WEEK TWELVE - HOME
(SECONDAY) THIRDAY
The ordered fields of NewTown increased my anxiety to arrive. I felt an age had passed since they had last graced my vision. They would never seem ordinary again. Though I could see Do-Si's face sinking I longed to see the bridge across the river, though fearing what I would see on its far bank. It was therefore with a sense of relief that the normality of my home was unmarred as its walls came into view. I spurred Kito, lean and fit from his adventure, to a gallop, so eager I was to pass through its gates. Hi-Tui stepped out to greet me, a smile splitting his face. I thought for a moment he was going to forgo formality and embrace me, but the widespread arms turned into a deep bow as I approached him.
"The Hero returns!" he called out for all to hear. People gathered, something that I had not imagined, and soon I was being carried on shoulders up the main street to the Square, my name on everyone's voice. It seemed my exploits had been told again and again in my absence, so that I had become a hero of legend, The "Seer in Darkness". I remembered the touching that I had received at the hands of the people on my birthday feast, but that was nothing to the adulation I was now receiving. I was lifted onto a platform and inveighed to tell of the adventure. I thought of the many things that had happened during the long weeks I had been away, trying to decide what to talk about, but all that anyone was interested in was the tunnel. So I told the story of the tunnel, finding that I grew in stature even with my own telling, but wanting for it to end as much as I enjoyed the adulation so I could be Father and Mother.
Eventually, with the aid of Hi-Tui who saw my distress and called for the townsfolk to let me go so I could rest, I was allowed to mount once more on Kito and continue my way home, though with a chanting crowd following behind me. Father met me in the street, presumably forewarned by the commotion, and after a short speech formally welcoming home the Hero asked everyone to go home and let him by properly greeted by his family.
But privacy was not yet to be mine as all the house servants awaited me inside, cheering and bowing and clapping, a cacophony that brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat that prevented words. I waved my gratitude, managing to choke out a "Thankyou" and escaped yet again, now to the privacy of sitting room where Mother stood with her face to the empty fireplace. On my entry she turned and for the first time I saw tears pooling in her eyes. "My Lord," she called out in a voice half-choked and fell to the ground, kneeling and bowing.
"Mother," I cried, as I ran to her. "Don't do this. I do not deserve this!"
"My Hero," she invoked into the floor.
By this time I had managed to get my arms under her arms. "Whatever I am is courtesy of you," I exclaimed as I lifted her to her feet, embracing her in a grasp of a force that must have almost smothered her. I had not remembered her so small, so delicate. It had only been six weeks since I had bid her farewell, it felt like an age, childhood to manhood all over again. She did not complain within my hold, just stood passively, tears flowing freely. "Do no cry Mother," I said more gently. "In truth I am still your little man who loves you with all his being."
She looked up at me, eyes welling pools of tears that glistened in the lamplight, but only managed an inarticulate cry. I kissed her forehead tenderly and stroked her hair. Eventually she pushed me away, still unable to articulate, and waved me in the direction of my chambers where I assumed Father was waiting. My eyes also raining tears I backed from the room, bowing as I left.
I was sniffling heavily when I entered the bedchambers, trying to persuade my eyes to quieten, but one look at Father's moist eyes overflowed all the barriers I had placed and tears flowed freely again. Father embraced me as I had embraced Mother, almost taking away my ability to breathe. But he did not take too long to regain his normal composure, there seemed to be something restraining his joy. He stepped away and looked at me. "You are filthy!" was the first thing he said.
"Not as much as I was!" I rejoined, now laughter replacing the tears. It is only two days since I bathed in the magic pool of the valley of the waterfall."
"You smell like horse sweat. Did you look after Kito?"
"Kito has never been better. Fitter than he has ever been, fleeter than the river and stronger than a winter storm. He gained so much condition eating the grass of the valley of the hut that even riding him hard on the return trip has not harmed him."
"Trugo also, though he did not have so long with that magic pasture." I knew this talk of horses was a fa‡ade, demonstrated clearly by the gleam of pride in his eyes as he stood and assessed me. "Come now, I have drawn a bath for you."
