Caravans of Doridia: The 2nd Chronicle of Jon Hunter (The Saga of Jon Hunter Book 2)

by Ronald Watkins

  My head was light from the wine and with considerable effort I labored up the stairs to the top most level of the tower and in the open night air overlooked the city and the fields beyond the massive stone wall surrounding the city. The wind whipped my cloak about me and the cool breezed stripped my body of its heat and left me chilled. Options remained and as suggested by the Urak of Tonalah I would now approach the Lesser Houses which might be receptive to jointly entering into our endeavor. All was not lost but a deep depression was upon me and I was unable to lift it from me. The wind stirred strongly and rang against my frigid ears and dried the tears from my eyelids before they reached my cheeks.

  18. I Find a Home

  “Ridiculous,” the Free Woman said tossing the bit of cloth back on the dark wooden table from which she had just taken it. “I won’t pay such an outrageous price for material even if it was woven upon the frames of the looms of Runah. I wouldn’t even pay it if it were sold for half that price.”

  “HaIf!” the merchant shouted as though the Free Woman had just insulted him. “If I sold this material of the golden looms of Runah, labored over by loving and conscientious freemen then not only would I be destitute within a few days but I would have paid insult to those who give their skill and talents to the creation of these exquisite cloths that looked so inspiring upon the lovely forms of the Free Women of Lathanah.” The merchant lapsed into silence, waiting for the woman to raise her price but she was accustomed to barter and too remained silent, waiting for the merchant to come down. Neither spoke but I knew in time they would agree upon a fair price for such are all goods sold in Doridia and particularly in the markets. Theirs was a scene repeated many times over, beside every wagon in the caravan drawn up in the massive marketplace located just inside the immense wooden gates of the city.

  I smiled inwardly and left the two to their dickering. I had slept little that past night and when darkness came my thoughts were filled with nightmares and demons which pursued me as I ran endlessly through the darkened forest, never captured and never free of them. I had roused myself near dawn and taken a draught left for me by the physician. I plunged shortly

  thereafter into the heavy sleep of the dead.

  I awakened after the midday meal and now found myself at the marketplace. I had come to speak with Lenah but now at the hour of our meeting I was restless and reluctant. I wandered about the square and witnessed for myself that business flourished. I waved the Merchant Renakor off with my hand when he first spotted me and was about to come and greet me. I wished to remain in the solitude of the masses. I allowed the sounds and bright sights of the market to occupy my mind and for some time passed the afternoon in this way. The day at last drew near its ending and with little enthusiasm I made my way to my own wagon drawn up a short distance from the others and under constant guard.

  The Sekers saluted me as I entered the door at the rear. I was still weak but if I rested long hours I found myself able to get about unescorted. The physician had been correct. I would recover in body from the battle, but a soul, grievously wounded might never heal.

  She sat with a patience that marks all slaves. She had been ordered to await me within my wagon and there she would remain until the orders were changed or until I arrived. She sat in stillness and acknowledged my presence only with her eyes.

  “I see you are still a slave.” She nodded slightly. “Even though you are within the walls of your city you chose slavery to freedom?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you are a fool.” She did not answer. I was weary and sat upon my furs. My body was hot with fever and perspiration bathed my ace. Without asking my slave drew water and gave it to me, wiping my brow as I drank. “I will not be here long, and the caravan will depart as well. If you do not tell me the name of your family then I cannot determine for you if you can return to them and you will remain a slave for all of your life. Let me free you Lehdah. Slavery does not become you.”

  “No, master. I cannot face it. I have thought of nothing since the first moment I saw the city walls but of what I would tell you this moment. I have decided. I cannot bear even the remotest chance that my father would refuse me. Rather than know for certain I shall remain a slave, and not knowing the truth, live out my life, never free but never facing the awful rejection which might follow my freedom. I prefer my dreams and idle hopes to the truth.”

  “You are a foolish woman to refuse freedom. A place could be arranged for you, if not here than in some other city. You can have a life of liberty. You need not remain a slave. It is not the end of the world if your father will not have you back.”

  “It is for me,” she said simply.

  I knew she would not change her mind and I regretted the vain pride that drove her to a decision she might well regret for the remainder of her years. I had done all I could and determined to not address the subject again unless she approached me.

  “Will you not leave with the caravan when it departs, master?”

  “No. It will go on without me.”

  “What will you do then, my master?”

  I said nothing for she was only a slave and I need not acknowledge her question and then too these were matters of my own concern.

  “You will return to the forest and seek out Sofeeah will you not?” I did not reply. “Cannot I please you enough for you to forget her and not throw your life away in a futile gesture?”

