All eyes were fixed on the last winner of the trial who had just interrupted the lady with such an undesirable protest. What could he possibly want more from that? This generous offer might backfire if he dared to ask more. 

"Apologies, my lady," Darga added. "I didn't mean I object the payment. It's such a kind offer and I will not refuse, I promise." 

The three other men sighed in relief. 

"But I can't leave my sister behind," he continued. "She's the only one I have in this world and I can't bear to let her live on her own. I wish you could let her come with me to the palace." 

"Absolutely not!" thundered Renggi Nanta. 

"She could be of use," Darga insisted. "She can cook, she can clean, she can sew. We both raised each other after our parents' death and without me, she'll be..." He remembered the wealthy man who was going to take her as his concubine, "She'll be in danger." 

Renggi Nanta was just opening her mouth when Lir rushed to whisper in her ears. She was trying to convince her over something. Then the secretary turned back to Darga. 

"Very well," she said. "But she must keep this secret and she will work for me. She will work at the palace, but she will work for me. Tell her that, Lir." 

"Yes, my lady," answered Lir. 

"Now, we shall..." 

"Excuse me, my lady," Kinalu interrupted her. "Forgive me for interrupting. I don't know if these people have told you yet, but I am currently serving as a guard for the Commissioner of Nanjur. I've just started working for him three months ago. He will put me on wanted poster if I just disappear like this."

"Tsk, no one will find you," answered Renggi Nanta dismissively.

"For now," added Kinalu. "What about after my term ends?" 

"If you survive," Darga blurted. 

"Hmm..." Renggi Nanta paused. "That is a legitimate concern. You're right. What do you propose then?"

"Tricky," Kinalu rubbed his chin. "It's rather an unusual custom. But if you wish to employ me, my current master would want to be compensated." 

"You've got to be kidding me." 

"I don't mean to brag, but I'm quite a coveted servant." 

Renggi Nanta made a quick inspection of him from head to toe. She sighed. "Very well. We'll pay for your hand over. Now..."

"Sorry," this time it was Amanji who interrupted her. "What happens if we die before our term ends? Will we not get the house and the farm?" 

Renggi Nanta squinted at him. "We are not heartless, you know," she sounded hurt. "Your payment will be handed to your next of kin or anyone of your choice." 

"In that case," Amanji continued. "May I ask for the permission to see my mother? If I don't make it 'til the end, I would like her to know that she would be taken care of." 

Renggi Nanta's heart melted right away. Of course she would let a son visit his mother. She's not a monster. But what if he didn't return? What if he told everyone about this mission? Would she let a son's plea jeopardize her meticulously planned strategy? 

"Just write her a letter," she replied. "I will send my trusted messenger to deliver it to your mother." 

"She can't read." 

Something knocked on her solidifying heart and broke it again. The image of an old, illiterate woman praying for her son's safety burned into her mind. Should he get the benefit of doubt? Should she let him go? 

"He should take someone with him," whispered Lir. "You know, in case..." 

"I will return to you," as if reading her mind, Amanji promised. He stared at her with his unfaltered greenish yellow eyes. "And I will not tell her or anyone about... us, whatever it is that we're doing. This I swear it. On her life." 

There was a strength and vulnerability in his voice that made Renggi Nanta nod. "Alright," she said. She took a modest brooch from her white bikaya. It had the image of a bee, the symbol of her family heraldry. She handed it to Amanji. "Take this with you. This will be her identification as your next of kin." 

"Thank you, my lady," Amanji received the brooch. "I'll be right here before you know it." 

As he went outside the room, Renggi Nanta turned to Hismar, "Any other objection?" 

 

Hismar shook his head, "No, my lady." 

She eyed the other two and asked, "Anyone else wants to meet his mother?" 

"Nope, orphan," answered Kinalu.

"Orphan," said Hismar too. 

Amanji passed the worried Inggi who was still waiting in the hallway. He got on the same horse that brought him to Fort Hallow then led him to the gate. Only by showing Renggi Nanta's brooch, the gatekeeper let him through. 

The path he took wasn't the common path that most people knew. The horse had to trespass through a cotton field, crossed a treacherous river on a raft and climbed a hill to get to the valley on the other side where Rigawir Village resided. 

