Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (56 page)

              “So this was your house then?” I asked before I could stop myself. Suddenly realizing what I had just asked him, I clasped my mouth shut and took a tentative step back. Fortunately for me, Gregor didn’t seem to be paying attention and continued to examine the papers that he had assembled.
“These men,”
h
e said
while tapping his knuckles on the desk
“Are in a tremendous amount of debt, and obligated by contract to my father and any relatives he has for life.”

              I stared at Gregor blankly
,
a
s if all the inspiration to say something cunning, witty or even inquisitive, had been engulfed by a large raincloud. “
Right,” I began uncertaintly.
“
How does that
help
us?”

Gregor sighed
, looking completely overjoyed with himself
.
“This is an entire army of tradesmen, investors, warriors and thieves all at my command. With these men, we would have all we need to defeat Orthonus.
”
 

A sharp sound suddenly escaped my lips
as I snickered
. Before I had even begun to think I was speaking. “You're saying that we're going to kill Orthonus with a bunch of bankers? Even by you
r
standards
that lacks creativity.”

A sharp pain suddenly
flooded from
the top of my head
,
a
s if a large saw-blade was slowly being pushed into my skull.
Through the slightly green film now covering my eyes, I saw
my body shift and contort as if someone was moving my limbs for me. My arm was jerked up to the sky, as it gave a powerful salute to whoever was standing in front of me. I felt my feet leave the ground and
watched as the world span
around me
multiple times
. When
the sensation
stopped, I found myself awk
wardly kneeling with Gregor standing over me.

He applauded slowly.
“Well done sunshine. I had no idea you could do back-flips so easily.” Gregor took the time to inspect his nails as I lay cringing before his soot colored boots. “If you weren't already the lowest excuse for a
Grimlar trainee, I’d say that
you should have joined a traveling fair as an acrobat.”

              “Y...
Y
ou
,
” I growled through my teeth.

              “Just remember that I
’m very powerful kinetic warlock
. You get on my bad side too much and you might just find yourself walking off a bridge.” Greg
or assembled his papers in a large leather folder before
carefully
sliding the whole thing into his pack.
“
We might not be able to kill Orthonus with bankers but with this, we have something much more powerful
.” Gregor paused here
to add a deliberate element of suspense
. “Gold
!
S
ilver
!
V
aluables!
” he exclaimed suddenly.
“
If
I
had these in large
quantities, I
would be unstoppable, even untouchable!”

Perhaps
I was just guessing
, but it seemed to me that
Gregor had been planning this for quite some time.

              “Now you wait just a minute
,
” I
insisted in a trembling voice
.

He Ignored me completely, far too
absorbed
in himself to think straight. I spoke anyways. “You honestly expect these people to cooperate with you? They hate your father's guts
!
You'll just get sliced up!”

Gregor howled with laughter so loud
that it rattled the window panes slightly
. “My father was just a little bit more clever than that.” Gregor reached into his pocket and withdrew a familiar looking
bronze
handled stamp.

I gasped slightly.
“That’s.... That’s a...”

              “It’s a Taborthodox stamp,” Gregor said proudly. Every financial agreement made between a client and my father was made using this blood oath. Every document here still applies because I am rightfully his son. I’m untouchable.
” Gregor bowed deeply. “As
usual,
m
y argument and tactics are flawless.”

              “But
... But...
” I
stammered, resisting the temptation to start screaming
.
Professor Wenchenberg told me this
prophecy was supposed to be essential to the quest! Why did Gregor
think he could refuse it so quickly
?

              “
We'll
go forth with my plan immediately
,” he said, slinging his pack over his shoulder and striding out of the room.
“
It's still early in the day
. W
e might be able to cover some ground
during
this time. Have you a map?”

I nodded my head reluctantly
and handed him a map,
white knuckled
.

Gregor snatched the parchment from my hand in a fell swoop of his
own
. He pointed off into the
distance
and took a deep breath. “We go
south
.”

              “Aren't we going to stick around and get some supplies?” I asked warily.

Gregor snorted and spat
into a nearby flower pot.

              “We already have all the equipment we need. If we
linger around the town
around
for too long,
we won't be known as mere travelers.
”

              ***

              The frost laden path shown a bright white in contrast to the muddy gray houses we passed. Many gazes followed our
advance however Gregor didn’t seem to notice or care
. A fresh looking mother
stared
at us with a puzzled expression as we sauntered by. She
looked like she wanted
to say something to us, but decided against it at the last minute
before suddenly swooping
into her house to attend to her wailing young
.

              Many merchants paused their exuberant haggles with hooded strangers as we passed by the
marketplace
. Some waved to us jovially and motioned to whatever it was they were selling, and others scowled, knowing we weren’t prepared to buy anything from them. A child ran into my side and fell to the icy path. His shockingly
smooth features and hands gave me the impression that this youngster had never worked a day in his life.
The
boy
looked up at me with soft watery eyes before mumbling an apology and tearing off into a nearby hut.

              The lazy flatness of the waterfront ended sharply along with the
various settlements
.
After a few more minutes of walking,
we were greeted by
a forest so dense it was like
someone had made a
towering wall
of nothing
but
tree trunk and
leaves
.
A curiously warm and hearty smell seemed to be wafting in between the pines
,
as if the
trees bundled up together were s
omehow
producing warmth of their own. The darkness that lurked within the
forest
was intense beyond any measurement
. It couldn’t be seen, felt or even heard
but was still slumped there
with i
ts inky black mouth
open
at us
.

              “This is the Charlie-horse wood
,
” Gregor clarified
,
inspecting his map. “It
’
s
quite large, so if we have any hope of getting through, we’ll have to hurry
.”
Without waiting for a response or even
telling me
where he intended to go, Gregor amb
led
into the
forest while I stiffly plodded beside him.
The snowy path before us was surprisingly the brightest thing in our field of vision, however
that
too soon crumbled away
along with the other decay within the forest
.

              We walked in unison for what seemed like hours
,
looking up hopefully at the trees now and then for a sign
that we were getting somewhere. Oddly enough it felt like
the two of us were a couple of small fish
in a
thick pond of plant life.
Gradually, the hours of walking without
aim
eroded our
composure.
I tried my best to avoid all contact with Gregor while I angril
y grumbled to myself.
“This was his ridiculous idea
,” I whispered to myself darkly. “This was his idea to have us get lost without considering what I had to say
.
” I scratched my right arm furiously and twitched slightly. “
Gregor should be the one to get us out of here, not me.”

             
“Mortal, How important is this prophecy to you anyways?” Umber asked, flashing into view like a quickly moving fire.

              “Very important,” I thought before proudly casting my gaze back towards the path.

              “And is it important because your professor has asked you to do it?” he asked with a trace of uncertainty in his voice.

I shook my head slightly. “Well, no,” I thought to myself, trying to persuade Umber otherwise. “No, it’s just a good idea all around and because of that, I’m gonna to try and get Gregor to follow through with it.”

Umber sighed slightly and darted in between my feet. “Honestly what harm is there in letting the strong one follow through with his plan? How long could it possibly take for him to gather this army of his?” Before I could answer, Umber had continued to speak. “You have a year on your side mortal. It seems useless to worry about these things now.”

              “But that’s where you’re wrong!” I snapped in response. “Finding all of these people is like looking through a field of grass and expecting to find emeralds! These people could be anywhere in the world by now but Gregor doesn’t care because his silly little pride is clouding up his own head.”

              “Has it ever crossed your mind that what you just said is exactly what’s happening to you?” Umber asked with a hint of a smirk playing in his eyes. “You blindly take orders from this Professor Wenchenberg, failing to realize that there may be better solutions to your problem,”

My mouth fell open in offence “I’m sorry, but did you just say that Gregor’s idea is better than the carefully formulated plan that Professor Wenchenberg laid out for me?” I chuckled to myself but still felt a trace of panic bubble into my throat.

             
“Draw your own conclusions,” Umber snapped before floating off into the distance. “I’m sick of leading you around like a blind farm animal. “If you think there’s no problem in carelessly taking oaths and orders from someone else, then by all means, continue to do so. If you chose to leave room for doubt however...” Umber left this last sentence hang in the air before suddenly vanishing altogether, leaving me to myself and my own thoughts.

              “He
’s someone that I trust,” I whispered to myself, now at a sudden loss for what to do next.
I felt irrationally angry at the mere mention of doubt.
Professor Wenchenberg
had helped me through and through
. His decisions were truly the closest thing you could get to
perfection
. “Were they though?” I reasoned with myself. “He ended up sacrificing himself even though I didn’t fully understand why.” I looked ahead at Gregor who was quietly puffing away large volumes of air like a well trained machine. “Can Gregor honestly kill Orthonus by himself?” I wondered suddenly. “Could he honestly do any right through these contracts his father had collected over the years, or would he just be robbing normal people of their time and possibly their lives?” The thought of operating an army of living breathing people made me feel uncomfortable.