Gathering of the Chosen (21 page)

Carmaz immediately let go of Raya.
Raya—who had been leaning on Carmaz for support—fell on her bottom
with a “Hey!” She then glared up at Carmaz, who stepped away from
her with what he hoped was an apologetic look on his face.

“Oh, sorry, silver spoon, looks like I
accidentally let go of you,” said Carmaz, his tone apologetic. “It
must be because I just got up and am so, so tired. I didn't sleep
very well last night, you know, so I'm not as focused as I usually
am.”

Raya stood up and brushed off her clothes.
She then glared at Carmaz again, said, “Hmph!” and stomped off back
into her room, slamming the door shut behind her as she
entered.

As soon as she was gone, Saia walked over
to Carmaz and said, in a low voice, probably so that Raya wouldn't
hear him, “What did you do that for, man?”

“What was—” Carmaz sighed before he lost
his temper. “What do you mean? Are you talking about Raya?”

“No,” said Saia, shaking his head. He
poked Carmaz in the chest. “I'm talking about
you
. She
clearly is interested in you, so why'd you blow her off like
that?”

“Because frankly, I don't have time for
romancing silly princesses like her,” said Carmaz. “My focus is on
my people. I would think that Raya, as the future ruler of her own
people, would understand that, but I guess she doesn't.”

“Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't
have some fun every once in a while,” Saia said, slapping Carmaz on
the shoulder. “I mean, not only is she as beautiful as a goddess,
she's the princess of an entire nation. If you play your cards
right, you could become King Carmaz, King of Carnag, in the
future.”

“Why would I want to become the king of a
foreign nation?” Carmaz asked. “Carnag isn't much of an ally to
Ruwa, you know.”

“Yeah, I know, but don't you think that
being the ruler of one of the most powerful nations in the Northern
Isles could still benefit you?” said Saia. Then he put his hands on
his hips and sighed. “But now you blew it. I bet she probably hates
you now. She'll probably start to spread nasty rumors behind your
back about you. Seems like the kind of girl who'd do such a thing
if she got rejected by a guy she liked.”

“If that's the kind of woman she is, then
that makes me want even less to do with her,” said Carmaz. “Anyway,
who even has time for that kind of romance when the Tournament is
going to start today? I bet there are rules against godlings
romancing each other during the Tournament anyway.”

“I don't see why there would be,” said
Saia. “You two aren't even in the same bracket, so how could having
a little fun possibly interfere with your competitiveness?”

“I don't know,” said Carmaz. “And I don't
care. I will think about getting a wife and kids later, assuming I
don't win the Tournament, in which case I won't marry at all.”

“But don't you see?” said Saia. “If you
romance Raya, then you will win no matter what. If you win the
Tournament, you can become the God of Humans and use your powers to
help Ruwa. If you lose, but get married to Raya, you can use
Carnag's vast resources and wealth to send aid to Ruwa. And if you
do both, then you can become the first ever god-king of Carnag, who
can use his powers along with Carnag's wealth to make Ruwa into a
great nation, maybe even the greatest nation on Martir. Doesn't
that sound fantastic?”

“I'd rather spend a week with a boulder
tied to my head than marry her,” said Carmaz.

Saia sighed. “Very well, then. I see that
you are clearly not going to listen to anything I say. I suppose it
is up to me, then, to romance Raya and marry her at some point. For
the good of Ruwa, of course.”

Carmaz looked at Saia skeptically. “She
hasn't even shown any interest in you. How, then, do you expect to
romance her?”

“By using my obvious charms as a seducer,”
said Saia. “Remember Homal and how I successfully seduced her?”

“You mean that girl who ended up in our
village and then stole a week's worth of food from everyone, which
no one even realized until she had skipped town and caught a ride
with a pirate ship heading who knows where?” said Carmaz. “And,
correct me if I am wrong, but she also manipulated you into helping
her by promising to marry you if you'd only give her the keys to
the food supplies, yes?”

“The point is,” Saia said, not hiding the
annoyance in his voice, “you and I are both working toward the
greater good, just in different ways. That's all.”

