Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (59 page)

The captor exhaled in irritation.
“I know what I said,
though
I don't know why I bothered to ask. You're a thief
.
”

“I'm not a thief I swear!” I tried to look my captor in the eyes but the lamp swinging
by his head was just too bright
.

              “What are you then?”
t
he man growled.

              “I'm... I'm a traitor!
” I exclaimed quickly.
“
No... that’s not right I meant...
T
rader! Yes that’s it, I'm a trader!”

My captor made a noise as if he was grimacing. “You don't look like a trader.
What's
with the weaponry?”

              “
Oh
this?
” I said while stuttering slightly.
“W
ell, why not? Do you expect me to walk through these woods without protection?”

The
man considered this in silence
.
“
Fair point.
Are you saying you broke in here because
you don’t have
the proper
tools to survive?”

I bit my upper lip and nodded quickly.

“Can I ask why you weren’t prepared for weather like this?” he continued angrily “Surely you must see it quite a bit in your profession.”

I stayed silent
, not trusting myself to keep this fib up for much longer
.

              “Trade with me
,
”
he
said
,
hurling my bag on the floor and spilling
all of its contents
.

I quickly tried to make myself as professional looking as possible despite not having anything
all that valuable
.
Useless item after useless item I showed, bitterly wishing that something in the pile of garbage would catch his eye.
Getting desperate, I reached into my sack
and withdrew the small box full of spells. I quickly showed each one to him before reading out the
instructions as if I knew exactly what I was talking about. After the fourth spell however,
he stopped me.

              “What
’
s that?”
h
e
asked,
motioning to the shield repair powder.

              “Ah!” I exclaimed excitedly, “Well you see, th
is
is the all purpose
shield
repa
ir
powder
and
-”

Ignoring me completely
, t
he captor
’
s nimble fingers snaked past m
e
and withdrew
the smallest one from the box
.

             
“
Professor Pocket's untested, unrefined Miracle powder
”

              I
flinched slightly, unsure how to proceed

“You don't seem to know what this is
,
”
t
he man s
aid,
snatching it away from the lamplight.

My
silence
seemed to be
a good enough
answer for him
.

“How such a
young
trader came by this is a mystery to me
.
Thi
s single spell alone is worth a small fortune.”

              “How do you know what
it
does if it doesn't have any instructions?” I asked loudly.

              “There are directions
,
”
t
he man explained in a gentle voice. “It says
use sparingly
.”

My face flushed
hot with irritation
. The last thing I wanted to do was
play vague riddles with a complete stranger.

He ignored my anger and continued
.
“A miracle, as I understand, is when
someone satisfies their greatest desire
. It could be
t
o earn riches, to survive sickness
,
overcome death.” The man paused
to
consider everything he had just said. “
T
o find love.”

              Any fear I had before, suddenly evaporated as th
at
word pierced through my head. For the first time,
the man
approached the light and I could see the features on his face clearly. He
had a small dart like beard on his chin which wobbled slightly as his wooden jaw moved up and down.
The
man’s
dreadlocks were
the only things that
were
darker than his skin
. For a moment it looked like he was wearing shawl made of shadow
.

              “This powder
,
”
h
e said
, holding up
the same
packet of powder
“-Will help you to achieve your miracle, whatever
that
may be.
”

              “How do you know
about all this
?” I asked urgently. “How do you know
about these
miracles? How d
o
you
know about love?
Tell me!” I demanded suddenly.

The captor's face grew stern and a storm began to brew in his deep eyes.
“Please.” I added after a long silence.

             
“I was only eighteen when I met her
.” The lamplight dried out in the following pause,
swallowing the room
in darkness. Weirdly eno
ugh t
he man didn't bother to change the oil. He just kept talking
, letting my imagination take command.