  “No, it is not that which I miss in her absence. It is something else, something only she can be for me. Thank you though. I must do what I must once my Urak’s business is concluded here. Think more on what we spoke of before, Lehdah.” Suddenly I was weak and unable to even sit. My body was racked with chills and flashes of hot fever as I lay upon the love furs.

  My slave, Lehdah, tended me and when the delirium passed she stripped my clothes from me and held me tight against her naked flesh as the demons returned and I ran endlessly through the darkened forest.

  ~

  At midmorning I was surprised to be greeted by the youngest son of the Urak Kabatoh. I had passed the night in my own wagon and today felt some return of my usual vigor and vitality. My spirits remained as they had been.

  Ladak was a large, fit man who had elected service as an officer within his father’s House. He was, I was told, highly regarded even though he was from the ranks of the High Caste. He was dark headed and possessed of two remarkably clear eyes which fixed upon you and held you firmly. He was a man of pleasant disposition, unmarried and almost a total stranger to me. I was puzzled at his seeking me out like this for even if he disagreed with his father’s decision he could not voice that disagreement to an outsider or even within the family once his father had spoken on the matter.

  “Greetings, First Officer Hunter,” he said, a bright smile upon his face.

  ‘Greetings, Officer Ladak.”

  “I had in mind doing some marketing and I thought perhaps you might care to accompany me. I went to your quarters but you had not slept in them and so I came here. I trust there has been no offense by anyone in my House?”

  I assured him that there had been none and that I intended to return to his House that evening. Then pleased at his company I went with him about the market as he bartered endlessly for trifles. He desired most of what he saw and seemed to enjoy the buying the best. He was skilled at it and I found pleasure in the measures to which he went to bring the price of goods down.

  By midday we ate at an outdoor vender, freshly cooked meat and vegetables with a uniquely fine light bread which I had never tasted before. We spoke of little matters and in time I asked how many there were in his family.

  “Fortunately both of my parents are well and in good health. You have already met the Urak-to-be, my older and only brother. You also met three of my sisters at diner.”

  “I see then there are five of you children of the Urak Kabatoh.”

  He hesitated and then said, ‘Not actually. There were six, but my youngest sister is dead.”


  “That is unfortunate.”

  He paused before speaking again. “I say she is dead for we assume she met a violent death but we cannot be certain.”

  These were family matters so I changed the conversation to the mundane. We spoke of them for a time and then at a table of fine jewelry he picked up a brooch and said softly almost but not quite, to himself, “She would have liked this.” I did not ask who he meant. “It is a shame, Hunter, is it not that the fairest flower is the one we pick? It is often true of woman. The fairest are the first to be lost for such it was with my sister. We were closer in age then all of the others and she used to play that she was my mother, even though she was my junior. I miss her company and her face. I had pushed her from my thoughts until earlier.” He looked directly at me. “Sometimes, Hunter, tradition is not a good thing. Sometimes it brings unhappiness and even the death of the fairest.”

  He lapsed into silence which I honored. He spoke spontaneously to me of family matters and I wished him to say nothing except that which he desired. “We do not speak of these things within the family for it is a reminder of bad times. Sometimes I curse custom. I know that I shall never force an unwanted marriage upon any daughter of mine. A father must listen to his children and he must hear what they say. Marriage should increase the wealth of the family if at all possible but a marriage must be to man the woman already desires and not to one which she is commanded to love. I have learned this lesson, and my father has learned it as well, but it is too late to profit him, though not too late to profit me.”

  I could not contain myself for it was possible that by chance I had stumbled upon Lehdah’s family. The story he told sounded much like that she had related to me. “If I speak out of turn, please forgive my inquiry but I would know a little more of what you say. Was you sister to have married someone she did not desire and this resulted in her death?”

  “It was I who spoke of these matters, not you. Yes, she was to have married a man she did not wish and rather than do so she fled into the forest where she died.”

  “One final question, good Ladak. Would your father welcome his daughter back if she returned to him?”

  “Of course, Hunter, of course. He was regretted his actions from the day she left his House and would move the world itself to recover her from the dead were it possible. Enough of this. I was in a gay mood and now I am becoming depressed. Let us barter some more. These merchants of Runah are masters of their craft.”

  We shopped and my mind raced on. Once we passed quite near my wagon and looking upon it I wondered what my companion would do if I told him that his dear sister was returned from the dead and now lay within it, a few paces from him? With the promise to dine with Ladak that night I bid my companion farewell and returned to my wagon. I had matters to discuss with my slave within it.

  She slept upon the furs and I found her whimpering softly as I knelt beside her small body. I touched her shoulder and cooed softly to her, as one does a small child and sought to drive the bad dreams away. Once the whimpering passed I sat for a time, watching the slave sleep and listening to dying sounds of the market square.

  In the stillness of twilight she softly opened her eyes and smiled at seeing me.

  “You had bad dreams.”

