Steel And Flame (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

along
the walkways glowed in firefly swarms, their reflections sparkling across the
water so the pool captured a field of false stars within its depths.  He hoped
young Colbey could someday become as calm as the waters below.

Chapter
02
     
     
    Caring for his mother, Lilly, during her illness left
Marik little time for anything else.  Since her failing health forced her to
stay home, Marik needed to provide for them both as best he could.  The income
from her work of dying cloth for Minta, one of Tattersfield’s few merchant
exporters, was lost to them.
    The days slowly passed while their lives adjusted to
the new hardship.  When the first medicines they received from the herbman
quickly vanished, Lilly gave Marik a small pouch.  Within he found several
coins and a gold nugget larger than any he had ever heard of.
    “Take it to Minta.  She’s the wealthiest exporter in
town and I’ve sold to her before.  She will give you coin for it.”
    “Before?  Mother, what’s going on?  Where did you get
this?”
    “Rail always left behind his earnings whenever he was
home, Marik.  The last time he was due back, this arrived instead.  The pouch
had four of these and a note from him telling me to use them as we needed.”
    “Father sent these?  Why didn’t he come home and bring
them himself?  It’s been five years!”
    “I don’t know, Marik.  I haven’t heard from him
since.  Go and sell the last one.  She won’t pay you the full value, because
she’s a merchant.  But you can still get a half-gold for it.”
    She dissolved into a coughing spell.  Marik left quick
as he could, the nearly empty medicine pouches spurring him on.  Several
townsfolk glared at him when he dashed past.  He neither cared nor noticed. 
His mind still struggled to accept the pouch’s contents.  Father, with this
kind of wealth?  How?  And why didn’t he bring it home himself?
    Minta kept an office in the warehouse where her dyers
worked and her goods were stored.  During the day, as her laborers toiled, she
could always be found there.
    Marik might have met with trouble trying to see her
under normal circumstances.  Fortunately, everyone at the warehouse recognized
him as Lilly’s son.  Minta emerged from the office to offer her sympathies
after the man who acted as a foreman to the dyers and a guard against theft
reported his presence.
    She disliked him as much as the other townsfolk.  He
could tell this by her entire bearing, yet she quickly turned businesslike once
he produced the nugget.
    “Ah, yes.  I’ve bought a few of these from Lilly
before.  That wandering man of hers left these behind, as I recall.  I’d like
to know where his wanderings brought him to, if this was what he found.”  She
arched an eyebrow in question at Marik.
    “Your guess is as good as mine.”
    “It seems she saved the largest one for last.  It’s as
large as my knuckle and, look, it seems almost pure!  No rock mixed in as far
as I can tell.  It’s damned large for a natural gold nugget.  I’d have to guess
it came from an unusually rich vein.  You’re sure you don’t know where your
father was working?”
    Marik had no interested in its origins, only in how it
related to his father.  It was clear no one would be able to help him with
that, so he pressed Minta to trade it for hard coin.  In the end she proved
more generous than Lilly had predicted, though Marik knew he possessed no
undiscovered haggling skills.  Tattersfield might think little of the son but
the people his mother worked beside genuinely liked her.
    With nearly three-quarters of a gold in silver coins,
he went straight to the herbman’s.  He needed to replenish, and he also meant
to ask about other possible treatments for Lilly.  The first batch of medicines
was gone and his mother appeared none the better for them.
    Despite Minta’s generosity, expensive herbs and costly
potions devoured the minor fortune in less than a month.  This left