Gathering of the Chosen (23 page)

Besides, being a goddess of any sort is
still better than being queen, isn't it?
Raya thought.
I
will still have more power than I know what to do with.

The problem now was that Raya had no idea
what the first challenge was going to have in it, so she couldn't
adequately plan for it. Nor did she know who her challenger would
be. It might be Yoji, or it might be any of the other eighteen
challengers, most of whom she did not know except by sight.

But Raya decided that she would give it a
shot. Worse case scenario, she lost and had to go back to Carnag,
which was really where she wanted to be anyway. Best case scenario,
however, she won and would be that much closer to achieving
godhood, which was also what she wanted, despite not wanting this
position in particular.

Yoji only let up on his bragging when the
twenty Hollech Bracket participants went through the door into a
room that was different from the lobby. First, it was much smaller.
Second, it appeared more like a circular tunnel than an actual
room, because there were entrances on either end that seemed to
stretch on forever.

In front of the group were two
normal-sized doors that had a stylized horse on them. Raya vaguely
recalled Teacher, in her studies about the relations between gods
and humans, telling her that the Hollechians often used the image
of a stylized horse to represent Hollech. In fact, when Raya looked
more closely, she saw that this wasn't just a stylized horse, but
an image of a man with the head of a horse, which was the usual
form that Hollech had been said to take prior to his death at
Uron's hands.

There was no one else in the tunnel-like
room besides Raya and the others, which made Raya wonder what they
were supposed to do until Alira appeared before them without
warning. The Judge still held her Rulebook in her arms, clutching
it like it was the most important book in the world.

“Greetings, godlings,” said Alira,
adjusting her glasses as she spoke. “Welcome to the Hollech
Sub-Bracket Challenge, the first sub-bracket challenge in the
Tournament of the Gods. In this challenge, participants will be
divided into pairs and the winner of each pair will then go onto
the Hollech Bracket Challenge later on.”

None of the godlings said anything in
response to that, but Raya was annoyed at Alira repeating
information that they already knew. She felt like Alira was talking
down to them, like the Judge thought that they were stupid children
who had forgotten what they were supposed to do.

“As for what the first challenge is, you
must compete with whoever you have been paired up with to be the
first to tame one of Hollech's original Steeds,” said Alira, “of
which there are twenty.”

Raya frowned. She looked at Yoji, who was
nodding along like he understood what Alira was referring to. “What
are Hollech's Steeds?”

“Well,” Yoji said, in a tone that clearly
said he had been waiting for someone to give him an opportunity to
share his vast knowledge of the gods with them, “at the beginning
of time, when the Powers finished laying the foundations of Martir,
Hollech was given the order to make horses. So he created twenty
horses, which he called his Steeds, from which every single horse
in the world is descended. The Steeds are said to be immortal and
undying, but very few mortals have ever actually seen them.”

“What happened to them when Uron killed
Hollech?” asked Raya.

“No one knows,” said Yoji, “but obviously,
they must have survived, otherwise Alira couldn't have set up this
challenge for us. A challenge, I might add, that I will easily
sweep. I know everything there is to know about the Steeds, in
addition to the knowledge I have on general horse behavior and
attitudes, so I shouldn't have any trouble at all winning
this.”

Raya knew very little about horses. Carnag
didn't have very many, and of those few that it did have, Raya
never rode them, mostly because their job was to pull along the
royal carriage. She had always thought that horses were large,
ugly, and disgusting creatures, which made her wonder why anyone
saw any beauty or majesty in them.

But there was no way that Raya would ever
admit her ignorance of horses to Yoji or anyone else. She just
said, “Ah, yes, I, too, will have an easy time doing this. I ride
horses all the time on Carnag, so taming these ones should be
easy.”

“The Steeds are a little different from
most horses, though, from what I've read,” said Yoji. “For example,
they're almost as smart as humans and are stronger than most
horses. One story I read said that one Steed alone is as strong as
ten thousand raging stallions.”

