Page 1 of Ties of Legacy

Chapter 1

Avery

Avery walked up the incline, dust puffing out with each step. The summer heat had made a reappearance, clinging desperately to the end of the season, and her trusty mare had already been pulling Avery’s cart since early morning. Nutmeg didn’t need the extra weight of Avery herself, even if the hill was barely steep enough to warrant the name.

On any other day, she would have already stopped for the evening. But she was too close to Henton not to push on. The village might have been modest in size, but it was still going to afford her a better bed than a makeshift camp by the side of the road.

They crested the small rise and paused, horse and girl’s motions in sync after so many years of shared travels. As Nutmeg rested, Avery gazed at the village before her in satisfaction. She had wanted to rush straight to Henton six months earlier, but there would have been no point arriving before her allotted time. Instead, she had busied herself in Stonyfell and Oakden while she waited. But now, after traversing three kingdoms, she had finally reached her main destination.

Her eyes caught on a steady stream of thick smoke rising from the largest chimney on the main street, and she smiled. It wasn’t actually Henton she was seeking, but Henton’s smith.

Avery clicked her tongue, and Nutmeg resumed her forward progress, the cart lurching behind her. It already carried a nearly full load, but that didn’t matter. The item Avery had come to Henton to acquire wasn’t going to take up much space.

They reached the flat ground at the bottom of the small hill, the first buildings of the town just ahead of them. Nutmeg stopped again, and Avery patted her neck, crooning softly to her.

“Are you tired, girl? You can have oats tonight after all your hard work.”

“Oh!” A startled exclamation from the crest of the rise made Avery look back. A pretty, golden-haired girl stared down at her with wide eyes.

The girl hurried forward, her face bright, and Avery smiled in response. She looked around Avery’s own age of nineteen—or perhaps a couple years younger—but any similarities between them ended there. Avery’s hair was dark and her eyes gray, but the true differences ran much deeper than physical appearance.

Avery had met many girls her own age in her travels, but none of them had understood what it meant to live a roving life, always moving on to new places and new horizons. Just as Avery couldn’t fathom what it meant to have a true home—a life forever rooted in one place with no opportunity for escape.

“You’re a peddler!” the girl exclaimed breathlessly as she stumbled to a stop beside Avery’s cart. “Aren’t you?” She gasped. “Are you Avery? I’ve heard about you!”

Avery laughed at the girl’s infectious enthusiasm. “I prefer roving merchant.”

“But you are Avery?” the girl asked, undaunted.

Avery nodded. She was used to people knowing her name. There were few true traveling merchants among the kingdoms.Most merchant trains stopped at their own kingdom’s border, exchanging goods there with matching merchant trains from the neighboring kingdom. And of the few roving merchants who did travel across borders, Avery was the only one who traveled alone. Of course, she hadn’t always been alone, but two years of solo travel as a young woman had been enough to ensure her reputation preceded her. Especially since she had a knack for acquiring items that were unusual, useful, valuable, or all three.

“I’m Olivia,” the girl said, still breathless from her dash down the hill. “I heard a rumor you’d be visiting here soon, but I wasn’t sure it was true. Nothing interesting ever happens in Henton.”

Avery grinned at the girl’s dissatisfied tone. Maybe she and Olivia were more alike than she’d initially thought.

A youthful shout interrupted their fledgling conversation. Both girls turned back toward the hill to see a younger boy of about ten with similar coloring and features to Olivia. He stared down at them from the top of the hill, his hands resting on an enormous pumpkin which stood almost as tall as he did.

“Olivia!” he shouted again. “Who’s that? Is it a peddler?” He was panting as if he had just rolled the pumpkin up the far side of the hill, but even so, he seemed more excited at the sight of Avery than Olivia had been.

“Careful, Laurie!” Olivia shouted with more alarm than seemed warranted.

Her brother took no notice of her warning, however. Abandoning his awkward burden, he took off running toward them. Immediately two things happened.

Laurie, showing more speed than coordination, tripped over his feet and fell. Carried by his momentum, he tumbled down the hill without pause. At the same time, the pumpkin shifted, unbalanced at the top of the incline without Laurie to hold it. It tipped forward and rolled after the boy, gathering speed.

Avery and Olivia threw themselves into motion simultaneously. As Laurie finally reached flat ground and tumbled to a stop, Olivia leaped toward him. He groaned, stirring feebly and showing no awareness of the danger rolling toward him, so she threw herself protectively over him, bracing her back against the coming boulder-like threat.

Avery, however, had launched herself uphill toward the pumpkin, her mind working as fast as her feet. If she threw herself in front of it, she was going to be the one to be flattened. But she didn’t need to stop it completely, just avert its course from Olivia and her brother.

Without time to think of a more sophisticated plan, Avery threw herself sideways at the pumpkin, her shoulder colliding with it as it rolled past. The pumpkin felt solid—more solid than a vegetable had any right to feel as far as Avery was concerned. Why couldn’t it have been a giant lettuce?

The force of the collision sent Avery ricocheting to the ground. She landed hard, curling instinctively into a protective position that prevented any serious injury.

The pumpkin wobbled precariously, veering sideways and tipping onto its stalk. It bumped and bounced, sliding across the ground for a few more yards before coming to a stop not far from the closest fence.

Silence fell as Avery, Olivia, and Laurie all slowly raised their heads. Laurie stared at the pumpkin, his eyes widening.

“Boy, am I lucky!” he exclaimed. “If the pumpkin had hit the fence, Farmer Hawthorne would have killed me!”

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