Chapter Three
It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all she had. The emperor's guards had done quite a pathetic job of scanning them for anything that she and Caleb were carrying before they were taken into the palace, most likely because they must have been afraid of Caleb's so-called 'powers'. And therefore, she still had several gold coins in her breast pocket and her jeans pockets (she had to separate them so that they wouldn't make too much sound whenever she walked).
Now, she knew that Emperor Lithium was a greedy and selfish ruler. She knew that no matter how much gold and jewels he had ever possessed, he'd only pay his servants and workers just enough to keep them working for him. And therefore most of them were relatively poor. Especially someone like Aiden, by the looks of it. She stared down at the man's shaggy stubble and stained white shirt.
Now he looked as suspicious as ever. "What did you say?" He whispered.
"I said, do you have an interest in any kind of riches?" Emma said. She could tell that he was about to give away and say yes, but then he asked -
"Why?"
Emma knew she only had one chance for this. But she wasn't anyone who would carefully think about what her next move would be. She needed to get to her brother as soon as possible, and she knew exactly how to do that with this man - she was just going to be blunt with him. He was way too suspicious for her to get away with vaguely hinting out her plan to him bit by bit before he accused her of something else.
She took a deep breath, silently, in and out, and then she began her act.
First, she leaned toward Aiden, her hands on her thighs, her breath on his face as he watched her intently, squatted on the round wooden chair. She reached into her breast pocket, jangling the coins inside as much as she could before bringing them out, the shining round pieces sprawled across her palm as she held them in front of his nose.
She could see the look on his face, a look of such determination and hope over a few gold coins, and she nearly laughed.
Only that it wasn't very laughable, it was actually kind of depressing.
"These." she took out the rest of the coins from her jeans pockets before plopping herself back onto the violet-coloured mattress in front of Aiden, and added them to the pile of money in her hand. "You want them, don't you?"
Aiden pulled a face at her.
"Of course I do, you spoiled gnat! You kids these days get anyfink you want!" He snapped angrily, and Emma blinked.
"Well," she started. There must have been about around seven dollars in her hand at the time.
Hardly anything to get snotty about, she thought, but that other tiny part of her knew why it was. "They'll be yours, if..." she cut herself off for effect.
Oh, and also to think about how to end this sentence.Aiden snorted. "If?" He elbowed her gruffly.
"If you agree to get me out of this room to check on my brother?" She said quietly, and he considered for a moment. Quite a long moment, in fact.
He's actually more loyal to his master than I would have thought. And, just then, as if on cue, he said -
"But that would mean that I'd be disobeying my master..." he said slowly, twiddling his thumbs and never taking his eyes off the small pile of money that Emma was holding.
OH MY GOSH THAT IS WHY I AM OFFERING YOU MONEY TO DO IT, YOU STUBBORN OLD GOAT, screamed her mind. But instead she just answered, "well, yes but you can have seven dollars for you to do whatever you want with."
Aiden looked back up at her face. "Seven dollars?" He said in a slightly more frustrated tone. "Looks like more than that, miss."
Emma grimaced.
Hmm. Should I have let him think that it was a few hundred? Whatever. I need to get back on topic. I need to get back to Caleb.She cleared her throat loudly, so that he would start concentrating more in her than the amount of money that she was holding.
"Mmm..." he mumbled. "Well... I guess.. but you can't tell 'em I let you. No, don't even let 'em see you. Now hurry up and 'gimme the gold!" He said, and she handed the coins to him (that were
not made of gold. But she didn't bother telling him that they were actually metal.).