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

by Quil Carter

  Aurelle laughed lightly beside them. It was the first time Ben had seen her without a dress. She was wearing a small brown leather vest over a light blue blouse, and brown leather pants. “Those two have been trying to one-up each other since they were babies. Once it was time for Anagin, Malagant, and Josiah to leave, they were both usually nursing injuries.”

  “Who usually won?” Teal asked. Ben heard Malagant give out a mocking laugh at Taugis, apparently the two were still flinging insults at each other.

  Aurelle looked over to make sure the two weren’t listening and whispered. “Malagant. Only because he knows how to get Taugis–”

  They both watched as the prince guffawed loudly and, with a kick of snow and dirt, rode off on his horse.

  Aurelle sighed and continued, “– knows how to get Taugis angry. All Malagant has to do is bring up Taugis being the spare prince and, well… you can imagine.”

  Malagant jumped on his horse, smiling triumphantly. Ben shook his head. His friend seemed to have reverted back to an adolescent in the presence of his childhood rival.

  “Isn’t he a prince? Shouldn’t Malagant be showing him respect whether he likes it or not?” Teal said quietly. They both quickly waved Malagant off as he darted into the woods after Taugis.

  “Oh, he should,” Aurelle said. The four of them started walking into the woods. Ben had assumed he would be riding with Malagant but he decided to follow the rest of the party’s lead. Malagant had been too caught up one-upping the prince he seemed to have forgotten the whole point of them being out there.

  “But, well, though we are royalty, we are Lelan royalty. We’re not Malagant’s royal House. He should still of course show royal courtesy, but he’s been visiting us since he was in swaddling clothes and Father treats him as he treated Anagin. We just let him run wild. It’s easier that way.”

  Ben was starting to look forward to meeting this Anagin Ahris, he sounded like someone he would like.

  As they all walked deeper into the snow-dusted woods, Teal brought out a canvas bag from his backpack. It looked like the same one he had used for hunting when they were in the Silverwoods. “Are we hunting squirrels again?” Ben asked, as Teal shook it out.

  Teal looked around the woods.

  “I don’t think we have any here. I was mostly going to forage and find some apothecary ingredients. Migheer was going to try and find some fowl. Aurelle?”

  The princess looked in the direction Taugis and Malagant had ridden their horses off into. “Those two will be focused on their hunt. I would rather we stay out of their way so we don’t accidently get shot. I wanted to pick some flowers anyway. Tee, you might have use for snowflowers for your apothecary things.”

  “Do you think those two will be safe off on their own though?” Teal asked. Ben had been wondering that as well. No one seemed to take into consideration that Taugis was a genuine psychopath.

  “Oh, they’ll be fine. Taugis loves his cousin, and Malagant loves him too. It’s a friendly competition.” The Lelan Princess smiled at them.

  Ben managed to stifle a scoff; Aurelle was a sweet girl, but damn was she just a tad naive.

  “I’m going ta tip off on my own,” Migheer said with a wink. “If ya spot any birds, scare ‘em all my way, yes?”

  “Alright, Migheer, we will; stay out of the boys’ range,” Aurelle said, and with that Migheer silently snuck off, his own bow in hand and his quiver strapped to his back.

  “Who’s that?” Ben asked.

  Teal looked up from a small viney plant he was examining. “Lord Gaevon and Lord Fideus Rodyn’s son. He was with us in Lelan though he wasn’t at the party that much.”

  Aurelle giggled. She was picking from several purple wildflowers that were growing up from a patch of snow. “He’ll be my brother if Eliander has his way. There is a reason he didn’t stick around the party for long.”

  Huh, Ben thought remembering back. He hadn’t seen much of Eliander that night either. Well, at least some Lelanders were happy during all of this.

  “I bet that will make Korivander happy. Lelan hasn’t had a chayle king for quite a few gener- DEER!” Teal suddenly exclaimed before clamping a hand over his mouth to keep himself quiet.

  Ben whirled around and it didn’t take long for his eyes to find the flicker of movement.

