Page 12 of Sorcery, Swords & Scones (Tales from the Tavern #2)
Twelve
Sass tucked the amulet firmly back under her mattress where it couldn't cause any more trouble, but she lingered in her room. She couldn’t bear to go back downstairs and face all the questions, all the curious looks.
Not yet, at least. Instead, she clambered out her bedroom window and onto the roof, the rough thatch beneath her palms damp with the morning's dew, though the midday sun was doing its best to burn it away.
The first time she’d found Lira sitting on the roof, she’d been baffled, but now she understood it.
From her perch, she could see the whole of the village spread before her.
Whitewashed buildings pressed together as if for warmth, smoke twirled lazily from chimneys, and the chatter of daily life drifted up to her.
Voices called out, cart wheels creaked along the dirt road, and horses snuffled and whinnied.
Sass caught the whiff of Pip’s bakery on the breeze, her stomach responding with the barest rumble, though it was more memory than hunger. She'd eaten her fill of Lira's crumpets, but there was something about the smell of baking bread that made her mouth water.
Across the stream, the rhythmic splash of the waterwheel beside the blacksmith and wheelwright shop melded with the clang of hammer on anvil.
Sass was all too familiar with the sound of striking metal.
Those sounds had echoed beneath the mountains in the Ice Lands, but here she didn’t shiver from the cold or squint through darkness.
Here, the sounds felt warm. They felt like belonging.
The clip-clop of horses' hooves on the dirt road drew her attention to the main thoroughfare, where a merchant's wagon ambled toward the market square. The driver bellowed a greeting to someone Sass couldn't see, and the easy familiarity of it made her heart squeeze.
She wrenched her knees to her chest and circled her arms around them, her dark plait falling over one shoulder. The Ice Lands had never felt like home, not really. It had been the place she was born, the place where her family's expectations had weighed on her like stone.
But Sass had wanted a different life.
She'd wanted to feel sunlight on her face and breathe air that didn't smell of rock dust and forge fires. She'd wanted to meet people who didn't know her family name, who didn't have expectations about what she should be based on her lineage, who would like her just for her.
She’d found that in Wayside. She’d found a place where she could make a difference and found people who knew nothing about her past. People who’d become her family. People who’d become home.
And now she might lose it all.
The thought of the amulet twisted her stomach into a hard ball of dread. It wasn't just a piece of jewelry. It was a link to her past, a chain that could drag her back to the Ice Lands whether or not she wanted to go.
She pressed her face against her knees, breathing in the scent of her own wool skirt and the lingering smell of the tavern's hearth smoke that clung to her clothes.
Would she have to run again? Would she have to pack her few belongings in the dead of night and slip away before dawn, leaving nothing but a cold bed and unanswered questions?
The thought of Lira coming to the tavern to find her gone made her throat burn with unshed tears.
Or worse—would she have to return to the Ice Lands? If the political situation was as tenuous as Thrain said, if her refusing to return could somehow bring retribution onto her family. . .
"You know," said a familiar voice from behind her, “you’re sitting in my spot.”
Sass didn't turn around, but she felt her lips curve in the first genuine smile she'd managed in a while. "Your spot?"
The thatch rustled as Lira climbed out and settled herself beside Sass, close enough that their shoulders touched. “I was the one who first christened this roof as a thinking spot. If I remember correctly, you thought I was mad to sit on the roof.”
“That was back when the roof was so rotten I almost lost a leg in it.”
Lira bumped her shoulder against Sass's. “But I caught you before you took the shortcut to the first floor.”
“Aye, you did. I’m grateful to you for that, and to Korl and Val for fixing the roof so sitting out here doesn’t risk life or limb.”
They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments before Lira wrapped her arm around Sass’s shoulder. "We're going to figure it out. All right?"
Sass leaned into the embrace, drawing strength from Lira's certainty even as her own world felt like it was splintering around the edges. "What if you can't? What if there's no way to figure it out?"
“You’re talking to a woman in possession of a spell book she doesn't know how to use.I'll practice the spells until I find one that can keep you safe, even if it means I have to turn everyone in Wayside into newts.”
"I hope you'd only turnsomepeople into newts," Sass managed, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand .
“I wish Silas still came around. I would have liked to see him as a newt.”
Sass snorted a laugh at the memory of the curmudgeon who’d once been a regular. “Vaskel would make a particularly handsome newt.”
“I won’t tell him you said that. It would only go to his already inflated head.”
The pair laughed together before they lapsed into silence again, but it was an easy quiet, one softened by shared laughter and the simple comfort of not being alone with her fears.
“Well, I’d better get back to the kitchen,” Lira said suddenly, straightening. “I need to start the cinnamon scones.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“And Sass?” Lira’s tone made her turn to face her fully. “Don’t worry about Val. She’ll understand.”
Sass felt heat bloom across her cheeks like she'd stuck her face too close to a forge. “I’m not worried. We’re just?—”
“I know, I know. You’re just friends. She’s only teaching you to knit." Lira winked. "And Korl was just bringing me a new stove because he wanted to eat more scones."
Sass shot her a look. "That's completely different."
"Is it?" Lira was already moving toward the window, preparing to climb back inside, but she looked back over her shoulder with a grin that was pure mischief. "Is it really?"
And with that, she disappeared through the window, leaving Sass alone on the roof with her scorched cheeks and new worries about how she was going to explain all her secrets to the guard.