Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1)

by Aaron Hicks

  “That’s still more money then we’ll ever be able to spend.”

  “I know, but when you’re feeling better, the four of us are going to try our best to make a dent in it by taking a vacation to the Isle de Tramonto. We’ll see how pampered we can become. We’re probably going to spend a few months there, so we’ll have a late birthday party for you then, when you’re feeling better.” She stopped in the kitchen, “What do you think breakfast or bed?”

  “Food, I definitely need food first. Also I totally agree with you and Tylor about needing protection.” Heathyr sat him at the table and he slumped forward. “So we should probably go now and spend some of the money before I’m better. And before others clue into how much money we made. With Myrtin’s family coming into wealth, and Tylor building whatever he’s going to build, it’ll quickly become obvious. Also it’ll give us something to do while I heal, other than wait for me to heal.”

  “Good. That’s what we thought too.” said Laurilli as she walked out of her room, “We just wanted to give you space or time if you needed it.” She kissed him and helped Heathyr painfully settle him in a chair. But he couldn’t balance himself, so Laurilli at next to him and made sure he didn’t fall over while Heathyr made breakfast. “What did I hear about a birthday?”

  “We missed Uktesh’s birthday. It was while he was unconscious,”

  “We’ll have to make up for that soon.” Basam came down the ladder from Uktesh’s old room and helped set the table. Uktesh couldn’t believe how good Laurilli smelled and felt. Being allowed to lean on her was something he wasn’t going to get used to, and from the way her hand rubbed his arm and hand, he could guess that she didn’t mind it one bit either.

  “Basam is glad to hear that we will be leaving. Basam has been getting strange looks from the villagers. Basam believes our jig is up and people are beginning to learn that you have money. Basam also regrets that Basam didn’t know of your day of birth.”

  “Sorry about the looks Basam. Again if you want to leave you are free to. And don’t worry about missing my birthday, I did too.”

  “Hello in the house!” someone shouted from outside, and Uktesh quickly realized that it was Larut.

  “Come on in Larut!” shouted Li.

  “I heard through the grapevine that someone was awake!” he shouted as he stepped into the kitchen.

  “I live, if only barely. I’ve been caught up on some things, the prize money, the walled compound, and the vacation plans, but not what’s going on with you. My guess is no magical belt needed.” he said with a smile.

  “Well, I guess I never had a magical belt, but it’s true I’m suddenly more popular with the ladies. Truth be told, though, I’ve been too busy for the ladies. I’ve been helping Tylor out and it’s coming along great. We bought the land, hired the help, and the north wall is almost built already. We’ve planned out the grounds. Heathyr your home is going to be built first, so that you can move from here as quickly as possible, because you’re the only person who’s truly isolated. Myrtin’s family will be moving in next. Also they decided to only keep two million gold and will be giving the rest to the compound being built. Repus and Esolc will be living there too. But with us being single, we’ll be moving in last.”

  “Wow you guys sound like you’ve planned this out really well, and quickly too. I’m impressed. Do you need my help for anything?” Uktesh asked.

  “Hell yes! We’re lost without a boy unable to move on his own!” but it was said with a smile, “Well, not yet at least. We’ll want your opinion when we start with the fortifications, but that won’t be for a while. Once you’re better, though, you’ll have to make up for lost manual labor. I just came to see for my own eyes that you survived that fight.”

  “I guess it was a close thing, but here I am. On a more fun note, we’ve decided to go to the Isle De Tramonto to speed my recovery, or maybe just to relax while I do.”

  “That’s a great idea. I’d join you, but Tylor has me playing the role of errand boy, so I can’t. But maybe Esolc or Repus will be able to join you. When are you leaving?”

  Heathyr and Laurilli looked at each other then Basam and then Uktesh and Heathyr said, “Today if possible.”

