15 Lord Parlings and his men

  “Pedlar!” Joseph shouted at the person who was running away at full speed.

  The person heard Joseph’s voice. Their head turned to him. At that very moment, they tripped and fell. Joseph pulled at the reins and stopped. He got down from his horse and ran toward where the stranger fell but stopped when the ground beneath his feet softened. There was a cliff there which he hadn’t noticed. The stranger didn’t only fall. They rolled off the edge and landed motionless on the bushes down the cliff.

  Joseph held his breath. The height wasn’t much, but it was enough for a person to break any part of their body or hit their head on some stone or a hard surface. Joseph watched the motionless person from above and gulped hard. What had he done? The seconds froze for him as the sun pierced through the branches and leaves. He didn’t mean to harm anyone, especially not the Pedlar. He was there to meet her, talk to her, know the truth about her identity, get mad at her, and maybe yell at her, but he didn’t want to harm her. How could he take the life of someone who had saved his?

  Why would she be there in the first place? Why had she stolen a horse from the caravanserai and hurt it? Wasn’t she supposed to be a healer? Maybe the person down there wasn’t her. Perhaps it was a thief.

  A swishing sound broke the train of destructive thoughts. The hooded person moved their hand, and Joseph exhaled the air in his lungs, sighing in relief. He didn’t know he would feel such a horrible way again after the death of his wife. The hooded person was alive, and they moved their body. Joseph put his hands on his heart and breathed the deepest.

  Suddenly someone grabbed a hold of Joseph’s arm and dragged him away from the cliff. Joseph was shocked and frustrated to be interrupted. He stepped away from the person to protect himself and looked at them with widened eyes. It was someone familiar.

  “Lord Parlings!” Joseph said with disbelief.

  Lord Parlings was the friend of the Duke of Nowkey. He met him at the dinner at Nowkey. Joseph wanted to ask what he was doing there, but that didn’t matter. He had to make sure the hooded stranger was all right. He stepped toward the cliff again, but Lord Parlings stepped in front of him and stopped him.

  “What are you doing?” Joseph asked.

  Lord Parlings grabbed Joseph’s arm and dragged him behind a tree. He hushed Joseph and waited. Joseph heard other voices of men who were shouting a specific word. He tilted his head from behind the tree and looked. There were a few men on their horses, riding at full speed. After they passed the eyesight, Joseph stepped around the tree and again approached the cliff. The hooded person was hiding from the guards. The hood fell from the stranger’s head and revealed long black hair. She was indeed a woman!

  “That’s not the person you’re looking for,” Lord Parlings said, which made Joseph turn around and look at him. How did he know whom Joseph was looking for? “That’s not the pedlar, my lord.”

  Joseph said nothing. He only stared at Lord Parlings. “It’s a woman down there,” Lord Parlings explained. “It’s not him.”

  Lord Parlings did not know that the Pedlar was a woman. Joseph didn’t want to uncover this information, so he kept silent.

  “I must ensure she’s fine,” Joseph said. He approached the cliff and looked down, but to his surprise there was no sign of the hooded woman. She was gone in a blink of an eye. Joseph looked everywhere from his higher perspective, yet he couldn’t trace her. How could she vanish like that, he wondered without letting Lord Parlings know.

  “We must leave this instant. Come along now,” Lord Parlings said and started walking. Joseph kept glancing back and wondering if the Pedlar was fine. If it weren’t for Lord Parlings, Joseph would follow her and finally confront her after a year of searching for her and fulfill the purpose of his tiring journey. But now he had to start over and look for her again.

  Lord Parlings asked Joseph to be quiet since the guards could be close. They kept their voices low and did their best not to make any sound. Joseph found his horse and mounted it. Lord Parlings untied his horse from a tree. He got on his horse too, and they both left the woods. Parlings led Joseph to a place that looked like an inn to drink and eat. They entered and took seats around an empty table. Joseph watched the strangers come and go, although it was only morning. He was disappointed for not talking to the Pedlar when she was so close.

  “A thank you would be quite appreciated,” Lord Parlings said, and Joseph glanced up to meet his gaze. They were waiting for a drink and something to eat. “I saved your life,” Lord Parlings added.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “How?” Joseph said while his hands were entwined.

  “Didn’t you see the guards?”

  “I was merely passing by.”

  “Yes. You passed the borders.”

  “What borders?”

  A man placed down huge containers of alcohol in front of Lord Parlings. His eyebrows lifted. “You don’t know,” he said. “You don’t know we’re in Persia!”

  “No, we’re not.”

  “We are!”

  Joseph’s frown deepened. “We crossed the border?”

  “Yes. We’re in Persia now. How do you ride toward somewhere you don’t know?”

  “I’m not geographically smart.”

  “So I see.”

  Joseph crossed his arms. “What are you doing here, Lord Parlings?” he asked, feeling frustrated.

  “Doing the same as you.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Aren’t you here to find the Pedlar?”

  “What could you possibly want from him?”

