Free The Invisible Chains - Part 3: Bonds of Blood by Andrew Ashling Page B

pitcher, came, pitot in the other a cup. In his haste he bumped into the table and dropped the pitcher. The water mixed with wine ran all over the maps, including the one Anaxantis had been working on all evening.
    His lord jumped up to avoid the liquid dripping in his lap. He froze, frightened, terrified by what he had just done. The maps were all drenched. He knew he should do something to salvage what he could, but the terror immobilized him. This was it. Now, surely, his lord was going to get rid of him. Who needed someone around to ruin your work just after you had finished it.
    “I'm sorry, my lord,” he stammered, tears welling up in his eyes. “I didn't mean to... I... I'm so clumsy...
    please, forgive me... I'm useless, I know...”
    Anaxantis had been taken aback as well.
    “Don't just stand there,” he said tersely, “go and fetch some towels from the bathroom to dry up this mess.”
    He looked at his lord, at first not understanding what he had been ordered to do.
    “Go. Go, Tarno. Fetch some towels,” his lord repeated.
    The sharpness of his voice startled him awake, and slightly dizzy, not seeing clearly through his teary eyes, he ran to the bathroom. By the time he returned, he was so worked up he dropped the towels. He crouched down to pick them up, but Anaxantis was quicker and snatched one away before he could hand it to him.
    Carefully his lord laid the towel on the map he had been drawing, so it could absorb the liquid. He gestured him to bring the rest and lay them on the other maps as well.
    It was all too much for him. Trembling he tried to do what was expected of him.
    “No, no, not like that. You're smudging the maps. Lay them down flat, gently, without rubbing.”
    He let the towels fall down on the table and sank to his knees, crying.
    “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just making it worse.”
    He knew it. For sure he would be sent away now. Not only was he forgetful and sloppy about his tasks, but now he had ruined his lord's hard work. Who would want to have someone like him around?
    “Please, please, my lord, don't send me away,” he begged, crying. “I'm so sorry, so sorry... Just don't send me away... Lock me up in my room, but don't send me away. Please...”
    Anaxantis meanwhile had regained his composure. He looked down at the pitiful, naked, crying figure on the floor.
    “ By the Gods, there's almost nothing left of him.”
    He crouched down beside him and patted his shoulder.
    “Come, come, it was not all that bad.”
    “Your maps... I've ruined them...” he answered through his tears.
    “No, no, you haven't. They're just instruments. They'll be much the worse for being used in the field. They'll get smudged, folded the wrong way, torn... All kind of things will happen to them. Don't worry. They're just pieces of parchment with ink on them.”
    He looked up. He felt his lord taking him by the arms and lifting him up.
    “Come,” Anaxantis said, guiding him to the big chair by the hearth.
    His lord sat down and pulled him down in his lap. He couldn't own ancou hehelp but put his arms around him.
    “You frightened yourself there, didn't you?” his lord said softly.
    For some reason it just made him cry harder.
    “It was an accident, Tarno. Just an accident. It could have happened to anyone. You meant no harm.”
    He felt himself being rocked gently and a hand caressed his hair. Slowly his desperate crying subsided into a subdued whimpering.

    “ I must do something. Soon. Very soon. Or he will be lost for ever.”
    When Lorcko came into the Hole, he looked around for Ambrick. He found him almost immediately, sitting at a table with Sterff and Morneck. Smiling, he walked up to them.
    “I think I found a way around my problem,” Ambrick said, without any introduction, when he had almost reached the table. “You know, my little problem that prevents me taking this thing a step further, out of fear of falling helplessly in love with you?” he added with a grin.
    “Ambrick, I