The Long Journey Home (Across The Lake Book 2)

by Doug Kelly

  In the dim light, they sat at the table and fumbled with the four unlit candles while they contemplated what they should do. A firm knocking rattled the closed front door. Aton and Hauk looked at each other silently for a brief moment, because neither had any idea who it could be. Knuckles firmly rapped on the door again, so Aton rose to open it, and as the metal hinges begged for oil again, a stream of yellow light brightened the room as it flowed past the silhouettes of their two visitors standing on the porch. The closer man who had knocked on the door was short and appeared old and frail. Standing behind him was a much younger man, very tall, with a muscular build and dark hair flowing down to his shoulders. The old man had a thin smile, almost mischievous. His head was full of thick, white hair with neatly trimmed sideburns and a thin mustache. His jacket appeared old and threadbare. He extended his hand to Aton and smiled widely.

  “Greetings,” said the old man. “Larn just told me all about you.” His eyes met Hauk’s curious stare. “Both of you actually.”

  After pumping the man’s hand three times, Aton dropped it. The stranger’s hand was weak, soft, and clean, just like the hand of a rich man. These three things indicated to Aton that their visitor was not a laborer. If the old man had not used his hands to earn a living, then he had to have used his mind, but he did not appear to be from a privileged family. Someone born into a family of wealth would never wear a tattered jacket, even if not in public, because of what it would do to their reputation. Wealth kept a ruling family in power, so the image of a man wearing tattered clothes, which was an indication of poverty, was something that people of power and influence would never tolerate.

  “My name is Resu and this is my son, Banth.”

  Aton later found out that Banth was not Resu’s biological son. Resu never had a conventional family. He was greedy, had always been a loner and preoccupied with his wealth, so he could not be bothered with the needs of a woman. As he had aged, he regretted some of the decisions of his youth that had led him down the path of bachelorhood. Finally wanting a family or something as close to it as he could attain, Resu had adopted a son, named him Banth, and trained him over the years in a very profitable profession. While Banth went from infant to manhood, Resu had taken good care of his adopted son. He educated Banth in the community, which was rare for a child of the villages, and the boy grew up to be a tall, broad shouldered man. As Resu had grown older and increasingly feeble, Banth’s intimidating size allowed him to be a bodyguard for his father.

  “Larn was here not long ago, but he’s gone,” said Aton. “Are you looking for him?”

  Hauk stood up from the uncomfortable wooden chair. He leaned forward to look out the open doorway and see if any other visitors were on their way. He saw none.

  “No. I’m here to see Aton.” Resu’s eyes shifted quickly from Aton to Hauk. After noticing the scars on Hauk’s wrists, he locked eyes with Aton again. “I think you’re Aton. Correct?”

  Aton did not answer, but instead, he threw a quick glance at Hauk.

  Resu did not wait for Aton to respond. “Don’t be shy.” Resu slapped Aton on the shoulder. “Your friend standing by the table is Hauk, and your name is Aton. Larn told me all about you, both of you.”

  “Yes. You’ve guessed correctly, but what do you want?”

  Banth finally spoke, in much the same friendly tone as his father. “Maybe you should invite us inside.”

  “My legs are weary,” said Resu. “Do you mind if we sit down and talk for a while?”

  Aton moved from the doorway and extended his hand toward the chairs by the table. When Resu moved forward, Aton could see that Banth was carrying a lit candle in a covered metal holder. Because of that, he wondered how long they planned to stay, and he still had no idea what they wanted to discuss.

  “My dear friends, I’m the moneychanger. My son and I want to see if there is anything that we can help you with…discreetly.”

  Hauk’s ears perked up. “Shut the door behind you,” said Hauk. He suspected that Resu wanted to talk about changing jewelry into locally accepted currency, something that would be easy to spend. He hoped for small denominations, which would not attract attention when spending their wealth. He was very interested in the impending conversation, but he had never participated in this type of negotiation.

