"Sorry to say this, but you're quite right," Arjan admitted ruefully. Loren snorted.
"What if I now say that I won't climb another step?"
"Then you're free to stay down here. I refuse to carry your ass up, and I want to get there even if I have to crawl."
"My legs are cramping!" Loren grumbled but followed Arjan in through the front door and up the first low staircase.
"So are mine," Arjan retorted. "But just you wait until tomorrow, then you'll know what it feels when they really hurt!"
With a sigh and some mutual pushing and shoving the two young men started the last leg of their journey.
The sand-colored apartment house was huddled close to the bush-covered rise that separated the Fifth Level of Saygorr from the Sixth, and mercifully it only had three floors. Neither Arjan nor Loren had bothered to count the number of steps they'd already climbed to get this high up, but their legs were telling them that it had been far too many, never mind that they'd taken a break after each flight of stone stairs connecting the Levels.
As it were, they soon reached a landing where no more steps leading anywhere up could be seen, and Arjan pointed at a solitary door. Loren blinked in surprise.
"Is this the only one up here?"
"Yeah. This is actually the attic, and the roof's so steep that there's no room for several apartments." Arjan listened for a moment at the door, then shrugged and knocked on it. "Either he's not in, or else he's working... ah, no, we're in luck!"
Steps were approaching the door, then it was pushed open and a brown-haired, wiry man of about thirty looked at them questioningly. He was barefoot, clad in well-worn dungarees and apparently nothing else, the trouser legs rolled up to mid-calf. "Yes?"
"I – uh –"
It was obvious from Arjan's stammering that he'd been taken by surprise. Loren opened his mouth to take over, but the tanned man facing them glanced at them both a second time and his eyebrows jumped up.
"Hey, wait a minute – you must be Arjan, right? Karos' son?"
"That's right," Arjan managed and got a broad, friendly grin.
"I've heard of you, boy, and it sure is true – you look uncannily like him. Come on in, both of you!"
An intrigued Loren followed his friend and looked around while the man closed the door behind them. The tiny hall had three doors, each opening into a room with the ceiling sloping in a different direction and offering a somewhat surreal shift of perspective at every shift of the eyes. Light seemed to be practically pouring in from one of them, and when Loren peered in, he noticed that it came from a tall window that was almost as high as the room itself.
"He's painting," the man explained and kicked some shoes out of the way. "Got an actual commission a while ago, some guy who's only staying here a few more weeks and wants to have the picture with him when he leaves. Here, put those backpacks in this corner. Oh, and sorry for not introducing myself – I might've heard about you, but I bet you haven't had much chance to hear about me. My name's Reonn."
"Nice to meet you," Arjan said automatically and let his backpack slide next to the indicated wall. Loren followed suit and tried not to eye their unexpected host too visibly. "This is my friend Loren. And, uh, so do you live here?"
"Yeah," Reonn said matter-of-factly. "Moved in about half a year ago. I hope you haven't got anything against it?"
"Of course not," said Arjan, even though his eyebrows had jumped to the hairline at Reonn's statement. "I'm just –"
"Who are you babbling with?" interrupted a booming voice from somewhere further away in the apartment, and Reonn grinned. Arjan returned the grin and stepped in.
"You have one guess," he said aloud.
"Arjan! My boy! You've come back!" The delighted roar was followed by some clattering and a hearty curse that made Reonn grimace. Arjan vanished from sight and Reonn nodded to Loren.
"Go right ahead. He won't bite. But I might warn you that there's also a mostly naked female in there."
Loren granted him a slightly embarrassed grin, not knowing what else to do, and followed his friend into the scene of a boisterous welcome.
The room was high and long but rather narrow, and obviously built right beneath the ridge of the house's roof. Several skylights on both sides provided ample illumination that made the smooth, off-white walls seem to glow faintly.
Large pillows, rugs and mattresses had been placed on the floor, and in one end of the room there was an oversize sofa. Loren stared at it for a moment wondering how the monstrosity had ever been transported up there in the first place, then his brain registered that the aforementioned female was sprawled over the sofa and was indeed mostly naked. He hastily turned his eyes elsewhere.
The center of the room was occupied by an easel and some large trunks that doubled as tables, and the scent of paint, oil and turpentine hung heavy in the air. Currently the center of the room also contained two men who had grabbed each other in a tight bear hug, and Loren decided to give that sight a closer look.
Arjan was tall and slim, his father tall and somewhat heavier, but when they pushed each other at an arm's length and indulged in some mutual beaming, their likeness was astonishing. They had the same thick straight eyebrows, strong nose and wide mouth, and on the forehead their hairline made a similar sharp point downwards. The likeness was only accentuated by the fact that both wore their hair long, swept back from the face into a thick black ponytail – Arjan's mane clearly longer, his father's sporting a few artistic streaks of gray. And they both looked supremely happy to see each other again.
