The Boy and The Man, Offer R [ereader for textbooks .txt] 📗

ruined us?" The Boy cried, and for some reason the first thought that haunted him was that one of his ruses, either recent or long past, had been discovered.

"I have no idea. I rode ahead before you, remember? When I arrived she was like this, and her tears haven't stopped flowing ever since. I'm afraid she might flood the whole palace." There was an entreating quality in the prince's tone, as though the only hopes of the resolution of his plight lay in The Boy's hands.

"Have you spoken to her?" The Boy asked, even more alarmed now.

The prince shook his head in resignation. "I was afraid my presence would upset her even more.

"Good. You're probably right. And yet you're still here."

"I couldn't approach her, but how could I leave her in this condition? I've never seen her so upset. Even the devil himself wouldn't have the hardness of heart to abandon an angel in such misery. Go now! Find out the cause for her pain and make it go away. Use the force of the entire Guard if necessary."

Rare were the occasions on which The Boy was reminded of the profundity of the prince's love for Aphrodite. And every time this happened his heart twitched. But better one's heart twitch every now and then than lose one's sap of life. He laid a bruised hand on his friend's shoulder in consolation and clambered up the stairs. He approached Aphrodite slowly, somewhat deterred by the intensity of her grief.

'What if I won't be able to sooth her?' He thought with a tremble. 'What if only the prince can sooth her?'

But he shook these terrible thoughts off and approached her with heavy steps until he was standing upon her. Then he knelt at her side and whispered to her with as much softness as a boy's heart can contain.

"My love, I'm here."

"Oh, thank God!" Aphrodite wailed, and she freed her arms from her knees so she could throw them around him. Through her sobs The Boy could hear the faint sound of footsteps that belonged to the prince.

"Now, now. Your tears are too precious to fall on this wretched floor. Only the skies of heaven deserve your angel's tears."

"Heaven? What heaven? There is only hell, and we are already in it." It wasn't unusual for Aphrodite, a highly sensitive girl with a rather fickle mood, to succumb to her emotions. But such a burst of sorrow The Boy hadn't witnessed before.

"Tell me what demon the devil has sent to cause you this grief, and I will track it down and kill it with my bare hands. We have the King's Guard, even the King himself if need be, at our disposal, my love. But first we must know what we're up against."

"You're too strong for a weal girl like me, my darling. Father says it's hopeless. He has tried to use his influence with the King, but he says all is lost."

"Your father isn't Lieutenant of the King's Guard, nor is he a household member in the royal palace. Don't deny me any longer; entrust me with the sacred mission of setting your heart at peace!"

"Yes, of course I shall tell you, though the very mention of it will widen the tear in my heart."

"Then be quick, my dear, and be strong. I won't prolong your suffering", The Boy said and squeezed her trembling hand firmly.

With red eyes, scraggly hair, moist cheeks and a shaky voice, Aphrodite finally let her pain out into the open. "It's mother. She's been robbed. Cruelly, heartlessly robbed."

"So it's only a matter of money", The Boy said with a sigh of relief.

"No, it's not. She had a dream. She'd been working so hard, saving every little piece of nickel she could, all of it for us."

"For us?"

"Yes, for us. She was making secret arrangements for her distant cousins to receive us as guests of honor in the kingdom of Ngoro once we were married. Hush there- she knows we have no such plans. But she believes in us- she believes in you, and she thinks God has already planned our wedding. But now she's crushed, and her small secret fortune is gone."

Ngoro! It was the most beautiful of lands, tucked away far beyond the southern desert. It was fabled to be the most magical of kingdoms, with trees bigger than castles and creatures only one-half worldly, and few were the men north of the desert ever to have laid eyes on her. The round trip would've come at no small price- perhaps a hundred gold coins. As for the marriage, he'd never pondered it very deeply, but that Aphrodite's mother had seen it in her mind's eye rejoiced him. And that they'd been denied it by some vile thief with a callous heart infuriated him.

"And the royal investigators…"

"They say it's a lost cause", she bawled. "Their hands are tied up, and there more pressing matters they must attend to. At the same breath they confirm that the more time has gone by, the less the chances of ever finding the thief. Mother says she will start saving again, but I can see in her eyes that she's devastated. And she hates herself for having been so careless with it- would you believe that she took it with her to-"

"Say no more, angel", The Boy chimed in. I have a close acquaintance with the head of the royal investigators. I will make sure he appreciates the importance of this case and finds your dear mother's thief. My wind will blow and open the highest of windows, and a more thorough investigation will not have been conducted if the King himself had been stolen from. Your mother shall see her fortune retrieved to her, and if her heart still so desires, we may one day savor the wonderful Ngoro forests."

