Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (57 page)

              “Umber, If you don
’t mind me asking, w
hat do you think
a
prophecy
would
show us?”
Umber silently faded into view as soon as I had addressed him but didn’t say anything for a couple of moments.

              “
I haven’t the first idea,
a
lthough I imagine it
’
s something quite bad. A prophet takes great pleasure in watching people panic over their own future. As a result they tend to exaggerate the bad, and diminish the good. They're near immortal you know. They have to overcome their boredom somehow.”

              “That’s repulsive.”
As soon as I had thought this however,
Umber's
glow suddenly intensified
.

              “You try living for as long as me!
” he replied heatedly.
“After a while y
ou begin to realize the only fun you get out of
anything
are the mortals you harass
.
”

I looked at
him in exhaustion and almost found myself laughing.
“Point taken and proved
,
” I
said, giving him a curt nod.

In
a unanimous
decision where neither Gre
gor nor I
spoke a word
,
w
e both threw our packs off
and began to set up camp. I collected dry branches from a fallen tree to pitch the tent
, w
hile Gregor tended to animal traps
.
I reached into my pack and withdrew the anti-cold powder that had been given to us before
squinting at the instructions on the back
.
I found that even
though I had read the
directions word for word, I
still managed to light the spot we were supposed to sleep on fire. I sighed
a
nd decided it was simply too much trouble to try and get this spell to work
.
I instead grabbed nearby rocks to place around the enchanted fire so that
i
t didn't spread.

              Gregor returned after a short while and commented on the strength of the fire before sitting down and removing his boots
.
We sat in silence
while I tried
to w
hittle
away the awkward lack of conversation
with
general
movement.
I cleared my throat loudly,
however
Gregor didn't so much as look up. I probably should have known he wouldn't pay me any mind
and in all honesty I didn’t know why I wanted his attention
. As I sat,
t
he fire seemed to warm every part of my body save for my right hand ring finger.

              I looked down
while
wondering what was keeping this one section of my hand so irritatingly cold and was somewhat surprised when I saw the
fingalink ring
.
“
Preston!
”
I thought to myself happily. I rushed into the tent and began
to speak after that
ensuring my voice was only just a whisper
.

              “Preston?... Preston? Hello, can you hear me?”
The disappointing silence that fell over the tent was only overcome by the distant crackling of the enchanted flame ju
st outside
. I waited for
what seemed like another few minutes before I tried again
in a slightly louder voice
. My face fell in disappointment.
Was the professor wrong about how far the rings could communicate
? What
if Preston had lost the ring
? Who would find it
if that was the case
? Would anyone
link
the Professor with the ring? Questions sprang into the mind one after one in rapid succession
.
I shook my fist,
desperate to somehow make it work.

              “Jaye--?
”

My ears seemed to spring up twenty feet. I strained to listen as the echoed voice of Preston whispered through my mind.

“--Cob?”

              “Yes? Yes? Preston answer me!” It took Preston another two minutes to make an audible response.

              “
Jacob, are you okay so far?
” Preston sounded exhausted but his voice
still
rang shrill
with fear.

              “Yeah, I’m okay,” I said, suddenly much more conscious of my volume than I was before. Without waiting for him to ask a follow up question, I began to speak and told him everything I could in the shortest amount of time possible.

              “So you’re telling me that the entire camp is completely underground?” he asked in an unbelieving tone.

I nodded, but suddenly remembering that he couldn’t see me, replied with a quick yes.

Preston said nothing for a while

              “There are some things that I could have could have gone without knowing,” he eventually responded in a trembling voice. “That was probably one of them.”

I frowned in confusion and pressed the fingalink up to my lips.

              “Are you saying that you wouldn’t have wanted to know that?” I responded in disbelief.

              “No It... It was just quite unexpected that’s all. You’re right Jacob. If I were in your shoes I would want you to know everything about the outside world too.”

              “Are you going to tell the Montrose?” I asked quickly.

              “I’ll only tell them if you want.” Preston said earnestly. I bobbed my head back and forth in careful consideration.

              “They’ll probably be angry at me later on, but I think I should just keep this secret between you and me. They should know only if they absolutely needed to know.”

Preston mumbled an acknowledgement before changing the topic of conversation quite suddenly. “So you actually think you went to Gregor’s old house?” he asked in amazement.

