Bursts of Fire by Susan Forest

Author:Susan Forest
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC009020 Fiction Fantasy Epic, FIC009100 Fiction Fantasy Action and Adventure, FIC043000 Fiction Coming of Age, coming of age, FXS - Narrative theme: Social issues
ISBN: 978-1-988140-14-8
Publisher: Laksa Media Groups Inc.
Published: 2018-12-08T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

“You like him!” Rennika shrieked with laughter, dodging pedlars, craftsmen, and pickpurses as she chased Ide across the stone-arched bridge. Autumn in Gramarye was brief, but today was like summer, and good weather brought the farmers and tradespeople and thieves to market.

Ide threw her arm onto the bridge’s broad marble balustrade, braking herself to a spinning halt. “I do not!”

Rennika plunged to a stop beside her, leaning her upper arms on the polished stone to capture a waft of cool spray rising from the glacial river below. Colin sent her to Highglen by herself once a week or so with a goatskin full of milk, to do small trades for things they needed, and to watch out for items brought up from the lower valleys that might only be occasionally available. He did the big trading himself—huge bundles of raw yak wool and, later in the fall, live yearlings for slaughter. He said the sharp wool traders would cheat Rennika. She didn’t mind not going to Highglen. When she stayed in Highglen with Ide’s family, she could spend some of her time picking up her own coins, as she’d learned to do in Coldridge.

“Oh, Tonore!” Rennika mimicked. “You’re so strong!”

“I never said that!” Ide protested. “I said he was pretty strong if he could hammer a sword blade flat. And I never said it to him.” She draped herself over the balustrade and stared into the flickering depths of the rushing water. “Besides, you like him, too.”

Rennika leaned on the railing beside her. “What if I did?” Rennika had been surprised when Tonore and his mother—his father was killed—appeared in Highglen in the early fall. They hadn’t spoken of her secret, her magiel sisters and talent with cures, and she knew he wouldn’t. “He doesn’t notice. Either of us.” She lazed there, the late afternoon sun on her shoulders, breathing in the smell of the river and the sounds of Princess Hada’s city. This would be a good place to live for the rest of her life. Here, or perhaps in that wonderful village where she and her sisters had once helped an innkeeper’s mare birth her colt. Kandenton.

“He likes you better,” Ide said. “You don’t have pox scars on your face. And he thinks I’m just a child.”

“Tonore doesn’t care about your scars. He’s got an ear lobe missing.”

A dozen soldiers in cloaks of green passed them, keeping an eye on vagrants.

Ide grinned at her sidelong. “You think?”

Rennika bumped her with her shoulder. “Yes.”

“Tomorrow, let’s watch Tonore make horseshoes.” Ide kicked a pebble between the balusters and watched it fall into the cold, foaming current below.

“We did that today.”

“So?” Ide giggled. On the river, the dippers flicked in and out of the froth.

Rennika had three chetra in the purse tucked under her robe, and in her stomach she had a stolen cheese dumpling. The begging today had been profitable. “All right. But not until afternoon. There are good patrons by the shrine in the morning.”

Ide shrugged. “Fine. Hey!” She pointed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.