Table Of Content80AD
The Jewel of Asgard
by Aiki Flinthart
Amazon Edition
Copyright Aiki Flinthart 2011
All rights reserved
Discover other titles by Aiki Flinthart at: http://aikiflinthart.weebly.com/
Cover Art by : Jason Seabaugh
Review:
“This story is very unique. The premise is immensely entertaining. It’s a great
story!”.......Chilli Tween Reads October 31st 2011
Table of contents
LONG BAIYU
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
A taste of things to come
APPENDIX
80AD
Level One
The Jewel of Asgard.
LONG BAIYU
Cold held the chamber in its bitter grasp: an intense, unrelenting chill that soaked
through skin and muscle and invaded aching bones. Bound in icy darkness, surrounded
by stone and shadow, Long Baiyu crouched in a corner of his miserable cell and waited.
What choice did he have? This place sucked warmth and hope from him; until all he
could do was hurt and wait.
Sharp footsteps sounded outside his door. The heavy wood flew open. Long Baiyu
raised an arm to shield his eyes from the overbright candle carried by his visitor. It had
been too long since he’d seen the sun. He was weakened by darkness; too drained to
even attempt an escape.
“Have you changed your mind?” his visitor demanded. The man was tall and arrogant
with high, sharp cheekbones and narrow, dark eyes. He held heavy silken robes off the
stone floor in visible disgust, looking down his long nose at the prisoner. With thin hands,
blackened by chemical stains, he raised the candle and peered at his wretched hostage.
“Have you?” With an impatient sneer, he added, “If not then you can continue rot
down here. I don’t care. I’ll take what I need without your help. I only offer you the
chance to live out of respect for our former friendship.”
“Respect,” his captive smiled regretfully, his words a mere, painful whisper. “You
show no respect for anyone – not even yourself. Look what you have become. You
intend to use me for your own ends. Release me before your treachery is discovered
and you may avoid the wrath of the Emperor. If I die here the Emperor will have you
executed and you will never join your ancestors with honour.”
The man laughed softly. “Your threats are empty. The boy-Emperor is in Luoyang.
He is no obstacle to me and I don’t intend to join my ancestors. I intend to live forever -
unlike you, my old friend.” The menace in his voice sent a shiver down the spine of his
prisoner.
Baiyu shook his head. “When the mantis hunts the locust, he forgets the shrike that is
hunting him.”
His captor raised a scornful eyebrow. “Don’t give me that wiseman rubbish. You
forget how long I have known you.” When it was obvious Baiyu intended to say no more,
his captor laughed again and left.
In darkness once more, Baiyu pulled in what little remaining strength he possessed
and called on the power of the Ancestors. He had to escape – yet he could not do it
alone. Around him, a faint purple-blue glow began to shine. Picking up a small, round
pebble from underfoot, he held it in his large hand and blew gently on it twice. In a
strange, singsong voice, he chanted nonsense words over and over above the stone.
Slowly, the light around him gathered into a thin, white-purple streak of lighting. It zipped
around his head until he spoke to it sternly. Then it hovered above the stone for a
second before spearing straight into it.
Baiyu whispered, trembling with the effort. The stone split neatly in two in his hand.
Each half then twisted and merged back together before pulling apart again. Abruptly,
the glow dimmed and Baiyu smiled in weary satisfaction. He raised his hand and blew
again, murmuring more words of power. Lifting his hand higher, he drew on everything
he had left and whispered,
“Bring those that can free me.”
The glow and the stone vanished with a loud crack! Plunged back into night, Long
Baiyu collapsed.
****
CHAPTER ONE
PHOENIX
Phoenix glanced at his watch and groaned. 5:30pm. Late. Rising up on the bike
pedals, he pushed harder, speeding down the sleepy suburban street. Driveways and
front yards flashed past. Neighbours hallooed. He ignored them. If he was late again
and Jacob found out….
He pedalled harder.
