The Dark Thorn (66 page)

Merle exhaled a white puff into the fall air.

“Perhaps.”

Richard watched Merle stroll across the busy street, his pipe emitting quaint puffs of smoke upon the salty breeze. Soon the city swallowed him too, lost to the busy ruckus of rush hour.

The sweet odor of the wizard’s leaf, however, lingered.

Richard waited a few minutes, breathing in cold air, and let the end of the day wash over him with its finality.

If he were to be lonely now, it would be on his terms.

Ignoring the growing darkness, feeling the Dark Thorn and its reassurance at being only a call away, he turned from Puget Sound, a man with more peace than he had experienced in years, and made his way back into Pioneer Square.

Back toward Old World Tales.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 
S
HAWAWN
S
PEAKMAN
grew up in the beautiful wilds of Washington State near a volcano and surrounded by old-growth forests filled with magic. After moving to Seattle to attend the University of Washington, he befriended
New York Times
best-selling fantasy author Terry Brooks and became his webmaster, leading to an enchanted life surrounded by words.
He was a manager at one of the largest Barnes & Noble Booksellers in the country for many years and now owns the online bookstore The Signed Page, manages the websites for several authors, and is a freelance writer for Random House.
He also contributed the annotations for
The Annotated Sword of Shannara
by Terry Brooks, published in 2012.
Shawn is a cancer survivor, knows angel fire east, and lives in Seattle, Washington.

www.shawncspeakman.com