by Eric Vall
“I will simply have Fea and Macha attempt to regurgitate a soul for us to utilize,” Morrigan explained with a slight shrug. “The rules of the game did not specify that the sacrificed soul had to be one of ours. We simply have to relinquish a soul to escape.”
“You’re truly brilliant,” I exclaimed. “I was worried you wouldn’t come to that conclusion on your own, but I am most pleased that you have.”
Morrigan looked surprised by my words, and she looked down at the ground for a moment. Then she abruptly cleared her throat and began to whisper to her ravens. They leapt from her shoulders and fluttered down to perch on the skull bowl in the blackened bony hands of the soul collector. I tried to listen closely to what the pale elf was saying. I had never paid attention to what she said to her pets, and she always spoke in hushed tones that seemed to be her native elvish language. I recognized it but couldn’t understand what she was saying.
“And here I thought she was chatting with her birds,” Rana whispered to me as she softly elbowed my ribs. “If this works, I’m never going to complain about her choice to talk to them instead of us again. She can ignore me for a month if she wants to.” The fox-tailed woman chuckled, but there was still fear in her eyes.
“It will work. I’m certain of it.” I gave the fox woman a small reassuring smile. She was still afraid, but of course, she wouldn’t say that aloud. I turned my attention back to Morrigan and her winged pets. Fea and Macha cawed and reared their heads back. They beat their wings as their beaks hung open and their necks moved back and forth. Morrigan continued to speak to them softly, she seemed to be coaxing them. I wondered if this was painful for Fea and Macha, and I hoped they wouldn’t be harmed in the process, but I figured that Morrigan wouldn’t have suggested something that would have put them in danger. She was quite attached to them.
Suddenly, thin wisps of grey smoke began to emerge and snake from the ravens’ mouths. It was soul energy. The soul collector’s evil red eyes began to pulsate as the energy coiled into the bowl and formed a small cloud. The decrepit bowl began to hum, or maybe it was the soul collector itself?
When the last bit of smoke settled into the dish and the birds closed their mouths, the humming stopped, and the eyes of the hooded being stopped glowing. All of a sudden, we heard the familiar sound of stone grating against stone, and we all whirled around to see that the stone slab was sliding back.
“We did it!” Rana shouted triumphantly. “Well, you did it. Nice job!” Rana patted Morrigan’s back as the elf’s birds returned to their master’s shoulders. They seemed to be uninjured by their purge.
“Oh.” Morrigan blinked in surprise. She seemed startled by Rana’s kind words. “I deserve no thanks. Fea and Macha are our saviors.”
“You all deserve thanks,” I said to the elf kindly.
“Agreed.” Annalíse placed a hand on Morrigan’s shoulder. The tattooed elf nodded uncomfortably and said nothing more. The rectangular stone piece finally slid to the side to reveal the doorway, and without hesitation, the four of us left the small room. Once again, we stood in the cavern that glowed with orange. Before us was the fat deity with his mouth gaped open as he sat cross-legged in the air.
“I- I don’t understand,” the god stared at us in disbelief. “Why would you go to such lengths to keep all of your players? It would have been much easier to sacrifice one of you. You almost ran out of time, why take such a risk?” As the giant being spoke, a puzzled expression spread across his face.
“Because we’re not merely players in a game,” Annalíse said confidently. “We’re friends.” The freckled woman gestured to the rest of us after she finished speaking, and the god shook his head slowly.
“And those birds!” He pointed a pudgy finger to Fea and Macha. “What kind of bird eats souls?” he said with a look of disgust. “And I still don’t understand how they helped you in the maze.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Rana shrugged and gave the deity a smug grin. “We won more games than you, so that’s it. It’s over. Give Carmedy back to us.” The bald-headed god glowered at her and was silent for a few moments.
“No, one more game,” he finally said and folded his arms over his humongous chest.
“Are you kidding me?” Rana said angrily. “We’re done with your games. You said if we won more games than you then we’ll triumph. We won three, you won a whopping one, so it’s over now.”
