Page 78 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
Iris gave Lira a solemn nod, and the two former rogues opened the door and slunk downstairs. They made quick work of getting to the corner of the cellar, with Lira too nervous to pay much mind to the fetid odor and dank cold this time.
Iris emitted a disapproving sound when she saw the mortar on the ground. “No rat did that.”
She produced a brown glass bottle from her pocket and then a rag from her other pocket. “Don’t stand too close to me. This might make you lightheaded.”
Lira took a step back as Iris uncapped the bottle and poured a generous amount of solvent on the rag. She pressed the wet cloth to the mortar, burying her nose in the crook of her arm.
The sharp chemical smell bit the back of Lira’s throat even though she wasn’t close to the wall. She put a hand over her nose and mouth as she battled the urge to cough.
After a few minutes, Iris tossed the cloth on the ground and stepped back. “It isn’t working.”
Lira blinked rapidly as she leaned closer to the wall. “Not even a little bit?”
“Not enough.” Iris waved her hands in front of her face. “The amount we’d need to use to dissolve it might kill us.”
Lira was sure her gran would not want her and Iris dying over the spell book.
“I brought something else in case the solvent didn’t work.” Iris reached into her apparently bottomless pockets and pulled out a chisel.
Lira had barely opened her mouth to register hesitation when Iris thrust the sharp end into the mortar. The sound was anything but quiet, but bits of the mortar did flake away.
“When there’s a will…” Iris muttered, striking the point into the mortar again, the metal clanging as it slipped and struck one of the stones.
Overhead, someone belted out what was undeniably a sea shanty. Lira put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing, knowing exactly who it was.
Quick footfall descended the steps behind them, and Cali’s voice cut through the darkness. “What’s going on down here?”
Iris paused with the chisel suspended in mid-air. “Can you hear me?”
Cali stepped into the circle of warm light. “Why else do you think Sass is leading everyone in a song? A very strange song, I might add.”
“I think she makes up her own sea shanties,” Lira said.
“Goblin’s spawn.” Iris stamped her foot and stepped back from the wall. “We’re going to need a bigger distraction.”
“Bigger than a dwarf leading the tavern in song?”
Iris gave the wall a grim look. “If we want to get through all that mortar and rock without poor Sass running out of breath.”
Or without Rygor catching wind of unusual sounds coming from the tavern’s cellar. If the wyvern was the one who’d tried to get through the wall, he’d be watching for anything suspicious.
“Maybe we should do it when the tavern is empty,” Cali suggested.
“That means we’d have to get Durn off the premises.” Lira wasn’t sure how possible that was, considering how much the man slept. “It also means anyone passing by could hear the racket.”
“Like Rygor,” Iris muttered.
Cali swung her head from rogue to rogue. “Who’s Rygor?”
Iris made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat. “The wyvern reeve.”
Cali’s ears twitched. “Vaskel mentioned him—not favorably, I should add.”
“He knows there’s gold on the premises,” Lira said, “but he doesn’t know where.”
Iris flicked a hand at the mortar on the ground. “Or maybe he does.”
Lira’s pulse spiked at the thought of the greedy beast getting his claws on her gold or her gran’s book. “We have to get through the wall before he does.”
