Gallina dropped by off and on, usually on the pretext of visiting Potroast. More often than not, though, she ended up hanging around for a while on one of the chairs.
The inactivity was good for Viv’s leg, which regained some of the ground she’d lost after her inadvisable tussle in the street. Highlark even seemed grudgingly satisfied with her progress. But the quiet did nothing to relieve her restlessness over the whereabouts of the Ravens, and a hundred imagined scenarios where she missed their return, or they didn’t return at all. Rackam surely wasn’t the sort to break his word, but Viv was hardly a veteran of the company. She couldn’t silence a nagging voice that said he’d be happy to be well shut of a reckless orc that got herself into trouble she couldn’t get out of.
Words were the best distraction she could hope for.
“All right,” she said, entering the shop. “I finished the book.” The fog was piled high up the slope in front of the building, and it curled behind her like cold smoke.
Potroast regarded her with narrowed eyes and hid behind some shelves.
“Oh, really? Took you long enough. Too many chapters only suitable for your room?” Fern smirked at her from behind the counter.
“Hm,” replied Viv.
“You know, she’s local.”
“Who is?”
“Zelia Greatstrider, the author. She lives around here.”
“InMurk?” Viv asked incredulously. She unbuckled her sword-belt and hid her blade in its accustomed place. She slidSea of Passiononto the counter.
“Yes, well, some of uslikeit here,” replied Fern, pulling the book toward her and running a paw down the front. “She’s got a family estate a little north. I’ve seen her once or twice, but I don’t think she gets down this way very often. Probably sends somebody else. She’s very… veryregal.”
For some reason, the concept of an author being a real person you might bump into on your way down the street seemed impossible to imagine. “And she just… writes books?”
Fern gave her a funny look. “Got to happen some way. And she doesn’t just write books—she writes alotof books.”
“Like, how many more?” Viv asked, as indifferently as she thought she could get away with.
Fern’s lips curled into a grin that was positively feline, no small accomplishment given the circumstances. “You know, for a bookseller, it’sverysatisfying when you finally set the hook.”
Viv rolled her eyes.
“Let me see which ones I have on hand. I’ve been trying to finish this restocking order, and—”
The door creaked open, and it was hard to say who was more surprised when Pitts ducked in from the fog, moisture beading on his shaved scalp.
He stood awkwardly just inside the doorway, then held up the little orange book of poetry between two fingers. “Was wonderin’,” he said slowly, staring intently at a spot far above Fern’s head, “if you had another like this?”
“Hey, hon!”
After Pitts’s unexpected appearance at the shop, Viv thought she was done with surprises until Maylee slid into the chair across from her in The Perch.
“Hey…” Viv set her mug down slowly.
Maylee wore plain clothes, and for once, she wasn’t gleaming with sweat and heat, although her cheeks hadn’t lost their rosy flush. Her braid draped like a rope of flax over her shoulder, and in the lantern light, her eyes were luminous. It took Viv asecond to recognize it, but as a warrior accustomed to the hunt, the shiver of being pursued was novel.
“Brand!” hollered Maylee. “I’ll have the beef! And you got any of those little red potatoes? You know the ones I mean.”
Brand raised a tattooed arm in acknowledgment.
“And somethin’ to drink!” she added.
Viv slid her plate to the side and crossed her arms on the table. It seemed polite to wait. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you in here.” She lowered her voice and added, “And this is kind of embarrassing, but it feels weird to see you outside your bakery. You just seem to… I dunno,belongthere.” It had knocked her back to imagine Zelia Greatstrider marching around Murk, but seeing Maylee out and about seemed equally improbable. And yet, here she was.
“Hm, well, if that surprises you, you shoulda seen me a couple years ago.”
“Oh, yeah?” Viv’s brows rose.