His own driveway came up abruptly. He slammed on the brakes, turning to slide
expertly into it with a spray of gravel. The adrenalin rush brought a smile of fierce joy to
his face. A few more quick pushes brought him up the slight incline and around the back
of the mansion he now called home. Well, the house where he lived, anyway. Peering
into the garage, he heaved a sigh of relief. His mother wasn’t home and neither was
Jacob.
Leaning his bike against the house, Phoenix pulled out a key and let himself in through
the kitchen door. Pausing for a moment, he listened hard. The big, cold house was
echoingly empty. Some of the tension went out of his shoulders. He dropped his aikido
bag on the kitchen floor before slouching over to the fridge to inspect its contents. Since
turning thirteen, six months before, he always seemed to be hungry. His mother teased
him about it – and, unfortunately, it also gave Jacob another reason to be annoyed with
him.
After staring vaguely into the full fridge for awhile, Phoenix grabbed container of cold
pizza from dinner the night before. He shut the door then immediately opened it again
and picked out a can of Coke.
Car tyres crunched up the drive. Startled, he stared over his shoulder at the back
wall of the house, trying to work out whose car it was by sound. Hearing the distinctive
thrum of a big engine, he bolted for the stairs. At the last second, he remembered his
aikido bag and skidded to a stop. A car door slammed. Swearing under his breath,
Phoenix dashed back and snatched up the bag, shoving the pizza and drink into it as he
turned again for the stairs. Seven long jumps brought him safely to the top where he
stopped, leaning against a wall around the corner to catch his breath.
The kitchen door opened. Heavy footsteps rapped sharply across marble tiles.
Phoenix didn’t wait any longer. Jacob was home. Stepping softly along the pile-
carpeted hallway, he reached his own room, eased the door open, let himself in and
closed it again; carefully. Only once it was fully closed did he put the bag gently down
and finally breathe out. Dropping into the chair in front of his study desk, he opened the
drink, sucked up the bubbles and switched on his computer. Running stiff fingers through
an unruly mop of brown hair, he swivelled to stare out the window.
Now, if he just kept his head low for an hour or so, his mother would come home and
he could avoid any sort of run-in with his stepfather at all. Jacob would know Phoenix
was home by the fact his bike was there but they had an unspoken agreement to avoid
each other whenever humanly possible. Really, the only time they crossed paths was at
dinner and Jacob Smithson never made any sort of fuss about his stepson in front of
Gwen.
As he waited for his computer to boot up, Phoenix munched on pizza and thought
about his life. There wasn’t much to think about. Time passed; things happened all
around him but he didn’t actually feel a part of it. The endless round of school days just
didn’t seem real. He felt stuck, waiting for something to happen; for some miracle to
make it like it used to be when his dad was alive. He snorted. Like that was ever going to
happen.
He had a couple of friends at school but no best buddies. His dad had always been
his best friend and he just didn’t feel like putting in the effort to make another. School
itself was mindnumbingly boring - except for sports. He was good at sports but
nowadays he didn’t even get to do much of that. Every time he tried to stand up for
himself and argue with Jacob over some dumb new rule, his stepfather punished him by
cutting back on more of his outside school activities. The only stuff he got to do now was
play computer games and go to aikido. Games were just a time-waster; an escape; a
place to hide and not have to think. The dojo existed now as the only place he really felt
alive. His Sensei was pretty much the only person who listened and understood,
anyway.
Phoenix frowned, remembering the reason why he absolutely had to be home on time
today: the threat from Jacob to pull him out of classes if he was late home again. He
really wasn’t sure what he’d do if that happened. Run away?
His lips twisted into a scornful smile. Where to? He had nowhere to go. He wasn’t
old enough to earn a living and he’d seen what happened to other kids who ended up on
the streets – drugs and whatever. Nah. He shook his head and began to check his
emails. Jacob might be a prat but living in the same house with him remained better than
the alternatives.
