Read Online The Coastal Kingdoms of Olvion: Book Two of The Chronicles of Olvion by Larry Robbins - Free Book Online Page B

distance or the danger.  It was impossible to ignore what his eyes saw, however.  Toria was short, even for a person of Olvion.  She was not quite five feet tall, and she had the dark tan skin, brunette hair that was almost to the point of being black, and dark brown eyes that almost hid the pupil within.  In his first five minutes into the journey he noted that his biggest challenge would probably be keeping away the young men they expected to encounter along the way.
    As he walked, his thoughts inevitably drifted to Dwan.  Three days!  He would see his lady, his love in three days.  After all these many months he almost couldn’t stand it.  Would she hate him for leaving or would she know that he would never do so willingly?  For the thousandth time he considered the conundrum he was experiencing, hating the supernatural force that took him from her while acknowledging that, without it, he would never have found her.
    Many times in his tiny room above the bar he had laid there at night, eyes wide open until the early hours.  He would imagine her doing little things, smiling at her patients, showing that little frown of hers as she applied a bandage or treated a child’s malady.  He wondered if she would still be in their little apartment in the castle proper.  Certainly she would be well taken care of, considering her relationship to him and her skills as a healer.  The more he thought of her the faster he walked.
    “Hey!”
    The shout brought him out of his reveries.  He looked behind himself and was surprised to see that Toria was now quite a distance behind him.  She was standing now with her fists on her hips and her lower lip protruding.
    “My legs aren’t as long as yours are, maybe you could walk a little slower?” she yelled.
    Taggart laughed and beckoned her forward.  When she caught up he bowed.  “A thousand pardons Lady Toria.  I shall endeavor to match your pace more closely.”
    She smiled.  He noted a large smudge on her face that she was obviously unaware of.  Her mock battles had produced many more on her arms and clothing.
    “I know what you’re doing, Tag-Gar,” she said smiling slyly.  “You are walking as fast as you can so that you can get back to your lady more quickly.”
    Taggart nodded, now carefully walking alongside.  “Of course I am.  By the way, Tag-Gar is my formal name.  My friends all refer to me as Tag.”
    She turned around so that she was walking backwards while looking at him.  “So I am your friend?”
    “Why, Lady Toria, of course you are my friend, and considering the fact that you are showing me the route back to my Dwan, you can consider yourself my very good friend.”
    Toria’s smile broadened at that.  She continued walking backward, now adding a kind of rearward skip.  “My brothers will be so jealous of me.  So, if we are friends Tag-Gar…”
    “Tag,” he reminded her.
    “Tag,” she repeated.  “If we are friends can you tell me if we will be able to see Tinker when we get to the city?”
    Taggart thought a moment.  “I certainly hope so.  My most fervent wish is that she and Dwan are still together in our Apartment within the castle.  I guess I never really considered the fact that she might have left.  Tinker had a strong connection to Dwan, but not like she had with me.  There was a special relationship that we had, a shared task and responsibility.  I don’t know what happened once I…left.  I suppose she might have gone back to the mountains where her home is.  Hey, watch…”  Taggart tried to warn her, but her foot struck a small rise of weeds.  She stumbled slightly, but then continued to walk backwards.  He suppressed a smile when she tried to make it appear that she had not stumbled, but had merely meant to hop.
    “But, if she’s gone won’t you have to go find her?  I mean the two of you belong together, The Legend and the white Mountain Child.”
    “I’m not so certain that there is even a need