Instead of standing there and growing uncomfortable, which Jake knew was the purpose of this little “exercise,” he used the time to study his employer.
As always, whenever a few days had passed without seeing Blake, Jake was repulsed anew by the sight of his client. It wasn’t that he was physically disgusting; he didn’t have grotesquely scarred features, no loathsome birth defects that made looking at him a trial in itself. Nothing one could point to, and say, “There’s the problem.” Nothing like that. Instead, it was an odd sense of discomfort that crept into his bones, an unsettling feeling that slowly came over him. A feeling that said the heart at the center of this fruit was shrunken and black with rot. Add to that Blake’s long bony frame and small evil-looking eyes set in a ferretsharp face, and Jake figured it was pretty understandable that he felt the way he did.
Blake continued the charade for several long moments, letting the silence stretch.
Finally, “You’re late,” he said, in a tone that showed his own disgust, never once looking up at his visitor.
“I know,” Jake replied calmly.
Blake suddenly threw the papers onto the surface of the desk and Jake found himself staring into the man’s beady little eyes. “I suppose you have some kind of excuse?”
Jake still hadn’t been offered a seat. He knew he wouldn’t be. He chose to ignore the verbal gibe as well. “I’m afraid I have some bad news,” he answered instead. “I was forced to stop work in the cellar this afternoon because of something my workmen uncovered.”
The look changed in the man’s eyes as his words registered, and for just a moment Jake thought he saw a gleam of excitement there before his employer’s expression went carefully neutral.
“What do you mean?” Blake asked, his tone now as flat as his expression.
“After we finished pumping out the river, we uncovered the entrance to a set of stairs leading deeper underground. I went down with my foreman and followed the tunnel to a point some two hundred yards farther, where it has been bricked shut. I thought it was best if we waited to see what you wanted us to do before continuing.”
“I see….” Blake replied, then swung his chair around so he was facing the window, his back to Jake, so that the younger man wouldn’t see the wide smile of surprise that spread slowly across his face. “And what did you do then?”
“Nothing. I sent the boys home, locked up, and came on over here.”
“I see,” Blake responded again.
The silence stretched for an unusually long time, with Blake staring out the window lost in thought, and Jake reluctant to disturb him and break the man’s good mood, but finally, Jake felt that if he didn’t interrupt, they’d be here until Tuesday.
“Mr. Blake? What do you want me to do about it?”
“Hhmm? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.”
The chair swung back around. Jake was unable to read anything behind the man’s carefully blank expression. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to think about this for a while before I come to any decisions. Why don’t you and your men take the next few days off?”
Then came the clincher.
“With pay, of course,” Blake said.
Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing.Days off? With pay? Has somebody turned the world upside down and not told me? But Jake was nobody’s fool. Whether he believed that Blake was really being a nice guy or if he had ulterior motives, Jake knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He quickly agreed with the idea, left off the paperwork he’d been requested to bring, and made plans to get back in contact with the man before the end of the week. Then he got the hell out before Blake could change his mind.
A few days off?
Hell, yes. Sounds good to me.
Climbing into his Jeep, Jake finally allowed himself to grin at his good fortune.
Once the fool had gone, Blake let a triumphant smile emerge as he pondered the implications of the news. His ancestor’s journal had long hinted at a secret vault within one of the family estates, but after spending thousands of dollars and months of effort searching for it, he’d finally dismissed it several years ago as foolish nonsense.
Today’s news changed everything.
There was no sense putting himself at risk to be certain, however. He’d pretend to give the situation some thought, then call the young fool back later that night. He’d tell him he’d changed his mind and give him permission to investigate further.
His smile grew wider as he realized what he had hunted for for so long might at last be within reach.
Which wasn’t really all that surprising, by any means.
He was, after all, a Blake.
4
GAME NIGHT
Sam made a covert roll of his eight-sided die. Noting the result, he made an announcement to the players in front of him. “Five of the eight warriors you just killed suddenly sit back up and start rising to their feet.”
“I think we’re in trouble,” Jake said to Katelynn, who nodded her agreement. Turning to Sam, Jake said, “Chelmar steps back and prepares to cast a sleep spell.”
“Okay. And what about Alganea?”
“She stands a few feet in front of him, out of his line of sight but close enough to defend him if the things attack again.”
More dice tumble, and another grave pronouncement is made: “The first ghoul reaches his feet and turns his head in your direction. His eyes seem to glow when they see you, and he slowly begins lumbering toward you, the sword in his right hand raised overhead threateningly.”
“Hurry up, Jake!” Katelynn said excitedly.
“Okay, okay. Chelmar steps up next to Alganea and casts the spell, making sure before he does so that she is behind him and therefore out of the area of the spell’s effect.” Jake smiled at Katelynn winningly, as if to say that he had everything under control.
“Chelmar, you realize that you cast the spell properly, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on the ghouls, who are in fact undead, and therefore are not affected by mortal requirements like sleep. The first ghoul is almost close enough to strike, and looking past his shoulder both of you can see that now the other four have also climbed to their feet and are starting to move in your direction.”
Both of the players knew that their characters were in real trouble. If they didn’t think of something soon, they would probably die there in the dark caverns beneath Zolthane Mountain.
It was just after 10:00P.M ., and the three friends were deep in the midst of a session of Swords and Sorcerers, testing Sam’s latest creation for playability. They were seated around the table in the kitchen of Jake’s apartment, with Sam on one side and Jake and Katelynn on the other, their books, papers, and charts spread out before them. The lights in the room were off, the only illumination coming from half a dozen candles that cast a reddish glow across their faces, adding to the atmosphere of the game.
Loki, Jake’s Akita, slept contentedly at his feet, head resting lightly on his paws, lost in his own fantasy world of dreams.
The game went on. “I reach out and yank Chelmar out of the range of the ghoul’s sword,” Katelynn said quickly in response to Sam as soon as she heard the magic had failed to work as they’d planned.
Another roll of the dice. “You manage to pull him back just in time, Alganea. But the ghouls close in.”
The game continued in that vein for another hour or so, with Katelynn and Jake managing to have their characters escape from the clutches of the ghouls, only to find themselves lost in the labyrinthine maze of passages that led them deeper beneath the earth, setting the stage for the next week’s adventure.
Jake had seemed distracted for most of the evening, and as they were cleaning up, Sam decided to broach the subject. Jake was staring off into space, absently stroking his dog’s head, when Sam said, “What’s up, Jake? You usually enjoy poking holes in all my hard work. Sometimes I feel that the only reason you play anymore is to make certain I don’t pull a fast one on the unsuspecting public. You’re letting Katelynn do all the work tonight.”