Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes, #0)(77)

“You’re sure they’ve got a mule?” asked Viv. “I don’t want to walk the whole damn way.”

“Yeah, yeah, unless they didn’t listen. I know. No horses.”

There were two mules, in fact. They stood hitched to a short wagon, lipping dispiritedly at the few sprigs of beach grass in reach. A long-legged sea-fey waited on the buckboard while finishing his breakfast, a lantern beside him.

“You know where we’re goin’?” Gallina called up to him.

“Yep,” he said, licking his fingers and picking up the reins. “Need a hand up?”

“Not likely,” replied Gallina. She tossed a small travel bag into the back, leaping nimbly after it, and Viv followed. A few sacks of grain awaited them as seating, piled toward the fore. Viv unbelted her weapons, and they both sat. When Viv reached over to rap the buckboard, the driver flicked the reins, and they got moving.

By unspoken agreement, it was too early for conversation. Viv passed Gallina one of the day-old biscuits she’d tucked into her jacket, and they ate in companionable silence.

For a while, the only sounds were the snort of the mules, the occasional slap of leather, and the rattle and bump of the wagon. Eventually, those were joined by the growl of Gallina’s stomach.

“Gnomish metabolism, huh?” asked Viv.

Gallina shoved a hand into her travel bag and withdrew a hard sausage. Then she remembered the shared biscuits and grudgingly fished out another to offer to Viv. After a pause, Gallina slipped one of the knives from her bandolier and passed it over too.

Viv took them both, but made no move to eat. “You ever done this before?”

“Rode in a cart?” Gallina rolled her eyes.

“Hunted beasts.”

The gnome opened her mouth for a fast retort, but then closed it again. Instead, she pared a slice from her sausage and popped it into her mouth. She took her time chewing, and then mumbled, “Sort of.”

Viv thought of the way Gallina had grilled her about Maylee back on the bluff.

“What happened?”

Gallina regarded her fiercely. “I can do this job just fine. I—”

“Never said you couldn’t.” Viv forestalled her with a hand. “You asked what happened to me once, and I told you. Only fair I ask the same. Equals, yeah?”

“Shoulda made you bring a book. Then you coulda read me to sleep instead.”

“What did you do before Murk?”

The gnome studied her sausage with great animosity. “Joined up with a couple of mercs I ran into in Cardus. At least, I thought I did. I guess I didn’t make a big impression on ’em.”

Gallina waited defiantly for a jibe from Viv that never came.

“We were huntin’ a bunch of thieves. Kinda half-assed thieves. If you’re gonna steal somethin’, why a bunch of scrolls? Anyway, they were camped in this tangle of woods south of the city, so we head out and set up a camp of our own. The forest is big, and we gotta cover as much ground as we can to find ’em fast. So, we split up, the four of us, and do some scoutin’.”

She stopped talking and weighed how much to say. Viv let her.

“So I’m doin’ my thing, stayin’ out of sight, headin’ east beside this old dry river gully. A deep one. And the ground just …” She made a whooshing noise and waved her sausage. “Right out from under me, and down I go. Pretty beat up when I hit the bottom. And I can’t climb out. It’s hard stone and straight up. So instead, I’m followin’ this thing and lookin’ for a slope. But you know what likes livin’ in old dry riverbeds like that?”

“Something that likes to hunt things that can’t get away,” said Viv.

“Rocktoads. The poisonous ones. A whole bunch of ’em. Course, I did all right, didn’t I?” Gallina patted the knives across her chest. “But it was night again before I found my way out.”

“And?”

“And by then I figured I should just head back to camp, see what’s what. But they were gone, all three of ’em. Camp struck.”

“They didn’t even wait a day?”

Gallina didn’t look at her, but at the hills receding behind the wagon. “I hike my ass back to Cardus, and there they are, countin’ out the bounty. They rounded up the thieves while I was runnin’ and killin’ toads. Didn’t really need me, I guess. Probably forgot I was even there.”

Viv watched her face. The sausage lay in the gnome’s lap, uneaten.

“Fucking bastards,” said Viv sincerely.

Gallina sniffed and wiped her nose. “Well, it wasn’t all bad. Turns out some people pay a lot for toad tongues.”

Viv reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

Then they both sat back and finished their sausages.

When they were done, Viv breathed deep and let the cold air curl down in her lungs and watched the night wick away from the countryside.

She idly ran a thumb along Blackblood’s fuller, thought about what was to come, and felt as though she were emerging from the fog of a weeks-long dream.



* * *



When they arrived at the farmer’s holding, the sun was up, and ribbons of mist were burning off the lowlands in the dawning heat. The farm consisted of a cottage, a jumble of outbuildings and fenced paddocks, a long, thatched barn, and a sizable garden, all encircled by fields filled with hayricks. Bastion oak crowded the slopes up out of the valley.