Chapter 6

“I don’t know you.”

The man who was standing several feet away from me at the pier looked wary. I could understand that, since if you had once been on the run, and you were asked to come to the pier, it was healthy to be a bit wary. Even if the messenger used some code words that should have confirmed that the person who you were supposed to meet was your friend ... Damn, I didn’t know, either, if he was the right person.

“I don’t know you, either. However, we might have a common friend.”

I held a short pause before I continued, “Five wet kittens.”

The look on his face showed some real surprise. It was like he didn’t really believe what he just heard. Then he shook his head when he understood that I was waiting for his reply.

“I’m sorry, this was a bit unexpected ... four furry dogs.”

“Three curious crows.”

“Two of nothing, since they are no more.”

Now the man was smiling and he shook his head before stepping forward and offering his hand for me to shake. Everything seemed to be okay, since he cited that line in that children’s jingle incorrectly. Just as it was agreed. Just as Elise had told me it should be. One more reminder to me that I wouldn’t be here, this far in my guest, without my friends. I almost grimaced when I thought about a younger Stian who had walked into the Hidden Valley with his horse and cat, ready to solve all the problems by a quick wave of his hand. Well, I hadn’t been quite that bad. Not for long.

I shook the hand of the man in his mid-thirties. “Arne. Arne Holth. I think that we have a common friend far from here.”

“Sigmund. Sigmund Lang. Since I owe my life and the life of my family to our common friend, I promise to help you if possible. However, I need to warn you that I’m not as wealthy as I used to be.”

I shook my head. “It’s not about money, not at all. In fact, I have some hopes of creating a new small business that would benefit both of us. But first of all, I would need a safe and guarded place for our barge. The one offered us in Humford was a bit troublesome.”

When I saw the man hesitate I decided to continue. “I’ll pay for that, of course. Trust me, money is not an issue. Our common friend made sure of that.”

“Thanks, it would help. Look, I can make a living here for me and my family but getting into business here isn’t that easy - and the locals have no problems financially robbing the newcomers. I’ve been here for some years, now, and I’m only gradually getting accepted. It really is not an advantage if you come from Aston.”

“Have you told them that you can never go back there?”

“No, why?”

“Only an idea ... If there’s some local whom you trust; I mean really, really trust, you might want to hint him or her that there’s another friend who came from Aston and who can never go back there. However, your friend might be willing to open a trade route with a barge between Towell and Humford. For some high-quality wood products, for example - and at a reasonable price.”

“Why to Humford only? Why not all the way to Aston? The profits would be much better.”

“For sure they would be. They would be so much better that the business might pick some interest, most likely unwanted. Look, there are several parties who keep a very close look at everything that comes to Aston. There are groups and people who are specialized in getting goods to Aston and even they get burned sometimes. I have my own reasons to stay out of that. However, on my way here, I managed make some friends who might help us with this.”

I shook my head and smiled slightly at the surprised look on the man’s face. I knew that I looked like I was barely over twenty, even if I was closing my thirtieth birthday, and it could make it a bit difficult to see me as a business partner.

“Why don’t we continue the business discussion later, once we have the barge in a safer pier. I’d hate to see something happen to all those expensive linens and the bottles of wine here, at my destination.”

“Linens, what linens? It cannot be silk, can it?”

My smile got just a bit wider. “You’ll see soon enough, trust me.”

It was early evening when we had our barge docked to private pier that was connected at the other end to a big, wooden warehouse. By then, Sigmund had met my grandmother - who made sure to have a few carefully selected words with him - and then he had also met my fiancée, Kara. When there was nobody else nearby, Sigmund turned to me.

“I can now understand why it’s not really healthy for you or your fiancée to stay in Aston. I’ll help make sure that you have no worries here.”

I made sure to smile a bit sadly when I nodded at him.

“Thank you Sigmund. Luckily she’s much better already, only occasionally she gets those moments and she starts telling people stories about being abducted and...”

The older man then looked at me with a smile on his face and there was something almost conspiratorial in his smile.

“We men would have it much easier if we could just select who we love.”

I just nodded. Maybe I should have felt bad for lying - or at least letting him get the wrong impression. I also sent some silent thanks to Elise for giving me the names and short backgrounds of three people she had helped escape Aston sometime after her husband’s death. Of those three persons, Sigmund had probably been the least successful and therefore the most unlikely business partner. However, the main reason he was here was because he had fallen in love with the wrong woman while in Aston. Which had been one reason to make him the number one person to contact here. As Elise had taught me: it wasn’t just the profit that was important.

After two days of talking business, we had most of it figured out - partly thanks to our valuable cargo and partly thanks to the gold coins I had been carrying with me. As I had said, money was no problem. Well, if I keep on spending the money like this it might be a problem if the business did not fly, but Sigmund believed that this would work. With one barge, or even with two barges, we could not compete with the volume of the large operators working along the Slow River and the sea - but we could offer a safe and less stressful route to Humford and from there to Aston. Besides, high-quality products also meant higher tariffs.

