The servers brought out fresh-baked bread with butter and the inn’s occupants settled into their dinner, the dull buzz of side conversations calming Nira’s nerves.
She was tired of the attention, as exciting as it had been, and ready to see their home again. The adventure had been grand, but she missed her own room and her own soft bed. After about fifteen minutes of steady eating, a question finally floated up from the crowd.
“Is that all of it then?” Old Kenny asked.
“It’s most of it, at least for me. Nira has one tale to tell though, right, daughter?” Armond asked.
She knew immediately what he wanted from her, but she took a second to eat one more spoonful while she gathered her thoughts.
“Lady Stacia asked me several times to accompany her out into the city. Lord Declan was observing the city council’s meeting and she was bored. She wanted to see what kind of wares were available, things she could bring back to Earth as gifts. We headed into the central market area and shopped for gifts.”
“What kind of things did she buy?” Lottie asked.
“Clothing—mainly scarves and shawls for her lady friends. She really seems to like spidersilk items. It’s apparently quite different from what is available on Old Earth. For her male friends, she bought tools or blades. She was very interested in the gray blades—called it titinnum, no… ti-tanium. Says the elves put edges on it that she’s never seen done on Earth. And for his lordship’s aunt, who is his only family, as his mother has passed like my own, she acquired a set of elven rune stones. It seems the aunt is a great witch as well, one with a gift for prophecy. Which is maybe ironic, as it was this last gift that caused the issue that day.” Nira paused and took a sip of the cold water in her clay mug, taking her time, as her father had told her many times.
The crowd was hanging on her words and she was starting to maybe get a little more comfortable with the telling of stories.
“We found the stones at a little booth, deep in the back of the markets. She haggled a bit for them and paid for them. She was very excited by this find, as it seems the aunt is difficult to buy for. She asked if I would like to stop for lunch and I had no objection. Some of the food around the market is truly wonderful, as Papa will attest,” she said, shooting her own sly look at her father and earning some general laughter. “We went to cross the road to get to the restaurant when suddenly a small coach pulled by a single steed came racing through, far too fast. A beggar boy was caught out in the street and Lady Stacia never hesitated. She was just suddenly gone from my side, somehow out in the street, facing down the massive steed. Like I said, she’s not a large woman at all, and she looked terribly small in front of that thing as it bore down on her. I’ve heard people say that time seems to slow in those moments and now I know what they mean. It was like a rogue wave crashing down on an unlucky beachcomber. But then the lady growled.”
“Growled? You say she growled?” Bett asked.
“Like the biggest wolf you’ve never seen,” Nira said. “And that steed pulled to a stop like its very life depended on it. Which, in that moment, I am absolutely certain it did. The coach slammed to a standstill and a moment later, the owner, an elf merchant of some kind, came barreling out like a maddened reaver hornet. Three bodyguards followed him as he set to cursing out the Lady of the Realm.”
Her audience was completely aghast at the image, and she almost smiled to herself. A glance across at Keply and Nattle showed them just as deeply invested in the story as everyone else.
“You see, he didn’t know who she was. Most of Idiria has never seen her, or even his lordship. They’re very private and, as Papa said, they don’t spend much time here on Fairie. So here he is cursing the Lady Stacia and doesn’t she curse him right back. Lights right into him like Lottie with a drunken sailor at closing time. He turns to his guards and tells them to clear the road of rabble, meaning her. They start forward and doesn’t she growl a second time. Deeper. A growl that is almost too low to hear but instead you sort of feel it in your bones and you just know that you’re about to die. And her hands changed. Small delicate fingers became great hooked claws and her eyes turned yellow.”
She paused for another sip of water.
“Don’t leave us hanging, girl,” Mitt grumbled, and she hid a smile against the fired porcelain of her mug.
“Sorry, just that sea salt Papa spoke of,” she said smoothly. “Well, you could see the actual moment it dawned on the merchant just who he was facing. Small white-haired human woman, beautiful by any standard, with green, green eyes—who happened to be wolf beastkin. His guards all realized just about that time as well because they stood frozen in their tracks.”
Her father suddenly chuckled beside her. “This is my favorite part,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
“Hush now, no hints,” she said with a mock frown in his direction. Normally talking back to a parent was the worst of manners but her display was met with nods of approval by Lottie, Bett, and a half dozen other women, as well as more than a few of the men.
“It was at that moment that I felt someone step up beside me. I was well and
