CHAPTER 12 – REUNITING WITH LOVED ONES
16:11 (Central Asia Time)
Thursday, June 19, 60 B.C.E.
Caravanserai of Hiram and Yurkan
Samarkand, Sogdiana
Having returned from the market, where she had bought some fresh meat and vegetables, Seda had her daughter Dinkha help by washing and then cutting some of the vegetables, while she herself rubbed the meat with some spices and salt. As she finished doing that, she stopped for a moment while contemplating the quantity of food she was preparing: it was more than sufficient for herself, her daughter Dinkha and her son Jakand. However, she had not calculated a portion for her husband Hiram, who had now been gone for over fourteen months and whose return was now well overdue. She had to close her eyes for a moment as worrying speculations reentered her mind again. As the wife of a caravan master, she was supposed to expect and endure long separations from her husband but she found those separations harder and harder to support. Her two children were also affected by those long absences but on a lesser degree than her. Her case was far from being isolated, as many of the associate merchants and camel drivers of her husband’s caravan also had families which were sorely missing their loved ones. What worried most by far Seda and the other wives of Hiram’s caravan members was however the thought, no, the possibility, that they would never return. A sudden, violent storm could have stricken the caravan, or bandits could have attacked it, killing all its members, or some war could have engulfed it, wiping it out. Such nightmare scenarios had happened to other caravans in the past and, as a city which lived mostly from the caravan trade, the people of Samarkand were well aware of how fragile that trade was. That had led to a level of communal solidarity that was quite rare for such a large city, with the people of Samarkand often contributing aid to stricken families of caravans which had been hit by some disaster during trips to faraway lands. Seda nearly felt sick at the thought that she and her children could possibly need such communal help in the months to come. In fact, a few passing merchants and caravans had recently brought news of a resurgence in fighting between the Sakas and the Kushans along the road Hiram’s caravan had to use, something that had only reinforced Seda’s fears concerning Hiram. Unfortunately, she could do nothing about that but hope and wait.
Seda was absentmindedly filling an iron pot with water so that she could put it on the fire of her kitchen and boil it before adding the cut meat and vegetables, when Dinkha came running and screaming in the kitchen, nearly making Seda let go her pot of water.
‘’THEY ARE BACK, MOTHER! FATHER IS BACK!’’
Forgetting at once her cooking and putting down the half-filled pot, Seda then followed her daughter outside at a run. Her heart jumped in her chest when she saw Hiram, at the head of his caravan, riding into the compound of their caravanserai. A bearded man with brown skin whom she didn’t know was also riding alongside Hiram. However, Seda ignored that man and ran to meet her husband in the middle of the courtyard while shouting.
‘’HIRAM! HIRAM, YOU ARE FINALLY BACK!’’
Making first his horse sidestep a bit, so that it would not block the rest of the caravan from entering the courtyard, Hiram then jumped on the ground and met his wife with open arms. The two of them then hugged and kissed each other for a long moment, soon joined by Dinkha and Jakand.
‘’By Ahura Mazda, it is so nice to be home again.’’ said Hiram while still hugging his wife and two children. ‘’I am sorry if my lateness made you worry about me but I had to use a longer route in order to avoid major fighting along my normal return route. However, we are all safe and sound and have done some good trading along the way.’’
Seda had tears on her cheek as she looked into her husband’s eyes and as she caressed his cheeks.
‘’I was so afraid for you, Hiram. The other wives of the caravan were also afraid about your fate.’’
‘’My associates will be able to go meet and reassure their families as soon as we will have unloaded our beasts. In fact, why don’t we send Dinkha and Jakand to go around and pass the good news to the families of my men?’’
‘’An excellent idea, Hiram. DINKHA, JAKAND, YOU HEARD YOUR FATHER: GO INFORM THE FAMILIES OF OUR MERCHANTS THAT THE CARAVAN IS SAFELY BACK.’’
The girl and the boy immediately ran out of the courtyard to obey their parents, leaving Seda alone in the arms of Hiram. She tightly hugged him again, savoring this moment to the fullest, then looked at the caravan as it entered the courtyard in single file.
‘’Hey, I see a man and a girl that I didn’t see before. And why is Poros with your caravan instead of with his own caravan?’’
Hiram’s expression changed then and he answered her in a soft voice.
‘’The old Chinese man and the Indian girl joined my caravan after we met them in India. As for poor Poros, he lost his caravan and his men to a band of looting Saka soldiers. Other Saka soldiers tried to loot my caravan but we defended ourselves and killed those soldiers. I am afraid that the route to India via Bactriana will be closed by fighting for many months to come.’’
‘’Well, the important thing is that you are safely back with all your people, Hiram.’’
‘’And I promise you that I will take a break from traveling for at least a couple of months, while I sell the goods I brought back with me. I will now have to organize our arrival and unloading but we will make it quick. Could you add three extra persons for supper at our table? I would like to invite the master of the caravan which jointly traveled with us, plus the Chinese man and Indian girl I picked up in India. There will be lots of new projects to organize here in Samarkand and I won’t travel again before everything is well started up.’’
‘’Take all the time you need to do that, my dear husband.’’ replied Seda while smiling and patting Hiram’s chest. ‘’Now, go take care of your caravan while I go prepare supper for you and your guests. After supper, I will help you take a good bath…with me.’’
‘’I can hardly wait for that, my lovely Seda.’’
Both of them then regretfully separated, Hiram going to the stables while Seda returned into their house to continue preparing supper.
The wives and children of the members of Hiram’s caravan then started arriving from their respective homes, causing more tearful, happy reunions. Sajith Singh looked on with a smile as he stood next to Nauca.
