by Jan Stryvant
"Looks like your hubby has taken root." Aunt Sarah smiled, looking over at Sean.
"I think we've walked him around enough today." Daelyn laughed. "And honestly, who would ye want to hang out with at your own wedding, more than a band of dwarves?"
Sean relaxed with Samis, Sarah, the rest of Daelyn's relatives, and the other dwarves, his wives and Roberta's daughter sitting there as well. It was nice to take a load off, and Roxy's parents, his mother, Maitland, and even Ruthelma and her boyfriend had joined them. The guests they hadn't had a chance to meet were coming by and paying their respects.
The girls were eating it up, of course, loving all the attention they were getting. Sean was just happy to be among family and friends. This was the biggest family gathering he'd ever been to in his life, and he had to admit, it was something he had sorely missed. The wedding was definitely a good idea, and he'd be sure to let them all know when they finally hauled him off to bed.
"Is that Sawyer going to work on Steve's dad over there?" Jolene asked, coming over and sitting down beside him.
Sean looked up, and sure enough, Sawyer was putting the moves on Steve's dad, from the looks of things.
"Oh, man, I need to put a stop to this before something bad happens," Sean said with a heavy sigh. Looking around, he noticed one of the other goblins was hanging around, probably eavesdropping on a couple of dwarves to see what he could learn.
Sean got his attention and crooked a finger.
"What? I wasn't doin' nuthin' wrong!"
"Please tell Sawyer that I need to speak with him immediately," Sean said, sending him off.
A moment later Sawyer came over.
"What is it, Kid?"
"What do you think you're doing with Steve's father over there?"
"Oh, come on, Kid! It ain't nothing bad, just a little bit of horse trading is all."
"Yeah, well, don't."
"Kid! You wound me! I wouldn't hurt any of your friends!"
"It's not him I'm worried about. It's you."
Sawyer blinked. "Say what?"
"Who do you think taught Steve everything he knows about swindling people? Sawyer, that one is way out of your league, prince or no. Last thing I want is to come to your place and see the name 'Bryson's Antiquities' on the front door!"
"Wait, him? That old guy?" Sawyer said and looked back at Steve's dad, who smiled happily and waved at them.
Sean waved back. "How much has he taken you for so far?"
"Why do you think he's taken me for anything?"
Jolene looked over at Sawyer. "You know they left to sail around the world in a sailboat, right?"
"Yeah, he was telling me all about that, and a line he's got on some really good jewelry in South America."
"Ask one of your 'sources' what kind of boat he ended up with."
"Are we talking about the same guy?" Sawyer asked, looking back at Steve's dad, who just smiled.
"It's got a crew of twelve on it," Jolene said. "I think it was on the cover of Forbes once? Steve says his father just can't help himself; whenever he sees a rube, he just has to strike."
"Whoa..." Sawyer said and then shook his head. "Thanks for the warning, Kid. You too, Jo." Sawyer turned to look at Roxy. "I'm shocked, Roxy."
"Shocked?" Roxy said.
"You didn't even think to warn your old pal Sawyer here, I thought we'd buried the hatchet and all that."
Roxy sighed and shook her head as Sawyer turned and walked away. Once he was out of earshot, she turned to look at Sean and Jolene, who were both grinning.
"Is any of that true?"
"Nope. Steve's dad is as honest as the day is long," Sean said with a laugh.
"However," Jolene said with a smirk, "we're not."
Sean looked around; almost everyone was gone, and even the dwarves were starting to pack it in.
"Well, that was one hell of a wedding, if I do say so myself," Samis said, stretching and getting up.
"I'm off to home, Sean. Stop by Monday. I think Sjon said they have some armor to fit you for."
Sean yawned and nodded. "Yeah, they do."
Getting up, Sean picked up Peg, who had been leaning against him, sound asleep. Looking around, he collected the rest of the girls. Jolene was sound asleep with her head in Roxy's lap, while Roxy was chatting with some friends, one of whom was Miles.
Roberta was talking with her mom, with Sarah sleeping in her lap, and Cali and Daelyn were talking with a couple of dwarves who didn't seem to have any issues with dark elves.
"Man, just look at that sunrise," Miles said as Roxy and the rest of the group got up and started to say their goodbyes.
Sean turned and looked. The sky was a ruddy, reddish color, shot through with some amazing golds and blues.
"Red skies at morning," one of Roxy's friends said.
"Sailors take warning..." Sean couldn't help but finish.
End of Book Eleven
Afterword
First off, I want to say that if you enjoyed this book, please go on Amazon and give me a review and a rating. I've said it before, and of course I'll say it again: Ratings are my lifeblood as an independent author, with 4 and 5 star ratings being the ones that help me the most. The more of those I get, the more likely Amazon is to show my work to other folks.
Secondly, I'd like to apologize for how long it took to get this one out. I'd hoped to have it about four weeks after the previous book, but the move to Texas took up a lot more time than expected, then there were some unexpected issues that took a little while to get resolved, and our stuff showed up about two weeks later than it should have.
Oh, and we got another puppy.
Now that things have settled down some, I hope to be able to get the next installment out a lot sooner. Hopefully before the end of the month (November). The current working title to that book (Book Twelve) is: Demon Days.
Again, THANK YOU ALL for reading and enjoying my work. I do it all for you, and you all mean so much to me. There are a few more books yet to go in the Valens Legacy saga. Once that's complete, I have a few more things I'd like to take on that I hope you'll like. Maybe even some more stories in this world.
Some Recommendations: As mentioned before, I do have another name I write under: John Van Stry. If you haven't looked at it, you might appreciate my 'Portals of Infinity' series. It's currently at eight books and will continue, but right now I'm focused on the Valens Legacy series, so I probably won't be revisiting the Portals series until sometime around the end of 2018.
Some other people I enjoy reading in this genre, and you might, as well:
William D. Arand (aka Randi Darren)– Please check him out, he's good.
Blaise Corvin – The Delvers books are really a lot of fun and very much worth it.
Michael-Scott Earle – one of these days I'm going to bribe him to finish Lion Quest.
They're all good people and great writers. You may also want to check out this group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/haremlit/
Again, thank you for your support and for buying my books.
My Amazon Author's webpage:
https://www.amazon.com/Jan-Stryvant/e/B06ZY7L62L/
Occasional announcements at:
https://stryvant.blogspot.com/
Jan Stryvant website at:
http://www.vanstry.net/stryvant/
Email:
[email protected]
Table of Contents
Catch Your Breath
Simple Things
Shaken, Not Stirred
Change Two
Rude Awakenings
Sawyer's Antiquities
Wedding Bells
On The Road Again
In This Place
If It's Not One Thing...
The Space Between
...It's Another
Greasing Palms
Somersault
And Justice For All
Next Morning
Awakenings
Wea
pon of Choice
Just Gazin'
Afterword