  “Did I? They were gone once I awakened. Maybe in time they will go away.”

  “Yes, in time they will. Once you are safely returned to your father and are secure with him, the nightmare of these past two years will pass.” Her brow wrinkled at what I said. “I found your family by chance. Is not your father the Urak Kabatoh and is not Ladak your brother?”

  “Yes, yes, but how did you...”

  “I spent the day with Ladak within this very market and he told me the story. Your father grieves at your loss and you are welcome back to him.”

  She sobbed and continued to sob for a long time as I dug within my luggage, whistling softly to myself, seeking the robes of the Free Woman among my things. I would at least have something good come from all this.

  Placing them before her, she gained control of herself. “Master?”

  “Put them on and allow me the pleasure of escorting you to dinner at the table of your father. He does not know you are coming and I hope that the sight of you is not too great a shook for him. Come on, dress. You would not appear before you family in the tunic of the slave would you?”

  Her eyes grew at the shame it would cause to be seen in such a state and with haste she stripped the tunic from her. Naked before me she picked up the garments of the Free Woman and holding them to her side lightly fingered her collar. “What of this?”

  “I have the key, here allow me to remove it.” Taking the key from a chest I approached the lovely naked woman before me and reached to unlock her collar. Her small hand gripped my wrist and stopped me

  “Not this moment master. Once you release me I become a Free Woman and no longer yours. You will lose a slave but I will lose my master, one who I have served with pleasure. I will lose you from my life for all time and I fear to do so.” He eyes held mine in their steady gaze. With a softness born of the gentle soul within her she said, “A Free Woman can be your friend, but never your lover. I am this moment still your slave.” Dropping the garments of the Free Woman she unashamedly moved herself to me and whispered, “Take me. Now this last time. Allow this miserable slave to serve you, for tonight I lose you and I know that you will never take me again. Now my master, now.”

  And so in my wagon within the marketplace of Lathanah, I took my slave girl, Lehdah, and for a time buried myself within her soft giving flesh and lost my thoughts through the loving, gentle caresses of this woman.

  19. Return to the Forest

  “I will of course gladly join in the venture of the good Urak Mahdon and Raonlah of Kwahn. this night and I shall never forget it.” The Urak Kabatoh beamed at me and clutched the radiant Lehdah to his side.

  After dressing her in the robes of a Free Woman, I removed the metal collar from about her neck and dropping it to the carpeted floor of my wagon, crushed it with the heel of my sandal- boot in the time honored sign of freeing a slave. Lehdah became in that moment a Free Woman but I saw at the time no happiness in her face. Indeed, she appeared saddened by my actions but I knew that shortly her sadness would turn to joy at the sight of her father and long lost family.

  We had made love that last time but a short while before she had clutched me furiously to her but at last I had been sated and although we lay with each other afterward knew that it was time to leave. So now she was sad but I knew that this would become a night of joy, long remembered by all in her family, for is it not a day of great happiness when one is returned to life from the dead?

  I escorted through the now darkened streets of her native Lathanah. Passed the shops, mostly closed at this hour, passed the taverns beginning the libations of the evening as they built to the climax that followed each night in the hours just before dawn. The street sweepers were out and a few bowed in respect at the passing of a Free Woman and her escort, both of the High Caste.

  We arrived at the main entrance to her father’s house and to my surprise my recently freed slave hesitated and pulled at my arm to stop me. I looked down at her face and saw tears.

  “Oh, Hunter, I thought I would never see this place of my childhood again. At first when Evaldor abused me the worst I would not even let myself think on what I had so foolishly thrown away by going into the forest alone out of anger towards my father. I drove the vision of this Great House from my mind and from my dreams. Tonight you have brought me back, even though I never fulfilled my bargain with you. It is a happiness I can hardly contain.”

  “Come foolish woman. Your family, unknowing awaits you within. You have all been apart too long as it is.” With that I took her arm and virtually pulled her to the entrance of her home.

  Her brother Ladak came to the door to greet me but stopped in his tracks the moment his eyes rested upon his presumed dead sister. She cried out his name a
nd ran to him. They held each other as Ladak repeated over and over, “It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be.”

  “It is true brother, I am home and free at last. Come, take me to father. I can no longer bear being away another moment.” They left me in the entranceway so intent on their own happiness were they.

  I chuckled to myself and suggested to the guard at the entrance that I find my own way to the dining area and begin what I thought would be a festive night with a little wine. He nodded but before I left said, “First Officer, may I speak?” Such is the opening for a Seker to an officer.

  “Of course, are we not brothers?” I referred to the fact that we were both Sekers.

  “It is said,” he began,”that all Sekers in Taslea are now of the High Caste. Is this indeed true?” I nodded to him. “It is also said, that you played some part in the insurrection which led to this change in status for so many. Is that also true?”