Durlrang glanced up at him as he padded alongside. “It is those men in that city that you have never seen who should be alarmed that you are making this journey, master.”
Aram frowned. “Meaning?”
“I have lived many years, Lord Aram, and have seen much.” Durlrang answered. “There is no man on earth more dangerous than you.”
“I still want you to come with me.”
“I will come.”
As they approached the mass of horses, Thaniel separated himself from the others and came toward them. The horse and Durlrang considered each other for a moment in silent greeting and then Thaniel addressed Aram.
“My lord?”
“I am going to Durck tomorrow, Thaniel, a city on the sea, to buy metal. Several men will go with me, as will Durlrang. All of the men but one have found mounts from among your people.”
“And the one?” Thaniel asked.
“His name is Arthrus – I will send him out to you. I would like you to help him find a mount that is strong and gentle, for he will have little time to practice riding. And he must go with us tomorrow.”
Thaniel turned and looked toward the horses. “There are several older horses, my lord – not so rash as some of the younger ones. One of them, I am certain, will suffice.”
“Thank you, my friend, I will trust in your judgment on this matter. I will send the man out to you shortly.”
Thaniel looked at him. “We leave tomorrow?”
“First thing in the morning.” Aram nodded. “I want to go to this town with all expediency for time is precious. I will send Arthrus out to you, and I will join you in the morning.”
“Yes, my lord.”
As Aram and Durlrang made their way back to the men and wolves, Aram noticed a large, rangy wolf, almost pure white in color, talking easily with Mallet.
“Who is that – the white wolf ?” He asked.
“That is my daughter, Shingka, my lord. She is from the last litter born to my mate before she died. She has no fear. She will be in charge of my people when we go away tomorrow.”
Aram looked down at him in surprise. “Your daughter will stand in your place?”
“Among my people, master, there is no difference between male and female. Both rear young, both rule tribes – and when we go to war, the females fight beside their husbands, fathers, and sons.”
Aram was quiet a moment. “I am very glad to have your people as allies and friends, Durlrang.”
“And servants.”
Aram glanced down at him but did not answer.
Afterward, the men and wolves separated, the wolves gliding back into the woods of the green hills and the men going back toward Derosa, talking excitedly of that which they’d just experienced. Aram and Findaen went back out the lane to Arthrus’ shop to send him in search of a mount for the morrow. It was near supper when they left the shop. Aram was anxious to see Ka’en, but Findaen talked him into joining his friends for a drink in the tavern.
A year and a half had passed since Aram first sat at the table in the back with the men that joined him there now. There was a surprise in store for him. Semet, one of the slaves that they’d freed the summer before, came over to the table, clad in fine town clothes fronted by an apron on which he wiped his hands before saluting Aram.
“I am very happy to see you again, my lord.” He said.
Aram examined him with a curious smile. “You work here, Semet?”
The table erupted in laughter, causing Aram to look around in confusion. Semet joined in the mirth. He shook his head, grinning.
“I married Goldie last fall, my lord. I am a part owner now. And I promise you the best service always.”
Aram remembered the young stout woman that had first served him. He grinned at Semet. “Where is Goldie?”
Again there was laughter.
“Turns out that Semet is a fast worker, my lord.” Findaen said goodnaturedly. “His wife is home expecting a child at anytime now. Your principality grows even as we speak.”
Aram gave Findaen a sharp glance at this remark and Semet frowned in confusion. Findaen shrugged.
“I’m sorry, my lord, but there is not a citizen of Derosa – except apparently Semet here – that does not know of your engagement to Ka’en – however much my father wanted it to remain secret until he could make an announcement.” His handsome face broke into a wide, honest smile. “I would add, my lord, that there is not a citizen that is not pleased by the fact of that engagement as well.”
“Here, here.” Said Mallet, and he drained his glass, followed by the others.
Semet gazed at Aram solemnly for a moment and then nodded. “Drinks are on the house,” he said, “I’m sure Goldie would agree.”
Aram met his eyes for a moment and then looked slowly around the table, seeing in the expression on every face sincere wishes for his and Ka’en’s happiness. Finally his gaze came to Findaen, on his left. The young man lifted his glass with a flourish.
“To the future Prince of Derosa.” He said. He waited until the others repeated his words and then they all drank. Findaen lowered his glass and met Aram’s gaze. “You see, my lord, you are among friends.”
Aram blinked as his eyes suddenly stung and looked down at his own glass. Picking it up, he waited for a moment as he struggled with his feelings, and then he lifted it.
“Here’s to being among friends.” He said. “As my friend, Florm, is fond of saying – may it always be so.”
“May it always be so.” His friends answered.
At suppertime, they parted, and Aram and Findaen went to Lancer’s house. The Prince was in the dining room but Ka’en was absent. Lancer stood as the two younger men entered.
“Lord Aram, my daughter Ka’en has asked to be excused to eat on the veranda this night and asks that you would join her.”
“By your leave, my lord.” Aram answered willingly.
Lancer inclined his head and Findaen clapped him once on the shoulder as he turned to go.
