Free The One Rider (Ashandor Chronicles) by Daryl Yearwood Page B

leather pouch trimmed in fringe strung with tiny blue beads also hung from her belt. The pouch was decorated in elven markings.
    Valaron realized he was staring and looked away, giving a nervous cough. “Did. . . Um. . . Did you cook our meal?” he asked. “It was very good.”
    “Yes,” she answered. “Thank you.” She walked over and sat by the fire.
    Valaron joined her. “You. . . . That is. Um. . . Skarson tells me,” he coughed and started again. “Skarson tells me that you are going to be training me in the sword.” He stared at the fire, his face burning in embarrassment at how tongue-tied he had become. In his mind, he saw Mal standing with her hands on her hips, an angry look covering her face.
    “We will begin soon enough,” replied Cler’d’roh, seeming not to notice his red face. She pulled out a small amount of green leaves from her pouch and dropped them in her cup. The steaming water she added turned a dark shade of green, and a pungent odor filled the air. She sipped cautiously at the hot drink.
    “This helps ease the aches and pains,” she said in answer to Valaron’s questioning look. She handed him the cup. Nodding his head in thanks, he took a drink of the dark green tea. It was bitter and sweet at the same time. There was a heady aroma that reminded him of the tea that Skarson drank when the weather was wet and cold.
    “Thank you,” he said as he handed the cup back to her. There was the distinct aftertaste of cloves and something else that he could not quite identify.
    “You will get used to it,” she said. “It will be most helpful for the training we will be doing.” She smiled and Valaron suddenly felt much better. He could not be sure if it was the effects of the tea or her disarming manner that improved his mood, but he was definitely fee ling rather good at the moment.

 
    CHAPTER 14
     
    “Fair city, Loeath’d’nah.
    Unseen through the ages.
    Beauty hidden to prying eyes.
    Veiled amid the forest;
    Unchanging with the seasons.”
     
    -Poem “The Hidden City”
     
     
    L oeath’d’nah was hidden deep in the Gra’d’har forest among the ancient trees. Set in the shape of a five-pointed star, thin towers rose at the points. The rest of the elven city was connected in broad hallways and large open-sided rooms. A single spire ascended from the center of the city and was topped by a flat roof that served as a watch tower for the elven guards. This high vantage point allowed the guards to see in every direction, their keen eyesight granting them a clear view of the forest for miles around.
    Great open pergolas were covered in sprawling grapevines, and ivy climbed over many of the surfaces. Dark green leaves sparkled in shafts of sunlight bursting through the cover of trees that lay overhead like vast emerald clouds. Creeping vines wound their way through countless trellises, and open spaces had been left in the structure where small gardens grew among the stone walls, streams rambling along their twisted paths. The scattered gardens gave the city an appearance of being just another part of Gra’d’har, the ageless forest that stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see.
    Covered courtyards opened out onto long terraces of slate floors and waist-high railings turned from pink marble. Ivy snaked its way through the banisters and climbed the columns that sat at the corners of the arched openings. Lemon chrysoprase covered the outer walls of Loeath’d’nah, and the mottled stone blended into the surrounding forest, making the city nearly impossible to see.
    Near the northern spire was a dragon approach used long ago by the Dragon Guard for their frequent visits to the city. The approach was large enough to accommodate more than a dozen dragons. Now grown over in hedge, it added to the city’s wild appearance.
    Set into the stone at the dragon approach was a reflecting prism on the spire wall that had been used by the Guardsmen as a beacon to help them