  “Then I’d better hurry and find them. I’ll leave you to your packing, and hopefully when you get back, you’ll be able to move into a safer home.” He quickly left and the four of them decided that after Uktesh ate some meat, they would start packing for the trip. Laurilli cut up some of last night’s meal, while Heathyr heated some broth, and they decided to have a quick breakfast. As Basam joined them at the table, Laurilli fed Uktesh some of the meat she had cut for him. He chewed mechanically surprised that even his jaw muscles were sore. “Sorry to make you do this.” Uktesh said to Laurilli between bites.

  “I don’t mind. I kind of like being able to take care of you for once.” she gave her mom a flat stare.

  “I, for one, am glad that you didn’t take care of me, in that way. I’m not sure if embarrassment is something you can truly die from, but I know that it would’ve been a close thing.”

  She put a larger amount of food on her fork, and said, “Here. Eat this and hush up, while I still enjoy feeding you.” She sighed and asked rhetorically, “Do you remember the peaceful days when he was unconscious?”

  “Basam thinks you just want to get even with him for what he saw on the morning of the final day.” Basam replied.

  This made Uktesh remember the heavenly vision he was given the morning of the final day. “Look at his face!” Laurilli exclaimed. “He has that memory to think back on, but I don’t. It isn’t fair.”

  “I tell you what, when I’m feeling better,” started Uktesh.

  “You better not finish that sentence in earshot of me,” said Heathyr, “or you’ll find yourself not getting better.”

  “I was just going to say that when I’m feeling better we can respect a mother’s wishes for her daughter’s innocence.”

  “You better remember that.”

  “So, it’s still not fair to me.” Heathyr placed the food in front of everyone else and Uktesh found a second helping in front of himself and realized that he’d already finished with Laurilli’s help.

  “Laurilli, I want to whisper something to you, but I can’t move myself. So please put your ear near my mouth.” Uktesh said.

  Laurilli moved her head closer and, while he ignored how much closer she was to him and how good she smelled, he whispered, “You know that your mother can’t possibly keep an eye on both of us once we’re at the Isle to Tramonto. So let’s play it cool until then.”

  She sat back and said, “You’re right, Uktesh, we can’t do those things in the same house as her anyways. So we’ll have to wait until we’re alone at the resort before we enjoy ourselves.”

  Uktesh blushed and felt his jaw drop. He obediently ate the bite that Laurilli offered him and carefully didn’t look at Heathyr. Once an eternity seemed to pass and he swallowed, he said, “Li, a question if you may?”

  “Please proceed.” she said sweetly.

  “What demon possesses your mind?”

  “One of payback. If you have that memory, I’ll have this one.”

  “You know this means we’ll both be grounded while at the resort, right?”

  “Nope, because my mother’s smart enough to know to trust us. Cause unless she wants to,” she glanced at Uktesh and fed him a large bite, “stop the Laurilli and Uktesh-”

  “Ukmesh nd Orili,” Uktesh tried to say with his mouth full.

  “Heroes for hire job,” she grinned and continued, “then she’ll know that she can’t be with us every second of the day.”

  “I think that she’s wise enough to know when she’s being manipulated.” Heathyr said dryly.

  After they had all eaten, Laurilli helped him to her room, our room I guess, and he lay down, while the three able people moved with purpose around the house and collected the things that they would need for the journey as well as their stay
. Laurilli stopped by their room often just to smile at him quickly, and move on. I can’t believe I’m engaged! Then he realized that he had something to do. Painfully, he sat up and swung his legs over the bed. He felt much stronger with the breakfast food in his stomach and slowly stood up. His hands were still pretty useless, but with the combined strength of his legs and arms he pushed himself out of the room and towards the kitchen, sweat had already formed on his head.

  “What are you doing?” asked Heathyr.

  He didn’t look at her, just walked slowly on, “I have something that I must do, a promise to keep.”

  “You can keep the promise later. You should be resting. You were barely able to sit and eat with us.

  Uktesh nodded and painfully continued toward the kitchen. Then at the ladder that used to lead to his loft, he paused to catch his breath and slowly started to climb to the loft. He noticed halfway up that the three of them had stopped packing and were staring at him, worry clear in their eyes. With a grunt, he pulled himself up to the top and rolled into the loft. While he caught his breath, Basam came up the ladder and said, “Basam is sure that nothing of Uktesh’s is still in this room, and Basam does not understand why it is so important for you to be here now.”

