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

by Quil Carter

  Teal tried to shake Malagant’s hands, seeing if he could get him to wake up.

  “He’ll not wake, neither will Josiah. In a few hours perhaps. It takes a lot out of Josiah; this is only the third time I’ve had to request this of him. I prefer to use dead bodies, though it is short notice for the auchtrelf to get me a cadaver.”

  Teal covered Malagant’s body with a quilt, and helped Anagin lift Josiah into the bed next to him. Josiah was completely out cold.

  “You summon them with dead bodies?” Teal asked. After he draped Josiah with another blanket he followed Anagin out of the room.

  “Of course, that’s how sheomancy works. Josiah can only handle it because he’s my son and a powerful sunmage. If it was you, Malagant, anyone, you would be ripped apart by the Smokes of Shol.”

  Teal’s eyes widened. “That – that was dangerous, what you did, wasn’t it?”

  When Anagin had descended the stairs, he turned around and gave Teal a funny look. A moment later his expression changed, Teal wondered if he was in his head again.

  “He never spoke of who I was… did he?”

  Teal’s ears went hot, he looked at the ground. “No, Syr, my mother… she forbid it.”

  “Of course she did,” Anagin muttered. He said another word but it was under his breath, Teal could use his imagination though.

  Then Anagin paused. “Sorry, boy, that was uncalled for. I forget she was your mother.”

  “So do I.” Teal felt horrible for saying it as soon as the words left his lips. A rush of guilt welled in him. It had been a long time since he remembered having a mother. She had always favoured his brother Eagen more, from what he had remembered. Most of his memories were her being angry, cross at him or cross at Cruz.

  Anagin leaned against his cane, now back to the cane with the fox head of silver, and walked into his kitchen. “Do you drink tea, boy? Or wine? Your father hated real wine, most hibrids do.”

  “He did? I didn’t know that… I don’t really like it. Silverwine is what I mostly drink…” Teal hovered in the door to the kitchen, not knowing if he should sit, help, or just stand there.

  Anagin rattled around in the kitchen. It was a large and well-stocked kitchen. It had an iron rung over a large cook stove, with cast iron pots and pans hanging down. Then a row of wine glasses and goblets dangling on hooks beside. The kitchen had a counter top of grey slate and red wood cupboards. An ice chest was also tucked into a corner, and on either side of it shelves and shelves full of spice jars, storage jars, books, and kitchen towels.

  “Stupid isn’t it? I grew up stealing from taverns, and lifting purses from nobles and King Calin has to build me a house with a shekin’ royal kitchen in it.” Anagin shook his head, as he grabbed two glasses. “Did your house have the same?”

  Teal looked around the kitchen, the apple pie still cooling in the windowsill. “I… I don’t remember.”

  Anagin handed Teal a cup of hot black tea, that oddly smelled like the demenos did, and motioned him to the living room.

  Teal sat down politely on the couch and Anagin took a seat across from him, in an over-stuffed grey chair, its back to the front living room window.

  Behind Anagin, Teal could see the white fence, and further on, the trees with the red leaves. The sun was still in the sky, Teal wasn’t sure what time it was, but it had to be close to evening.

  Teal slunk in the couch; he didn’t want to be rude but he was intimidated by Anagin. Moments ago the powerful mage had summoned a demenos from the flames of Shol. A practice that had been banned since the end of the Black War. And here Anagin had summoned the king of them, Kaul Avahlis, like he was inviting him over for tea. Not for a moment did it seem that Anagin or any of them were in danger. The demenos acted like they were old friends, he even looked at Teal like he had known him…

  And some of the things that the demenos said about him… Teal didn’t understand any of it.

  Teal cupped his hands over his hot cup of tea, the smell taking him back to Malagant’s bedroom. The demenos at Malagant’s bedside, inside Josiah’s elven body, small and fragile compared to the thick-limbed towering creature.

  Teal tried to push the terror away from him, remembering his ember-like eyes; and as he did he became increasingly aware that Anagin was staring at him.

  “I will not deny I have a thousand questions for you, Teal…” Anagin said quietly. “But I am no fool. I have been in your shoes; I know what is required of the prophecy walkers.”

  Teal nodded into his tea.

