms again. “I killed him. He’s not going to survive this, is he?”

  “You didn’t kill him, Teal,” Malagant said, his voice as steady as he could make it. He took a hot wet cloth from Grady and started sponging the blood away as he stitched. “What’s done is done. He’s strong – Ben will be fine.”

  “Will he?” Teal whispered.

  “Hey,” Malagant said, “he has the antidote in him. It looks like it’s taking effect; he’s gonna be all right.”

  Teal looked down at Ben, his friend’s chest half-stitched from Malagant and Gorat’s busy hands. His torso looked like a neglected ragdoll, silvery stitches that were sewn close together, going up and down his chest like hunter’s trails. They were already starting to become inflamed, though Teal hoped the blood that was dripping off of him was making the inflammation look worse.

  Teal’s hands kneaded together. He desperately wanted to help but there was no room for him to kneal down and help stitch Ben. Malagant and Gorat were working quickly though, but the wounds still unstitched bled heavily onto the green blanket he was laying on.

  “The demigod wouldn’t have brought him here to kill him off this early; his mission isn’t done yet,” Malagant reassured, hoping Teal didn’t notice the own fear in his tone. “He may be hurting for a while, but he’ll be okay.”

  “He has to be,” Teal said. He grabbed a wet cloth and knelt down by Ben’s head, far enough that he wasn’t in the way. He started wiping the dirt away from Ben’s head wound. “When he wakes up I’m going to tell him everything.”

  “Once he gets a bit stronger, and you find the right time that would be a good idea,” Malagant agreed. “But not for an incredibly long amount of time.”

  Teal sighed, putting some pressure on a particularly nasty cut. “How could I have been so stupid? He didn’t even have his bloody sword; he shouldn’t be out alone, anywhere.”

  “We were both stupid, it didn’t even occur to me that you might have attracted one.”

  “Is he going to be all right, Gorat?” Teal asked.

  “If he survives the night, he should be okay,” Gorat said. “We need to keep an eye on his breathing, and make sure that tonic of yours does its full work. In the morning we’ll make a litter for him, so we can travel, even if it’s at a slow pace. The sooner we can get him to Rhastt and to my healer Torasen, the better.”

  Once Malagant and Gorat were done stitching Ben’s wounds, Grady and Teal both began to bandage him up. As they did, Malagant ran his hands along Ben’s limbs and torso to search for any broken bones; it didn’t take him long to find that Ben’s injured arm had also been broken.

  “My brother is a better bone physician,” Malagant mumbled, “but I know enough to make due, unless you have another hidden talent, Gorat?”

  Gorat shook his head, “No, son, this is all yours. I have fingers like cukes, yours are nimble enough to be able to feel for the right place to set.”

  Malagant turned to Teal. “Get me a nice stick, a thick one.”

  Teal nodded, and Malagant started to wash off the dirt and blood on Ben’s mangled arm. Malagant was relieved to see that, although Ben had some serious gashes and slices in his fingers, all of the digits were still in place and seemed to have the right blood flow going to them.

  “I’ll place a few stitches into these after, the rest I can just wrap,” Malagant said. He turned around just as Teal was sprinting towards him, and took the stick. He put the stick into Ben’s mouth.

  “Hold his head steady, Teal,” Malagant instructed. He felt up and down Ben’s arms carefully, then placed one hand on Ben’s wrist and another a few inches away on Ben’s forearm. He carefully and methodically moved each finger to a different area and placed various amounts of pressure onto each digit.

  Then, with a quick shift, Malagant set the bone into place, at the same time Ben jerked and let out a muffled scream; his pointed teeth digging into the stick.

  “There you go. It�
�s okay, Benny,” Malagant whispered. Ben slumped back down, his eyes rolling back into his head as he closed them.

  Teal carefully removed the puncture-marked stick from his friend’s mouth and patted his head.

  “Yeah, it’s alright, Benji,” Teal whimpered. “Your arm will be okay.”

  Malagant wiped his brow and picked up the needle and thread again; he let out an exhausted breath and started to thread the needle.

  “If… if it’s okay,” Teal began. “I watched you and Gorat’s technique, I think I have a handle on it. If you want to grab something to eat, I can finish Ben up.”

  Malagant raised his eyebrows, looking surprised. “Sure, that would be a great help, Teal.” He handed the needle and thread to Teal as he got up. “I suppose it is something you should learn anyway. We’re probably going to be stitching up each other a lot before we’re done with all of this.”

  Teal knelt down beside Ben and after a few pointers from Malagant, he went off to grab a bowl of leftover stew they had made for dinner.

  After Teal had finished up and Ben had been fully bandaged everyone sat down beside the fire with either food or strong drink. The events of the last several hours weighing heavily on their shoulders. Barely anyone was speaking and when they did the silence around the forest was quick to return.

  Noticing Teal’s eyes start to well, Malagant placed a hand on his shoulder. He rubbed it caringly. Teal hadn’t left Ben’s side and had only eaten his share of stew after receiving idle threats from Malagant.

  “He’ll be okay,” Malagant reassured.

  “He’s a strong hibrid,” Grady said, a wineskin in one hand and his candy bag resting beside him. “Teal is it? Tee is short for Teal then?”

  Malagant and Teal both looked over at Grady. In the chaos of the evening they’d completely forgotten about calling Teal by his alternate name.

  Though Gorat wasn’t as involved in Cruz and Anagin’s exploits as Korivander was, Malagant decided to tone it down as much as he could.