Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 74. Makir Turukan.

After having gotten so fired up about the tiger sigil, Reian and Jasmine had quite interesting looks on their faces now that they saw it. On the other hand, the three youths in the front quickly shrugged off their surprise and laughed heartily.

“Well, it is a tiger,” Laien said with a chuckle. “A white tiger, that is,” he added, the corners of his lips curving upwards.

“It shouldn’t matter if it’s a different kind of a tiger, right?” Arslan asked with a smile, turning his gaze toward Reian and Jasmine. The two tigers were pretty similar, but it was like a school with a certain kind of a dragon sigil claiming ownership to all dragon-like sigils. It would be pretty unreasonable, or so Arslan thought about it.

The two White Guards were only able to reveal helpless smiles in reply. It was as those kids thought, there indeed was no point to getting worked up over a different kind of a tiger sigil.

“Quite an unusual group you are,” the voice of a bearded man with a few strands of grey in his hair rang out as the door to the large house opened. “Rala Salar, I welcome you to my village,” the man said amiably, but the look in his eyes and the movements of his body as he walked down the wooden steps betrayed his military background, which by this point had completely seeped into his bones.

Out of those present, Jasmine noticed that most clearly; that man had undoubtedly lived through many bloody battles where his life had been on the line, he wasn’t like those martial masters of the big cities who usually hadn’t seen as much as a drop of their own blood throughout their lives.

“Rala Salar, Makir Turukan,” Reian returned the greeting and nodded slightly. The air about that man was the same as that of battle-hardened White Guards. As a soldier himself, Reian couldn’t but become well-disposed toward such a person. “We’ve come here to buy horses and a few other things, who can we do the trade with?” he proceeded to inquire without making any introductions. Firstly, it would be a pain to explain more about their group and secondly, it wasn’t usual for those of a higher status to introduce themselves without being asked, no matter how good one felt about the other party.

“Will it be a trade on a larger end?” Turukan asked without beating around the bush. He enjoyed the matters of management and wanted to spend his last years of life in peace, but he lacked the sense of a true merchant; just like any soldier would, he didn’t consider what would be afterward and only thought about whether the trade right now was something that required his personal attention or not. If it turned out those people didn’t want to buy much, he would send them to his assistant and that was it.

Reian considered the answer for a second, then said with a slight smile. “By the standards of this village, it should be a fairly large trade.”

“Mhm,” Turukan nodded, taking no offense to Reian’s words at all. If he hadn’t been asking with his village’s standards in mind, then what would be the point? It could be a small exchange to those people, but if it was large to him, then it was all that mattered. “Do you want to see the goods first, or will you trust my words and complete the trade in my house?” he asked, once again showing how non-merchant-like his approach was.

“Inside your house will be fine,” Reian replied with a smile, happy to avoid the boring process of walking around and inspecting all the goods one by one. He might not have been so trusting of a merchant, but he doubted that someone with the air of a true warrior about him would step so low as to deceive others for profit. All in all, he found Turukan’s attitude extremely satisfactory.

“Come in then,” Turukan said calmly. “My living room is big enough to fit you all inside. Do you want something to eat and drink to be prepared for you?” he asked, unintentionally having done something even an experienced merchant would find impressive. Compared to leading his customers around, inviting them to one’s own house to eat while doing trade would undoubtedly lead to the creation of a much better long-lasting relationship!

Alas, Turukan had no such thoughts when he made the offer. As a soldier, food was one of the major things he tended to be concerned with in his life; he knew how it felt not to have enough food to eat one’s fill when a war dragged out, so he had become very fond of tasty food in his old age. To him, it would be unthinkable not to offer at least some supper to any guests who came to his house.

“How about it?” Reian asked the three youths in front of him. He didn’t mind making decisions about the trade on his own, but he preferred to leave the choices like this one to the kids.

“I don’t mind.”

“Sure.”

Laien and Arslan said one after another, while Yin opted to stay quiet as he didn’t care either way. Thus, a decision was quickly made.

As this quick exchange played out, a look of surprise appeared in Turukan’s eyes. Would they have refused his invitation had those small guys not been in the mood? He had half-expected those three to be some important small masters, but he didn’t think they had the last word within their group. Still, he didn’t comment on his observation and led the group into his house.

