Fighting the urge to rip off his hot armring, Hanrey Bartle watched the wizard rush out the front door of the common room. The taverner held his stinging forearm. His arm hair had damn near smoked when the wizard trickled magic into his palm. But, this fellow was no ordinary wizard, oh no, Hanrey was sure he was one of those winged bastards.
Though the constant warmth annoyed him when the dragonriders came in, he liked to know when the dragon-touched were about.
He growled.
The dragonriders got him going. Despite having their own drinking hole and willing castle whores, they loved messing with the town girls. They swaggered into his tavern, intent on being fortified with grog before foraging for romance. He could not turn them away.
A clatter near his elbow announced Katie on her way to the kitchen with dirty dishes.
Hanrey took the tray from her. "Lass, have you seen Taniel?" he asked.
Katie's eyes darted away as she shook her head. Before he could call her out on a lie, she scooted away and snatched up an empty tankard.
Hanrey sighed.
First, he finds a Cladling wizard nosing about, and now his only child was off somewhere instead of attending to her work. He stomped to the kitchen. The beds would not make themselves. He would do the damned things himself but his back still hurt from stripping them earlier. The laundry maid had refused to go upstairs, insisting her job was to wash sheets, not collect them.
His arm tingled.
Dropping the dishes on the sink, he rushed to the common room.
His glare vanished when he saw that the only decent man to ever grace the dragonrider ranks had come in. Hanrey still had trouble believing that he had agreed to let Peter betroth his daughter. He hoped they wed soon.
The wizard's visit left unease in his gut. He only wanted freedom from the tavern, not the town, he thought, as he joined Peter behind the bar.
"Do you know where Taniel is?" he asked.
"On Dragonhold Day, where do you think?" Peter said. "I left her there." He poured himself a beer. "I told you, Hanrey, she will have none of me. Not since I bought into this place."
Hanrey's big fingers fumbled his apron ties. "We will soon see about that," he said.
***
20 May 2021: Final update, synchronising Wattpad, Book Funnel and Kindle versions.
1 March 2017 - updated with Kindle version 8 March - add another line to Hanrey's question to Peter.
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Taniel (The Taverner's Daughter I)
FantasyTHE TAVERNER'S DAUGHTER - BOOK ONE FANTASY, MAGIC, DRAGONS, ROMANCE, WINGED WIZARDS. Please Note: The rest of this series will not be published until the complete series is drafted and revised - probably another four volumes over the next year...
