Page 9 of Sorcery, Swords & Scones (Tales from the Tavern #2)

Nine

Sass ducked around Lira, gaping as she saw who was making all the racket. It wasn’t Florin or the dwarf search party. But itwasa dwarf. Well, a dwarf and a Tiefling.

“Vaskel, let him go!” Lira’s hands were squarely on her hips as she eyed her former crew mate grappling with Thrain.

Vaskel jerked up, which gave Thrain a chance to slip from the Tiefling’s headlock. “But he was sneaking around the tavern, and I’m pretty sure I saw him skulking around last night.”

“I wasn’t skulking.” Thrain’s face was red as he brushed his hair off his face and tugged his tunic back into place. “I came down to see if there was breakfast to be had.” He sniffed the air, which carried a hint of the spices bubbling on the stove. “It smells good.”

“That’s the chai,” Lira said, quirking her lips when the dwarf’s grin faded.

“What do you mean you came down?” Vaskel flicked his gaze to the stairs that led to the rooms over the tavern, which had only ever been occupied by the former tavernkeep, Durn, and then Lira and Sass.

Then he seemed to notice that the dwarf wore nothing but a long tunic over linen breeches.

“What’s going on? Are we letting out rooms now? ”

Sass cleared her throat. “Not exactly. Thrain is a friend of mine from home.”

Vaskel’s fiery expression inched toward embarrassment, and his pointed tail ceased slashing behind him. “Well, why didn’t you say you were a friend of Sass?”

Thrain rubbed the back of his neck as he peered at the tall, crimson-skinned creature. “You didn’t give me much time for introductions.”

Vaskel pivoted to Sass and pinned her with a stern look. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a visitor? Is this why you were so jumpy last night?”

Sass swallowed hard as she felt Lira’s eyes on her. She owed Vaskel the same honesty she’d finally given Lira. “Yes and no. I didn’t know it was Thrain who’d tracked me down.”

Lira gestured to the kitchen with the point of her knife. “Why don’t I work on breakfast while you bring Vaskel up to speed?”

Sass nodded, her nerves jangling even though she shouldn’t be nervous.

She’d already told Lira, who was the one she’d kept secrets from the longest. Telling the Tiefling, who no doubt had a bevy of his own closely held secrets, should be easy.

Then why did her heart race as she led Vaskel and Thrain into the great room?

Instead of taking up his usual post behind the bar, Vaskel took a seat at the end of one of the long tables. Sass sat across from him, and Thrain hesitated for a moment before choosing the spot next to her.

“So this fellow is your friend, but you were afraid he was someone else?” Vaskel jerked his head toward Thrain. “Someone you wouldn’t be sitting calmly next to right about now?”

Sass rubbed her hands down the front of her apron. “Aye, that’s the gist of it. I told Lira I left the Ice Lands because I didn’t want to be a miner, which was true, but the whole truth is that I ran away from an arranged marriage.”

This made Vaskel’s dark brows lift. “You’re a runaway bride? ”

“She’s a bride who ran away from a royal wedding,” Thrain added, which gained him a dirty look from Sass.

“A royal wedding?” Vaskel swept a hand through his black hair, his fingers bumping along the ridges of his scarlet horns. “Are you telling me you’re a princess, Sass?”

“That she is,” Thrain answered before Sass could.

“Thank you, Thrain,” she said through gritted teeth, pinning him with a scorching look. “Why don’t you let me tell it?”

Thrain lifted his hands as if in supplication. “Fine by me, lass, although it seems you’ve had plenty of time to tell folks before now.”

Sass dearly wished she had Lira’s newfound elf power to blast energy from her hands, but her angry glare seemed to do the trick, and Thrain crossed his arms and pressed his lips together.

“It’s true, I’ve kept my past a secret,” Sass told Vaskel when she turned her attention back to him, “but it was only because I left all that behind me. I came to Wayside for a fresh start. Not for folks to treat me differently because my family rules beneath the mountains.”

Vaskel nodded slowly. “We all have a past and things in it we’d like to forget. You don’t need to explain your reasons to me.”

Sass wondered exactly what secrets the Tiefling was keeping to himself, but she suspected they were much more scandalous than hers.

“You should know that my past is no longer in my past,“ Sass continued. “Thrain came here to warn me that my former fiancée has been searching for me with an armed party.”

“A former fiancée who stabbed another dwarf for calling her princess,” Thrain added, holding up a finger. “When she was four years old.”

Vaskel face went slack and he slid a worried glance to Sass. “It isn’t dwarf custom to put a runaway bride to death, is it?”

“Grognick’s beard!” Thrain said, rearing back. “Dwarves might be formidable warriors, but we aren’t brutes. ”

Vaskel didn’t look convinced. The story about Florin probably hadn’t helped.

“Florin isn’t coming to kill me. I took something when I left.” Sass shook her head, regretting her impulsive decision not for the first time. “It was an engagement present—an amulet crafted by Florin’s clan.”

Vaskel twirled the tip of his short beard with two fingers. “That’s a long way to travel for a piece of jewelry.”

“It’s not just for the jewelry,” Lira said as she emerged from the kitchen with a tray in her hand. “Her jilted ex wants Sass back.”

Vaskel leaned back as Lira slid the tray onto the table in front of them. Rounds of pale, pockmarked bread filled a plate, and a generous scoop of butter clung to the lip. A pewter pot of jam sat off to the side with a spoon balanced across the lip.

“Your dwarven flatbread has a few holes in it,” Thrain told Lira as he eyed the offering.

Sass elbowed him, but Lira was already laughing.

“This isn’t dwarven flatbread. These are crumpets, and they’re supposed to have holes.”

Sass breathed in the rich scent of the steam rising from the plate.

“Go on,” Lira said. “But make sure you put butter and jam on them.”

Vaskel didn’t hesitate to pick up one round, slathering first butter then jam before he bit into it.

Thrain picked up a crumpet but took his time sniffing and eyeing it. “I thought that flying weasel was called Crumpet.”

“Flutterstoat.” Lira flashed Thrain a tolerant smile. “And he’s named after crumpets because he’s so good at baking.”

This made the dwarf’s bushy brows pop high. “I’ve always heard that the Ageless Lands were peculiar…”

Sass scowled at him. “Just eat, you grump.”

Thrain frowned, but then shoved the entire crumpet in his mouth .

“I didn’t think I could like anything more than your scones,” Vaskel mumbled around the mouthful of crumpet, “but I could eat a hundred of these.”

Sass took her time smoothing butter over the pockmarked surface of her crumpet, letting the butter melt into the holes before coating it with sticky jam. Lira watched as she took her first bite, grinning when Sass moaned and let her eyelids flutter shut.

They didn’t have the sweet punch of Pip’s lemon rolls, but there was something seductive about their savory flavor. Like Vaskel had said, they made you want to eat a hundred of them.

“How long have you known about the dwarf search party coming for Sass?” Vaskel asked Lira as he wiped the crumpet crumbs from his mouth and flicked them from his beard.

“Since last night.”

Vaskel folded his arms over his chest. “Then if I know you at all, you’ve been doing more than working on new recipes.”

Lira’s grin quirked into a mischievous smirk. “You know me too well, Vask.”

The door of the tavern swung open, and Thrain leapt to his feet, fumbling for a weapon when he spotted the figure silhouetted in the doorway. “Hells and cinders!”