Chapter 30: A Friendly Reunion
The second palace dimmed with the sun. Its inhabitants braced themselves for another miserable night. Most cells were filled with statues taken from various towns and villages around Parli, the rest were filled with the guards who once worked there. With no one now capable or willing to stop Oldo, his collection increased daily. He kept a small group of the less skilled inmates to be the ones who actually bring the statues to him. They were considered useless in battle for various reasons, including age. The birds had finally given up their food search and returned to the mainland. There was silence for the first time.
Oldo could feel the eventual leadership upon him. During the last couple of days he amused himself by talking with the statues, telling them of what life would be like when he was finally king, or as he liked to say: lord. Just the thought of being lord of Parli made him smile to himself. He would be the strongest ruler of all time, even stronger than Hulius. With all of the magic from the roses and, hopefully, the sword he would be unstoppable. He could have been almost there now, but he was not exactly sure how to extract the magic from the roses he already had. Over and over in his mind he tried different possibilities, all failed. He was too afraid to try those ideas on the actual roses. Perhaps the people of Parli would just bow to him when they knew he had them all.
Then the thought finally occurred to him: How was there going to be anybody left in Parli? Most of the people were frozen and could only awaken when their rose was returned to its resting place, the downside of having residual magic. Oldo paced all around the jail with those thoughts in mind. How could he bring them back? This sort of thing had never even been tested before, there was no rule book written for the magic. Aaaah! An idea popped into his mind. When he became ruler he would write a rule book for magic. It was the greatest idea he had thought of yet. And then when he was done being ruler he would give the magic and the book to somebody else to use when they ruled. I think of everything.
It did not even matter to him that most of his strategies really did not have back up plans, now it did not matter. Really it never mattered much at all; the opposing side had even worse strategists. He wished dearly that there was some sort of person he could turn to for this. An uprising had not been done in so long, and that was by one of the leaders. An uprising by a disgraced palace guard from a jail out in the bay, what a remarkable tale it would become. But still it was unmarked territory. Whoever came next would want to know how it was done, and then they would fix the problems and do it right. But an uprising in the future would be against Oldo’s Parli. Thought this complex gave Oldo a headache, he decided to come back to that idea later.
One of the ‘useless’ statue collectors came in to the mess hall. He was much older than Oldo and had been in that jail for many years. He wore one of the jail guard uniforms. With him came two younger men that had been in the battle earlier that same day. One, the taller and younger of the two, had small specks of blood on his uniform. The other pushed a prisoner in front of him. The prisoner had his hands bound behind his back and was looking Oldo in the eyes when he approached. The prisoner was dressed as an officer.
Oldo looked to the prisoner, surprised. “Ah, you finally have joined me, Gai. I thought for sure I would see you in here eventually. Though, to be honest, I imagined you in a cell near mine, near the top.”
Mitchum nodded, his face was gaunt from exhaustion and hunger. “Time has shown you no passion, Greb.”
“Never use my first name, Gai, it no longer suits my needs of power. But it looks to me that you are just as greedy, I like your uniform. It must have been nice, kissing up to the prince like that. Now he is king and you are a general.”
“You have been in here too long, your facts are wrong. I was fired just after you were.”
Oldo grew annoyed by his old friend. “You lived free, look at where I ended up.”
“How can you even think to be free after what you were planning?”
Oldo suddenly shouted. “I did not try to kill the prince!”
“You were found with a dagger in his study, no one is allowed with weapons in his study.”
“It was an accident, I did not mean for that to be with me. You were my best friend, and not even you believed me.”
“It is hard to believe you after all the talk of hating the prince.”
Oldo began pacing in front of Mitchum. “Just because I said I hated him does not mean I ever meant to kill him.” Mitchum was about to say something but Oldo cut him off. “Yes, alright, I had a plan written to kill the royal family, but nobody let me even try to explain.”
“Explain what? That is a piece of evidence that needs no explanation.”
“Gai, you only had eyes for control, and with me out of the way you could become that general. I don’t even know why it comes as a surprise, just look at who your family is: the rippers.”
Mitchum tried to break free from his bonds but he could not. “It had nothing to do with power, and do not bring my family into this.”
“What else would it have to do with? I will never forget what you did to me, Gai. But where you lost me my job, I will make you lose your . . . your . . . your life.”
“It’s hard for even you to say. Face it, you never had the courage necessary to finish your plans, and you won’t finish this one.”
“Oh, but Gai, it is all but finished. I can see it from here, the mountains are gone. All the roses are mine.”
Mitchum was about to tell how Mith and Ludus were the only ones who could have taken the rose, but he caught himself before he could. He would not be able to live with himself if something happened to those kids because of something he said.
Oldo smiled, he held out his arms wide. “What do you think of my museum? Does it fit the Quinn standards?”
The frozen faces all looked in different directions, but Mitchum could feel them all calling to him for help. He moved his eyes from person to person. Only feet from where he stood was a sight that made his heart sink. Mr. Hardel sat calmly as if still at home. Mitchum recognized him immediately from their one encounter so long ago. Mith’s smiling face came to mind at the sight of the statue. He hoped they were alright, wherever they were.
“This is far below anything I ever thought you were capable of. Please just tell me why you did this.”
Oldo pressed down his black hair and thought of a way to communicate his vision to Mitchum. “The people of this island are so predictable, they whine for the stars, and then when the night gives it to them, they cry for the sun. They don’t know what they want, or how to get it. I can give them that.”
“What Parli do you live in? The people have what they want. You just needed some reason to take all the power for yourself.”
“That’s it; I am done talking to you. If you are so brainwashed to believe where we live is perfect then you are no better than the royalty. We once thought the same, it seems time has softened your passion for a new Parli.” Oldo said, gesturing for Mitchum to be taken away.
“I still want a new Parli, but I believe in showing people what is wrong by words written and spoken. All you are doing is turning the whole against you.”
“Fine, Gai, you do it your way and I’ll do it mine. Tell me when you make a difference.”
Mitchum was dragged away from Oldo. He struggled against his two captors but to no avail. “You will not win, Oldo. Each step toward your vision of Parli is a step in the wrong direction.”
Oldo tried not to listen. Instead he went back to studying his statues. Mitchum was taken from the mess hall and away. Oldo tried to continue the thoughts he had been thinking before Mitchum came in but could not remember them.