“Uncle!” A youth that seemed to be around ten years old ran downstairs, but he quickly came to a halt when he noticed that Turukan was being accompanied by a large group of important-looking people. A moment later, a slightly older boy also ran down the stairs in quick steps, but he also just as suddenly as the younger boy.

“Good timing,” Turukan said with a light laugh. “Deliver the message to the women for me. I want a large meal to be prepared quickly and sent to the living room,” he instructed straightforwardly, but without giving the details. He trusted that his nephews and the women would be able to work them out on their own, so he didn’t bother to waste his breath on useless rambling.

“Yes, uncle,” the older of the boys replied without delay, bowed his head a little and quickly dragged his cousin back upstairs.

While Laien, Yin and the other three from Makarash spared only a glance at the two boys, the four from Ulme Village appeared to be rather restless as they walked through the relatively long corridor. They had tried not to show their anxiety outside, but they couldn’t help being nervous when inside the house of a powerful Ikarian; regardless of their will, it brought back too many bad memories. However, since they were accompanying the bunch of unnaturally powerful experts into this Ikarian house, they were somehow able to prevent the stress from showing on their faces too much. They were certain that were something to happen, Reian and Jasmine would be able to easily handle it.

“You can sit on this side,” Turukan said when they arrived in the spacious and surprisingly bright living room on the other side of the building. He pointed at one side of the long table with his finger, caring little about the etiquette, then headed to sit down himself without waiting for his guests.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it took the group of nine no time at all to choose their seats. Laien sat down directly in front of Turukan, Arslan sat on his right side with Reian and Jasmine placing themselves further to the right, while Yin sat to his left with Johan, Albert, Sarah and Jacob sitting further down in the same direction. Sure enough, it wasn’t hard to guess how the hierarchy in this group of theirs looked from how the three youths were sitting, though the later parts were a bit misleading. For example, it was easy to come into a misconception about Johan’s standing in the group.

“I suggest we finalize the trade before the meal comes,” Turukan said calmly, keeping his gaze directed towards Reian. He was aware that it likely; no, that it certainly wasn’t Reian who was leading this group, but he suspected the trade would be overseen by him and so he didn’t bother to awkwardly ask for permission from those three small ones. In the end, no matter how high status of a child was, he would feel strange asking a small boy for instructions.

“Agreed.” Reian nodded with a smile. “First things first, how many horses and of what quality do you have for sale?” he inquired without beating around the bush.

Turukan revealed a slight smile, pleased that Reian was getting straight to the matter without wasting words for worthless pleasantries. “I have quite a few horses, actually. There are over one thousand average ones that are healthy and not yet old, around one hundred of such that I would describe them as fairly good and about ten good ones. As for those of higher quality, there’s none of them for sale,” he stated simply, seeing no reason to divulge the details.

After Turukan finished speaking, but before Reian could reply, Arslan brought up a question. “You have those of higher quality, but you won’t sell them? Why?” he asked, honestly curious about the reason. He could guess a few of them on his own, but he still wanted to hear the actual explanation.

Perhaps because he noticed the lack of malicious intent behind Arslan’s inquiry, the face of Turukan’s which had begun stiffening relaxed once again. “As you’ve probably heard, the spring had been turbulent in Eulene. When I came here, I fully expected the horses this village rears to be gone and as I thought, most of them were nowhere to be found. The horses we have now are the ones I collected during my active duty and the ones I bought from my friends before leaving the army. The mares and steeds of high quality need time to be bred so that I’m not left with nothing after selling them. The soonest I can sell you the best of my horses will be in two years at the least,” he explained calmly, taking on a similar attitude to when one of his many nephews asked him a question.

“I understand now, thank you,” Arslan said with a bring smile and nodded politely, causing the expression on Turukan’s face to soften even further.

Seeing this little scene, Reian couldn’t resist smiling. “We will take sixty of those fairly good ones. Following that, if you have carriages suitable to be pulled by either one or two horses, I would take sixty of them,” he went ahead and named the second thing they wanted to purchase, seeing no reason for someone who sells horses to not have any carriages in stock.

“Low quality, medium-quality?” Turukan asked in response. “I have those of high-quality too, but only twenty-three of them, though you could get your hands on a few more if you asked around the village,” he elaborated with a quiet laugh and gave Arslan a glance. This time there was no need to ask for an additional explanation, hopefully?

