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Adry dragged him to a table where a dwarf was selling leather bracers and vambraces etched with patterns. She picked one up, turning it over in her hands.

The dwarf behind the booth drew in a breath, but before he could speak, Fieran and Pip wandered over and joined Merrik and Adry.

Merrik tensed. This was just the sort of thing that always set Fieran and Adry to bickering.

Sure enough, as Fieran reached for one of the bracers, Adry bumped him, shooting him an annoyed look. “I was looking at them first.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look too.”

“It does if I intend to buy a set.” Adry’s posture straightened, her eyes flashing. “You don’t need to have the same things as me.”

Of course. Merrik huffed and barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “The two of you can share, you know.”

Nudging him with her elbow, Adry raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re supposed to be on my side now.”

“I am on the side of sense. As I have always been.” Merrik held her gaze, unable to fully suppress his smile. He kept his tone light, knowing that would diffuse the situation. “Which, in most cases, is neither side.”

“Ouch. I’d be offended, but he has us there.” Adry shared a grin with Fieran, the two of them already back to sibling teasing instead of rivalry.

Fieran’s return grin held a self-deprecating edge. “Admit it. We wouldn’t know what to do without Merrik’s sense.”

He leaned over as Pip whispered something into his ear that made him laugh.

Merrik released a breath. Good. The bickering had been washed away just like that.

When Fieran picked up one of the bracers with a geometric dwarven design, the dwarf behind the booth spoke up, as if to get in his piece before anything else happened. “The bracers are layered with thin reticulated metal reinforced with dwarven magic. Guaranteed to stop an ax from chopping off your hand.”

“Handy if you are invested in not losing any more limbs.” Merrik forced his tone to remain light as he traced the elven tree design on one of the bracers. The joke hurt, a little too true. And yet it felt good to joke about it as well. If he could laugh at the difficulty of losing his leg, then he would be all right.

“How about this?” Pip straightened to her full, five-foot height, her tone calmly sensible. “As long as the two of you don’t have the same design…”

Merrik shared a look with Pip. It was rather nice to have a second voice of reason when it came to Fieran and Adry.

“Works for me.” Grinning, Adry snatched a set of vambraces with the elven trees on them as if to claim that design before Fieran could. She dug into her pocket. “I’ll take two sets in this design.”

“Adry…” Merrik put in the token protest, knowing she wouldn’t listen.

“Don’t blame me for wanting to spoil my boyfriend.” Adry grinned as she quoted his words back to him. She pressed a kiss to his cheek before she plunked the money on the table as if to make sure he couldn’t protest. She tugged on his hand. “You can always spoil me right back if you feel you must.”

He certainly intended to. He found himself grinning as Adry claimed a set of bracers in his size before dragging him on to the next booth.

The two of them browsed a few more tables. The farther they meandered along the alley, the more booths selling food items filled the space.

“Everyone has to try this.” Pip dragged Fieran across the way to a booth wafting a meaty, spicy scent. “It’s arkgghul, mushrooms stuffed with seasoned meat and baked in coals until well done. It’s amazing, if you don’t mind your food with a little kick.”

Lije and Stickyfingers, barely recovered from the last dwarven food they’d tried, hurried to join Pip and Fieran, Aylia rushing after them.

Mak ambled in that direction as well, a grin on his face. “It’s one of my favorite dwarven dishes.”

When Adry turned to Merrik, he released her hand and gave her a gentle nudge in that direction. “Go on.”

“You won’t try it, will you.” She shook her head with a fond smile.

“It smells far too spicy for me.” Merrik could tell just from the scent that he would regret it if he put something with that much spicy flavor in his mouth.

Nor was he the only one abstaining. Lt. Rothilion stood a few feet away, a faint curl to his mouth.

“I figured as much.” Adry laughed as she turned and headed across the street, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll just rub it in how amazing it is.”