“Different ways,” Carmaz repeated.
“Sure.”

“Anyway, we need to get ready to leave,”
said Saia, looking out the window at the city, which was growing
brighter and brighter due to the sun rising in the east. “The
Tournament is going to start soon, so Raya needs to head on over
there to get ready for the first challenge.”

“I'll go check on her to make sure she's
ready,” said Carmaz.

He walked over to the door to Raya's room
and knocked on it several times. “Raya? Are you ready to go? The
Tournament is about to start and I just wanted to remind you in
case you forgot.”

“I am getting ready!” came Raya's shrill,
offended voice on the other side. “Just leave me alone. You don't
need to baby me, you know.”

Carmaz looked over his shoulder at Saia,
who shrugged as if to say
Don't look at me. It's your fault for
offending her.

Carmaz rolled his eyes, then said to Raya,
“All right. Just wanted to make sure.”

“Do you want to help me dress?” came
Raya's voice again, this time sounding more seductive than
offended. “Because I'm used to my servants back home dressing me
and I think that—”

“No,” said Carmaz. “You yourself said you
didn't want me to baby you, after all, and I can't think of
anything more babying than dressing someone for them. You'll do a
fine job of it, I'm sure.”

An offended “Hmph!” came from the other
side, but Carmaz didn't care. He just turned and headed over to the
kitchen area to get something to eat for breakfast, while Saia was
scratching his chin and looking at the door to Raya's room as if he
was thinking about how he could convince her to let
him
dress her.

What am I going to do with these
two?
Carmaz thought, shaking his head as he opened the pantries
of the kitchen for anything edible.
Anyway, time to eat. I'll
think more about this later, after I've had a good breakfast of
whatever I can find in here. I have a feeling I'm going to need
extra energy today, even though I'm not going to be participating
in this challenge.

***

B
raim woke up this morning feeling
groggier than usual. He dragged his body out of bed, stepped into
the shower to wash off, threw on his Tournament uniform, had
breakfast provided by the innkeeper (some type of cooked, greasy
meat Braim had never had before that the innkeeper called
halar
that had no direct translation to Divina, along with
eggs and some kind of juice that tasted like strawberries and
oranges), and then left the inn to head for the Stadium. He had
three Soldiers of the Gods accompanying him in order to protect him
from that assassin from last night, each one armed to the teeth,
although Braim had no idea how effective they might be at
protecting him.

But Braim didn't focus too much on his
bodyguards. There was that darkness again, floating in the back out
of his mind just out of reach of his conscious thought. It reminded
him of his conversation last night with the Ghostly God, as well as
the Ghostly God's theory about why Braim felt that way.

Braim did not really remember Uron all
that well. True, he had regained his body by stabbing Uron with the
ghostly sword that he used to have (the sword that had vanished
when he returned to the physical plane, unfortunately), but like
most things from his time as a ghost, Braim didn't remember that
too well, either. The others had told him that Uron was a wicked,
evil being who could not be trusted, which he figured was true
based on the few memories he had of the being who also went by the
alias 'Great Snake.'

But it seemed logical that the darkness
that seemed to follow Braim everywhere was simply the remnants of
Uron's previous possession of his body. It was the only explanation
that made any sense. Even so, Braim wondered if there might be
another explanation that made even more sense.

Could Uron even somehow still be
influencing my thoughts?
Braim thought.
Nah. Uron's gone.
He's never coming back. Like the Ghostly God said, his
consciousness is no longer independent of the universe, so there's
no way he could influence me now.

Despite that, Braim wished he had some way
of getting rid of the darkness that followed him everywhere. It
made enjoying life harder, because he felt a constant sense of
impending doom wherever he went and whatever he did. It may have
simply been one of those things that would go away on its own,
given time, but whether that was true or not, Braim didn't know and
would not know for some time.

In any case, Braim arrived at the Stadium
without running into the assassin or any other problems on the way
there. His bodyguards insisted that Braim go in by himself, because
they had not been given authority to follow Braim into the Stadium
and that he was probably safe from the assassin in there anyway.
Braim supposed that that was probably true, but he still didn't
like seeing his three bodyguards walk off and leave him alone.

