Read Mrythdom: Game of Time for Free Online Page B

not speak to them. I will do the talking.”
    “Okay . . .”
    They came within ten paces of the heavy wooden doors before Gabrian called out, “Greetings!”
    The two guards dropped their halberds in a defensive position, preventing Gabrian and Aurelius from coming any closer. Aurelius eyed the frosted steel heads of their weapons. They wouldn’t pierce his armor, but he had a feeling a good jab from one of those would leave him a nasty bruise.
    Gabrian waved his hand and whispered something Aurelius couldn’t quite make out; then he spoke in a strident voice: “We come in peace, men of Nordom. Let us pass to join your hunters, for we are weary with travel and in need of food and shelter for the night.”
    The halberds wavered and one of the guards raised his. The other shook his head and responded in a querulous voice, “You come in peace? Yet why should we share our food and shelter with strangers?”
    “We are skilled hunters and will make a worthy contribution to your hunt.”
    The second guard raised his halberd and Gabrian started toward the gates. Aurelius followed cautiously. As they came within a few paces of the gate, the guards rapped on the doors in a complex pattern of knocks. A second later the doors swung slowly open with a groan and cracking of ice.
    Gabrian and Aurelius started across the threshold, but the nearest guard caught Aurelius’s arm in an iron fist and loomed menacingly close. He was a giant of a man. “You’re not from around here, oudtlaander .” Aurelius blinked up at the man’s snowy blond beard and couldn’t help but notice the angry ridge of scar tissue running from his eye to his ear.
    “No, I’m not.”
    “Then watch your step.”
    Aurelius nodded as the guard let him go with a shove. He stumbled forward and his foot caught on some unseen obstacle. He tumbled to the trampled, dirty snow, and his face scraped painfully against the icy ground. He bounced to his feet a second later and turned back to see what had caught his foot. He was just in time to see the guardsman move his leg out of doorway.
    “Sorry. I was in need of a stretch.”
    A vein began pulsing in Aurelius’s forehead and he took half a step forward before Gabrian called out behind him, “COME.”
    Aurelius felt his body turn of its own accord and he began walking into the city, one wooden step after another. He heard the gates shut with a groan and a thud behind them, and then his body suddenly lost all its momentum, as if an unseen hand had been pushing him from behind and now it had stopped.
    Aurelius glared daggers into Gabrian’s back. “You need to stop doing that.”
    Gabrian stopped and turned, his lips curving into a wry smile. “Doing what?”
    “You know . . .” Aurelius had to force himself to say it, because it still sounded ridiculous to him. “Magic.”
    “Ah.” The old man nodded slowly.
    “If we’re going to be allies, you can’t constantly be taking advantage of me.”
    “Allies? Who ever said were we allies? You can help me, elder, and by helping me you will help yourself. That is all we are, acquaintances by convenience and necessity.”
    Aurelius caught up to Gabrian and they resumed walking through the city. “So you’re just going to keep overriding my will whenever it pleases you.”
    “I will do what I must. You are but a small player in a game as old as time, and I cannot afford to lose because you got in the way and I was too polite to push you aside.”
    Aurelius frowned deeply and cast Gabrian a sidelong look. He realized that he couldn’t trust the old man.
    He was going to have to look out for himself.
     
    *   *   *
     
    The town of Dagheim was one log cabin after the next, there thatched roofs coated in snow. The air was thick with the spicy fragrance of wood smoke and gamey meat. People draped in thick furs walked the streets; mothers carried their children in hammock shaped furs that were strapped around their necks; giant men strolled here and