  A tan deer with a feathery white tail was grazing in the distance, barely visible behind a layer of thick thorny brambles. It was nosing around a patch of grass that had sprung up over the thin crust of snow.

  Teal dropped his canvas bag and the vine he had picked up, and ducked behind a tree. “Do we go for it?”

  “Of course we do!” Ben hissed back, ducking behind the same tree.

  Aurelle laughed lightly behind him. “You boys, you and your killing things. Go, go, make Taugis and Malagant give you the bet money if you catch it.”

  Teal’s eyes lit up and a mischievous smile split his face. “We could do it, Ben. Imagine the look on their faces.”

  On Taugis’s face more like it, Ben said to himself. He moved his hand to his side and fingered his dagger. “We don’t have bows or arrows though.”

  Teal scoffed and nudged him hard in the shoulder. “Shame on you, you’re a hibrid. You move off downwind, to the left. I’ll flush her towards you; if you can’t kill her I’ll be right behind. Okay?”

  Ben had his doubts; his stitches had been taken out days ago and he was still a bit sore. But he’d push through it for Teal, his best friend seemed too excited over the prospect of killing the deer.

  “Got it,” Ben said. With stealthy movements, he started moving in the direction Teal had pointed to; Teal started in the opposite direction.

  The snow was thin but crunchy and even though he was paying close attention to where he was stepping, trying to focus on the mounds of soft dead grass which muffled his footsteps, he was still making too much noise.

  So instead Ben broke into a silent run, making long strides and deliberately weaving through trees and bushes to try and break up his silhouette. He must be doing something right at least, whenever he got a glimpse of the deer she was too busy grazing to care what was going on around her.

  The fact that the deer still hadn’t heard Ben made him swell with pride. The next time his friends teased him about being a former human, he was going to shove this dead deer right into their smug faces.

  When he was satisfied with his position, Ben waited. He crouched beneath a tall, leafless bush and watched. His thick black cloak was bulky but it was black and his leather jerkin was black as well, so even though it made him appear bigger – at least it camouflaged him.

  Ben took a deep breath and settled in for a wait.

  Then, almost a quarter hour later, Ben got the shock of his life. A horrific scream sounded in the distance making his heart jump into his throat. It sounded again, an animal-like shriek like a jare cat or a…

  Relief swept through Ben when he saw a flash of green, it was only Teal. Ben cursed the damn hibrid in his head for not warning him of the way he was going to scare the deer towards him, and crouched down, drawing his dagger and clutching it with his good hand.

  Then, with oaths of cutting Teal’s ears off, Ben braced himself and watched the blur of green start to flicker through the trees, the brown doe in front of him crashing through the brush.

  Ben gulped. What looked like a smaller doe in the distance was actually a fair-sized buck, with antler buds already showing on its thick, fur-covered head.

  “Ben, he’s too big, let him go,” Teal’s voice echoed in Ben’s head; Teal was using his pendant to communicate with him.

  Ben decided to ignore him. Something told him he could take the deer. It wasn’t going to bite him; it wasn’t a jare. What better way to prove to that ass Taugis that he was a real Elronian?

  Ben made a split second decision, perhaps made more by hibrid instinct than sense, to go for it. He kicked off his boots and climbed onto a branch seven feet above him.

  As the buck
crashed through the bush towards Ben, he perched and waited, reminding himself of the first Serpent he had ambushed and killed. At least this time he would remember his knife, there would be no stomping this one to death.

  Ben took a deep breath, and as the buck ran underneath the branch – he jumped.

  The deer’s back buckled underneath Ben’s weight and momentarily he stopped. He thrashed his narrow head and kicked its legs back, trying to shake this unexpected rider off of him.

  Ben held on tightly with his good arm and, with his bad one, he stabbed the deer in the neck. The deer squealed and thrashed again; making a jolt of pain rip up Ben’s arm, loosening his grip on the dagger and making it slip from his hand. But before Ben could let go, the deer charged off again into the bushes, the long knife falling off onto the forest floor.