He found Ka’en at the table on the veranda. Besides supper, there was an open bottle of wine and two glasses. As Aram approached, a young woman who had been seated with Ka’en rose and went toward the kitchen.
Ka’en smiled up at him. “I thought you might prefer this.”
He leaned down and kissed her before seating himself across from her. “I do.” He said simply. “I always will.”
When they had eaten and the evening waned, Aram looked over at her. “I’m going to Durck tomorrow. I wanted you to know. I will be gone for about a week.”
A troubled expression darkened her eyes as she gazed back at him. “Why Durck, Aram?”
“To get metal for armor. Arthrus knows some men there.”
“The men in Durck are outlaws.”
He nodded. “So I have been made to understand.”
“Why must you go? Arthrus can handle it. He goes there all the time.”
Aram shook his head. “I can’t send him there alone with a bag full of gold. They will kill him.”
“They might kill – all of you.”
He shook his head again. “No – they won’t.”
“Is this to be my lot, Aram? Always waiting to see if you will come back from some dangerous thing or another?”
“We had this conversation already, Ka’en.”
She looked away for a moment, but then her eyes came back. He could see that she was upset. “Then we can have it again. There is no need for you to do everything. Others can handle this.”
“They can’t handle this, Ka’en. Arthrus can’t do it without me and I can’t do it without him. We won’t go alone. I’m taking plenty of help.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“The whole world’s dangerous, Ka’en – that’s what we’re trying to put an end to. This trip to Durck is a part of it.”
“Let me go with you.”
He felt his eyes go wide. “What?”
“I want to go with you.”
“
No.”
“Why?”
“Because it is dangerous – too dangerous.”
“Exactly.” She was calmer now, still upset but not angry. She moved her delicate hand, indicating the house and veranda. “I’m supposed to be content to just wait here while you go out and reorganize the world. I’m not a child, Aram.” She thought for a moment. “It can’t be all that dangerous anyway, if Arthrus goes there all the time. It’s a town – there are probably other women there. I’ll ride Huram and come with you.”
Slowly, watching her, he smiled. “I see what’s going on here.”
She arched her eyebrows. “What do you think is going on here?”
“You just don’t want to stay behind. You’ve seen a bit of the world and you want to see more. Your sense of adventure is getting the better of you.”
“Don’t laugh at me, Aram.”
He shrugged, still smiling. “Who’s laughing? I told you that I would like nothing better than to show you the whole world, and someday I will. But you can’t go this time. You know that it’s too dangerous.”
She was silent, looking out over the farmland turning gold and orange in the flat light of the evening sun. “It’s just that I thought you would be around for a while, training the men.”
“Donnick can do that. I must do this. I’ll only be gone for a week.”
She sighed and stretched her hand out on the table. He reached across and took it.
“Come back to me safely.” She said.
“I always will.”
Twenty One
In the morning, early, Aram and the others met at Arthrus’ shop and went down the road, through the gate and out onto the plains where the horses waited. Arthrus’ mount was a big brown horse named Yvan. As Aram climbed onto Thaniel’s back, he looked toward the hills across the valley. Durlrang and Shingka came out of the trees. They stood side by side for a moment, gazing toward the men and horses and then Shingka turned and melted back into the morning shadows.
Durlrang joined the party and they went southwest along the river for about a mile to a wide shallow crossing where the river spilled out of a shallow pool and over a bed of gravel into a series of small rapids. Once across, Arthrus directed them toward the hills that curved away from Derosa toward the southeast.
Beginning just a half-mile south of the river and running along the base of the hills, there was an ancient road, paved with stone. Aram was surprised at its quality; it retained the solid integrity of its pavement despite the fact that it was obviously not in common use. He examined its structure from the vantage of Thaniel’s back as they went south and became certain that his ancestors had constructed it centuries ago. The road went along the hills in a nearly straight line, occasionally crossing small streams with bridges that had stood the test of time almost as well as the road bed. He looked over at Findaen.
“Why doesn’t this road go all the way to Derosa?”
“It did once, and then it went on and connected with the ancient road that wound up through the valley and over the green hills toward your lands, my lord, but Lancer thought that the bridge would give enemy armies options he did not want them to have, so we took it apart.” Findaen shrugged. “Besides, we found that we needed the stone from the road and bridge to build and repair streets and buildings in Derosa. That’s what happened to the road near the town – that’s why it’s gone.”
As they went to the southeast, following the line of hills that curved ever so slightly eastward as they trailed away from Derosa, the pine timber failed from their slopes rather abruptly, replaced by juniper and scrub cedar, and patches of the same grayish brush that grew on the broad slope to the west of the black mountain that bordered Aram’s valley. On their right, to the west as they went southeast, the broad southern Plains of Wallensia undulated away from them like a vast green sea.
All that day they traveled southeast, as the sun crossed the meridian and declined toward the west. Late in the afternoon, a fine line of hills appeared to the southwest, on their right, rising out of the plains and angling eastward toward those along whose flanks they traveled. And the rolling ground of the plains between the two lines of hills also began to rise and grow a bit rougher and rockier, cut by a small stream flowing into the plains. Aram saw that they were heading into the upper reaches of a small valley that narrowed before them, toward the southeast.