  “I will only ask one thing of you, after… you can be silent, you can be with Malagant, you can read, bathe, anything as long as you relax and heal from your journey.”

  Teal shrunk down more but managed a second nod.

  “How did you lock your mind from me?”

  Teal looked at him surprised; Anagin’s face grimaced when he saw his reaction. “I was afraid of that, you don’t even know.”

  “My mind is locked to you?” Teal asked confused.

  “Teal is. Throateater is out in the open. I’ve been getting my information directly from him.”

  Teal shifted around, feeling exposed and uncomfortable. Anagin didn’t dance around the subject like Malagant had. It seemed inappropriate, like his weird way of coping with bad situations was something to be ashamed of, hidden.

  Anagin didn’t seem to care though. He spoke directly of it. Had he seen it happen before?

  “He has been coming a lot lately; he first came when I was just a boy.”

  Anagin nodded. “The Teal part of your mind is a steel fortress guarded by the gnashing teeth of cougars, stone sentries, and Throateater. I cannot get past the shallows. It… it has never happened before.” Anagin’s eyes narrowed slightly. He made the motion to reach his hand out to Teal but he stopped himself. “Perhaps he is stronger than I thought.”

  “The… the… he’s not another being in me, or anything like that,” Teal said quickly, going red with embarrassment. “I’m not crazy, Syr Anagin. He just comes during bad situations.”

  Teal looked into his teacup, trying to busy himself during the awkward conversation he had found himself in. The tea had an odd taste, but he found himself liking it. Like fresh cedar strips, mixed in with cinnamon and a strange burnt taste, though it was a good burnt taste.

  “Do you black out? Or do you remain in control of him?”

  Him? He’s just… like Tav was. Just a skin, a mask I put on when my mind snaps. He’s just me.

  “No, I mean… I just feel different.”

  Anagin nodded; he opened his mouth to say something else but closed it. “Not tonight,” he mumbled.

  Teal felt uneasy, he looked back down at his mug of tea.

  Anagin sensed his unease. “I wish I could just read it out of you, spare you. So I know how much he has you in his claws but… no, not tonight. I would only see things I didn’t want to see.”

  Teal cowered. He found himself curious, but not enough to press. His mind was tired. It might take a lot more than stumbled explanations to convince Anagin that he didn’t have multiple personalities. Throateater was just… a different mask of his to help him. He had first come out when the trapper had tried to hurt him, the first throat he claimed.

  He knew him as just his cold, unemotional dark self, doing things that Teal would never do. It was just a way he could twist his mind, like he had with Tav. Step into a different person, one that wasn’t a neurotic coward.

  “Are you well, boy?” Anagin asked after a few moments of silence. “I know… you are an elf grown now, but… are you well? Did you… did you fair well? Were your parents good to you?”

  Did I fair well? I escaped Keleon massacring my family, barely. I survived in the forest; I lived to sirhood, I… Malagant says I’m feral but I think I fared well.

  Teal’s tooth found his lip; he looked down at his tea mug, wishing Malagant was with him. “I am alive.”

  A sigh came from Anagin, he kept staring at Teal. “Why didn
’t you find me?”

  What is yours will return to you…

  Small bits of leaves swirled in his tea mug, making spirals, waves, patterns in the black steaming liquid. Teal tried to count every single one of them, knowing he had to answer, but not knowing what his answer was.

  Why didn’t he find Anagin? He had known Anagin lived in Birch; he had known he had two sons. Fenhold was far from the borderlands, in Alathéa, but Teal had travelled, not all over Al’Anea like Malagant but still all over Alcove.

  Why didn’t I find Anagin? Why didn’t you find me? Why didn’t you visit, or Cruz visit you? If… if you two were so important to each other – why have I never met you?

  “I was scared.” Teal felt the words fall from his lips, but whether they were the right words he didn’t know.

  “Are you okay now? Are you sure you don’t black out when he comes?”

  Teal’s ears burned again; he felt dizzy, but frozen under Anagin’s gaze.

  He shook his head. “No, I know when they come, I remember them. I just… if I put on their masks I can handle things better than Teal.”

  “They? I only sensed one.”

