A Veteran Returns Home: Chapter Six
Chapter Six
He held the reins in his left hand. His right strapped to his chest by a leather belt from one of his kills and bandaged with a blanket. Pins and needles spread up his leg, the belt round his thigh tight to stop bleeding lower down. Perhaps too tight.
His horse snorted the air. Riding for three days with little rest and no water had taken its toll. Injury complicated matters further. But his prize swung from the neck of his mount. Six severed heads. Each screamed in their last moments and each bled as red as the other. They weren’t demons just men unable to deal with the evil within them.
Three weeks hunting these madmen. These savages. Bandits. That’s all they were. The towns folk had spun their brutality into demonic proportions. Even the city guard had been unwilling. Raiding villages, killing people, taking prisoners, leaving jewellery and gold. And howling like wolves the whole while. The six bandits had not worn wolf skins as the folk had told him. But they may as well have.
Nemo failed to find the prisoners. Only Thesusian slaver bonds. Useless outside of Thesus. Rarely exchanged for cash in Thesus. Better off dead than a slave in the Republic of Thesus. When selling people is more profitable than jewels and gold things have gone wrong. The Republic had problems and they had begun to leak over the border.
They won’t reach here. Beargarth is far enough away to forget about the Republic, Nemo thought. He knew nothing would effect Beargarth. Far away from the coast, the borders, and even far enough from the city it was ruled by, Tanussi, to avoid meddlesome, perfumed, bureaucrats.
His town, Beargarth, lay on the horizon. The simple roofs with single chimneys billowing smoke, the single track road leading into, and out of, the town, the well in the centre with ornate fountain, benches, and a few trees. The lifeblood of the town was to be honoured. The dressing of the well was the towns people’s favourite festival of the year. A celebration bordering on the religious were the people would fashion vividly coloured scarfs, banners, and throws to be tossed over the well and the surrounding structure. A wood carving depicting memorable events of the last year would be hung in the banquet hall, alongside those of previous years. Food and drink would be plenty with dancing and mock fights had by all. And if the horses were rested horse racing too.
The festival goers wished to the good health of the town and the continued flow of water from the well in a dry and barren land. Beargarth’s patch of mellow green was a well needed respite on a long road between cities. The home of almost seventy people. The well the source of it all.
The road altered from a vague path determined by cart wheel grooves into the stone slabs of a proper road. His horses shoes clipped and clapped on the new foreign surface. Nemo caught sight of the heads around the horses neck. Probably not the best way to ride home, he thought. One handedly fiddling with the leather straps that held his bed roll to the saddle he freed a blanket and looped it into a covering. He stretched his injured arm out of the sling for a moment to tie a knot in the fabric around the horses neck. Hiding the heads. Spots of blood showed through as the severed necks jostled against the blanket.
As the road made its gradual turn the temple spires on the far side of Beargarth pierced above the chimneys and well pillars. The gods of the mountain. The many gods of Cyrilaret, the highest peak. The unreachable Seat of the World. Each was depicted whether small or large in the temple. Kethus and Anavatat featured multiple times in the temple of Beargarth, each with the largest statues. The god of fortune and the god of water and order. That which Beargarth relies.
The pillars of the well came into view. Unadorned and casting long shadows over the town square. Children and mothers milled around the well collecting for the night’s use. Most of the men would still be in the fields or elsewhere for an hour or more. Work was plenty but there were plenty of people to do it. Women would be in the stables, with the animals, or elsewhere. Seventy people was too many for Nemo to keep track of where and what they all did. He lived in Beargarth but he didn’t stay in Beargarth for more than a few weeks at a time.
Though Nemo only left for days at a time in the past. This bounty had taken him three weeks to accomplish and he had yet to collect. He hoped the temple still served in that regard. Journeying to Tanussi was not on the list of things he wanted to do. Even for a couple dinar and some dirham. A years pay or more if he served the guard but he had done a years work in three weeks. His bones ached, his skin weeped, and he struggled to think straight.
Was it worth it? To miss his children growing. To forget the caress of his wife. All for some coins? He sighed as he passed the first of many homes. It isn’t about me or them it is for all of our safety. It must be done for everyone, Nemo repeated that which his teacher had told him many suns ago. To hunt evil is selfless to put yourself in harms way for others is charity.
‘Pa!’ A boy of eight ran up to him from the well.
‘Avaya!’ He called to his son.
Avaya skidded to a halt beside the horse. Stroking the horse he said, ‘Where have you been? Did you get them?’ He didn’t see the injuries, not yet.
‘In the mountains beyond the horizon,’ he pointed to the east, ‘And yes. I got them,’ he smiled down at his son.
‘I’ll get ma,’ Avaya shouted grinning ear to ear and ran off into town.
Nemo dismounted and led his horse to the well. He drank from the ladle and filled the trough for dogs and horses, and whatever animal needed water. There he waited. Blood lined his bandaged arm and he leant against the well to relieve his injured leg.
The younger children remained distant, unsure who he was, some of the older ones waved or nodded in his direction. He waved back, they ran off to play elsewhere taking the smaller children with them.
A bloodied man with a scarf wearing horse is not the friendliest I suppose, he snickered through a mouthful of water. He lowered the bucket into the depths of the well to refill it.
‘There he is,’ a girl shouted. She ran alongside her brother towards Nemo. She held her too long dress above her knees as she ran. Her first adult clothing that she would grow into.
‘Delara!’ Nemo shouted and stretched one arm out to catch his daughter.
She landed full force into his chest, burying her head into his neck. He wheezed, catching her with one arm, ‘Mind the arm,’ he said.
Delara pushed up from his shoulders to look, ‘Oh I am so sorry, Pa, I didn’t see.’ She turned beet red.
‘I don’t know, you may have broken it,’ he teased.
