Chapter 11 #2
It would probably bring her to her knees. Her cheeks warmed at the thought. He was an arrogant ass, but he wasn’t the worst to look at.
Vade told her to stay where she was as he negotiated with a woman running a clothing stall nearby.
Orelia shifted Bute’s jar to rest under her other arm and took in the sights and sounds of everything around her.
She couldn’t wait to explore the city later.
She didn’t even care that Vade was buying her clothes without her input, she was just anxious to have a real meal, see the bay, then discover what else Ricaboro had to offer.
When Vade was satisfied with his purchases, they crossed through town and turned down a quieter street away from the main market.
People fluttered in and out of card houses and taverns, and a few shop owners were closing up for the night, snuffing out the lanterns hanging outside their doors, some using candlelight, others with trulights.
She caught a peek of the water through an alley. “Can we go see the bay first before we eat?”
“Aren’t you starving?”
Her stomach rumbled on cue. “Yeah, but it’s right there. Can we please go?” She gave him her best persuasive smile.
Vade didn’t seem convinced, judging by the slow blink he gave her.
“Pretty please?” She dragged out the last word, making the fae roll his eyes.
“Fine,” he droned.
Orelia speed walked down the alley, and when she came out the other side, she was met by a sandy path cutting through a high section of rock. Without waiting for Vade, she darted down the path, unable to contain herself.
Her boots slipped across the silky surface, legs burning as she wound down toward the bay through the deep sand. The sound of water lapping against the shore made her pick up her pace.
When Orelia reached the shoreline, she sucked in a breath. The water sparkled in gold, reflecting all the lights of the city at her back and the lights of Carraba and Bellstown miles across the bay. She eagerly peered down into the water. Orelia felt the fae’s presence before she saw him.
“Disappointed?” he asked.
She sighed. “Well, there aren’t any gold coins on the floor of Goldbottom Bay.”
Vade chuckled. “I was disappointed too when I first saw it.”
“Why? Hoping to snatch up some extra money for yourself?”
Distant lantern light danced over his bronze face. His skin looked like it glowed from within and it made him appear kinder, even if it was only an illusion. “Only a few days together and you already know me well.”
They both chuckled, and Orelia went back to looking out at the bay.
“It’s so beautiful.” Ships slowly made their way to port, and gold lines rippled across the water in the night.
“Maybe they should call it Goldtop Bay instead.” She snickered, and looked to Vade for a reaction, but he was busy staring out at the water.
He seemed far away, pensive and lost in thought. She wanted to ask where his mind had gone but knew enough by now to know he wasn’t one to answer personal questions.
Orelia held up Bute’s jar so the frog could see, but he was back to hiding in the moss.
“This would be a good place to let him go,” Vade said, turning toward her.
“He isn’t ready yet. His leg still drags.”
Vade’s brows scrunched. “You’re really going to carry that frog around until he’s completely healed?”
“Of course. That’s why I put him in here in the first place. I’m not going to give up on him now before he’s ready.”
Vade scanned her face. “You can’t save everything, Orelia.” His hushed tone signaled perhaps he wasn’t just talking about the frog.
Everyone had told her the same thing her whole life.
That it wasn’t her job to right the injustices of the world.
She looked at Bute, his glistening eyes peeking out of the moss.
The internal tug to help animals was the same one she felt for people.
“Maybe you’re right, but I won’t accept that answer.
I was put here to do everything I can to help, in whatever way, big or small.
” She met Vade’s eyes. “So that’s what I’m going to do until the day I die. ”
He nodded slowly. The despondent eyes looking back at her had seen violence and death, but Orelia could tell they’d seen something more painful than either.
Vade’s focus went to a strand of her hair lost to the balmy breeze. He reached for her, and she sucked in a breath. He paused, then dropped his hand.
“Kindness is a weakness.” His face bunched ever so briefly, like it pained him to say the words spoken so quietly she almost couldn’t hear them over the lapping water.
Orelia tucked her hair behind her ear, cheeks warm from the thought of him doing it for her. “It takes strength to be kind.”
Vade studied her again before seeming to realize how close he was standing to her. He took a step back, his tight-browed look returning. “Come on. I’m fucking starving.”
He led her into a place filled with rowdy men and women filling up tables in the large room, each one drunker than the next.
A woman with a head full of dark, curly hair stepped in front of them, three ales in each hand and a low-cut shirt she was spilling out of. She looked Vade up and down, batting her painted lashes. “Need a table or a room?”
“Both,” Vade replied.
“One room?” The barmaid shot a judgmental glance at Orelia, smiling when she looked at Vade. “Or two?”
“One.”
The woman pouted, but there was a challenge in her eye saying she wasn’t convinced they were together. Orelia found herself stepping closer to Vade.
“Give me a second, sweetheart, and I’ll get you a key.” She winked at the fae and dropped the ales off at the table behind her.
Orelia noticed the sign hanging above the bar area run by three scowling dwarves.
“Boar’s Breath Tavern. Couldn’t have chosen a place with a better name?
” she asked, ignoring the way the other barmaids were all being less than obvious about sneaking looks at the man at her side.
They sneered at her, and a territorial part of her came alive.
“This place has the best meat and potatoes, and they always have a clean room.”
The barmaid returned and dangled the key in front of her. “Lucky for you, our best room is available. I remember how much you liked that one last time.”
Perhaps it was the blatant disregard for her presence that irked her, but Orelia found herself growing hot with frustration. An unexpected emotion tried to spark to life, but the witch quickly tamped it down.
Vade plucked the key from her hand. “Thank you. And we’ll take two meat plates and two ales.”