"My baby boy!" Arjan made a face when his father lovingly tugged his ponytail. "So you've come back at last, after seeing at least half of Revnash, what? You've even managed to keep yourself out of trouble, and that pleases me so much!"
"I hope all my sketches have arrived safely?" Arjan inquired. His father nodded.
"It was a good idea to number the dispatches. If number sixteen was the last one you've sent, then they're all here, and in perfect condition. But hey, so you've already met Reonn?"
"Yeah, he opened the door for us." Arjan gave his father a one-armed hug and turned him around. "But now it's my turn to introduce you to somebody. Dad, this is Loren."
Arjan's father looked nice, Loren observed, and seemed to think the same of him. Dark eyes studied him from head to toe, then the man gave his son an oblique smirk.
"You have good taste, son," he observed before stepping to Loren. "So you're Loren, hmm? Such a pleasure to meet the gorgeous young thing that's made my son's head spin!"
The man shook Loren's hand, was about to hug him but looked down at his own smudged shirt and chuckled.
"I'd better not put my mark on you, though. The boy just might get jealous, and I've no intention to try and steal his boyfriend!"
"You'd better not, dirty old man, or I'll make you sorry for yourself," put in Reonn. He folded his bare arms over his chest, head tilting. "Are you youngsters hungry, by the way? I might trot over to the Honey Pot and get us something to eat. I take it you're going to stay here now?"
"Do you still need me today, Karos?"
Loren started; he'd totally forgotten about the fifth person in the room, and couldn't help feeling shocked when he realized that someone had just heard Karos' words. The others didn't seem at all perturbed, though, and Karos just shook his head.
"No, I don't think I can concentrate on that one now. But don't worry, I'll pay you for the full day anyway."
"You'd better," the woman said, pulled a bundle of clothes from behind the sofa and began to calmly put them on. "Lionesch has been begging me to model for him, but I've told him to wait until you're finished. Are you sure you'll be painting tomorrow?"
"Positive," Karos assured her. "I need to get it ready soon."
Arjan looked at the curvaceous woman appraisingly.
"I don't think I've seen you before," he said. "I'm Arjan, Karos' son, as I think you heard already."
"Oh, that was made pretty clear!" The girl, whom Loren estimated to be about his own age or a little older, grinned and began to fasten the hooks in front of her corset, round breasts threatening all the time to spill over the neckline. Loren looked down. "My name's Eilla, and I've modeled for your dad a few times before."
"Don't call me his 'dad'," Karos moaned. "It makes me feel so old."
"But you're all the time talking about your son," Eilla pointed out, "so what's the problem?"
"Do you need help with that?" Reonn asked when the girl started to sort out her petticoats, but she shook her head.
"Oh no, keep your hands off! You'll just make a total mess of them. No, I'll be fine. I've done this a few times before, you know."
"All right then." Reonn shrugged. "But nobody's answered my question yet. Shall I go to get us food, or does somebody absolutely insist on trying to cook?"
"Please get something," Arjan said. "My dad here will take a look at his brushes and stuff, and we'll make ourselves some kind of a bed in some corner."
"He's hardly inside the door and taking over already," Karos grumbled but headed towards the easel anyway. "I'm not the master of my own household anymore."
"No you're not," Arjan confirmed and winked to Loren. "Reonn, any suggestions which corner of the place we might occupy?"
"You probably won't want to be right next to our bedroom." Reonn's eyebrows waggled, and Loren felt heat invade his neck and face. Eilla rolled her eyes as she pulled a short cape over her shoulders and stood up.
"Spare my ears, you lewd men!" she said with a mock-prim pout, then granted Karos a lustrous smile when the man handed her some money. "Thank you so much, I'll be back in the morning. Would around eleven be all right?"
"Perfect," Karos grunted. "We'd better be up and about by then."
The girl exited, full skirts swaying around her hips. The door clicked, and Reonn turned his attention back to the newcomers.
"How about you take over your old room, Arjan?" he suggested. "There's now some junk in there, but that problem's easily solved."
"Sounds good to me," Arjan said. "Come, Loren. Let's see if we can squeeze ourselves in there without spades."
"And I might change into something a little more presentable." Reonn looked at his tattered dungarees and wiggled his toes. "I don't want to be told at the Honey Pot that I should go to the back door to wait for the day's leftovers."
Arjan grinned and nudged Loren. "Let's go and take a look at that room now. Maybe we get it sorted out before there's food in the house."
