Page 13 of Bull Moon Rising

“So you must be good with a sword,” I venture, tensing until she sits down again. “That’s an excellent skill to have if you’re looking to join the guild.”

Lark grimaces. “Alas, the only skill I have with the sword is actually juggling it, and I don’t think the ratlings would be much impressed with that.”

“Ratlings? What’s a ratling?” Gwenna asks. “This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing.”

Oh, have I not told Gwenna about the dangers of our soon-to-be profession? “You know the tunnels below Vastwarren? The Everbelow?”

“The ruins, aye.” Gwenna nods.

Lark leans in and mock-whispers, “They’re totally crawling with these huge, oversized rats.” She flings her arms out and stretches them as far as she can to indicate the size, then frowns and twists her body sideways, trying to indicate height. “That tall. Big. Nasty. Smelly. And they swarm.”

The look Gwenna shoots me is one of alarm. “No one’s ever mentioned ratlings to me.”

“I’m sure they’re not as common as they seem,” I say, dismissing her fear. From what I’ve heard, cave-ins are far more likely. “But this is why everyone who joins the guild learns sword work.”

“Mucking lovely,” Gwenna mutters. “Human-sized rats.”

“More like child-sized,” Lark corrects. “Or slitherskin-sized.” Shelifts her beer and chugs it until she drains it, then pounds on her chest and lets out an unholy belch. “So you two wanna join the guild?”

“We’ve said that, yes.” I give her a tactful smile, but it takes everything I have not to fan the air in front of my face to get rid of the burp smell.

“Three times,” Gwenna adds helpfully. “Should you be drinking this much?”

Lark shrugs. “You’re not drinking enough, if you ask me.”

Because I want Lark to be happy with us, I lift my beer and take a sip. And then I cough. By Asteria, that is theworstflavor. It tastes like piss, a far cry from the expensive wines of my father’s hold. But I smile between coughs and take another drink—or pretend to. Gwenna seems unbothered, taking a large swig and then swiping at her foamy lip.

“I went to the guild meeting this morning,” I tell Lark. “Just like the guild pamphlets say to do. And before I could even sit down, they kicked me out. Said I didn’t belong because I was a woman. That I’d be distracting to the others in the tunnels.”

“Cocks,” Lark swears viciously. “Cocks, all of them.”

I’m a little startled by her vehemence, but Gwenna giggles and takes a larger drink of her beer. “I like her,” she says, leaning over to me.

“I’ve met several, and they’re all cocks,” Lark continues, swiping my mug and taking a drink. She really is quite drunk, if her glassy eyes are any indication. “Specially the leader. He’s the biggest cock of them all.”

“Is his name Rooster?” I ask.

She pounds on the table and then points at me. “Yes! How did you know?”

“Because that’s who I met.” My heart sinks and I start to worry this is going to be all for nothing. Not that Lark isn’t fun. Gwenna’s having a great time, and Lark seems nice, if a little beer-happy. “He’s the one who told me I couldn’t join.”

“That cock,” Lark says again with a shake of her head. She waves at the innkeeper. “More beer for us! We’ve dealt with too many COCKS today.” She shouts the word across the inn.

Gwenna just snort-giggles into her beer.

“I don’t know what to do,” I confess, my hands curling around myhalf-full mug of beer. “This was the plan—to show up and get accepted into the guild trainee program. I don’t have the funds to bribe someone.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Lark says. “You can join my fledgling group. We need five and right now we’ve got four. The two of you join and that makes five!”

“That makes six,” Gwenna corrects.

Lark squints at her.

Gwenna shakes her head and reaches over to pat Lark’s hand. “Just keep drinking. So how do you know we can join your class if the guild leader said no?”

“And how is it you can join and you’re a woman?” I protest. This doesn’t seem fair. Lark’s going to be a trainee?

Lark beams at the innkeeper when she arrives with three more mugs of beer. She pays the woman and hugs her beer to her chest, sighing happily. “I’m going to miss you,” she tells it. “So, so much.”

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