7. Chapter 7 The Hen
On our bed, Liv was curled into me with her face pressed against my chest and one ear bent sideways across my shoulder.
The other ear stood straight up, twitching at nothing.
She breathed slowly and evenly, completely at peace.
Her hair had come out of its tie during the night and spread across the pillow in brown and cream tangles.
I slid my arm out from under her and sat up. She made a sound, something between a groan and a protest, and pulled the blanket over her head. Her ears disappeared under the wool.
I got dressed in the half-light and opened the door quietly. The apartment's main room was cold. The coal-pot had burned low during the night and the air had that chill that meant nobody had fed it yet. Gray light from the east window lay across the trestle table and the bench beneath it.
Sif was sitting at the table with a cup of something steaming. She looked up when I came out.
"Morning." She took a sip and set the cup down. Her silver hair hung loose past her shoulders, the leather cord still missing from the Cold Hollow fight. Sif looked absolutely radiant and, looking at her, I wouldn’t have any clue that she had almost died the day before.
She was wearing a tight dark top untucked and showing her midriff proudly. "You look like a man who slept well."
"I slept great, actually. Liv's bed is comfortable. Liv takes up more of it than you'd think."
"Rabbit-kin sprawl. It's a documented phenomenon."
"Is it?"
"No. But it should be."
I looked around. Bjorna's door was open and the room behind it was empty. The other bedroom doors were the same. "Where is everybody?"
"Bjorna went to Larg's with the blackstone discs. She wants an answer on the shield reinforcement before tonight. Nott left right after, and said she needed casting materials." Sif tilted her cup toward the coal-pot. "There's coffee."
I poured a cup. The coffee was strong and bitter. I drank half of it standing at the coal-pot. Through the window, the avenue was waking up. A cart moved past below, the wheels loud on the cobblestones. Larg's hammer hadn't started yet.
"Have you eaten?" I said.
"Not yet. I was waiting for civilized company."
"Be truthful, you were waiting for me."
"Don't flatter yourself. I was waiting for anyone. You're just what I got." She smiled over the rim of her cup, blue eyes bright and unapologetic. "Although I'm not complaining. My hero."
"You want to eat at the Hen? I haven't been by in a couple days and I should show my face. Brenna probably thinks I've died."
"A dead man that left a gorgeous rabbit-kin girlfriend behind. Tragic." She stood and stretched, her arms above her head. The strip of bare stomach above her waistband caught what little light there was. "Let me get my daggers."
“Are you expecting more goblins?”
“You must always be prepared. I may need to save you this time.”
I went back to Liv's door and pushed it open. The blanket hadn't moved. One ear was poking out from under the edge of the wool, flat against the pillow.
"Liv. Hey. We're going to the Hen for breakfast. You want to come?"
The blanket pulled tighter. A muffled sound came from underneath that could have been a word but wasn't.
"Liv."
"No… sleep." It was one syllable and it was final. The ear retreated under the blanket.
I closed the door.
"She's not coming," I told Sif.
"Obviously." Sif had her belt on and her daggers hanging at her hips. She was ready before I'd finished my coffee. "Liv sleeps like she's been cursed. I've rarely seen her vertical before the sun clears the rooftops."
"She's worth the wait."
"Oh, I'm sure she is. She’s a tasty beast, I’m sure. Not speaking from experience, of course." Sif's grin sharpened. "Let's go. I'm hungry and you're buying."
"Why am I buying?"
"Because I bought the portal pass and you owe me breakfast for the rest of your life."
I couldn't argue with that.
***
The morning was cold and bright. The sun sat low behind the buildings at the east end of the avenue and the shadows ran long across the cobblestones.
The air had that clean bite that meant frost had been on the ground at dawn and hadn't burned off yet.
A few shops were open. A woman was sweeping a doorstep.
Two kids ran between the carts parked along the north side of the street, laughing about something.
Sif walked beside me with the same stride she had everywhere, fast and efficient, covering ground without wasted motion.
She kept to my left. Her blue eyes tracked the street in both directions, checking windows and rooftops and doorways with a focus that looked casual but wasn't. Wolf-kin instinct or rogue habit, probably both.
She was compact and precise, five-six in her boots, and she filled more space than her frame accounted for.
The confidence did that. It had done that since the first time she'd walked into the apartment.