The woman twirled a curly strand of hair around her finger, eyes lined in dark kohl, sweat making her forehead and cleavage glisten. “Right away. I’ll save that table for you.” She didn’t bother looking at Orelia as she gestured toward the far corner.
They dropped their packs off in the room and came back downstairs.
Orelia had set Bute’s jar on the dresser, noting that the bed was big enough for two people, but barely.
Since they’d spent the last few days in the woods, she hadn’t thought about what would happen when they actually found a decent place to sleep.
Vade didn’t make a comment about the sleeping arrangements, but she found herself anxiously awaiting slumber the longer she stared at the bed.
The main room downstairs was alive with drunken banter and boisterous laughs. Orelia studied the carefree patrons from her seat at the corner table, smiling at the revelry happening under a ceiling of warm trulights.
The space held half the population of Minro, and she had never seen so much joy in one place in all her life.
Ample-busted women sat on men’s laps, people shouted and jabbed at one another over a dice game, and two men were locked into a quiet conversation in the back.
Rens, stivs, batalins, and dwarves danced to the music from the fiddlers in the center of the room.
Her attention fell to Vade who hadn’t realized she was looking at him. When he did, he cleared his throat. “Far cry from Minro,” he said.
She tried to hide her grin at the flush of color in his cheeks. “I’ve never seen anything like this. If I lived here, I would never leave. What else could there be to see?”
“People lose themselves in the pleasures of Goldbottom. But don’t be deceived. Evil lurks around every corner.”
She rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Do you ever let yourself be happy?”
He seemed surprised by her question. “I’m perfectly happy. Except the whole being tethered to you thing.” Vade scanned the room for the third time, and she guessed his fingers were twitching against his daggers under the table.
“You don’t look happy. Or relaxed.”
“Just because I don’t walk around looking at the world like it’s all pretty skies and rainbows doesn’t mean I’m not happy. You and I are very different. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “You’re right. I get my happiness from seeing the world for its possibilities, and you get yours from killing.”
He took a break from assessing the patrons to focus on her. “Precisely.”
The busty barmaid set two meat plates and two ales in front of them. The pork, beef, and chicken steamed, nestled against a bed of herb potatoes with a chunk of bread and butter on the side. Orelia’s mouth watered instantaneously and she almost drooled.
“Anything else for you, sweetheart?”
Orelia didn’t bother looking at the woman. She knew the question was directed at Vade. He responded, but she was too focused on shoveling food into her mouth to care.
It’d been weeks since she’d had a proper meal.
Jobless, and with her poorly growing garden, she’d been reduced to bread and the occasional tomato.
Orelia hadn’t touched the emergency jar of fermented olives in her kitchen, though if she hadn’t been forced to leave Minro, the jar surely would have been empty by now.
“Slow down and enjoy it,” Vade said over the rim of his mug.
“I can’t. It’s so damn good. So flavorful.” A piece of pork fell out of her mouth and plopped onto the plate.
Vade chuckled into his drink.
Orelia chased down her food with a long sip of delicious ale, another luxury she hadn’t had since the gods’ knew when. “I think I almost got a laugh out of you, fae.”
Half his drink was gone by the time Vade was done with his sip. There was a hint of playfulness in his eyes. “You’ll have to try harder than that, witch.”
They ate their meals, watching people dance and cheer, but it wasn’t long before a fight broke out between a few rens and stivs.
Orelia was used to seeing tavern fights, as they happened almost every time she and Teegan went to Shaley’s.
Thankfully, this one stayed contained to the small group who’d started it and the room didn’t break out into an all-out brawl.
Eventually, two batalins interfered and hoisted the instigators up, carrying them away like children being put to bed.
“Another ale?” the barmaid asked as she approached, actually looking at Orelia.
Orelia wiped her mouth. “No, thanks.”
“And you?” She put her hand on Vade’s shoulder and slid into his lap. His face was practically in her breasts as he wrapped an arm around her waist, the other hand busy holding his fork. “Well, I didn’t need anything, but now . . .”
The woman’s cheeks turned red as she smiled at him.
Orelia finished her ale, shifting uncomfortably as she watched them.
The barmaid skimmed her fingers along Vade’s jaw, and his eyes dipped to her breasts.
She wanted to be anywhere but watching him look at the barmaid like he’d rather have her for dinner.
“I can go,” Orelia said in a snippy tone.
“You can stay and watch if you want.” Vade licked a line up the woman’s neck, and she giggled, pressing herself closer to him.
Orelia knew she was bright red, but she forced herself to say, “Don’t you have something you need to take care of tonight?”
Vade pulled his face from the barmaid’s neck, revealing a lustful smile on his face.
Orelia flicked her eyes to his pocket and arched a brow. She’d been so eager to see Ricaboro that she’d almost forgotten the real reason they were here.
“I’ll get to it before the night’s over. Don’t wait up.” He winked and went back to kissing the woman’s neck.
Victorious, kohl-lined eyes slid to hers. The woman looked Orelia up and down with contempt, then went back to giggling.
Orelia didn’t know why her skin burned, but Vade was so cavalier about his intentions that she wondered if he had any sense of modesty at all. She left the table and could feel his eyes on her while ascending the stairs, but she didn’t bother looking back.
The plush bed in their spacious room called to her, but the energy pulsing from the streets below was too intriguing to be ignored, and she didn’t want to be in the room when Vade inevitably stumbled in with the barmaid.
She looked at Bute sitting in his jar on the dresser. “I am not going to stay in here all night and let him have all the fun.”