“So,” Klaff said, eyes on the road. “What was it like to sail with notorious pirates?”
Cali thought about all of it, the back of her eyes stinging. “Not what I expected.”
“Better or worse?”
“Better.” She watched a pair of children dart in front of them, waving pudgy hands. “We tracked down Marina and her crew. They won’t be causing any more trouble.”
“There were mermaids,” Thrain bellowed from behind. “And sirens who tried to kill me.”
Klaff’s eyebrow rose. He wasn’t easily surprised, but when Cali shrugged in tactic agreement, his brows popped higher.
Behind her, Thrain held forth at considerable volume about the galley, Marvella’s rolls, and his own contributions to the ship’s cuisine. Only Bramble’s occasional chatter slowed the telling of the dwarf’s increasingly tall tales.
Klaff kept his gaze on the road until they’d left Eldu. “Everyone back home will be thrilled to see you. Sass has been fretting. She wouldn’t admit being worried, but the tavern has never been cleaner.”
Cali laughed at the image of Sass polishing every surface of The Tusk and Tail to a high shine to assuage her worries.
“And Lira’s been baking to keep herself distracted,” Vorto called out, apparently following the conversation despite the clatter of the wheels and Thrain’s continued monologue. “She’s perfected a new savory bird pie.”
“Everyone loves it,” Klaff confirmed.
“Except for Glen,” Vorto added. “He’s not a fan. Then again, he is a bird.”
Cali’s chest swelled at the recounting of the happenings in Wayside. “I could see why he might take it personally.”
She took in the road unrolling before them, grateful to be back on solid land, even if a part of her already missed The Cruel Mistress and her crew. The scent of seawater was gone entirely now, and the air smelled like early thaw and turned earth.
Klaff let the silence run for a comfortable stretch before he spoke again. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
Cali glanced at him. His eyes hadn’t left the road.
She thought about everything that had happened since she’d left. “Everything I’d been looking for and something I didn’t know I needed.”
The orc grunted his approval but asked no more questions, which was fine by Cali. The truth of what else she’d found and left behind she planned to keep to herself. A part of her hoped that part of her story wasn’t finished.
Forty-One
The thatchedroofs came into view first, then the stone bridge arching over the stream, and then the familiar crosshatch pattern of The Tusk and Tail. Smoke rose from the tavern’s chimney in a meandering gray ribbon, and even from this distance, Cali heard the muffled sounds of the village’s mid-day bustle.
“Home,” Thrain said from the back of the cart, his voice husky.
Someone must have spotted the wagon on its approach, because by the time Klaff drew the cart to a stop in front of the tavern, a small crowd had already spilled from the door. Sass was first, her dark braid swinging as she barreled toward them with her apron strings trailing.
“You’re alive!” she shouted, as if there had been serious doubt, and threw her arms around Cali’s middle before the pantheri had fully climbed down from the buckboard.
Vaskel was right behind her, his crimson hands gripping Cali’s shoulders the moment Sass released her. “Cal.”
“Bramble!” Sass’s gaze snapped past Cali to the wagon bed, where the raccoon had poked his striped head from beneath Thrain’s pack. “There you are, you wee menace.”
“Bonnie sent word from Eldu that he was with you,” Lira said, hurrying up with Korl close behind, two steaming mugs gripped in her hands. “But Crumpet’s been in a state ever since. Pacing the counter and chattering furiously.”
Bramble’s small shoulders dropped, and he tucked his chin.
“Don’t go fussing at the little fella,” Thrain said, lumbering from the back of the cart with a grunt. “He earned his keep twice over in the ship’s galley. Marvella didn’t want to part with him by the end.”
Sass marched over and scooped the raccoon off the wagon bed, holding him up to eye level and shaking one finger at him. “Running off without so much as a word. Do you have any idea how worried we all were?” Bramble chattered something in response, opening and closing his tiny hands, and Sass’s stern expression cracked. “It’s not me you need to make amends with, little bandit. Come on, then.” She tucked him under her arm and turned for the tavern door, still scolding him good-naturedly.
Thrain watched her go and shook his head. “Never thought I’d see the day Sass would miss a creature.”