  Ben held on with both of his hands onto the deer’s neck and found himself giving off a whoop as he rode the deer through the forest. He had a good grip on him and the buck could take his weight. He was riding a damn deer!

  “You crazy bastard, get off of there!” Teal exclaimed; Ben could hear the laughter in his voice though.

  Ben ducked down as the deer smashed through a cluster of large fiddlesticks and whooped again. The deer snorted loudly, blood flowing freely from the wound on his throat, but carried on running, full speed, through the woods.

  Suddenly several things happened at once. Ben watched in what seemed like slow motion as a silver arrow punched right through the deer’s head, while it was still running at full speed. Moments later, before Ben could even process what was going on, the deer’s front legs collapsed, throwing Ben off of its back, several feet into the air. He shielded his face with his good arm as he crashed into a shallow snow bank, hearing what could only be described as a death squeal from the deer as he struggled to get up.

  Ben gasped, spitting dirt out of his mouth. He groaned from the pain in his arm and his chest and struggled to get to his feet. As he stood Ben’s teeth ground together, not only in pain, but in anticipation of tearing whoever had shot the deer while he was riding it a new asshole.

  And when he turned around he saw just who the culprit was.

  Taugis.

  The Lelan Prince stood, off of his horse, several paces away from the deer. He was holding his bow in one hand and another arrow in the other. His light blue eyes were burning into Ben’s, a look of intense hatred and malice that was so potent Ben wondered why the woods around him hadn’t burst into flame.

  “What the hell was that? You could have killed me,” Ben spat. He stalked over to the now dead buck and roughly pulled the arrow out of his skull, blood and chunk of pink brain coming out with the arrow.

  Then, out of the corner of his eye, Ben saw a flash of movement from Taugis. In that precise moment his instincts made him jump back – just as an arrow whistled past him.

  Ben’s heart froze – he looked over at Taugis and saw the arrow gone from his hand.

  “Hunting accidents are an unfortunate, though realistic, part of our world, human,” the prince said, his voice a caustic growl. “It’s too bad it’ll be too late for you to learn to keep out of the way of hunting elves.”

  Ben knew the next several minutes would determine whether or not he would be getting out of this alive. He knew what his best hope was, but he had to do it carefully.

  “So you’re going to kill a prophecy walker is that it?” Ben said, trying to control the anger in his voice. He brought his injured hand up and wrapped it around his pendant. He started focusing him mental energy like Kelakheva had shown him. “You’re going to kill me, Taugis, and doom all of Elron?”

  He could feel the back of his mind light up, then the sensation of both Teal and Malagant tuning into him. Immediately he could hear Malagant let out a loud, and very vicious, string of curse words.

  “Where are you?” Teal’s voice sounded, it was full of panic.

  “Oh, I’m sure that lovely sapphire of yours is transferrable,” the prince said lowly. He reached behind him and pulled another arrow from his quiver. “I will gladly take it off of your cold, dead corpse.”

  “The sun is behind me,” Ben quickly said in his head. “He’s already shot at me once.”

  “Stall him, don’t run unless you have to,” Malagant said, his voice was strained and his breath quick, he was already running towards Ben, hopefully in the right direction.

  Ben was about to answer back when Taugis drew his bow again. Ben ducked behind a tree as another arrow shot past him.

  “I’m not human anymore, Taugis,” Ben said as loudly as he could, hoping his friends would be able to hear him. “I’m a hibrid; I’ve been for a long time now. I hate my world just as much as you do.”

  “The holy Lelander will thank me for ridding Elron of such a parasite,” Taugis growled. Ben could hear him approach and moments later another arrow went flying past him. He swore as his heart thumped in his chest; he wasn’t stupid enough to try and stall the sociopathic prince any longer. He was out of there.

  Ben took in a long inhale and let his hibrid instincts take over, which led him, once again, up a tree. He dug his claws into the bark and grabbed onto a branch and hoisted himself up as another arrow whistled past him. He then found himself climbing up the tree and, to his surprise, he jumped to the limb of the next tree and grabbed onto it. Using the forward momentum from swinging, he let go of the branch and grabbed onto a third limb and climbed up. He didn’t even know where Taugis was anymore but the important thing was… he wasn’t hearing the whistle of any more arrows.

