Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (13 page)

              In describing a weapon, it seems impractical to describe the beauty of it. More likely, someone would appraise its weight, or its sharpness, or its strength, or any combination of those traits for that matter. However this sword was as much of an artwork as it was a tool. Its hilt was carved into the figure of a tightly coiled snake and shone a deep gold. The tip reflected a green so soft you would have thought it was a trick of the light. Every careless motion Gregor made caused the blade sliced through the air with hardly a sound or a breeze.

              I stopped suddenly, now remembering the day that Gregor Preston and I were taken into the camp. Gregor was fighting to hold onto a large long object concealed in leather. One of the elders had even mentioned something about a sword. Was this the very same one? Why did they let him keep it?” Gregor, who had now noticed me, grinned smugly and pranced over. After giving a few practice jabs, he began to wave it dangerously close to my face.

              “I bet you like th
is,
”
h
e
taunted, bringing the weapon ever closer
. “This is the finest sword that money can buy.”

              “Funny how you have your hands on it
,
”
I mumbled, now turning to retreat back to the campsite. Gregor followed to carry on with his gloating.
“This beautiful
creation you see here is the end product of twenty years hard work with a dozen of the finest smiths alive.
My
father
, th
e one who purchased this fine artifact,
was the richest
lord
in all
of
Zaphris.”

              “
Strange
. You wouldn
’t be here if he still was.
” Gregor flinched, not expecti
ng
a retor
t from me
.

              “He's been gone for awhile now
, he said coldly. “However unlike others, I don’t give a damn about the past
.”
Slowly bringing the sword to his side, Gregor began to cradle it with the same affection a mother might with a newborn child. “You see where I am don’t you Sunshine? You see what I’ve done by just being me?” Gregor chortled loudly. “I practically have the Grimlars by my knees. My father didn’t do that.
I did that
.”

Pegging the sword near my foot, Gregor strolled up to me, and gave me a firm tap in the opposite direction. “We’ll leave soon,” he stated, jerkily shooing me away. “Alert the camp of my arrival and arrange for a meeting in five minutes.” Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he yanked my ear to his mouth. “While you’re at it Sunshine, buy yourself a real sword with all the gold
your
parents left you when they died.” Avoiding Gregor’s gaze, my eyes caught the name of his sword etched with large letters into its hilt.
Venom
.

              Once at the meeting, Gregor eyed each person individually for what felt like minutes before beginning to lecture in a proud voice.
“Right. As most of us will remember from yesterday, Alexi had dropped the flags, from account of... What was it Alexi?” The largest of the group
gave an embarrassed
and made a constant point of looking at
his feet
. Gregor grinned, se
nsing his superiority over the helpless figure before him.
“Don't be shy! We want to learn from your mistakes. Don't we boys
?
”
h
e
asked before turning to the rest of the trainees.

              “Yes
chief Gregor!
” Seeming sati
sfied with this answer, Gregor diverted his attention back to Alex, who was trembling at the fingertips.

              “Sore thumbs
,
” Alexi
coughed
after a good d
eal of grumbling and guffawing.

              “Well
,
”
s
aid
Gregor taken a
back
. “Isn’t
that
horrible.”
No one dared a quick snicker. No one dared any movement, for fear that Gregor would target them next. Alexi partially closed his eyes and let out a small whimper as Gregor stepped forward. Gregor dismissed this with a quick nod of his head.

              “Because every great warrior gets
a sore thumb
now and then, we're going to have two people carrying the flags today
,
”
Gregor
said,
pointedly looking at the teary eyed Alexi.
“I do not expect any of you to go slow or
falter
in this fight. Assuming all goes to plan
w
e should be able to finish this in maybe a
couple of hours
. Gregor pointed to
another
weedy looking kid
who flinched terribly
. “I
’
m relieving you of your fighting duties. You
’
ll be helping Alexi here with the flag, understood?
”

The weedy looking kid
bobbed his head, looking greatly
eager to please
. Gregor seemed to take little notice.

              “The rest of us will be fighting the gauntlet
.
G
ods help
the strong ones,
” he spat
, now glaring at me straight in the eyes
.
“
Me and
this one
here will take the front
,” Gregor said before grabbing Preston by the bone of his neck.
“You there, yes, the ugly one.
You're with
S
unshine
. Guard the back at all costs
. Understood?
”

              “Yes
chief Gregor!
”

I slammed my key into the socket and jerked it to the right. Unsheathing my maroon flag, I was immediately overcome by the sheer amount of force required to keep it level through the breeze. I handed it to Alexi who took it with a dull responsive grunt. Looking at the earth just beyond the mural, I began to tremble as a frail flower might in a storm. It seemed no more deadly than a lofty winter path leading down into a frosty bowl of sleet, however I knew what was under the surface. The flags whistled quietly, as they gently swayed wherever the wind took them. From somewhere off in the distance, Gregor’s voice boomed out.