"Will you join me sir?" I asked with excessive politeness.
"I will not deny the request of a Hero on his return home!" he replied with equally excessive humility.
When we had been in the bath for a while he precipitously introduced the topic that had been the cause of an unease in his being that I had sensed the moment I had entered our chambers. "You will not have much time to rest, my Son. We depart for KingsTown on Sixday."
"That is four days away!"
"Four? It is barely three! Ah, of course. We lost a day in the tunnel. The sleep we had must have been very long. Today is Thirday."
"Thirday? Well, I am happy that the One will not be upset that I prayed on the wrong day."
"Why do you say that?"
"There is no such being as the One!" In response to Father's incredulous look I proceeded to tell him, as succinctly as possible, all I had learned.
When I had finished, surprising me by the calmness of his acceptance of the blasphemy I was spouting, he asked, "Would that explain the rumours of huge ships that have come out of the sky?"
It was my turn for a stunned gaze, though my thoughts turned rapidly behind it till I came up with, "The houseputer did ask me if I wanted help. Could this be the help it has called? Will it save us from the wrath of the Prince?"
"That I don't know, but that is what we go to find out," Father replied, now grim.
SIXDAY
Spring was more advanced and our departure for the house of Ti-Lung was in conditions much more pleasant than those in which I had seen Father off a seventy day previously. There was no rain, and the air was almost balmily despite the early hour. We had a guard of 20, with a congregation of some 10 souls taking advantage of the protection offered and joining us for our journey, so even if we had wished it to be this was not going to be a quick trip. Many of the guards were survivors of The Expedition, to my pleasure including Do-Si. Father felt that they had proved both their loyalty and their ability and would be able to protect us well. The reverence with which they treated me humbled me. Father was the Lord, but I felt that they held me above him. This was not correct, and made me feel uncomfortable, yet Father tolerated it as if it was my due. However it made me avoid their company - except for that of Do-Si, who, when out of earshot of others, was as irreverent as ever - which somehow elevated me further in the general esteem.
The preceding days had been spent being congratulated by all and sundry, culminating in a celebration feast honouring my return on Forday. After the tranquillity of travelling the constant activity and talking wearied me, and I was now pleased to be again away from the noise and activity of NewTown, though with the size of this group it was not as peaceful as my return trip from the hut had been.
The land downstream of NewTown, after we had climbed the small saddle and returned to water level, was not too different from upstream except the flood plains gradually broadened. Forrest grew densely on both banks above flood level, dominated by the deep red, strappy leaves of the taller whintox and miscal, now bereft of flowers but adorned instead with early red fruit that blended in with its red leaves, forming a dense underbrush, as it was around home, with the road cutting a clean path through it. It was a path I had never trod, but after the adventures I had already experienced my excitement was held at a remarkably low level, more stimulated by the wonder of the rumours of which Father had spoken than by the road on which we journey. What was new though was the inn where we spent our first night. In the middle of nowhere, but at the 1/3 mark of our journey stood a rambling wooden building protected by a paling fence the height of a man. The growth of trade between NewTown and the rest of the kingdom had given rise to so much use of the road that now two inns had grown along its path, providing rest and comfort for weary travellers. The fence also protected a cleared area for the parking of carts and a stables stocked with fodder for horses. Horses were available for hire also, for those in too much of a hurry to allow their own to recuperate. It was at this inn that Father had left Trugo after pushing him to cover 2 stages in one day. For a steed with the power of Trugo this was in truth not that much, but Father had a reputation for caring for his mounts.
He had sent message ahead that we were coming, and the best room of the inn was set-aside for us. It seemed primitive compared to home - the mattress hard and lumpy, no running water, no bathroom. But as Father commented, it was fairly clean. We ate alone, but there was no privacy, with seemingly every noise from every part of the inn audible. So we went to bed separately, early and, despite the clamour of men carousing and singing, I at least slept soundly.