The Dream Thief by Shana Abe

Author:Shana Abe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Carpathian Mountains, Quests (Expeditions), General, Romance, Fantasy, Great Britain, Historical, Eighteenth Century, Hungary, Dragons
ISBN: 9780553588057
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2006-09-26T08:00:00+00:00

There were no actual towns in the foothills nearby. Lia wouldn’t have called what they encountered even a village: a collection of thatched-roof dwellings, two taverns, a church, a smithy, and a store for general goods, all of it encircled by a worn stone wall that ate into the hillside. They were directed to one of the larger of the homes in the settlement; it belonged to the village elder. Or perhaps he was the mayor. Lia’s grasp of the local tongue was not as certain as she’d hoped.

She’d had years to study her future. Years to seek out the language, the culture of this place. Yet it had happened that finding tutors for what she knew she’d need was not so easy, even in the sophisticated climes of Edinburgh. She’d persuaded the headmistress of Wallence to hire a Bohemian linguist for just three terms. Lia had been his star pupil.

“He says we may rest the night here,” she translated for Zane, who was standing benevolently at her side, a husbandly hand at the small of her back. “He says we are most welcome.”

But interestingly, for all his flowery compliments, the white-bearded man did not seem especially pleased to have them in his home. He lingered back near the open hearth, standing in front of the woman Lia assumed was his wife—nearly blocking her from their sight—as he nodded and spoke and lifted a hand that made the sign of the cross repeatedly as he bowed in their direction.

He had looked only once at Lia, that moment he had answered his door to find them standing on his front steps. After that he kept his gaze pinned to the hardwood floor or else uneasily upon Zane.

Lia tried her most melting smile. “Thank you so much. Your generosity will not be forgotten.”

At that the man glanced at her—a swift, uneasy lift of his eyes before bowing his head again.

“This way,” the man said, and led them to a bedroom. The bedroom, she realized, glancing around at the plain iron bed and pine trunks and unadorned porcelain basin that held water rimmed with ice.

“Sir, we cannot,” she protested, turning to the elder.

“No, no. It is yours for your stay. Please, gentle one”—she thought that was the word he used, although it might have been noblewoman—“you honor us. Accept our humble aid.”

He seemed truly horrified by her protest, his skin blanching, his wife behind him making a small, distressed noise. Lia looked at them both, then back up at Zane, who offered a droll smile.

“How perfectly delightful,” said her false husband, with only the slightest of glances at the cold barren floor.

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