  Resu was the best at what he did, because he was a shrewd negotiator, and he never flashed his wealth. If he had displayed the image of a wealthy man, those who had bartered with him would have always expected him to afford more from his side of the trade, and they would have asked for it.

  Banth shut the front door, just as Hauk had instructed him, and then placed his candleholder on the tabletop. He sat next to his father, on one of the hard wooden chairs.

  When Hauk asked, “What did Larn tell you?” Banth picked up and tipped one of the table’s four unlit candles, so that its wick touched his candle’s orange flame, lighting it.

  “He did nothing more than show me the fine presents that you gave him. He likes you, and I think that we will like you, too.” Resu removed a small leather pouch from his jacket. The coins inside the pouch rattled together as he placed it on the table. With two fingers swollen from arthritis, Resu widened the neck of the purse and tipped the bag. A small handful of silver coins fell onto the table. “Aton, that was a nice gold broach and silver ring that you gave to Larn. Do you have anything else? Possibly some more jewelry? Maybe we could be of assistance. Do you have anything that you would like to turn into currency?” He jingled the coins on the tabletop in an enticing way. “Anything else that you would like to get rid of? Something to trade for a few silver coins?” Resu cupped the coins in his hand, pulled Aton’s hand forward, and pressed the silver coins into Aton’s palm. “I’ll guess that you have never possessed that much wealth in your life. It could be yours, all of it. I’m the man that can help you, so be honest with me. What else do you men have? I can trade local currency for it, and I can be discreet. Maybe you have another ring. Do you have something in your pockets that you are tired of carrying around? Anything?”

  Aton could now see that beneath the torn and frayed jacket, Resu was wearing nice clothes. He wore clean clothes permeated with the scent of expensive cologne. This shrewd businessman was trying to wear the camouflage of poverty, so that he did not imply to those whom he negotiated with that he had an excess of wealth, but wearing a ragged, threadbare overcoat had not tricked Aton, because he understood the misdirection. Although Resu had fooled most people, Aton was too clever.

  “How much did you give Larn for the gold broach?”

  “I’m sorry, but that information is confidential. I said that I’m discreet.”

  Aton put the meager coins back on the table and slid them over to Resu. “We do have a few things that we need to get rid of, quietly. Don’t we, Hauk?”

  “Yes. Maybe a few things, but I don’t think some silver coins are worth my time.” Hauk tried to contain a facetious smile.

  Banth, who had been quietly staying out of the discussion, finally said something. “Let’s be honest. We don’t care if it’s stolen. We just provide a service. It’s just business, so if you’ve got a little ring or trinket that you need to turn into spendable currency, let’s just do it. We have other business requiring our attention.” He was not as patient as his father was.

  “Very well.” Aton stood and plunged his hands deep into his pockets. “Let’s see what you can do with this.” He removed his hands, which were bulging with a tangled mess of jewelry, and he dropped all of it, forming a pile in front of the old man. It had poured out of his hands in a noisy cascade of clinking, precious metals.

  Resu’s eyes bulged as he gasped for air. He clutched his chest with his crooked, arthritic fingers. The old man was shocked silent for a moment.

  “By the gods!” exclaimed Banth. “What is this? Who are you?”

  Resu extended a shaky finger and poked at the pile as if he did not believe it was there. Hauk dumped his two handfuls onto the
original pile, and Resu gasped again as a small artery began to pulsate visibly on his temple. His hand retreated from the glittering pile, and he used it to fan himself. “Forgive my reaction. I expected a ring or a dainty necklace, but not this…This is magnificent!”

  Aton took Resu’s small coins off the table, gave half to Hauk, and said, “That’s the down payment. I’ll expect a giant pile of large silver coins in exchange for this. Do we have a deal?”

  While Banth humbly nodded his head to agree, his father answered with a confident, “Yes,” and his thin smile returned, wider and more mischievous than ever. Resu opened his jacket and evenly distributed all of the newly acquired valuables into hidden pockets.