              “I don’t know what he would have been doing in Opundure, but it seems like he could have definitely been living there for a period of time.”

              “How is Gregor anyways?” Preston asked unexpectedly. “Is he mistreating you?”

              “No,” I lied quickly. “No it’s not pleasant working together, but we haven’t gotten into any fights yet.” I sighed slightly as I found myself longing to tell Preston the truth. I wanted to bitterly whine about how Gregor was deliberately ignoring the professor’s plan, but the last thing I needed need was for Preston to worry about me.

              “That’s good to hear,” he said in a sleepy hum.

              “Are you getting tired Preston?” I asked, feeling a smile stretch onto my face.

              “Just a bit,” he admitted wearily. “But we can still talk if you’d like.”

              “No no,” I responded quickly. “I think I’ve said far too much anyways. I’m going to let you get some sleep. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be able to tell you more about where I’m going next.”

              “Stay safe okay?” he asked quietly.

              “Of course,” I said, turning over in my tent and drifting off to a long and uncomfortable sleep.

C
hapter
twenty-one

             
Totara

             
What is this that’s on my mind?

             
Am I seeing light or am I blind?

              What is this that I can see?
              Am I nearing death or am I free?
              There are those who always scour the ground

             
looking for shadows which can’t be found

             
There are those who fear the taste

             
Of summer sun.

              There are those who fear the empty space,

             
Biding time in just a single place,

             
There are those with no word for fun,

I hope I’m not that one.
 

             
364 days of quest remaining

             
I woke up in shivers and came to the weary realization that I was just about freezing. Taking special care not to brush up against the cloaked figure of Gregor, I stepped outside the tent, blowing warm air into my fingers. I fumbled about the dimly lit camp to look for kindling but gave up after noticing that the half frozen dew covered just about everything on the ground for miles. I tried to think about my next course of action but in the early morning cold, my thoughts wandered away from me like a disobedient child. “I should have been a flame warlock.” I thought to myself with an ironic smirk. “All the nice warm fire I could ever want whenever I wanted.”

              I tore some leaves still attached to a dying tree nearby and huddled over the campfire pit to ignite it with my trembling hands. “So what happens if I don’t do it?” I asked Umber, propping myself up against a tree. “What happens if I don’t kill Orthonus, yet I’m still alive next year?”

              “There’s probably a reason why you haven’t been told this yet.” Umber replied calmly. “Having a plan go to such lengths only to fail would cause a great deal of problems would it not?”

I rubbed my forehead and looked up into Umber uncertainty. “What are you trying to say?” I asked, bringing my knees to my chest and hugging them tightly.

              “I’m saying that there might be consequences for failing this task. This king of yours is playing a smart move by having a single champion hunt this dragon.”

“Just explain it to me already,” I snapped in response.

Umber sighed but despite himself, continued to speak. “By sending out one or two motivated scouts to hunt down this dragon, your king makes it seem like he’s taking action to protect the land while literally safeguarding the rest of his thousand man forces. This champion may die, but who cares when the major prize is simply being able to locate the dragon?” Umber suddenly turned somber, before sinking into the shadows. “What were to happen if this champion neither found Orthonus nor died after a year? The people looking after your king would grow irritated again, however this is the clever part: They wouldn’t grow angry at the king, but rather at the champion.”

              “Stop!” I ordered, swinging both of my hands violently. “You mean to tell me that if I don’t kill Orthonus within the time limit, I could be killed by the king’s nobles?”

The eyes of Umber bobbed up and down slowly. “Most likely,” he said carelessly. “We probably won’t know either way as long as our year isn’t used up.”

              “Why are you telling me this?” I asked in an outrage. “Are you trying to put more pressure on me? Do you not want me to sleep at night?”

              Umber’s eyes gleamed slightly.

              “You may find yourself thinking that Orthonus is no real threat. You may recognize that he’s dormant, yet you do not understand the full capabilities of his power like I do. You don’t know what this dragon is going to do quite like I do.”

              “Is the dragon going to be so vague that it
’ll
bore everybody to death?” I asked mockingly.

For a moment
I thought I could almost see a shimmer of mirth spark in both of Umber’s eyes. “All I ask is that you take the hunt for this beast seriously,” he conceded in a somewhat warmer voice. “Don’t waste time.”