  The black tea leaves danced in Teal’s cup. “Kelakheva had me… me become someone else when I went to get my friend Ben.”

  Teal watching Anagin get up, wincing under his bad hip. He started walking towards the kitchen. Teal remained seated.

  “He’s not the same. Tav is it?”

  Teal nodded, wondering if Anagin knew the other things regarding Tav as well.

  Anagin started getting pastries out of the pantry, putting them on a ceramic plate, then he paused. “Has the demigod always guided you?”

  Teal shook his head. “No, I only saw him for the first time when he… he took me to find Ben.”

  Teal’s heart clenched. It suddenly occurred to him that Ben wasn’t in Birch. The prophecies had told them to go to Birch. Malagant had tried to tell him Ben could be waiting there for them but… he wasn’t.

  Teal looked into his cup, watching the leaves again.

  “The sapphire pendant carrier?”

  Teal nodded into his cup.

  Several minutes later Anagin set him down a plate of food: pastries, cuts of cured meats, cheese, and a loaf of a white bread.

  “I’ll get the story out of Malagant when he wakes, just eat. You’re a skinny little creature; your father always had to watch what he ate. Gained twenty pounds when he was in Evercove. Called him Pumpkin, almost lost an eye.”

  Teal smiled, appreciating Anagin’s attempt to defuse an incredibly heavy atmosphere. His father had had red hair, streaked with gold; he would have looked like a pumpkin twenty pounds heavier.

  It made Teal more comfortable to talk about his dead father than it did mentioning Ben. He wondered if he was a bad son for feeling that way. “Malagant told us so many stories of you and Cruz. He really loved your stories growing up.”

  “We had a lot of adventures.” Anagin gave Teal a whimsical smile.

  “I wish he would have told me some,” Teal sighed. He took a cherry strudel. “Will… will you tell me some – some time?”

  Saving Elron, with my best friend healing in bed and my other one alone or possibly dead, and here I am asking for stories. From a sheomancer no less, a seer, sunmage, former prophecy walker. He’s danced with demenos, burnt whole armies, and dined with the demigod himself and here I am asking for a story.

  Teal, you’re a strange hibrid, just like they always said.

  Teal took a bite out of the cherry strudel, it tasted godly. Not even in Lelan and Rhastt had he ever tasted anything so good. It was flaky and buttery, melting in his mouth, the cherries tart and sweet.

  Immediately Teal took another bite, forgetting his appetite in the flurry of events over the last several hours.

  “I’ll tell you everything you want to know, Teal,” Anagin said. “You… I think you turned out okay.” Anagin nodded, as if convincing himself of it. Teal slouched further down into the couch.

  “Yes, you seem to have turned out okay.”

  While he had been eating the best food he’d ever tasted, their discussions changed topics; away from Teal’s family and Ben’s fate, and more to what had happened on their journeys so far. He told him a bit about Ben, but decided to leave out Ben’s origins, though he wasn’t sure if Anagin already knew. He told him all about squirrel hunting, their encounter with Tseer, getting caught in the snowstorm, and Ben’s run in with the jare cat. He even made sure to make it known how much of a hero Malagant had been; he knew his friend would appreciate it.

  Anagin listened intently, making witty comments like his son always did. Mostly about Teal’s shoddy stitching work, which was still a sore subject for him but he managed to only cry on the inside.

  After Teal apologized for tracking their muddy selves through Anagin’s clean house, he helped Anagin pump some cold water into a ceramic tub. It was something Teal had never seen before. Back in Fenhold when he was small enough, they bathed in buckets, and once they got older they bathed in the lake nearby. In Lelan and Rhastt they had bath houses underneath the castle. This tub was indoors and rather deep, it even had a drain at the bottom which spilled into the ground below. It was quite fascinating.

  “It’s Darconian,” Anagin said, noticing Teal was staring at it. He set down a change of Josiah’s clothes for him by a wash sink. “They have drains at the bottoms of their tubs to drain into the sands or the ocean. The council kicked a fuss when I put one in here, afraid it would make the plains loose and the house sink, but bah.” Anagin waved a dismissive hand. “Stupid elves will think stupid things.”

  Anagin put his hand into the water, and to Teal’s amazement, the water around him started to bubble and boil. As Anagin stirred his finger in the water, Teal saw a jet stream coming from the tips.

