Homecoming
The collection of mudbrick homes encircled by their
wattle-and-daub palisade looked dirtier; smaller somehow than when
I’d departed. It seemed like only last season but one glance at the
numerous scars standing out in pale streaks on my sun-browned
forearms was all reminder I needed that I’d been away for
years.
“I’ll be back and I’ll bring you a pearl,” I’d told Anel as we
kissed one last time before I followed the recruiter. “The
mercenary forces are rich. Wait for me. I’ll return and we can
leave this place and buy ourselves a farm in the highlands. We can
keep a few cows and raise a family.”
My dreams had been simple then, and had been all that
sustained me when one year had become two, then three. A dozen had
passed since the callow youth I’d been first gained
