Page 21 of Ogres Don't Play

“Yaga, what are you doing? Are you trying to burn everybody’s hair off?” I asked, catching her by her feet, which never caught on fire, and trying to calm her down along with my own rapidly beating heart. I’d completely lost my mind. I had to get away from the luthier before something even worse happened. Yaga squawked and flapped her fiery wings because we hadn’t been getting enough attention. There was probably a vampire somewhere that hadn’t seen my public demonstration of my single-minded devotion to my stolen career. Right.

“Lanise will accompany you,” Rook said, gesturing at the stolid female who didn’t look shocked at seeing her uncle being publicly kissed by a crazed musician. She was probably used to musicians getting this way about Rook the Luthier. That made sense. Said luthier was backing away from me, a peculiar expression on his face, puzzled, like I was a seriously weird female he hadn’t seen coming. He had no idea. Literally, my public kissing was only the tip of the iceberg to my weirdness, that not even I knew about.

My heart ached, and I bit my lip to keep from telling him that I was only joking, he didn’t need to run away, because I wasn’t going to throw myself at him again, but it was a good thing to put distance between us. Because my father would absolutely kill him. And I was intent on my music career, not marriage, particularly with an ogre.

“Oh, that’s not necessary for Lanise to guard me,” I said, shaking my head and folding my arms so I didn’t reach out for him. I really didn’t need the tenacious ogre to watch me as absolutely as she had when I was trying not to itch to death.

Rook frowned and jabbed a strong finger at me. “You owe me a life debt. You will accept the company of my niece and the armor which will protect you. You will also accept the work of my stone masters, who will assist you in rebuilding your hall.”

I stared at him, the mystical creature that had somehow become even more amazingly attractive with those magical words, ‘stone masters,’ and ‘rebuilding your hall.’ He stared back with those beautiful eyes. My chicken pecked my cheek, reminding me that the rest of the world existed. How long had I been staring at him? No idea. I had to get away from him before I tried to kiss him again. “Okay.”

He finally smiled, and I whirled around and marched off with Lanise close behind before I smiled back, and then touched him and tasted him and then dragged him to the hourly motel and really made a mess of our lives. My dad would kill him.

Gavriel was in town. I needed to track him down and find out what he knew about the goblin attack. If my father’s enemies knew where I was, I would have to hunt them down or hire someone else to do it for me. Gavriel was an excellent hunter. He’d worked for elves in a mercenary capacity. Maybe I could hire him. I’d pay him with my elven armor because I was broke. No, he could work on commission for my father if the threat came from that direction and not the goblin politics issue. Toobad I didn’t know anything about goblin politics, or their culture, or social structure. Sigh. I really needed to find Libby.

Libby was in the Library of Antiquities in one of the study rooms upstairs, frowning down at a book and a sheaf of papers she was marking up. The guy who had brought us to her knocked on the door, then pushed me inside before closing it on me leaving Lanise and Yaga outside.

Libby slammed the book shut and lurched towards me, grabbing me while I gasped and kind of froze. When she moved fast, she was lightning. “Are you okay? I heard about the goblin attack. Everyone in Song is absolutely furious about it, like that makes you feel better. Sit down! Why are you out of bed? Did you get badly injured? Where are your—” She gasped when she got a look at the fancy elven armor. “Mirabel, that would buy ten, no, twenty years of sushi at the best places in the world. Where did you get it?”

A firm knock sounded on the door and then it opened and Lanise stepped inside, my chicken under her arm, all of her looking like an ogre bodyguard plus dinner.

“Not leave,” Lanise growled.

I gestured at her and tried to look more professional. “This is my new acolyte at the music hall, Lanise, who is very eager to learn everything she can from me.”

Libby snorted. “How nice for you. You’re saying you got armor and a bodyguard? I heard that some ogre with political clout was stirring things up in the undercity, but I didn’t know he had money. I take it your kidnapper didn’t like anyone else taking advantage of your body.”

I took a deep breath and released it slowly as I tried not to let my mind dive into reliving the moment I’d woken up wrapped up in Rook the Luthier’s arms. I turned to smile at Lanise. “You need to wait outside while I talk to Libby. It’s personal.” I couldn’t talk about all the things I needed to with her there.

She sank into her stance, clearly not about to go anywhere. “I stay.”

So much for talking privately. I rubbed my forehead and turned to Libby. “Anyway, what were we talking about?”

She grabbed my tunic top and yanked it up, then poked my still bandaged core before prodding a lot more of my skin than I was used to showing. She let me pull the top back down, shaking her head. “This was bad, worse than I heard. You should be dead. What kind of magic did the ogre use on you? Did he feed you nefarious blood?”

“No, of course not. He’s just an incredibly capable healer. Truly, he’s absolutely remarkable at everything he does. Except kidnapping. He’s not a very good kidnapper.”

“Well, that’s okay, because the next time he kidnaps someone, he’ll have you to help him make it really effective. Here are the notes I took on the texts I’ve been going through on that subject you requested.” She shot a look at Lanise, because the ogre might not like that I was researching her kind. “And here’s a book that is the least obfuscated. Which isn’t saying much. There is so much contradictory information, it’s almost as if it’s intentional.” She glanced at Lanise, who looked back dully, like she was just a stupid ogre who had no capacity for subtlety. She definitely had tenacity, though.

“Food,” she said in a rumbling growl.

I stared at her. “What? Oh, right. Did you say something about taking me to get sushi?” I asked Libby. Lanise had been very fixed on my needing to get food before I did anything else. I’d only convinced her to let me stop at the library because it was supposed to be on my way to dinner with Libby who would pay.

Libby grinned at me. “Yes, I did. I think Anna’s going to be at the Cat’s Pause, then I can get you a ride back to the Music Hall after you’re stuffed to the gills. You shouldn’t be walking around in that condition.”

“I’m fine.”

She stared at me for a beat longer. “Mirabel, you’re not fine. You’re full up of whatever magic or drugs that are keeping the pain at bay, but they’re going to fade and you’re going to hurt. Whatever you do now while you feel fine is going to bite you in the butt.”

Lanise nodded. “I like friend. Food, now. Then bed.” Her glare said if I didn’t move, she’d gladly tie me up. It was not an idle threat.

I nodded and hurriedly gathered up the books and papers Libby’d gotten for me. Her notes were written in angelic runes. I blinked at them for a second before I checked the book. Yep, angelic runes. I was going to get a migraine reading that, but at least Lanise wouldn’t know what I was up to. How in the world had I ended up with elven armor and an ogre bodyguard when I couldn’t even afford to buy sushi?

We left the Library of Antiquities, moving slow, because I was starting to feel my injuries. I was also feeling the rush of whatever magical love dust was turning to a lurch of miserable aching. Would I never see Rook the Luthier again? I shouldn’t see him. I really shouldn’t, but it made me physically sick to think about it. Which is why I wasn’t thinking about it.

When we got out of the library, Lanise released Yaga, and my chicken squawked and fluttered over to me. I held her close and squeezed her tight while I took one slow step down the stairs at a time. The sushi bar was diagonal from the library, so not a far walk, but I was flagging by the time I got there. Inside, Anna was sitting on the piano singing at the top of her lungs some rock ballad while people clapped in time. She was one of the most musically interesting people that I’d ever met.

“Sit down. I’ll go get Anna,” Libby said, ushering me into a small table past the bar. Lanise took a position near the wallwhere she could watch everyone, not trying to blend in, which was good because it wouldn’t work.

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