Page 42 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
Lira inhaled, the air laden with the aroma of cinnamon and sugar.
Sass nudged her. “Don’t you need to put the chai on and check thescones?” She gave Korl an apologetic look. “Not that I don’t trust your fix. It’s the oven I don’t trust.”
With that reminder, Lira hurried back to the kitchen, bracing herself to find smoke snaking from the seams in the oven door. But there was none.
She allowed herself the briefest peek into the oven, blinking rapidly from the wave of heat and closing the door again. Whatever Korl had done, had worked. At least, for now, and Lira would take it.
She placed the biggest copper saucepan she could find on the stove and filled it with the milk she’d stashed in a box outside the back door to keep it cool. Opening each of the sacks of spices Iris had brought her, she dropped the whole pods, curled sticks, and black tea leaves into the milk. The fire danced beneath the copper pot as she stirred steadily, taking her cue from the scent that wafted up from the simmering chai.
Pivoting away from the chai for a moment, she opened the oven door and grinned with satisfaction. The scones were puffed up and evenly browned, the smell heavenly.
Lira used a cloth to pull the baking sheet from the oven and set it on the cool half of the stovetop. She snagged the best blue earthenware mugs from the hooks on the wall, ignoring the ones with chips, and arranged them on the wooden tray before she poured in equal measures of the steaming chai. Then she transferred the scones to the other side of the tray, standing back and admiring her handiwork for a moment.
Her gran would have been proud, she thought. Lira closed her eyes and could almost feel her gran next to her, her voice soft and her hands warm as they closed over her smaller ones.
Her gran had always been proud of her. That was why Lira had been able to go out into the world and make her way without fear. She’d carried her gran’s belief in her like a talisman.
But that was also why she’d come back to Wayside. She’d wanted to feel worthy of her gran’s pride again, she’d wanted to feel as happy and content as the two of them had been living in their tiny house and using cake as payment because there wasn’t enough coin.
Opening her eyes, Lira looked at the scones and chai with as much pride as she had when she’d surveyed any of the treasure she’d collected or bags of gold she’d been given.
She lifted the tray and backed into the great room, careful not to move too quickly and slosh chai over the rims of the mugs. But it wasn’t only Pip and Tin waiting for the chai and scones that Sass had sold them.
Val had joined Korl and the pair had taken up residency in the oversized chairs by the fire, which was now roaring. Pip and Tin sat across from each other at the end of a long table, a curiously mismatched pair, since one was impeccably dressed and the other was wearing as much flour as fabric. Lira wondered if there might be an opposites-attract romance brewing there, which made her smile.
The two ogres who’d delivered the chairs were standing at the bar, shifting from one stumpy leg to the other. Lira suspected they couldn’t sit comfortably at the tables, even the ones with long benches instead of chairs.
Then she spotted someone who almost made her bobble the tray. Lira took even steps until she could deposit the tray on the top of the bar before she focused on the gray-striped Tabaxi leaning against the wall with her furry arms crossed. Her feline features were schooled in an expression of calm that Lira knew all too well, and even her whiskers didn’t twitch as she stared across the room.
The last time Lira had seen Cali, or Caliqua as she was formally known, had been months ago when they’d been standing on a high cliff staring at the spot in the churning sea where their friend had fallen. Lira had been certain then she would never see Cali again after she walked away.
As Lira tracked the flick of the Tabaxi’s tabby-striped tail, she understood how wrong she’d been.
Twenty-Five
“Come and get ‘em!”
Sass’s shout gave Lira a start, and she was grateful she no longer held the tray. She stepped back as the dwarf waved their customers over, managing tight smiles as she murmured thanks for the flurry of compliments and made her way toward the Tabaxi.
Seeing Cali had banished all thoughts of buttery pastries and warm chai from her brain, and a chill went over her as she took wooden steps around the tables. She and Cali had always been friends, perhaps tighter than any others in their party. So why were her feet leaden as she walked toward her?
The archer wore her trademark leather pantsthat stopped above the knee and a vest that molded to her torso. Her claws were retracted, although she drummed them on her folded arms. Her boots were scuffed but not caked in mud, meaning she hadn’t traveled through the marshlands to reach Wayside.
Lira dipped her head when she reached her. “Cali.”
The Tabaxi’s pupils flared, but not in the way they did when she was about to strike. “Is that all? After all our years together, I don’t get a hug?”
Lira blinked at her. “You want a—?”
Before she could finish her question, Cali had yanked her into a ferocious embrace, holding her close enough for her whiskers to tickle Lira’s cheek. Lira’s entire body sagged as she wrapped her arms around her friend.
When Cali pulled back, Lira was still regaining her equilibrium. “I thought you’d be…I thought you came to…”
Cali cocked her head. “You thought I was… what? Angry that you wanted to leave our group?”
Lira gnawed at her lip without answering.
Cali threw her leg over the nearest bench and sat, waiting for Lira to join her. “No one blamed you for leaving. We were all torn up after Malek. It wasn’t the same.”
