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CHAPTER 23: THE FINAL TEST
No one had expected the Tug-of-War to end as quickly as it did. Verro was revived and helped back onto the stands, and the palpable feeling among the group of Courageous Danes was something along the lines of What have we gotten ourselves into?
The dogs all sat around looking at each other then back at Gobin. Gobin stared around at our rag-tag group of misfits with an impressed frown on his face and a slight nod of his head.
“You have done well. You have come close to proving that you are worthy to be Courageous Danes and so worthy of our allegiance and trust, but there is one final challenge to complete. You spoke earlier of trust. You said that it was a matter of trust that things won’t go from bad to worse if the Higher-ups were back in charge. I want to test this theory. I want to test how much trust you really have. You are going to have to trust me with your lives, and once you do, I will trust you with ours and let you continue on your way.”
We all looked at each other, somewhat confused. What did he mean when he said we would have to trust him with our lives?
“Will you tell us what the challenge is first?” asked Chak.
“I have given you all the information I am going to give. You must select your participant.”
“I’m not doing it,” said Plink. “I don’t trust him.”
“I tend to agree with Plink,” whispered Chak. “I don’t really trust this Gobin character. How do we know he’ll keep his word or that he’ll even trust us back once we trust him. You know he’s thinking the same thing we are right now.”
“We’ve got no choice. We have to trust him, that’s the challenge. It’s a leap of faith!” said Thrump. “I would do it, I trust Nicholas, and Nicholas trusts the dog, but I’ve already competed.”
Shishu spoke. “There you are. Thrump has just said it. Nicholas trusts the dog. He should be the one to compete.”
“I disagree. The dog might harm him. He’s our only hope. He is too valuable to lose at this stage,” said Brew.
“But who else can we send forward? None of us trusts him, so how can we possibly compete in this challenge?”
“Pardon me, but I believe we are forgetting a few members of this group,” interjected Dr. Lee.
“Who? You?” asked Chak.
“Well, no, but I am flattered. I was thinking more along the lines of the brave young dade who just walked forward to accept this challenge.”
We all looked down at Gobin and saw Flye standing next to him. She was white as an Umbra, and something was dangling from her left hand: the pouch containing the seed of linear time. I instinctively reached toward my neck and discovered it missing.
“What’s she doing?” I asked.
“She’s accepting the challenge Nicholas. She’s proving that she has the ability to trust where trust is asked,” said Dr. Lee.
“She’s going to get herself killed!” I said.
“Thank you so much for volunteering ma’am,” said Gobin in a booming voice. He turned back toward the stands. “The reason I couldn’t tell you what the challenge was was that I didn’t know yet what the challenge would be. You see, the challenge is for you to prove that you trust me with your life in some way that shows that it really is trust, and not fear. If I had, say, taken one of you hostage and let you continue on your way, it would not have been trust that motivated you, but fear of losing your friend. The task is for you to come up with a way that proves that you truly do trust me, and I will do the same by allowing you all to pass through to Mendrax’s house unhindered and undetected. So my young dade, how will you prove that you truly do trust me?” Gobin finished his speech with a serene smile.
“Why don’t you prove your trust first by letting us go?” yelled Chak from the stands.
“Because I am not the one being tested, my friend. You agreed to let us test you, not the other way around. You must show your trust first, and then we will have a reason to trust you back.”
“But what reason do we have to trust you in the first place?” yelled Plink.
“You’re still alive aren’t you? I’ve given you a chance to live, haven’t I? It is merely my word, my honor as a Courageous Dane, and my actions up to this point by which you have to base your trust. The rest is up to you! Or I should say, up to her.” Gobin gestured toward Flye with his paw.
There was a tense silence. Flye’s face was shock white and she was obviously frightened and in a bit of pain being so close to the seed for so long, but her eyes were determined. She spoke as calmly as she could, “I need to tell you, I knew what the test would be, but I promise unequivocally that I don’t know what the results will be. Here is how we show that we trust you. We put our fate completely in your hands. Within this pouch is the last seed of linear time. It is the object of our quest to plant this seed in Mendrax’s garden. We trust you with it, and we trust you to return it to us intact to finish our quest. Without it, the future of the Syllogy is lost.”
She extended her arm and the pouch dangled in front of Gobin.
“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. I say we fight. We can take these dogs,” whispered Chak.
“We need to get through here undetected if we intend to plant that seed. Have a little faith Chak. Trust him,” I whispered.
Gobin stared at the dangling pouch for a few moments. Everything was silent. He reached out, grabbed the string, drew it towards himself, opened the mouth of the pouch, and peered inside, being careful not to touch the seed within. Flye took a deep breath when he did and visibly relaxed.
Everyone on the stand was holding their collective breath, including the Courageous Danes. No one could believe what Flye had just done, but no one could disagree that she had indeed found a way to prove her trust to Gobin.
