The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 6 by Bella Forrest (books for men to read .TXT) 📕

“No respect for your elders,” said Albern, grinning as he sat up nimbly despite his missing arm. “Then again, I had none myself at your age. We shall have a bite to eat and then head off to Lan Shui.”

“And what are we doing there?” said Sun.

“I mean to visit a woman there.”

Sun arched an eyebrow. “A woman?”

Albern laughed. “Not a lover, if that is what you are implying. Though I would not have you think I am incapable of such things, despite my age. I can still—”

“Sky above, stop talking,” said Sun. She went to his pack to fetch some meat and bread, then thought better of it and found some twigs to stoke their fire. It had dwindled down to coals. The forest turf sank pleasantly beneath each footstep, soaking in the morning moisture.

“Noble children,” scoffed Albern, pulling his blanket closer around his shoulders.

With a short while’s work, the fire sprang to life again, and Sun laid sturdier branches across it to help it grow. She went for the food, then, handing some of it over to Albern. The old man tore at the meat with teeth that looked surprisingly healthy, if somewhat stained with age.

“I have a question,” said Sun.

“You may or may not get an answer,” said Albern.

“I thought so, but I have to try. Is this … is this what you do now?”

Albern frowned at her, then glanced around as if expecting to see someone else there. “Now, just what do you mean by ‘this?’”

“Not this. I mean last night. Hunting vampires. Is that your … your trade?”

That made him smile. “No. I am not a monster hunter, except when I need to be. And when I am, it is not only vampires I seek. I have fought all sorts of creatures. After all, you do know something of how I lost my arm, do you not?”

Sun’s jaw clenched. She had begged him for that story already, but the man was maddeningly reticent. “Something, but not as much as I would like.”

Albern chuckled. “You shall have to suffer under what I am sure is the crushing weight of your disappointment, at least for a while longer.”

It was impossible to be too angry at the old man when his attitude was so genial and friendly, but that did not stop Sun from trying—nor from trying to hear the story she had wanted him to tell in the first place. “Now that I have agreed to go with you, will you not, please, tell me—”

“I will not,” said Albern. “Our arrangement remains the same. I will keep telling you stories, as long as you want to hear them—but I will choose them. Can you accept that?”

“I suppose so,” grumbled Sun. “I thought that would be your answer, in any case. But I have my own condition. You are a storyteller, and if you say you must tell your stories in a certain order, I will believe you. But we are also traveling companions, and in that, I do not call you master. I do not want to follow along at your heels, chasing you like the wolfhound from your tales. If we are to ride together, I want to be treated as your equal. A partner, not a lackey.”

Albern looked mildly surprised. But then his gentle smile grew into a wide grin, and he clapped his hand on his knee. “Why, I could not agree more—and I apologize for making you feel that you were ever anything less. We are traveling companions, and neither lord of the other. I vow I will not forget it. What more can I do?”

“Tell me of this woman in Lan Shui, for one thing,” said Sun.

“Ah, gladly,” said Albern. “She is a medica, and I am seeking her services.”

Sun’s heart seemed to pause for a moment. “I—are you ill?” A sudden fear clutched at her heart, that the man she had just befriended might be in peril, about to be ripped away from her just as she had begun to value his company. And another, smaller part of her—a part she was somewhat ashamed of—wondered if she was about to be cast out alone upon the road, just as she was wondering if she had made the right choice in the first place.

“Oh, sky no,” said Albern, and his easy smile dispelled her terror in an instant. “Do not worry yourself in the slightest. It is simply that old bodies need a little more care than ones your age. My friend in Lan Shui makes sure I stay healthy.”

“Ah, I think I see,” said Sun. “Because you are ander?”

“Well, yes and no,” said Albern. “That plays a part—but age catches up with all of us, and it causes quite a bit more problems than a wending ever has.”

Sun let a little sigh of relief escape her. “Well, I am glad to hear it. At the risk of imitating Mag, I have to say: if you were to die before telling me the tale I wish to hear, I would have to kill you.”

Albern laughed loud and long at that, and the sound rang hearty and cheerful among the dark trunks that surrounded them. A bird chirped indignantly as it leaped into the air from a branch above him.

“I shall endeavor not to earn your wrath,” he said. “In any case, after I have seen the medica, I have other business. There is something near Lan Shui that needs looking into.”

“Another vampire?” said Sun, trying not to quail visibly.

“I should certainly hope not,” said Albern. “It seems to be a more mundane sort of evil. Banditry, mayhap, but we shall see. These are the errands I mean to take care of in Lan Shui. After I have seen to them—with your help, if you are willing to give it—we shall plan where to go next. Together. Is that acceptable?”

“Of course it is,” said Sun. “You could have simply told me so in the first place.”

She