“The medium-quality ones will be fine,” Reian said contentedly. They wouldn’t be stingy with their money when aiding the people of Ulme Village, but there was no reason for them to be wasteful either. Providing things of fair quality for them and giving them a chance to start anew was what he saw as a sensible thing to do, at least in comparison to not giving them anything or showering them with gold and acting like some great person just to boost one’s own ego.

“Anything else?” Turukan asked, very pleased to see that the trade was going quickly and without any trouble alongside. He didn’t like bargaining the prices either, so he very much welcomed Reian’s attitude of not bringing up the gold coins on each step; quietly, he decided to give him a nice discount.

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“Yes.” Reian nodded slightly. “Provisions for those sixty horses and for three hundred people that are going to last two years,” he said a bit resignedly, already guessing that this part would be the most troublesome given the events from the spring. It was unlikely that the field and the farm animals had been tended to properly, so the prices would react accordingly.

Turukan raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t inquire why they were buying provisions only now and not when they had set out from wherever they came from. “It’s going to cost you a lot more than normal to buy this much food at this time. Will that be fine with you?” he asked openly. As a Makir he had had an opportunity to purchase enough provisions for his village not to have any trouble lasting for the next three years in case of any unforeseen events, but it was unlikely for any other village in the area to be willing to sell as much food as Reian was demanding. After all, it was quite rare for someone of his position to be overseeing a village personally and even living in it.

“Yes, it’s not a problem,” Reian confirmed without haggling for a few coins. With his strength, he could easily earn money in many ways, not to mention how filthy rich Makarash was to being with.

People in Arkaria even tended to joke, albeit with some resentment, that what was a fortune in the world, was maybe just barely enough to buy a small house on the outskirts of the City of Makarash. The main problem with that ‘joke’ was that in truth, its content was quite close to reality. The Grand Yimarate of Makarash alone was wealthy enough to contend with the three Great Trading Guilds; just like its military prowess, its economic prosperity was no joke.

“Fine then,” Turukan smiled contentedly. He suspected that a portion of the rations he had brought would have gone to waste the moment food prices fell, so he was in fact quite happy to be able to sell some of it at a high price. When buying them, he couldn’t know when the situation would calm down, but the last two months had been incredibly peaceful and he suspected that the farmers would fill the marker with new goods soon enough. He wasn’t a merchant, but he had enough brain to know simple things like that just due to how long he had lived and how much he had seen.

“Is that all?” he asked, seeing how Reian wasn’t mentioning anything else and didn’t appear to be pondering anything.

“There should be a few more things…” Reian said with a smile and turned his gaze toward Albert. If the youth wanted to get those things he mentioned to him, then the time to speak was now.

“There are a few more,” Albert said with relative calmness, only betraying a slight nervousness in his voice and body language. “They are all profession-specific things though, like the equipment of a herbalist, of a carpenter, of a smith. Do you have such things for sale, Makir?” he inquired in a polite way, but thanks to his young age his behavior was quickly written off by Turukan as normal nervousness while facing someone older and stronger in a trade.

“I don’t have them,” Turukan admitted straightforwardly. “But I know who in the village has them for sale. I can lead you around to buy those things today, after the meal, or leave it for tomorrow morning when the meeting of the Elders will take place,” he explained and looked at Albert with an implicit question in his eyes.

Albert, although he felt a bit nervous, was more than capable of controlling his nerves and so he replied with a smile without much of a delay. “We wanted to conclude the trade today, so I’d prefer that option.”

Once again, feeling glad that he didn’t need to endure worthless pleasantries, Turukan nodded contentedly .“We shall do it like that, then,” he said, then smiled when he saw the dinner coming towards them through the corridor in the hands of his nieces and sisters-in-law.

“For now, let us enjoy eating something delicious!” he said loudly and laughed out loud, much to everyone’s surprise showing quite some excitement over a simple meal.

“Oh, no wonder he was so calm,” Jasmine mused quietly as she looked at the approaching women and girls. The women were only wearing a piece of white cloth to cover their hair, while the girls that were even as old as twelve or thirteen years old weren’t covering themselves in any additional way. Turukan’s approach to the Malazan faith seemed to be on the secular side, so as long as he was also a good person at heart, then he should have no trouble accommodating to the standards of Makarash, or so Jasmine assumed.