“You don't think they'll kill us, do you?”
asked Raya, keeping her tone calm and disinterested in order to
hide the very real fear now starting to creep up her spine.

“Nah,” said Yoji, shaking his head. “Well,
unless you anger them. All the old stories say that the Steeds
don't tolerate stupid or disrespectful people. Like in the story of
Abacos, the First Steed, who kicked off the head of the arrogant
human who tried to tame him. His head went flying all the way over
a mountain, or so the story goes.”

Unconsciously, Raya rubbed her neck, right
where it connected to her head. “Really? Well, that is certainly a
… painful way to go.”

“It's just a story,” said Yoji
dismissively. “Only children believe in those stories. Still, all
of the research I've done—which is quite a bit, more so than even
the most respected Hollechian scholars—states that the Steeds are
not to be taken lightly, but of course
I
won't, seeing as I
know more about them than they know about me, even if you take into
account that not all of the stories about them are true.”

Raya didn't know what to say to that, but
thankfully, she didn't have to say anything, because Alira
continued speaking, causing the other godlings to stop talking
among themselves.

“After I pair you all together, you will
then go through these doors,” said Alira, gesturing at the two
doors behind her. She then pointed down either tunnel. “Along the
tunnel walls at regular intervals are doors that each pairing will
have to step through. But each pairing must enter the Stadium's
field at the exact same time as the others. I will let you all know
when to enter the field.

“Now it is time to pair you all up.”

Alira pulled another deck of cards from
her robes and tossed them into the air. Raya had just enough time
to see that there were about twenty cards in all, in a variety of
colors ranging from blue to red to yellow and beyond, before the
cards flew among the godlings. One of the cards flew toward Raya,
causing her to catch it to avoid so it wouldn't fly into her
face.

Looking down at the card she'd caught,
Raya saw that her card was purple and had no text or pictures on it
at all. Beside her, Yoji had a red card, which he was studying as
if he thought that it would reveal the secrets of the universe to
him (which, based on his bragging, he probably already knew, of
course).

“Each card has a twin that shares it
color,” said Alira. “To find your challenger, you must find the
godling with the same color card as you.”

Yoji immediately leaned over to look at
Raya's card, leaned a little too close to Raya for her liking,
before he pulled back and said, “Darn it. Our cards have different
colors, so it looks like we'll not be competing against each other
today.”

Raya nodded, but before she could say
anything, an older man came up to her and said, “Do you have a
purple card?”

Raya looked at the older man. He was
probably middle-aged, though he looked a lot younger than that. He
was quite muscular and fit, with a graying mustache which made him
look a little odd to her. He wore a black tunic, similar to hers
aside from the color and size. While he wasn't the largest man Raya
had ever seen, he still looked like he could go toe-to-toe with an
adult baba raga if he wanted.

“Um, yes,” said Raya, holding up her
purple card for the man to see. “What about you?”

The man held up his own card, a smile
appearing under his thick mustache. His card was the same purple
hue as hers. “Yep. Nice to meet you. My name is Zaos.”

The man held out a large hand, which
Raya's own, rather tiny hand disappeared into when she shook his.
His hand was rough and dirty, like he was the kind of person who
worked outdoors.

“Princess Raya Mana of Carnag,” said Raya,
looking up at the large man who was smiling at her as if she was
his own daughter. “And you are from …?”

“Zinza,” said Zaos. “You've probably never
heard of it. It's a tiny, though wealthy, island located in the
Friana Archipelago. Born and raised there.”

“Ah,” said Raya. “No, I have not heard of
it, but now that you have told me about, I guess that I have.”

Zaos nodded. “But I've heard of Carnag,
even visited the island a few times in my youth. They make the best
boots there. In fact, I'm wearing some Carnagian boots right
now.”

Zaos raised one of his tall, thick legs to
show that he was indeed wearing a genuine Carnagian leather boot.
“Fits better than any boot I've worn in my life, which is hard to
do, believe me, because we Zinzans tend to be big people, so
finding clothes and footwear that actually fits is always a
challenge.”

