Page 36 of How to Claim A Shadow King

All sorts of strange items are for sale inside and outside each shop. We pass by one such shop that has a lavender and yellow striped awning, which shouldn't be pleasing to the eye and yet somehow manages to be. Out front are all sorts of cuckoo clocks ranging in variety from one that has the expected cuckoo to some that ring with minotaurs and centaurs and mermaids and all sorts of clever creatures. Aveline studies each one with delight on her expression, and I must even admit that they are enchanting.

Another store we pass by has gleaming glass windows, and on display are every sort of pastry one could possibly imagine.

A huge minotaur with shaggy brown and taupe fur, horns curling from his head, shambles around a corner, and Aveline forgets herself completely, grabbing for my hand in shock at the sight.

"I take it you do not have minotaurs in Stormspire, then?" I ask her, amused.

Her jaw has dropped, and still she smiles through it all, delighted by every new creature that makes an appearance on the cobbled stones in the Wild Oak Woods.

"Can we shop?" she asks as we walk past a rack full of cloth bolts in a thousand different shades.

"Of course we can shop, if that is what you would like to do. I am all too happy to accompany you."

"I don't have any money," she says, a frown briefly tarnishing her smile as she fingers a soft, expertly woven swathe of light blue wool.

"Do you like that color?" I ask her.

"Yes, but I don't have any money with which to buy it."

The shopkeeper wanders over. A small elf, from the looks of it—slightly pointed ears, silvery hair that spills over her shoulders, and the fine features and high cheekbones associated with their kin.

"Do you see something you like?" the elf asks Aveline cheerfully. "That color would look stunning on you, don't you think?" she tells me.

"I think she needs a cloak out of it," I tell the shopkeeper.

"I have no way to pay," Aveline tells me, her cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment.

"Then it's a good thing that I have plenty of gold," I tell her.

"Oh, you—I couldn't possibly ask you to⁠—"

"Then I suppose it's a good thing you didn't ask me." I can't help but smile at the sunshine-ishness that's overcome Aveline at the barest suggestion that I do something kind for her.

As if I care a thing for gold.

I hand over several pieces of coin to the shopkeeper, whose eyes widen. "This is much more than a cloak would cost."

"Then I suppose you'll have to make whatever else she wants."

"Malakai!" Aveline says, clearly flustered.

The shopkeeper, however, winks at me and tugs Aveline closer by her elbow, pulling out bolts of blue fabric.

I pick up a teal color, one I know she fancied before. "A dress out of this, I think."

"Please, practical clothes," Aveline tells me and the shopkeeper. "Something I can walk in easily. Something for the winter. I don't know what happened to all of my luggage," she says slowly, horror dawning on her face.

"You don't need luggage," I remind her. “Buy whatever you fancy. A new start.”

I feel foolish the moment the words leave my mouth… but I also like the sound of them. A new start for us both.

"How are we going to get it all back to Shadow Keep?" Aveline mutters, almost to herself, losing herself in the bolts of fabric again.

"We can have it delivered to wherever you live," the shopkeeper assures her, plainly set on getting her money's worth and time's worth out of us. I don't care. The look of joy and delight on Aveline's face as she picks out fabric after fabric is worth every gold I own.

"Even Shadow Keep?" I doubt she can get out there.

She blanches, apparently having missed when Aveline said it.