Bloodstone - Power of Youth (Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

realized that her hands had blistered and were raw from the unaccustomed work. Pol came out and looked at Sallia’s hands.
    “Sit on the porch. I’ll draw the last of the water. Bodkin needs to throw some of his amazing water balls up on the roof and the outside walls. We’ll be done in no time.” She looked at her husband, who now lay, propped up on his elbows. “And don’t you move, innkeeper!” Pol threw him a kiss as she took her buckets around the corner of the inn.
    ~
    Unca couldn’t see any flames or embers on the outside. The flames, luckily, had never made it to the roof. If they had, the inn would be lost. He walked back in. Holes on either side of the main fireplace still smoked. The inn was filled with the acrid stench of a quenched campfire. He sat next to Ness, who had a rag around his head while Pol applied salve to Sallia’s raw hands.
    He had never seen the princess in physical pain before and admired the way she had taken it. As for him, the eye change and all of the water globules thoroughly expended what power he had within.
    “Good work, Sally,” he said. “I’ve never saved an inn before. I hope we’ll get a discount if we stay the night.”
    Ness smiled and nodded. “Ask and it’s yours, Bodkin. Pol and I’d be charred up like the inn if you hadn’t come along. Those damned soldiers thought the princess would be driving up in a carriage to our little inn. How ridiculous is that?” He squinted and looked at Sally’s clothes. “Those are finely wrought things your niece is wearing.”
    “Rags picked up in Foxhome, where the king and his court cast off clothing all of the time. I assume that’s correct, Sally?”
    She nodded as Pol began to wrap up her hands. “My father, Uncle’s sister’s son, died a few weeks ago. He sold kitchen implements and weapons. I never had to work with him, so I could take my pick at the market.” With all of the day’s work, her garments now looked well-worn.
    “Bodkin never told us of any kin.”
    Unca smiled at Sallia’s inventiveness and piped up. “I’m sort of the black sheep of the family. They don’t deal with me and I don’t deal with them. Sally, here, is a special case. Her mother died giving her life and I’ve always had my eye on her. She sold the shop, but thieves took her money and I had to rescue her from their grasp. I’m taking her to my little cave in the hills out west to rest up before she decides what to do.”
    Pol glanced at Ness and then put her hand on Sallia’s shoulder,  “You can work here. We’re fair employers and you’d never have to worry about a roof over your head or a warm meal.”
    Sallia colored. “I’m, uh. I mean…” She looked at Unca with pleading eyes.
    “Nothing to worry about, Pol. I promised Sally I’d show her the Red Kingdom like she’d never seen before and we’ll get that in while we travel.”
    “You’ll never need to pay for a room here again, you two. No matter what happens,” Ness nodded his head and continued, “I’ll not turn you out. Now I do believe the kitchen was untouched and I’m hungry. What about you two?”
    “I faint from hunger,” Unca said, smiling. His stomach now growled and he needed the nourishment. The sun was about to set and they only had water to drink all day. He didn’t want the innkeeper to know how truly hungry he was.
    Pol went to the other unburned side of the inn and brought out a tray of bread and cheese while Ness pulled some ale and brought out four frothy mugs. Unca took some cheese and washed it down with ale. It tasted better than the fare at any royal banquet. He thought that the way Sallia attacked her food, she probably had the same impression.
    “Ness?” A couple of farmers poked their heads through the open front doors. “Had a fire?”
    “If it wasn’t for Bodkin and his niece, you’d be talking to a pile of cinders. Duke Histron’s men were searching for the princess and didn’t like our answers. Knocked us both out