Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Queen of Cindermark
The ferryman dropped his pole in the river when he saw who was in his boat.
"Linnea Marrick," he said. "You came home."
"It's been a while," I said.
"That's the king," he said, in a whisper loud enough for the far bank. "That's him. He's got a basket."
"I do," Torren said gravely. "Honey cakes. Forty."
"For whom?"
"Everyone who has been unkind to Linnea Marrick," he said. "I wasn't sure how many that would be."
The ferryman sat down heavily on his own bench.
I held the ferry rope in both hands as it slid across the water.
This was the place where I had turned back, six months after Posy was born.
The bank came closer, green and muddy, with the willow bending over the water.
I put one foot on the landing and my knees shook.
Torren's hand closed over mine.
"I have you," he said.
Posy ran up the bank ahead of us with Biscuit streaming behind her.
"Look, Papa! That's the baker. I call him Papa too."
The baker was standing in the middle of the lane with a tray of loaves.
He looked at the king of Cindermark.
He looked at the basket of honey cakes in the king's arms.
He dropped the tray.
News went up the village.
By the time we reached the green, every door stood open.
The women who had counted weeks on their fingers six years ago stood in a row, with their hands folded in aprons.
Torren walked up to the first one.
"Madam," he said. "You said a cruel thing to Linnea at the well, I'm told, in the first month. Here is a cake."
The woman went the color of beetroot.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Deny Me, Dragon King are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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