Page 23 of A Tale of Mirth & Magic

I jumped forward and said, “Elikki, stop! That’s enough!”

Startled, Elikki flung her other hand up. One of the bounty hunter’s knives leaped from the ground and darted straight at me. I lunged out of the way, just barely avoiding it. It clattered against a tree and fell to the dirt.

I stared at Elikki.

She stared at me.

“Barra—I… I’m so sorry.” Her eyes were wide, shocked. She blinked rapidly, hate fading from her face as if she was coming back to herself from a trance.

The gurgled sound of the half-dwarf’s choked breaths drew our attention. Elikki immediately opened her fist, loosening the metal band’s hold.

Her attacker-turned-prisoner sucked in ragged breaths.

“You nearly killed me!” she croaked, trying to wriggle out of her bonds. The metal remained tight around her ankles and wrists, still pinning her to the tree trunk.

Elikki had the grace to look a bit uncomfortable. “Don’t be so dramatic. Besides, what do you call what you were doing to me before I got the upper hand?”

“ I was doing my job and catching a dangerous criminal,” she said, trying again to jostle her handcuffs. “You’re wanted for maiming Lord Renalo’s brother.”

I groaned. A laugh bubbled out of Elikki.

“ Of course he’s a noble. The brother of some powerful lord. Of fucking course. That pompous, slimy, idiotic asshole had to be connected to someone in power. It’s not enough that his cousin is a fucking copper ,” she said, half to herself.

“And two counts of disorderly conduct. And you started a brawl. And you disobeyed the orders of a town constable. There are witnesses,” the bounty hunter said.

Looking hard at her, Elikki said, “Listen, I didn’t maim anyone… intentionally. Okay? He was trying to make off with one of my most expensive wares. And he got all touchy-feely with me. It was self-defense.”

“Just like this was?” She stretched her head back slightly, showing the bright red line where Elikki’s metal had nearly sliced into her skin.

“Well… yes,” Elikki said, slightly abashed.

“Look,” said the half-dwarf, “it’s not my job to judge who’s right and who’s wrong.

They put a bounty on bringing you in. Kind of a cheap one, and I’m maybe regretting stooping this low…

” She sighed. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.

Just come with me back to Povon. I get my money, and I’m sure you can sort out this misunderstanding with the bigwigs there. ”

Elikki snorted. “Well, that’s obviously not happening. But good try.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” I said.

The half-dwarf looked up at me, skeptical. “Oh, really, big man? What are you going to do, flex your muscles at me? Frown harder?”

I scowled and crossed my arms across my chest.

“That’s it. Be more intimidatingly purple at me. I’m shaking in my boots.”

“Hey, leave him alone,” Elikki said. “This is ridiculous. What’s your name?”

She hesitated, and then grumbled, “Maerryl.”

“Okay. Maerryl. I’m Elikki, as you know. This is my… friend, Barra.”

Rolling her eyes, Maerryl said, “Pleasure.”

Elikki took a calming breath and said, “If we let you go, do you promise to leave us alone?”

Maerryl paused for a beat too long. “Um. Yes?”

“Well, I’m convinced,” I said dryly.

Elikki let out a frustrated screech. “Goddess dammit, dwarf! Right. Fine. We can’t trust you. Option two.”

She lifted both hands toward her prisoner. Grabbing them before she could do anything, I said under my breath, “Wait—you’re not going to…” I trailed off, raising my eyebrows meaningfully.

“Not going to what?”

“… Kill her? Right?”

“DON’T KILL ME!” the half-dwarf shrilled.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Elikki cried. “Why does everyone suddenly think I’m a raging murderer?”

Yanking her hands from my grasp, she glared at me and then Maerryl.

“No, I’m not going to kill you. Obviously . But I am getting rid of you.” She raised her hands again.

Sweeping her arms out, Elikki used her magic to move the bangle-cuffs on Maerryl’s hands and feet again at her command. The wrists unhooked from behind the tree. Maerryl let out a relieved groan and swiveled her shoulders and arms to loosen them up.

With a jerk of Elikki’s arms, Maerryl’s ankles moved, propelling her forward across the forest floor. Her wrists moved in time with her feet, keeping her at a steady march around the trees and back toward the road.

“Elikkiiiii! Let gooooo!”

I stared after her, and then at Elikki. She was looking very smug with herself.

“How does this solve our problems?” I said.

