Scarlet From Gold (Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

carved into the wooden stable door.  The cook at the inn gave them each a loaf of bread.  “The inn hosts many pilgrims who pay for their lodging and meals, especially the wealthy ones,” Dex explained to Marco as they settled in for sleep.  “And so they take care to aid the less well-off as well.”
    That night Marco dreamed that he awoke in the stables, in time to see a bull enter the space where only horses and mules resided.
    “My name is Asterion, and someday you’ll remember me,” the bull told him.  “We will need to meet again, so that I can thank you for what you’ve given me – my new form, my new life, my new wife.  Where shall we meet?” he asked.
    “I’m going to Barcelon,” Marco told the bull faintly, “to see the Lady Folence there.”
    “We’ll wait for you in Athens,” Asterion said.  Then the bull rose up on his two hind legs and walked out of the stables in an upright mode.
    In the morning they left the inn at the same time as a group of paying guests, two nuns and a man.  They turned out to be related – a mother and her two children.
    “How does a nun have children?” Pivot blurted out the question that was on Marco’s mind.
    “I entered the order after my husband died and my children were grown,” Mary, the mother explained.  “And my daughter,” she motioned towards Sophia, a pretty woman, “decided to take her vows as well.
    “We decided this was the year we’d finally make a pilgrimage, and my son,” she next pointed to Saul, who looked like a prosperous businessman as he tipped his hat to them, “decided to travel with us.”
    “My soul needs all the help it can get,” he said with a laugh, “so I decided that two sisters and a pilgrimage might keep me out of the underworld for another year or two!”
    Everyone laughed, though something struck Marco wrong about the joke.  “Doesn’t everyone go to the underworld?” he asked.
    “The boy’s actually right,” Mary said, as his daughter nodded.  “The theologians tell us that all souls do go to the underworld for a length of time, and then some pass on to a better place, while others go to a worse place.”
    “And some remain there forever,” Sophia added.
    “I thought we all went straight to heaven,” Dex said.  “How did you know that?  You don’t even know who your wife is,” he asked Marco.
    “I don’t know,” Marco stuttered.  The statement had just slipped out without his expecting to say anything.
    “Where are you from?” Saul asked.
    “I don’t know,” Marco answered again.
    Saul took pity on Marco, seeing his face grow red as the boy blushed in embarrassment.
    “There are times when I can’t tell anyone where I’m from either,” he said, then paused dramatically, “usually after I’ve been in a tavern for an hour or two!” he made Dex and Pivot laugh, as the two women groaned.
    “Oh no, here it comes,” one of them muttered.
    “Of course, having two family members as nuns is a great advantage in a tavern,” Saul smoothly proceeded to ignore the comment.  “I get more free drinks than you’d think possible.”
    “How could that be?” Dex fell into the trap.
    “Well, I tell everyone that my mother is my sister’s sister, and I bet them that it’s true.  Then I point to these two sisters, and I win the bet every time!” Saul laughed at his own joke, in such a good-natured and infectious way that the rest of the group laughed with him.
    Saul proved to be a charming companion.  Dex commented to Marco as they walked along, “It’s easy to see why he’s successful in business.  How could anyone say ‘no’ to the man?!”
    That evening they stayed at a church in a small village, along with an additional pair of travelers, a newly married couple from Lacarona.  “We’ve lived this close to the pilgrim’s route our whole lives, but we’ve never gone to Compostela, so we decided to travel there for our honeymoon,” Lars, the groom explained.
    The eight