Page 10 of Sorcery, Swords & Scones (Tales from the Tavern #2)
Ten
Korl paused in the tavern's entrance, his eyes wide at the dwarf struggling to brandish his axe.
“Relax.” Sass rested a hand on Thrain’s arm. “That’s just Lira’s fiancé, Korl.”
Thrain lowered himself onto the bench. “Lots of curious folks seem to walk in here.”
“Well, it is a tavern.” Sass brushed crumpet crumbs from her lace-up bodice and then glanced at Lira. “Do I need to tell my whole story to Korl now?”
Lira shook her head. “I saved you the trouble, but in my defense, I had to tell him. It seemed too suspicious that I had been searching for all kinds of spells and charms last night.”
“I won’t lie.” Korl’s deep voice was a rumble as he walked up to Lira and coiled an arm around her waist. “It was more than unsettling to see her looking up half a dozen ways to make someone vanish.”
Vaskel’s grin matched the wicked glint in his eyes. “Now we’re talking. Did you find anything good?”
“I don’t know,” Lira said with a sigh. “I’m not a mage, so I don't know how any of my gran’s spells work. And knowing that not all of them turned out the way she intended, I’m afraid to try one and turn Sass into a newt.”
Sass almost choked on a mouthful of crumpet. She thought of the bookwyrms that lived in the apothecary’s back room, tiny creatures that looked like baby dragons morphed with hummingbirds. Those had resulted from a spell gone wrong by Lira’s gran.
“I’ll bet going back home isn’t sounding so bad about now,” Thrain whispered to her.
“Maybe we should loop in Iris,” Vaskel suggested. “She was your gran’s best friend, and they ran together for years. She must have more insight into some of the spells.”
“Before we think about all the ways to fight Florin with magic, we should talk about the easiest solution.” Sass looked from Lira to Korl to Vaskel, finally letting her gaze come to rest on Thrain. “I need to consider moving on.”
As Lira opened her mouth to protest, Sass held up her hands to stop her. “It’s the obvious answer. I escaped in the first place by running. Maybe I should run again.”
Thrain grunted. “You want to spend the rest of your days on the run? You know Florin won’t give up. Especially if you take the amulet with you.”
“What if I don’t? What if I leave that here or give it to you?
I know Florin is threatening retribution unless I return, but who’s to say searching for me won’t get old?
If the Trollbanes have their amulet, there’s a chance they’ll give up their claim, especially if it means they won’t have to tramp through the marshes near Port Frey or cross the Riddle Vales. ”
Thrain stroked his beard. “Perhaps.”
Lira shook her head, and a few strands of hair slipped from her makeshift bun. “I still don’t like this plan. Not if it means you have to leave.”
Sass let loose a breath. She despised the thought of leaving too, but she couldn’t put her friends at risk.
“That must be some amulet,” Korl said in a low voice .
Lira tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “What?”
“If dwarves would give up the chance of battle, that must be an impressive jewel.”
Lira returned her gaze to Sass. “Korl makes a good point. I want to see an amulet that’s worth crossing the Known Lands to retrieve.” She patted Sass’s shoulder. “I’m dying to know what’s so special about this amulet, especially if the dwarf clan is known for their metalwork.”
Sass shrugged. It was a fair request, although she hadn’t laid eyes on the thing since she’d jammed it under the swayback mattress.
She’d almost forgotten about it entirely, which she knew was her way of trying to forget about what she’d left and the possibility that one day it would catch up with her.
“I have nothing to hide,” she said as she stood, “anymore, that is.”
Sass left her friends and hurried up to the room that she and Lira had shared until the half-elf had moved in with Korl.
Despite her friend’s absence, Sass hadn’t changed the room.
It still had two beds and a nightstand between them, with Lira’s old bed neatly covered with the vibrantly floral bedspread that matched her own.
As happy as she was for Lira and Korl, there were nights that she missed whispering in the dark with her friend or climbing out the window to sit on the roof and talk over the day’s events.
Before meeting Lira, Sass had never sat on a rooftop in her entire life.
Now, even with Lira living in the village, Sass would sometimes climb out onto the thatched roof to think.
Today, she didn’t glance at the window as she plunged her arm under the mattress.
Her fingers closed over the velvet bag, and she experienced both a small thrill and a pang of sadness that the amulet was still there.
There was no pretending that none of this was happening when she held the evidence of her past misdeeds in her hand.
Sass closed her bedroom door behind her and walked briskly down the stairs again, avoiding the one creaky step out of habit. She crossed the great room to her friends and pushed the tray of crumpets to one side.
“I haven’t laid eyes on this since I arrived,” she explained as she opened the dove gray, drawstring pouch, shook the amulet into her hand, and then laid it on the table.
The silver of the chain glittered, but it was the massive blue-green stone surrounded by metallic swirls and points that made everyone suck in their breath.
“What kind of stone is that?” Lira whispered as she leaned closer.
“The kind you cross a continent to find,” Vaskel growled, his voice carrying a warning that was impossible to miss.
Sass hadn’t worn the amulet since she’d fled the Ice Lands, but she touched her neck at the memory of how the jeweled sunburst had felt cool and menacing pressed to her skin. It reminded her exactly why she had run and why she would never go back.