She hit his shoulder, ‘As if. I’m not that big yet.’
‘No, but you are almost as tall as you mother. And judging by that dress you have a ways to go yet.’
‘I’m fourteen, I can’t grow that much more. Can I?’ She asked. ‘At least, I don’t want to.’
‘Well what ever height you grow I will still love you and lift you up and spin you round, unless you are too tall then…’ he rocked his hand in the air and sucked his teeth.
‘Pa!’ Delara shouted through laughter.
Nemo laughed with her as Avaya appeared and grabbed Nemo’s free hand. ‘Ma wants to see you. I told her you had an arm in the sling and she went to the cupboards and got out all this stuff and —‘ he pulled his father along by the hand.
‘Delara lead Mab for me,’ he said.
His daughter took the reins and led the horse after Avaya and Nemo.
‘— she looked sad. And kept saying that you shouldn’t go for big bounties anymore,’ Avaya continued.
‘I’m fine. A quick wash and a few days rest and I’ll be healed. Don’t worry about it,’ Nemo said.
Avaya watched him speak in awe. ‘Okay, Pa.’ he said letting go of his father’s hand.
Nemo rustled his son’s hair as they walked the cobbled lane towards home.
Mani, his wife, stood in the doorway of their home. Her hands coiled together on her chest. She held a chain in her finger, the tail dangling free, on the other side hung a ring that she kissed.
‘Ma!’ Avaya yelled down the street.
Mani flicked her head up towards Nemo, the children, and horse. She smiled with a hint of a quiver and ran towards Nemo.
She flung her arms around him, deftly dodging his injured arm, ‘Thank the mountain your back.’ Her thick black hair mussed up against his chin and lips.
He pressed her into him with his one good hand against her back and kissed the top of her head.
‘I’m back. And with a good bounty to collect,’ he said into her hair.
She pulled away a little and looked up, her arms still around him, her eyes red and puffy. ‘Is money worth injury?’
‘This much is,’ he said trying to smile.
‘Wrong answer,’ she said with a scowl.
Nemo kissed her tear soaked lips. She bit her lip and took hold of his hand. ‘Let’s clean you up,’ she said pulling him into the house. ‘Delara hitch Mab for your father.’
‘Yes, Ma.’
‘Sit,’ Mani ordered.
Nemo sat on the largest cushion around the sunken table. His legs stretched sideways to the table. The purples and golds faded from sun and wear and tear. Avaya and Delara sat on cushions on the opposite side.
A pile of bandages, alcohol, thread, and needles littered the table. Mani disappeared into their bedroom, big enough for a low bed and one dresser. Delara’s room was next to that, a small room with a narrow bed. Avaya slept in the main room of the house. Mani returned with a blanket.
‘I don’t want you getting blood all over the cushions where we eat,’ she said laying the blanket over the table and shoving the end underneath Nemo’s leg and side. ‘Go out and play you two,’ she said to the children.
‘But I want to see Pa’s scrape,’ Avaya said.
‘It’s worse than a scrape, Delara,’ Mani said.
Delara sighed, ‘Come on Avaya let’s see if you can climb as high as I can,’ she grabbed the boy’s arm and pulled him up. ‘Bet I can get four branches higher than you.’
‘Bet you can’t,’ he yelled and dashed out the door.
They were alone.
Silence pervaded. The air heavy with unsaid business and the weight of separation. Where to begin? Where did it end? Three weeks was not a long time. It was an eternity.
Nemo pulled his sling off and removed the bandage on his arm. Dried blood peeled and split from his skin as he did so. He hissed as flecks of live skin where pulled off along with dead flesh.
Mani filled a bowl with water, dripped alcohol into the water, and soaked a cloth in the mixture. She wrung the cloth out and pressed it against her husband’s wound.
‘Did you get them all?’ She asked, her eyes locked on the wound.
‘Yes. Their bounty is enough for the next few years,’ Nemo said staring at her. The curve of her cheek, the point of her nose, the angle of her eye. He smiled.
She didn’t smile. Her lips parted in concentration as she scrubbed his arm. ‘That’s good. I suppose.’
He winced as the cloth tore at his flesh. The wound was deep and the cloth scratched at muscle. ‘You suppose? You don’t need to worry about anything for a year.’
‘Yes I will. I will have you to worry about when you go on these fool bounties like a man looking for death,’ Mani flung the cloth into the water. The water splashed onto the cushion and table.
Nemo moved his lips helplessly. He reached out with his good arm. His wife flinched as he went to hold her shoulder. She tried to hide her movement and sank into his hand. He balanced her chin between thumb and forefinger and turned her to face him.
Her eyes damp and swollen he stared and said, ‘I’m not trying to die, I’m trying to prevent us from dying.’
‘Why can’t you do that in a way that won’t get you killed?’ Mani cried.
‘Because reward only comes with risk. The safe life of farming or some city life will not allow us to stockpile for potential famines, buy cloth for new clothes, or repair the home if need be. The farmers fret all year round whether the harvest is large enough, whether the cost will increase or decrease. I, we, don’t. There is no shortage of brigands and bandits and runaways to catch or kill. There are safer bounties I can take for the next few months, or year. Though the challenge is fun,’ he smiled and cupped Mani’s cheek in his hand.
She sniffed and kissed the heel of his hand. She forced a smile, drew a finger underneath her eye to catch a tear, nodded, and wrung out the cloth once more.
Mani continued in silence. Sincerity in her eyes as she cleaned and tended to Nemo’s wounds. The air light as she threaded a needle and joined two halves of flesh on his arm. She pushed the needle through his skin.
He hissed in pain.
‘Sorry, I’ll go quicker,’ she whispered.
‘That would be good,’ he said forcing himself to watch his arm being sewn together like an old shirt.
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