Elysium

Chapter 6: The Anay Road

The next knock that woke me up sounded more demanding than Hedwig's knock. I looked around and noticed the room was no longer dark. The first light of rising sun had coloured the horizon turquoise. The lake under the turquoise sky still loomed grey, as the night had not fully passed.

Chairo was again at the door before me, and after a short exchange of words, he let a young man in. I hadn't seen this man before. He was a handsome man of about my age, in late twenties. Dark-haired, with a Mediterranean face and brown eyes. He wore a light brown shirt, dark grey trousers, and a worn-out, dark-brown leather jacket. It was the jacket, along with the slight stubble of two or three days that gave his appearance a rough edge.

"I'm unarmed, son, don't worry", the man said in a low voice to Chairo, who was looking for possible concealed weapons, as I hurried to the door to support Chairo with this early hour visitor. In my nostrils, I smelled the strong eau de cologne the man had - a masculine scent. There was also another smell, though faint. I was not sure if it entered with the man, or if it came from somewhere around the inn when the door was first opened. A weak smell of smoke. For me, it represented the subsiding memory of the past night's campfire in the presence of a dawn.

"What is it?" I asked. At the same time, I noticed the heads of Max and Roland rise from their pillows. They were still wiping their eyes, irritated. Hedwig was no longer in the room with Vixen; she had left while I had slept.

The man looked at me, and at once, he seemed to recognize something in my eyes that he hadn't recognized in Chairo. I was a young man of his age. A challenge? An ally? There was something about his eyes that caught my attention, too. I had seen such eyes before - very long time ago. The eternal longing in them; the eternal probing of the other, as simultaneous desire and fear for being understood. They were the eyes of a fatherless son. One like myself. One like any of the boys I used to know when I was in the school with the nuns. It seemed to me as if I and the unknown man made the same observation at the very same time. I saw it in his eyes. And for both of us, it was simultaneously a moment of secret kinship and secret annoyance. Someone who would understand the other. Someone who would not be fooled by the cover. Someone who would risk blowing it.

"You sent for me", said the man. "I'm Nikos, the assistant of Monsieur Lefuet."

"We didn't send for you", I said. I shook his hand anyway. He had curious eyes and there was something in them, apart from the recognition of kinship, that seemed to convey a message he couldn't say aloud. An appeal?

"You didn't perhaps", he said. "But she did." He nodded at Brynhilde, who was only now getting up. Max and Roland were already sitting on their bunks.

"What is this?" Max demanded. "Who are you, mister, please?"

"Nikos Dimitriadis", the man said. "I work for Red Lefuet. You can call me Nick."

"We haven't made a decision yet whether we travel with your master", I said, and cast a look at Max, who was supposed to decide by morning. Technically, it was morning now, although it was rather too early. Sun hadn't risen yet, there was just an anticipation of light.

Nikos was inside the room anyway now, and he closed the door behind him. "You should travel with us", he said, with the determination of someone who had invited himself in. "And I tell you why." He again cast a look at Brynhilde. "I'm the one you're looking for."

"Me?" asked Brynhilde and stroked her hair. "I'm not looking for a man", Bry said. She grabbed Max's arm, but I saw her quite comprehensively assess the virtues of the stranger's handsome appearance, from his lost boy's eyes all the way to the lean but muscular arms and thighs that were not alien to physical action.