Page 46

Forty-Five

“So, you told him everything?”

Sass hadn’t been asleep when Lira had slipped into their room, the fire still crackling in the hearth and the candle flickering on the bedside table, so Lira had told her what had happened, from walking Vaskel to the inn, to thinking she was being followed and running into Korl, to him taking her to his dads’ home and her telling them of her life after leaving Wayside.

Sass fiddled with the end of her braid. “And the book? Did you tell them what it is?”

Lira divested herself of her thick cloak and day dress and then sank onto her bed in her shift, the weariness of the day replacing the heaviness of the garments. “Not that it’s actually a spell book and that my gran was a mage. I couldn’t bear to spoil their memories of my gran. They knew her as a sweet old lady who baked them cakes.”

“You reckon they’d think differently if they knew?”

Lira shrugged. “Probably not, but I’m still coming to terms with it. Besides, Iris hasn’t given me leave to tell folks in the village her part in this. She might not want everyone knowing what she was and how she knew my gran.”

Sass moved her head up and down thoughtfully. “People are entitled to their secrets.”

“That’s what I think.”

Lira did believe that, even though learning that her gran had kept so many secrets from her had been a shock. She’d wanted to hold onto her memories of her gran as they were, warm and sunny, but now she feared that every time she thought about her gran, the thoughts would be tainted by everything she hadn’t known.

Lira gave her head a shake and shoved her feet under the brazenly floral coverlet, as Sass snuggled deeper beneath her own covers.

“So, what did Korl say when he found out you were a rogue?”

“What do you think he said?”

Sass gave her a crooked grin. “Not much.”

“I will say that I’m starting to get pretty good at deciphering his different grunts and growls.”

“We do love a good growl.”

Both women laughed, and Lira reached over and blew out the candle.

“At least I know that he and Val are just friends,” Lira said through a yawn.

“How do you know that?”

Lira punched her pillow a few times to get it to the right shape. “Val told me. They’re best friends but that’s all.”

“I could have told you that,” Sass muttered through the shadowy darkness only lit by the firelight.

“I think you did tell me that. ”

Sass sighed heavily. “If you want a guy who’s going to profess his love to you and sweep you off your feet, I don’t think Korl is it. Your friend Vaskel would probably be that guy. He looks the type to be a feet-sweeper-offer.”

Lira laughed darkly. “You have no idea.”

“I think I can guess, and I think he’d be more than happy to have you be the object of his attentions.” Sass sat up in bed again and propped herself up on one elbow, her face partially illuminated by the dying fire. “But I also think if you wanted the Tiefling, you wouldn’t be here.”

“Vaskel and I are nothing but friends,” Lira said.

“Smart.” Sass flopped back onto her pillow. “I think he’d be a whole lot of work.”

Lira chuckled at this, thinking of Vaskel’s dramatic shifts in mood. No, the passionate but volatile fighter had never been her type.

She stared at the beams in the ceiling. With everything that was going on and as much change as had happened in her life, the last thing she should be thinking about was love. But as she drifted to sleep, Lira hoped it was what occupied her dreams.