Page 61 of Sorcery, Swords & Scones
“Getting in an early morning lesson on elf magic?”
Lira hitched one shoulder. “Learning what it means to be part elf.”
Erindil put a hand on Lira’s arm. “I don’t believe in part this and half that. You’re as much an elf as I am. Besides, we all contain multitudes.”
Sass wasn’t sure what that meant. Then again, she had spent little time talking to elves.
“Where’s Vaskel?” Sass asked. “Or Korl?”
“Vaskel was coming with Cali and Iris, and I told Korl that we’d swing by and get him and Val on our way.”
Erindil swiveled his head around as if searching for something. “Are we going then?”
“You’re joining us?” Sass tried to keep the surprise from her voice, but failed.
The elf touched a hand to his chest and bowed his head at her. “I wouldn’t miss it, my dear.”
Lira gave her uncle a grateful smile, and Sass had the feeling that she’d pulled in a favor. It wasn’t the time to ask, though, and she wouldn’t say no to the help. The sight of an elf might just make Florin think twice about choosing violence.
Erindil busied himself untethering his ostrich, but he didn’t mount the creature. “Come along, Glen.”
“You aren’t riding him?” Sass asked.
“Good heavens, no. Not until we’re ready to do battle,” the elf said, as he patted the creature’s lavender plumage and then dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “To be completely forthcoming, Glen’s experience in battle is limited.”
If the ostrich understood a word the elf said about him, he gave no indication. Lira, however, slid Sass a wry wink.
Their group proceeded around the tavern and onto the dirt road with Sass on one side and Erindil leading the ostrich on the other. Sass walked briskly to keep up with their longer legs, but they soon slowed as Korl and Val approached them from the direction of the blacksmith and wheelwright workshops. Behind them were Klaff and Vorto, each dressed in head-to-toe leather and brandishing smithing hammers.
“What are—?” Sass started to ask before Val help up a hand.
“Don’t argue with them,” she said. “They won’t have it any other way.”
Korl nodded, glancing back at his dads and giving them a small smile. “We’re all coming.”
Sass managed a peek at Val through glassy eyes as the group headed down the road into the village. Just as Sass registered thelack of yeast and sugar in the air, she spotted Pip and Fenni walking toward them.
Instead of wearing a liberal dusting of flour and an apron around his waist, the halfling baker’s clothes were clean, his apron was gone, and there was no dough in his hair. He did wield a rolling pin as if it were a cudgel, though.
His brother Fenni was more casually dressed than usual and had a row of cheese knives tucked into the waistband of his tweed pants. If he hadn’t sported a pocket square in his vest, he might have appeared mildly threatening.
“We’re coming with you,” Pip said as Fenni bobbed his head in agreement.
“So am I, so am I!” Tinpin cried out as he rushed from his shop holding a pair of fabric shears with the blades pointed out before shrieking and flipping them around. “Sweet simmering cauldrons, I was running with scissors.”
“What…you can’t…How did you know?” Sass stuttered.
Pip bounced on his toes. “We heard you last night in the tavern.”
The haberdasher’s cheeks flushed. “We weren’t sleeping the entire time. Not the entire time.”
“And don’t say we can’t come because you need all the bodies you can get against a band of dwarves.” Fenni whipped out one of his wee, curved knives.
“That’s right, love,” Iris said as she, Vaskel, and Cali walked up with Rosie and Rog arm-in-arm and at least half the village behind them. “You’re part of the village now.”
Pip leaned forward, his large eyes sparkling. “You’re one of us.”
Sass’s eyes burned, and her throat was so thick she could barely swallow.