The fur on the backs of her hands caught the cold morning light, ash-colored and fine, and her ears sat high on her head, the tips darker than her silver hair, twitching at sounds I couldn't pick up.
I hoped she would walk in front of me just a bit so I could see her ass in those tight pants she loves to wear.
"So," she said. "Last night."
"What about last night?"
"You slept at the apartment. In Liv's bed again. Have you let go of your room at the Brown Hen?"
"We got back late and she asked me to stay. The Hen didn't seem worth the walk in the dark."
"Didn't seem worth it." She repeated the line back at me with a different emphasis, her mouth pulling sideways. "The Hen is five minutes away."
"We cleared a dungeon. I was tired."
"You were tired. So tired that you accidentally ended up in a beautiful woman's bed instead of your own. I have so much sympathy for you."
"Thank you. A real hardship. If I hadn’t been there you wouldn’t have anyone to take you to breakfast this morning."
She laughed. The sound was easy and open and she didn't try to cover it. Her silver hair swung as she turned to look at me, and she pushed it back from her face with two fingers, the absent cord leaving her to fight it all morning.
"You should just move into the apartment. Why pay for a room you aren’t using?"
“I don’t think I can just move into the apartment. That would require group approval. I don’t know if I can win that vote just yet.”
“You have a yes from Liv and a yes from me.”
“A yes from you? I’m honored.”
“You should be. However, I won’t be able to roam around the apartment nude anymore.”
“Feel free to continue. I’m not opposed one bit.”
“I’m sure you aren’t. You may get your wish one day if you play your cards right.”
“There is one thing I will miss if I leave the Hen.”
“What is that? Stinky drifters passing through town?”
"Brenna and I have become friends. She’s been nice to me."
"Ah yes, Brenna." Sif said the name with recognition and what sounded like approval. "The gorgeous woman with the freckle. I liked her, and Liv liked her as well. I won’t forget that wild night at the apartment. It was hot. I have regretted not joining into that threesome and making it a foursome."
"I remember that night very well."
"I remember Brenna’s freckle. It was devastating. I stand by my comment. She’s a hottie." She bumped her shoulder against my arm, the same gesture she'd made on the walk back from Cold Hollow, except lighter. "Does she know about your bond with Liv?"
"Brenna knows about everything. She's been watching me collect gorgeous women since I walked into the Hen on my first night in town."
"Collect." Sif snorted. "Like we're coins in a jar."
"You know what I mean."
"I do. And I'm much more valuable than a coin."
“So you are part of my collection?”
“You think I’m that easy to get? You’re mistaken.”
“I don’t mind chasing.”
The Brown Hen was ahead on the left, its front windows catching the morning sun. The sign above the door was the same painted hen on a brown field, the paint fading at the edges. The door was propped open with a brick.
The hearth room was half full. A man and a woman sat at one of the trestle tables near the front window with bowls of porridge and mugs.
An older man in a leather coat sat alone at the bar with a plate of bread and cheese.
The fire was low in the hearth but putting out heat, and the room smelled like bacon fat and fresh bread and the warm wood of a building that had been serving breakfast in the same room for a long time.
Brenna was at the far end of the bar with a tray balanced on her forearm and three mugs in her other hand. Her hair was pulled back, dark against the collar of her shirt, her sleeves pushed to the elbows.
She spotted me and her face changed. No performance in it. Her hazel eyes went warm and stayed there.
"There he is," she said. "I was starting to think you'd left town."
"I've been busy. We ran Cold Hollow yesterday, the whole thing, four depths and a boss. I'm sorry I haven't been by."
"You don't owe me apologies. You owe me an order." She set the mugs on the bar and turned fully toward us. Her eyes went to Sif and the recognition was immediate. "And you brought Sif. The girl with all the snarky lines."
Sif grinned. "Brenna. You remembered."
"Hard to forget." Brenna's mouth pulled into a smile. "You told me my freckle was devastating and then stared at me for ten minutes."
"I stared at you for five minutes. The rest of the time I was looking at Daniel."
"Sit. Both of you. I'll bring food." Brenna wiped her hands on her apron and jerked her chin toward the table by the side window, the one I'd been sitting at since my first morning at the Hen. "Eggs and bacon? There's porridge if you want it but the eggs are better today."
"Eggs and bacon sounds perfect. Thank you, Brenna. You're a lifesaver. We’re starving."
"Coming right up. Make yourself at home." She headed toward the kitchen without waiting for a reply.