The High King's Golden Tongue (Love Is Always Write) by Megan Derr Page A

learning Allen's value. Well, whatever, he would figure something out. He had to, because going home was not an option. Allen hesitated as he reached the entrance, knowing he should go back. Whatever his humiliation the night before, he had not been thrown out of the palace, only court. The High King was at least keeping to that much protocol.
    A group of soldiers passed by him, staring, whispering when they thought he couldn't hear. Spurred by their mocking comments, he continued on his way out of the palace. The wind kicked up as he crossed the courtyard and he wished absently that he'd brought a cloak or something. But it wasn't like he going to stay out long. He'd take a walk, try to clear his head and come up with a way to show Sarrica that he would make a good consort. Maybe a heavy object upside his arrogant, stubborn head would do the trick.
    Crossing the drawbridge, he walked down the sharp incline into the bustling city below. People milled everywhere, the smells and the crowds reminding him briefly of the markets from home. Being a border kingdom, his homeland Gaulden had been an ideal place for training a silver tongue, the popular term for a language master. Anyone who could fluently speak at least three languages was considered a silver tongue.
    A large border city such as where he'd grown up was the perfect place to practice the languages his tutors had drilled into him. His brothers had always been extremely jealous he got to visit the city so freely while they were stuck in the training yards. They'd never really listened when he'd told them it was all for lessons.
    He wandered the city largely at random, lingering in front of the odd stall or shop to admire wares. A stall selling books drew him in, as it was extremely rare to see costly books at a cheap market stall. Bending over the books, he began to pick through them. It took only a moment to see why they'd been reduced to a cheap stall: they were in poor condition, torn and damaged, some with pages missing or covers missing. But the variety was intriguing:  at least a dozen languages were represented, with a mix of folk stories, histories, and even a few rare dictionaries. Missing pages or not, those were worth something.
    Selecting as many as he could comfortably carry, Allen beckoned the bored looking vendor and began to haggle. He walked away with a smile several minutes later, and eight books neatly arranged in a basket another vendor had been kind enough to give him. Allen kept wandering, pausing to buy a pasty and later a cup of wine, happy to avoid his troubled thoughts for a little while.
    The sound of arguing stopped him, mostly because it sounded like four men arguing hotly in three different languages. Looking around, Allen finally spied them clustered by a rain barrel just outside a dry goods shop. He would have left it alone, curiosity aside, if not for the fact that one of the men was dressed in black leather armor and bore a band on his sleeve with the crest of a three-headed dragon.
    By and large, the High King used his regular army and those of the various kingdoms under his rule. It was a poorly kept secret, however, that he employed small bands of mercenaries to take care of shadier matters.
    The Three-headed Dragons was the most notorious and talented of those mercenary armies; the only one openly praised by the High King. Allen thought it more than a little strange they had no silver tongue for such translation matters. Listening to them, it was quite the tangle. The mercenary spoke Outland, the shopkeeper spoke Tricemore, and the other two men clearly each spoke one of those and had Selemean in common.
    Shaking his head, Allen strode over to them and, after noting the mercenary's rank, said, "Greetings, Captain. Can I be of service to you?"
    The four men paused, stared at him, clearly noting his fine clothes. Finally, the Captain asked, "Who the devil are you, then?"
    "A translator, new to the High King's service. I was out