ABCtales serial part2

He moved around the house, room to room reliving the memories of time spent there. It wasn’t home; Karl had made it home, his presence, his patient love for a moody, unforgiving son. But Karl was dead; cancer had claimed him, sucking the life slowly from him before Mateo’s eyes; even the expansive healing knowledge of the Journeymen had been unable to purge him of the sickness; the result of one of his expeditions into the old cities; at least that was what the doctor had said. Mateo had argued that the Journeymen often travelled close to such places and came away with no harm but the doctor had just stared over his glasses and given him a look that spoke volumes on his opinion of Journeymen.
The building was mostly empty now; the Institute had been round to collect the artefacts and equipment from Karl’s work as an Archivist. All that was left was the worn furniture that had come with the house also belonging to the Institute. Mateo’s meagre belongings barely filled the backpack sitting on the now stripped bed in what had been his room during the six months of the year he had lived with his father. He paused outside what had been his father’s study, staring in at the bare desk. How he had hated him when his mother first sent him to live among the Landsmen; he saw this bespectacled stranger, despite his kindness, as nothing more than his gaoler. He’d run away three times, returning to the camp of his mother’s people but she had sent him back each time making it clear that he had no say in the matter. He was six then and thoroughly Journeyman. Thinking back, his father’s bottomless patience seemed like a minor miracle as he taught him the ways of the Landsmen. A child of both worlds that had no true home in either world though both his father and mother had done their best to insulate him from the worst of it. Many a wintry night he could remember sitting in front of the fire playing while his father worked at his desk trying to bring back the wonders of the old world. He closed his eyes to the bare room, some of the old anger returning. They had filled him with chemics promising that the sickness would be driven out but all they had done was weaken him further, by the time his mother had come with her healer’s lore it was too late. It was the first time he’d ever seen his mother cry, it was the first time he’d seen them together but it wasn’t the first time he’d sensed their love; they would talk of each other often and he could hear it in their voices, see it in their eyes. Fate had conspired to keep them apart but he had been the bridge between them; a link that both shared.
Karl was a rarity; he had been accepted by the Journeymen almost as one of their own so it was no surprise when in the darkest part of the last night they had come, shrouded in heavy cloaks to pay their respects and wait for the final breath. When they left they took the body with them to give him a burial fitting of one such as he. The Magister was furious when he found out and sent his troopers out to search and bring the body back. But no Landsman could track a Journeyman and no sign was ever found.
Mateo could still remember the Magister’s fuming face when he stood before him.
‘You had no right!’ He practically screamed.
Mateo faced him calmly, ‘The right of a son and only blood heir. It was my decision as to how my father was buried.’ He’d replied calmly.
‘Not in some filthy Journeyman ritual—’
Anger had sparked then but he held it in check. ‘My choice.’ He’d repeated then turned and left.
‘You don’t have your father’s position to protect you now boy!’ The Magister had roared after him. ‘You’ve no place in the Presidium. You’re a Journeyman now and nothing more!’
No more than I want to be. Mateo had thought silently as he’d left.
It became quickly clear the level of influence his father had held in Black Bay. The traders wouldn’t deal with him; some going so far as to drive him out of their shops with the threat of calling the troopers. People that his father had called friend shunned him as if he were a leper or a Journeyman which in their eyes was worse. Then Sara; the one constant in Black Bay had delivered her ultimatum; her father had influence she argued, he could clear the way for Mateo to swear the oath, to become a Landsman but he would have to give up everything that was Journeyman. If he would do that she would marry him if he would not then…
He had lost his father and she asked him to disown his mother, her family; his family. How much of it was Sara and how much her father was up for debate but it was too much for Mateo. Old hatreds long buried for the sake of his father had resurfaced. He’d left that night afraid of what he might say, afraid that the power she had over him might just be enough… A fear that had come to pass.

There was a heavy banging on the door, breaking him from memories both bad and good. He returned to his bedroom, shouldering the backpack and casting one last look around. The knocking sounded again, louder this time. He wasn’t surprised when he opened the door to find two Troopers standing with looks of barely disguised hatred. ‘By order of the Magister of the town of Black Bay, you are to be exiled from the town limits.’
Mateo looked from one to the other; it must have taken most of the night for him to remember that particular speech. Most of the Troopers were nothing more than thugs and bullies; that was all that was needed and these two were classic examples.
He pulled the door shut. He’d half considered trying to find Sara before he left but realised that the escort was probably her idea. She was running him out of town.
