The New King - Book Two of the Chronicles of Athan

      It was in the fourth full year of King Athan’s reign when two strangers arrived in Dassaria on the same day; strangers who would both become important to Athan and his kingdom in very different ways.  They could not have been more different.  One was inconspicuous and arrived quietly; the other immediately became the talk of the town. 

      The obvious stranger would have been noticed for a number of reasons.  First, he was an armed hoplite, complete with spear, helmet, and hoplon all loaded on the back of the single donkey he was leading.  Second, this warrior, and he was every inch a warrior—tall, lean, and moving confidently—arrived alone.  It was a dangerous thing to walk alone through the hills surrounding Dassaria.  This man had not only walked alone, he did so out of preference.  Apparently he had come up alone all the way from the Peloponnese.  His unusual arrival was nothing at all compared to the man’s weird appearance.  He was handsome enough, but all anyone noticed was his beard.  Or rather half his beard, for he wore a full black curly beard on the left side of his face and shaved the right side as cleanly as the New King.  It made a distinctly odd impression.  The stranger was not exactly unfriendly, but he did not talk much either.  He came up the south road in the early afternoon.   A single fighting man on the road was so unusual that a patrol rode out to investigate him.  He remained unperturbed when accosted by seven armed men on horseback and responded to their inquiries about his business without hesitation. 

   He made such an impression that the patrol turned right around and returned to tell the King about the novel warrior who had just arrived in town.

   “He says he is considering taking service with the King of Dassaria,” reported Sergeant Tenucer who had led the patrol.

   “Did he say why?” asked Athan, a bit puzzled.

   “He said he heard we were good fighters,” responded Tenucer.  “And then he told us we were also just beyond the edge of civilization.  He said if we were not at the end of the world, we could at least see it from here.”