Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (30 page)

“Okay, so the tap doesn’t work,” Umber admitted. “I guess you’ll have to find a way to get into the prefect baths then.” I sighed deeply and brought a palm to my forehead.    

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.” Moving quickly, I leaped out of the baths and quietly shut the door behind me. I fled into the rose garden, where from a distance I saw the lazy torchlight of the spacious prefect quarters. I slowed my advance and from a quiet craig, carefully began to observe their commons area through a large glass window. Many couches lavishly lay sprawled around
a roaring pit fire in the middle of the stone floors
. Tucked neatly behind the crowd of half dozen prefects
was
a delicious looking buffet
huddled
near the back.
To my lack of astonishment,
Gregor
was the center of this commotion.

              “I reckon I
’ve
got more than enough of a shot at winning that '
W
onderful
K
night' thing or whatever it's called
,
”
h
e said
,
cracking his knuck
les one by one.
My hea
rt rose into my throat as I realized that h
e t
oo had must have made it into the semi-finals
. A blonde ki
d from the far corner of the room snorted loudly.

              “You really think you
’ve
got a chance against Orthonus?”
he jeered, carelessly
filing his nails.

              “Unlike that little punk Jacob, I have a game plan.”
Gregor responded loudly.
This
comment
caused some eyebrows to raise
among the Grimlar prefects.

              “This Jacob kid kept you from promoting. He’s barely even a pronounced trainee and not only did he whip you, but you talk about him so constantly it’s like you’re his lover or something.” This remark was met with loud jeers among the crowd of boys there.”

              “Shut... Up...” Gregor said calmly. Moving with careful precision, he slowly withdrew his sword  Venom. Gregor strode over to the person who made the remark and gently balanced the blade in the small space between his eyes. All laughter suddenly dissipated. All of the smirks had now withered as fear was splattered into the eyes all staring at Gregor.

              “Jacob is no more than a cheat. I have exposed the thoughts of many powerful men and people with more character and strength than he ever will ever have.” Gregor dropped his gaze, but kept his sword pointed to the blonde haired boy, who had now begun to tremble slightly. “I understand that he has also entered this competition. Rest assured, should any moment present itself for me to slaughter him, I will not hold back.” I blinked, and grabbed my chest as if it was about to fall apart. I wanted to vomit, but Umber’s presence held me back.

              “When I kill Orthunus
---
And I will!”
Gregor
added with a menacing growl.
“
I'm not going to use a perfectly good wish
for any of you slobs.” He forced a loud barking laugh before continuing.
“
Instead, I'm going to wish myself
Caterwaul
,
just to beat
your stupid ass into the ground.”
Many
terrifying moments of
concentrated
silence passed with
V
enom
glaring
down the
scrawny blonde
boy
. Finally, Gregor
withdrew his sword and resheathed it
.

              “You,”
h
e said while pointing to
another
kid nearly a head taller than him. “Go make me a bath.”

Another moment passe
d.
I desperately hoped that
the prefect
would refuse. “Now
,
” Gregor commanded
and like a scared little rat, the heavy prefect
scurried off to
tend to his bath.
Taking to the sh
adows, I followed behind.
The prefect baths were about twenty meters away from the common room,
just
as large as the trainee baths and about three times as nice
. Peeking in through one of the windows, I could see the interior was lined
with magnificent royal blue tiles
and littered with stubby looking candles
.
The large trainee from before appeared considerably more sulky and dangerous now that he wasn’t being threatened at sword point.

              “Small little runt of a kid boss
ing
me around, humph
!
”
h
e
exclaimed angrily. Yet
as soon as he had said
this, all of his anger evaporated.
H
e whipped around
as if expecting Gregor to
be right behind him
. When he realized the coast was clear
,
h
e rubbed his forehead
in embarrassment
and set off once again.

              “What is it that makes that little thug so scary anyways? His anti-magic? He could torture us in
his
sleep if he wanted too. It
d
oesn't even leave a mark
and it’s still probably more painful than anything else out there.
That Jacob kid resisted though and managed to put
him away for a bit,
”
h
e laughed quietly to himself. “I know I'd take an
encounter with the Caterwaul
just to show up that little--” He
quickly turned on the spot
again and sighed with
relief
when he realized Gregor was nowhere in sight
. Despite himself, it appeared
he didn't have the heart to finish the
sentence
.

