TWO HEADS TWO SPIKES (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga) Read Free Page B

cold-blooded barbarians. Let us not forget what we come from, boys.” His deep voice bellowed over the chattering crowds.
    Jon Colbert always seemed to remain serene even when he raised his voice. They continued to stroll away from the castle.
    Jon Colbert led the way and stood closest to the ground. He was compact, stout and powerful. Jon had closely cut blond hair and a long golden goatee. His bright green eyes lit up in the Mattingly sunshine. An ill-placed lance during a tourney about fourteen years ago had left him with a mangled nose and random headaches.
    It had the makings of an exquisite day in Riverfront, the Capitol of Mattingly. The frost had finally tiptoed away for another year and the early harvest danced in the wind. The aroma of lavender wafted through the air, occasionally stopping to tickle the nose. There was a bustle in the city with large crowds traveling in to buy necessities for their homes. The Colbert men continued down the crowded street away from the city.
    Along the path there were different shops that sold everything from live, local animals to exotic silks from Gama Traka. Jon noticed a tiny piglet in a pen. The babe suckled on its mother’s milk, fresh as early-dawn dew. Across the road, buyers haggled with merchants to negotiate better prices for whatever their eyes fancied. Everyone bowed deeply to Duke Colbert and the boys with great respect as they passed.
    “Where is Riceros?” Jon Colbert asked.
    His son, Ryno, scratched his ear and said, “Last I saw, he was in the library with Count Sproul.”
    “Will you ever reveal the truth to Riceros, father?” Krys challenged Jon.
    “Someday, aye. I am just unsure of when the right time will be. You should worry more about your bride to be than your younger brother,” Jon slyly reminded him.
    Krys had a gawky smile but didn’t have a ready response. He was a fierce combatant, but rather clumsy with women. Krys was lanky and extremely nervous about his upcoming wedding in the winter. His father knew mentioning it would draw his thoughts far away from the topic Jon despised discussing.
    The Colbert men got distracted as they converged on the forging yard. This big area contained fifty raging furnaces lined up in a giant square. The sweet songs of metal hammers pounding glowing steel sounded melodic to their ears. These noises were offset by the constant smoldering of all the furnaces. The sounds got thunderous as they entered the yard. Jon looked back to see big grins on the faces of his progeny. They all had the brown hair and eyes of their mother, along with the determination of their father.
    The forging yard was slightly on the outskirts of the city. Constantly covering the furnaces loomed a large slanted roof that hovered twenty feet above their heads. The enormous wooden structure appeared black from all the smoke it had swallowed over the years. But it did serve to keep out most of the rain, except for the precipitation that came in sideways. Seven Colbert flags proudly hung around the structure at regular intervals. The solid black flag with a golden bull represented the Colbert family that ruled Mattingly.
    A townsman walked up, pointed at a furnace, and asked a forger, “Tis thee?”
    The craftsman smiled showing several missing teeth, and cheerfully said, “Tis our Little Dragon.” The townsman stood in reverence for a moment until the worker said, “They are for forging our blades, good man.”
    The boys could clearly see the furnaces now. They were stone-based burning furnaces with ornate black metal caps. The tops were shaped like a dragon’s head gazing up to the sky with gold painted eyes. Smoke shot out of the opened nose, up to the roof, and filtered into the Riverfront sky. Someone had etched “LITTLE DRAGON” on the base of the furnaces. The metals were melded together in the hot fire for three straight days before crafting the steel. These men were the top blade makers in all of Mattingly. They were the highest