Just as he reached the valley, a sound of explosion almost threw him off his horse. After the horse calmed down, he carefully returned to his way. How surprised he was to find a huge open pit that reduced everything to rocks upon his route. The afternoon sunlight bounced off one lump of rock on a wooden cart that's being pushed by a few men as they getting up to the surface. 

Gold. It's a gold mine. 

He never thought he'd been gone that long to have missed an entire process of gold mining near his mother's village. 

Behind an old banyan tree, a small, lonesome, rickety hut waited for him to come in. He mounted the horse on the humble fence, then quietly stepped in. The smell of vegetable soup being cooked with onion, shallot, pepper, nutmeg seed and salt raised his appetite. Out on the back door, an old woman with a gray hair was stirring a pot of boiling soup, unaware of his presence. 

"Mother," he called. 

The old woman dropped the ladle and turned around. Her faded jasmine yellow eyes were startled to see the man on the doorway. She threw her arms open and held him close to her heart. 

"Blessed be the day, Aman," she cried. "Where have you been? Why didn't you come home? It's been three years since the last time you're here." 

"Two years, Mother," he corrected him. "It's only been two years." 

"Oh, it feels like forever to me anyway," she guided him to the bonfire on the ground. "Have you eaten? Would you like some soup? The merchant at the end of the lane just sent his kitchen boy to give me some tofu and cooking oil." 

"How very nice of him," Amanji opened the pot of rice. There wasn't enough rice there for both of them, but it's better than no rice at all, like the day he left the village for good. 

Amanji spent two hours with his mother, talking about all the nice things that happened to him on his two years of absence. After helping her clean up the hut, he told her about the job he just got, gave her a small sack of money and the brooch. She sobbed when he told her that he might not return, but she let him go after she sprinkled him with some flower and burned incense for protection. With a kiss to her feet, Amanji bid his goodbye and returned to Smajawangsa. 

The day bled into night when he arrived at Fort Hallow. His new colleagues were having dinner when he showed up at the door. Inggi was there too. She offered him some food, but he told her that he had already eaten. 

"Shall we go?" Amanji almost smacked Lir on the face when she suddenly appeared behind him. 

Once the others finished with their food, Lir guided them into what appeared to be a prison wagon. "By coming with me, we understand that you agree with the condition that Renggi Nanta Dipaswirih has announced," she said as she opened the door. "This is your last chance to decide." 

Amanji didn't give her any moment of doubt and just climbed into the wagon. Darga helped Inggi get up before coming in. Kinalu and Hismar followed them right after. To their surprise, Lir also took a seat in there instead of out on the perch. She tapped the roof twice and the wagon began to move. 

One minute into the journey, Inggi started a conversation. "So," she said. "What was the old life that you have to leave behind?" 

None of them answered her question. 

"I'll go first," she smiled. "Me and my brother sell various iron and metal goods such as cooking utensils and farming equipments. He's a blacksmith. We inherit our father's forge." 

"Alongside with his debts," added Darga bitterly. 

The other men nodded, acknowledging their struggle. 

"Well, I may not have any debts," said Kinalu. "But I was, I still am, not a free man." 

"Working for a commissioner doesn't sound as bad as being a free man with a barrel full of debts," commented Darga. "How did you come into his employment?" 

"I have to say it was one of the luckiest turns of my life," Kinalu grinned. "I was almost hanged by my old master, you know? However, the commissioner's wife told him that she'd gladly take me from his possession instead. They're all friends, you see. That's how I get to work for the commissioner now." 

"What? Why did he almost hang you?" Inggi was shocked. 

"Because he found all three of his teenage daughters in my quarters." 

They all dropped their jaws, including Lir. 

"We didn't do anything," Kinalu stated firmly. "I can't say the same about the others, though, but I really didn't touch the daughters." 

Amanji and Darga burst out laughing. They knew he wouldn't be as innocent as he made himself look like. The fact that the commissioner's wife took him after what happened only further their theory about him. 

"And you?" Lir turned to Hismar to change the topic. "Wida picked you up from a majar and you showed a janak kurat technique during the trial. Were you a training master?" 

"I was, indeed," answered Hismar. They clicked their tongue in awe. He was young, probably only 25, but he already taught martial arts to other people. He must have learned it since he was a child. Perhaps he was even raised by the masters, that's why he lived in a majar. 