“Wow, that smells good,” Laien exclaimed in genuine surprise when the first large plates were uncovered. He had eaten well for the most of his life, especially during his two years at the Red Dragon School, but he needed to admit that this meal was absolutely top-notch even in comparison to the best delicacies he had had!

“Pretty impressive,” Reian seconded. He could tell the ingredients used to prepare this meal weren’t all that extravagant, yet thanks to the way they had been prepared and seasoned one couldn’t help but droll, mainly due to the delicious smell which quickly filled the living room.

Turukan smiled widely and laughed again. “Eat your fill, there’s enough food for everyone to enjoy,” he encouraged, happy to see that his noble guests were impressed with the table the women had set up for them. After all, without good food, life would be all bleak and boring! And what better way was there to enjoy a meal than with a bunch of people who could appreciate its deliciousness?

As more and more dishes made their way onto the table in the hands of the women and girls, the empty plates for everybody also began arriving. By a unanimous agreement, a young but fully-grown woman set up the plates for the three adults amongst the guest, a somewhat younger girl that looked to be around fifteen or sixteen years old served the teenagers, while a girl around twelve years old tended to the youngest four of the guests. With the flatware being placed in front of them, the four youths waited impatiently while salivating uncontrollably, but the particular behavior of one of them ended up attracting some additional attention.

Whether it was on purpose or not, it was hard to say, but youngest of the girls not only had disheveled hair but also was wearing a shirt that looked to be a size too big for her. Moreover, the shirt of hers was unbuttoned at the top, what resulted in her adolescent cleavage being in the plain view every time as she leaned forward to place the flatware down at the sides of the plates. The girl herself appeared to be completely oblivious to the fact though as she concentrated to not do any mistakes while performing the task she wasn’t used to doing.

Out of the four boys, Laien and Yin took notice of this fact, but they weren’t all that perturbed by it or interested in looking. Johan was too anxious to even look away from the table, nor was he interested in such things yet, so he didn’t react in any specific way. Finally, however, Arslan couldn’t resist snaking long and quite obvious glances at the girl’s chest, all the while trying to keep a straight and innocent expression on his flushed-red face. By all means, it appeared to be the first time for Arslan to be seeing a scene of this kind, so he was extremely curious and eager to sneak a few looks.

“Amina, are you trying to find a younger husband for yourself?” Turukan asked wryly, not at all angered by what was going on. As far as he was concerned, it would be only a good fortune for this niece of his if she managed to accidentally seduce a small master of a significant background.

“Eh?”

“Eh?!”

The twelve years old girl and Arslan exclaimed one after another. The blush on Arslan’s face deepened as he quickly turned his gaze away, whereas the meaning of Turukan’s words occurred to Amina only after a few more seconds passed; what in consequence resulted in her abruptly grabbing the top of her shirt with her hand as her face grew bright red. Embarrassed beyond belief, she quickly placed the last fork and knife at Yin’s plate with one hand, then very much like a scared cat she hurriedly ran out of the living room.

A few breaths worth of time later, Turukan laughed merrily, very much amused by the little, unexpected event. The rest of the girls and women present weren’t disturbed by what happened either, so the atmosphere in the room turned more lighthearted than heavy. Laien, Yin and the others were similarly amused, perhaps with the exception of Sarah who not counting Arslan, was the only one without a smile on her face.

“I-I’m sorry,” Arslan said quietly, feeling that he did something improper. He raised his head hesitatingly, his face burning hot from embarrassment, but when he saw the amiable smile on Turukan’s face, he calmed down considerably and secretly breathed with relief. “Uu, and I told them I would only get corrupted a little…” he thought helplessly, unsure whether he should laugh or cry. Were those two really having such a big influence on him, or was he always like that and he simply hadn’t realized it back then? He didn’t even know if he should hope for the latter to be true or not.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Turukan said with a laugh. “In fact, as long as you promise to treat her well, I don’t mind Amina to you to become your wife. All those girls need to find good husbands sooner or later, so what difference does it make if it’s a little sooner?” he said teasingly, but were it to really happen like that, then he truly wouldn’t mind it at all.

“I…! Uwa, I, um…” Arslan mumbled, the idea of marrying some girl he didn’t know at all causing him to grow quite scared and nervous. “I don’t think I’m ready for a marriage yet… sorry…” he apologized seriously, and in fact so seriously that everyone couldn’t help but laugh or chuckle.