Once we had started the negotiations I made sure that Kara was always close to me, which surprised her somewhat. She mostly remained silent even though I could tell she followed closely what was being discussed. Even if I couldn’t follow her closely all the time, it was easy to tell that she wasn’t that familiar with running a business. She had never needed to learn those things, I guess. If you already had money and power over others, there hadn’t been much need. However, Kara was there with me and she followed very closely what was happening and what was agreed - and who we were working with. Just as I had expected.

Of course, Kara’s dark beauty didn’t go unnoticed by Sigmund and he kept on being really nice to her, even if he didn’t ask any questions about her background or family in Aston. I guessed that Hanna had briefed him well about that. However, it didn’t prevent him from looking at Kara. Considering what I heard about his background from Elise, I had expected that.

It wasn’t that Kara wasn’t attractive, since she was, especially in her own way. In fact, with some Hantaliel magic, she could easily pass as an Elf - and that told quite a lot. During our trip I had had to admit to myself that I still felt somewhat guilty or abducting her from her old life and that feeling had nothing to do with the fact that she had not been a nice person while she had been studying at the University to become a Magician. But I also remembered that she had come to help me back at the library when she could have escaped the fire. Or maybe I had just started to like that raven-haired little woman.

Somehow I was sure that whatever I would need to do during the coming, days it would have some long-lasting effects on my life. It was like the moment I had revealed my secrets to Leilatha and Shalana. Back then, it had been about me and my future, but now, I had a whole lot more to worry about.

All that thinking had been going on in the back of my head as Kara and I had been moving into one or two rooms located in the building by the pier. Those two rooms were a bit too nice for occasional guests, and I was quite certain that Sigmund, and possibly his friends had had some other use for them, as well. However, that was none of my business so I decided not to care about it for now. That real bed felt luxurious after the hammock. Somehow, all that thinking didn’t bring me any closer to the solution to my current problem: Kara.

When Kara thought that I hadn’t been looking, she had made some subtle attempts to get Sigmund’s attention. She had no idea how much Hantaliel had taught me about following other people via reflections or through the corner of your eye. I only wished that I had some more private time with Hanna, since now she just knew that Kara was up to something - and I was going to react accordingly.

That evening at Towell inside the house, Kara was almost nice to me. I had kept her - my fiancée, as we had explained - close to me all the time and Hanna had made sure that Sigmund had heard the sad story about her issues. Without doubt Kara had already figured out something by herself and she had stopped telling her own story. I had no idea if Kara had understood how Hanna and I had made her story sound totally unbelievable, but while in those negotiations with me she had most likely learned by now how much those ruling Magicians and Guardians were detested. Merchants here weren’t stupid, and Sigmund knew quite well the difference between the Guardians doing the actual guarding task and those trying to rule. In theory, neither the Guardians nor the Magicians should be in ruling positions. Especially the local governance should be the task of councils managed by common people, merchants, farmers and workers - supervised by the Royals, the Nobility or their representatives. The system was not perfect, but it had worked over generations. There was no slavery and the Nobility misusing their position had sometimes found themselves relocated somewhere far, far north-east - or without a noble title.

While in Aston, I had finally learned that my old home area, the north-west coastline was considered so hostile that not even the most disliked nobles were ever sent there. It had been tried once or twice and each and every time something had happened to them. There were rumors that they made good crab bait. Sometimes I still missed that harsh environment with all those wild animals and game. Harsh or not, it had been my home for several years and the Hidden Valley was like an isolated garden when compared to those high and steep slopes.

However, I was sure that Kara had by now learned that, if some of the common people found out that she had been a Magician or studying to become a Magician, things might not end well for her. Even though this town was still governed by the council, there was always both a senior Guardian and one Magician present at the town council meetings, which was totally surprising. Of course, those meetings were just about the only occasions when those two people could be seen in public. However, Sigmund wasn’t one of the common people, but a merchant. A merchant with adjustable morals, since he was quite willing to start a business with me which would include some smuggling. We had also gotten an idea that he wasn’t all that popular here in Towell, but that might change if he became successful.

I had been watching Sigmund and I had been watching Kara. Especially when they thought that I wasn’t looking at them, and I had not seen anything really worrying this far. Maybe Sigmund wanted this business more than Kara. Maybe Kara had given up. Just to cover everything, I had paid a small fortune to some of the young boys hanging around the pier so that they would keep an eye of the barge and some other things.

Kara. It was as though she had accepted her situation and now wanted to make friends with me. Suddenly she was standing closer to me, occasionally even touching my back or my arm. For the last two nights, we had been sleeping together in a real bed in a warm room. But only sleeping. There seemed to be a line Kara didn’t want to cross. It was like she was practicing something that was very new to her, new with me. I had no idea what she believed she was going to achieve with that, but I was sure that she had some new plan.

Anyhow, whatever Kara’s reasoning was, it was clear that now she was very far from the things she was familiar with. She didn’t have that little book that I had been reading in my youth, either. Of course, she wasn’t totally clueless, but I assumed that that her family background had more or less protected her from suitors. Somehow her inexperience felt refreshing, but - truthfully - I didn’t really know what I should have done with her. It wasn’t that I didn’t find her sexually attractive, totally opposite. Damn, I had been so busy during the autumn that I had had no time to visit the restaurant and now, when I was traveling with Hanna and Kara, I wasn’t really capable of helping my situation by myself.

