Destiny of Truth by Summer H Hanford

Author:Summer H Hanford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epic fantasy with fmc, female main character, chosen one, good vs evil, epic fantasy no romance
Publisher: Summer Hanford
Published: 2024-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

XIX

Sallina sat in the dusty tavern, dirt smeared on her hands and face and her head bowed under her now fully yellow straw hat. On the way into Fordton, Caison had produced a cloak, she suspected his or Camplin’s, to better conceal that she wasn’t a lad. The garment gathered suspicion in the warmth of summer, but not as much as scrutiny of her form would.

Since arriving, they’d visited multiple dockside taprooms such as they now graced. Each had its own version of the watery, yet somehow still bitingly bitter, brew Sallina gripped in one hand. Each also held the same answer to Caison’s subtle queries. Boats only left uninspected from the west docks, not the treacherous eastern side of the city, and there was a checkpoint at the center of the bridge. Never mind that Illast had taken Eastriver days ago. No one had changed the rules in Fordton yet and Sallina wasn’t in any position to demand they do so.

“We’ll have to chance the checkpoint,” Caison said, his voice low. He took a sip of his ale.

“Could we not return upriver and swim across?” Sallina was pleased little worry touched her tone. She did not want Caison to know the spindly bridge, nearly as high above the river as Jeval had flown her, made her nervous. She was not so terrified as to believe she couldn’t cross, but she worried her fear would attract undue attention, and that additional scrutiny would give away her identity.

“If we want to squander days and risk being spotted by wyverns.”

Sallina had no answer to that. She did feel safer inside the city with so many people and buildings about her. And she knew Caison was serious about the lost days. When they’d left the river, he walked them due east for more than a day. He’d then had her lead them south, following behind her to do what he could to obscure the trail they left through the grassland. Not until they’d reached the road to Fordton had he permitted them to turn back west to reach the city.

Sallina took a sip of ale, grimaced, and said softly, “No. I do not want to squander days.” She wanted to be safe with Onurrun. She wanted her brother to see reason and end this war. She desperately craved the slow, easy, mundane days of peace, where her greatest concern was stringing a loom properly. Not that she knew if the Keng’s ducal keep held a loom. She had yet to see the keep in which she would dwell with her husband.

“We could depart downriver from this side,” Sallina suggested hesitantly. “If my disguise will pass inspection on the bridge, it will on a barge.”

“People cross back and forth on that bridge every day,” Caison replied. “Word is the checks are lax. Two fresh passengers on a river barge will come under far more scrutiny.”

Sallina worried at her lower lip. She knew he was correct.

“What’s the trouble?” Caison asked. “You have something against bridges? Liparius is full of ‘um.

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