Free Taming the Elements: Elwin Escari Chronicles: Volume 1 by David Ekrut Page B

son. You are alright now.”
    Elwin buried his head into his father’s chest. No. It had been real. Elwin didn’t cry. Not exactly. When he closed his eyes, tears came out, but it didn’t count as crying, because the tears wouldn’t have fallen had he not closed his eyes. Several moments passed before his father spoke.
    “You need to dress,” Drenen said. “Get some clothes on and come to breakfast.”
    A strong smell of fresh-baked pastries and sweet cakes filled the air. His mother must have risen early to bake them. How could he have forgotten? The festival was today.
    His father went over to his storage chest, pulled out fresh clothes, and threw them on the bed next to Elwin. He picked up the clothes. It was his newest trousers and best, green tunic. “Am I going to get to go to the Summer Solstice Festival today?”
    His father’s tone became neutral. “Change your clothes, and we will discuss it at the breakfast table.”
    He changed clothes and dug beneath his dirty clothes for his leather shoes. Elwin pulled them on as fast as possible. After lacing them up, he bounced out of the door and into the kitchen. His mother and father sat at the table. They had eggs and salted ham, but in his place was a bowl of porridge.
    “Sit,” his father told him.
    Elwin sat in the redwood chair and stared at the porridge. His bad dream had distracted him from his current predicament. He had forgotten that he had been in trouble. Obviously, his parents had not.
    “Look at me son.”
    Elwin looked at his father. Stern eyes studied Elwin in much the same way they would have looked over a lame horse.
    “What you did yesterday was not excusable. I have a good mind to keep you from the festival today.”
    Elwin looked back into his porridge, and tears began to fill his vision again. Feffer. Why did he have to follow Feffer onto the roof?
    “We aren’t going to do that. But your mother and I have talked it over with Willem Madrowl, and we have decided that Feffer is going to come stay with us for a while. Starting tomorrow, you and Feffer are going to learn some discipline. Like I did when I was your age.”
    “So,” Elwin said, “I am going to get to go to the festival today?”
    Elwin’s father nodded. “And then Feffer will come home with us tonight. But just so you know, your mother and I are not happy with you.”
    Elwin picked up his wooden spoon and picked at his porridge. Blah. It didn’t even have any cinnamon or fruit. And none of it had even been his fault, not really. Well, maybe the ladder was.
    “Finish up so we can load your mother’s pastries and head into town for the festival.”
    Town! The White Hand! He had forgotten the festival and the caravan. That stupid dream. Elwin finished his porridge in a few bites and tried to swallow without tasting it.

    Wilton stood in the alley that separated his father’s warehouse and Jadron’s Furrier shop and watched the town square. This time of the morning the square was always void of inhabitants. But, soon there would be many maidens awaiting the tender touch of Wilton Madrowl. And he was not one to disappoint.
    Several guards came out of the inn’s front door. The soldiers were the real reason for him being outside at such an early hour. Soldiers had not visited in such numbers in his lifetime. Why were they here? He watched them from the cover of the buildings.
    Five of them walked away from the inn toward the square. Four wore chain shirts, covered by a red tunic. At the tunic’s center was the right hand of a palm, the symbol of the King of Justice’s personal guard. The fifth man was the largest man Wilton had ever seen. He was even larger than Faron. He wore a white tunic with a red hand at its center.
    His black-red hair wove into a warrior’s braid, and he had a short peppered beard. He wore full plate that had the white hand crested on its right shoulder. A sword as tall as Wilton hung on the man’s back. Narrower toward the hilt, the blade