Sass held out the bag of cookies. "Pip's latest creation. They have oats in them, but don't let that fool you. They’re delicious.”
But Lira wasn't looking at the cookies. Her attention was fixed on the bottle of apple brandy that Thrain was casuallysipping from, and her wide eyes held something that looked suspiciously like alarm.
Vaskel had wandered back, although he carried no wares from the apothecary, and the Tiefling's gaze sharpened when he spotted the bottle in Thrain's hand.
"Where did you get that?" Vaskel asked, his voice a velvet rasp that made the hairs on the back of Sass's neck stand at attention.
Twenty-Nine
Thrain went stillmid-gulp as Lira and Vaskel goggled at the apple brandy in his hand. After a few moments of undignified coughing and spluttering, he finally swallowed the mouthful and jerked a thumb behind him toward the village center.
"Gnome lady was selling them by the village square.” His voice was hoarse from coughing. “Out of the back of a traveling wagon.”
Lira and Vaskel exchanged a speaking look, and Sass nervously twisted the ring around her little finger. Why were they so interested in a gnome selling home-brewed brandy?
Lira shook her head. “It can't be.”
Without a word of explanation, Vaskel reached over and plucked the bottle from Thrain's grasp, ignoring the dwarf's blustery protests. The Tiefling brought the bottle to his nose and inhaled deeply.
Sass wondered that the brandy vapors didn’t singe his eyebrows since she could smell the home-brewed booze from where she stood, but Vaskel only grinned.
He handed the bottle back to a still-spluttering Thrain and turned to Lira. “Who else could it be?"
Sass glanced down at her ring, searching for any sign of prickling.The silver band remained quiet against her skin, which meant either there wasn't any threat or the ring didn't work.
"Watch the table for a bit," Lira said to Sass, already grabbing Vaskel’s sleeve and pulling him with her.
Then they were off, hurrying toward the village center and presumably the brandy merchant. Sass stared after them for a moment before her own curiosity got the better of her.
“Take over for me,” she said to Thrain as she backed away. “Two bits for an apple crumble bar, half a bit for chai!"
Thrain stood at the table looking bewildered by the sudden abandonment. “What? But where…?”
She didn’t linger to hear the rest of his question or answer it, her shorter legs working overtime to catch up to Lira and Vaskel. By the time she reached her friends, they were almost to the stone monument and had slowed to scan the festival crowd.
Cali, who’d been demonstrating her archery skills to a group of clapping children, stopped mid-draw when the trio rushed past her. "What's going on?"
Vaskel threw two words over his shoulder without slowing down: "Apple brandy."
The effect on Cali was immediate. Her ears flattened, her whiskers twitched, and for a moment she simply stared after them. Then she was moving, abandoning her demonstration to jog after them, with her bow still clutched in one hand.
They finally came to a halt in front of a plump gnome woman with curly hair and a pink cap whose long point sagged to one side. She sat on the back step of an enclosed wooden cart that must have once been brightly painted, as Sass could make out the sun-faded shapes of formerly red apples on the sides. Bottles of amber liquid were neatly arranged on a small table abutting the wagon, and the gnome had an open one tucked close to her hip.
She eyed their group, then broke into a bright smile. Without turning around, the gnome called over her shoulder and through the wagon’s slightly open door.
"Rog! Your friends are here!"
There was a moment of quiet and then rattling from inside the wagon. A gnome with a spectacular blue beard that matched his equally blue hair poked his head out the wooden door. His frown was laden with suspicion until he spotted who was waiting for him.
“There you are!" He stepped fully from the cart with short arms spread wide. "I knew I'd find you!"
Lira, Vaskel, and Cali stood frozen for several beats, mouths open as if they weren’t sure if they could believe their own eyes. Sass wasn’t sure who the gnome was to them, but their expressions told her they were both shocked and relieved.
“Aren't you going to greet your old crew mate?" Rog asked with obvious amusement, bounding down the steps of the wagon and walking toward them on the balls of his feet in a way that reminded Sass of Pip when he was excited about a new recipe.
Lira was the first to break from the spell, rushing forward and bending down so she could throw her arms around the gnome with such enthusiasm that she nearly knocked him over. Cali joined the embrace a moment later, her tail curling around Lira and the gnome.
When they both finally pulled back, wiping at their eyes, Vaskel strode forward and yanked Rog into a fierce hug that he finished with a brusque thump on the gnome’s back.