             
The large prefect was pumping water at a startling rate, splashing water everywhere in an attempt to fill the bath as quickly as possible. It would only be a few more minutes at best before the tub would be filled. The question was, how could I swipe it? “
Should I make a distraction?
”
I thought to myself?
“
What would be the best? Screaming? Throwing rocks
?
General noise? I
didn’t want to do anything too drastic.
What could I knock him out with if I were to? There were a few large rocks around, but that might cause serious damage and I wanted to be as
anonymous
as possible.

              “
Mortal, you’re overthinking everything,” Umber sighed from behind me. “This prefect
will
eventually have to get Gregor
. It's
a steep path to the quarters, so it
’s obviously going
take him a minute or two.
That’s more than enough time to sneak in, throw in a bead and leave.” I looked at him briefly and gritted my teeth.

              “I should have thought of that,” I replied glumly.

              “We can talk about your intelligence later when we’re safe,” Umber explained sharply. “Just pay attention.” After tossing in one last bucketful of steaming water, the large prefect calmly patted his sweaty brow and stumbled off to find Gregor. I leapt in through the window and almost snagged a piece of my armour on the windowsill. I slammed the door of the baths shut, quickly locked them, and threw a single bearing bomb into the bath before me. Surprisingly, the small little object
seemed to practically boil the clear steamy liquid before simmering down and
turning the entire bath
into a relaxing shade of lavender. I waited for
awhile
before
anxiety began to flutter within my stomach
. I lifted my trembling hand up to
the fingalink ring
.
“
Professor Wenchenb
e
rg
,
What's
taking you so long?” I began to hear distant footsteps.

              “Professor Wenchenb
e
rg sir! What is taking you so long?!” I whisper
ed
at almost a shouts volume.

              “Why is the door closed?” Gregor’s eerily muffled voice
asked
from beyond the locked door.

              “Dunno
,
” Said the puzzled voice that followed. “I'll just leave you to your bath
.
” The locks on the door rattled suddenly.

My
stomach knotted twice
. No exit excep
t for...
The window! Of cour
s
e! Practically tearing
myself to pieces
, I hop
ped
out of the room and hid behind the bushes.

              “This is bad.” My entire body
began to act of
its own accord and was now violently jerking out of fear. “
Very, very, bad.
” I rep
eated to myself in a blind panic.

              “Keep still, they haven’t gotten in yet!” Umber insisted.

              “You
filthy
moron! You locked it!” I heard a smack of the cheek, followed
by a loud simpering whimper from the other prefect.
The door began to
quiver unexpectedly, as with powerful booms, Gregor began to kick it down. After five large strikes, the lock shattered and the door was flung open. I looked inside and to my horror, saw that the bath had now turned a bright shade of green. Gregor stepped inside and stared at the liquid completely dumbstruck.

              I raised my hands in desperation however Umber stopped me. “I have an idea that might work,” Umber insisted. “Just wait.”

Gregor
rounded on the prefect to his
left.
“Garth... Why
exactly is my bath...
green
?”

The expression on Garth's face was not too different than my own.

Gregor sniffed loudly. “Did you perhaps add bath beads Garth?”

The large trainee didn’t seem to hear him.

Gregor looked him directly in the eye and repeated the question.

Out of fear alone, Garth nodded.

Gregor folded his arms, and sighed deeply. “I have made this point clear multiple times. Under no circumstances do I want my bath to be scented.” Gregor took another whiff of the bath. “Especially when it smells this bad.” He slapped Garth a second time. “Make me another one and don’t bother me until it’s perfect.” Gregor stormed out, and Garth immediately lurched for the drain.

             
“Trip him!” Umber shouted unexpectedly. I shot my hands out, and immediately a small amount of the floor rose beneath Garth’s foot. G
arth slipped on the wet
tiled
floor
and in startle
d confusion, fell head first into the ground
. I waited in frozen tranquility for a few seconds, not believing my good fortune. It seemed that just by startling the great buffoon I had managed to knock him cold.

              “Distortion anti-magic
,
” I
whispered to
myself happily. “What a gift.” Waiting a few seconds to make sure the coast was clear, I hobbled inside
and gazed at
the
surface of the green water
, which was
now so clouded, you couldn’t see the bottom of the tub.
If you caught the light at just the right angle, you could almost see a reflection.
However t
he ceiling reflected in the image was not the same somehow. It was
as if I was seeing the room reflected through a cut gem
.