  “Do you have any more?” asked Resu. “Anything else to trade?”

  “No, you got the last of it.” Aton lied rather than reveal everything that they possessed. A large fortune remained hidden under the floorboards. If this deal went bad, they would still have some hidden coins and the remaining jewelry to trade somewhere else. “This is all that we have rummaged from an ancient city. We’re ready to spend it.” Aton thought that if this transaction went well, at the next one he would convert some of the jewelry into gold coins, a real sign of wealth.

  “My son will return shortly with your silver coins.”

  The hinges creaked as Banth opened the door for his father.

  Resu laughed at the crooked door and its noisy, ragged hinges. “Maybe you can buy a new door soon.”

  “Maybe a new cabin,” replied Hauk.

  Aton smirked, but what he did not know was that Hauk was serious. Hauk was ready to settle down and spend the money to buy and experience everything denied to him during his life as a slave.

  In stark contrast, Aton did not intend to plant his roots in this town. His thoughts were preoccupied with Esina, how he could reunite with the love of his life and his family, but he wanted to do that in his own village, not here in Tarply.

  The door creaked again as it shut behind the father and son.

  “Do you think they gave us everything?” asked Banth, as he swung up the candleholder by its wire handle to illuminate his father’s face.

  “Of course not. Why would they do that? They’ll be back. You wait and see. They’ll be back with more.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  During the next several weeks, Aton and Hauk tried to maintain a low profile, but their anonymity was short-lived. Soon after their arrival in Tarply, Larn visited with many of the merchants, explaining who the newcomers were, and he informed the shops’ proprietors that if Aton or Hauk wanted to purchase anything, they should extend the town’s two newest citizens credit in his name. However, when the two strangers did go from shop to shop, they paid for everything with silver coins, never once asking for credit. In a village still desperate for normal commerce to resume, the shopkeepers noticed and appreciated bulging pockets filled with money. Rumors and speculation of who these two men really were and where they had actually come from flourished.

  Some of Tarply’s citizens theorized that Aton and Hauk were wild outlaws who had abducted a warlord and escaped with the ransom. Others simply thought that they were wealthy merchants, who during better times, might not have been so uncommon. Economic circumstances had recently changed, so the two new men in town were as extremely welcome in all the merchants’ shops as was the tantalizing jingle of their silver coins. Regardless, raiding nomads had ruined inter-village trading around Tarply, and the economic downturn continued. Although the raids had apparently stopped, harsh memories of their past troubles with the nomads were hard to forget, so if people even suspected that there was a threat of nomads on the trade routes, and many still did, they chose not to risk their lives over a wagon full of goods.

  During the bad times, to travel safely through the forests, on the trade roads, or onto the open plains, required a group of soldiers large enough to deter the organized gangs of nomad bandits. The local inhabitants had not known Tarply for possessing a powerful army teeming with brave warriors who were thirsty for battle. The neighboring towns recognized this village for its metal and cloth trade, which was still desperately suffering. Without the protection of well-armed soldiers, those merchants who had ventured unprepared across the land disappeared much like an insect in a spider’s web. Without security on the roads, the town’s economic activity had diminished, causing a great suffering among the people. Therefore, when the two newcomers had arrived in each shop, with pockets bulging with silver, they were more than welcome, not thought of as peculiar or mysterious, but accepted with open arms and open tills.

  Aton and Hauk wanted to rid themselves of the tunics made with fabric woven from coarse wool yarn, and the uncomfortable leather pants, too. That style of attire was suitable for hard labor and could withstand traversing through the thick forests, but it was not appropriate fashion for life in a clan village. They desired comfortable clothes, made of linen with a high thread count, which was soft to the touch and finely embroidered.

  Before visiting a tailor, they went to a barber, who was also the village dentist, and had their straggly hair trimmed short. It had grown too long during their travels abroad, and their beards had grown lengthy, too. Hauk had grown tired of his facial hair, so he had the barber get rid of it with a straight razor made from Tarply’s best steel. He had always preferred not to have a beard.

