Free Game Play by Kevin J. Anderson Page B

scream from the belt.
    Journeyman
scratched lines on the dirt and taught Delrael and Vailret an Outside game
called Tic-Tac-Toe. Bryl always felt left out. Sometimes it made him angry;
other times it just depressed him.
    He recalled his
parents ― his father Qonnar, a full-blooded Sorcerer, and his
mother Tristane, a half-breed. They had used their magic to try to save
Delrael's ailing great-great grandfather ― but he had died anyway
of a wasting disease. His widow, Galleri, then married a rough and close-minded
human fighter named Brudane. Brudane started rumors that perhaps Bryl's parents
had actually poisoned the old man and not tried to help him.
    Qonnar and Tristane
grieved deeply for the old man's death. They felt they had not done enough to
save him, and they did little to fight the accusations, which made the rumors
grow. Finally, in their guilt and despair, Bryl's parents underwent the
half-Transition on their own, annihilating themselves in sorcerous fire and
liberating their spirits to wander the map.
    Bryl had been a
mere boy then, but he watched in horror. His mother and father did not even say
good-bye; they gave him no advice, they ignored him.
    In the last instant
before the blinding light consumed her, Tristane met her son's eyes ― but Bryl saw no recognition there. He was not even part of their lives. Their
misery was all-important to them. They didn't bother to consider what it would
be like for Bryl to grow up alone under the shadow of their implied guilt.
    At any time it
might have been better for Bryl if he had wandered, gone to a different village
where they did not know his past or his confused conscience. But he was afraid
to leave. Some of the young villagers around the Stronghold taunted him. All
characters around him were human ― no one was qualified to train
him how to use his Sorcerer abilities, and Galleri and Brudane certainly did
not concern themselves with the problem. He knew only a few simple spells his
parents had taught him in his early years, and a few others he had learned on
his own.
    In his mind, Bryl
knew that he had grown up with his abilities stunted.
    Had he been
properly trained at the right time, he could have been a powerful magic user.
Three-fourths of his blood was from the Sorcerer race that ruled Gamearth so
many turns ago. But nearly all the Sorcerers had vanished in the Transition,
combining themselves into the Earthspirits and the Deathspirits.
    Few characters on
Gamearth could claim to have Sorcerer blood anymore.
    Then the human boy
Lellyn had come along, flaunting his abilities, his enthusiasm, and his
impossible Sorcerer powers that he should never have had.
    Bryl wanted all
those incredible spells, the power that took years and years of effort and
struggle and training. But he didn't have years and years, and he didn't have
the patience.
    Tareah had the
skills, but Bryl didn't seek to learn any forgotten spells. The desire to
better himself, the challenge, had backfired on him many years before.
    That was why he
attached so much importance to the Stones: Air, Water, Fire, and Earth. He had
used the Water Stone and linked with the dayid of the forest to save the
panther people in Ledaygen. He had used the Air Stone to trick Gairoth the ogre
into leaving the Stronghold. The Stones gave him his power immediately. That
was the best way.
    "Tic tac toe,
I win!" Journeyman said. Delrael grumbled and smoothed the dirt with the
flat of his hand before drawing a new grid for another game.
    "Tomorrow
we're playing with dice instead."

    They next morning
they set off into the forest terrain. Journeyman looked around and smiled. Bryl
hated the way he grinned all the time.
    "In this
hexagon there's supposed to be a village of ylvan, the forest people. Maybe
we'll come across it."
    Delrael trudged on.
He looked flustered from losing so many games to Journeyman at the campsite.
"How do you know that? I don't recall anything marked on our master map at
the