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

by Quil Carter

  “Ten years, Teal? Chaka,” Malagant swore. “Why didn’t you come to Birch? Heck, you’re a Fennic. Any of the other Houses would’ve hid you.”

  Another heavy silence descended on the both of them. Teal’s lips disappeared into his mouth and suddenly he looked like he had aged ten years.

  “Not tonight, Malagant,” Teal finally said after several minutes of silence. “Someday – not today.”

  Malagant stared at Teal, wanting so badly to press his question further but knowing that, like Teal had said, tonight was not the night.

  So instead he smiled, and rested a hand on Teal’s knee. “Okay, Teal,” Malagant said gently. “For now – I’ll just be happy you’re alive.”

  “Thank you,” Teal whispered, then reached for the pipe.

  15

  The morning sunlight was shining right on Ben’s face, pushing red through his eyelids and banishing all of the dreams that had been keeping him company throughout the night. He had been comfortable previously and enjoying the darkness, so the light wasn’t a welcome one.

  Ben groaned and closed his eyes tighter, wishing the sunlight would just go away. What was it doing here anyway? Not only was the Forest of Jare dark all the time, save for their little oasis haven, but Ben was indoors. There shouldn’t be any light around him.

  And though this thought should’ve alarmed Ben, he was too sleepy and too into his own dreamy world to grasp just what this mystery meant.

  “Good morning, human,” a voice said, brimming with amusement.

  Human? Like the word itself was a smack in the face, Ben’s eyes snapped open. He squinted them and looked around the lantern-lit cabin as the alarm quickly multiplied inside of his chest; then he tried to sit up to get a better look at the loft around him.

  But as soon as he sat up a spasm of pain ripped through his body, reminding him that he was still seriously injured.

  To Ben’s groggy distain he heard a chuckle, and since he was now fully awake he finally realized just who it was.

  Sure enough, as Ben looked over to the source he saw Malagant sitting with his legs crossed beside Ben’s bed, a lantern lit beside him and smile gracing his face. Malagant seemed to be taking great joy in Ben’s abrupt delivery back into the land of the living.

  “Ow, god dammit…” Ben hissed, rubbing his bandaged upper leg and thigh; he shot Malagant a dirty look when he heard him chuckle. “Shut up, asshole.”

  Malagant dimmed the oil lamp. “I let the two of you sleep in. Teal is knocked right out.” He motioned behind him where Teal was fast sleep, his hands tucked up under his chin. “The medicine I’ve been giving you and Teal will make you sleep more, but it’ll help you heal much faster.”

  Ben stared at him, wondering why Malagant seemed so calm right now. Hadn’t he just–

  “You – you called me a human…” Ben said slowly, his eyes never leaving Malagant’s face. “Teal told you?”

  Malagant nodded. “After you fell asleep he told me. I had trouble sleeping last night just thinking about it – wondering what it meant.” Then he frowned and his brow knitted. “Teal also told me who your brother is.”

  If Malagant knowing Ben was a human was enough to fill his chest with anxiety, the thought of him knowing that his brother was the Draken King of Alcove made Ben think he may have a heart attack.

  Ben swallowed, his mouth suddenly parched. “I’m – I’m sorry for what he’s done.”

  “Did you know?” Malagant asked. “Did you know where he was going when he left?”

  Ben shook his head. “No, I thought he just died; he disappeared. I didn’t even know this place existed before Teal and Kelakheva brought me here.”

  Malagant sighed and for a moment neither of them spoke.

  “I’ve been hearing the legend of the humans for years,” Malagant said finally. “I mean, I know we elves aren’t perfect, far from it, but the humans were supposed to be tyrannical, ruthless monsters. Enough so that their god was born dead. Enough so that Anea supposedly left Elron to grieve because he created them. So when I learned that King Erick was a human, it was confirmed to me that these stories were indeed true – the humans were godless wretches as written in the Anean Prophecies.”

  Ben flushed; he opened his mouth to apologize once again, but Malagant raised a hand and continued.

