“Thank you for those kind words,” I growled from under my breath. “And yes, I am awake. It’s pretty difficult to sleep while knowing what lies ahead.”
“So you’re scared?” Umber asked quietly.
“A bit,” I admitted before exhaling and shifting in my bed. To my surprise Umber didn’t say anything in retaliation. I expected him to make fun of me for my cowardice. “Are you scared Umber?”
“Of course not. Not being scared is one of the many advantages of being dead,” Umber responded dryly. “Are you as scared as you were before the penelopis?”
I shrugged slightly and threw my bed covers off to one side. “Less so,” I said with a small smile. “But the sandworm is still a daunting task regardless.” I shivered slightly, and began to fidget with my thumbs. “You don’t suppose I’ll have to kill it do you?” I asked breathlessly. Umber thought about this for a moment.
“You weren’t required to kill the penelopis, so why would you be required to kill a creature so much larger and more dangerous? Then again, these are the finals.” Umber suddenly shot up to the ceiling like a firecracker. “I suppose I just don’t know,” he said as he slowly drifted back to the ground. “Mortal, would you kindly go get some breakfast? If your friend was right about this unwelcome attention you’ll be getting, you should honestly think about going to the dining hall before everyone else arrives.
Much to my dismay, I found myself ailently agreeing with what Umber had to say. I sluggishly dressed myself in my armor, before lacing up my boots and timidly tiptoeing out of the distortion commons area. I shuffled my way through the dark, cold school area before approaching the intimidating looking passageways to the kitchens. Hearing the sudden crack of the doorway before me, I instinctively leapt into the shadows as the hinges swung open.
Gregor calmly walked out with his head held high and both of his fists clenched.
I clutched the stone column I was hiding behind and held everything in place as I prayed he wouldn’t notice me. Gregor stopped and turned his left hand side as if he’d heard a noise from down the corridor. He shrugged slightly to himself and continued to walk forward, grumbling as he did so. As soon as he was out of earshot I let out a huge sigh of relief.
“I thought he usually ate with the other prefects?” I wondered aloud.
Umber bobbed up and downward in thought. “Perhaps he just prefers to eat alone,” he suggested.
My lips swam around my face as I considered this.
“Why? He’s gotten the respect of all of the other prefects. He could eat with whoever he wanted.”
“Fear and respect are completely different things Mortal,” Umber stated cooly.
I stared off into the distance where Gregor had gone and shrugged slightly. Who he ate with wasn’t really my problem anyways. The servants in the kitchens barely regarded my existence as I sat down to a table in the deserted room. They did however begin to bring out out a couple of platters of quail eggs and blackened toast for me to silently consume. Although I was quite thirsty, I couldn’t bring myself to ask for a pitcher of water. I didn’t want to trouble them any more. I calmly continued to plow through the dry swamp of grainy bread and runny eggs without any drink whatsoever. Once breakfast was finished, I silently excused myself and began to aimlessly stroll through the camp. I walked along the border of The Clog and the school area when suddenly the reality of today struck me. For all I knew, this could be my last day in the concentration camp.
I brought a hand to my agape mouth and tried not to feel any emotion at this prospect. I took a step into The Clog, and then another one after that.
“Mortal where are you going? You’re going to get caught,” Umber said, trying to steer me back in the other direction. I shook my head quickly.
“No one’s going to see me. It’s still very early in the morning.”
From behind me, I could hear Umber growl angrily. “But why?” he asked in exasperation. “Why do you find it necessary to walk through The Clog? I’ve gone through your memories and not a single one regarding that place is a pleasant one.”
I stopped and calmly inhaled the crisp early air, choosing not to answer Umber’s question.
Despite his consistent groans and queries, I continued to advance. Even with the very little light present, I remembered exactly where the large pieces of mottled debris were and stepped over them effortlessly. I placed a hand to a poorly made block of sleeping quarters, held in some places with only bits of soggy rope and smiled weakly. I found myself strangely bemused by the fact that I’d once took so much pleasure in snoozing away the hours under these ramshackle buildings.
I maneuvered past the majority of the sleeping quarters and calmly stepped into the dry lifeless plains of earth and stone where I spent years harvesting coal. The scenery had changed quite dramatically in the month I’d been away. Holes had gotten deeper, ravines had gotten wider, yet the dry stench of the land surrounding me remained exactly the same. I rubbed the dust out of my eyes and stared off into the area where my old sleeping quarters were. Without any reason whatsoever, I found my feet mindlessly carry me to that place.
I wondered wearily if someone else was sleeping in my old bed, thinking the same things that I’d thought and no doubt dreading the thought of another day. I had to find out. Stepping up to the rusty hinged door of my old quarters, I quietly opened the door ajar and found myself gawking at a small figure huddled up in my blankets, taking calm drawn out breaths as he slept on his side. I walked into the room completely nonplussed by the situation and absolutely unsure how to react. Although I couldn’t see the face of the boy, I could see he wasn’t even half my size. My skinny bed sheets seemed to swallow his incredibly small figure, whereas my toes would have always poked out, no matter how I lay. I tentatively stepped into the room to get a better view of the area and found myself struggling to breath.