  Lord Parlings moved one of the big containers of alcohol in front of Joseph. Joseph needed to drink more than any time in his life now. Lord Parlings shook the container to intrigue Joseph, and it spilled on the table. Joseph grabbed it and chugged half of it in one breath. Lord Parlings looked at a table with men talking in English.

  Joseph noticed them. “You’ve brought an army.”

  “They’re quite brave men,” Lord Parlings said. “We ride everywhere together. Our adventures and memories are what make us the men we are. I would die for each of them.”

  “You didn’t answer me.”

  “What was the question?”

  “What do you want from a man who’s merely a gossip?”

  “Didn’t you say he saved your life?

  “When?”

  “At Nowkey.” Lord Parlings thought for a few seconds. “A hooded man saved my life. He did some hocus pocus and et voila! Here I am,” he quoted what Joseph said at the Nowkey dukedom more than half a year ago.

  “It was nothing but a jest.”

  “Was it?” Lord Parlings said with a smile. He leaned toward Joseph. “There’s no judgment or shaming here, Lord Mainwood. I’m fascinated by his powers. I don’t care if he’s the devil.”

  Joseph had heard that sentence too many times. Nobody cared if she was the devil. But Joseph was sure they would hurt her.

  “He’s a ghost who does not exist,” Joseph said.

  “We both know he’s not a ghost, a gossip, or a rumor. You’ve crossed the world to come and find him. You possibly cannot deny his existence.”

  “What do you know of him?”

  “My men and I have been collecting information from him in the past few years. He’s been helping sick people and animals. In some regions, people claim he has sold them things not grown locally. We guessed he was a foreigner, but we weren’t quite sure. Then we looked for him and asked anyone we could. And now here we are. Thanks to you.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. We followed you.”

  “Pardon?”

  “When you mentioned the Pedlar at the Duke’s dinner, I was determined to ask you what you knew about him. But then you left the next day, and it was odd. I followed you and realized you were to depart on a trip to Asia. I knew you would be searching for the Pedlar, so I had to follow you.”

  Joseph was uncomfortable that Lord Parlings and his men had been following him for more than six months, and they didn’t show themselves. He found himself violated strangely.

  “That’s disturbing to know,” Joseph said.

  Lord Parlings chuckled. “Oh, dear. You’re unfiltered. I like that about you.”

  “You could’ve shown yourself to me. Why did you hide from me all this time?”

  “I didn’t want to disturb your solitude.”

  “So you decided to spy on me?”

  Parlings’ smile faded away. “Lord Mainwood.”

  “You seem obsessed with the Pedlar,” Joseph said as he tried to keep himself as calm as possible. He didn’t know Lord Parlings. The man was a maniac who had followed a stranger for almost a year. He had half a dozen men by his side and could have very ill intentions.

  “I’m a hunter, Lord Mainwood. I enjoy looking for someone who is but a rumor to the world.”

  “You want to hunt him like an animal?”

  “No. I merely wish to uncover his truth.’

  “And what will you gain?”

  “Stories and adventures.”

  Joseph said nothing and looked at his half-full drink.

  “We’re close to finding him,” Lord Parlings said. “I can feel it. We will find him by the end of the month. Join me and my men.”

  Joseph sipped from his drink and thought of the wisest way to decline. “My presence will only hold you back," he said. "I’m not a hunter.”

  “You’ve seen him," Parlings said. "We could use your help.”

  “I actually haven’t. I was unconscious when the Pedlar visited me.”

  “All right, then.” Lord Parlings gave up pushing Joseph harder. “I thought we could be a great team to find him. I must apologize for not showing myself sooner, my lord. I know it’s not my place to…,” He thought for a few seconds to word his sentence better, “judge a person by what I see… but… When I saw you at the dinner of the Duke, you seemed rather detached from the people around you. Not that I blame you. Peers are horrible people to be around with.”

  Joseph raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Yes. I am one lord myself. And the statement stands true,” Lord Parlings continued. “I’m even worse than the rest. I assumed you needed to be alone to escape the world around you. So, I didn’t show myself.”

  Joseph felt slightly better after Lord Parling’s apology. He found his statement true. “I would have left this inn if you were more intolerable than other peers.”

  Lord Parlings smiled. “I take that as a compliment.”

  “I suppose I am detached from the world around me.”

  “If you change your mind, you can join us. We’re leaving for Persepolis first thing in the morning.”

  “What are we even going to do at the capital?”

  “The capital’s the only place where we are known. We shall be held in high esteem since we’re nobles. We shall gather our strengths, eat, rest, and then get on our way again.” He drank from the big container in his hand and continued, “I’ve heard the Pedlar is there now. If we’re lucky, we can catch him.”

  “How do you know he’s there?”

  “I might have needed your knowledge of the Pedlar’s whereabouts, but I can track him down from now on.”

  “Because you’re a hunter.”

  “Indeed.”

  Joseph thought for a few seconds. He finished his whole drink and then stomped the container on the table. “All right,” he said after wiping his mouth and beard. “I shall like to join you.”

  A smile appeared on Lord Parlings’ mouth. He raised his drink to salute Joseph and then started drinking.