"You will do it? You will help my poor mother where all hope has already been forsaken and punish that wretched thief? Are you sure it's possible?" Finally a ray of hope shined in her eyes and she was angelic again.

"As possible as you are beautiful, my love. In fact I shall waste no time and leave this very moment, before I have even removed my uniform. Go home, my sweet Aphrodite, and wait for my news."

"Could I love you even more than I do? My hero! I will cry no more, now that I know I have you as my savior", Aphrodite said, and she returned home with a very different mood than when she'd left it.

Our boy's next station was the prince's quarters. He arrived with haste, waived his usual courtesy to the servants that were as caring uncles to him, and banged on the door of the prince's bedroom.

"Who is it?" The heavy grunt of a prince wallowing in sorrow emerged from inside.

"It's me! Come quickly; I need your help. Aphrodite needs your help."

At this the prince sprang out of his bed and his heavy brooding and rushed to the door like a soldier reporting for duty. "What is it?"

The Boy related a succinct version of the cause for his lover's woes. It was so succinct, in fact, that it omitted the part about the purpose of the savings and the journey to Ngoro.

"It's terrible indeed", said the prince. "But you said my help is required…"

"Yes, don’t you see why?"

"This is no time for prevaricating, brother. I'm nervous and tired; speak clearly so I can see what you see."

"You must use your sway with that friend of yours, the chief of the royal investigators. He must allocate the due resources. If he applies himself to it, there isn't a thief on this side of the valley that could escape him."

This startled our conscientious prince. "You're asking me to use my personal influence to change the priorities of investigation. Haven't you thought of those who will pay the price for it and see justice turn its back on them? This favoritism doesn't befit you, brother."

"Come, now. You know how arbitrarily these things are determined to begin with. I'm only asking that the dice be rolled differently. And don't forget, I'm not asking it for me- this is for her. There is no other way."

"We'll have to think of something. Something that suits honorable men and not opportunistic snakes", the prince said proudly.

"I see. In that case I will return to her now and tell her that the hopes she pinned to you were futile. She said she believed she would find in you not only a virtuous prince but a gallant savior, but I will now confront her with her wistfulness. Goodbye for now." With this The Boy turned to leave, but marched slowly so as to allow the prince's unconditional love for Aphrodite to take over and reverse his sentence. This is precisely what happened, and soon the prince's pride, conviction and sense of fairness had all melted away. What steered his heart now was the chance to answer the need of his loved one.

"Wait! I'll do it. In fact, I will leave at once. You may inform the beautiful lady that a full-scale investigation should be underway within the hour. "

"You're doing the right thing, prince", said The Boy with a sense of triumph. "Aphrodite will be forever grateful." When he declared at the Parthons household that his reasoning with the chief royal investigator had been successful and intense investigative efforts were already being made, he was received with immense admiration.

"Do you think they will find it? Do you think mother's gold will be saved?" Aphrodite cried avidly.

"Well, if there's an unscrupulous thief walking among us, the chief investigator will find him. And anyone that would have had the coldness of heart to steal the fruit of Mrs. Parthons' kindness must be an unscrupulous thief. So you see, I really see now hope for our poor thief. Your gold is practically back in your hands, Ma'am."

Surely our boy's conviction was somewhat superfluous, but one cannot deny the astonishing skill with which the chief investigator went about fulfilling his duty to the people. It wouldn't be long after The Boy had left the Parthons that the investigator himself appeared at their door to collect information as diligently as an act collects grains of sand for her nest.

"Our gratitude to you shall never wane", Aphrodite's fair mother said with ladylike excitement (which means that her excitement was kept in check, as ladies are expected to do). She was an almost exact duplicate of her daughter in terms of appearance and was therefore the object of forbidden desire for many married men. "But Aphrodite tells me that you haven't even heard the whole story for which you have taken such pains on our behalf. Perhaps you would care to take a seat, and I will make you some tea and give you a firsthand account."

"A man who declines a woman's proffer of kindness is worthy of scorn", said our boy, whose suave tactfulness we have already come to learn of. "But I must nevertheless turn you down. I remember how much your dear daughter suffered when she was forced to tell it to me- and that was just half the story. I know what was necessary in order to offer my humble assistance, and that should suffice."

"But it's no longer such a source of pain, now that our case is in good hands", Mrs. Parthons insisted.

"Nonetheless, I'd rather not take the chance. For me to be the cause of even the slightest twitch in your or your daughter's heart- no ma'am! No man alive is worth it. In fact, if you'll be so gracious as to permit it, I should now take my leave and attend to other, though less important but still worthy business."

Permission was granted, and as he left a shower of earnest gratitude rained down on him. He was elated, satisfied with himself, and eager to make more loans to the kingdom's needy.

'By the time Mrs. Parthons has had her gold returned to her', he thought