Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (35 page)

Gregory enjoyed the trip to Sicily. He sat outside on deck of the ferry. The airstream was splattering sea spray in his face. The last few months passed before his inner eye like some movie. It hadn’t even been six months ago when he had led a reasonably more or less normal life. Ok, maybe he had a few problems back then, because of his fiery temper issues, but compared to his current life, that had been nothing at all, except chicken feed. Back then he had a home, a family. Now he had nothing at all, and he was constantly on the run. As if all of this was not enough, his persecutors and their motifs constantly changed too. Sure, he would bring these amulets to the crater and on his way to the volcano, he was certain to be followed and with some bad luck attacked again. He sighed. It was not easy these days to distinguish friend from enemy. All of them wanted something from him, well, that was probably unfair, not all of them were after something, but most of them. He asked himself what would happen once he had fulfilled his mission. He honestly didn’t have the slightest idea.
Could he ever lead a normal life again?
Or, would it always continue to be this way? If he fulfilled his mission, who would prevent his enemies from killing him? Would he be forever on the run? The Vultures would undoubtedly lose their powers – as far as they had some, but each one of them was still able to hold a gun. These prospects got him somewhat depressed. And there was this old man on the bus who told him that he had to find a particular Marcos because there was a third amulet, which he had to bring to Canada. It might be better not to think about it too much. Who knew? Maybe a miracle was going to happen, changing the course of things. As the saying was? Time would tell. First, he had to deal with another unobtrusive task, the ascent to Mount Etna. Find the best possible route. The tourist route and the cable car were for sure out of question, and if everything should go wrong, he could still take off to South America and settle down, where no one knew him, after completing his mission and being able to get away without being shot or whatever. Previously of taking off to his new lonely life, still considering he survived the whole thing, he had to see Leyla one last time in Sliema to be able to go on. He consulted Google regarding the best route climbing Mount Etna. Once he arrived in Catania, there was a bus, which drove every morning in the Parco del Etna. With the fancy equipment, he was carrying in his backpack, he was prepared for all eventualities. He had spent half a fortune in the shopping mall in Sliema. Well, actually Yaros had spent half a fortune, and he was going to drop dead with no doubt when he received his next credit card bill.

He read that the greatest dangers while climbing the Etna was the unpredictable weather, especially in late summer. Well, it was already October. He continued reading. Aha, in October it sometimes snowed heavily. Great prospect. Speaking of prospects, they didn’t seem to be too good either, he read on, one could suddenly get into the dense fog in the ash fields and become disoriented. How convenient. Also, if everything seemed to be calm, explosions could occur at any time, and toxic gas was lethal, it was so to speak deadly. He continued reading. Don’t enter the summit crater under any circumstances without a mountain guide! Well, sorry he couldn’t take that into consideration, could he ever? He took his time browsing the Internet learning how to get to the crater, but he didn’t clearly find out into which of the holes he was supposed to throw the amulets. There were different possibilities, as there were several craters.

After considering all options back and forth he chose the largest crater at 3350m of height, it was the Central crater. He would rent a jeep, to get from Rifugio up to the Torre del filosofo, at 3000m heights. If that weren't possible, he would join a group of tourists. He had to climb the rest of the way by foot, completely unprotected. There wouldn’t be any bushes or something of the kind at that height to hide during the climb. He hoped that he would arrive there before the vultures did. As he arrived in Catania and was inconclusively looking around for any means of transportation at the port, a little old man with thick snow-white hair approached him. His face looked like tanned leather, but his dark eyes were wide awake, and he had a certain resemblance to the homeless guy from Malta, who had whispered the mantra of the third amulet in his ear on the bus and disappeared after that. "You look lost. Can I help you?"

