Fire Mage Read Online Free PDF Page B

snuck along the winding corridors of upper Naru, until they found the door that led down through the darkness to Shade’s Gate and out into Fiskar’s Market, where old men and women sat about sighing and chatting disdainfully with each other. They glanced suspiciously at Talis and Mara as they darted through the market.
    Back behind the stalls, down a dank, smelly corridor, they found The Tame Shrew, one of the oldest and least respectable taverns in Naru. Outside the faded red tavern door stumbled two old drunks locked in a cheerful arm-grasp. They teetered about precariously singing familiar songs of war and adventure. Talis and Mara skirted around the duo and made their way inside the dark tavern.
    Conflicting smells overpowered them as they entered: sweat and ale and roses. The tavern owners’s wife had a rooftop garden where she grew many fragrant varieties of roses, and she clipped the strongest-smelling ones and kept them in an old, ceramic vase on the middle on the bar. Despite her earnest attempt at eliminating the other foul smells in the tavern, the stench remained.
    “There’s a quiet table over in the corner.” Mara lowered herself down and squeezed past a man and a woman having a furious argument about…Talis thought it sounded like a lover’s quarrel.
    When Talis sat next to Mara, the woman burst into tears and stomped out of the tavern, leaving the man to stare stupidly at the mug of ale he was holding.
    “I don’t supposed he’ll be standing after a few hours,” Mara whispered.
    “Two hours at the most.” Talis motioned a serving girl over. “Could we have two…honey meads?”
    Mara’s eyes lit up and she smacked her lips in anticipation. “And a slice of chocolate and raspberry cake?”
    The serving girl eyed Mara disdainfully, but she twisted around and stomped back behind the bar and filled two mugs with golden brew from a barrel.
    “She doesn’t like me much…” Mara scrunched up her eyes and lips in imitation of the serving girl’s pouty expression.
    Talis chuckled, most girls he knew despised Mara, something about her came off as wrong to them. She acted like she wanted to take every ideal for how a girl should live and smash them with her own contempt. And that was exactly why he liked her so much.
    “So you think we can beat Rikar and Nikulo?” Mara accepted a mug of ale from the serving girl, and frowned, peering at the bar.
    “Don’t get all upset…I’ll have your cake out soon enough.” The serving girl muttered to herself and charged off again after giving Talis his mug.
    “Honestly?” Talis took a swig of the sweet honey mead. “I don’t think we have a chance of winning against them. The question is, can we survive long enough to keep from getting murdered by Rikar? How many people has he killed in previous competitions?” Although Talis knew magical healers stood ready to cast healing spells on injured combatants, sometimes nothing could done, like the time Rikar sliced off someone’s head.
    “You’re so optimistic…” Mara rolled her eyes in disgust. “Maybe I’ll visit the old witch that sells curses after all. And here I am, drinking my mead and thinking we could actually win….”
    Talis poked her affectionately in the arm and grinned. “Here comes your cake…thank you, miss…go on, eat up, don’t make a face, you’ll feel better with the chocolate swirling around in your belly.”
    “I’ll feel better holding the Blood Dagger and handing it to my father and mother.” Mara gulped down a bite of cake and squeezed her eyes closed in delight. “Mmm, I can picture it so clearly… Mother, Father, I’ve won, and there’s no way I’m marrying Baron Delar’s fat old warthog of a son.”
    She opened her eyes suddenly and fixed her gaze on Talis. “You will do all you can do to help me win, won’t you? I really mean it. I’ve known you forever and then some, and if anyone can help me out of this…situation…you’re the one.”
    Talis