They dug into their packs and spread out a meal for all to share. Thordr had packed bottles of the ale and refilled wineskins with water. Tom was obviously famished, and the five ate in silence. A half-hour later, they finished and repacked the remaining food.

“Tom, there’s something else I haven’t told anyone,” Morgan said, staring at the ground.

“What’s that?”

“We told you…told you about each of the races mentioning waiting for a champion to…to lead them in a war,” Morgan stammered.

“Yes.”

“Artemis visited me in a dream—twice, actually. At least, it seemed like a dream. She’s trying to convince me to lead the elves in this war. She says I could be their queen and rule Nibiru.”

If Spence had still been drinking, he would have spewed it across the room. His heart skipped several beats. He sought the faces of Caleb and Trey. They both appeared as shocked as he probably did.

Tom leaned forward on his log. “Artemis? Spoke to you?”

“Yes,” Morgan said, avoiding the others’ gazes.

“How are you supposed to contact her if you want to lead the elves?” Tom asked.

Morgan fished inside the top of her tunic and withdrew the amethyst pendant. “Artemis said I can squeeze this and say her name, and she will appear. Or I can press the gem and teleport directly to Sabekha.”

Tom whistled. “Interesting. Teleportation? They’re even more advanced than I thought. What about the rest of you? If she is the champion of one race, I’m betting you are the champions of the others.”

Tom’s eyes met Spence’s and stopped. Spence’s heart pounded as if he had to fight Tom. He swallowed hard. He knew his face gave away the truth. He reached inside his shirt and pulled out his emerald amulet. “Enki and the Draconians.”

Spence followed Tom’s gaze to Caleb.

He withdrew his ruby pendant. “Ra and the Nephilim.”

Then all eyes were on Trey. Trey appeared even more agitated than the others, even looked embarrassed. He finally reached inside his breastplate and fished out the sapphire amulet. “That only leaves Odin and the dwarves.”

Tom leaned back against the wall, placed his hands behind his head again, and whistled. “Sounds like the gods have really changed the game. Perhaps that’s why you all have survived. They want a war—a world war. What a show it would be to have all four races fighting against each other, led by humans from Earth. Of course, there might be monsters thrown into the mix too. And if a race is wiped out, or all of them for that matter, they’ll just start over again at the beginning.”

“Or we could all be wrong, and this could be an actual world, ruled by real gods. And if one race defeated the others, it would rule the world,” Trey said.

The others sat without talking for a moment. “Well, it’s all just theories, but I think we hit on what made the most sense earlier. Anyway, surely none of you would take the bait and try to lead a race into this war,” Tom said, shaking his head and chuckling. “You might have defeated a few mutated animals, but none of you are warriors or generals.”

“From what I’ve seen, it wouldn’t be much of a war,” Trey said. He met each pair of eyes now staring at him. He coughed and then grinned. “Of course, none of us would be that crazy. We just want to get back home.”

“What are you going to do?” Caleb asked Tom. “We’ll have to leave here in the morning and head south to the Forsaken Swamp. Hopefully, the gods will honor their bargain and let us go home once we defeat the Draconian monster.”

“I’m not sure. I know the gods have been searching hard for me and even sent you here to kill me. I doubt they’d let me live if I appeared out in the open. Plus, they would be upset you didn’t kill me. I think the best bet is for me to stay here and have them assume I’m dead. Then maybe in a day or two, I can slip out and find another hiding place.”

“That’s not a long-term plan. You can’t live the rest of your life hiding in caves,” Caleb said.

Tom frowned. “True. I don’t know. This race war thing has me intrigued. I might just try to stay alive long enough to see what happens.”

“The race war won’t happen. None of us will betray the squad,” Caleb said.

Tom smiled. He stared at them, his eyes lingering several seconds on each. “Squad, huh? But you never know. You were strangers before this began. You can’t say for sure what the others will do. And whoever caved first would have a huge advantage. Besides, you might slay the last monster and the gods decide not to return you to Earth. They might force you to participate in the war, stay here forever, or die. Then what?”

“It’s really a genius plot,” Caleb said solemnly.

