Autumngale: A Tale of Fantasy and Magic (Bridge of Legends Book 3) by Sarah K. L. Wilson

Author:Sarah K. L. Wilson [Wilson, Sarah K. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published: 2019-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

19: Out of Reach

Marielle

SHE COULDN’T HELP IT. His scent drew her like a bee to a flower and now she was here, watching him again. Watching his blue eyes filling with wonder as he traced the structure of the Queen Mer library with his gaze. He was sketching it on a recipe page he was holding that was meant to make a stronger steel. But around the edges of the recipe were charcoaled sketches of the library. Of a child’s face with the light hitting his eye at just the right angle to make it sparkle mischievously. Of an old woman’s gnarled hands.

Tamerlan’s smile was far away as he added to the collection of sketches.

“Tam!” Dathan is in trouble again!” a voice called to him, shaking him out of his reverie. “He bet against a blacksmith in cards and if he loses again, he’ll pay with more than coppers!”

Tamerlan stuffed the pages in his belt and sprinted after the other boy.

That’s who he’d been before all this. A dreamy artist. A thinker. A helper of friends.

But could you really say that was still who he was? After everything he’d done? She wasn’t sure. But she was beginning to think she knew him now, or at least knew who he had been before he woke the dragon.

And yet, she felt a pull to him. She couldn’t help but watch him wade into the tavern and push between his friend and the hulking blacksmith.

“Can I help you, friends?” he asked mildly.

“Only if you can pay his debt!” the blacksmith cursed. “Fool bet with nothing to back it!”

“I can pay you later,” Dathan started, stumbling a little as he tried to step backward. His eye was already swelling – a red flower on his pale face. He must have been hit before Tamerlan arrived.

But the blacksmith lunged at him and Tamerlan had to throw a shoulder into the blacksmith’s chest to hold him back.

“Whoa, whoa,” he said gently. “No need for violence. It’s not the answer here.”

“He stole from me! And no one steals from Chysander.”

“Chysander is it?” Tam asked with a friendly smile. “How much does he owe you?”

“Two full silver.”

Tamerlan reached in his purse, pulling out two silver coins and holding them out to the blacksmith.

“Not enough, now!” the man sputtered, refusing to take them. “Now he’s caused me trouble, too.”

Tamerlan paused, the muscle in his jaw jumping as he considered what to do. “And if I take him away from here and offer you our sincerest apologies?”

The blacksmith muttered something, snatching the coins away and Tamerlan hustled his friend out the door. Dathan stumbled as he walked. He was mumbling as they went.

“I just hate feeling like I’m nothing. Hate feeling like I owe everyone and can never get out of it. I was sold. Sold like a pig for market. I’ll be paying that back all my life to get free. All my life.”

“I know,” Tamerlan said, wrapping an arm around him to support his friend. Compassion bloomed around him in puffs of lavender scent.

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