Besides, his mother was happy, and that was the most important thing. Phoenix all
too clearly remembered hearing her cry herself to sleep every night for months after the
car accident three years ago. He remembered the helpless anger; remembered how
lost he’d felt and how frightened; how much he’d hoped his dad would just walk back in
the house and say it had all been a big mistake. He still sometimes hoped that but he’d
learned to live with it now. Honestly, he’d been glad when his mother had finally hooked
up with Jacob. She’d stopped crying and started smiling again, at least.
OK, so Jacob wasn’t an ideal stepfather but he was better than some. He was rich
and at least he didn’t drink or hit. Sure, he was unfair a lot of the time: like when he
grounded Phoenix for stupid little things like running late for school or not putting his plate
in the dishwasher; but he was prepared to put up with that for the sake of his mothers’
happiness.
With a sigh, Phoenix turned his attention to the latest on-line game he’d joined and did
his level best to obliterate both restless unhappiness and digital enemies for the next
twenty minutes or so. For some reason, it didn’t seem to help this time, so he logged out
and switched to updating his blog. Nobody read it but it made him feel better to vent his
irritation with Jacob somewhere. Eventually, even the satisfaction of that wore off and
he watched some of the weird stuff that came up on YouTube instead.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs – heavy ones.
Phoenix glanced quickly at the door. There was only one reason for Jacob to come
upstairs – to see his stepson; and that was not good news. Rapidly, he cleaned away
the debris of food and tossed the Coke can into the bin. He wasn’t supposed to eat in
his room. Brushing crumbs off his shirt, Phoenix closed his blog and YouTube and
jumped to his feet just as the door handle began to turn.
It opened and Jacob filled the doorway with his bulk. Phoenix tried to resist the urge
to back away. His stepfather was intimidating – a fact he knew and used to his
advantage both at work and at home. It was hard not to feel young and defenceless
when faced with his six foot, muscular form.
He felt the familiar burn of resentment low in his guts and swallowed hard, pushing
the feelings down. Maybe in a few years time he’d be big enough and tough enough to
take Jacob on but until then….
“Did you take the last coke?” Jacob’s grey eyes were narrowed in annoyance.
Dumbly, Phoenix nodded, trying to slow his now-racing heart. “Sorry.”
Jacob grunted, his gaze darting around the room. He spotted the pizza container
Phoenix had forgotten to hide. His mouth thinned. With two long strides he walked over
and picked it up, holding it up in front of Phoenix’s face like a weapon.
“And my pizza. I was saving it for lunch tomorrow,” he growled.
Phoenix tried to hold his head up defiantly but couldn’t. He looked away and was
ashamed of his own cowardice. “Sorry,” he mumbled again. “I didn’t know.”
Abruptly, Jacob moved closer. Phoenix took an involuntary step away and sat down
as the chair caught him in the back of the knees. His stepfather leaned over him, placing
huge hands on the chair arms.
“I’m sick of your attitude, Phoenix,” he said, his expression stiff with barely-restrained
annoyance. “You’re lazy and self-centred and you act as though the world owes you a
living. Lord knows I’ve tried to be patient for your mothers’ sake but enough is enough.
If you want to continue to live in my house then you’ll live by my rules, understand?” He
waited a moment until Phoenix managed a nod then he pushed off and stood up. “If not
then you’re welcome to go elsewhere.” With a glare, Jacob turned on his heel and left,
slamming the door forcefully behind him.
Phoenix made a rude gesture at the door then slumped back in the chair, gritting his
teeth together to stop himself from yelling an angry comeback as well. It just wasn’t
fair. It was hard enough to cope with high school, homework; and idiot older kids at
school bullying the younger ones without getting it at home as well. If his real dad was
alive this wouldn’t be happening.
He glanced at a framed photo on his desk. Alex Carter grinned back at him, his arm
around a younger Phoenix, both of them smiling madly and holding up a large, silvery
trout. That had been such a great camping trip. The three of them had trekked around