I moved beside him and saw that buried deep beneath the covers was a pale freckled face with large black eyebrows that twitched like wild animals. I startled slightly as the boy before me opened a single sleepy eye, however he did nothing more than look at me with slight confusion.
“Who are you?” he mumbled with dream-like weariness.
My mouth fell open and instantly a surge of words caught in my throat. “I’m Jacob,” I began slowly. “I... I used to live here.”
The other boy didn’t seem to hear me however, as he had already fallen back asleep. My lips trembled into a small bittersweet smile as I realized he would have no recollection of this discussion ever happening. I reached in my pockets, and found that I still had a few uneaten chocolate wrapped in the silk sack that Preston had given me. Without any second thought, I carefully placed the bag onto the open hand of the Ickle-Bit, and left without a sound.
“You’re ridiculous,” Umber said with a strange mixture of amusement and irritation.
“Who isn’t?” I responded with a smirk. Together the two of us walked back into the silhouetted image of the school while I tried not to think about the daunting task ahead of us.
***
A couple of hours later and I found myself resting in one of ten champions tents just outside of the Etaporium. I suppose I expected something grand and lavish after hearing the term ‘champions tent,’ however all I got was a small above ground mattress to myself and a couple bottles of water which I graciously accepted. Despite the fact that my tent was the furthest away from the colosseum, I could still hear the excited chatter of trainees swarming to the competition scene. I plugged my ears and tried not to think as anxiety began to build.
“Whsssssooo...” Without even realizing it, I had begun to make ocean noises. “Pshooooooo...” Despite the fact that everything was muffled by my fingers blocking my ears, I could still hear my ocean noises with perfect clarity. I imagined I was floating gently on a bed of water, too happy to sink and too competent to get carried off. I found myself thinking about the images that the penelopis had shown me in his dream. The way that the cliff overl
ooked the vast body of water and the way that it seemed so far away. “I’m closer now.” I thought to myself happily. “Soon, I’ll be free, and I’ll get to explore places like Ocean with Preston.”
This dream was suddenly interrupted by a strong gust of air which opened my tent flap and allowed a single elder Grimlar to stride through. He flinched at the sight of me, as if he couldn’t quite believe how young I was before he corrected his stance and gestured outside.
“Erm... The competition will take place momentarily,” he said, obviously unsure how to address me. “Exit out into the Etaporium within the next five minutes.” The elder left so quickly, I almost wondered whether or not he had said anything at all. Despite this, I carefully strung Pride’s Grip underneath my armour and set out for the roar of the crowd. I entered the colosseum and was stopped by the jolly looking elder from yesterday who had helped judge the semi-finals.
“Hurry! Hurry! I’m about to give out the instructions,” he said before squealing slightly and dashing off around a corner. I trailed behind uncertainty. Forming a tight half-circle were the nine remaining semi-finalists, who each glared at me with either shocked or bemused expressions. I locked eyes with Gregor, who had darkened immediately. He flashed his sharp while teeth in a deep growl, but fortunately for me could do no more than that at the moment. I steadied my trembling hands and gripped them behind my back as I tried to divert my attention to the elder facing us. As soon as the group was silent he launched into speech.
“Congratulations young men! You have all made it to the final round!” He then lead a round of loud applause which no one followed. Ignoring this, he continued to speak. “I have your instructions here, and will be reading them out now. Please pay careful attention.” The dull gazes of the finalists all suddenly sharpened as they focused in on the paper clutched in the elder’s hand. “Finalists will make their way up a seven metre tall platform which they will stand on as they try to avoid the creature attacking them. The last one standing above the ground, or the first person to kill the creature will be the champion of the competition.” The bright face of the judge suddenly turned somber. “As such, you will need to think carefully about how you want to proceed with strategy. Do you want to play aggressively to try to kill the creature? Or defensively hold your ground in the hopes that other people will also fall off?” One of the trainees hands shot to the sky. The elder pointed to him and tilted his head politely.
“Can we force other people off of other platforms? Or does it have to be the creature that does this?” The face of the elder perked up immediately.
“Ooh! Clever!” he said, beaming at the thought. “Yes, you may use any means necessary to remove your opponents from the platform.” Gregor looked at me and smiled knowingly. I immediately broke his gaze and felt my insides lurch. “Any more questions?” the elder asked, holding his arms out to either side of him. He chuckled to himself and straightened up his robes. “In that case gentlemen I’ll ask that you advance to your dedicated standing spots.
I closed my eyes and exhaled as I strode out to greet the deafening roar of the crowd piled up in the ranks of the Etaporium. I self-consciously opened a single eye a bit and gasped at the tremendous scale of the scenery surrounding me. Ten incredibly tall wooden poles had been deeply set into the gravel ground equidistant from one another. With closer inspection, I could see that there were a set of handles fastened up the length of each pillar.
