The gnome stared at her. “Just thinkin’ about what it feels like to be left behind. That’s all. She seems nice.”
Viv returned her look soberly. “Maylee wasn’t something I planned on. She knows what I am. Where I’m going.” She thought about what the dwarf had said about tiny windows and the people you could see through them, but didn’t think she could do it justice by repeating it. “It’s two people with both eyes open having a little fun for a few weeks. Hells, I’m hardlyever aroundanybodyfor very long.” She shook her head. “You know, this is not a conversation I figured I’d be having.”
“Yeah. Yeah, well.” Gallina cleared her throat and kicked at the sand. “Just thought I’d ask.”
Viv was nonplussed. She understood what she was doing, and so did Maylee. No lies, no secrets. So why did Gallina’s words unsettle her?
Well, the fastest way to get to the other side of unsettled was to muscle it out.
Leaning her stick against the fence, Viv slid out of her sandal, and removed her boot. She drew her saber from its scabbard and, keeping it low, stepped gingerly onto the open area of sand. “This place looks like it should work. Did I answer your question?”
Gallina pursed her lips. “Sure. None of my business anyway, huh?”
“Hey,” said Viv. “Look at me.”
The little gnome did.
“I’m a lot of things—gods know—but I don’t think I’m an asshole. And I think that’s the answer you really want, yeah?”
Viv made sure that Gallina met her gaze, and after a few moments, the gnome nodded. Viv had the strangest sensation that they’d both snapped into focus for one another, like blinking away sleep from a slow waking.
Dropping carefully into a defensive stance, Viv began the deliberate dance of the blade, feeling her muscles bunch and relax, the weight of steel balanced by a hundred contractions of flesh.
After a few seconds, Gallina drew two of her knives and began a parallel dance, different in a thousand ways but, underneath it all, with steps much the same.
19
“No staff today?” Fern’s brows rose in surprise.
“I wasn’t going far,” said Viv. “I brought lunch.”
“Isn’t it sort of early?” the rattkin asked skeptically.
“For lunch? Oh, theleg.” Viv shrugged. “I trust my body to tell me what it’ll put up with. Got to listen to that before anybody else.” She set a wrapped paper parcel on the counter and a stack of books beside it. “Besides, I talked to Highlark yesterday. He rebound it and made a lot of grumbling noises, but this time I think he was annoyed because it’s healingwell.”
“And why would that annoy him?” asked Fern as she examined the parcel.
“Nobody likes a showoff,” Viv said with a grin that she knew would annoy the elf if she were fool enough to flash it in his presence. “Especially not surgeons.”
“And what’s in here, hm?” Fern fingered the twine binding the package.
“Maylee said she tried something from the gnomish cookbook. That’s all I know. Open it.”
Fern needed no further prompting and untied the neat bow. Unfolding the paper, she revealed several flaky pastries, scoredacross their tops, oozing preserved fruit. She picked one up and took a bite. “Eight hells,” she breathed. “If you were sweet on Maylee for nothing but the food, I’d hardly blame you.”
“Everybody’s got an opinion on that, don’t they?” grumbled Viv, coloring slightly.
“Kiss who you want. You’re grownups.I’mjust grateful for the side benefits.” She patted the books with a paw. “You’re done with these?”
Fern withdrew a book from under the counter and set it next to Viv’s pile. “I’ve been meaning to spring this on you, and I think you’re ready.”
Viv ran a thumb over a rich green clothbound cover. “The Lens and the Dapplegrim?”
“It’s a mystery.”
“You mean you don’t know what it’sabout?”
“No, it’s a genre. The book isabouta mystery and how it gets solved.”