“Yes, well, I also said you had to play five games,” the god said haughtily. “New rule. One last game, winner takes all.”
Chapter 17
“No way,” Rana shouted. “We’re not agreeing to that.”
“It’s so cute that you actually think you have a say in this,” the giant said with a superior smile. “It’s a new rule, and it’s my game, remember? Take it or leave it.”
“Listen,” Rana fumed, and her face began to resemble the color of her hair. “If you think that--”
“Rana, it’s not going to work.” Annalíse rubbed at her temples. “Remember, we’re not exactly in a position to make demands.”
“But he can’t just keep changing the rules,” Rana said with exasperation.
“He will not allow us to leave otherwise,” Morrigan said calmly.
“Alright, fine.” Rana raised her paws to the air. “But what happens if we win? What’s stopping him from changing the rules again and tacking on more rounds until he wins? We could be stuck in here forever.”
“There has to be a way to stop him from changing the rules again,” Annalíse muttered.
“There is,” I said, and the women turned to me.
“What?” Rana asked.
“I will destroy him if he attempts this again,” I replied.
“Destroy me?” the fat deity asked with a mocking laugh. “What makes you think you can do that?”
“I could have done it at any time.” I chuckled. “I have only allowed you to live so that my minions could have more interesting training. You continue to exist for the benefit of these women.”
“You are a funny one!” The deity clutched his belly, laughed, and then spun backward in the air like a floating ball.
“Uhhh, if you can really destroy him, why not do it now?” Annalíse asked. “He wants us to do one more challenge, and this seems like a waste of--”
“Cause demon man can’t actually destroy him,” Rana scoffed and rolled her eyes. “He’s lying.”
“The reason I have not destroyed him is quite simple,” I said as I nodded up at the floating idiot. “He has cheated in his own contest. You three will overcome his next challenge, and then he will know that you are better than him, even when he breaks his own rules. Then he will know the shame of being a complete failure before I rip his power from his body.”
“I like this reasoning,” Morrigan said as she gave me a slight nod.
“Whatever.” Rana sighed. “I guess we can do one more as easily as we did the others.”
The four of us turned to the floating man, and I realized that he hadn’t heard our discussion because he was still laughing at my earlier comment. He was foolish, and he would soon pay the price for his idiocy.
“Alright then,” the giant said once he finished laughing and saw us all looking at him. “Let’s get started.” With that, he snapped his fingers, and the room suddenly went dark. A few moments later, my now-mortal eyes began to adjust to the darkness.
I looked around at my surroundings and realized my minions were nowhere to be found, and I was no longer in the room with the glowing lava that cascaded down the walls.
I now stood in a vast cave near the edge of a cliff. It was dark, but there seemed to be a soft glow coming from below. It wasn’t the same orange luminosity that had come from the cracks in the ground or the waterfalls of lava that flowed down the walls in the other room. This glow was less intense, and it was white. What was the source of this strange light?
I slowly walked to the edge and cautiously peered over the side. This was unexpected.
/> Below was an endless series of ropes strung between this cliff and another one on the opposite side of the room. The distance between the two rocky faces appeared to be about one hundred yards wide. The ropes were strung this way and that and resembled long forgotten cobwebs. They were everywhere. The glow that I had seen was coming from white glowing orbs that looked to be the size of the palm of my hand. The orbs were attached to some of the ropes and scattered across the large room. I counted ten of them.
“Enjoying the view?” the irritable deity said from behind me, and I whirled around to see him lounging in the air on his side with his usual smug expression.
“What is this place?” I asked sharply. “And where are the others?”
“Now, now, don’t worry.” The god waved his hand casually. “Everyone’s all accounted for. I simply decided to… mix things up a bit.”
“Oh?” I narrowed my eyes.
“I allowed you all to work together as a team for the other challenges, quite graciously I might add.” The fleshy being put a hand to his chest proudly. “Now I want to see how you do on your own.”