  “I have something that I must do before we leave.” Uktesh said still on the floor trying to catch his breath, “But if you would like to help, please open up the window.” Basam moved to the window and silently opened it up for Uktesh. Once he had caught his breath, Uktesh painfully climbed to his feet. He used the wall to stabilize himself as he walked to the window. Once there, he shouted as loud as he could, “Laurilli agreed to marry me!”

  Basam smiled as he realized what Uktesh had needed to do. Uktesh slowly made his way back to the ladder, and this time allowed Basam to help him down as he didn’t trust himself fully yet. Once his feet were back on the ground floor, he turned to find Laurilli had waited for him. She rushed into his arms and kissed him with more heat than Uktesh was ready for, and soon they had sunk to the floor when Laurilli was unable or not ready to support his weight. She continued to kiss him and he had no willpower to do anything but join her until a “hem hem!” cough pulled them out of their fog.

  Laurilli’s face was already red, but quickly became even more crimson. She raced into another room and Uktesh was left to deal with Heathyr’s unreadable stare alone, “I know what you’re going to say.” Uktesh said carefully, “But before you do, you should know that,” he paused and felt a grin spread across his face, “I don’t regret anything.” He could tell that his smile was like that of a madman, which caused Heathyr to roll her eyes and Basam to laugh. They both walked into another room and continued to pack for the trip, which left Uktesh on his own to try and stand. He used the ladder to help himself back to his feet and slowly made his way back to his room.

  Uktesh lay on the bed and waited for his breath to return to normal, but before it had, there was a shout from outside, “Hello the house!” and Uktesh recognized Esolc’s voice.

  Li shouted, “Come on in! We are just about to finish up getting packed for the trip.”

  Uktesh heard two separate sets of feet walk into the house and knew that Repus had decided to join in on the fun at the Isle de Tramonto. They pitched in and helped pack the cart and soon it was time for Uktesh to make his way to the cart as well. To speed up the process, he allowed Repus and Laurilli to help him along the way. Soon he was lifted into the cart and once everyone else was settled, Heathyr and Laurilli on the bench of the cart, the three men on their horses, their journey began.

  They had taken all of their money and all of their expensive possessions, except their furniture, because for one, they had assumed that people would assume that they were moving forever and second, that they didn’t want anything of value to be stolen. As they made their way through town, they were greeted by the stares of everyone they passed. Repus and Esolc pointed out where the compound was being built and Larut hadn’t been lying when he said only the north wall was up. But the place still looked familiar to Uktesh, so he asked Li, “Hey Li, why does this field looked familiar to me?”

  It was Repus who answered, “From what I understand, this is where you fought the minotaur.” and suddenly he knew that that was where he remembered it from.

  They stopped to say goodbye to Tylor, and they explained where they were going, to which he replied, “Larut already explained everything to me, and I have to agree that this is the best plan.”

  Heathyr asked, “Would you mind picking up our furniture from the house so that it doesn’t get stolen while we’re gone?”

  “That won’t be a problem. I’ll store it until your house in the compound is ready, and then we’ll move it in for you.”

  “Thank you, you’re too kind.”

  “Think nothing of it. I’m more than happy to help the lady that helped make it so that I never have to work another day, if I don’t wish it.”

  “I’m just glad that most of us made it home safely.”

  “I’ll miss him until the day I die, but Myrtin’s family is great. And even though they miss their father, his kids know that he loved them, and that’s a rare thing in too many families. Soon, that is to say whenever you get back, you’ll get to meet them as well.”

  “I look forward to it.” Heathyr said.

  Tylor walked around to Laurilli and said, “You take care. Keep an eye out for Uktesh and make sure he doesn’t do anything too foolish again.”

  “I’ll try my best.” she said as she jumped down out of the cart to hug him.

  “You two, continue doing what you’re doing.” he said to Repus and Esolc, “Shirking your responsibilities to go have fun on a resort island, where you’ll laze away the days, eat until your heart’s content, and hit on all the hot island girls.”

