Page 10 of Sorcery, Swords & Scones
“I didn’t know,” she said, more to herself than to Thrain.
The tension drained from his body as he released a heavy breath. “I know you didn’t.”
She swept her eyes around the tavern again, as if to imprint the overstuffed chairs, the stone hearth, and the wood-beamed ceiling in her mind. As much as The Tusk & Tail had become her home, she couldn’t abandon her clan to the Trollbanes’ wrath.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she felt the dream she’d been living in Wayside slip through her fingers like the finest gold dust. “If that’s the only way to save?—”
Before she could finish, the kitchen doors swung open and Lira ran out with a copper pot in one hand and a rogue’s blade in the other, Crumpet riding on her shoulder with his wings flared wide and the hair on his back abristle. The high-pitched scream from Lira and the screech from Crumpet were enough to make Thrain stagger back, upend the bench, trip over it, and land sprawled on his back—half on the bench and half on the stone floor.
Lira came to a stop next to Sass, and they both stood over the moaning, fallen dwarf.
“You okay?” she asked Sass, the pot still held overhead and clearly ready to be used as a weapon. “I heard shouts.”
“Never better.” Sass fought the urge to laugh as she leaned over Thrain. “You okay down there, Thrain?”
Lira dropped her arms, and Crumpet’s fierce chittering faded. “You know him?”
“Aye, he’s an old friend from home.”
Lira quickly put the pot and blade on the nearest table and rushed to the prone dwarf. “I am so sorry. I had no idea.”
Thrain pushed himself to his elbows as he stared at Lira, whose hair was wild around her face, and the winged stoat on her shoulder, who held up tiny paws as if he was preparing to box. Then he slid his gaze to Sass. “Grognick’s beard. What kind of tavern is this?”
Seven
“Again,”Lira said as she handed Thrain a steaming mug of chai, “I’m so sorry about the screaming demon impersonation. I thought you were an intruder.”
“No damage done.” Thrain brushed off his brown pants and the wool vest that topped it with one hand before he took the earthenware mug, his gaze fixed firmly on the flutterstoat riding Lira’s shoulder. “What do you call that thing again?”
Crumpet let loose a torrent of chattery protests.
“Crumpet is a flutterstoat.”
Thrain’s expression told Sass that the explanation hadn’t cleared things up. “And they’re common around these parts?”
Lira turned her head to grin at Crumpet. “Oh, no. As far as I know, Crumpet is the only one of his kind. My gran enchanted him and gave him wings. Accidentally, we think.”
Thrain’s eyes flared for a beat, but he didn’t ask Lira to elaborate further on how any of that happened when magic was frowned upon in the Known Lands.Instead, he took a sip of his chai, his dark eyes shifting from Lira to Crumpet and finally to Sass. “You’ve taken up with an elfandan enchantedbeast?”
“Half elf,” Lira corrected, clearly ignoring the suspicion dripping from Thrain’s words.
“She’s half human,” Sass said, feeling odd that she had to say that or that it mattered. “But most importantly, she’s my friend.”
Sass thought back to the days when she’d been wary of elves simply because they were elves. She couldn’t fault Thrain for his misguided opinion, since she’d also grown up hearing that all elves were arrogant and disloyal.
Thrain nodded, sizing up Lira. “I suppose you don’t look too elvish.” He cleared his throat. “And any friend of Sass’s is a friend of mine.” He bit his lower lip and cut a questioning look to Sass. “That is, if Sass still considers me a friend.”
Lira cocked her head at Sass, handing the female dwarf her own mug of chai. “Is he a friend?”
Sass avoided meeting Lira’s eyes, although she knew she couldn’t hide her past for one second longer. She took a wee sip of the drink and allowed the warming spices to soothe her nerves. “I wasn’t lying about Thrain being a friend. We were as thick as thieves for most of my childhood, and as surprised as I am that he found me, I’m happy to see him.”
Thrain muttered something about Sass having a funny way of showing it, but she ignored him as she faced Lira and tilted her head to lock eyes on the woman. “It’s everything else I lied about.”
Lira tucked a strand of hair behind a pointed ear, her face still flushed from an evening spent over a hot stove. “What do you mean?”
Goblin’s spawn, this wasn’t easy, Sass thought as she took a significant gulp of chai. It was as if she teetered on a precipice. One word would tip her over and drag her from the cozy life she’d created and the family she’d found. Then again, if everything could disintegrate so easily, was it ever real?
Sass stared into her mug. “You know I told you I left home and traveled here on my own?”
