The Guardian's Destiny

Jarmal has been the Guardian of Scryer’s Well for three decades. Romantic liaisons with the warriors and wizards who come to the Well for mystical insight no longer satisfy a man who has grown old alone. His forty-seventh birthday is a hard reminder that he has not yet chosen a successor, and he’s never been granted a vision by the Well he’s spent his life guarding.

Fortunately, Jarmal receives a distraction in the form of the handsome foreign magician Tariq. Though Tariq’s beautiful body stirs Jarmal’s lust, his inexperience and tender affections move Jarmal’s heart. But Tariq is seeking the Well’s guidance as part of a quest to free his homeland from evil, and although Jarmal thinks he’s finally found someone he’d like to spend his life with, he can no more ask Tariq to stay with him than he can leave the Well to be with Tariq. The Well offers him a glimpse of his destiny, but no easy answers.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2015 Daily Dose package "Never Too Late."