Thrain finally appeared in the doorway as Cali helped the raccoon clamber out of the pot. He leaned one hand against the doorframe and exhaled loudly. Then he jerked upright when he spotted the pink-cheeked dwarf.
“A furry bandit and a fella?” The cook shook her head, curls springing from underneath the blue kerchief tying back her hair. “What in the goblin-spawned hells is going on here?”
Cali readjusted the plump, trembling raccoon in one arm. “I can explain.”
“I should hope so.” The female dwarf squared her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest. “The Cruel Mistress doesn’t play hostess to men nor beasts.”
Cali glanced at Thrain, who was opening and closing his mouth as if stunned. Clearly, he was going to be of no help.
“I’m Cali and this is my friend Thrain.” She lifted Bramble slightly. “And this little guy is Bramble. Don’t worry, though. He’s completely tame and harmless.”
“Which one? The dwarf or the raccoon?”
Cali grinned at this. She liked Marvella already. “Both actually, but only Bramble can cook.”
The redhead tapped one foot briskly. “Aye? A wee critter who cooks? I thought I’d seen it all on a pirate ship, but I suppose not.”
“According to my friend Lira, who runs the kitchen in our tavern back home, Bramble is an excellent assistant.”
The dwarf braced her hands on the edge of the worktable. “Did the captain say I needed an assistant?”
“No,” Cali said quickly, suspecting that the dwarf would not take too kindly to suggestions that she couldn’t do her job. “It’s nothing like that. We’re here to help you track down your missing jolly boat and the hellkins who took it.”
“Ah.” A nod of the head. “Desperate times, I suppose.”
Cali wasn’t sure if she liked thinking that Bonnie One-Eye only invited her because she was desperate, but she wasn’t going to argue.
The cook sighed and wiped her hands on the front of her apron. “It’s the captain’s call. Far be it from me to cross Bonnie One-Eye.” She slid them a crooked grin. “And you’d best not either.”
“Cross Bonnie?” Cali shook her head. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
“Then you’re smarter than he looks.” The cook’s smile widened as Thrain slowly furrowed his brow. “No one crosses Bonnie One-Eye and tells the tale for long.”
Cali wasn’t sure how to respond to this, so she nodded some more.
“I’m Marvella Flintheart.”
“Marvella,” Thrain repeated in a whisper.
“Nice to meet you,” Cali said for all of them, since Thrain seemed to have lost to ability to string two words together. “Sorry to disturb. We’ll leave you to your work.”
Marvella made a clicking sound in the back of her throat. “Not so fast, lassie. I thought you said the little fella could cook.”
Bramble wriggled in her arms as she spluttered. “He can, but I thought?—“
“I’m not fool enough to turn down an assistant, furry or otherwise.” The cook beckoned with one arm. “Besides, I’ve got a barrel of potatoes to peel.”
Cali looked down at the raccoon, not sure how to ask him if he wanted to stay in the kitchen. Lira was the one who could communicate with her kitchen creatures, not her. But Bramble didn’t need to be asked. He patted her arm as if saying that it was okay before swinging down onto the wooden worktable.
Marvella handed him a knobby brown potato and a small paring knife. Bramble turned both over in his black hands a few times before he plopped himself down on the table and began delicately slicing off slivers of potato skin.
The dwarf leaned back and laughed as she watched the raccoon work, the sound huskier than Cali had expected. “I think you and I are going to get along just fine, little bandit.”
Thirteen
“Ahoy!Thrain called up from below.
Cali peered down from the crow’s nest, her forearms leaning against the rail as she scanned the open seas and her hair fell forward.