That night, they went off the road into the foothills and found a small meadow by the bend of a rivulet that tumbled gently toward the valley floor. There was plenty of wood around and as Aram had seen no one else throughout the day, and Durlrang would be on alert in the darkness that surrounded them, they had a fire.
In the morning, they followed the narrowing valley to the southeast again, with the horses making good time on the paved road and by midmorning, the hills across the valley to the west had grown close enough to make out details of rock, tree, and brush. The hills on their left, though not getting taller, nonetheless grew rougher. Streams tumbled frothing down rocky gorges. The valley narrowed further, and the road began to twist and turn rather than cutting straight through the slopes as the corrugations in the hills became more pronounced.
By midday they could smell the sea. Aram grew excited. He had heard stories about the vast ocean of water many times in his youth. Confined in the rigors of slavery, however, he had always half believed that it was nothing more than a fantasy. Now, soon, he would gaze upon its reality.
Eventually, the valley came to a head and the ancient road wound up and over a shallow pass between two low but rocky peaks. Beyond the pass the road, which until now had hugged the eastern hills, ran instead along the slope of the western hills and then angled down toward the middle of another valley that ran on to the southeast, narrow and wild, confined between the two lines of hills. Several miles out, Aram’s eye could discern that it intersected with another road that came obliquely through the hills from the west. This other road then ran on from the intersection, up through the rocky, juniper-covered hills to their left, looping out of sight toward the east.
Arthrus tugged on Yvan’s mane, pulling his mount to a stop. The big brown horse swung his head around and Arthrus looked down sheepishly.
“I’m sorry, my friend – I forgot that you can talk.”
Yvan didn’t answer but Aram felt low laughter rumble through Thaniel’s great frame.
Arthrus looked over at Aram. “Do you see where the two roads come together out there, my lord?”
“Yes.”
“The road from the west is fairly well used by merchants and other people like myself who do business at Durck. I don’t know how many – if any – come from the east. It’s a good road, comparable to this that we’re on, but whether it is ever used I cannot say. I don’t know anything about the lands that lie beyond those hills, my lord. In my memory, none of our people have ever gone there.”
Aram frowned at him. “Are we likely to meet with other traffic, then?”
Arthrus shook his head. “It’s not likely my lord – I seldom meet any other travelers – but it is possible.”
“But these other travelers are usually people like you?”
“Traders, yes, and free – that is to say, unofficial – merchants. I’ve never met with any other kind in this country. Durck is a long way away from places that matter. I suppose that’s why it exists.” Arthrus glanced to his right, toward the southwest, at the low summits of the western hills. “There is another reason I stopped here, my lord. I thought that you might want to see the ocean.”
Aram tried to stifle a surge of excitement. “We can see the sea from here?”
“Oh, yes. It’s far away but it’s very large. Huge. You can’t see the beaches from here, of course, but you can see the wide blue line of the ocean’s horizon as it goes over the edge of the world. Would you like to see it?”
Yes, Aram thought, I surely would. But then he thought of their mission, and of the pressure of time, and reluctantly framed a question. “Is i
t far out of our way?”
Arthrus shook his head. “Ten minutes, my lord.” He pointed. “We just need to ride to that low saddle there above that curve in the road. It’s worth seeing.”
Aram’s reluctance vanished and he grinned. “Yes, I would very much like to see the ocean, even from a distance.”
They wound down the road to the place Arthrus had indicated and left the pavement, winding upward through the low brush and rocks to a low flat saddle between two small humps in the hills. Thaniel came to a stop on the level and Aram gazed southward.
The first thing he noticed was that the country immediately below him showed signs of civilization. The road that went westward through the hills toward Durck, intersecting with the road they traveled, also intersected with another road a few miles west of the hills and south of their position. From the junction of the two roads, this second road angled away toward the south where, far away, next to a rumpled pile of distant hills, there was evidence of a town lying in the curve of a river.
To the west, the plains undulated seemingly without end, but they were broken here and there by faint lines of hills; near some of those hills there were darker clumps of green – small patches of forest. From disparate locations, out on that vast prairie, columns of smoke or perhaps dust rose into the air. This land was evidently full of people and alive with evidence of their activities. Were they all slaves of Manon, he wondered, as was likely, or were some of them free? Aram wondered if he was gazing upon a portion of the free civilizations of the south where, someday, he must find allies, or if he was looking instead at lands that would only be freed by blood and steel.
And suddenly the thought struck him that he must go into those lands and discover the answers to these questions for himself – to find sure and certain knowledge of what he would face when the time came to move beyond the limits of his experience. There was yet need of another journey into unknown regions. He needed to see more of the world than just that which lay on the borders of his valley and the wild lands to the north of the high plains of the horses, Vallenvale and Kelven’s mountain. For it was likely that here, in the south, battle would be joined first and other peoples would have to be convinced to join the fight against the enemy of the world.
Kelven's Riddle Book Two Page 33