“Well, on Carnag, you can find high
quality, affordable boots in a variety of sizes and styles,” said
Raya. “We make only the best.”

“And I believe that,” said Zaos, lowering
his boot onto the floor. “But you're the first princess I've ever
met. Zinza doesn't even have royalty. It's such a small island that
we practice a democratic government, where we vote in the Mayor of
the island along with a Council to help him govern.”

Raya made a face. “Ah, yes, democracy.
I've heard of that, but it's not quite as good as a monarchy, if
you ask me.”

“Eh, both types of government have their
upsides and downsides,” said Zaos with a shrug. “Each nation needs
to go with what works best for them. But in truth, I've always
admired the great kings and queens of the Northern Isles, even
though I'd never actually want to live under them. King Malock,
your father, is someone who I have particularly respected, mostly
because he was such a mischievous, adventurous sort in his youth,
unlike some princes, who just sit around in their palaces all day
waiting on their servants to meet their every whim.”

“Yes, Father is certainly a great king,
and I am proud to be his daughter,” said Raya. “Anyway, what gods
do you worship on Zinza?”

“All of them, more or less,” said Zaos
with a shrug. “Unlike most other nations, we Zinzans aren't united
under one religion. You got your Grinfians, your Xocionians, your
Kanonites, even a few Tinkarians here and there. In the last decade
alone, we've had a Grinfian Mayor, a Tinkarian Mayor, and a
Kanonite Mayor, in that order.”

“How interesting,” said Raya. “What kind
of work did you do on Zinza prior to coming to World's End?”

“I was just a simple day laborer, is all,”
said Zaos rather humbly. “There are a lot of rich people there who
don't like getting their hands dirty but still need physical labor
done, so they hire me to do it. Sometimes I get some of my friends
to help, but most of the time it's just me. Been doing it for forty
years now, ever since I left home and decided to make my way in the
world.”

“Very interesting,” said Raya, though in
truth, she found herself losing interest in Zaos when he said he
was a day laborer, because she had found the day laborers back in
Carnag to be very boring conversationalists. “How have you taken to
World's End?”

Zaos smiled. “It's huge. Bigger than Zinza
or anywhere else I've ever been. But I am quite honored to be in
the Throne of the Gods, you know. Never thought I'd live long
enough to get a chance to come here, but I did, and now I even have
a shot at becoming a god, of all things.”

Despite Raya's general dislike of day
laborers, she found something infectious in the older man's
excitement. He seemed so genuine and sincere, which she found a
rather refreshing difference from the stiff and formal way most
royalty tended to behave.

So Raya said, “I guess you don't mind
possibly becoming the God of Deception, Thieves, and Horses,
then?”

“Why should I?” said Zaos. “Sure, I'm no
big fan of lying or thieves or lying thieves, but I love horses and
would love to be their god. Though truth be told, I'm not sure how
good a god I could be to them, because I don't look much like a
horse, which I think would make it harder for the horses to worship
me.”

Why does it seem like everyone else
here loves horses but me?
Raya thought, but aloud she said,
“Well, if you win, then I'm sure the horses will respect your
authority. Not like they're smart enough to rebel, right?”

“I don't know about that,” said Zaos.
“Horses are pretty smart. Not as smart as us humans, but smarter
than we give them credit for. I used to own a horse that understood
every word I said. Sometimes he tried to play dumb when I was
telling him to do something he didn't like or didn't want to do,
but that just goes to show how smart he was.”

“I never thought of horses as being
particularly intelligent creatures,” said Raya.

“Well, you should, if you are going to
respect them,” said Zaos. Then he looked down at the purple card in
his hand and looked back up at her. “But it looks like you and I
are going to compete against each other, which means only one of us
is going to get a shot at the title of God of Deception, Horses,
and Thieves. Wish we could both win, but I guess there's only
enough room in this world for one god or goddess like that,
eh?”

“Yes, it would be nice if the two of us
could win, but unfortunately we can't,” said Raya. She held out her
hand. “Let the best man or woman win, eh?”