Avondale Read Free Page B

city was in many ways a circular maze and most residents only knew a small section of the city well.
    On the main thoroughfare, the street was wide and paved with flagstones. The homes were large, with grand views of the forest, fields, and lake in the center of the crater. The shops were set against the city’s massive wall and were decorated with brightly colored banners and signs.
    On the lower levels, the streets were narrow. The homes and shops were simple structures and everything was either dull wood or red stone. There were taverns and brothels on the lowest levels that catered to the farmers and hunters who rarely came up into the city proper. In some of the dark tunnels and natural caverns along the edges of the city, outlaws hid from the Paladins who searched for them. It was not a safe place, but Tiberius was drawn to the darker side of Avondale and in his wanderings he had met Lexi, who had become his friend and guide.
    They walked quickly, weaving up and down among the winding streets of the lower levels before finally going into a natural cavern that was roughly the size of half a dozen shops on the upper level of the city. The cavern was filled with stalls, and goods were being sold in the semi-darkness of the cavern. Lanterns gave a dim, grungy light to the space, which only made it more mysterious to Tiberius.
    “What is this?” he asked.
    “It’s a market, silly,” she said. “Only you won’t find regular goods here.”
    “So why am I here?” he asked, feeling self-conscious.
    “Because I found something I know you’ll be interested in,” she insisted.
    She took his hand and led him down through the center aisle, past the shady looking patrons and between the tightly packed booths of strange items. Lexi saw the look of surprise on Ti’s face when they passed a stand selling human bones and jars of organs. They also saw a booth with covert weapons, boot knives, straps with spring-loaded shivs that were worn under a person’s sleeves, and gloves with metal spikes on the knuckles.
    “There it is,” Lexi said pointing.
    Ti smiled at her and she led him to a table with ancient books. Most were leather bound, but the covers were rotting or damaged. The old man selling the books looked as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. His smile revealed several missing teeth.
    “My lord,” he said, bowing his head.
    “He doesn’t know you,” Lexi whispered to Ti, who had tensed at the title. “He says that everyone who stops here. He called me a lady.”
    Tiberius laughed, but it wasn’t cruel. Lexi knew that the Earl’s third son didn’t like titles or the rules of society that kept Lexi down, and elevated him without cause or achievement.
    “You did well,” he told her.
    His smile was more than genuine—it was warm and appreciative. It made Lexi feel happy, even though she secretly scolded herself for letting Ti’s praise get to her. She had struggled to get by once her parents died. Women in her position had only one real choice in life, and that was to find work in a brothel. She could sell her body for a few years and if she saved the pennies she got from the pimps working the taverns or seedy bordellos, she might have enough to open her own place once she was too old to attract customers anymore, that’s if she lived long enough. Lexi had decided early on that she would rather die than wench her way through a grim existence, so she had taught herself other skills. She had learned to find out what people needed and then found a way to get it for them, for a fee of course. Tiberius had offered to help her before, to try and get her an apprenticeship or a place serving in a wealthy house, but Lexi refused. She knew her lifestyle was dangerous, but she enjoyed the freedom it gave her too much to try to fit into an acceptable roll in society.
    Ti was looking at each of the books, his hands feverishly opening each book cover to read the hand-copied title, before closing it just as quickly. Lexi