  “However…” Malagant said, and the troubled look on his face disappeared with a faint smile. “I then thought of you. I may not have known you for long but I have seen enough. You have a good heart, and you’re a good hibrid. Even though your very blood is the same blood as the Draken King, your heart is as good as mine and Teal’s. I shouldn’t judge you for being a former human, or the brother of Erick, no more than you should judge me for being a former Serpent Knight.”

  Draken King? They keep calling him all of these fancy titles but he’s just Erick. He isn’t a king – he isn’t special. He was a drug addict and a loser; he didn’t even graduate high school.

  And now he’s a king with a kingdom who has murdered thousands and continues to destroy this beautiful world.

  Why?

  And how?

  Ben looked up at Malagant, a friendly elf who had watched his fellow knights become brainwashed. He was still smiling, still trusting even though Ben was a human and the brother of the hated king.

  Ben couldn’t help but sigh in that moment, feeling so guilty his stomach churned.

  “I… I hope I can be the first human to do some good here,” Ben said quietly.

  True to his nature, Malagant scoffed and waved a hand. “Look at your little blue hair streaks and your short stature; you’re not human, hibrid.”

  Unable to hold it back, Ben smiled. “Excuse me? Little?” he said as he rose to his feet. “I am maybe six inches shorter than you. Look.” He stood up tall and stared straight ahead at Malagant. In return, Malagant walked up to him and, just to be an ass, he rested his chin on top of Ben’s head. “What a lovely chin rest.”

  Then he oofed and doubled over as Ben dug his fingers into his stomach. In retaliation Malagant put a hand on Ben’s head and pushed it down, both of them laughing as they did.

  “You two are such eegits,” Teal’s sleepy voice said. “Can’t a hibrid get some rest?”

  After all three of them settled in downstairs, Malagant started preparing breakfast. Ben tried to help but with a comical shake of a wooden spoon Malagant banished Ben to the dining table with instructions for both him and Teal to take their bandages off and start cleaning them once the hot water had been boiled.

  It was while the hot water was boiling that Ben debated trying to explain germs to Malagant and how they were actually small organisms, but after mentioning this idea to Teal he got a hushed yet stern lecture on not ‘melting Malagant’s brain’.

  “You know, Teal, I’m jealous of that backpack you have. I could’ve really used something like that over the years,” Malagant said. He put down a large plate of boiled duck eggs in front of them and a loaf of dark bread.

  “Couldn’t you buy one?” Ben asked. He grabbed a chunk of bread and a fork and started digging in, his stitched thigh and arm now unbandaged and airing out.

  Malagant shook his head, his mouth already full. “They’re expensive; it’s some fancy-dancy hibrid enchantment but it takes an expert hibrid mage to do it.”

  “Hibrid enchanted, eh? Can I do magic then?” Ben asked, looking down at the hand holding his bread.

  Teal laughed like he found the prospect incredibly amusing. “It isn’t like what you’ve seen in… plays in your world,” he explained, obviously trying to avoid the word television in front of their curious friend. “If you want to make the magic yourself, it takes years of apprenticing and a life of dedication.”

  “All demi-elves carry some strain of magic they can use, and elves as well, though a different type than the demi-elves,” Malagant explained. “There are also some elves born with special gifts. My father for example is what’s called a sunmage; he developed it further
during the war and still uses sunmagic to terrorize me and my brother.”

  “But we have the jewel at least,” Ben said. “That’s magic, right?”

  “Useless magic,” Teal muttered. He dug the jewel out of the inside pocket of his tunic and placed it on the wooden table.

  Malagant’s eyes lit up like Teal had just placed down a bucket of gold. “Amazing,” he whispered before popping the last crust of bread he was holding into his mouth. He licked his fingers and wiped them onto his black jerkin before picking up the jewel and gently weighing it in his hand. “It feels warm almost, like it has a little life inside of it.”

  When Malagant held the jewel up to the sunlight Ben could see what he meant, the yellow glow that seemed to be in the heart of the stone made it look alive.

  “It’s still useless.”

  Malagant looked over at Teal and he gave him a narrow look. “Enough of your blasphemy, you little heathen!”