  “This was always Malagant’s favourite part. ‘Heat the water, Dad! Heat the water, Dad!’ I swear half of being a mage father is acting like a wood stove,” Anagin grumbled, although Teal could see he was only pretending to complain about it. He drew his finger out. The water was steaming and hot now.

  “There you go. Get clean, boy. I’m going to check on Josiah and Malagant.”

  When Teal had fully blackened the water with dirt, he changed into Josiah’s red, silver-clasped doublet and black trousers and walked back into the living room.

  Josiah and Malagant were attacking plates of food. Anagin was still drinking his tea, having a quiet conversation with them.

  As Teal stood in the doorway, Malagant looked up at him.

  A huge weight was lifted from Teal’s shoulders when he saw Malagant. His friend had never looked better. The colour had returned to his face, his eyes were once again dark blue and sparkling; his hair was washed and combed. He was dressed in a similar doublet as he had on however Malagant’s was blue, and the clasps were gold suns. He looked brand-new, healthier than Teal had ever seen.

  And his hands… his hands…

  Teal tried to fight it, but he couldn’t, as embarrassed as it made him Teal felt hot tears spring to from his eyes. He covered his face, and turned to leave the room at the same time Malagant jumped to his feet.

  “See, I told you he would cry!” Malagant laughed. He grabbed Teal as Teal tried to leave and embraced him. This, of course, only made Teal cry more.

  He heard Josiah make an aww’ing noise, Anagin just chuckled. Teal pulled away from him and took his hands, even his damn fingernails were trimmed and clean. “You… you look like a bloody princess with hands like that,” Teal said with a choking laugh. “You can bend them? Grab things? Everything?”

  Malagant nodded. He wiggled his fingers at Teal and drew his sleeves up. “Like new, everything feels normal, better than normal.”

  “You have your father to thank for that,” Teal said quietly. Malagant smiled at him and shook his head.

  “I have you to thank for that, Teal.” Malagant embraced him again, and they all sat down on the couch, with the f
ood in front of them.

  “This hibrid took care of me when my wounds started festering, and dragged my sorry ass to Birch on his back.” Malagant handed him a piece of the apple pie that had been cooling in the window when they arrived. Teal was still full but the pie looked too good. He wondered if he was going to get fat staying here like his father had in Evercove.

  “I can’t believe Taugis did that,” Josiah said in disbelief. “Our own cousin? And Aurelle. Korivander must be beside himself with grief.”

  “Korivander doesn’t know we killed Taugis,” Malagant said, cracking his knuckles. “I’m going to send him a hawk tomorrow. I need to tell Pontis, Melesch, and the others to send out anyone they can to look for Ben. I’ll hire a hawker while I’m out.”

  “Taugis was always a pompous little noble brat. He never got over that a cripple was Lelan’s heir instead of him,” Anagin said. “I warned Korivander about him. After he came back from the squiring for Lord Kordalis his head was full of bad ideas and malice. I’ve seen heirs get their throats cut by siblings, and worse.”

  “Do you think Eliander was in danger?” Malagant asked. “Taugis was after the human, he didn’t seem to mind Eliander.”

  Teal dropped his forkful of pie. “You – you told him?”

  Malagant looked at him and shrugged. “Why not? It’s the prophecies; he knows prophecy things. He doesn’t care.” Malagant looked at his father. “Do you, Dad?”

  Anagin scoffed. Teal was amused to see that he had a flame flicking on his palm to keep his tea hot. “It’s a good thing, I say. If he was just an elf I’d have to tell you that he was probably dead. Especially since you still have his piece of the jewel, but if he’s the human and difficult to replace… he should be okay.”

  “The human?” Teal said. Anagin had said that strange.

  “Yes, the. Malagant was right when he said Kelakheva wouldn’t travel all the way to the human world only to kill him off in a river. He’ll return to you. What –”

  “– is yours, returns to you,” Teal finished Anagin’s sentence. Anagin looked at him and nodded.

  “Ben belongs to you two, as you belong to him. As the jewels belong to each of you until the prophecy is complete,” Anagin explained. “If you failed the prophecy you would know.”