Page 6

Five

Lira’s boots creaked on the narrow stairs as she followed Durn's broad back. The tavernkeeper’s gruff demeanor hadn't improved since their encounter downstairs, but at least he'd bought their story about the goblin burglar. And at least he’d remembered her gran.

Thanks, Gran. Lira’s throat tightened as she thought of the woman who’d raised her, but she swallowed hard. The last thing she needed was to show weakness in front of the dwarf.

She cast a quick look over her shoulder as Sass trudged behind her, the dwarf's steps cautious and heavy.

At the top of the stairs, Durn shouldered open a warped door. "This'll be your room," he grunted, ducking inside.

Lira had to stoop to enter, her eyes adjusting as the candle in Durn’s hand sent shadows dancing across the cramped space. Two narrow beds flanked a battered nightstand, and their frames sagged under thin mattresses. A chipped washbasin perched atop the squat dresser, accompanied by an earthenware pitcher, and a ladder-back chair with a splintered, rattan seat leaned against one wall. The fireplace beside it yawned empty and cold, only a smattering of ash in place of fresh logs or a thick chunk of peat.

The smell hit her next—the air musty and stale, with hints of mildew and mouse droppings. Lira wrinkled her nose but held her tongue. This room, as uninviting as it was, put her one step closer to retrieving what she’d buried in the cellar.

Durn used his candle to light a hurricane lamp on the nightstand, the flame dancing behind the dusty veil of glass. "There's your light. Don't burn the place down." With that, he stomped out, leaving Lira and Sass alone in the flickering shadows.

Lira’s gaze slid to her unlikely companion. The dwarf's face was smudged with dirt, her clothes caked in mud from their tumble outside. Lira knew she looked no better.

Sass broke the silence first. "Well, this is right cozy.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm, which amused Lira. She never imagined dwarves having much of a sense of humor.

"Beats a jail cell."

Sass lifted a brow and wrinkled her nose. “Not by much.”

Lira wanted to ask how many jail cells Sass had seen the inside of, but exhaustion overtook her curiosity. The weight of her journey had seeped through skin and muscle to nest in her bones.

Things hadn’t gone as planned, but they could have been worse. She was alive, she wasn’t being held in a dungeon, and she was close to her gran’s book and her stash of gold. A few floors above it, but that was enough for now.

“These beds don’t look like much.” Sass pressed one hand on the mattress closest to her and it shrank from her touch, sagging even closer to the floor from the pressure. “But I don’t suppose it would be right to cover them in mud.”

Lira glanced at her own cloak flecked with red-brown, shrugging it off and draping it over the ladder-back chair that blessedly did not splinter from the impact. She dropped her leather satchel on the floor next to it, grateful that she had more than just the clothes on her back.

Without a word, Sass began peeling off her muddy clothes and her shoulder armor, a startling number of blades emerging from waistbands and pockets. Lira winced as she untied her leather waistcoat, her ribs signaling that she’d bruised them at the very least. When she’d stripped down to a linen tunic, she collapsed onto one of the beds, ignoring the ominous creaking beneath her and the fact that her toes tickled the foot of the wooden bed frame.

Sass clambered into the other bed with less care, her tunic frayed at the edges and reaching nearly to her knees. The dwarf’s toes were in no danger of dangling off the end.

“So—” Sass kept her eyes on the ceiling. “Why didn't you turn me in—really?”

Lira considered the question. "Call it a hunch," she finally replied. "You don't strike me as a career criminal. Figured you must have your reasons."

The dwarf grunted. "Aye, well, things have been rough since I left home. Not many crews are willing to take on an untested dwarf, much less a female one.”

Lira understood feeling unwanted more than she cared to admit.

“My best gig so far was tending bar near the docks of Eldu. The place wasn’t much, but I kept it looking decent.” Sass’s smile was fleeting. “But I had to move on.”

Lira didn’t ask why, but from the dwarf’s stormy expression she guessed it hadn’t been her choice. There wasn’t much between the port town of Eldu and Wayside, which meant Sass could have been traveling through dense forest or along rocky cliffs for days.

“You come from the Ice Lands?” The mountains in the territory above the long wall were where most of the dwarves lived, mining deep under the high peaks. It wasn’t far from Eldu.

Sass grunted a yes then turned her head, her long braid flopping across the pillow as she faced Lira. “Why did you say I didn’t strike you as a criminal?”

A wry smile tugged at Lira's lips. “You weren’t very good at it, were you? Any thief worth their salt would have just taken the box and hoofed it.”

Sass's indignant splutter dissolved into a throaty chuckle. “I didn’t need the box. If that wyvern was right, the box is filled with gold. I only needed a few bits to tide me over until I could get work.”

Lira was certain the tavern’s till wasn’t filled with gold. Not if the shabbiness of the place was any indication. No, that wasn’t the gold the wyvern smelled, but she wasn’t about to correct Sass.

“Like I said,” Lira cut her gaze to the dwarf and grinned, “not a real thief.”

Sass opened her mouth as if to ask a question but then clamped her lips shut. Lira felt sure she was going to ask her how she knew so much about thieves, and was glad she didn’t have to offer a pretty lie.

Lira couldn’t tell the dwarf that she sensed other talents in her or that her instincts about people had rarely led her astray. That might lead to more questions about how she’d become such an astute observer of others and how she’d used that talent for questionable ends.

Before the dwarf could change her mind about pressing the matter, Lira leaned over and blew out the candle, soaking the room in inky darkness. As she settled back onto the bed that smelled of mildewed straw, a sigh escaped from Sass. Whether it was one of exhaustion or frustration, Lira couldn’t say.

She stared into the blackness, her own weariness doing battle with the thoughts tumbling through her mind. She didn’t know how she was going to break through that wall without getting caught, but one thing she’d learned during her time away from Wayside was that campaigns were not strategized in a night .

For now, no one knew where she was. No one knew her plan. Most importantly, the wyvern had no idea that the gold he sought was buried behind a wall in the tavern’s cellar. Time was on her side—for now.