Page 40 of Swordheart
She didn’t quite believe that was possible. Could the world simply snap back into place that easily?
Why shouldn’t it?
She opened the door and stepped inside.
It was early enough in the morning that a few guests were eating breakfast. They glanced up at her as she entered… and then looked away, uninterested.
Halla felt invisible and nearly fainted with relief.
Then the warmth of the fireplace hit her, and she thought she really would faint. It was glorious.
She pulled the door shut behind her and marched up to the counter to order breakfast.
The publican took her order, took her coin, and gestured her to a seat by the fire. “Ye look cold,” he said.
“I amfreezing,” she said.
“Brisk out, aye.”
“Well, it’s that time of year.”
“Oh aye, aye. Ye come far?”
“Just out from Amalcross,” she lied.
“Long way to walk.”
“Ah well. Got no horse to carry me.”
“Ah, but it means ye’ve no horse to feed.”
“There’s that.”
Pleasantries thus concluded, she sank into one of the chairs by the fire.
I may never move from this spot.
She stared into the flames. Red-orange tongues licked the underside of the logs, scaled like a lizard in white and black ash. Her cold feet began to tingle painfully as they warmed. Halla grimaced, but at least it kept her from falling asleep on the spot.
It was only a moment before a serving woman came out with bread stuffed with spiced meat and potatoes and a tankard of cider. Halla forgot her feet, forgot her woes, and fell on the food like a starving dog.
It wasn’t even good meat. It was stringy and tough and probably from a milch cow that had gone too far past her prime. Halla didn’t care. It wasamazing.
Afterward, she slumped in the chair, trying not to fall asleep, aware that she should get up and keep moving, but it waswarmand the chair was sosoft…
“Hello…?”
Halla realized her eyelids had been closed and sat up quickly.
The woman who spoke was smaller than she was, not young, with a lined face and gray-streaked black hair. She had dark eyes with wrinkles fanned out from the corners.
“Hello,” said Halla. “I wasn’t asleep. Um, okay, I was sort of asleep, but let’s pretend I wasn’t.”
“I’m sorry to bother you. I just saw another woman and I… well, you know.” The woman glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the room, full of men eating quietly, paying no attention.
Halla nodded. She did indeed know.
“It can be difficult for a woman on the road alone,” said the woman.
