Page 9 of Storm to Victory
She shot him a look that was part annoyed, part teasing. “I was looking at them first.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t look too.”
“It does if I intend to buy a set.” Adry’s eyes flared with more heat. “You don’t need to have the same things as me.”
On the other side of Adry, Merrik huffed. “The two of you can share, you know.”
Adry raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re supposed to be on my side now.”
“I am on the side of sense. As I have always been.” Merrik spoke in a flat tone, but the slight upward curve to his mouth gave him away. “Which, in most cases, is neither side.”
“Ouch. I’d be offended but…” Adry smirked at Fieran. “He has us there.”
Fieran nodded and grinned back. “Admit it. We wouldn’t know what to do without Merrik’s sense.”
Pip nudged Fieran’s arm and whispered, “Like I said. Poor Merrik.”
Fieran laughed, the mirth bubbling inside him washing away the last of his snappiness with his sister. He really shouldn’t be childish about this.
He picked up a bracer with dwarven, geometric designs tooled into the leather. The bracer weighed more than he’d expected, and he nearly dropped it.
The dwarf behind the booth, still shooting glances between Fieran and Adry, gestured. “The bracers are layered with reticulated, thin metal reinforced with dwarven magic. Guaranteed to stop an ax from chopping off your hand.”
“Handy if you are invested in not losing any more limbs.” Merrik reached out and traced a finger over a bracer with an elven tree design.
“How about this?” Pip placed a hand on Fieran’s arm, glancing from him to Adry. “As long as the two of you don’t have the same design…”
Merrik shot Pip a grateful look, as if he was thankful that he would have at least one sensible ally in his peacekeeping.
“Works for me.” Adry picked up another set of the bracers with the elven trees on them. She dug into her pocket. “I’ll take two sets in this design.”
“Adry…” Merrik’s low voice held a fond warning.
“Don’t blame me for wanting to spoil my boyfriend.” Adry pressed a kiss to Merrik’s cheek before she plunked the money down on the table before the dwarf, claimed her two sets of bracers, and tugged on Merrik’s hand. “You can always spoil me right back if you feel you must.”
Merrik was still grinning as Adry dragged him away to the next booth.
“Decided to join Merrik in playing peacemaker?” Fieran rubbed a thumb over the geometric design on the bracer.
“If this is going to be the way of things, I figured Merrik might as well not stand alone in that.” Pip grinned before she pointed at the bracer in Fieran’s hand as she turned toward the dwarf. “And I’ll take that set.”
“Pip, I…” Fieran wasn’t sure how to protest. Or if he wanted to. “You don’t have to.”
“I can’t let Adry be the only one spoiling her boyfriend.” Pip touched the wrench pendant on the necklace he’d given her.“Besides, you’ve already spoiled me. It’s time I returned the favor.”
“Then, linshi.” Fieran collected the bracers from the dwarf. With the geometric dwarven designs, it would be as if he wore Pip’s colors.
As they stepped away from the booth, a fit of hacking and coughing broke out across the street.
Stickyfingers, gagging and choking, stuck his head halfway into a nearby trash barrel and retched. Lije was coughing, eyes watering, as he braced himself against the post of the booth.
“What’s going on? Are you guys all right?” Fieran called to them, taking a step in that direction.
“They’re fine. Probably.” Pip winced as Lije made a gagging sound, though he didn’t run to join Stickyfingers at the barrel. “I think they made the mistake of trying a sip of dwarven mushroom brew. Let’s just say, it’s strong.”
“Remind me to stay away from the stuff.” Fieran shuddered as he fell into step with Pip. “Where to now?”
After eatinglunch at a café and joining Aylia, Stickyfingers, and Lije for the moving picture—a rather horrible production that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a slapstick comedy, a romance, or a heartfelt look at industrialization—Fieran drove the truck back to Fort Defense and returned to his tent.
