Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods)

by Leone, Hudson

  “The darkness is fiend yet friend

  As I extend,

  A helping hand, to its loneliness.

  No one has done the same to me.

  No visitors see, no company.

  But yet, they force me to it.

  The Grimlars. Grimlars.

  Tell me I’m already dead.

  Lustful wishes bound me to it,

  Now I plead for death instead.

  Kill. Kill them all,

  Like they have done to me.

  Never again will I see the sun.

  Mine, and the sky's.”

  I watched in dread as the creature continued to march, stopping once in a while to throw more books about in a mindless fashion. “What is it?” I whispered soundlessly.

  “Powerful,” Umber responded with a trace of uncertainty in his voice. “And undead,” he added softly. Unsatisfied with his answer, I turned to face him.

  “But why?” I asked in added desperation. “Why is it here?”

  Umber didn’t speak at first. His eyes shut in forced concentration as he muttered to himself.

  “Most likely it’s another creation of the Grimlars,” the spirit said calmly. “Here I was thinking that they could only make machines, but this suggests that the Grimlars may know a thing or two about necromancing.”

  I took a deep intake of breath and stretched my hands outward but Umber stopped me.

  “Jacob no! You won’t be able to hurt it!”

  I bit my lip and reluctantly brought my arms down before glancing back at the spot where the creature should have been.

  “Where’s he gone?” I asked feeling panic raise the pitch of my voice. From behind me, I heard the muffled footsteps draw closer to me than ever before. A nearby book I had been holding onto fell flat onto the ground, sending a sharp cannon sound echoing through the library. With a spasm of unlimited energy, I fled to the shelves on the opposite end of the room and crouched into a tight ball.

  “Visitors?” a distant voice called as soon as the reverberation died down. “Visitors touching the books?”

  I tried fanatically to scan the area for the text that I was looking for, however raw fear had over stimulated my vision. For every letter I saw, I instantly saw three others dash before me.

  “Live visitors?” the creature wondered aloud. “Visitors I can kill perhaps?”

  My gaze flickered around like the dying flame of a candle. Unable to cease my movement for any longer, I rolled onto my knees and began to crawl forward. Peering just past a sharp corner, I could see the that speed in which the being was moving had doubled. He checked under tables and ran through aisles of books while taking deep breaths of air and licking his lips with intense ferverince. It was only a matter of minutes before he would find me. I retreated back to the shelves and began to highlight book titles with my finger to focus my gaze. I didn’t want to stay and calmly sort through unimportant copies of unimportant books. I wanted to flee into the broom cupboard that the professor had ordered me to and happily forget about the horrible thing I had agitated in the library of Castle Lambalitrate.

  I scrambled to my feet and tried to dodge to my right as the creature made the final turn. However this was all in vain, for he had seen me despite my wholehearted attempt to escape. It shrieked in a way that suggested deep agitation before he threw himself forward in an attempt to grab my leg. While he advanced I tried to throw down bookshelves, dismantle chairs, and do anything I could in an effort to slow him, however every object I displaced, resumed its original position within seconds.

  My hands flung upward and with a sudden splurge of anti-magic, I quickly erected a barrier between the two of us. To my horror, the creature began to crawl up the slope like a giant grotesque bug. I tried with all of my might to shake him off, however he stuck to everything he touched like dried paste. I tripped over a book which was flying towards a newly reformed bookshelf, and I landed hard on the side of my knee. The pain of the impact and the cold of the floor sent a spark of paralysis up my leg. Bringing one hand up to my forehead, I used distortion anti-magic to tip three bookshelves over. Their contents spilled onto the creature advancing, who moaned in agony and tried furiously to swat away the flurried movements of the books.

  I summoned a wave of flooring which struck the advancing creature with an untold amount of force. As he fell backwards, I could see his pale hairless arm had been detached from his shoulders without so much as a whimper from the creature. He had simply stopped moving. As a matter of fact the only thing that was moving was the slow rearranging of texts which quietly fluttered back to their homes. A thick green text brushed my shoulder as it calmly edged past me. I caught a glimpse of the title as it moved and suddenly felt sparks course through my chest.

  “Magical Creatures, How, where, and why to fight them.” The last book the professor suggested I read! Moving swiftly, I grabbed the book with two hands and was pleased to see that it stopped moving the minute I wrapped my fingers around it. A wheezy chuckle rumbled from the opposite end of the hallway. The undead man had begun to move again. Propping himself into a laboured stance the creature smiled wearily at the area where his arm had been unfastened. It began to secrete a gelatinous green slime.

  “You make a very strange floor you Grimlars do!” The thing mused with almost a conversational dialect. “But old Grimlar, understand this! I will devour, and I will not be stopped.”

  He screeched as the thick goo from his arm’s socket began to gush out like an uncontained source of water. At first, it appeared as though it was simply manifesting itself into another arm, however it continued to grow, eventually festering into a thick serpent like whip that looked nearly twice as large as the creature wielding it. With fantastic speed, the undead creature threw its new limb forward, nearly catching me by the ankles. I threw up another blockade using anti-magic which the tentacle struck with heart stopping force. Bits of wood splintered as the power of the impact completely decimated the distorted floor. Within moments, the enchantments restoring the room took effect, sending small shards of grain tumbling back to the injured wood. The creature stuck again but before he could make contact, I sank through the ground, narrowly avoiding the whiplash of the extended limb.

  Like a spring, I forced the distorted land around me straight, flinging me up into the air. I intended to escape to the first floor of the library by falling through the empty ring of space where the stairs coiled up, however it appeared that the undead man was one step ahead. He thrashed his strange limb over the area which I intended to escape, blocking off my only exit. I threw up another slope at the last second to catch me before I tried again. Despite my countless attempts, the undead man continued to block my only exit

  The creature gave a violent swing, sending a table, two leather chairs, and a silver platter flying past me. “A silver platter...” I said to myself. “Why does that sound so familiar?” Suddenly an escape plan formulated in my head. I knew what I needed to do, but goodness would it be difficult. “Please let this work,” I begged to the anti-magic surging through my veins. “Please.”

  Just as the creature was about to strike for the last time, I took a sharp breath of air and opened the floor around me into a perfect circle. I gasped in desperation as I landed on the floor below me, and began to heave. Never in my life had I used such a large amount of energy. The cold empty fatigue sinking into my arms and lungs was devastating. From far above, I could hear the creature scream in distress.

  “You will not escape!” It bellowed, tumbling down the stairs. Umber forced me to my feet and insisted I hurry to the door despite the fact that all of my senses had been obliterated. I only saw then, what could have been a rough outline of the reality before me. Sounds were only muffled crashes inside my churning skull. The only sense of touch that I could feel was the pounding of my heart and the jabbing thoughts of Umber pushing me forward. Smell and taste were limited to blood and mucus, and emotion existed only in fear.

  But the library doors were
slammed shut and I was on the other side. Part of me knew that this thing wouldn't be able to leave the library but that didn't stop me from running away. Running into the closet that the Professor had provided me and falling into a deep tranquil state.

  ***

  I could have been asleep for hours, and I wouldn’t have known or cared. I was safe, but I was tired; and that was all the reason I needed to continue sleeping. Umber tried to talk to me, but his cries were muffled and completely irrelevant to the rest I needed to get. Despite the fact that I was technically asleep, I was well aware of everything that took place around me. Small petty mice scurried about, scouring for crumbs while the hinges on a nearby window creaked loudly as the cold night-time air brushed past. The door suddenly creaked open and a tall shadow was cast over me.

  Someone forced a thin bottle past my lips which let a small amount of liquid trickle down my throat. My eyes shot open as the alarmingly sour substance suddenly shocked every square inch of my tongue, I flew to my feet, eyebrows raised in ecstatic shock. Immediately after I stood, the energy dispersed, leaving me with the same empty weariness as before. I felt my face and let out a small sigh of relief as I realized I was back in my original body.

  “Drink more,” the voice of Professor Wenchenberg commanded. I stared warily at the bottle before me and took another deep swig. The vigor given to me was significantly less than the last time, however I was pleased to see the effects last longer. “That’s distilled essence of Alava fruit,” the professor explained. “You should feel lucky I kept some of this as a provision, they’re exceptionally rare.”

  I stared dumbly at the professor who grabbed my hand and forced me to have another sip.

  “Better,” I admitted as I finished the last few drops of the extract. My muscles still ached, however the unnatural weariness had left me completely. The professor let out a sigh of relief.

  “When you contacted me with your finkalink ring you could barely form a coherent sentence,” the professor admitted while giving me a flask of water. “It’s a wonder you managed to even say my name.” he added, sounding slightly bemused. I smiled slightly and sat down taking four large gulps of the cool water.

  “What happens now?” I asked after I had drained the contents of the second bottle.

  “Same thing as the last time, except hopefully I imagine it’ll be much easier than what you’ve been through so far. The professor said, gesturing to the green book off to one side.

  “So you know what happened to me in the library then?” I asked incredulously.

  Professor Wenchenberg frowned in a somber fashion and shook his head slightly.

  “I do not know the specifics, but I imagine you ran into the Minfrillis, one of the more powerful spirits of the undead.”

  “You knew he would be here?” I asked in a spiteful tone.

  The professor looked slightly offended at the texture of my voice, but took a deep breath and closed his eyes as carefully as he could.