So, Kara’s crude attempts to tease me might have been a bit clumsy and almost humorous, but they did work. Damn, did they work. Thinking about Bellcauniel, Fainauriel or Hantaliel helped only a temporarily, since I knew quite well that even if everything worked as I hoped, it might be some weeks before I would see them again. It might have been okay if I had traveled alone, but now I had a constant female companion ... who now had decided to tease me at least a bit, for whatever reason. However, I was quite sure that she didn’t really want to do anything more.

I made a quick visit outside and exchanged a few words with one of the boys I had become familiar with. Friends in low places could be important, Elise had taught me that.

Once I got back inside, I knew that I might have to do something. Whatever I would do, I would need to live with my decision and if I previously had felt my mother’s gaze at the back of my head, now there were also Fainauriel and Bellcauniel doing the same. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about the people in the Valley whose future depended on this mission. It wasn’t about me, it was about hundreds of other people.

Once the front door had closed behind me, Kara once again brushed me with her hand almost accidentally. I reacted for once. I turned and put my hand gently on her side and carefully pulled her closer and kissed her lips. Really kissed her. It was soon quite clear that Kara wasn’t an experienced kisser, but I was in no hurry. I had kissed enough women to notice the small changes in her behavior as things progressed. In a way it was funny; the things I had read about kissing worked quite as well with women as they were supposed to work with men. Well, those parts were identical with women and men, so it wasn’t that big of a wonder.

It was almost too dark to see anything when I looked at the slightly snoring young woman lying next to me in our bed. Most likely Kara had not planned to seduce me, just tease me. Just practice. She had probably known the basics of how that was supposed to happen, but to me it was quite clear that she had very little or no experience at all about these things - and I was sure of that even before I was able to confirm that she was still a virgin. Now Kara was sleeping and she still was a virgin. Most likely quite exhausted one, since I had been quite merciless when I had done my best to give her as many orgasms as I could - finalizing the last one with a magic sparkle with my tongue.

There had been several moments when I had been more than ready to have sex with her, but I would need to live with my decision. I could live with the fact that I made her feel good, but most certainly I would have had issues for using her for my own pleasure. I wasn’t at all sure if that made any sense. I didn’t care about that when I finally went to sleep next to her. I knew what I had done and that I would be able to live with the decisions I had just made. The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was that I was almost sure that I heard my women laughing. I had no idea if they were laughing at me or with me and I didn’t care. I probably had a brief smile on my face at that time. I’d see all of them soon.

However, that smile was quickly wiped out of my face since I knew painfully well that we weren’t out of Towell, yet. Kara.

When I woke up I noticed two things. First, the sun was shining directly in my face through the curtains mostly covering the window. Second, Kara was already awake and looking at me. If she had been after my blood or even my life, she would now have had her chance. I guess I should be happy she didn’t use it. Or maybe it was the fact that there were no weapons available.

“Why didn’t you...?”

It was quite clear what Kara meant. She must now have noticed that we hadn’t done it. She was still a virgin.

“You passed out and fell asleep. That’s okay, I didn’t mind.”

In order to confirm what I had said, I took Kara’s hand in mine and pulled it towards my mouth and kissed her fingers. Suddenly she blushed and, from the familiar taste, I understood that she had just been using her fingers in checking that ... well, that. I did my best not to notice her embarrassment and moved closer and lightly kissed her mouth.

“Like I said Kara, everything is okay.”

Now, I lied. Everything was not okay, but I hoped that everything would be fine enough until we would be back on our way down the Slow River. That I had managed to distract Kara from her plan, whatever it was. Until we were safely in a boat that Sigmund would help me get as soon as possible. Damn, it shouldn’t really be that hard to keep on manipulating this inexperienced young woman a few more days. When I slowly moved back a bit, Kara was more like her normal self, whatever that was.

“You know Stian, when you told me that your intention was to save your people and make their lives better, I didn’t believe you. Not a word of it.”

“Arne. Please call me Arne.”

“But your real name is Stian, isn’t it?”

“Yes. But I’m Arne while I do business.”

“Why?”

“Mainly to protect some people I used to know and I still care about. There’s no need to bother them with things they have no idea about.”

“Where are you from? There’s not much any dialect in the way you speak, but you’re not from Aston or any area close from where my study mates came from.”

I must have stiffened a bit since there was a reaction from Kara. “I’d rather not tell you that. Like I said, there are people who used to know me, but who know nothing about me being something else than I was back then.”

In a way I didn’t believe that anybody would be able to connect those things that happened years ago to Stian who had been studying at the University and who was supposed to be dead now. My former Guardian friends were posted somewhere away from Aston, Saga was most likely a mother of at least a few children and Erika and Siv ... They probably had those Arnesen twins in such a tight grip that the brothers didn’t dare move too fast.

Even if my thoughts had been far away for only a very brief moment, it was clear that Kara had noticed it, as something unreadable flashed in her face. I hardened myself quickly since it was clear that Kara was now trying to get something out of me. Something she might be able to use for her benefit.