Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (53 page)

Jimnee replied, “I assumed that from all the
traveling gear your wife purchased today, though she was not able
to explain to me why you must leave. Can you tell me why? After
all, you just got here last night!”

He first sucked in a deep sigh, and as he
slowly released his breath, he said, “That, I shall explain over
dinner, if you and Yaush would honor us with your presence.”

Without hesitation, Jimnee replied, “We’d be
delighted!” She then added, “Speaking of Yaush, I must return home
and wait for him to return from work, but I can assure you that
we’ll be back in an hour or two.”

Baltor said, “Great! We’ll be looking forward
to see you tonight.”

Once Jimnee had left and closed the door
behind her, Brishava sang over her shoulder, “Guess what I
got?”

He walked behind her, wrapped his arms around
her, kissed her spicy neck with his lips several times, and then
asked, “What?”

“Guess,” she cooed.

“I don’t know—new clothes.”

“You’re one hundred percent right, Baltor.
Though it took a whole shop of tailors all day to reconstruct them
from your silks, they have made you gloves and a suit with a hood
to protect you from the sun! Unfortunately, they made a boo-boo and
made eyeholes in the hood, so I had to purchase a hat to protect
those beautiful eyes of yours, as well some new matching
boots.”

“Wow, that’s quite a lot! You got all that
for me?” he asked as he looked over her shoulder, and saw all the
stuffed bags.

She released his hug, turned around, pulled
the black suit out of one of the bags, and sweetly said while
holding half of it out for Baltor to take, “About half of it is
yours, yes—now try it all on and see how it fits.”

After giving her another kiss on the cheek,
he stripped down, took the outfit, and then began to dress in the
one-piece black and silky suit that was sunlight impenetrable when
buttoned from the ankle up to the neck—meanwhile, she watched him
with ever-increasing desire.

Once he had put the black suit with the
silver lining on about thirty seconds later, he found that the silk
stretched throughout his muscular body exceptionally well, except
for his feet and hands. He then pulled over the hood that concealed
his face and neck; he could see through the holes.

“Perfect,” she exclaimed. “Now, try on the
hat.”

He picked the wide-brimmed black hat with a
white feather sticking out of it, and then put it on.

She extended out the boots, and said, “Here
are your boots.”

“Thanks.”

After he had put on, and laced the black
leather boots with large silver buckles that also fit perfectly,
she said while holding out a pair of black gloves, “Last, but not
least, here are your gloves.”

Once he had put these on, she chimed,
“Perfect!”

He chuckled as he looked into a mirror, and
said, “I kind of feel like a pirate!”

She lightly laughed at his comment for a
moment, but in the next moment, she seriously ordered, “Now, I want
you take it all off, my valiant swashbuckler!”

“Okay,” Baltor dutifully said.

He did as ordered, and was about ready to put
back on his regular attire; however, she grabbed a hold of him and
slowly led him to the bed.

Meanwhile, she playfully said, “We have
plenty of time to play before we go to dinner, my husband!”

Baltor growled in desire. Brishava squealed
in delight….

An hour later or so, he got dressed, brought
in the five buckets of hot water and a bar of soap that had been
set outside the room about ten minutes earlier by a busboy, and
filled the bathtub with water.

She was the first to hop into the tub, and
immediately she began the process of washing herself down with
soap.

Once done with her bath fifteen minutes
later, he hopped into the bathtub, and scrubbed himself down;
meanwhile, she began to get dressed in some new and colorful fur
garments that she had purchased for herself, fixed up her hair, and
then donned a bit of make-up.

By the time he hopped out of the bathtub, she
was ready. He began to dry himself off, but his eyes kept falling
back on his gorgeous wife—he found that he wanted her yet again! He
also saw that her gaze kept falling back on his body as well, but
both resisted their urges.

She looked back over to the bags and
informed, “Oh, I have several more things for you in the bag, my
love. Take a look-see!”

He opened the bag up. He first pulled out a
long, brown and white strip of fur; he then pulled out some brown
and white fur garments, and finally he pulled out a pair of brown
and white fur boots—these he set down onto the floor.

