In a Paper Thin Kingdom

Chapter 1

Without a doubt in his mind, he knew they had come after him. He hugged his leather satchel closer to his side, urging it and its contents to stay dry. However, it was in vain. Even through his cloak, the rain fell from the sky in heavy sheets, his sight blinded through the downpour. The soles of his boots struggled for purchase on the slick mountain trails, and the trees above offered no solace. A gust of freezing wind strong enough to rip the skin from a corpse threatened to blow his cloak straight from his shoulders, but he clamped a hand on his hood to hold it steady.

Using his fear to move him forward, he stumbled away from the crumbling stone tower, the lightening catching it at odd angles in the darkness, casting shadows along the path. Holding up in there would be pointless. It’d just make it easier for them to catch me.

Every bone in his body throbbed, his lungs aching with every frigid breath he heaved. Swallowing against the pain of his heart beating against his ribs, and the numbness in his soaking wet toes, he darted off the path and into the slight cover of the trees.

However, he couldn’t stop from muttering curses under his breath. They must have seen him sneak out. The soldiers had to have known she was sending people out to the tower. It was her only hope; their only hope. His mother had been so scared, so certain to hide the information from him as to not worry him as well. But he’d seen it on her face.

Even though he was terrified, even though it had taken him a month to reach the tower, he would bring the satchel back to her.

If he could get back home alive.

Chapter 1

 James Kanon plopped his muddy, scuffed boots onto the table with a groan, his hands massaging the tops of his thighs a bits of dirty water dripped from the leather onto the table. The old wooden slab gave a groan, and the chair squeaked when James tilted it back onto its two hind legs. He sighed ponderingly as his brown eyes scanned the main floor of the tavern.

“Sir, could ye put yer feet down before the innkeeper sees ye? He might kick ye out!”

James cocked his head towards the tavern girl, his dark eyes gleaming as he sold her a cocky half grin. “Now, Lily, you wouldn‘t let him do that, would ya? Give him that beautiful smile of yours, and I‘m sure he‘ll forget all about me.”

Lily, all five feet of her, let out a small giggle, her face flushing a bright red to the starts of her shiny black hair. “Oh, sir, yeh‘re just trying to flatter me!”

James took her small hand and kissed it on the knuckles. His voice dropped to a rumble in his chest, and he fixed her with a sly grin. “I‘m not one to give praise without meaning it.” Lily stammered for something to say, unable to meet James’s eye until the innkeeper called her back to the bar. James watched as she turned and sauntered away, eyes glued to her rear with a delighted smile on his handsome face. “Well, I don‘t know about you two, but I have plan for this evening.”

“James Kanon! There is more to life than drinking and women,” a jarring voice complained.

James huffed, sliding his feet heavily to the floor as he leaned forward onto the table. Ignoring the tiny mountain pixie perched on the tip of her chair across from him, he turned to the man to her right, drawling, “Do you think that you can get the brat to shut up?”

Without taking his gaze from the dark mug in his hand, James’s friend shook his head. “She’s got a point…”

James snorted rudely. “Yeah right. Who‘s side‘re you on?”

The tiny, magical girl’s cheeks flared from a creamy brown to dark red. Standing up in her chair to lean over the table, she put her tiny face nose to nose with James. “Neither of us want to sleep on the road again! Let‘s try to behave so we don‘t get kicked out of another tavern.”