A Flower Amidst the Flames by Brett Shaffer

Author:Brett Shaffer [Shaffer, Brett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Double Infinity Press
Published: 2023-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Before any celebration, Belyx had to address her wounds. No one went unscathed jumping from a two-story house, getting shot at, and thrown from a moving carriage. Enzo had his own bruises and whined profusely.

“Ouch. That stings!” Enzo winced as she applied herbs to his bullet grazed arm.

“It will hurt a lot worse if infection sets in.” They both hid under a prodigious embankment, checking that no rodents lurked around. He was shirtless and Belyx's sudden urge to trace along his chiseled frame clouded her vision. She rubbed the medicine, taking her time on each crevice, but nothing could stamp the heat in her cheeks. Sitting up made her shoulder throb. Amenthya would need to put her mysterious paste on it later.

After she bandaged up Enzo, she tossed him his shirt, turning away as he dressed. A pit in her throat formed. “Drinks, you said?”

Enzo stood and moved his arm in a circular motion. His loose top rose a little, revealing a muscled stomach with a patch of dark hair tracing down. Close your mouth, Belyx. He would think she had swallowed a moth. “I know just the place,” he said with a cheesy smile and pulled Belyx up. “Are you sure your shoulder is ok?”

It stung, but a drink or two would abet it. “I’ve been through much worse. Let’s go already.” Doneque wanted to have fun.

Out of the places Belyx partook in drinking, this one took the prize for the dingiest. Multiple patrons mulled about, proclaiming their conquests to impress the other men or the female servers. Others were out cold on the benches inside and in the thralls outside. Belyx had to step over a snoring oaf just to enter. The floating dust in the air and the odor of feet and fermentation made her choke. A princess would never be caught dead here. Good thing she was not a princess tonight.

“The Drunk Pony?” Belyx grimaced at the crass name of the establishment.

“Don’t knock it till you try it.” Enzo led her passed an almost naked man mumbling incantations to himself. He glared at Belyx with a fire in his eyes, but Enzo kept her moving. They squeezed through the sweaty tavern rats to the front of the bar. Her clothes would need to be scorched later.

The bartender was drying a glass with a dirty rag when he caught sight of Enzo. “Enzo! How are we today?” The bartender stood shorter, with thinning brown hair and an overwhelming mustache taking camp under his hulking nose. He bore a scar on his left eye, and Belyx wondered what his story was.

Enzo tossed him a coin. “Two specials, please. For me and my friend here.”

The man eyed her, but not in a creepy way, more like an approval way, assuming this was a date, too. “Beautiful friend you have there, Enzo.” He chuckled as he pulled out two pint glasses and filled them with a thick brown liquid and chopped up what looked like an onion, tossing the rank pieces in.

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