"Whither has my slave gone?" said Vardanas.
"Fled at the first onset," I said. "If I be any soothsayer, he'll be halfway to Macedonia the morn. Thence he'll press on to Scythia, robbing hen roosts, unless he join a robber band. You'll never see him again. Now for Hera's sake give me some wine to lessen the pain!"
"The Scythian tried to take me with him," said Nirouphar, handing me a wineskin.
"Mithras smite the viper!" cried Vardanas. "What did the knave?"
"Hardly had the sound of the ambush come to my ears, when the slave galloped back to the hollow. He shouted something about my coming, caught my wrist, and tried to drag me across his horse's back. I pricked the horse with my dagger; it reared and nearly threw him. He cast a curse at me and rode on."
Vardanas cursed the Scythian with frightful curses. Calming, he said: "Why should the abandoned scoundrel do that, Leon? A woman's no use to him with his infibulation. At least, so the slave dealer told me."
"Nay; but, if he win to his own land, he'll soon have the ring snipped from his prong. After a few days' soreness he'll be as doughty a spearman as ever."
"Castration is better," growled Vardanas, cursing some more.
I said: "Come, my friend, would you not seize a chance to escape, were you a slave in Scythia?"
"Arimanes take such talk! Our philosophical friends in Athens have addled your mind with their foolish ideas of the equality of all men."
"Equal or not, he's free," I said, "and on two legs, which I am not. Now let's look to our own future. We've lost two horses—not that they were any kin to Pegasos—but we have captured no beasts to take their place."
"How stupid of me!" cried Vardanas, fumbling with the lacings of his mail coat. "Help me out of this crab's shell, Inaudos. I go to fetch a horse."
When free of his armor, Vardanas retrieved the kamynda from the dust, coiled it, and vaulted upon his steed. Off he went. Inaudos dragged the corpses off the road and buried them, while Nirouphar comforted me.
"At least," I said, "your brother need not worry about your virtue the now. Whilst I'm in this sorry state, Aphrodite herself could get no pleasure from me. Though, of course, you are fully as beautiful as she," I hastily added.
As my injuries were of the kind that only time would mend, I resigned myself to sitting in the hollow for a few days. Late that afternoon, when Inaudos was broiling a steak from one of the slaughtered beasts, Vardanas brought in a horse he had caught with his noose.
"The kamynda is not meant for forests," he said. "I readily found the horses, but most of my casts were fouled by branches."
He rode off once more and at dusk returned with another. The next day he fetched two more, but on the following hunt failed to find the masterless remnant, which had now scattered too widely. Still, we were now two horses better off than when we set out.
Vardanas was vastly impressed by the grassy plains of Thessalia, even in their dreary winter guise. "What horse country!" he cried. "But alas, my friend, I see no horses; only herds of these oversized hares you falsely call by the noble name of 'horse.'"
I said: "True, we could do with some of your Median monsters. Belike, when our personal problems are settled, we could devise a scheme for fetching horses of the royal breed from your land to mine."
"We have a herd of them already," he said. "At my family's estate, that is. There were ten to begin with, but now they've doubled under my brother Kambouzias' loving care."
"Let us speak of this again," I said. "My parents would be outraged did I go into general trading, albeit I have some bent in that direction. Luckily, horse trading is the one business a Thessalian knight may engage in without dishonor."
To reach Atrax, one goes sixty furlongs up the winding valley of the Peneios from Larissa. As we came unto the demesnes of my family, I began excitedly to point out landmarks.
"Over yonder lies my elder cousin Demonax's land, as far as you can see up the river," I babbled. "This parcel we rent to Yeoman Abas; that patch about his house he owns in qualified fee simple. Yon kine I think are ours ..."
We entered our own holdings and rode several furlongs to the manor house. I saw that my brother Demonax had at last effected one of his favorite projects: that of putting gravel on the road to make it less muddy in winter and dusty in summer.
I meant at first to ride straight to the door of the manor, but as we passed by the farmyard it struck me that most of my family would be there at this time of day. And so it proved.
Tears started to my eyes as there unfolded before me the dear familiar scenes of my childhood, but little changed by time: my elder brother Demonax training a horse, the old pigpen removed to make way for a fountain, my sister Phila and a serving wench carrying between them a great basket of laundry from the washhouse, a new stable, my brother Aristos beating a serf, a cock chasing a hen around the dunghill, my father in heated dispute with the chief groom ...
They all saw me at once. My sister dropped her wash in the mud with a screech that must have been heard in Larissa. My brothers ran towards me, bellowing a welcome until our horses danced uneasily. I dismounted, still limping, and was soon engulfed in family, retainers, and servants, all of whom rushed out to hug and kiss me. My mother heard the noise, came out from the manor house, and plowed through the crowd like a ship through the waves to add her embraces. She was a tall large-boned woman, and it secretly grieved me to see how much older she appeared than I remembered.
After greeting me, my father (who had put on weight and lost his hair since I saw him last) looked Vardanas over and whispered to me: "Is this the young Persian callant I've been hearing about, Leon? Should I cast mysel down in the muck afore him, or what? Persians are a terrible polite folk, I'm told."
"He's a brother to me, so use him as such," I said. "And the lady is his sister Nirouphar."
Then they embraced and kissed Vardanas and Nirouphar, who took it with good grace. I opened my saddlebags and handed out my homecoming gifts amid shrieks from the women and affectionate roars from the men.
As we walked towards the manor, my father said: "I suppose you've come home full of grand Athenian ideas of how to play the gentleman. You'll be wanting us to eat lying down the now, and keep the women locked up in the benmost part of the house, eh?"
"Nought of the kind, Goodsire! I've seen men and their customs from Athens to India, and, by Zeus and all the gods, it does my heart good to be where I can act natural again!"
"Good lad!"
"As for my Persian friends, the more you entreat them like kinfolk, the happier 'twill make me. There's but one small matter. Is old Typhon still with us?"
"Aye; I saw him in the barn but yestreen."
"Then I ask that he be kept out of the house whilst they're here. Like many foreigners, they have a foolish fear of snakes."
"Losh, what queer folk foreigners maun be! But it shall be as you say. Tell me, do Persians dine mixed, or men and women separate? I ask because your good mother would hate to be parted from her bairn at your first repast at home."
"Mixed," I said. As we came to the door of the manor house, my mother said:
"I hope you've no forgotten how to wipe your feet, Leon darling!"
The torches and lamps burnt past midnight as we sat in the hall and told our adventures. My grandmother dozed through most of it. After sleeping the morning through, I forgathered with my parents to talk serious business. I showed them the money I had brought home.
"No vast Persian treasure?" said my father mockingly.
"Dinna bait the lad," said my mother. "Seeing all the temptations to fling one's silver away that there be in a soldier's life, he's done well to save as muckle as he has. But now, sweet Leon, there's another matter we maun speak of. How old are you? Twenty-six?"