Gregory knew he was supposed to be on guard, but then again, he had to reach the crater as quickly as possible. So, he decided to give it a try. "I need to get to the Torre del filosofo urgently, if possible today." The old man looked at him with a wry smile, "It's already afternoon and at the Torre del filosofo there is no place to stay. Climbing to Mount Etna at night would be suicidal." Gregory looked up in surprise, "You are familiar with the ascent to the craters?"
"I was a member of the mountain guides for more than twenty years at the Gruppo Alpina Etna Sud, and I can take you there by jeep, but today I can take you only to Rifugio Sapienza."
"That's great. Then you sure can give me some good advice concerning the ascent?" "Boy, why do you want to go up there by yourself? I can take you there if you want." "It's too dangerous, you just tell me what I have to consider, and then I can do it alone. I don’t want you to take unnecessary risks." The old man looked at him blankly, as if he had just made a good joke. "You, putting me in danger? I am a mountain guide. Haven’t you been listening to me? A sole ascent for an inexperienced boy like you is a dangerous game."
"No, you don’t understand, I have to go up there to get something done, it's not a game, so what am I supposed to do?" Gregory looked at him imploringly, "I can pay you." The old man squinted and patted him on the shoulder, "You're kidding, right? What can be up there that you need to do?"

But, apparently he understood at once that Gregory was serious about it and his expression changed from being surprised to being interested. "You are serious about it? Then I suppose that you have some reasonable equipment, as up there it is pretty damn cold," Gregory nodded, and the old man continued, "you have to be very careful about the weather, I mean observe any change, this is most important." He eagerly leered at him, as if he would be very interested in, what he had to say on the subject. "The weather is irrelevant," Gregory said, and the man nodded as if he had suddenly understood what was going on. On the other hand, he might just think he was crazy. Gregory wasn’t sure. "Well, then come with me, we will get Yolanda."
"Who is Yolanda?"
"My SUV."
"Aha," Gregory failed to ask why his SUV was called Yolanda. He nodded and followed the man.

"Oh, by the way, I am Giovanni. Is this your first time in Sicily? Gregory didn’t feel like regaling him with the story of his life, and he just wanted him to get to this darn crater before the vultures shot him with a telescopic sight or whatever methods they had up their sleeves. He felt like a walking target, "No, I've been to Solanto, but could we, please get going?" he looked around uneasily. "You're quite impatient, boy, are you under prosecution or what is your problem?"
"Don’t be ridiculous. I just want to get out of here." Giovanni looked at him from his furrowed face and nodded. "Take it easy. We're almost there."

They turned into a side street to the harbor and walked about fifty meters until they came to a rather run-down, probably former white house, which looked now yellow and grayish. The facade of the sandstone building crumbled in some places. Across the street pieces of clothing were clamped on a rope to the opposite house. "We have to be quiet so that Yolanda can't hear us. Otherwise, there will be some fuss and it will be hard to leave as quickly as you would want to." Gregory rolled his eyes. The old man was apparently out of his mind. First, he claimed that his SUV was called Yolanda and now they should be quiet so that the car wasn’t able to hear them coming. He wondered if it was such a good idea to go with Giovanni. Perhaps he was luring him into some trap. But, he honestly didn’t have any other options, so he would just go with it.

Giovanni opened the old garage door carefully, but it still creaked considerably. A huge black jeep was standing in front of them. On its hood, there were two bullhorns. The Jeep was a real monster. Gregory had never seen such a bulky monster of a SUV, and it looked more like one of those Hummer cars with the top down. "Get in here boy before Yolanda appears," Giovanni whispered. Gregory threw his backpack on the back seat of the monster and sat on the passenger seat. From above they heard an angry female voice, "Giovanni, is that you? It’s about time you showed up, where have you been?"
"Hold on tight, boy!" Giovanni pressed the accelerator, and the car shot out of the garage like a black, huge cat. Gregory grabbed the door handle, to avoid from bumping his head against the windscreen, "My God, I am not in that kind of a hurry. Are you going to close the garage door?"
"Forget it. We have to go. Yolanda doesn’t like surprises, and if she hears that I am taking you to the volcano, she’ll freak out, and believe me, you don’t want that to happen."