  “You know it.” they both said in unison, and everyone had a laugh at that.

  “Basam, I just met you and already I will miss you being around.” they shook hands and Tylor lifted himself so that he could see into the cart where Uktesh was lying. After only a quick look of worry, he said, “And you, Uktesh, you need to heal, so that when you come back, we’ll be able to count on your sword if we need to defend our homes. On a more serious note, though, you should probably stay for at least half a year, because we won’t have the compound ready until then.” Uktesh lifted his hand and Tylor took it with a nod.

  “Half a year away, this place will probably be completely different.” said Uktesh.

  Tylor laughed, “Here for sure, but I think you mean Manori itself.”

  Uktesh nodded, “A sudden influx of money will bring many looking for work and this little town may become a lot bigger.”

  “You always look at things from an odd perspective, but I’m glad one of us does.”

  Uktesh smiled and nodded again, “One suggestion before it gets too far along. The wall is ten feet high, right? I’d double that and double the thickness. When I’m better, I’ll show how easy it is to get over something ten feet tall.” he nodded.

  “This is why I wish you would take better care of yourself. I thought that ten feet was plenty.” Laurilli got back in the cart and, with one more wave of goodbye, they once again began to travel south towards the Isle de Tramonto.

  They were each silent for a time, wrapped in their own thoughts, but soon Basam broke the silence with a question, “Does anyone know how to get to the Isle de Tramonto?”

  When nobody spoke up, Heathyr said, “Since we’re heading south, we can just ask for directions when we get to Jubay on the coast, or we can ask at Baenok, if we went out of the way, by an hour.”

  Everyone agreed that that was a good idea and as the cart continued to move south at a leisurely pace, Uktesh tried to ignore the pain that each bump caused. Laurilli switched places carefully, so that she would be able to lay with him in the space that they had made for him. She didn’t say anything and didn’t have to, but soon having her near him and with the exertions of the morning, he fell
asleep.

  Uktesh woke up to a full bladder. Laurilli was asleep and she had rolled so that half her body was on him. Both of them were under a cover and he saw that it was night out. He couldn’t believe that an entire day had passed and that he had slept through it. He knew that he had to wake Laurilli up, so he kissed her tenderly on the lips, only to be head butted into a wooden crate. Slightly dizzy, he saw that Laurilli was awake and he saw her rub her head, as she tried to massage away the pain. “Do you think that you could get off me for just one moment?” Uktesh asked her once she was done massaging her head.

  “Why?”

  “Well I have to relieve myself and if you could help me out of the cart, I would appreciate that.”

  “Oh sure. Now that I’m the only one awake to help you, you’re conveniently able to take care of yourself.”

  “Look,” he said with a grin, “if you hadn’t gotten even this morning, I’d be more than happy to let you help me now. But you had to allow a demon of payback to corrupt your words.”

  Laurilli’s eyes turned cold and, for a moment, Uktesh feared for his safety. “Fine.” she said in a way that told him that it wasn’t fine at all. She got off of him and jumped out of the cart. When she didn’t return, Uktesh painfully propped himself up. He sat up and looked over the edge of the cart and saw that she was nowhere in sight. He slowly and carefully got to his knees, and then crawled over the side of the cart. Before he used the wheel as a step to help him down, he grabbed a knife with a weak grip. As he walked towards the tree line, he couldn’t help but think that perhaps Laurilli really was upset with him, even though they both knew that what he had seen had been an accident, and both knew that until they were married he shouldn’t let her get even.

  I don’t really know why I have the knife. I’m probably more likely to hurt myself than anything. He felt more safe with it in his possession than he would if he walked toward the trees with no protection. He put the knife in his teeth, as he leaned against a tree to help steady himself. With an extreme amount of pain in his hands, he fumbled with his belt and finally was able to lower his pants enough to relieve himself. There was a rustle from the bushes near him and Laurilli’s voice came from inside them, “That’s it? What’s the big deal about that?”