Page 76 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
The words hung in the air between them, honest and unvarnished in a way Lira rarely allowed herself to be. Korl grunted softly, a sound she was beginning to recognize as acknowledgment rather than dismissal.
After a moment of companionable silence, the orc pushed himself away from the wall and began walking again. Lira fell into step beside him, crossing over the bridge to the gravel road again.
"I understand not being able to be yourself," Korl said. "I never wanted to be a guardsman."
Lira looked up at him, not terribly surprised by the admission. But like he’d let her talk, she gave him space to continue.
"I did it because Val needed a partner, and because it made my dads proud. But I've always wanted..." He trailed off, as if embarrassed.
"Wanted what?"
"To be a tinker," he said, the words coming out in a rush. "I like fixing things. Understanding how they work, making them better."
"Like our oven.”
A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Like your oven."
They walked in silence for a few more steps before he spoke again. "If you can go from a rogue to a baker, maybe I could leave the guards. But Val..."
"You're worried about leaving her," Lira finished for him.
He nodded, his brow furrowed.
"I'm sure Val wants you to be happy," Lira said, remembering the way the tall guardswoman had spoken about him. "She thinks the world of you."
"She'd be fine," Korl admitted, his voice tinged with what might have been guilt. "She's always been the stronger one. I just..." He struggled, his hands opening and closing at his sides. "It feels like abandoning her."
"It's not abandonment to follow your heart," Lira said softly. "Besides, she wouldn't be alone. She'd still have you, just not as her partner in the guard."
They’d reached the tavern now, the weathered sign creaking gently in the night breeze. Lira turned to face Korl, suddenly aware of how close they were standing. The tavern was dark and quiet, likely everyone inside asleep by now.
The glowing moon overhead illuminated half of Korl's face, casting the other half in shadow, but his eyes were fixed on her. Lira felt herself leaning toward him almost imperceptibly.
Korl's gaze dropped to her lips for the briefest moment, and her breath caught in anticipation of him kissing her.
Instead, he cleared his throat and took a small step back. "Sleep well, Lira."
Before she could respond, he turned and strode away, his large frame melding into the shadows.
What had just happened? Or more accurately, what hadn't?
Forty-Five
“So, you told him everything?”
Sass hadn’t been asleep when Lira had slipped into their room, the fire still crackling in the hearth and the candle flickering on the bedside table, so Lira had told her what had happened, from walking Vaskel to the inn, to thinking she was being followed and running into Korl, to him taking her to his dads’ home and her telling them of her life after leaving Wayside.
Sass fiddled with the end of her braid. “And the book? Did you tell them what it is?”
Lira divested herself of her thick cloak and day dress and then sank onto her bed in her shift, the weariness of the day replacingthe heaviness of the garments. “Not that it’s actually a spell book and that my gran was a mage. I couldn’t bear to spoil their memories of my gran. They knew her as a sweet old lady who baked them cakes.”
“You reckon they’d think differently if they knew?”
Lira shrugged. “Probably not, but I’m still coming to terms with it. Besides, Iris hasn’t given me leave to tell folks in the village her part in this. She might not want everyone knowing what she was and how she knew my gran.”
Sass moved her head up and down thoughtfully. “People are entitled to their secrets.”
“That’s what I think.”
