Kethril (48 page)

A few minutes later, he led her to a bench
in a small park. Brick paths meandered through leaf strewn grassy
areas. The trees were still partially resplendent with autumn
colors that had been falling to the ground. More lanterns on tall
poles provided light for anyone out for a stroll at night. The last
of the daylight was disappearing in the west and the snow had
stopped. Two ponds had ducks that would soon be flying further
south for the winter.

“The parks of Dralin have almost no crime,”
Frath told her as they sat. Sheela moved as close as possible to
his warmth and security without actually sitting on his lap. The
feelings that were in her mind and body felt unfamiliar to her and
she didn’t understand them. What she did know was that it was nice
to be close to the handsome guardsman. His voice was smooth and
seemed to caress her skin, which was another sensation she didn’t
understand.

“You’re not eating . . .” he observed with
concern. She jumped at the words and took a fast bite. The burst of
flavor in her mouth overwhelmed her. It had been so long since she
had eaten anything substantial that she hardly knew how to handle
it. In a moment, she was chewing as rapidly as possible, trying to
finish in case it might escape.

Once he was certain Sheela was going to eat,
Frath continued speaking between bites of his own draddly. “I’m
sorry about what happened in the bazaar. Slavers and kidnappers
have been getting bolder lately and more people have been
disappearing than usual. I can’t believe one would be so stupid as
to try to steal you from my protection though.”

Sheela studied his handsome face, noticing
unease in the set of his jaw. A thin scar ran from chin to cheek
and she resisted an urge to run her fingers along it. “Are we safe
here?” she asked worriedly.

“The City Guard patrols all the parks,” he
told her, pointing at a unit of six guards walking between the
ponds. “But even the various criminal guilds help protect the
parks. They’re safe havens for almost everyone.”

“Almost?” Sheela asked around a mouthful of
food. She held a hand underneath her chin to prevent any crumbs
from escaping.

“The Deformed aren’t allowed in the parks.
They try to sleep here, but their taint would corrupt the parks
too.” Frath popped one of the chips in his mouth. They were nearly
gone between the two of them.

“What exactly are the Deformed?” Sheela
asked. “From what I’ve heard, magic corrupts them or
something?”

“Something like that,” Frath confirmed.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that magic leaves residue
after it’s cast. There are more wizards in Dralin than anywhere
else in the world. There are also potion makers, priests and just
about anything else to do with magic.” He frowned, his thick
eyebrows lowering over sad eyes. “The residue gathers in streets
and sewers. The Deformed are generally homeless people who sleep in
polluted alleys. The magical waste corrupts their bodies and minds,
twisting them into deformed versions of people. They’re dangerous
and nobody knows what to do with them.”

“Why don’t they clean up the magical
residue?” Sheela asked. Her draddly was finished and she took the
last chip when Frath offered it to her.

“Because the High Council runs the city.
They don’t care about the welfare of the people. Dralin is also the
richest and most powerful city in the world and they buy off or
kill anyone who complains too loudly.” The set of his jaw showed
anger at the careless disregard for the safety of the citizens he
was sworn to protect.

Sheela put a comforting hand on his thigh,
enjoying the feel of his leg through his trousers. “It seems
foolish. I heard that this is one of the only cities in the world
without a wall surrounding it. Is that because it’s so
powerful?

Frath nodded. “That and it would be useless
because the city keeps growing. By the time they finished a wall,
more houses would be built outside of it. At this point, it would
be impossible to defend any wall that surrounded the city
anyway.”

“Oh . . . why?” Sheela asked. Her only
education had been about taking care of chores on a farm. The
concept of defending a city seemed awesome to her.

“It would take all of the soldiers in
Altordan’s army to man it. Even then, a concentrated attack in any
direction would be too hard to defend against.” Frath sounded as if
he knew what he was talking about so she just nodded in agreement.
He saw circles of exhaustion under her vulnerable eyes. “Let’s get
you to the inn.” Frath took her hand and together they left the
park.

A little less than an hour later, they were
in a much quieter part of the city where the buildings were larger
and older. Lanterns adorned many of the buildings in addition to
the streetlights. Sheela looked in awe at the stone buildings with
their tiled roofs and green lawns, wondering how many coins it
would take to buy one of them.

“This part of the city is hundreds of years
old,” Frath said. “A lot of wealthy merchants and some of the old
noble families reside here. There’s not a lot of crime and the
buildings are beautiful to look at. I like coming here.” He
gestured to one on the left that had small cherub statues
underneath the eaves. The windows had glass in them, unlike most
houses that had window openings covered with leather, furs or
wooden shutters.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sheela
admitted, gawking at the ornate etching in one thick wooden door.
“It’s more magnificent than I imagined.” An armed guard sitting at
the bottom of a stone railing nodded to Frath, acknowledging the
presence of a city guardsman. Sheela had noticed that many of the
buildings in this part of the city had guards.

“Here we are.” Frath pointed to a large,
four-level building just past the next street. The front of it took
up the entire block and she could see a tall stone wall extended
along the side street for a long distance. The inns along the
highway had been more massive, but nowhere near as elegant. Next to
the main walkway to the entrance was a large stone sign with a
picture of a shining shield and letters that Sheela didn’t
understand because she had never learned to read.

Frath led her up the stone steps to a
landing with four marble columns. Two sharply uniformed guards
appeared very capable to Sheela’s uneducated eye. At the door was a
finely dressed man in colorful red leggings that matched the color
of the guards’ tabards. He also wore a lacy white shirt and a long
red jacket.

The butler gave a sharp nod to Frath, but
took in Sheela’s poor dress and dirty appearance with disdain.
Frath spoke to him. “I’d like to speak to Albert, please. He’ll see
me.” The man didn’t look happy, but he led them inside.

