Page 174 of Of Blood & Stone

What a joy, he’d decided, it was to be alive.

Epilogue

THREE MONTHS LATER

Sylzenya washed her hands in a water basin, cleaning off the dirt caked underneath her nails. The two men she’d been training joined her, their fingers stained with blueberry juice. They’d come a long way in creating blueberry bushes in only a few short days, and she was grateful for their eagerness to help the fishing village.

Salt carried in the air, a scent Sylzenya still wasn’t accustomed to, but she liked it nonetheless.

It was different, and she liked different.

“Tavern?” One of the men asked, clearly too tired to say any other words.

“Please,” Sylzenya replied, the sound of beer—or anything thatwasn’twine—a relief.

They trudged through the village, children laughing and running around the wooden homes. The repairs Elnok and his crew had been working on for roofs and shattered windows had started to show after spending a little over a week in the village. Warm torchlights cut through the maritime fog as they approached the dimly lit tavern.

Opening the door, Sylzenya groaned in relief at the scent of hearty stew and malty beer.

“Ah, there they are!” Nyla shouted from the other end of the tavern, standing at a table closest to the bar.

The men Sylzenya was training rushed ahead of her and sat with Nyla and the rest of Elnok’s crew. Sylzenya followed, Nyla’s face lit up as she motioned for her to sit with her. One of Elnok’s crew members grabbed her stew and beer. Sylzenya hummed with satisfaction at the taste of starchy potato and warm spicy broth.

Nyla stood up again, waving her hands as she continued a story they must’ve interrupted.

“And then Elnok unleashes his whip and, thwap,” Nyla slapped her hand against her thigh, the veins in her arms crackling with yellow light, “the arachni screamed so loud I swear to the gods my ears bled!”

“What’d you do with the body?” Orym asked, slurping on his stew.

“Carried it to the ocean,” Nyla replied, sitting back down, “Didn’t want to take our chances with whatever the kids would do with a dead arachni carcass.”

Orym laughed. “Yeah, those kids really did a number to that other one in the last village.”

Sylzenya shivered. “What’d they do with the eyes again?”

“Stuck them on wood poles and paraded them through the town telling everyone toworship the great arachni killer.”

Sylzenya rolled her eyes, waiting for Elnok to chime in on how he and Nylashouldbe worshiped for such endeavors, but it never came. Searching the table, she placed her spoon down. Elnok wasn’t at the table.

“Wow, that took you longer than I thought,” Nyla said.

“I believe that’s five gold coins for me,” Orym sang as he held out his hand to Nyla.

“You bet on how long it’d take me to realize Elnok wasn’t here?”

Everyone laughed. Sylzenya sighed.

“Yeah,” Nyla replied, “and thanks to your tiredness, I lost five gold coins to thisthief.”

“Ah ah, this was a simple bet. I’m a law-abiding citizen now, remember? We all are.”

The crew cheered, sloshing their beers together and taking long drinks. Sylzenya joined, finishing her glass.

“Where is he then?” Sylzenya asked.

Orym’s smile vanished. “He’s just over the hill behind the inn, a cliffside that looks out to the ocean. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind some company.”

The way Orym’s body stiffened made questions tumble through her mind.

---