Chapter 2

Chapter One <—-* —-> Chapter 2.5

<<Amy’s Perspective>>

“It is a very blessed indel indeed able to take the form of the Eberhard Boar. When a child is found to have this magic, celebrations are made everywhere in Eberhard, and the child is taken directly to the castle for training as a knight of Eberhard.”

Amy Quintessa did not have quite the same outlook on life as the other indelfy. Where her friends saw endless poverty and no way out, she saw opportunity. When they muttered about the treasures locked away behind Inner-Kaluna’s great bronze gates, she pointed out that same barrier kept the indel from imposing on them.

It was just that attitude that made her succesful at her business, and the first person people turned to when they needed help. She might never be rich, even by indelfy standards, but if things kept up she’d have a very nice retirement in her future. All she needed to do was keep her head up, stay friendly, and retain a golden track record.

“Amy!”

The accusatory voice of the bartender cut through all conversation in the shadowfy inn, and caused more than a few people to glance her way. The bartender seldom said anything to her unless it would cause her trouble, one way or another.

“There’s a man in your rooms. He says he knows you. Were you expecting someone?”

Color flared in her cheeks as she caught the speculative glances sent her way by the farmers crowding the main table. Stupid of her to not check her room first. Who needed her advice so badly? They were getting charged double, no matter what it was they wanted.

“Not anyone in particular, did he give you a name?”

She rather hoped the man hadn’t. The last thing she needed was for Melissa to have had time to invent her own gossip.

Melissa leaned back until her spine cracked and set the thick glass mug she’d been cleaning down with a thump. “No name, but you could see clear enough he came from the other side of the gate. He’s got tattoos all over his face and not one of them proper for an indel. Do you suppose he’s foreign?”

“What sort of tattoos?” she asked, eying the crystal glass Melissa was pulling from the top shelf with care. Melissa must have really meant what she said by the man being from Inner-Kaluna. Crystal glassware wasn’t even used for the indel who made their living along side the ‘fy.

“Go see for yourself,” Melissa snapped, pouring a dark amber liquid into the glass, “you can take this with you. He wants to stay here at the inn for a while, so you’ll be moving your stuff into the basement till he’s gone.”

Amy eyed the glass, and decided a half copper or two was indeed worth playing waitress to her landlord. “Do you at least know how long he’s planning on invading my personal space?”

“Not long,” an oddly familiar voice said from the top of the stairs. “Unless you make things difficult.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and prayed to every star in the sky it was not who it sounded like. When she at last opened them and turned around, disappointment flooded through her veins.

It was Bernard. The invoker who had marked her magicless.

Chapter One <—-* —-> Chapter 2.5

Updated 6/21/09