Read An Unexpected Deity (Book 7) for Free Online Page B

the god had said had been vague, useless for trying to avoid any specific threat or trouble; yet it all was troubling, a prophetic statement that challenging and threatening times were ahead, and that Kestrel would have to make some unhappy choice – sacrifice something that would be painful.
    He shuddered involuntarily as he reached the top of the canyon trail, and he turned to look back down, as Wren and Putty came up beside him.
    “We’ll be with you,” Wren said comfortingly, as Putty wrapped her arm around his back and laid her head on his shoulder; the two close friends comforted him, and he smiled gently.
    “A god of the gnomes may be a god, but he is still only of the gnomes,” Killcen spoke up.  “There cannot be anything that your great abilities and ours cannot overcome,” the imp said.
    The ground rattled and quaked, and the elves held onto one another for support as they swayed from the tremor.
    “Perhaps we shall not say such things in the god’s own lands,” Stillwater said mildly once the movement had ended.
    Kestrel led the troubled group back to the village, and when they arrived, they found a dozen gnomish maidens waiting for Kestrel, all holding their pipes.
    “Will you teach us the music you played?” one of them, bolder than the others, asked.  “We ask for music only,” she clarified firmly.  Kestrel stifled a smile as he recollected the subtle meaning that a maiden’s pipe music implied in a courting relationship.
    “Let’s go down to the cabin and we can play music there.  I left my pipes there,” Kestrel reported.
    The gnomish girls began to giggle.
    “You want to take all of us to the honeymoon cabin?” one of them laughed.
    Kestrel blushed.  “I will go get my pipes and bring them back.  You wait here for me,” he changed his plan, then led his friends back to the cabin, as Wren translated the exchange for the others.
    “So you’re going to go socialize with all the gnome girls, Kestrel-rogue?” Mulberry asked as they walked down to the cabin and he explained his plan.
    “I’m only going to play music with them,” Kestrel replied firmly, as he picked up his musical instrument.  “The rest of you can wait here and relax, or come up to the village and listen to the beautiful music,” he told them, then opened the door, stood at the threshold, and saw no one move to join him.
    “I’ll go up on my own,” he said in as dignified a voice as he could, then left the cabin and returned to the village.
    He and the gnome musicians played their music for the next few hours, until the sun started to set.  Kestrel played the two tunes he could remember from the Water Mountain gnomes, songs that the southern gnomes enjoyed for their similarity of style and taste to the music they played in their southern homes.  Kestrel managed to slowly convert a few human and elven musical pieces to the pipes as well, but the gnomes only found them to be mildly interesting in an academic way.
    The smell of savory cooking meat began to pervade the village, and Kestrel finally stopped the musical gathering to follow his nose.  He and a pair of gnome maidens who followed him found a whole deer being roasted over a deep stone basin full of glowing embers, as men and women prepared various other dishes for the evening feast.
    Pleased to see the generous meal, Kestrel returned to the cabin, where only a pair of imps were present with Putienne and Wren.
    “The others went home to visit,” Stillwater said abashedly, not anticipating Kestrel’s return.
    “There’s no problem with that,” Kestrel said.  In the excitement of the arrival at the familiar village, he hadn’t considered the possibility of traveling away from the gnomes through the expedience of the imps’ abilities.  He could return to his own home at Oaktown later that night, he realized, and wondered if there were any issues he should address there.
    “The food for the meal here is almost ready,” he added.  “We can