  “Well, the damn jewel didn’t help us at all with Tseer. And it won’t work whenever I ask it to do things,” Teal said defensively. He took a vicious bite out of his bread, as if it was the bread that had failed to save him from Tseer.

  “It’s a godly artifact. It doesn’t need to obey us mortals,” Malagant said, looking back at the jewel. “And it did help you escape him in Malla, didn’t it?”

  “That was Kelakheva…” Teal said with a shrug. “He helps us, even if he’s a bit of a coidog.”

  “Teal Fennic!” Malagant said exasperated, just as Ben burst out laughing.

  After breakfast was finished and Ben and Teal’s wounds were both bound, the three of them started preparing for their eventual departure to Alé, even though it was still several days off. Teal was busy preparing the salmon for smoking and Ben was switching between sword drills and helping Teal slice up the fish.

  Eventually Malagant announced that he was going off into the woods to try and find the dead accalites. Apparently their armour was valuable and he wanted to retrieve at least their breastplates before the scavengers got to the body.

  “Give me your coinpurse, peasant!” Ben said loudly as he pointed the tip of his sword at Teal’s back, his friend was hanging strips of salmon onto stakes of wood he had balancing between the chairs, shelves, and tables, the entire cabin now smelling of salt and fresh fish.

  Teal glanced behind him and chuckled. “I bet I could disarm you with my pointer finger, that’s a good stance though, that is exactly how you should brace your legs.”

  Ben beamed at the compliment before charging forward with his sword out, challenging the dining room table to a duel. “I don’t think I’ll be of any use anytime soon.” Then he put the sword down and rubbed his arm. “That’s enough practice for today I think. Nurse Malagant is already going to beat me for doing drills as it is.”

  “He really is a nice elf, I like him already,” Teal said with a smile, then his eyes glanced behind Ben to the outside window. “Before he left Malagant asked me to start a fire outside for him when I was done in here. Why don’t you do that for me? He’ll most likely be back soon.”

  “Sure, that’ll give me something to do,” Ben said.

  Several minutes later he was outside in the crisp and chilly day gathering some dry sticks from the outskirts of the forest to use for kindling. When he was done and had a nice bunch of it inside the fire pit, he reached into his trouser pocket for a lighter.

  It took him a second before he realized he was an idiot.

  Ben looked around and sighed. I’m going to need that special vial, he thought to himself.

  “Tee?” Ben called as he jumped onto the porch of the cabin. He grabbed Teal’s backpack which was beside the door and looked inside of it. Though, of course, there was nothing inside. “Where’s the vial that makes fire?”

  “Picture in your mind a green vial with a star on the cork, pour a drop of it in the middle of the kindling,” Teal called from inside.

  Easy enough. Ben reached into the backpack as he walked back to the fire pit and thought of the small green vial with a star (Ben imagined it being yellow), and to his delight he felt something cold brush his hand. Ben peeked inside and gave a holler of victory; he heard Teal’s amused laugh from inside of the cabin.

  Ben admired the vial. Even though he knew the pack worked for everyone it still made him feel like he was doing magic. When he got to the fire pit he popped the cork with an extended claw and, as he whistled a happy tune, he started shaking the bottle onto the bundle of sticks.

  The last thing he saw was a hot, blinding white light.

  “You singed your eyebrows really bad, and your facial hair – wow,” Malagant observed as he examined Ben’s face, now an angry red colour and shiny from Malagant’s burn salve. It hadn’t taken him long to come bursting through the forest and back to the clearing; Ben’s screaming alerting him.

  And to further Ben’s humiliation, Teal was doing a horrible job at stifling his laughter. Teal’s own amusement at Ben’s failure at lighting the fire hurt almost as bad as his face did.

  “I told you to only one drop, Ben, not half the bloody bottle,” Teal laughed, only stopping after a dangerous look from Ben. A look that was so scathing Ben was sure Teal’s natural sense of self-preservation had halted his laughter.

  “Shut your damn mouth, hibrid! You shouldn’t have let a former human near anything magically combustible!” Ben snapped, wincing as Malagant applied another smear of translucent burn cream to his face.

  “He really shouldn’t have let you near that vial.” Malagant smirked before patting Ben’s cheek. “How did you humans even survive in your world?”

  “We have lighters,” Ben grumbled. “And we have matches there too, but, of course, the hibrid told me to get the combustible vial.”

  “We need to save the matches!” Teal protested, but Ben ignored him.

  “We don’t have vials full of crap where I come from,” he continued. “We don’t need to walk everywhere either, nor do we get basketball-sized blisters on our feet. In my world we have cars and apartments, mattresses with springs, and fast food!”

  “What’s a basketball?” Malagant asked curiously, working the salve into a particularly nasty burn on Ben’s temple. “Are they big? Is a basketball big?”

  Ben sighed at the question. “I’ll tell you later.”

  “You don’t get the actual basketball-sized blisters on your feet, Malagant. It’s a metaphor. Ben meant that he was going to get big basketball-shaped blisters on his feet,” Teal explained, and as if he wanted to make peace, he gave Ben the leatherskin full of silverwine.

  “Oh, I understand now.” Malagant nodded. “I didn’t know the name of that expression though.” Then he stood up and glanced behind his shoulder. “I found what I was looking for anyway; I was just on my way back. Teal, get Benny away from the fire and dust it with tsivia to make it hotter – I’m making arrows!” Before Ben could question why he was suddenly making arrows Malagant sprinted back into the woods.

  “I’m really sorry, Ben. I should’ve watched over you while you started the fire,” Teal said after Malagant was gone. He took the skin of wine after Ben had taken a drink and swallowed a generous one himself. “Does it hurt that much? I know the salve Malagant is using on you; it’s all the way from Xal’Crith. That island has a lot of volcanoes on it and dragons as well, so their burn cream works miracles.”

  Ben rubbed a particularly sore patch on his cheek. “No, you gave me instructions. I was just too enchanted with being able to do magic. At least those vials and salves and shit seem to do a fair job, even my arm and side aren’t hurting as much as I’d expect.”

  After passing the wineskin between the two of them more than a few times they heard the rustling of bushes behind them, Malagant on his way back with his treasure most likely. Teal motioned for Ben to get up, and after he had stepped back several feet, Teal got out the bottle of tsivia and dusted it over the fire. Then even he stepped back as the flames turned white and started to give off
an overpowering heat, like Teal had made the fire into a miniature sun.

  Teal slipped the bottle back into his bag. “It’s too bad Malagant doesn’t know any magic healing or we would be much better off,” he said. “I have a feeling before this is all done we’ll both be nursing a myriad of injuries.”

  Their conversation halted as soon as Malagant broke through the treeline, a grin as wide as the forest clearing and just as bright on his face. Malagant was hauling a breastplate; it was trimmed with steel but the base of it was shiny and black, reflecting against the sun like it was made out of glass, or perhaps obsidian.

  “Well, look at that,” Teal said. He jumped up and helped Malagant bring the large piece of armour back to the fire. When they lowered it beside one of the fire pit’s sitting rocks, Teal started to examine it more closely. “That’s seeve alright. Wow. I’ll get the cauldron.”

  “What’s seeve?” Ben asked Malagant. He kneeled down and ran a hand over the smooth black glass. Even with the searing heat of the fire the black metal remained cool.

  “It’s made in Xal’Crith, from the ancient lava of their blue fire volcanoes; it’s really rare and it has to be mined. It breaks through almost any magical barrier that may be protecting the target. My arrows are made out of seeve which is what made Tseer flee and the accalites die. If I had just normal arrows we would’ve all been in trouble,” Malagant explained. “The funny thing about seeve… is that its greatest weakness is more seeve.” Then he smirked. “You may want to stand back for this.” Malagant unsheathed a dagger he had holstered to his leather belt and both Ben and Teal took several steps back.

  Malagant got down on his knees and raised the dagger over his head, before plunging it down onto the armoured breastplate.

  The black seeve shattered like it was regular window glass, several pieces flying dangerously close to Ben’s face even though he thought he was a safe distance. He walked cautiously to where Malagant was kneeling and saw he was now using the dagger more like a hammer, breaking the glass up into smaller pieces then throwing the pieces into Teal’s cauldron.