              “Departure set in five... four... three...” My sword slipped slightly in my hand with a cold sweat.

              “Two...” Through the gaps in the flags, I could see Preston’s jaw clattering from cold fear.

              “One...” Gregor hesitated, as if suddenly unsure he wanted to carry on. He took a sharp intake of breath as if about to be submerged underwater. “Go, Go, GO!” His voice broke from the effort needed to double the volume of each word out of his mouth. I almost tripped over my own two feet as the group hustled out with explosive energy.

              The moment our flags left the pedestal, a mountain of sound was birthed onto the hillside so powerful it made my eyes swim. Vine after discoloured vine sprang up, each shredding the earth as they flailed towards us. I slashed instinctively but was caught off guard by the size and speed of roots attacking us. They must have been just as tall as the flags Alexi was carrying if not just as thick. My blade forced its way through the base of one withered root, however this was instantly replaced with two more emerging from the earth.

“Faster!” Gregor
roared, easily sidestepping three of the roots which lunged after him
.
“We’re wasting time again
! Get a rhythm going!”
Gregor’s sword seemed to quiver with a certain unrestrained lust, which grew stronger with every root it diced. The wielder in fact, seemed more interested in the actual sword than in the roots trying to destroy him.

I on the other hand was stumbling backward, flailing and cutting up what I could in a fit of panic. The larger trainee to my right threw flames from his hands which unfortunately didn’t seem to bother the thick twine of the gauntlet.
The
flags fluttered dangerously fast in the stormy winds
. It
was a
wonder
that
Alexi managed to hold onto
them
by himself
yesterday
, when
he appeared to be struggling even with another kid to help him.

A weak scream echoed from somewhere behind me and without hesitation I turned to look, thinking that it had been Preston. The recoiling whiplash of a smaller root forced my attention back to the fight. A thick root barbarically slapped the ground beside me, throwing a thick cloud of snow into the air and obscuring my vision for a terrifying second. After barely avoiding a vine whistling through the air in front of me, I sluggishly swung my sword and missed completely. I sped up my breathing in the hopes that it would somehow stop the jarring pains in my chest. It didn’t.

The gauntlet seemed to notice our fatigue and sped up it’s assault in retaliation. A half an hour had passed
, and
m
y sword
became
lead
.
M
y
arms turned into
twigs.
Every strike I dealt sent wild amounts of pain down my arms. Was
there anything I
’
d be missing out if
I were to give up right now?
I was tired, sad and worst of all, not even a tiny bit scared.
Everything seemed just so surreal
.

              “How you doing Alexi?” I
heard Gregor shout
over the
sound of the
dirt churning.

              “Bad!” Came the response. “
We can’t
go on much longer!”
From a distance, I could see we were about halfway to the opening in the wall.

              “Jacob! We need you to stop these roots!” Gregor bellowed. “Push them back with your anti-magic!”

              “I can’t!” I whimpered earnestly.

              Gregor didn’t respond. I was tempted to look over my shoulder, yet couldn’t begause of the gauntlet

I stumbled as the edges of my vision began to bleed out from both sides of my head. What little I could see had now taken on a green tint, as if I was looking at the world through grass coloured lenses. I gripped my chest with my free hand and tried to deepen my breaths. “What’s going on?” I wondered, looking around desperately. I suddenly went stiff from panic. Preston had fallen to the ground and was being pelted by the gauntlet.

              The anti-magic flew from my hands before I could even scream in denial. A thick mottled wall made from the distorted earth sprung in front of me, protecting the back side of our party from the majority of the gauntlet. I reached down to grab Preston but flinched when my hand passed straight through his body. Preston’s eyes began to glow bright green. He grinned at me briefly as if we were sharing an inside joke before vanishing altogether.

              I looked behind me and breathed a sigh of relief as I saw that the real Preston was still bouncing around and still unhurt. I made brief eye contact with Gregor, who smiled in that same sadistic way that the fake Preston had.

              “I got you good huh?” his smile seemed to say. “I got you to do anti-magic when you thought you couldn’t. I guess you owe me now huh?”

I gave a powerful shudder as fresh blood turned my face red and left me feeling humiliated. Gregor had known what would frighten me. He used Preston against me so that I would jump up like a little puppet on a string. The thought made me nauseous, but at least it worked.

I turned my attention back to the distorted wall in front of me and desperately tried to force back the roots burrowing through it. “Everything’s s
o
cold,”
I thought
,
shivering slightly. I wanted to lie down and
sleep
, not swing my arms like a
n animal
.