Page 88 of Tusks, Tails & Teacakes
Everyone held their breath as the mechanism clicked. Lira lifted the lid, reaching for the cloth-wrapped book as the gold coins slid from the top and fell back into the box. Setting it on the table, she placed a hand on the linen wrapping, feeling a pulse warming her fingers.
Lira didn’t know if she was sensing the magic within the pages of the book or if it was her newly awakened elvish powers. She slipped the book from the fabric covering, smiling at the familiar leather cover andthe moonstone that still glowed milky-white, although considerably fainter than she remembered.
“So that’s a moonstone?” Sass wrinkled her nose, not impressed.
“It hasn’t been exposed to moonlight for a long time,” Lira explained. “That’s why it isn’t bright.”
Cali leaned forward from the overstuffed chair and eyed the leather-bound book from a distance. “Thisis the book you thought just contained recipes?”
Lira laughed. “I was much younger then, and I only remember catching a few glimpses of the cover before my gran would tuck it away. And she told me that the stone had lost any powers long ago.”
“Your gran planned to tell you everything,” Iris said, smiling wistfully at her friend’s spell book. “When you were older.”
Lira was no longer upset about the secrets. She understood that her gran had only wanted to protect her. After seeing the lengths Malek went to in order to obtain the book, she understood why her gran had lived in such secrecy.
“At least spell books aren’t outlawed. If that book wasn’t destroyed when all the others were rounded up, it’s yours to keep.” Vaskel grinned at Lira, his grin wicked. “Imagine what a crew could do with that and your powers.”
Lira shook her head at him. “No, thank you. My adventuring days are in the past.”
“You’re sure about that?” Cali asked.
Lira looked around the great room. Almost all the people she cared about were there, and most of them belonged right there in Wayside. Then she let her gaze linger on Korl. “I’ve never been surer about anything.”
“Sometimes the bravest thing an adventurer can do is plant roots instead of pulling up stakes,” Iris said.
Sass sniffed. “That sounds like something my mum would say.”
“It’s what Lira’s gran said to convince me to come with her to a tiny village and settle down.” Iris's eyes shone. “And I’ve never regretted it for a minute.”
Vaskel muttered something about what he could do with Lira’s powers, but Lira was too busy opening the book. She flipped through a few heavy pages until she landed on the one she wanted.
“Did you find a good spell?” Sass asked. “Maybe one that can enchant the brooms and make them sweep the floors themselves?”
Lira shook her head. “Better. I found my gran’s recipe for teacakes.”
“Cinders and dragon dung,” Sass grumbled.
Fifty-Four
Lira heldthe closed spell book on her lap as she sat on the thatched roof, with her cloak wrapped around her to fight off the chill. The moonstone glowed brighter, seeming to pulse with life, as it soaked up the light from the moon.
After all this time, she’d finally gotten what she came for. It had been a more circuitous route than she ever could have imagined, but she’d done it. She ran her fingers across the buttery-soft leather cover, the gilded symbols glittering, and released a satisfied breath.
It was an odd thing, though. She’d come to retrieve the book, and she’d ended up finding so much more than she’d expected. She’dleft Wayside to see the world and find herself, but it wasn’t until she’d come back home that she’d found what she’d been missing.
“Was this your plan?” she whispered to the book and hoped the spirit of her gran was listening. She wouldn’t have put it past the old woman to know what Lira would need long before she figured it out herself. Whether it was because she was a mage or because she was a gran, the woman had always been a few steps ahead.
Lira’s vision blurred as she thought of her gran’s wrinkled hands touching the same book cover and reading the same recipes. She might not be with Lira anymore, but the book, and all the happy memories tied to it, tethered them together still.
Lira thought of the shock of finding her hiding spot walled over, her clever plan to stay close to the book by offering to revive the tavern and pulling a wannabe dwarf burglar into her plan, the villagers who’d rallied around their efforts, and the friends who’d risked themselves to save her.
“I’m sure you didn’t plan for all of this to happen, but it turned all right in the end.” She touched a finger to the moonstone, surprised that the surface wasn’t cool anymore. “Then again, maybe you did intend all this to happen. I might not have stayed here if I’d been able to retrieve the book that first night.”
But ghosts couldn’t erect stone walls, could they?
A shuffling in the windowsill behind her made Lira turn.
“I thought you might be here,” Korl said as he stepped onto the thatched roof and lowered himself next to her.