The butler had them wait in a corner just
inside the door while Albert finished talking to a customer. Sheela
looked around the common room in amazement. It was clean and warm,
with wooden walls painted mellow green. Tapestries of magnificent
battle scenes covered most of the walls.

The Shining Shield Inn catered to knights
visiting Dralin as well as other nobles. A few of the men were
dressed in their armor, all polished and well cared for. Others
wore elegant clothing unlike anything Sheela had ever seen or even
imagined. Most wore fine swords on their belts. Sitting with the
men were squires and servants that helped the inn staff to take
care of the knights. Noble ladies were at many of the tables,
drinking wine and holding dignified conversations.

“Hello, Frath. It’s good to see you.” Albert
was a burly man built like a tree. Frath had told her that he was a
former knight who lost his sword arm in battle. Upon seeing Sheela,
Albert frowned in disapproval. “Why have you brought this vagabond
into my establishment?”

“Hello, Albert. This is Sheela and she just
arrived in Dralin. I heard that you need a new girl to clean rooms
and help out in the kitchen.” Frath spoke quickly with
determination. He kept a hand on Sheela’s back for moral support.
“I see a lot of people pass by every day and their faces all blur
together. I’d like to help a lot of them, but there’s not much a
simple guard like me can do.”

“You’re not a simple guard, Frath. You’re a
good man with the heart of a knight.” Albert put his lone hand on
Frath’s arm in a gesture of respect. Then he looked Sheela up and
down. “She’s small and terribly skinny, but I can see spirit in the
way she stands straight and looks me in the eye. We’ll have to get
her something decent to wear.” He motioned for a pretty, blonde
woman, who had just finished delivering food to a table, to come
over. “Tonya, this is Sheela. Try to find something for her to
wear, get her some food and put her in the room in corner of the
basement. She’s small enough to fit in it.”

Frath let out a barely perceptible sigh of
relief. “Thank you, Albert. May I come to visit her on occasion?”
His arm moved back over her shoulders as though he suddenly didn’t
want to let go.

Albert raised an eyebrow, but nodded without
saying anything. One of the customers called and he left to take
care of him, giving Frath one more clap on the arm. With an
encouraging smile, Tonya held out a hand and wiggled her fingers
for Sheela to go with her. Frath smiled encouragingly and gave
Sheela a giant hug, which she returned fiercely. As Tonya led her
to the basement stairs in the back of the common room, she looked
over her shoulder. Frath was watching her with a smile on his face.
She smiled back happily as she walked down the steps.

###

John H. Carroll was the youngest of seven
children and was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1970 where he was kept
in a dresser drawer with the clean socks. Luckily, he wasn’t kept
with the dirty socks or else he might have grown up to become
slightly warped.

As a child, John spent most of his time
wandering through the Mojave Desert in an attempt to avoid people.
He would stare at the sky, imagining what it would be like to
explore different worlds. One of his favorite memories is watching
his dad build the fuselage of Evel Kneivel’s skycycle in their
garage. One of his least favorite moments was watching that
skycycle fall into the Snake River. (Not his dad’s fault and he has
documentation to prove it, so nyah)

As a teenager, John spent most of his time
driving wherever he could in an attempt to avoid people. He would
stare at the road, imagining what it would be like to explore
different worlds. He was the captain of the chess team, lettered in
golf and band while in high school, and wasn’t beaten up anywhere
near as much as one might imagine.

As an adult, John spends most of his time
staring at a computer screen in an attempt to avoid people. He
stares at the monitor for hours, imagining what it would be like to
explore different worlds. He has been married to his wonderful wife
for sixteen years and they have three obnoxio . . . wonderful
children who always behave . . . when they’re asleep.

Emo bunny minions surround John at most
times. He is their imaginary friend and they look to him for
guidance. At one point, they took over the world. No one noticed
because they left everything exactly as it was. They gave the world
back after a week because it was depressing.

The Willden Trilogy is his first endeavor
into the field of writing. Other series and standalone works will
be forthcoming. In addition, John has written a number of short
stories that can be found at most eBook sites. He writes in the
evenings and weekends whenever possible. Regrettably, the family
mentioned in a previous paragraph desires food and shelter,
requiring the author to possess a full time job until his writing
makes him rich.

If you would like to be alerted of new
releases, you may sign up for his newsletter. Your email will never
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You can follow his blog where he discusses
writing, emo bunnies, family and various other topics of
insanity.

http://www.ryallon.blogspot.com/

Follow him on twitter if you like insane
ramblings and random comments.

http://twitter.com/kookoo88

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current projects and writing in general:
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His Goodreads Page:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4479427.John_H_Carroll

Odd tales of anti-heroes doing their best to
survive odd circumstances.

The Emo Bunny that Should (Illustrated)

Zachary Zombie and the Lost Boy

Drippy the Peg Legged Rainbow

Unholy Cow

Attack of the Sugar Plum Fairies

Naughty Nanoworms

Zachary Zombie and the Wicked Worm

My full-length novels are set in the world
of Ryallon. They are high fantasy with rogues, knights, dragons and
flower children. You can get them at the store where you found this
one.

Willden Trilogy
(Written first)

Rojuun

Anilyia

Kethril

Dralin Trilogy
(Set in time before
the Willden trilogy)

Dralin

Ebudae

Pelya

The Wyvern Trilogy
(Parallel to the
Willden Trilogy, set in time after the Dralin Trilogy)

Wyvern

To Be Announced (Coming 2014)

Cloudswept (Coming 2014)

Stand-alone Novella

Rain Glade

Coming soon: