Cauldrons and Cat Tails (Moonvale Matches #2)

22. Tandor

CHAPTER 22

Tandor

M y muscles ached with a throbbing ferocity as I parked the carriage outside my sister’s cottage. Kizzi had eventually coaxed Hex back into their jar, but she had allowed them to sit on my knee for what felt like days.

My shoulders twinged. I had held myself painfully still, refusing to allow my twitching to provoke the (slightly terrifying) magical slime. I bent and twisted, trying to relieve the stiffness.

Kizzi examined her surroundings with a brightness in her eyes and a look of awe on her face.

She was lovelier than the tides; I didn’t want to look at anything but her.

But I forced myself to. I tore my gaze away.

Rune’s beachside cottage was charming—spacious and warm, with a welcome breeziness. There were many windows letting in as much light as possible, and they were all thrown open to allow the salty air to drift through. The exterior was painted a light blue color that was closer to white than it was to cerulean, brighter even than the midday sky.

Daisy neighed with gusto as I let her free, allowing her to graze on the soft grasses sprouting from the sand. She stomped happily through the sand where water caressed the shore. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her playing in the shallow waves, allowing her hooves to sink into the sand over and over again while she pranced around.

A calm voice broke me from my reverie. “Tandor, is that you, little brother?”

I whirled around and my gaze landed on Rune—she looked the same as she had the last time I saw her. She was tall, lean but strong, with a skin tone the same green as my own, albeit more toasted and freckled from the brightness of Tidegrove’s suns. She wore a sleeveless beige tunic and flowing trousers that cut off before they reached her ankles. One of her little ones was tucked on her hip, while the other clung to her knee, hiding behind her and peering out curiously. All three of them wore their smooth, shiny black hair loose and free.

A wide grin stretched across my sister’s mouth. “I thought I recognized that big head of yours. What in the realms are you doing all the way over here?” She strode over and pulled me into a sideways hug, mindful of her daughter still perched on her hip. Her head tucked under my chin for a moment while we squeezed each other, and then she stepped back.

“I thought I’d surprise you,” I said. “Where’s that annoying mate of yours?”

She elbowed me in the side. “He’s out fishing. It’s the middle of the day, you know. But he should be back in time for dinner.”

I groaned in mock dismay. “He’s coming back? Damn!”

The little boy still creeping out from behind Rune’s legs gasped. “Ma, he said a bad word!”

Whoops. “Sorry, Rune. It slipped.”

Being an uncle had taught me many things, but one lesson stood out in particular—little ones were sponges and would repeat absolutely everything they heard. Especially if you told them not to, that would just make them repeat the word more often.

Little shits.

I bent down with a stiff groan and hoisted the little boy off his feet. He hardly weighed more than a pumpkin. I wrangled his squirming body until I had him clutched by his middle, dangling upside down. He giggled wildly the entire time. “Now you listen here, Ash. Bad words are for big folk only. Understood?”

“Damn! Damn damn damn!” The small orc mix shouted amongst his frenzied laughter. His arms dangled loosely above his head as he let his weight sink into my grasp. He didn’t even bother trying to escape, instead choosing to flop around like a sack of grain.

“That’s it! You’re getting dunked!” I took two steps toward the ocean, and the boy squealed loudly.

“No!” He dragged the word out, pushing his lungs to the limit. “I already changed clothes today!”

“Fine, fine. You get off easy this time, but you better watch your back.” I chuckled as I set the small boy back on his feet. He immediately trotted over to the horse to try to pet her.

“Soak any clothes, and I’ll make you do the washing,” Rune warned, but the threat had no bite to it. She was grinning too broadly.

“Point heard,” I said. I caught a glimpse of Kizzi from the corner of my eye. She was still close to the carriage, watching us with a gentle but tight smile on her face. I beckoned her over with a wave of my hand. “Kizzi, come on over, Rune only bites sometimes!” To Rune, I said, “This is my… friend Kizzi. She’s the best apothecary witch in the entire realm.”

I hoped she didn’t realize how I stumbled over the word friend . I supposed that’s what Kizzi and I were now, friends. We had been neighbors before, perhaps acquaintances, but now I felt like we had forged something more. Something truer. I glanced at Kizzi’s face to see if she was going to object, to insist we weren’t really friends.

She didn’t.

Kizzi walked over and shook Rune’s outstretched hand. “It’s lovely to meet you,” she said.

Rune’s smile turned downright devilish. “I’ve never met one of Tandor’s lady friends before!”

“Don’t even start. You’ve met plenty of my friends,” I warned.

“Mmhmm. Not pretty ones.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’ll leave.”

She snorted. “Fine! I’ll behave. I am glad to meet you, Kizzi.” Her gaze flicked between the two of us. “Are you just passing through or do you plan to stay a while?”

I glanced at Kizzi for confirmation.

“A little of both, I guess?” she said. “We just need to be back in Moonvale before Hallow’s Eve, and we have at least one more town to visit. Maybe more.”

Rune nodded thoughtfully. “Well, feel free to hang around as long as you please. We don’t have any extra space in the cottage since we had the little ones, but there is an inn further down the beach. But we’d love to have you for meals, of course.”

“Thanks, Runey Juney!” I tossed my arm around her neck. “You’re the best, you know that?”

“I know I am,” she grumbled good naturedly. “Now go get yourselves settled at the inn, explore town if you wish, and come back in a few hours for dinner.”

“Yes ma’am!” I glanced at Daisy, still playfully splashing in the water. “Can I leave our horse here? Will she be safe? I’d hate to ruin her fun and make her pull the carriage again—we’ll just walk while we’re in the area.”

Rune’s gaze warmed as it zeroed in on the small brown horse. “She can stay for as long as you need her to. There are no predators here, and no folk would mess with her. Let her play.”

