Heir of Amber and Fire by Rachanee Lumayno (read aloud books .TXT) 📕

said that usually there’s a market in the city center. We can probably find most of the the things we need there.”

“What do we need?” Farrah asked. “Besides food.”

“I need to get my knife repaired,” Rhyss said. Farrah smirked. Rhyss’s knife handle had broken from the blade a few nights ago while he was skinning a rabbit for dinner. The incident had caused endless teasing from Farrah, who thought it was hilarious that of all the reasons for Rhyss’s weapon to break, it was for something so innocuous.

“Or, you could just buy a new one altogether,” Farrah said. “That knife was ancient. I’m surprised it hasn’t broken earlier.”

“We’ll see,” Rhyss said. “It may be old, but it’s my favorite.”

“The blade is rusty,” Farrah pointed out. “And — ”

“Let’s head to the market, then.” Beyan interrupted them before they could start bickering. Without waiting for a response, he strode away, forcing us to hurry after him to keep up.

As we walked through the city, I noticed a third thing: there were animals everywhere. A dog or two here, or even a goat or cow. I supposed that made sense. People would have pets, or have farms.

But then I spotted other animals. A baby elephant, wobbly on its chubby legs. A tiger, sleek and majestic. On the other side of the street, a flash of twisted white antlers caught my eye. I saw an elk walking sedately alongside a gray wolf.

What was going on here? 

I rubbed my eyes, thinking they were playing tricks on me. But when I looked again, I still saw all the animals — many who definitely weren’t native to this area — all around me.

“Hey,” I said, grabbing Beyan’s sleeve to slow him down. I motioned to Rhyss and Farrah to come closer and lowered my voice. “Do you see that?”

“See what?” Beyan asked, looking around.

Surreptitiously, I nodded my head in the direction of the elk and the wolf, who were just to our left. “Over there.” As one, all three of them looked over to where I had indicated. “Don’t be so obvious!” I hissed.

Farrah shook her head. “I don’t get it,” she said. “What are we trying to see?”

“You don’t see them? Any of them?” I asked. “There are animals everywhere.”

“So? We’re in a city,” Rhyss pointed out. “There are bound to be stray dogs and cats and such running around.”

“Not dogs and cats,” I said. “Wolves and elephants and elk and tigers and none of them are scared of each other.”

Beyan surveyed the city again, more carefully this time. “I’m still not seeing anything unusual,” he finally said.

“You feeling okay?” Farrah asked me. “I know you didn’t get much sleep last night. Maybe it’s just exhaustion?”

I didn’t think that was it, but I didn’t want to argue further, or my friends would think I was crazy. So I just nodded and let Beyan continue leading our group to the market. Walking faster, I peeked up ahead and saw the elk and the wolf still walking together a few feet ahead of us. The two animals stopped moving. Suddenly, the wolf winked out, and in its place was a man.

I gasped. My friends nearby didn’t react, but somehow the man heard me, even though there were distance and people between us. He glanced over at me, and I was struck by how much he resembled the wolf: shaggy pale hair and skin, and a lean, muscular body. Our eyes locked, and remained so as my group drew level with the man and his elk companion. The man studied me then smiled, walking away with the elk following.

My mind reeled with everything I had just witnessed. My companions kept walking, completely oblivious.

We reached the city center. The market was even more crowded than the streets had been. Stalls stretched as far as I could see in all directions. We could easily spend a day here and still not see everything the market had to offer. After being on the road for so long, I was drawn to the hustle and bustle of civilization and wanted to immerse myself in it.

The others must have been feeling the same way because Beyan said, “It will take us a few hours to get our errands done. Why don’t we just take our time here and stay in Annlyn for the night? We can get a good night’s sleep, and it doesn’t make sense to seek out Joichan in the dark, anyway.”

Rhyss, Farrah, and I nodded in agreement. Farrah and Beyan decided to split up the list of needed supplies to cover more ground. I offered to help purchase supplies, but Beyan waved me away.

“Go enjoy the market,” he said. “Let’s all meet back here right before sunset; we can eat together and discuss our plans for tomorrow.”

That decided, we went our separate ways. Rhyss went off to find a cutler. Beyan and Farrah disappeared in opposite directions. That left me, standing in the market square, taking it all in. Finally, I picked a direction and started walking.

For a while, I was lost in the scents and the colors and the noise. I didn’t have the pack space for frivolous purchases, but I still marveled over the sparkling jewelry and carved trinkets. Perhaps I should buy a gift for Joichan for our first meeting? But I had no idea what a dragon could possibly want, especially from a human market.

After a while, I started to sense that I was being followed. It was just this odd prickly sensation I felt, like something wasn’t quite right around me. I turned, but didn’t see anyone. Maybe Farrah was right. Maybe I was just exhausted.

The row of stalls I was perusing ended up ahead, into a narrow alley that connected my part of the market with another. I turned the corner into the alley and stopped. The wolf man from earlier blocked my way.

Chapter Twenty-Two

THE WOLF-TURNED-MAN was tall, taller than I had thought from a distance. He pushed his shaggy hair out