  Though he could still hear Taugis. “That’s right, you little forest rat,” he called. “Give me a moving target. Much more fun!” There was the crunching of snow and branches below Ben, then the twang of his bow as Taugis plucked it. The prince was taunting him.

  Ben balanced himself onto a tree limb and pressed his back against the bark, seeing the sun shining between the sparse trees in front of him.

  “Come on, Malagant, sooner rather than later,” Ben said, trying to keep his breathing steady. He quickly looked around his surroundings but he had no idea where he was. The forest looked the same, and he didn’t know where that buck had taken him. He could be miles from the grounds of Castle Rhastt, or it could be right behind him; Ben didn’t know.

  “Come here, kitty, kitty,” Taugis sang. There was another twang of Taugis’s bow and a chuckle. Ben chewed on the corner of his cheek and looked ahead, just in time to hear a whistle and another arrow being shot straight up into the sky. “I have all day, human. They have no idea where you are – and I sure do love a game of cat and mouse.”

  He was a genuine psychopath; it was obvious Taugis wouldn’t stop until he was dead.

  Another arrow flew up into the air, this one coming to a stop on the thick tree limb above the branch Ben was standing on.

  That was it; Ben knew he had to get out of there. The prince was fucking with him now but he’d want to move in for the kill soon. He was missing on purpose and Ben didn’t want to be a sitting duck until the prince decided to release the finishing shot.

  Ben looked ahead, the tree branch he was balancing on stretched out several feet before it broke off. He planned in his head his next movement and took a step forward.

  Then, with a crack, the tree limb gave out from under him. For the second time today Ben felt himself airborne, this time crashing down to the forest floor, the broken tree branch under him.

  Ben landed with a hard thud, the wind getting knocked out of him. He inhaled a breath of loose dirt and started gagging; the pain from his wounds coming back with vengeance, making him groan and see stars in front of his vision.

  Then Ben heard the sounds of boots crunching and steady but excited breathing. Ben looked up from the ground to see Taugis standing over him, the corner of his mouth raised in a vicious smile.

  “Shekin’ human,” Taugis said lowly.

  Then, with his blazing eyes never leaving Ben’s face, he reached behind him and took anothe
r arrow out of his quiver.

  Ben looked away at this moment and rolled himself onto his back. He heard a laugh coming from Taugis as he tried to crawl away, spasms of adrenaline mixed in with horror rippling through him as he anticipated the impact of the arrow going into his back.

  Suddenly there was a streak of black. It barrelled into the prince, the arrow misfiring and flying off into the forest, and tumbled down to the ground with him, a bellow of rage sounding that echoed throughout the forest.

  Ben turned around and cried out in relief. Malagant was on top of Taugis – and he was beating the ever-loving shek out of the prince.

  “Get off of me, you bastard chayle coidog. My father will have your fucking head!” Taugis screamed manically, before receiving a hard blow to his jaw. Malagant raised his fist again and punched Taugis right in the head. He then roughly jerked the prince to his feet and looked like he was about to bind his hands, when a panicked voice suddenly rang out.

  “Anea ‘bove, shekin’ – my gods. Taugis, ya shekin’… MALAGANT!” Migheer cried away from sight. “Taugis – ya shot ya damn sistah!”

  Taugis’s bloodied face shot towards Migheer, before the anger was replaced by shock and horror. All at once, Malagant dropped Taugis’s hands and, momentarily forgetting what they were in the middle of, they ran off towards Migheer.

  Ben got to his feet and sprinted after Malagant and Taugis. When he saw the scene in front of him, his heart dropped.

  Past Malagant and Taugis was Migheer and in his arms was the Lelan princess. She was laying on the ground, a pool of blood around her head and a silver arrow protruding from her throat. The purple flowers she had been collecting scattered around her, forgotten in the now blood-soaked snow.

  Migheer looked up at them, tears streaming down his face – it was obvious that Aurelle was already dead.