Hugo and the Bird: the Ark of the Covenant by Jeff Mills

Author:Jeff Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2022-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

Treachery

Bragnar paused while eating his meal to stare and polish the jewels in front of him. He had laid them on the table to show them to his friend Giffor who asked if he could take a peek.

“Whatever you do, don’t touch that gold disc thing.” He said sternly. “If you do, it will kill you.”

Giffor immediately snatched back his hand as it moved to pick up the glowing bauble. He gazed nervously at Bragnar, still dreading having to comply with Kramp’s demands. Finally, he could stand it no longer and, in a torrent of tears, confessed to his friend what he had been ordered to do.

At first, Bragnar was silent and pulled at the small beard he wore. He had expected some form of treachery from Kramp but did not think that he would stoop so low as to intimidate one of his friends into betraying him. A thought then struck him as he realised that he might be able to use this situation to his advantage.

“Give me the bottle.” He ordered Giffor. The tearful goblin pulled it out of his tunic and placed it in the centre of the table. “Now go back to your log and wait for an hour, then go to Kramp and tell him that you have given me the potion. Then leave the rest to me.”

The shaking goblin wiped his running nose in his sleeve, bowed to Bragnar, and left but dreading what might happen to him if their leader ever found out what he had done. As soon as he was gone, Bragnar started to prepare a trap. He placed the jewels in a small chest on the table, but he fixed the amulet into the lid. He pulled a long piece of straw from the thatch used to cover a large hole on the top of his log roof and bent and adjusted it so that if anyone tried to put their hand into the chest, the lid would collapse. The amulet would fall onto that person’s hand with its inevitable consequences. He put on a glove and gave his idea a trial run. It worked even better than he had thought.

He then took a small wooden mug and half-filled it with beer. Carefully, he emptied the content of the small bottle Giffor had handed over into it. Finally, he splashed a little beer on the table and onto himself to make it look as if he had suddenly fallen asleep or died. He knew that Kramp wanted him out of the way, permanently and had told Giffor that it was a sleeping potion so that he would administer it. He knew that if Giffor had been told it was a deadly poison, he would not have agreed to give it.

With a final check, he slumped down in his chair and pretended to be unconscious and none too soon. Moments later, there was a soft knock on his door, and Kramp poked his head around. He saw his rival prostate in the chair and went over to him.

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