"How about you?" Inggi asked Amanji. "Amanji, right? I got to know the others when you went home to visit your mother. What was the old life that you left behind?" 

Amanji leaned forward toward her and answered, "The kind of life that you don't want to know." 

Inggi quickly pulled herself back. His smirk showed that he was joking, but she believed that there's truth to that answer. 

Since she didn't know what else to say, she looked around to find something to do. Through a small ventilation on each side of the wagon, Inggi peeped the road outside. The wagon glided smoothly on the cobblestone pathway. There were many traces of rebellion on the burned and destroyed houses on their way to the palace. Half of them were being reconstructed, while the other half were still untouched. And passed the outer ring of the capital city, the houses that were built there appeared to be bigger and prettier. 

"Whoa..." she couldn't stop herself from sighing when they reached the square. Thousands of lights kept the city alive, unlike her village that always went dark and silent a little after sunset. People dressed in all colors imaginable still wandered around, doing their business, running their errands and looking for pleasures. 

Her yellow eyes widened when she caught the majestic mountain-shaped gate on the north side of the palace complex. Someone opened the wagon's door that she turned back and sat straight. A palace guard examined them with suspicious stare until he recognized Lir. 

"All clear," he said before slamming the door close. 

The gate was opened and the wagon continued its journey into the palace complex. It kept going until the next six minutes before it stopped completely. 

"Let's go," Lir opened the door and jumped out.

The rest of them also left the wagon. Hismar's eyes caught something extraordinary that he just tapped whoever was standing next to him. 

"What?" asked Amanji. 

Hismar pointed forward. Darga, Inggi and Kinalu also stared in surprise. In front of them, there was a most beautiful stable filled with white, black, gray and brown winged horses. The caretakers were seen mounting them off and brushing their wings before taking them into the stables. 

"Hey!" Lir shouted. "Let's not waste any minute!" 

Inggi pulled her brother toward Lir and one by one they left the magical sight. 

"Is that... Can we..." 

"You must never ride a pegasus," Lir cut Hismar without losing her pace. "Even when you're taking the Prince Regent's place." 

"Wait, what? Why?" asked Kinalu. 

"The Prince Regent is afraid of heights," Lir opened the northern gate of Maharahi's pavilion. "He can never ride a pegasus." 

The four men groaned. 

"Just how lame is this prince actually?" asked Darga. 

Lir didn't answer. She just nodded at a chambermaid who took Inggi away from them. 

"Wait..." 

"You can see her in the servant's house later," Lir stopped Darga from making a scene. She took the stairs to the basement where Maharahi and Saka Subarsang already waited. 

"This is all?" Maharahi frowned. She sighed. "Alright then. Thank you for escorting them, Lir. Will you be so kind to bring Gaptin Jantra Kawa here later? Say, in an hour?" 

"Certainly, Maharahi," answered Lir. She bowed and left the four men in the care of the physician and her apprentice. 

Maharahi gazed at them with her eagle eyes. These dirty, unkempt men were nothing like the elegant, graceful prince regent. Gaptin Jantra Kawa was much better than them, for he kept his cleanliness as a royal guard. But these men were peasants. Cleanliness was definitely not their top five priority. 

"We are going to need a lot of work, gentlemen," she finally voiced her opinion. "But we will make it work. Now strip." 

Their eyes bugged. Did they hear her right? She wanted them to strip? 

"Are you deaf?" Maharahi shouted. "I said take off your clothes!" 

"But what for?" asked Hismar. 

"I need to see your body, check if there's any flaw which if you do have I must fix," answered Maharahi. "Now, do not make me order you the third time. Trust me, there's nothing I've never seen." 

Reluctantly, they took their clothes off, but only the top part. While taking his top off, Hismar also took out the necklace he was wearing and secretly put the pendant in his mouth. 

"What are you doing?" asked Maharahi, scaring the hell out of him. "All of them. Take off all of them!" 

Amanji protested, "But we..." 

"I need to examine everything about you," Maharahi's eyes glinted red and she began to float. "You're going to be very close with the Prince Regent. And I don't want you to come to him... bringing infectious diseases... of some sort!" 

The four men stared at the floating woman in horror.