The Godgame (The Godgame, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

from the table and pretended to stab an invisible enemy in front of him. His little sisters watched from the corner. He winked at them. He tossed the knife back to the table.
    The bearded officer began to laugh, a rumbling chuckle.
    His little sisters began to laugh too. The other soldier bent down to them, picked up one of their dolls of woven sticks and pretended to make it walk.
    “Alright, say what you have to say,” Ash’s dad said, sitting at the table with a sigh.
    The bearded officer righted himself and turned. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “All must do their part. We’ve been sent on a recruitment mission.”
    “I know.”
    “Ash is old enough to decide for himself now.”
    In the corner, the soldier laughed with Ash’s sisters. The soldier made gunfire sounds. “Boom,” he said. Shrieks of laughter.
    Ash saw the soldier had ripped the doll’s head from its shoulders and tossed it away. He watched as little Alex picked up the head, walked over to the fire, and tossed it in. She put her fingers in her mouth and sucked. Terry began to cry.
    “You can’t,” his dad was saying. “You can’t take him. He’s too young.”
    “Just the same,” he heard the bearded soldier say.
    Ash watched his sister take the rest of the doll and toss it on the fire. He watched the fire consume the dried roots, a goofy grin on his face.
    Behind him, his dad was making strange sounds and he could hear his mom coughing in the other room.
     
    ~
     
    That night, his mom ate dinner with them, although she looked sicker than ever, slumped in her seat, the medicine dried and hanging from beneath her eyes like flaps of skin.
    His dad reached across the table, ripped a chunk of bread from the loaf. His hands were shaking. He looked tired too, very tired.
    “Will you be okay?” Kya asked him.
    “Of course,” Ash answered easily. “Don’t worry. I’m fast. And they’ll give me a rifle to shoot.”
    His mother made a sound in her throat.
    “Are they going to make you kill people?”
    Ash raised his chin. “They’re only Talosians, Kya. They’re bad.”
    Kya nodded. “Oh.”
    Ash’s dad grumbled. “It’s not that simple—”
    “Don’t,” his mom said.
    Ash’s dad fell silent.
    He could hear his little sisters giggling in the corner. “Pow-pow-pow,” one of them said.
    “Listen to me, Ash,” his dad said to him. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
    Ash nodded.
    “Be careful,” his Dad said. “Don’t do anything foolish. Don’t be a hero. I’d go myself, even just to keep an eye on you, but they won’t let me. I’m too old.”
    “I’ll make you proud, Dad.”
    His dad gave a pained smile. “Well that’s that, then. They come for you in the morning.”
    His mother choked back a cough.
    Gunfire continued to giggle from the corner.
     
    ~
     
    Lying in bed, he was too excited to sleep. He hadn’t found the rifle on the beach that morning, but that no longer mattered. Tomorrow, he’d leave his village behind and start a whole new life. He was going to help the cause, keep the Talosians from invading. In the morning, he was going to go with the bearded officer and the other soldier. They were going to give him a uniform and a Novan iron rifle. They were going to teach him to shoot. They were going to train him to be a fighting machine. He was going to belong to something important.
    The crack in the ceiling looked as if it’d spread. He couldn’t quite tell. It looked as if its striations had meandered from just over his head to down toward his feet.
    He blinked, took a deep breath, and turned over.
    It was dark and warm. He wondered if Brent was going too. He hoped he was. It would be good to know someone, at least until he made new friends.
    He closed his eyes, and dreamed…

 
     
     
     
     
    LENA
     
    Lena forced herself to give Josef a reassuring smile and closed the bedroom door. She wanted to tell him their son was going to be okay, but there was something caught in her throat. She