Looking back into the nearly empty bag one
final time, his eyes spotted a gold necklace with small gems
imbedded throughout its length! He held up the necklace and asked,
“Even this?”

“Yes. Why, don’t you like the necklace?”

“I like it all very much, thanks—I’m just not
used to be being spoiled,” he said as he donned the necklace. It
was a snug fit, and only enhanced the other golden necklace with
the arrowhead.

She playfully replied, “Well, get used to it,
mister!”

Once done with getting dressed into his fur
clothes and boots, he then began the process of combing his hair
with the comb that she had just given him. About a minute later,
she handed him the golden hoop that Humonus had gotten him so long
ago, so that he could pull his hair through it.

“Thanks,” he said, as he continued his
grooming procedures.

“No problem.” she said, as she continued to
stare at Baltor adoringly. Finally, upon observing that he was
nearly complete with grooming his hair, she sighed, “No doubt you
are
the finest man
I’ve seen by far, my bright and shining
star!” When she said those three italicized words, her voice had
stressed dramatically.

“Really?” he asked. “Didn’t you tell
something like that to me once before?”

“Yes,” Brishava sighed. “I have, yet I’ll
certainly say it thousands of times more in thousands of other
ways, I’m sure. You are h-o-t!”

He chuckled out, “Thanks, you know that I
feel the same way about you. You are h-o-t! Moreover, I’d like to
do something about that if you know what I mean, but I—we can’t!
Humonus is probably sitting in the dismal corner of the inn, alone
with no one to talk to, and desperately waiting for us to come—I’m
ready to go, how about you?”

“I’m ready, but have you yet inspected
yourself in the mirror, my husband?”

Baltor answered with a question, “Why?”

“Because you should do this from now on
before you ever go out in public—ensure for yourself that you look
as good as you really do.”

He looked in the mirror that was hanging from
the wall to his right, and really saw his own image stare back for
the first time ever! As he turned to face the mirror, he saw that
his manly body had indeed become quite muscular—easily decipherable
through the thin fur garments he donned.

His eyes then glanced up to his face—he saw
that he had a strong jaw-line with relatively thin lips, dark-brown
eyes, slightly angular eyebrows, and a slightly curvy nose—a very
manly face!

He finally looked up at his hair, and then
noticed the small clump of hair that stuck out at the golden hoop
near the top of his head, making his hair look a bit “out of
whack.”

The second he had patched it up, she
responded with a smile,

“Let’s go.”

Together, hand in hand, they headed
downstairs to the bar area. Upon entering the bar, Baltor was
slightly amazed to see Humonus standing in the middle of the bar,
talking happily away to all of the former slave girls with mug in
hand—that and a slight slur! In between taking long sips, it was
obvious that he was telling some sort of tale through his showy arm
gestures.

Meanwhile, the girls all appeared to be
completely enrapt.

When Humonus saw his friend, however, he
stopped his tale in mid-sentence. With a prompting gesture of his
hand, he said with a slightly drunken slur, “Baltor! Come here, my
friend.”

Baltor replied with a smile, “I’m already on
the way.”

Humonus added with a laugh, “On the
double!”

Baltor began to suspect that Humonus might
have been talking about his old training days. With a laugh, he
replied, “Sir, yes, sir!” This triggered an outburst from the
girls, which confirmed his suspicions.

Once he had speedily reached Humonus, only
eight seconds later, he could totally smell the alcohol reeking off
his friend’s breath—whew!

Humonus wrapped his arm around Baltor and
asked the girls, “Did you know that when I first saw him, he was
nothing more than a raggedy, thin, and mud-caked boy! Now look at
what I’ve made him into. A simply magnificent beast, he is!”

He then threw a hard slap into Baltor’s gut.
He didn’t even flinch.

The women looked over with admiring glances.
Poila was the one to sigh, “Really? I thought you were a prince
from the get-go. Nevertheless, what a handsome hero you still
are!”

A couple of the other girls began to giggle.
Meanwhile, Brishava noticed the looks but said nothing. She didn’t
feel the pangs of jealousy—well, maybe a little.