Gobin breathed heavily, obviously pondering the power of the moment.
Slowly, he pulled the drawstring of the pouch closed and handed the bag back toward Flye. She clenched one fist, gritted her teeth and accepted it. Her eyes were wide and afraid as they had been that night on the beach and in the cabin at The City of Falling Water. She thanked Gobin and walked back to the stands. When she arrived, she handed me the pouch, which I immediately put back around my neck.
“Well, I must say you have passed the tests with flying colors. You are indeed Courageous Danes at heart. I am bound by my word and my honor to let you continue on your journey,” said Gobin with a bow.
“Thank you Gobin. You won’t regret this,” said Chak.
“I think you might just be right. You Umbili might be the answer for a better world.”
“How do we get to Mendrax’s mansion?” asked Chak as we filed out of the stands to bid farewell to Gobin.
“It’s about a day’s journey that way,” said Gobin, pointing out across the open field. “This whole realm is his to rule, but there are areas he doesn’t watch as closely. There’s a patch of trees that way that should provide cover for you. It’s half the distance to the mansion, just far enough away from it that you won’t be detected. I suggest you camp there tonight and take the mansion in the morning. You will have quite a day ahead of you if you plan on coming out alive. I’ll send Jiben and Salies with you to make sure you get there safely.”
“Thank you Gobin. You truly are a Great Dane,” said Plink and she kissed him on the top of the head the way an owner kisses their dog. The other Courageous Danes all howled and whooped.
“Not at all madam, but I feel I need to ask you all, why are you so confident in the Higher-ups? Why do you want to change this world so badly? How do you know that world will be any better than this one?”
There was a moment of silence following this question.
“Because it has to be,” said Flye simply. [1]
“Very well,” replied Gobin with a smile. “Well, you best be off. Jiben, Salies, take them to their campsite. Good luck Umbili. May the Higher-ups be with you!” With that, Gobin turned and barked orders at the rest of the Courageous Danes and they began sprinting back out into the training ground and running drills. Two of the dogs stayed behind, looked at us meaningfully, and turned out toward the field. We took our cue and followed.
The feeling as we walked was an odd one. We had just emerged from what seemed like an inevitable situation with a new ally instead of bloodshed. The fighters in the group were obviously confused by what had just happened as they thought through the events of the last hour. I merely walked on happily. Dr. Lee and I chatted as we walked, but everyone else remained silent. Even Skreech was quietly thinking. I assume this was partly because of Thrump’s warning earlier but partly out of outrage at the Courageous Danes’ actions.
“Well done Nicholas. An excellent display of diplomacy and foresight. Expertly crafted arguments, I must say.”
“Thanks Doc. I don’t think that could have turned out any better than it just did.”
“Indeed it could not have. I was surprised at the actions of Gobin. There may be hope for the world yet.”
“There’s always hope doc. There’s always hope.” The words surprised me as they exited my lips. There’s always hope. Was that really true? There didn’t seem to be hope for me. I was still going to die. That was my purpose. Where was my hope? Why did I still feel the drive to complete this mission, even though it was hopeless from my perspective? Being honest, the blood transfusion did feel like a pipe dream.
I pondered the thoughts until we arrived at the patch of trees. The group set up camp as we always did but decided to forego the fire so as not to alert Mendrax of our presence with smoke. Jiben and Salies hung around for a little while before saying their terse farewells and returning to the Courageous Dane training ground.
We relaxed around the campground for the rest of the evening. Plink had us all do a workout to prepare for the inevitable fights tomorrow. I tried to show her that working out now was sort of pointless; that was something that needed to be done for the last few months and one night of exercise wouldn’t change the outcome of a fight. She ignored my protests and made me do twenty extra pushups.
As we ate dinner Chak outlined the plan of attack on the mansion. Of course, “plan” is a loose term because we had no idea what to expect of the mansion or how to go about getting in and planting the seed in Mendrax’s garden.
“We’re going to sneak in somehow, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, and we’re going to be quiet and not get caught once inside the mansion. It should be deserted. Then somehow we’ll find the garden inside the mansion, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, and Nicholas will plant the seed.”
I looked at him flabbergasted.
“That’s the plan? You’ve had how long to come up with this?” asked Pathena.
“A couple of years,” said Chak sheepishly.
“And this is the best you could do in a couple years of planning?”
“We had no intel on Mendrax’s mansion. We had no idea how it would work once we got here, we just knew how to get here,” said Chak defensively.
“So the fate of the Syllogy rests on us somehow getting into Mendrax’s mansion and then somehow sneaking around without getting caught, and then somehow making it to the garden? You’ve actually got three somehows written into your plan?” said Pathena; she was practically yelling. “Who thought this was a good idea?”
[1] Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “The Wish,” Directed by David Greenwalt. Written by Josh Whedon and Marti Noxon (20th Century Fox: December 8, 1998).
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