‘Lead on.’
They marched him to their vehicle, staying either side of him like they were afraid he was going to bolt, opening the back door for him to climb in before getting into the front.
‘I was leaving anyway boys, bit it’s nice of you to save me the walk to the edge of the district. Thank lieutenant Wayd for me. ’ Mateo said glibly as the car pulled away from what? Not his home, never his home. He smiled but there was no humour there.
He watched the buildings glide past, watched the faces and saw the hostility there as they recognised him. Then the houses thinned; replaced by barns and storage silo’s for the town’s grain and livestock. Then they were gone, replaced by orchards, corn and wheat fields. To his surprise the car slowed, turning off the main road and onto a dirt track up ahead he saw a familiar car with a bulky man leaning on the bonnet. The car pulled to a halt and both the Troopers climbed out opening the rear door.
‘Get out.’
Mateo slid smoothly from the car, ignoring the Troopers and walking toward the waiting man.
‘Hello Krieg, I wondered if we’d bump into one another.’ He made an effort of looking around the big man and through the windscreen of his car. ‘Didn’t she have the guts to do it herself? Sent you instead did she?’
The bulky man pushed off of the bonnet, flexing his thick shoulders. ‘You aren’t important enough to waste her time on.’ He growled in response.
‘So you’ve come to see me off then, that’s nice.’
They stood face to face, Krieg had about a hundred pounds on him – all muscle –and a good two inches but as they stared at one another it was Mateo that radiated the power not the bigger man.
‘I just wanted to give you a little going away present, that’s all.’
Mateo heard the two Troopers come up behind them and made no move to resist as they grabbed his arms.
‘You shouldn’t have come back.’ Krieg snarled and drove a fist to Mateo’s jaw.
Krieg was a powerful man but he was no fighter, the punch was clumsy and while it snapped Mateo’s head around that was about all it did do.
Mateo stared through his fringe at Krieg saying nothing. With a snarl Krieg drove another punch and this time Mateo tasted blood.
‘Why don’t you let one of your girlfriends here do it for you they can probably hit better than you. ‘ Mateo spat blood.
Anger flashed in Krieg’s eyes and he waded in driving left and rights to the unresisting Mateo’s face and body. Soundlessly Mateo took the beating, standing firm as each blow landed until, panting, Krieg stepped back to admire his work.
There was a split above Mateo’s left eye bloodying his face and a dribble of blood flowed from his nostrils but the look he gave Krieg was no less defiant.
‘Is that it? Is that all you’ve got?’ He growled. He didn’t wait for an answer, stamping down on one of the Trooper’s instep. The trooper cried out in surprise and pain but Mateo wasn’t finished, he yanked his arm from the Trooper’s loosened grip, spinning to drive his elbow into the other troopers face squashing his nose flat and sending him sprawling. Before the other trooper had the chance to fully recover Mateo was on him; a flurry of blindingly fast blows and he was lying in the dirt next to his companion. Mateo returned his attention to Krieg. The bigger man staggered back his mouth agape. Mateo kept pace with him until his legs hit the front of his car and he sprawled back over the bonnet.
Mateo loomed over him. ‘I took what you had because I wanted you to realise I can take anything you’ve got so you’d realise you haven’t got what it takes to beat me. He started to turn away but then faced the car again. ‘Did Sara know about this?’
Krieg remained silent, staring wild eyed at him.
Mateo’s hand snaked out in a stinging slap, ‘Krieg. Focus. Did Sara know about this?’
‘Why do you think I’m here?’ Krieg snarled in return but he made no effort to get up off the bonnet.
Mateo stared at him his look inscrutable. Finally he blinked, leaning forward.
‘I could kill you, easily and your two friends. leave your bodies for the wild dogs.’ He saw the fear flare anew in Krieg’s eyes.
‘Don’t worry Krieg,’ he patted the bigger man’s cheek, ‘I’m not going to. I want you to remember this day every time you look into her eyes. I want you to remember that I could have killed you and didn’t.’ He started to turn away and then turned back. ‘Thank her for me will you? Tell her she made the choice easy.’ Without another word he strolled past the two prone troopers retrieving his pack from the back of the vehicle.
Krieg sat up slowly but made no move to get up from the car.
Mateo strolled back to him, wiping some of the blood from his eye with a thumb.
‘It’s been fun Krieg, maybe we’ll see one another again some day.’ Without another word he sauntered off, back toward the road out of town never looking back.