Mrythdom: Game of Time by Jasper T. Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

Aurelius watched as the woman’s features suddenly went from angry to blank and confused. Abruptly she smiled and waved at them. Gabrian scooped his coins from the counter and turned to leave with a matching smile.
    “What was that?” Aurelius asked as Gabrian guided him from the store.
    “A bargain.”
    “You were negotiating and then she gave up and let you have the clothes for free!”
    “Yes.”
    “You stole from her.”
    Gabrian fixed him with narrow blue eyes. “I didn’t steal; she gave us the clothes.”
    “You did something!”
    “Did I?”
    “Yes!”
    “Aurelius. Our need is greater than hers. Were it not so, I would show her charity. And if the world were more as is should be, I would not have to compel her to do what she aught, yet when her life reaches its end, she will receive her due, if not from me, then from the gods she worships.”
    “And if those gods don’t exist?” Aurelius challenged.
    “That is not our problem. She has placed her trust in them, and there it lies for better or worse.”
    “You’re confusing the issue.”
    “Then let me simplify it, elder.” Gabrian stopped walking in the middle of the bustling crowds. Aurelius felt men and women jostling him roughly as they pushed past, a few turned to look at him, as if anticipating or looking for a fight. Aurelius tried to ignore them. “You will freeze to death if you don’t have these clothes. I do not have the money to provide them for you. She will not give you the clothes if you merely ask her nicely,” Gabrian said, pointing back to the storekeeper. “Therefore, make your choice. You can go back and give them to her, or you can look out for yourself. What will it be?” Aurelius hesitated. “And remember you did not steal. The fault is mine; you are merely benefiting by it.”
    Aurelius heaved a sigh. “You don’t make it very easy to do the right thing, do you?”
    Gabrian smiled and took a step toward him. His voice dropped to a whisper as he said, “And what is the right thing, Aurelius? Can you see all the consequences of your actions and judge them right or wrong?”
    “No.”
    “No one can. Not even I. Therefore, live your life with good intentions if that is important to you, but the consequences and therefore the rightness and wrongness of your actions are fundamentally unknowable.”
    With that, Gabrian spun away in a swirl of his brown robes and stalked off, leaving Aurelius frowning after him. Reluctantly, he followed Gabrian through the milling crowds. A dangerous philosophy to live by, he thought, glaring at the old man’s back.
    Aurelius wondered if the old man would apply the same convenient philosophy if his own well-being were at stake. He suspected not.

Chapter 5
     
     
     
     
     
    They stood before an arching entrance to a towering chalet. Giant, knobby wooden beams supported the entrance to either side, and an elaborately carved sign hung above the doors.
    “The Firestone Brewery,” Aurelius read.
    Gabrian walked up to the heavy wooden doors and pushed them open. A raucous noise poured out, men cheering and singing, glasses clinking, and a booming backdrop of drum beats that could hardly be called music.
    “Come,” Gabrian beckoned, holding the doors open.
    They walked into an echoing hall of wooden beams, tables, and vaulted ceilings. Flickering orange firelight from several fireplaces lit the space, and tall lattice windows misted with frost admitted dim shafts of dust-speckled light into the hall. The air was rich with the scent of ale and gamey meat. Men were clustered in a circle, arms draped over one another, stomping their feet in time to the drums, with mugs of golden ale sloshing over their rims and splattering the floors. There in the center of the crowd Aurelius could just barely make out a pair of gleaming silver blades held aloft. Gabrian wove past overturned chairs and tables, brushing by a hefty barmaid until they reached the counter. Men were clustered to either side of