“Thank you. She might eat all your grass, but I swear it’ll grow back. See you later!” I waved at Rune, and then at her two littles in turn.

“Bye!” Kizzi called. I noticed that she also took the time to wave to the littles instead of ignoring them, even if they were too shy to wave back.

We grabbed our bags from the carriage and hoisted them onto our backs. I grunted with the effort, my muscles still feeling the strain from the carriage ride.

“Lead the way,” Kizzi said, sweeping her arm broadly in front of her. I did, but I made sure to keep my pace slow so she would walk beside me instead of behind me.

“I love it here,” I said wistfully as we walked along the beach, passing other cottages as we neared the center of town. The cottages were tucked back a stretch from the water to avoid being swept away by the tides, but they all had a similar architecture. Bright, open, and airy.

Kizzi hummed thoughtfully. “I have always loved visiting Tidegrove. It does have its charms.”

I nodded in agreement. “The beach, for one.”

She smiled and glanced up at my face. “Why don’t you move here?”

I shrugged, not quite able to answer that question. I simply said, “it isn’t home.”

She gazed at me with an expression that said somehow, some way, she understood exactly what I meant.

We continued the rest of the walk in a warm, gentle silence, nothing but the sounds of our feet crunching in sand, water brushing against shore, and beach birds chirping in the distance.

T idegrove’s inn was more of a series of small cottages nestled together rather than a singular structure. There was a main, central room that housed the entryway, the check in desk, and the common areas and kitchen, but the rooms themselves were stretched in two straight lines with doors opening to the outside air instead of to a hallway.

It was almost like a tiny neighborhood. A small, charming neighborhood of single-room cottages.

Kizzi’s attention was snagged by a vendor selling flowing, billowing palm trees beside the front door. Her eyes stuck to the plants like glue, and she actually faltered in her steps. The corner of my mouth lifted. “You stay here and look—I’ll get us checked into some rooms,” I said.

She glanced up at me for only a moment before her eyes returned to the foliage. “Are you sure? I can come with you. I just want to look for one second?—”

“Stay,” I interrupted her. “I’ll take care of this. I’ll be back. Watch my stuff.”

I plopped my bag by her feet to give my back some momentary relief, grabbed my coin pouch, and strode inside. Her bright voice drifted to my ears as she happily chatted to the merchant.

A few folk lingered around the inn’s common areas, but not many. Most of the folk here, like Sunhaven, had darker shades of skin, either naturally or toasted from the brighter rays of the suns. There were brightly colored and lighter folk as well, of course, but in general, everyone had been kissed by sunlight. They weren’t shaded by near constant tree cover and clouds like Moonvale townsfolk were.

I caught a glimpse of a fluffy white tail rounding the corner of the inn, around back. Was that a cat? Weird—it looks like that white one back in Moonvale.

“Welcome! What can I do for you?” the smiley innkeeper asked. He appeared to be human, though there was an energy about him that suggested some magical heritage. His skin had the slightest blue tint to it, and perhaps a sparkle as well, if my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

I smiled back. “Do you have any rooms available?”

The innkeeper flipped quickly through the leather-bound logbook in front of him. “Yes, we sure do! Just one?”

My smile froze on my face, turned to stone. I glanced in Kizzi’s direction to find her still chatting with the merchant, holding up a tiny palm tree and examining its rich, shiny leaves. She appeared to be in no hurry, content to discuss every detail of the plant.

“How many rooms are available?” I asked. My voice came out tight. Strained.

“We have three, right now.”

I gulped, my thoughts balanced somewhere between guilt and eagerness. I thought of the last time Kizzi and I shared a room—the way we had to slip around each other constantly, the way her apple scent filled the room and clung to my clothes. The way she gravitated toward me in the night…

All I knew was that I wanted to be as close to her as possible, for as long as I could.

“Sir?”

“How many beds in those rooms?” I asked around the tightness in my throat.

“Two of the rooms have one bed, the third is a larger room with two beds,” he answered smoothly. “Would you like to have more space?”

I glanced at Kizzi again to be sure she wasn’t within hearing distance. “And how much do they cost?”

He glanced at his logbook. “Two silvers for the smaller rooms, three for the larger.”

I made up my mind. If my time on this journey with Kizzi was limited, I would make the most of it.

“One room, please. With one bed.”

I placed the silvers into her open palm. She slid a silver key across the table. “One room it is. You’ll be in the orange room closer to the water. Enjoy your stay, let us know if you need anything. Breakfast tomorrow is tomato fish tarts.”

I snatched the key and glanced guiltily over my shoulder. “Fish tarts. Right. Thank you.”

My heartbeat kicked up in my chest and my ears twitched with whatever tangled emotions I was feeling. I strode to where Kizzi stood, exchanging a few coins for the plant she was holding. I hoisted my bag over my shoulder and showed Kizzi the key. “Got us a room,” I said nervously.

She tilted her head. “Only one? Are they full too?”

I nodded hastily. “They are, yes. Full. This is the last room left.” My voice came out higher pitched than it should have. I cleared my throat.

The merchant furrowed his brows and started to speak but I interrupted him before he could get any words out. “Thank you for the plant, sir! I’m sure this lady here will take great care of it.”

I grabbed Kizzi’s elbow and gently guided her in the direction of the rooms. “Weird,” she mused. “It doesn’t look nearly as crowded here. And they only had one room?”

I coughed awkwardly. “Yes, they had an incident in some of the rooms. Very gross, very smelly. This is the only one available.”

She just shrugged her shoulders, not seeming to mind too much. “Well, that’s that then.” She glanced at me guiltily. “I swear I won’t attack you this time.”

I laughed, but it didn’t sound right. “I would be honored if you did.”

She flushed, all the way to her ears.