  Aton had seen his reflection in a bucket of water, and he liked the change in his exterior, because he thought that maybe a beard would help conceal his identity. He decided to keep his whiskers neatly trimmed rather than have a clean-shaven appearance.

  Now that they had cut their long hair and attended to their beards, they went to the creek and used a bar of lye soap to scrub the remaining dirt and grime from their bodies. Even though they had bathed with soap, Aton and Hauk still feared that the lingering odor of swamp stench plagued their skin, so they doused themselves with an expensive fragrance that they had purchased from the town barber. The barber had made the scented oil with rose petals and lavender, but he had not intended the fragrance for men, because there was nothing masculine about it. Their pervasive body odor from months on the run without frequent bathing and from the toxic ooze in the swamp was more than even a wild boar could tolerate, so the barber had encouraged them to apply it liberally to their bodies. Aton and Hauk had agreed to the barber’s suggestion, preferring to have an eccentric aroma rather than an offensive one, especially while establishing a pleasant reputation for themselves in a village of strangers.

  Aton and Hauk were clean, shrouded with the aroma of spring flowers, and were ready for new clothes. The tailor could not have cared less if a lingering foul odor emanated from the old clothes of these two customers, because he knew they were replete with coins. To a man desperate for a sale, the scent of money was more powerful than their waning stench. All he could smell were the silver coins, jingling in the bulges of their deep pockets. At the haberdashery, Aton and Hauk rid themselves of their old clothes and found some loose cotton shirts and linen pants that would suffice while the tailor and his wife created the made-to-fit wardrobe. Hauk was still self-conscious of the scars on his wrists, so he had the tailor design shirts with long sleeves and fancy, ruffled cuffs. Aton desired nothing exotic; he preferred not having attention drawn to him, but he did request that the tailor create a hooded cloak for him. Aton was still obsessed with getting back to Esina and his family, but he feared that someone might recognize him if he went closer to his old home, especially if there was a bounty on his head. If he wore a cloak in the presence of people who might know him, he thought that he might be able to pull the hood over his head and slip into the shadows, thereby escaping possible recognition. For the cloak, he had a silversmith make a thin chain and clasp to fasten the cape together at the collar. The weather was cooler now, so Aton made a habit of wearing the hooded cape. It was like his trademark, symbolic of the mysterious man it shrouded.

  As more weeks passed, Aton and Hauk did less toget
her, devoting time to their separate passions. Aton and Hauk were socially different. After spending his life repressed as a slave, Hauk’s personality had slowly transitioned after gaining his freedom. He developed an extroverted disposition, and he became well known in Tarply and adored in the community. Aton remained a loner.

  One day, while traversing from shop to shop, Hauk happened to set his eyes on Aniku, the village’s schoolteacher, while she instructed a classroom full of students. She was young and beautiful. A quick sample of her loveliness through the open window of the school was all it took to make Hauk want to become literate. He quietly entered the classroom, not intending to attract attention to himself, and stood in a rear corner. He watched her with as much fascination as he had the young children who could, by scribbling the letters of the alphabet onto a fragment of dark slate, concatenate these strange symbols into lines of written words, and then turn their writing into spoken sentences. Standing in the corner, he might have thought that he was inconspicuous, but he was certainly not invisible. When the instructor asked him in a kind way what business he had there, he was at a momentary loss for words. Her soft tone and the gentleness in her voice mesmerized him. He had thought that by standing in the corner, he would be unassuming, but with his new clothes and new wealth, all of which had resulted in his newly found confidence, he was actually standing quite grandly, as if he were somebody important. She thought that he was attractive and politely reserved, which were two qualities that she desired in a man, so she invited him to stay and observe, participate if he felt like it, and he could return the next day if he desired. He did, faithfully returning each day.