The Villain's Hero
I stood in the shadow of a wagon and watched them, my heart aching with my love for them.
“It’s a rare mushroom,” Aien held it out in the palm of his hand, startling me out of my reverie and tangled thoughts. He had approached from behind, so I had not seen him, and did not look at me as he spoke, but at the dark mottled fungus that he offered me. Tarragon would have told him to stay away from me, I knew, and he was breaking her order in approaching me.
“It has magical healing properties,” he continued. “Perditha has no magic and has no knowledge of it. I saw it on Daerton’s shelves and thought that you might…”