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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 72: Beam 152
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Hastings 250
Warren met them at the cave, and escorted them inside.
“Any problems?” he asked.
“Well, we didn’t kill any guards, but one of them certainly saw Dawn, and all of them saw Ashleigh, so they’ll know we were involved in this. But I think that’s better than that they think the outlaws had a hand in it, or that you were directly involved.”
Warren nodded his agreement. “Come eat,” he said, “and get some sleep. Amanda and I will be going to bed soon, and will be traveling as peasants well before dawn.”
“We might wait for daybreak,” Beam said, “and take advantage of the cave to get some breakfast. So far I’m not sure where we’re going--we have a level of notoriety at this point that probably makes us persona non grata pretty much anywhere, and we’re certainly recognizable. Don’t tell us where you’re going; it’s probably safer if we don’t know.”
“That reminds me,” Warren said as he pulled Beam’s gemstone from his pocket. “I should return this to you.”
Beam resisted the urge to take it, and instead said, “Keep it. I took a much more precious gem from you. If necessary, use it to pay for your travel or your new home. I don’t need it; it’s yours.”
“Most kind of you.”
Internally Beam cringed at the notion that he was being kind, but Warren was, after all, family, and even if he became family in a rather violent way, he was still family. Besides, Amanda knew nothing of any of that, and was really only just learning that the man she married was one of the most wanted men in the territory, and the man her daughter married the most wanted in the world.
It wasn’t always so pleasant to be wanted, he mused, whatever the songs said.
“So, what’s for dinner? Let me guess: is it rice?”
“How did you know?” Warren kidded back.
“Oh, just a crazy suspicion. You guys need to explore growing wheat. You could make bread and pasta and cakes and pastries and all kinds of things from wheat. But I guess it’s almost as boring as rice, ultimately. Got any eggs?”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #472: Versers Vanish. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
