Free Arrows Of Change (Book 1) by Honor Raconteur Page B

through the grounds and to a side door that led out into a
crowded street. Ashlynn barely had the gate open when the scent of the street
hit him like a sledgehammer. His nose wrinkled at the smell and he nearly
gagged, it was so putrid. What was that? It was like dung and rotting
fish and a tannery’s stench all mixed together.
    “Taranis take these idiots!” Ashlynn swore, her hand
covering her mouth and nose.
    Broden blinked at her in surprise, not expecting such an
oath to cross a well-bred woman’s lips.
    “I tell them time and again not to dump their sewage here,
and still!” She drew a quick, simple pattern in the air and then spoke a word,
it sounding harsher than the other magical words he’d heard. In a split second,
the garbage that had been dumped on the street was washed clean, as if it’d
never been. Several people yelped as the spell hit, their feet nearly knocked
out from underneath them. Ashlynn, not caring about them, nodded in
satisfaction as she lowered her hand. “There, better.”
    He looked up and down the street, confused. It seemed a nice
enough place—the buildings no more than two stories tall, all in good repair,
with markets running up and down the side of the street. Cloud’s Rest was not
half as nice as this. “Why would they throw out garbage?” he wondered aloud,
bemused at why they would not take care of the place.
    “There’s actually a sewage system built in under the
street,” Ashlynn explained wearily. “But it was never made to accommodate this
many people. It’s overrun and becoming stagnant as it builds up. We’ve told
them not to throw their garbage into the street gutters, to use the bins, but
they’re too lazy to walk all the way to the nearest one. So it builds up in
piles, and stinks up the place, until I stumble across it and clear it out.”
    “Lass, I be thinking ye and that king of yers need to build
some houses and clear out some of these people.”
    “Oh, I hear you.” Ashlynn nodded in fervent agreement.
“Trust me. As soon as that wall is up, the first thing we’ll do is build places
for these people to go. Until then, well, I get the feeling I’ll be using that
spell quite often.”
    “Aye.” He looked around, but of course had no idea where
they needed to go.
    “Now, let me explain a few things.” Ashlynn pointed to a
necklace that hung just past her collarbones. It was a long rectangle, with three
wavy lines imprinted into the soft gold metal. “See this? It’s a calling system
of sorts. I have it set up throughout the city. This symbol is on several
different posts on different street corners. People can put their hands flat
against it and speak to me directly whenever they need help. Each one is marked
so that I know instantly which one they’re calling from.”
    Broden let out a low whistle. So magic could do even that?
“How many be there?”
    “Two dozen. I’m sorely tempted to add more, but haven’t
found the time necessary to make and install them. Regardless, this is how everyone
contacts me when there’s a situation. If I don’t get a call, I just patrol the
streets as much as I can and stop trouble when I see it.”
    “So now we walk about until ye get a call?” he guessed.
    “And then we race like madmen over there, wherever ‘there’
is.” She beamed up at him. “Let’s walk this way, as I haven’t been over here in
about two days. While we walk, tell me something about yourself.”
    Obligingly, he told her much of the same history they’d told
Ash. Ashlynn was a good listener, only asking a question here and there as he
paused for breath. She took his family history in stride, just as Ash had, her
only surprise coming from how badly the prejudice had followed them. “So you
came with Ash to escape from Cloud’s Rest?”
    “Aye,” he admitted without a bat of an eyelash. “That and he
offered good money and position. I had a hope or two it’d be safer for me
daughter as well, but…”
    “It’s not