‘’That is by far the best moment of a caravan trip, I must say. And you, Nauca? Is your family here in Samarkand?’’
Nauca slowly shook her head in response.
‘’My whole family was killed by bandits years ago, in Sarmatia. Also, I am not married and don’t intend to marry for many years to come. Having children would put a serious obstacle to my traveling, so I prefer to stay single for the moment. Maybe, when I get older and less physically able to travel, will I marry.’’
Sajith nodded once at that.
‘’And when you do, the man you will marry will be a happy man indeed. Did I tell you that my son Najib has a thing for you?’’
‘’I noticed, Sajith.’’ said Nauca, smiling. ‘’He is a nice boy but, unfortunately for him, my future plans don’t involve men in them.’’
‘’A sad waste, I must say.’’ replied jokingly Sajith before going to check on the unloading of his caravan. On her part, Nauca went to unload her own horses and camels, which carried a fortune’s worth in bags full of various spices. The rest of her fortune, consisting of gems, was on her, in a small bag hanging between her breasts and inside a leather money belt wrapped around her waist. She may presently be down to only a few hundred drachmas’ worth in silver and gold coins, carried in her belt purse, but that would soon change once she started selling her gems and her spices to merchants and traders in Samarkand.
Her next task was to go meet with Liu Han and Babita, who didn’t know where to go after their arrival. As an official associate of Hiram, Nauca was able to secure rooms for them at the inn of the caravanserai and also helped Liu to store away his precious tools and manuscripts. Her last task before going to have supper at the inn was to give her horses and camels a good brushing and give them water and hay. Both Timur, Gorudos and Sirhan accompanied her to the inn to eat supper with her. The first bite of the beef stew served that evening by the inn made her close her eyes in delight.
‘’Hmm! This is such a nice change from our usual travel diet of salted fish and dried and smoked meat.’’
‘’Don’t say that to Askhat.’’ replied a smiling Gorudos. ‘’He would be liable to chase after you with his kitchen knife.’’
‘’Really? Look at how he is presently barfing down his own portion of stew.’’
The three men sitting at her table twisted their necks to look at the old caravan cook, who was eating stew with young Amara, then smiled back at Nauca.
‘’True this time, Nauca, but you must recognize that Askhat can make miracles with very little.’’
‘’I will concede that, Gorudos.’’
‘’I wonder where we will go next, now that the road through Bactriana is closed by fighting, while the Romans in Tanais are discouraging trade there because of their excessive taxes.’’ said Timur between spoonfuls of his stew. Nauca, who had been thinking about that for many days now while traveling, spoke after a short moment.
‘’I had an idea while we were crossing the Karakoram. Seeing how much in demand amber is in India and in China, I am in mind of going myself to get lots of amber…directly at its source, on the Baltic Coast. By acquiring amber there, I will cut many levels of intermediaries and will be able to buy it dirt cheap before returning and selling it, either in Samarkand or in China or India. However, that would not be a trip for a whole caravan and would be more easily done by a small group of riders. Amber is very light, thus a couple of simple pack horses would be more than sufficient to bring back plenty of amber.’’
‘’But you would have to travel through lots of unknown territories occupied by barbaric tribes. You could get attacked by bandits at every turn.’’
Nauca threw a sarcastic look at Timur as she replied to that.
‘’And we were not attacked by bandits or by soldiers on our last trip, Timur? By the way, one of those ‘barbaric tribes’ happens to be my own tribe: the Roxolani of Sarmatia. Such a trip to the Northwest would actually allow me to visit my own people on the way, something I would truly like to do.’’
As Timur smarted from his verbal gaffe, Gorudos eyed Nauca with some concern.
‘’You are not going to travel alone, I hope? I would personally like to go with you but Hiram needs me and Timur to keep his caravan safe from bandits.’’
‘’I won’t be alone, if Igrid and Talya accept to come with me. Igrid is from the Germanic tribe of the Bastarnae, which happens to be situated to the west of my own Sarmatia, so I am pretty sure that Igrid would love to come with me. As for Talya, she is a Dacian, a people living directly south of the territory of the Bastarnae. Together, the three of us will be able to travel quickly and discretely while staying away from nests of bandits and robbers.’’
‘’That could work, I suppose.’’ recognized Gorudos, thoughtful. ‘’And when would you leave on such a trip westward?’’
‘’As soon as I sell most of my spices and gems and after talking with Hiram about it. The amber I would bring back from the Baltic region would actually make an excellent trading merchandise for him to go sell in either China or India.’’
‘’Hum! You do think of everything, do you, Nauca?’’
‘’I do my best to prevent trouble, unless I am actively looking for trouble, my dear Gorudos.’’ said Nauca with a grin.
After finishing her supper, Nauca excused herself with Gorudos and Timur and went to sit at the table occupied by Igrid and Talya, who were sipping from cups of wine.
‘’High, girls! Do you mind if I sit and discuss something with you?’’
‘’Go right ahead, Nauca.’’ replied Igrid, a most pretty sixteen-year-old blonde with an athletic body and who was as tall as Nauca. Sitting down facing Igrid and being next to Talya, who was now fifteen and had brown hair and gray eyes and was nearly as tall as her, Nauca then started speaking to them while keeping her voice low.
‘’How would you two like to accompany me on a trip to the Baltic region, via the steppes and forests to the Northwest of Tanais? I am planning to go get plenty of amber directly at its source, where it is the cheapest to buy.’’
The instant smiles her proposal made appear on the faces of the two teenagers were plenty as an answer from them.