"Do you have your knife?" Goron asked his brother, Joseph.
The brothers were both good looking young men, bronzed by the sun from time spent working in their fertile fields and grown tall and muscular on their land's produce. But they were ambitious also. And eager for wealth, and to show their strength. And on this special day, the two young men had oiled and combed their hair, dressed in their best linen tunics, and were mounted on their donkeys for the short journey that lay ahead. And now that they were leaving the farmyard of their family's home, they could talk freely, being out of earshot of their father and his workers.
"Of course. You think I am a fool? Ha. Though we will not need a knife to deal with young Hilaron," Joseph replied, "It's a good plan that his father, David, has formed."
"Yes. It is. We are going to have a good night, brother—food, wine, blood, and gold," Goron replied, as he laughed aloud. "A very good night. But I won't trust David until the gold is in our hands."
"I don't trust him either. Perhaps we should see the gold before, rather than after, the deed is done. So, do you also have your knife, brother?" Joseph asked.
Goron pulled a long, dangerous blade, which could almost have been called a short sword it was so large, from the belt at his waist and held it up to the sun so it glittered evilly. "See, the sun god knows it shines with eagerness for Hilaron's father's blood if he tries to cheat us," he replied, joining in his brother's laughter.
They rode on a short distance to another stone farmhouse, much like the one they had left, though slightly larger. But not as large as the house where Hilaron and his father, David, and step-brother, Lucus, lived. But like the brother's, Goron and Joseph's, own home, it was still the dwelling of a wealthy farmer and his family.
A servant waited at the gates of the house for the brothers' arrival and took the reigns of their donkeys from them as they dismounted. "Welcome," he said, "Your cousins have been told of your arrival." And as he spoke they saw three young men emerging to welcome them, all dressed in their finest linen robes.
"Yarron, Matthew, and Zanar, we come in peace," Goron cried out in greeting to them, as was the custom.
"And good you do," Zanar joked. "There are three of us, and we can take you two scrawny fools on any day, and win. So I bid you welcome, cousins."
"What? Scrawny!" Goron cried, leaping forward and waving his long knife under his cousin's nose.
"Save it for tonight," Yarron hissed. "Save it for Hilaron and David, and perhaps Lucus, the soft woman that he is."
"Or better still, old Peter. Perhaps we will take his ripe daughter off his hands on our way home," Zanar added, laughing.
"Ah. A poor orphan girl needs protection," Matthew cried out in mock distress, as the five young men joined together in laughter.
"Old Peter's daughter is ripe, true enough, and her father is no real obstacle, dead or alive," Goron added thoughtfully, obviously taken by the idea.
"Lets earn our gold first by celebrating Hilaron's coming of age," Zanar counseled, and the whole group became serious for a moment.
"There should be little trouble there," Goron said, and everyone nodded their heads happily in agreement.
"We agree on that," Yarron said, "so come inside, and we'll start the celebrations, then depart in good spirits," he added, inviting them into the stone hall of the house.
Two manservants immediately came running to them with jugs of wine. They poured it out into a fine silver goblet for Yarron and fine clay ones for his brothers and guests, and then offered the men the goblets of wine and laid out platters of the finest food on the long table between the couches set up in the main hall. "Eat and drink. All of you," Yarron ordered them. "You are my guests." For though Yarron's father lived, he was unable to leave his bed, and the duties of head of the house had fallen on Yarron's young shoulders several years before. "I will tell you that I wonder at David ever giving this party for his son Hilaron. I had thought Hilaron would not live to see this day. He will not live to see another, true, but still it has surprised me."
"If Hilaron had not been at his great uncle Matthias's house when his grandfather died and had not been escorted home by him, with warnings made, I have no doubt he would not have lived this long," Joseph replied.
"Ah, but now fortunately he has upset old Matthias by being caught wandering into the stable with some young man, instead of asking for his granddaughter's hand," Yarron said and then clapped his hands together loudly, "And talking of young men, I have a new entertainment. One I am sure you will enjoy."
A young male servant of no more than nineteen years, and lean and lightly muscled and golden skinned, dressed only in the shortest and whitest of tunics appeared, carrying a jug of wine, and the other two servants quietly withdrew to the end of the room, ready if needed.