Chapter 700 - Halloween Arrangements Ⅶ (1/2)
The stars twinkled overhead in the pitch-black darkness of a moonless night. As time passed, Madam O'Germanova slowly began to relax and slowed the horse's pace. The horses had just begun to slow to a steady walk when she heard the bay horse let out a perturbed neigh.
Peering fiercely through the darkness Madam O'Germanova's yellow-tinted eyes furtively peer about, before narrowing to worried slits. Her gnarled hands tighten around the horse's reins as hooded figures emerge from the shrubbery. From beneath their cowls, eerie orange Greek masks are seen with their arms all raised in unison and their wands warningly pointed at her.
Madam O'Germanova's yellow-tinged eyes will with disdain and curls her lips into a sneer as she removes the pipe from her teeth and sets it leisurely at her side. Baring her teeth, she reveals a yellow-teethed smile dyed from tobacco and filled with gaps of missing teeth. Spitting a wad of muck onto the ground, she returns her attention to her horses. She croons to them and hushes the frightened beasts. The horses let out soft whickers and shift on their hooves uneasily, but they quiet down at their master's voice.
Placing the tobacco pipe between her lips, Madam O'Germanova lets out several pensive puffs. The tobacco pipe held in her hand is pulled back as she releases one last final puff with a disgruntled sniff. ”Well, what do you lot want with this old bag of bones? I will have ye that if this is regarding about the telling of yer fortune, then you should've read the sign, ”NO REFUNDS! NO EXCEPTIONS!”
The hooded figures move together to form a circle around her causing the horses to uneasily move with their ears flickering back and forth. The newly formed circle parts to allow a hooded figure to enter the circle. An arrogant, powerful voice emerges from the hooded figure before her, who wore a white, stone mask of the mightiest of Greek Gods, Zeus. ”We seek your services, Soothsayer,” the stone masked Zeus matter-of-factly demanded.
”My tent is closed for the season,” Madam O'Germanova hmphed. ”It is late, and I have many roads which to travel, stranger. Come again next year to have your fortune read. But if your urgency is such there are others that I can recommend.”
”You will be rewarded handsomely for your time and efforts,” the stone masked Zeus persuasively said ignoring her previous words. ”I can assure you that no harm will befall you nor your family afterward, you have my utmost word.”
Madam O'Germanova slips the tobacco pipe between her lips again and lets out another puff of smoke. She knew that her words would fail to dissuade the group and their leader before her. And running wasn't an option, she was surrounded nor was she young anymore. There was no guarantee she'd survive battling her way out of the ambushed trap.
Letting out a tired sigh, Madam O'Germanova again sets her tobacco pipe down at her side. ”Suppose I believe you, stranger,” she finally said. ”What exactly would I be doing?”
”Anthropomancy,” the stone masked Zeus answered.
Madam O'Germanova choked loudly as her eyes widened in shock and horror. ”That is forbidden, and most foul of magics,” she spat out utterly horrified at the request. ”What madness has corrupted your mind to dare request such foul things!”
”And yet you know it, Gypsy,” the stone masked Zeus coldly stated. ”Do not attempt to lie to me, Madam O'Germanova nor attempt to play innocent now. In your quest for power did you not tangle with all manner of things. It is a little too late to seek the moral high ground especially one as morally corrupted as yourself!”
Madam O'Germanova's lips curl into a bitter sneer. ”That may have been true once long ago,” she snarled, ”but I am old now, and that woman is long-buried in ages past as I no longer thirst nor seek such things.”
The stone masked Zeus appeared to be stunned for a moment, before confidently retorting, ”And what of your family?”
”What of them?” Madam O'Germanova warily snapped as she gazed through narrowed eyes at the figure with the Zeus stone mask. ”Is that a threat, stranger?”
”Can you say with absolute certainty that they will not be tempted by such an offer?” The stone masked Zeus threatened.