Ruby Road
Book 3 of the Crossroads Chronicles
Chapter 1
Once upon a time, right around the corner, as us Walkers say, lies an adventure. Or maybe a love story for the ages. I guess it depends on how much of a romantic you are, or how naïve you are. The universe has multiple layers, multiple Worlds, and more excitement—and boredom—than any sentient being can imagine.
The lights started blinking—red and white. I was in the back of the shop, laying out a silver necklace for soldering. The lights meant someone had come into the showroom.
I walked into the front of my space in the Great Marketplace and found a tall man studying one of the swords hanging in a display case on the wall. He looked a little bit familiar.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
Turning toward me, he said, “Hello, Diana.”
It had been thirteen years, but my heart skipped a beat.
“Hello, Lannon.” My brain was bursting with things I wanted to say—many of them contradictory—things I had thought I might say if I ever saw him again. So, I said nothing.
He wandered over to the jewelry cases that separated me from the customers’ space, and looked down at the pieces I had created.
“Nice work. Very nice.” His gaze traveled up to my face. “And you’re as beautiful as ever.”
His silver tongue hadn’t lost any of its power and charm, and a slight shiver traveled up my back. He was just as gorgeous as when I last saw him. Tall, broad-shouldered, with bronze-colored hair spilling over his collar. With his honey-amber eyes over high, sharp cheekbones, he could have worked as a model or an actor in a dozen of different Worlds.
“What do you want?” My voice came out harsher than I intended.
He pulled a leather bag out of an inside pocket of his cloak, opened the drawstrings, and turned it upside down over a display tray on the counter. A flood of rubies—smooth but uncut—poured out. Dark red—the color known in the trade as pigeon’s blood.
Involuntarily, I put my hand out and felt their affinity for magic without even touching them. Someone unfamiliar with gemstones—or with magic—could have mistaken them for garnets, especially because of their size. The smallest of the stones was the size of my thumbnail, and one was as large as any ruby I’d ever seen.
His sardonic grin let me know I had reacted the way he’d expected.
“There are a lot more where those came from,” he said. “Hell, maybe a whole mountain of them.”
I shook my head. “And what? If you’re looking for a buyer, I can direct you to a couple of merchants here at Crossroads. If you want them cut, I’d suggest a friend of mine in Earth.”
“I need you. Like I said, there’s probably a whole mountain full of them. But I can’t find the vein myself. Come with me, and we’ll split the take.”
A light dawned. Like me, Lannon was a Walker—someone who could step between Worlds as easily as most people crossed a street. What I had—and what he wanted—was a talent for earth magic, and an ability to feel differences in the ground. Gold felt different than silver, which felt different than iron. Rubies felt different than diamonds or granite.
Lannon and I met when we both worked for a mining company. I fell in love, and I thought he loved me, too. After a couple of years, we struck out on our own, selling our expertise and magic. It was an eclectic consultancy. I designed a magically fueled iron smelter in one World and trained a king’s guard force in another. We also did some prospecting, finding and selling the locations of large tin, copper, and silver deposits to large mining companies in various Worlds.
Now, he had found rubies, and one look at them told me they were from an alluvial deposit—pieces had been washed downstream from the main body, tumbled smooth by water and sand. Yes, there would be a vein upstream from where the stones originated, but how far upstream, and in what kind of terrain, would determine how easy it would be to mine the gemstones.
Of course, alluvial deposits had made many people rich beyond their wildest dreams, but all Lannon could do was dig and hope. With me, he would know where to dig, how deep, and where the largest stones would be.
Our partnership had lasted eight years, until I realized my life’s dream and acquired the stall in the Great Marketplace at the Crossroads of the Worlds. Instead of being happy for me, or trying to reach an accommodation in our relationship, he left. Completely ghosted me.
“I can’t just walk out of here,” I said. “I have a business to run.”
“You can make more gold in two or three months with me than you’ll make in a lifetime as a shopkeeper.”
The disdain in his voice when he said the word ‘shopkeeper’ hadn’t changed. Lannon Prescantior, Duc of Searraish Sargid, the scion—older son—of House Prescantior in the World of Devoda, was shocked speechless the one time I took him to visit my parents. That my mother, daughter of the High Lord of Clan Schlekek in Galondril, would live with a common blacksmith in a one-story wooden house and no servants was unfathomable to him. Doing her own dishes, her own cooking, milking the goats, actually raising her children instead of farming them off on a nanny were foreign to the way he was raised.
“Where is this mother lode?” I asked.
“NK413XC.”
That got my attention. “Name?”
He shook his head.
To my knowledge, no one knew how many Worlds existed. The Mage Guild built and maintained the Roads between many of them. There were seventeen Great Roads and dozens of side Roads. All of the Worlds they ran through had names. Those were all the explored Worlds, but others were known as Wild Worlds and only designated by coordinates. Often, they were unpopulated by sapients, and even more often, not very appealing.
“Sapients?” I asked.
Again, he shook his head. “It’s not particularly dangerous, though. Breathable atmosphere, comfortable temperature, weather not too wild. Some nasty animals, but they can be avoided. No nearby Roads.”
“How far?”
“A dozen or so Worlds. If we don’t tarry, the trip can be made in twenty-two days.”
“And the intervening Worlds?”
“None are terrible.”
“Give me the list, and let me show some of these little beauties to a friend of mine.”
“Okay. Take the whole bag. Dinner tonight?”
I hesitated. “Where are you staying?”
“I haven’t looked for a place yet. Any recommendations?”
I took a deep breath. Lannon had never been good with money. While I squirreled away every spare copper for my dream of owning a stall in the Great Marketplace, he was more likely to spend his last half-copper on a fancy meal, even if it meant he went hungry the following day.
“How broke are you?”
He gestured to the rubies. “I can probably sell one of those pretty easily.”
I scooped them back into the bag, closed it, and tucked it into my pocket.
“Let me get them appraised by someone I trust, and I’ll cover you until then.”
His smile was both triumphant and lascivious. The sparkle in his eyes, the sinking feeling in my gut, and the heat in my cheeks told me I was being a fool. The fact that I didn’t care should have been the largest red flag of all.
“You can store your kit in the backroom,” I said, opening the gate and letting him pass the showroom.
He followed me into the back of the shop and dropped his backpack and saddlebags where I indicated.
“Shower through there.” I pointed. “Dinner in Earth. Seafood okay?”
“Sounds great.”
I watched him pull some clothes from his pack, and then he headed back to the tiny bathroom. While he washed, I took another look at the rubies, picking up a handful and letting them slip through my fingers back into the bag. As far as I could tell, the quality was extraordinary, the feel of them electric as they touched my magic.
~~~
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