Avan's Gift (Queen Avan, #1) by Alice Ivinya

Author:Alice Ivinya
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alice Ivinya
Published: 2020-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

IN HERNE THE GROWERS were given different jobs according to their Arts. The most skilled were employed to tend Herne’s towering trees or spent their days in the surrounding fields, making the crops grow. The more mediocre Growers were given one of hundreds of jobs requiring their aid in the city. Growers with little skill, like Joff, were normally not needed at all, but due to the drought, they gathered daily in the Grower’s Square outside the castle to ripen crops or fruit which had been harvested early to save water.

I followed Joff through the winding city streets to the castle, wearing Klia’s pretty, pale green festival dress and a matching embroidered head wrap. It made me feel worlds away from running through the woods in trousers with Cedric. Part of me was sad to no longer be wearing his clothes, as if all the evidence of our time together had been washed away. I wondered what he would think of me in this dress; it was much more flattering. I wondered if he would blush and stutter. He wouldn’t be able to forget I was a woman this time. I smiled to myself.

I remembered how he’d thought me beautiful when I’d somehow invaded his head. I’d been dressed in his clothes, my hair a mess and my cheeks sunburnt, and yet through his eyes I’d just seemed vibrant and exciting. The memory made my heart leap. By the earth, I hoped he was all right. Even if he came back, there was a chance I’d never see him again. Now I was here in the endless sprawling city and I realised how small I was compared to him. We belonged to different worlds. The little village where we were neighbours really was just a daydream.

Herne was much more impressive in the daylight. The trees reared overhead like giant pillars with covered walkways, doors, windows and balconies up their sides. The branches had intricate rails and some were draped with curtains of flowers. The canopies were so high overhead the very sky appeared green, fractured with golden sunlight. The leaves shielded us from the oppressive heat of the drought, keeping Herne cool.

Soon, the castle reared up ahead and occupied my attention. It stood four stories tall between four shorter trees that acted like towers. It had its own outer stone wall, though the upper half of the castle itself was mostly wood. Above, a dozen flags flew. Most bore the red squirrel on the field of green bordered by different colours, but Joff pointed out the albatross of the Staverts of Woodport, and other sigils neither of us knew. Swans, salmon, deer and foxes. It was as if a great gathering of forest animals was happening above our heads in a secret meeting.

The Growers’ Square was just inside the castle walls, and nobody stopped me as I slipped through the drawbridge over the empty moat next to Joff. I linked my arm through his as crowds pressed around us.

“Apart from

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