“Okay, enough, enough,” Turukan said with a smile. “Let us eat before everything gets cold,” he suggested happily, his originally not-so-good mood from the afternoon having turned almost one hundred and eighty degrees. What was the point worrying about the things he couldn’t influence anyway? He would act like he always had and try his best to make everything good for everyone, no more, no less.

In this manner, the feasting began and lasted for a surprisingly long time. The stomachs of high-ranked martial practitioners and of marital masters were nearly insatiable and with how good the food was, there wasn’t one person who didn’t wish to enjoy some more of it. Especially given that Laien, Yin, Reian and Jasmine had all been deprived of home-cooking for at least a few months each, they all welcomed the incoming dishes with open arms.

As the landlord, Turukan wasn’t one bit stingy about bringing out more and more delicacies, so what was supposed to be a simple supper turned out to be a long dinner to which many young members of Turukan’s family joined midway. Those youths included Amina, who this time had a less revealing shirt on herself but couldn’t help blushing every time she looked in Arslan’s direction. As it seemed, the idea of having a younger husband and leaving the village with him no longer seemed so crazy to her, albeit just thinking about it caused her to grow incredibly ashamed of herself. It was all because of what her uncle said…!

“Say,” Turukan brought up at one point, just when it was beginning to grow dark outside. “How about you stay over for the night?” he suggested, seeing as it wasn’t only he, but also the youths of his family who had taken a great liking to those guests of his. He had said it jokingly before, but he came to a point where he was seriously considering sending off a few of his nieces with the three of those young boys who were sitting right in front of him.

Faced with this question, Laien, Yin and Arslan exchanged a few glances amongst themselves. Without saying a word, they understood that none of them minded doing as Turukan suggested, but at the same time, they felt it would be a bit bad for them to make this decision alone. As such, they all turned to look at Reian and Jasmine and sent the two of them inquiring looks.

As a result, Reian and Jasmine sighed a little. If just the atmosphere was to be considered, they wouldn’t have had anything against staying, but it wasn’t so simple. As high-ranked White Guards, they understood Mustafa well enough to guess what was going to happen in the Faren Yimarate in the following days. Originally, it wouldn’t have been much of a concern for them, but after what they had done in the Ulme Village, they couldn’t easily maintain neutrality anymore.

“How about that,” Jasmine spoke up. “Let us finish the trade first, then we can decide if we are going to stay or not,” she proposed, not wanting to spoil the mood by arguing against the idea. She knew that she was only delaying the inevitable, but she was willing to take the bet that if nothing happened for the rest of the day, then the night would also turn out relatively peaceful.

“Well, fine,” Laien agreed after a moment of consideration. He had guessed the reason for Reian and Jasmine’s hesitation with a fair degree of accuracy and he agreed in his heart that it was best to avoid unpleasant developments. Turukan and his family seemed like nice people, so causing them trouble and putting them in an awkward position was the last thing he wished to do.

“Hmm,” Turukan scratched his beard, then nodded in agreement. He wasn’t one to pry into the reasons of the other party; he was also perceptive enough to have noticed that despite how it would seem, it were those three youths, and that black-haired one in particular, who was in charge of their group. Thus, he doubted the hesitation came from a reason akin to the guardians of those small masters seeing the girls of this household as unfit to become spouses of their pupils.

Surprisingly enough, despite being a bona fide warrior, Turukan possessed quite a few key traits any successful merchant needed to have… but so far, even the man himself wasn’t quite aware of it.

“Come,” Turukan said as he stood up from his seat. “We shall get the business done, then you can feel free to stay with us for the night or not, depending on your mood,” he suggested compromisingly, giving his guests some leeway in case they wanted to refuse his offer later on. He was, of course, hopeful to actually send off at least two or three of his younger nieces as spouses, but he wouldn’t force the matters in this direction. As he saw it, those girls simply wouldn’t be happy anyway if they got married only because their partners got coerced into that choice.

Glad to see Turukan not insisting nor inquiring about their reasons, Laien and everyone else got up. Then, after exchanging a few words with the youths of Turukan’s family, they headed out to buy the things Albert was looking to obtain for the sake of his fellow villagers.