I can take care of myself,
Braim
told himself, patting his wand in its holster at his side.
After
all, I've had two encounters with that assassin guy so far and have
survived both. I've got nothing to worry about.

So Braim pushed open the doors and entered
the Stadium lobby, which he discovered to be full of godlings once
again. It looked like everyone was present, but they were not all
mixed together again as usual. Instead, a good chunk of them stood
in line on one side of the Stadium, going into a door on the right
side of the lobby. On the left was another, much smaller line of
about twenty people, which was going into another door. Braim saw
both Raya and Yoji in that line, which told him that that was
probably the line for the participants of the Hollech Sub-Bracket
Challenge.

Then Braim heard someone say, “Hey, Braim,
over here!” and he looked over to see Carmaz and Saia in the first
line, standing at the back of it and waving at Braim to join them.
Braim walked over as quickly as he could and soon stood behind the
two of them in the line, which gradually grew smaller as the
godlings ahead of them stepped into the open door at the end.

“Hey, guys,” said Braim to Carmaz and
Saia. “How did your night go? Any news on the assassin?”

“None so far,” said Carmaz, shaking his
head. “We haven't heard any news from the gods, so we're assuming
that the assassin is still out there.”

“Uh huh,” said Braim. “Well, I'm glad to
hear that you guys weren't murdered in your sleep, at least. So
where does this line go, anyway?”

“To the Stadium's box,” said Saia. “You
missed Alira's explanation. She said that the rest of us godlings
who aren't participating in the Hollech Bracket are supposed to go
to the Stadium's box and watch the Hollech participants compete in
the challenge.”

“That includes Raya and Yoji, right?” said
Braim. He looked at the line, where he saw Yoji and Raya
talking.

“Yes,” said Carmaz. “Raya didn't want to
participate, but she went ahead and did it anyway because there's
no backing out of the Tournament at this point.”

“Surprised that Raya didn't try to bribe a
katabans to take her home,” said Braim. “Guess she's resigned to
her fate by now, huh?”

“More or less,” said Carmaz. “It wouldn't
surprise me if she intentionally throws the Tournament so she'll
get disqualified. She spent the entire trip to the Stadium
complaining about being in the Hollech Bracket.”

“And trying to seduce Carmaz,” Saia said.
“She was trying to elicit sympathy from him, but Carmaz didn't show
her any. I did, but she didn't seem to appreciate it much coming
from me.”

“What?” said Braim. He looked over at
Raya, who he now noticed was glancing at Carmaz not-so-furtively,
apparently not paying attention to whatever Yoji was saying. “She
was trying to seduce Carmaz?”

“Let's not talk about it, please,” said
Carmaz, almost begging Braim to drop the subject. “Raya is crazy.
Let's leave it at that.”

Braim was not quite sure what to think
about this new piece of information, but he decided to respect
Carmaz's wishes and not bring it up again. He just followed the
rest of the godlings through the doorway, which lead to a set of
stairs that took them up higher and higher with every step. It was
slow-moving, however, due to the eighty godlings that had to go in
an orderly line up the stairs, but soon the top of the stairs came
into view, an open doorway that, as Braim soon discovered, led into
a large box with about a hundred seats in neat, rising rows that
were in front of a thick gray stone wall with no windows or holes
in it, which made Braim wonder how they could see the field where
the challengers were.

There was apparently no particular order
to the seating, so everyone sat pretty much wherever they wanted.
Braim, Carmaz, and Saia took up some seats near the back, but they
weren't alone. Tashir, the shark-headed aquarian godling from last
night, also took a seat next to them. He still had his sword, even
though there was no reason for it, seeing as it was unlikely that a
fight of any sort would break out in here.

“Hey, Tashir,” said Braim, smiling at the
aquarian, despite not knowing him very well. “How are you?”

“Fine,” said Tashir. Like most aquarians,
he had that strange gurgly accent whenever he spoke in Divina,
though it wasn't as bad as some aquarians that Braim had heard.
“You?”