“What is the object of this game?” I said as I reminded myself that I didn’t want to destroy him until after my minions had completed their challenges.
“You each have a separate task to complete.” The deity shrugged. “If you each complete your given task, then the game will be over, and you’ll all go free.”
“What’s the catch?” I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. I knew better by now.
“Catch?” The god feigned innocence and cocked his shiny head to the side.
“There’s always a catch with you,” I said through pursed lips.
“Oh dear, you don’t trust me?” the god whined and stuck out his massive lip. “Now that is a shame. There is no catch, no time limit or anything like that.”
“Very well then,” I said slowly. I still didn’t trust him and resolved to be on my guard. This god was perhaps the most dishonorable being I had ever met, and I had come across some pretty unsavory characters in my time. “What is my task?” I asked the giant.
“All you have to do is retrieve each of those orbs down there,” the nasal-voiced deity gestured to the ten white spheres below us. “Of course, you’ll have to use the ropes to get around. Terribly inconvenient I know, but I wouldn’t want you to get bored with our little game, got to keep you on your toes, you know.” He chuckled. “Oh, and you might want to be careful not to fall, it’s quite a nasty drop. Very… pointy down there.” He hovered over to my side and peered over the edge. “Go on, go on take a peek.” The deity covered his mouth to stifle a giggle, and he gestured for me to look over the side. His eyes were filled with excitement, and he bit his lip in anticipation.
I furrowed my brow at him and then gazed down into the pit.
I hadn’t realized how deep it was until he mentioned it, and now I saw it was about a fifty-yard drop. There was something at the bottom. The stone floor was completely covered in a bed of large stone spikes. There were no visible areas of flat ground, and the spaces between the jagged protrusions were minimal. Anyone who fell down there would most definitely be skewered. This god was beyond twisted. We had angered him with our triumphs, and he wanted to make us pay. My minions’ present situations were probably equally gruesome.
“What do I do with these orbs?” I asked as I stepped away from the ledge.
“You’ll collect them in this sack.” The god gestured to a bag lying forlornly on the ground, the kind that could be slung over one’s shoulder. “Once you’ve collected them all, you’ll take them to the other side.”
He waved his mighty hand to draw my attention to the cliff on the opposite of the vast room. On top of the cliff stood an enormous bronze statue of a tunic-clad woman. Her arms stretched out to the side and in each of her hands rested a platter also crafted from bronze. It was a scale of some sort. “Place half of the orbs on each side of the scale, and a door will open,” the god continued. “Then your challenge will be over.”
“And what about the others?” I asked dubiously.
“You’ll have to wait for the rest of them to complete their challenges, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.” The god cackled. “I don’t think you’ll walk out that door anyhow. Oh, and by the way, those spikes down there are a tad bit poisonous just for fun. So be extra careful.” The fat man emitted a high-pitched giggle, and with that, he suddenly vanished.
I figured he was going to speak to my minions and explain the terms of their individual games. I hoped they would be able to make it. Annalíse had done well with the riddles, but she wouldn’t have anyone to rein in her impulsiveness. If Rana had some sort of logic puzzle, she would be in trouble. Morrigan, however, had performed excellently in the last two rounds. I was still concerned about all of them though. We all had to win.
I debated summoning my shadow slaves or using my telekinetic magic to pull the orbs out of the pit and into my possession, but then I let out a low chuckle and put the God Slayer in one of my void pockets. No. My opponent had cheated on his terms and asked us to compete in another one of his games, I could beat this task without using any of my magic just as my minions could. Then he would know we were better than him, even with his magic and treacherous ways.
I quickly moved toward the edge of the cliff and peered over the edge once more. I couldn’t waste time. My minions would be hard at work, and as their master, I would have to complete my task before they finished so I could congratulate them.
