Greenvale by Alice Sabo

Author:Alice Sabo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Wizard, Mage, Siblings, Found Family, Haroon, High Fantasy, Fantasy Gods
Publisher: Alice Sabo
Published: 2019-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Despite hoping to leave right away, there was a lot to be done before they could go. In an effort to stay out of sight, Chance spent most of his time in the stables with Stash checking over the horses and gear. Someone had brought their horses overland from Rivertown to Obsidian. Chance hadn’t thought too much about what might have happened to their horses after they had traveled through the magic gate. The Long Striders didn’t seem any worse for the journey, but Stash inspected them from ears to hooves anyway.

Chance was glad to see Pudding. He knew that the people who had brought their horses up from Rivertown wouldn’t have mistreated them, but like Stash, he wanted to check for himself. Pudding seemed glad to see him, too. And the bucket of warm oat mash helped.

While Stash was fussing over the horses, Chance cleaned their muddy gear. There was a foul odor to the mud that made him think it was more than just dirt and water. Remembering the bloody cloth Stash had found, he sent a quick prayer of thanks to the Great Mother for her protection. This had been more of an adventure than he had anticipated. He’d traveled with a prince and got to go through a magical gate, met a Delver and got attacked by beasts he’d never even heard of. And thinking that all through brought him back to the basic question he hadn’t been able to ask. Since he was alone with Stash, he decided it was safe to finally broach the subject. “Why did the king want to talk to Marten?”

“He needed to know that Marten was okay,” Stash said.

“Couldn’t he just ask somebody to check?”

“Sometimes you need to look a man in the eyes to make sure he’s okay.”

Chance could feel the undercurrent in that comment. It meant that the King wanted to make sure of something other than Marten’s health. What that might be was beyond him.

“You probably haven’t heard the rumors,” Stash said in a very soft voice.

Chance glanced up and down the aisle of the stable before moving closer. The rustles of hay and random thumping of hooves should cover a whisper here. “What rumors?”

“Someone was spreading around an opinion that Marten might be a better king than Aster.”

Chance couldn’t understand why anyone would listen to a suggestion like that. It didn’t make sense. Why would a Duke’s courier be better at running the world than a king? But then it hit him. That wasn’t the sort of thing anyone would take lightly. “Did the king think Marten started it?”

Stash had pulled up one of Dawn’s Light’s feet and was checking for stones with a hoof pick. “Didn’t want to.” He shook his head. “Had Captain Steel chasing over half the kingdom looking for us. Ran into him and Prince Yarrow in High Barrens last fall. Marten had a talk with them. Seemed like we’d put the rumors to rest, but that didn’t put an end to the problem.

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