"Who's Yolanda? I thought the car’s name was Yolanda?"
"Yolanda is my wife and the car, named after her." He looked at him with a crooked smile from the side, "After you've seen the car, you can imagine what type of woman my wife is, I suppose." Gregory could hardly suppress a grin, "A bold type, from the looks of it."
"That's right, and it's better if we leave before she sees us." Gregory understood, "But why did you accept taking me to the volcano if you are getting in trouble with your wife for it?" Giovanni looked at him briefly, "Because I've been waiting for your arrival." Then he turned his eyes back to the narrow road, which was sorely needed because these locals drove like madmen. At the slightest incident, there was a chorus of horns from all sides. Giovanni joined the honking skillfully, and Gregory sighed with relief once they had safely left the city behind and continued on the stony road. Gregory still thought about his words, when Giovanni's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "I'm sorry, I had to focus first on traffic. The traffic in Catania is quite turbulent."

"Guess, you could say that, but what did you mean, when you told me you were waiting for me."
"Exactly what I said, your arrival has been foretold for years, and I have heard from Tiziana that you were about to come. It's my job to bring you to the volcano."
"You know Tiziana?" Gregory was stunned. "She is my sister."
"I thought her brother was Emanuele and that he died a long time ago."
"Yes, but she also has another brother, me."
"She hasn’t told me anything about this."
"I believe you, actually nobody knows, in my youth most people thought I was some weirdo, focusing too much on our Onenda heritage. Emanuele couldn't deal with his powers, I have passed my time with old stories, and then I have made it my life’s quest to find out everything there is to know about the Etna with heart and soul." Gregory didn’t know what to say, "What exactly is my part in this matter in your opinion and how are you planning to help me?"
"I will bring you as close as possible to the crater with Yolanda so that you can fulfill your destiny before the local Vultures can kill you."

"You know, that there will also be some Canadian Vultures up there, and they do have elementary powers, all of them."
"That's not a problem. Gaetano, you can handle them. You have immense power, but to dodge a bullet, that's another story that maybe Keanu Reeves manages in the Matrix, but reality is different."
"You do know my original name?" Gregory frowned, and then suddenly it fell like scales from the eyes, "Then you're Keanu’s Uncle!" Giovanni nodded, "He will be here soon, to keep the Vultures at bay, we hope that the Milan don’t come too late and that Mikiel is not part of the game."
"Unfortunately, I think he is, in any case, he had a fight with Keanu, before I left." "Yes, he's a troublemaker, even though he's not a bad guy. He is simply impatient and impetuous, which is just difficult in certain situations. But don't worry, we will win even if Mikiel shows up." Gregory was silent for a while, and it was slowly getting dark. The moon was a narrow white crescent on a sky full of stars, in different shades of red.

"Can I ask you something?" Giovanni looked at him questioningly, "you said that you studied the history of the Sicilian Onendas in details." He nodded, "yes, I did. You can ask me anything you want to know."
"What will happen to me after I throw the two amulets into the crater, and what will happen to all of the Onendas? Assuming, that I survive, can I lead a normal life? You know, go back to school, with my girlfriend, my family, and my friends. I mean to get back to everything that makes life worth living. Or must I still hide in the shadow somewhere?"
"Unfortunately, I can’t completely answer your question. The legend says that the volcano wants the amulets back, to break the curse. Otherwise, the island will blow up followed by an enormous seaquake. Which means everybody on the island will die the Onenda, Mafiosi, Vulture, or whoever. Besides, the impact certainly would have a disastrous effect on the rest of the world, which means no matter the consequences, you have to do it. You have no choice.

If you succeed, there will be one final task for you to complete, and then you can live quite normally. Not completely normal, as there is another little problem, particularly concerning your friends and family." Gregory looked at him alarmed, "What does that mean? What kind of a task, and why does it affect my friends and family?"
"There is no reason to get upset, you have no choice, and there will certainly be a way out to solve the problem."
"What the hell is the problem?"
"Take it easy, so first you have to search for the third amulet and bring it to the tribal elders in Canada, only then your mission will finally be over. That’s the hard part, and unfortunately, no one knows where the third amulet is. Rumor has it that it is located in Malta that much is clear because Jamiro has taken all three amulets the ones of Ourday, Chiana, and Alawa. So, you have to find a man with a particular tattoo, - an eight with the four elements, a feather and three birds symbolizing the three Onenda siblings. But, that shouldn’t pose a big problem. Keanu and Mikiel can certainly help you find the man."