Meanwhile, Baltor said in humility, “I just
did what I had to do, that’s all! Anybody else would have done the
same thing.”

“Oh come on, Baltor,” said Humonus. “How many
people would have dared to fight an entire caravan of slave traders
just to become a hero to a bunch of beautiful women, besides
me?”

All of the girls giggled for a few
moments.

Once the giggling had almost subsided, Baltor
shrugged his shoulders and laughed, “I don’t know. Perhaps
everyone, perhaps only us two, I don’t know.”

He could see from his peripherals that Yaush
and Jimnee had just entered the bar. In the Valakanese language,
Baltor called out with a smile, “Yaush and Jimnee, we’re over
here.”

Immediately, they began to walk over.
Meanwhile, Humonus leaned in close toward Baltor, and whispered, “I
must confess, my friend… I’m pretty drunk… and pretty hungry. How
about we get something to eat?”

“Good idea, Humonus.”

In both languages, Baltor asked, “Are we all
ready to sit down and order some dinner?”

From the nodding of heads, Baltor escorted
Humonus over to a table and gently sat him down into a chair. He
then took the seat next to his friend, and Brishava took the seat
next to Baltor on the other side.

After Yaush had asked the innkeeper for
permission, he then linked together several other tables so that
they could all sit together. Yaush and Jimnee then took seats on
the other side of the table, while the girls filled in the
remaining seats.

Humonus must have already arranged dinner
with the innkeeper somehow, or someone did—for the moment that they
had all gotten comfortable, several of the serving girls began to
pass out the steaming plates of steak and potatoes, while the rest
began to bring out the mugs of ale.

Amongst those serving girls, Baltor noticed
Yeea—she had long known that Baltor was amongst the customers, but
had also seen the extremely beautiful woman sitting and clinging
next to him, which is why Yeea said nothing but only kept her gaze
focused on her task.

Once everything had been set down onto the
table, which included mugs, glasses, silverware, etc., almost
everyone had begun to eat, except for the serving girls, including
Yeea, who left.

Even though Baltor found he was strangely
hungry, he had learned how to ignore his hunger pains. However, as
the smells of the spicy food wafted up his nose, he could hear his
stomach begin to growl.

He wondered for the first time whether he
could tolerate eating the food, and so he gave it a shot.

Baltor did find that everything tasted quite
delicious, and that he was able to stomach the food and the ale,
even though dinner didn’t curb his hunger one iota. He was starting
to crave fresh blood, once again.

Meanwhile, as Brishava ate, she also watched
in amazement as her husband ate the offered food, as she had never
forgotten or been allowed to forget that Baltor had his own special
diet. Despite her curiosities, she said nothing about her
thoughts.

Once dinner had been finished, the
conversations began. Baltor found that he was the sole interpreter
between the two different languages, which he could still
fortunately speak on the fourth night since having feasted
last.

Everyone had to ask him the questions. The
first important question came from Yaush, as he asked, “Where are
the three of you guys going, and why do you have to leave so soon
after having just arrived?”

After Baltor had interpreted the question to
Humonus and the girls, he then answered in both languages, “Let me
say that it’s best for everyone that we disappear as soon as
possible and for awhile. As to the why and the where, I really
can’t answer those questions for all our safeties...”

Even though there were many more important
questions asked that night, a very important one that regarded the
plans of the girls and their futures.

Baltor interpreted the girls’ answers that
they had voted to stay in town, acquire a large cabin to
accommodate them all, learn the Valakanese language, and get
jobs.

Brishava, who happened to have her backpack
on her, took it off, opened it, poured out the remaining jewels
onto the table, and offered, “This should help you get
started!”

At that, the girls all squealed in delight
over this unexpected generosity and exclaimed, “Thanks!”

Brishava smiled humbly, nodded her head, and
replied, “You are most welcome.”

Several more hours of friendly conversation
and drinking alcohol passed, as everyone attempted to learn the
very basics of the Valakanese language through Baltor—even though
Baltor continued to drink wine, he did not even so much as get a
slight buzz.