Spence felt dizzy and nauseous. Tom might be right. If the gods wanted a war, they would have a war. If they all ended up having to lead a race anyway, why not be the first? And now they all knew the gods had contacted the others. Now, they had to try to read one another’s minds. Tom was also right about them only knowing each other for a week. Even though they had been through a lot, did any of them truly know what the others would do if their lives depended on it? As Caleb had said, people reverted to savages very quickly when it came down to survival. The game had just changed. They were now in a very high-stakes poker game.

The silence dragged on for at least five minutes. Caleb finally broke it. “We’d better get some sleep. Tom, I assume we should set watches?”

“Probably. The gods might even send something to investigate if you’re only spending the night here after killing me or if you figured out the ruse. I’d say the watch could stay at the bend in the tunnel. You could even use those masks to see in the dark. Just don’t trust the appearance of whatever you see.”

“OK. There are five of us and ten hours to cover. So, only two hours each,” Caleb said.

“I’m kind of tired. I’ll take the last watch if that’s OK,” Trey said.

Spence thought that was a little strange. But with this setup, with the sentry being a reasonable distance away and the other four sleeping in the small room, he wasn’t too concerned. “I’ll take first watch.”

“Second,” Morgan said.

“Third,” Tom replied.

“That makes me fourth,” Caleb said. “Let’s get set up and go to it. Each watch should put a little wood on the fire to maintain the warmth and light.”

The cave was warm enough not to need the blankets, so they each used them for pillows. Spence laid his pack next to Morgan and headed down the tunnel. The cave felt cold compared to the warmth of the small room. He found a dry rock right at the bend where he could see the slightly lighter opening at the end of the main tunnel and the flickering light in the room at the end of the other.

He kept the mask up on his head and thought he could detect anything significant entering the cave from the dim light coming from outside. He periodically slid it over his eyes to ensure something small hadn’t slipped past his watchful eye. He used the time to replay their earlier conversation in his mind many times and his discussions with Enki.

The returning to Earth part was what bothered him. He’d already decided they couldn’t tell anyone of their adventure. Who would believe them? They also probably wouldn’t stick together in the real world, at least not for long. He was sure Trey would return to playing football or whatever sport was in season when they returned and hanging out with the jocks. Caleb would return to being a loner and prepping with his father. Morgan would still be protesting all her perceived ills of the world and hanging out with the counterculture group. Then, they would all graduate high school in the spring and go their separate ways.

Then, of course, there was the returning to the wheelchair part. Here, Spence had grown and changed as a person. He was strong and confident now. He was brave and bordering on fearless. He was whole. Yet on Earth, he would just be a disabled nobody. He wouldn’t have a magic or high-tech staff to use. There would be no monsters to slay, and he wouldn’t have people to fight with sticks and knives. He would return to being an ordinary, or slightly less than ordinary, paraplegic teenager. Dang.

Motion at the cave’s entrance drew Spence out of his thoughts. He had just seen a small, dark shadow move. He stared but couldn’t detect anything else. He slid the mask over his eyes. Something small flittered through the air and headed in his direction. Either a bird or bat flew directly at him. He thought it strange since they hadn’t seen any birds or flying creatures other than the dragon. He gripped his staff and prepared to swing it like a baseball bat, but the object suddenly reversed direction, headed back toward the entrance, and disappeared into the night.

Once he estimated two hours had passed, he headed down the tunnel and woke Morgan. She roused quickly, and Spence wasn’t even sure she had been asleep. He considered keeping watch with her, but he was a little tired and still had a lot on his mind. He assumed she and all the others did too. He lay on the tarp with his head on his blanket and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Spence awoke to movement and loud voices all around him. He lifted his head and saw Caleb and Tom standing at the entrance to the chamber, speaking loudly. Morgan stood beside him, her face revealing shock. He saw no sign of Trey or even Trey’s belongings.

“Where would he go?” Caleb asked.

“Where do you think?” Tom replied.

“Surely not.”

“I suppose there’s a chance he went out to gather our breakfast. You know your friend better than I do.”

“That’s not Trey,” Morgan said softly.

“What’s going on?” Spence asked, climbing to his feet.

“Trey’s gone,” Morgan replied.