By Moonlight Wrought (Bt Moonlight Wrought) Read Online Free PDF Page A

responded,
blushing.
             “I came to ask if you would like to be my
guest...that is, if I may escort you to my homecoming party this evening?”  He
smiled his smile.
             “Oh yes, I would love that Selric,”
Angelique said, her face flushed with undiluted and inescapable admiration.
             “Well then, until tonight Angelique,
where you will, I am certain, be the brightest star that shines.  Good-bye,
Lady von Yelson.  Someone will come by this afternoon to provide all the
required information.”
             “Oh, Selric, please say you do not have
to depart yet,” Angelique said, her eyes soft and genuinely hurt, taking a
hesitant, improper step after him as he walked away.  Selric turned, sighed
silently and smiled.
             “I do need to meet Mendric, but he
did remind me how wonderful you are.”
             “He did?  How sweet of him,” Angelique
purred.
             “So I think he will understand if I keep
him waiting,” Selric said, offering Angelique his arm.  “A walk in the garden,
my dear?” he asked.  He bowed slightly to the lady and said, “By your
leave...”  Lady von Yelson smiled and nodded her permission for Selric to be
alone with her delicate young daughter.
     
             “I missed you Selric,” Angelique said as
she sat next to him on the garden bench holding onto his hand, her own grasp
trembling ever so slightly.  “Two years is a very long time.”  They had walked
for many minutes around the flower filled expanse—the breeze there cooled by
the greenery all about—talking very little and just enjoying the touch of the
other, before finally sitting down.
             “Yes it is,” Selric agreed almost sadly.
             “You either forget someone or realize how
much you care for them.”
             “Have you forgotten me?” he asked,
bringing a cherry blush to Angelique’s face.  “Well?” he pressed when she did
not answer.
             “I will never forget you,” she said,
looking into his penetrating stare only briefly before casting her eyes down.
             “When I was gone, I thought that you were
beautiful.  But it seems that that was but the limitation of my memory, for now
I see that you are beyond simple beauty, rivaling instead the terms godlike,
divine, and perfection.”
             “Stop…” said Angelique softly, wanting to
laugh away her discomfort, but too flattered to utter even a giggle.
             “I will,” he said, “but it is all true. 
You are exquisite, Angelique von Yelson.”  Then she did look at him,
unabashedly, and saw the honesty in his face.  She closed her eyes and waited,
but a kiss never came.  “I need to talk to you, Angelique, but it will have to
wait until tonight,” Selric said seriously with a gentle kiss for her hand
instead.  “Until then,” he said, leaving Angelique sitting alone amongst the
lovely flowers, a slightly confused look upon her face.
     
             Angelique’s image still burning in his
mind, Selric walked down from the noble heights and toward the docks.  Three
blocks from the very waterfront stood the immense training hall, Master
Sellore’s House of Arms .  Master Sellore’s was a posh, expensive gymnasium
of sorts, where those with enough money could learn weapon and combat skills
from experts, some of the best warriors in the land.  Master Sellore’s was one of the places where the influential liked to be seen.  To be tutored at
Sellore’s was a necessity for every young nobleman, though after a month or so,
many would usually fall off in their lessons, simply using, instead, the
House’s other facilities.
             The Stormweathers owned another large
school, The Brawny Arms Academy , dedicated solely to the training of
soldiers en masse, whose talents were for sale to merchant houses, noble
families, and landowners, as well as