  “The Minfrillis while exceptionally dangerous and strong, can only exist in environments with very little light. The real reason that I was late in filing my bath was because I had gone to the library to light a lantern. I had assumed that this lamp would stay lit for a few hours, however it must have blown out sometime before you arrived.” The professor sighed and folded his arms while looking immensely guilty. “I didn’t warn you about this creature Jacob because I believed that it would only promote your fear to enter the library. I inadvertently placed you in danger Jacob and I will try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Thank you,” I said, somewhat alarmed at this unexpected response. I sniffed and twiddled my thumbs feeling suddenly embarrassed at my angry outburst. “I went to the Caterwaul’s office,” I told the professor quietly.

  “Did you?” he asked eagerly. “What did you find?” I took a shuddering intake of breath and explained my findings to the professor. After I had finished, Professor Wenchenberg pinched the left side of his eyebrows in deep thought.

  “Troubling news indeed,” he mused to himself. “Orthonus growing active and myself being unfortunately suspected of helping the talented Jacob Ofpacis. On top of all of that you tell me this entire test is simply a decoy set up to assure the king’s nobles that he’s taking precautions against this dragon?” He shook his head sadly, taking my silence as an answer to his question. “What is the world coming to?”

  “But do you think I can?” I asked quietly.

  “Do I think you can what Jacob?” Professor Wenchenberg asked while casting his gaze over to me.

  “Do you think I can kill Orthonus?” The professor smiled slightly and stayed quiet for a lengthy amount of time.

  “I believe that you will always do what is right Jacob. If that means killing Orthonus, then nothing will stop you from doing that.” He patted my shoulder, and for some odd reason I found this the most reassuring thing that he had ever done for me. “You’re a good boy Jacob,” he whispered softly. “It may not feel like it sometimes, but you’re a good boy.”

  “If I do it, will the king still give me three wishes?” I asked quietly. The professor nodded.

  “He is bound in blood Jacob. No matter how much he doesn’t want to grant those three wishes, he would be required to so long as you were the one to do the deed.

  “Aren’t you going to tell your professor about your surprise meeting with the Caterwaul?” Umber asked, clearly dumbfounded that I hadn’t yet brought it up.” I shook my head slightly.

  “The professor is already guilty about this Minfrillis creature attacking me. Telling him that I had gotten tied into one of his meetings would likely devastate him.” Umber rolled his eyes, but much to my relief said no more. The professor gestured to the book resting on my lap.

  “I see you’ve found yourself a nice little piece of reading material.”

  I nodded quickly and the professor beamed.

  “I can take that off of your hands while you’re out snooping about. I doubt that it would be that practical carrying a heavy looking thing like that.”

  I breathed a sigh of gratitude and passed the book onto the professor who put it into his own shoulder bag.

  Over the next few minutes, the professor explain the path that I would need to take in order to go into the dungeons. “-And once at the Lambalatrate gardens, you simply cut across here where you’ll find the entrance to the storage holds here. Once you go inside, I will drop my mimicking spell so that you can safely retrieve the artifact without fear of the age spells going off,” the professor said, winding up his extensive explanation.

  “What’s it like inside the dungeons?” I asked forcing my attention past the map and into the eyes of the professor.

  Wenchenberg smiled uncertainly. “Unfortunately, I’ve only been down there once to help sort out the storage depot. It is a long series of passageways guarded by enchanted doors and other obstacles.

  “How long do you say they go on for?”

  “When I say long Jacob, I mean that they’re longer than literally any other tunnel that man has ever built. They stretch under the concentration camp like a twisted maze of roots, exiting just about anywhere you want to go, but yet still remaining unseen.”

  I let out an instinctive moan before I could control myself. “How on earth do expect me to find such a small object in such a large area of space?” I asked while lightly tugging at the hair by my temples.

  Professor Wenchenberg smiled curtly at this question. Clearly he had a response planned for such a question. “The Grimlars while dreadfully powerful, still follow very basic logic. They protect that which is worth protecting and they spare no expense in doing so. On this map of the underground, I have circled the one area that receives the highest amount of anti-magical protection. A small insignificant room is being held together by a very powerful age spell, so powerful that most people over the ages of eighteen can’t even place a toe inside without every elder in the camp knowing about it. Something is guarded here and
I believe that something is the pendant that we’re looking for.”

  “I don’t see why we’re still waiting then,” I said bracing myself for the pain of the professor’s spell.

  “In that case,” the professor said while forcing his eyes shut. “I bid you the best of luck.”

  Chapter fourteen

  Cherry Trails

  He rose from ash and broken bones

  And filled the sky with hopeful tones.

  I fell to the ground and looked to the skies

  And swore on my life that I saw my own eyes.

  With great effort, I stretched my old achy Professor Wenchenberg arms from side to side. Every careless movement I made in my own body seemed to require so much more energy while in the body of someone decades older. Raising my hands above my head felt a bit like I was carrying the weight of a full bag of soot. Clenching my fists required about as much time and tension as it would take to crush a rotten apple.