I slung the bag the god had left for me over my shoulders, knelt down on the ground, and stuck my head over the side. The first rope ran the length of the pit and was a bit below the cliff’s edge. There seemed to be some handholds and footholds on the rock’s side. About halfway down the rope was one of the white glowing orbs. I would start with that one.
On my knees, I moved backward and grasped the lip of the cliff as I lowered myself down. My feet found two indentations on the stony side, so I turned slightly and reached out with one hand and grasped the nearby rope. Once I had a firm grasp, I took a deep breath and released my hold on the rock and grabbed the rope with my other hand. I dangled there for a moment and looked down. The sinister-looking spikes far below seemed to taunt me. It was as though they were waiting for me to slip and fall to my doom.
The sight made me laugh again. It felt good to use the powerful muscles of this newly crafted body, and I certainly wasn’t going to fall down and grant that sorry excuse for a god the satisfaction. With my hands still firmly in place, I swung one leg over the rope and hooked it around, then the other.
I began my slow and perilous shimmy upside down across the deadly pit.
The rope swayed under my weight, and the material cut into my hands. The air was silent, but as I neared the first orb, an ear-splitting scream pierced the air.
It sounded like Rana. Where was she? I paused for a moment as I considered the next appropriate move. Should I continue with my task? Should I teleport to where she was and help her? No. I cared deeply about each of my minions, but I had to complete my own work and have faith that my women were skilled enough to accomplish their own tasks. Besides, the fox woman was strong. I was sure that she would find a way to handle her present situation. I only hoped that she wasn’t hurt.
I continued to make my way to the orb. As I moved, I glanced around me. The ropes went horizontal, crisscrossed, and slanted here and there. Traveling between them would be difficult. Just one misplaced step or unsteady handhold or hasty decision would be all it would take to send my body careening toward the deadly rocks. I wanted to be quick, but caution was the safest route here. The dastardly deity had given me quite a feat to overcome.
The challenge was actually entertaining, and as I swung between the ropes, I felt better about my decision not to destroy him after he had told my minions they needed to perform an extra task.
I knew that there was something else though, something that the bald god hadn’t told me that
was going to make my challenge all the more deadly. I finally reached the first luminous white sphere and realized that it was attached to the rope that I clung to with a small thread.
I carefully positioned myself so that I could hold my weight with one hand and then reached out and grasped the colorless orb. I gave it a small tug, and the thread snapped easily. The orb was extraordinarily light in my hand, almost as if it had no weight at all. With my free hand, I reached around my back and felt around for the opening of the sack before I dropped the ball inside. Nine more to go.
As I hung upside down, I looked around for the next glowing object that was nearest to me. I finally saw several ropes below me far to the right near the side of the cliff. It wasn’t going to be easy getting down there, but I was sure I could do it all the same.
I released my feet from around the rope and hung there for a few seconds. The rope a few feet in front of me ran horizontally. Right beside it was one that slanted downward. If I could swing myself over to the first one, then I could grab the second and shimmy my way down it. That would put me within close proximity of my destination. I couldn’t plan out all of my movements ahead of time because I was too far away to see where each rope started and stopped, they were all interwoven together. I’d have to figure out my next move once I got further down.
I began to pump my legs back and forth. After four or five swings, I released my hands and launched into the air. My momentum proved to be enough, and my hands grasped the next rope. I let out a sigh of relief and reached out to grasp the slanted rope beside it. As I grabbed it, I carefully placed a foot on a rope that crossed beneath it to give myself some leverage. Once I had a steady hold, I released my other hand and clung to the rope that ran downward. The next orb was only a few more ropes below my feet.
Chunks of rock dislodged from their niches and rained down around me. I would have to hurry. Rumbling filled the air, and it sounded as though the whole ceiling was going to come down on my head at any moment. I continued my descent, and suddenly the rumbling stopped. I stole an upward glance and saw a humongous sharpened rock plunge downward at an alarming speed. I shimmed down the rope as fast as my hands would allow, but I knew that if I stayed on my current path, I wasn’t going to make it.
