Page 4 of A Fable of Riddles and Redemption

“Have fun cleaning that up,” he snarked back. All the same, he hopped on one foot to keep it from smearing across the wooden floor.

“At least it’s not on my shoes,” she said with a smirk.

Once he hobbled his way through the exit, he stopped and wiped his filthy boot off in the dirt to the side of the entrance. “I think I found everything I need for now,” he said, looking back toward her as he spoke.

An unrepentant grin spread across her face as she shot a pointed look at his boot. “I believe you did.”

Herrick gave her a flat look. “Tell your employer I’ll be in touch if I learn anything else.”

Zorina huffed. “Fine. But if I could banish you from this shop, I would.”

“Don’t bother. I would gladly banish myself.”

And with that, he spun and marched away, eager to escape the maddening woman and her equally mad boss.

Chapter two

An Idiot with a Sword

Zorina

While Zorina was more than relieved to see the horrid guard leave, she was less than enthused to clean up the mess left behind. Before attacking the scattered bits of pottery with her broom, she grabbed some old rags to swipe up the remaining red panda scat. It was disgusting and unpleasant work, but it needed to be done.

Once she ensured that she’d disposed of all of it—as far as she could tell, anyway—she took up her broom once more and swept up all of the smashed pottery. She’d counted at least seven destroyed pots in the disarray, all of them broken far beyond repair.

Zorina winced at the setback that would be for Jurian. He would probably work too hard to replace the broken pots. That, and the loss of his coin—which he could have prevented if not for his own foolish stubbornness—would likely make him grumpy for the next few days.

After she finished sweeping, she continued to ruminate on all of the awful events of the day while she mopped the floor. A red panda wrecking havoc in the shop. An almost arrest that still had her heart pounding with fear that her mother’s deeds and her own complicit inaction had caught up to her at last. The annoyingly handsome but rude guard investigating Jurian’s ridiculous claims of robbery. All of that followed by having to clean up after everything, as always.

It seemed to be her lot in life: to bear the consequences of others’ actions.

She shuddered as she tried to shake the feelings off. Emotions only caused problems, so she tried to avoid them as much as possible.

Especially when they involved attractive men.

No.

Zorina would not allow herself to think that arrogant tool was anything other than an idiot with a sword.

A tall, muscular, handsome idiot with a sword, but an idiot nonetheless.

One that nearly arrested me, she reminded herself with a scowl.

The way he’d immediately grabbed her and flung her around to bind her wrists still sent terror down her spine. How easily he could have hurt her did not escape her grasp of the situation. If not for Jurian’s timely interference, what would the guard have done? Dragged her off to prison?

Most likely.

Everything about the incident was horrifying and embarrassing.

Zorina desperately hoped she would not run into that fool of a guard again. If he drew too much attention to her, she would have no choice but to flee once more, and she really would prefer not to move again. She tried not to dwell on such distressing thoughts as she worked, but they kept cropping back up like weeds.

At long last, she finished cleaning the shop from the chaos the red panda had caused. After placing the mop aside, she popped her head through the workshop doorway. “Goodnight, Jurian. The shop is clean.”

Jurian looked up at her and gave a curt nod. “Good. Lock the door on your way out. I’ll be back here for a while yet.”

“I will. Try not to work too late tonight.” It was as bold as she dared be with her employer. Thankfully, his response was mild.

“I’ll try,” he said with a grimace. “But I have a lot to catch up on now.”