Page 33 of Ties of Legacy

Elliot

Elliot stepped up to the stall, curious for a closer look at the stall holder more than her wares. He had traveled for years, but people didn’t recognize him the way this woman had recognized Avery. Did she have interactions like that everywhere she went? Being a roving merchant was obviously quite different from being a simple traveler.

The woman groaned, resettling herself on a stool behind her wares.

“I’m getting too old for this,” she grumbled, and Elliot looked up, catching the slight hint of a burr in her words that he associated with certain regions of Oakden.

“Have you come from across the river to the market?” he asked, curious.

“Aye.” The woman gave him a weary smile. “Quite a few of the stall holders do, but it’s a young person’s game, or should be. Sometimes I feel so weary the entire time I’m across the border I can barely lift my arms.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Elliot said politely, his eyes dropping to the sweets again as he caught a faint scent he hadn’t noticed before.

“Wait.” His eyes flew back to hers. “So these aren’t just sweets?”

She chuckled. “Bless you, no. We’re herbalists, not confectioners. We used to make sleeping potions in the same way all the other Oakdenian herbalists do, but then our son got sick, and the doctor had the worst time trying to get him to swallow the stuff! That’s how we came up with this idea.” She gestured proudly at the sweets. “We didn’t predict how much demand there would be. Doctors across Oakden and Sovar are clamoring for them, so it’s all we make now. I’m hoping Avery might want to take some stock with her and share them with doctors in the other kingdoms.” She smiled in a satisfied way.

Elliot’s eyebrows rose. “They look like sweets, though. Don’t people worry the children might get into them and eat a dangerous number?”

The stall holder laughed. “It’s a small dose, so we have to make it potent. Don’t worry, no one gets the chance to eat a second one.” She chuckled again.

Elliot glanced over to Avery to see if she was interested, but she had stepped away and clearly wasn’t listening. She had unwrapped the sweet to examine it, and as he watched, she raised it toward her face to smell it.

But instead of lifting it to her nose, she popped it in her mouth, her gaze distant and distracted.

“Avery!” he shouted, almost knocking someone over as he rushed toward her. “Don’t eat that!”

She looked up and met his eyes, clearly confused by his words and the panic on his face.

“Spit it out!” he ordered, but her eyes had already lost their focus, her limbs going weak.

He lunged forward, scooping her up just as she collapsed. He pulled her against his chest.

“Avery! Avery!” He shook her slightly, but she didn’t wake. Instead, she gave a soft sigh and snuggled against him, laying her cheek against his chest.

He froze, his heart beating painfully as he gazed down at her peaceful face. Several strands of her dark hair lay across her full lips, and he wanted to brush them aside, but both of his hands were already occupied holding her close.

He tried not to think about how it felt to hold her warm body against his chest. There were much more urgent issues to consider.

He strode back toward the stall holder who had leaped to her feet, a hand over her mouth and her eyes wide.

“What did she go and eat it for?” she cried.

“Are you sure she knew you were from Oakden?” Elliot asked. “Oakden is the only place that grows sleeping herbs, so if she thought you were Sovaran, she would have assumed they were ordinary sweets.”

“Oh dear!” The stall holder wrung her hands together. “I assumed she recognized me! Her parents used to buy my sleeping potions, and she even stayed at my house as a child.”

Elliot sighed. He might not know as many people as Avery, but he had experienced meeting adults who knew him from childhood but who he didn’t remember at all. Avery must have been too polite to let on that she didn’t know the woman.

“Silly girl,” he murmured, gazing down at her. “Oakden is only across the river. You should have been more cautious of anything you found in this market.”

He should have felt triumphant to have the tables turned after all the times he’d embarrassed himself around her so far, but he only felt concern.

“How long will it last?” he asked the woman.

She winced. “The sweet will have dissolved in her mouth by now, so she’ll have had the full dose. Of course it’s intended for children not adults, so I’d guess only a couple of hours.”

Elliot frowned, but at least it was only a sleeping potion. She might be as good as unconscious, but the experience wouldn’t harm her. At least not as long as he got her somewhere safe and comfortable to sleep it off. If he hadn’t been there to catch her, she could have hit her head when she fell.

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