Page 82 of Crown of Ashes and Awe

Bain forced a smile. "We're going to get dredged." The glaze over his eyes said he’d already gotten started.

"Here, here!" Sweetie pulled the cork from a bottle and poured the contents into the goblets.

Griffon passed them around until we all had one in hand. "Dredged indeed. They would have expected no less."

Tearloch took a sip. "Now that we are in a relatively safe place, and no one will need to stand watch..." Everyone laughed as he downed the rest of his drink in two gulps, then refilled it.

Bain lifted his glass high. "To Dower!"

"To Dower," we repeated, then drank.

I choked, surprised by the bite on my tongue from such an innocent looking liquid.

Everyone chuckled, but Lennon had the same look on her face. "What is this?"

Tearloch rolled his eyes at me, surprised by yet another gap in my education. “At least Lennon isn’t expected to know. It’s calledbite—fermented parfruit."

"Bite is right. Must be an acquired taste."

"Here." Tearloch took her goblet and pulled another cork from a bottle with a different shape, then gave her a sample in a clean mug. "Try this. Slowly."

She sucked in a deep breath, then tasted. She smiled and hummed, but after she swallowed, she gasped for air. Griffon pounded her on the back a few times, then took a gulp of the new brew. Though he tried to fight it, he too gasped for breath.

"Back home," he wheezed, "we call that whisky."

I was surprised when Lennon held out her glass for more. Then she raised it high, as Bain had done. "To Kivi!"

"To Kivi!"

Again, I choked. Tearloch took mybiteand emptied my glass, then he put in a little of the new. To delay tasting it, I lifted my glass. "And to Morrow."

"To Morrow."

Tearloch grew somber then. He looked at Minkin, Sweetie, and Bain. They shared sad smiles and a thousand memories the rest of us would never hear about. Then he raised his glass, his voice low and reverent. "To the Huxor we lost along the way."

"To the Huxor we lost along the way."

Tears for their old friend streamed unheeded down their cheeks. My tears were for them.

Bain picked up the second bottle, filled his glass to the rim, then passed it on. "Must dredge faster."

Later, when there was more humming and hiccuping than conversation and the ache in my head was nowhere to be found, Sweetie placed his elbow on his knee and rested his chin on his hand while he watched Minkin dance near the window. "Minkin, my love."

"Mmm?" She kept dancing but spared him a glance every time she turned a full circle.

"You're beautiful, but you're not very clever."

She laughed. "Cleverer than you, my love."

He scoffed, but never lifted his head. "If that is so, why is it I know we are heartbound and you do not?"

"You are mistaken." She finished her dance with a flourish of her long fingers and a bow. While the rest of us applauded, she moved to stand in front of Sweetie and pushed his shoulders back before climbing into his lap. "I've waited a long while for you to catch on."

His eyes widened. "You knew?"

"All along."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

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