“Start climbing!” the obese judge giggled before jumping back aways and scuttling off. I stared skyward, completely dumbstruck by this order. I considered staying on the ground briefly, however the voice of Umber forced me to the first handle. Leaving my thoughts below me, I began to climb, struggling to ignoring the cold air clinging to my thighs. I soon found myself standing high above the earth on a platform no more than two metres across.
From a distance, I could see I was almost eye level with the people on the middle most row of the colosseum. I might have been able to describe more, however the only thought that was going through my mind was a perfectly reasonable fear of falling. I rooted my feet to the post as a large gust of wind shook every nerve in my skin. My head began to swim. To steady myself, I focused on a large crate on the ground which was identical to the one that held the penelopis, but nearly four times larger. Much to my distress, this crate was shaking and rattling quite violently. The sandworm inside clearly wanted out.
The table of judges resumed their seats and the crowd began to cheer even louder than than before. The wide man waved happily and seemed to be enjoying the attention more than he should have. The sly and elegantly dressed figure merely inspected his fingernails with distaste while the rat like figure looked somewhat disturbed by the amount of noise around him. The chatter of the crowd slowly faded into a loud buzz, before trailing off into silence as the elders raised their hands for attention. When the large judge spoke, his used the same enchantment that had previously magnified his voice.
“I now present to you, the moment everyone including myself has been waiting for,” he said with glazed eyes. “Know that despite only one champion being named, all of these men are winners in my eyes.” Loud sniggers shot through the air, like a sudden upturning of a snake nest. The sly looking judge arched an eyebrow, however the large elder seemed oblivious to these snippets of laughter circling the Etaporium. “Allow me to re-clarify the rules once more for anyone unfamiliar: Last man standing, or first person to kill the creature wins. Touching the ground is instant disqualification.”
My shaking intensified as another frosty breeze seemed to turn my skin inside-out.
“Champions!” The large elder roared unexpectedly. “State you are ready!” Everyone thumped their chest.
“AYE.”
“On my count!” he declared pointedly. I suddenly felt the need to vomit.
“Three...” I looked around me in a blind panic, searching for anything in the empty space that could provide me support. I wondered if it was worth my energy to distort the platform to a more manageable size, but eventually decided against it.
“Two...”
“How likely is it to survive a fall from this height?” I wondered while feeling myself lapse into panic. “What are the other trainees planning to do? Should I try to kill the sandworm?”
“One!” I never actually heard the sound of the final command, because it was completely swallowed by the noise of the locks breaking. An opening emerged on one side of the crate, however for a painstaking couple of seconds, nothing moved but the dust far below my feet.
After realizing that it had been freed, the creature inside suddenly took to the skies like a hooked arrow. Looking up from my pedistal saw the sandworm for the first time. It was as long as a footpath, yet the body of the beast was no more thick than a single bed mattress. Six pairs of expansive leathery wings were stitched onto various locations of the snake like figure, with large plates of exoskeleton wrapped around the base of each wing. The strange head of the sandworm was completely masked by its own armour like growths. The only thing you could see of it were two blood red eyes, and an angular mouth with three or four rows of sharp teeth.
The creature screeched like a knife against a chalkboard before zooming up above our eye level and whirling about in agitation. From beside me, I could see a few fire warlocks trying to throw flaming projectiles at one of the wings of the beast. Aqua Grimlars did everything in their power to pierce the leathery wings with flurries of ice shards. A fire ball made contact with the lower half of the creature, causing it to swim down and writhe in agitation. The sandworm thrashed a barbed tail against a nearby trainee’s pillar, causing him to stumble but unfortunately not fall. The sandworm swam a little higher though and recoiled, hitting the trainee square on the chest and sending him flying to the ground. I watched with an inhumane lack of emotion as the trainee hit the earth with a sharp snap, before being carried off by a team of elders.
The Grimlar trainee next to me suddenly withdrew a simple looking kni
fe. I glanced briefly at him and frowned. What kind of damage did he think he was going to do with a silly little weapon like that? I recoiled in confusion as the trainee soundlessly brought the blade down upon his own arm and began to gush with blood. He slowly began to glow a maroon red, as if his insides had been rendered translucent. I shook my head slightly as I suddenly realized that this was a blood warlock.
With a feat of superhuman strength, the trainee jumped upward, leaping nearly three stories up. He landed softly on the pillar next to him, and with a reaction time sharper than anything I had ever seen, effortlessly forced the other trainee off of his pillar. He jumped to the next column to do the same, however before he had even landed, the sandworm charged at him, knocking him off course, and sending him tumbling to the ground.
From across the yard, I could see Gregor holding his arms out, with eyes half closed in concentration. Whatever he was doing, I was pleased to see it seemed to have no effect on the massive creature. Opening his wide mouth, the sandworm unleashed a cloud of a dark green gas, engulfing three of the competitors. Two limply fell to the ground, however the other had made a conscious effort to try and leap onto the flat surface just past the head of the beast. He ended up missing completely and screamed as he desperately tried to cling to thin air.
Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) Page 33