              “I
lived in a clan of my own people
.
It was a modest life but we worked enough to keep ourselves alive,
”
The man seemed to smile, however I couldn’t tell for sure in the darkness of the room. “It was an open place, divided by a single river where people could farm and fish and gather.
I was a lumberjack
,
”
t
he
man
added with a certain degree of pride.
“
And then there was her,” the captor admitted quietly. “Her name was Rimu.”

              “It’s a pretty name,” I said before I could help myself.

              “It suited her,” the man said quietly. “She was tall and fast, easily the quickest person I ever met. She was all over the place, you know? Never got held back by anybody. Her favourite thing was adventures.”

              “Adventures? Really?” I asked skeptically.

              “What’s wrong with that?” the man said defensively.

              “Nothing, I just... Didn’t think that women were meant for athletics,” I admitted quietly. “I always thought that their bodies were just too soft or something.”

              The man raised a single eyebrow, obviously not impressed with my opinion. “Well, if you’d met her, you’d change your mind in a minute. That’s just how she was. Anyways, Rimu’s father was a very quiet and reserved man. He worked as a baker and didn’t know much about adventures other than the danger involved.
He wanted his beautiful daughter to apprentice in baking and carry on the family business, rather than risk
her
life
wandering
.” T
he man
gave a spluttering cough before quickly wiping his mouth on his sleeve and blinking quickly.

             
“They apparently fought a lot, but I never saw much of it. One day I asked her if she’d like to help me with my lumberjacking work.” The captor grinned and his white teeth almost seemed to glow in the darkness. “That seemed to do the trick for a while. Without her father knowing, I’d let Rimu help me out from time to time.
One
cold spring
,
she began to grow quiet again
. Her charm faltered
. S
he had just
gone through
the worst
fight yet
. Rimu loved
her father
with all her heart, yet she felt that she couldn't stay any longer.
She
ran to my hut
one rainy morning and asked
me to feign her death
so that she could escape and live the life she had always wanted to
.
”

I gasped and hunched forward slightly. “But why fake her own death? Didn’t that seem quite extreme to you?”

The man bobbed his head both ways in thought. “Rimu’s intention was to have no one look for her when she left. I admit, it was rash decision however for her it had become the only option.”

              “You didn’t do it though... did you?”

“I had to,” he said simply. “I agreed to her conditions because I loved her.” The man coughed and awkwardly looked down at his hands. “I remember we just stood there for the longest time, not really doing anything. She was talking too fast like she normally did. I can barely remember what she said, though I’ve got the gist of it. I remember saying yes and then-”
 

As the captor abruptly ended his last sentence,  I suddenly wished that there was a light.

“
I watched her
as she crawled out of the forest and into the sun. Just as she was leaving, she took off the only necklace she’d ever had and threw it
.
She got it
a
s a sixteenth birthday present from her father and I’m pretty sure she wore it every day”
The sound of general clutter followed the next silence, as the captor began to search for something among his hut walls. With a small bit of flint, he relight the oil lamp, and let me examine a perfectly formed silver sphere, with a chain running through its center. Every bit of
the sphere’s surface area was engraved with text.

I realized that it was just one name repeated again and again. “Rimu.”

The pendant swiveled on its chain as if it were a ball bearing.
No matter how still my
captor held the necklace, the sphere in the center always seemed to move.
The
man
smiled at my fascination
and let me examine it for another
couple minutes
in silence.
“When Rimu threw the pendant to the ground,
It didn’t take me long to realize what she was doing. She was casting her name aside along with everything else so that she could start again as someone different.”

              “Did you do as she asked?
” I asked fervently.
“
Did you tell everyone she died?”

              “There was a funeral and everything
,
”
t
he man
responded
softly. “
I made it look like a hunting accident. Had I told everyone it was a suicide, it would have ruined her father completely.”
The man's breathing became more shallow, and his speech became more forced.
“
I caught some wild game, and burned
it so completely that only ashes remained. When I returned, I managed to convinced everyone I found her body and that I took the liberty of burning her beforehand.”