Page 7 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
The dwarf cocked her head to one side. “Who’s to say I would ever trust an elf?”
Lira bristled. “Half-elf,” she muttered before she could catch herself. How had the dwarf known that?
Before she could ask, the dwarf drew in a deep breath. “I can smell an elf from a thousand paces.”
Those were bold words, considering dwarves’ reputations for avoiding baths. But Lira held her tongue as she took a sidestep toward the door. “You don’t want to waste time killing me. Besides, it would make noise and then you’d have to clean up a body.”
Despite her brandished weapon, there was no part of Lira that believed the dwarf would hurt her. Sizing up people was something she could do in an instant, and without knowing precisely how she knew, she was certain the dwarf was harmless. Scared, yes. Desperate, perhaps. But not deadly.
The dwarf bobbled her head back and forth, but she didn’t lower her weapon or take her gaze off Lira. “You tell anyone you saw me here, I’ll spare the noise and mess to kill you.”
“Fair enough.” Lira continued to edge toward the door as the dwarf followed her. She didn’t break eye contact as she opened the door and stepped out into the night.
She inhaled the cool air and allowed herself a normal breath as she backed away from the tavern and the dwarf thief standing silhouetted in the open doorway. There was little doubt in Lira’s mind that shecould have taken her in a fight, but it was more important to get away and regroup. Only then could she formulate a plan to return and break through the wall.
Lira swiveled her head to take in the scraggly bushes between the tavern and the stream, grateful to hear nothing but the burbling water and chirping crickets. That is, until a deep-throated bellow of rage from inside the tavern tore through the quiet.
Her chest hitched as she stumbled even farther from the door and the terrifying roars.
Four
In the wakeof the shouts, the dwarf lost little time rushing from the tavern and straight into Lira, her panicked exit sending them both to the ground and into the slick, brown mud.
“Get off me!” Lira pushed the woman and tried to stand, but her hands couldn’t find purchase in the sludge that was as thick as abandoned porridge. She slipped and splattered back down onto her elbows, letting loose a torrent of curses that would have made her gran smack her hand.
“You’re in my way,” the dwarf huffed as she used Lira for leverage to right herself.
“Only becauseyou ran into me.”
The creature muttered indignant protests that Lira would have loved to argue point by point if the hairs on the back of her neck hadn’t started to prickle. As she looked up, her breath caught in her throat and her mouth went dry.
The back doorway was completely filled by the bulk of the tavernkeeper who stood watching them with a hefty club in his hands. “A dwarf and an elf—together?”
Lira wanted to correct him and say that she was only half elf, but she doubted the distinction mattered to him.
“We’re not—” the dwarf started to say as she took a step back.
“—sure which way he went,” Lira finished the sentence, earning her a confused look from the dwarf and the human.
“Who went?” the tavernkeeper growled, as he smacked the wooden club into the palm of his hand.
“The burglar, of course. Isn’t that why you ran out?” Lira managed to get up and steady herself in the traitorous soup of soil.
Durn shifted his gaze from one female to the other, his brows pinched. “Aye. I heard a noise downstairs. Then I came down and sawthe till laying out and you two back here.”
Lira made a point of rubbing her side. “We’re back here because we heard him too.”
“You heard someone inside my tavern?”
“That’s right.” Lira waved a hand at the door. “We thought it was odd for noises to come from a darkened tavern, so we walked closer to check it out. That was when he ran out the door and flattened both of us.”
“Knocked us right over,” the dwarf nodded her head in agreement. “We tried to stop him, but he was bigger than either of us.”
“A thief?” The man held the club suspended in the air as he seemed to consider this. “Ran out of my place and into you?”
“Why do you think we were both on the ground?” Lira opened her arms wide and glanced around her. “We would have stopped him if the ground wasn’t so soggy.”
The man tilted his head to one side. “You want me to believe that an elf and a dwarf are loitering outside my tavern at night because they tried to stop a thief?”
