Red Rope of Fate (27 page)

“Pay up,” King Celrin gestured to King Petyrr after a footman bowed and took his leave of the two monarchs.

King Petyrr sighed, making his belly jiggle. He reached into his pocket and fished out a
small bag of Calnor gold coins, which he thrust at King Celrin. He gestured for a translator to step closer to the kings. “How did you know?” he asked through the translator.

“Know what?” King Celrin replied in kind.

“That Tarinthali was in love with the good Captain Arion?”

“I had faith.”

“In what? Our Nodusigm system?”

King Celrin laughed. “No. In my skills of observation. The easiest way t
o judge love is to look at the affect it has on a person’s friends. Evlawyn, Tarinthali’s handmaiden, knew Tari was in love with the captain, probably before Tari did.”

“Ahhh you cheater.”

“Perhaps. You made a good judgment on your son, though.”

“I agree. A few years of forced travel in our neighboring countries will do him some good. If Calnor’s neighbors aren’t impressed with his stone-cold expressions nothing will amaze them. Besides, if I’m lucky he’ll fall in love and bring me home a daughter. Back to the topic of Tarinthali and Captain Arion.”

King Celrin took a flagon of wine—elvish import. “What of them?”

“
Their path will be a tough one. I don’t think the humans will be quick to accept them,” King Petyrr said, scowling when the translator took too long to translate his words.

“
True, but they are a resilient pair.”

“They will change our countries.”

“For the better?”

“For the best.”

The monarchs nodded to each other as King Petyrr picked up his own wine goblet. They clinked the glasses together.

“For the future.”

“And for love.”

“A
ye, long live Captain Arion and the future Lady Tarinthali Herycian.”

The End

About the Author

K.M. Shea is an extreme book lover, champion web surfer, and all around geek. She’s
been writing for over ten years and has worked as librarian and a newspaper reporter. K.M. lives in the quaint countryside with her pets: Perfect Dog and Fat Cat. K.M. suspects that Perfect Dog has secret plans for world domination.

Follow K.M. Shea on Twitter: KM_Shea

Visit her blog:
http://legendaryarchive.wordpress.com/

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http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005ANPMZU

Please visit the blog for information on upcoming books, free chapters, scheduled freebie weeks, and more!

Coming
May 2013

The Page Turner
:
15-year-old Raven Wishmore is all that stands between a rare artifact and an organization of magic abusers. Her only hope is her magic—the ability to read things to life—which is so unnatural even her enemies are afraid of it.

When Raven’s father—a spy for Kingdom Quest, the secret society devoted to protecting magic and punishing magic abusers—is charged with finding a valuable artifact, Raven is coerced into joining the investigation. She goes undercover at the Saint Cloud Library, the supposed location at which the artifact—a cauldron—is being guarded. Raven is expected to win over the part time staff of teenage boys and locate the cauldron. But Raven is no spy, and she struggles to maintain the ditzy, popularity obsessed persona she is forced to adopt.
  Plus her feet are killing her from all the high heels. 

Thanks to a security leak the magic abusers know the cauldron is at Saint Cloud, and they are waiting for Raven to find it for them. To make matters worse the library is ruled by a tyrant library director who has declared all book sections closed. Throw in a set of mischievous twins who specialize in breaking and entering, combine it with Raven’s magic, and the library and
cauldron are as good as saved. Too bad Raven is too terrified of her magic to use it.