“You’ll see,” she said and began walking after the baffled woman. She called over her shoulder, “Grab those knives, would you?”

I rustled around until I found Maerryl’s knives where they’d fallen in the forest undergrowth.

They were shoddy quality—the kind of pieces Ma Reese would melt down for scrap metal.

I tucked them into my belt and followed Elikki out of the forest. When we all reached the road, Pebble was right near where I’d left her, munching on some grass.

I went over and patted her neck, pouring some water into a large bowl for her to drink.

The two women stood glowering at each other. Without taking her eyes off Maerryl, Elikki said to me, “Write a note to Legus explaining the situation. It’s not a horribly far walk to the inn. And if anyone could deal with this properly, I bet it’s him.”

She was probably right. We couldn’t trust Maerryl not to follow us, and we couldn’t take her with us.

What else were we going to do, leave her tied to a tree?

Someone might not journey this way for hours or days.

Knock her out? I didn’t want to hurt her, and I knew that deep down Elikki didn’t either.

Just because she’d lost her temper—understandable, considering she’d been jumped and put in a sleeper hold—didn’t mean she wanted any real harm to come to the other woman. Probably.

So bringing her to the Painted Dragon might be our best option at this point.

Legus could be intimidating and persuasive when he needed to be.

He always knew how to deal with troublemakers.

I’d once seen him firmly sit down a pickpocket who’d been bothering the inn’s guests.

Two hours and many cups of tea later, the thief was sobbing into the dragonborn’s handkerchief as they worked through his abandonment issues together.

And after Legus sorted things out, Saho was usually able to win folks over even further with delicious baked goods.

That pickpocket worked in the kitchens part-time now, last I’d heard.

Watching Maerryl as she not-so-subtly tried straining against the metal cuffs’ magical hold, a dark look on her face, I thought that even my charismatic friends might have their work cut out for them.

“But what is the note for? We can explain everything when we get there,” I asked Elikki.

“I’m going to try to charm my bangles to take her there for us. Like they did just now,” she said.

“I… didn’t know you could do that.”

She huffed a bewildered laugh and said, “I don’t know if I can for sure. But my magic feels… good right now. Strong, and calm. I’m not sure how, but it’s worth a try.” Shrugging, she tried to act nonchalant, but I could feel the excitement rolling off her.

It seemed like something that would take a tremendous amount of her power. Maybe I should bring Maerryl to the inn instead. But I hated the idea of losing the remaining time I had with Elikki. If we left things so unresolved, I’d always wonder what had happened. What I did wrong.

More importantly, there might be more bounty hunters out to capture her. She shouldn’t be alone right now. And she wasn’t asking me to take Maerryl—surely if she wanted to get rid of me, that would have been an easy way to do it.

If she wanted to try trusting her volatile magic, that’s what we were going to do.

After some discussion about the knives, we decided not to give them back to Maerryl. If things worked out at the inn, I could always return them later, on my way back. After a good cleaning and sharpening , I thought privately.

And if things didn’t work out… well, it’s probably best if she doesn’t have weapons on her.

With that in mind, Elikki patted the half-dwarf down quickly.

She found a few small daggers, which she pocketed, ignoring Maerryl’s outraged squawk.

She also lifted the thin, stretched bangle from around her prisoner’s neck and sized it back down to fit on her own wrist. I caught sight of a runic tattoo tucked along the back of Maerryl’s left ear, a thick scrawl that I didn’t recognize as any standard runes in the realm.

Unusual. Ancient runes were potent when etched into the body.

There were only a handful that folks commonly used in the realm—those safe enough for a practiced mage to inscribe—protection against illness, warding off pregnancy, solidifying a partner bond, and so on.

I’d never seen a runic tattoo so strange, the dark twisting symbols curving ominously along the shape of her ear. What could it mean?

Maerryl flexed her neck back and forth, clearly relieved to have the neck restraint removed. Her thick, bluntly cut hair fell back and covered the tattoo. “Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. It’s clear now that I must have been… misinformed.”

Elikki snorted, not deigning to reply, and closed her eyes to focus. The bangle-cuffs still held the other woman fast.

“But if you let me go know, I promise to leave you and His Royal Purpleness alone for good. I swear it,” Maerryl tried, cajoling.

Ignoring her, Elikki stayed very still and intensely focused. Breathing deeply, slowly, she sank into her task of enchanting the bangles.