Thornhold - Elaine Cunningham [115]
“You’ll not get past me,” she said with such conviction that Bronwyn believed her. “Take your looting elsewhere.”
“Alice, it’s me!” Bronwyn shouted over the heads of the dwarves. “It’s all right. They are with me.”
The gnome’s eyes bulged. “All of them?”
Bronwyn raised her hands in a helpless shrug, knowing she was asking a great deal of the gnome. Alice’s tiny shoulders lifted and fell in a sigh, but she stepped aside.
In roiled the dwarves, their eyes rounded with awe at the sights around them. “Quite a trove,” Tarlamera said with grudging admiration. She picked up a bangle bracelet studded with large gems. Instead of slipping it onto her wrist, she fisted it in her hand so that the raised stones augmented her knuckles. She lifted her fist and admired the effect. “Nice. Yours, gnome?”
“I should say not! That piece was commissioned by Lady Galinda Raventree.”
Tarlarmera’s eyes glinted. “Might could be she’d like to go a round or two, you think? Sitting on that ship has left us all a mite restless and ready for fun.”
The image of the iron-willed society queen facing off in battle against the dwarf woman brought a wry smile to Bronwyn’s face. That fight, she’d happily pay to observe. “Alice, why don’t you go to the market and get something for our guests? Some bread and meat, a keg of ale. Have it delivered.”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to carry it back,” the gnome grumbled. She seized her shawl off its hook and took off- gratefully, it seemed to Bronwyn.
One of the dwarf lads started to climb a shelf after an axe that had caught his eye. A sleek, black form glided from the rafters and landed on his shoulder.
“Think about it,” Shopscat advised.
With a yelp, the young dwarf let go and tumbled to the floor. The raven winged off and settled down on a tall urn.
“It talks!” exclaimed a dwarf woman with delight, her stubby finger pointing at the raven. Her eyes took on a battle gleam, and she came over to Shopscat and leaned in close, nose to beak. “Been a while since I had me a roast bird,” she said, a challenge in her voice.
The raven stared her down. “Think about it.”
The dwarves laughed uproariously. “Might be you could keep that up for a while, Morgalla, if you asked the right questions,” Ebenezer said.
She shrugged and grinned, then wandered off to finger a long string of pink pearls displayed on a wooden bust.
They spent a pleasant hour poking through the shop and exchanging insults with the raven. Just as some were starting to get restless, Alice returned with a half dozen strong porters and the requested refreshments.
The instant the first keg hit the floor, the dwarves converged from all three floors of the shop. They snatched up whatever came to hand-silver mugs, gem-encrusted goblets-and clustered about. The gnome cringed as she took in this casual use of the treasures she guarded.
“We can hire someone in to help clean up,” Bronwyn told her.
“If you have the coin left to do the hiring,” Alice shot back. She nodded toward their visitors, who were making short work of the piles of food. Two of the dwarves were already tapping the third keg.
It seemed that Ebenezer was thinking along similar lines. “Don’t you doubt, I’m gonna pay you back every copper,” he vowed softly. “Tell me what I can do to help get them earning their keep.”
Bronwyn glanced at Cara, who was petting Shopscat and chattering happily. Her heart melted at the sight of the little girl and the obviously charmed raven.
“There are dwarves in the city, but the sort of labor your clan can do is always in demand. I know people who can line up what we need.”
“You got a lot of friends, if they can set up this bunch,” Ebenezer commented.
“In a manner of speaking.” This brought up a matter that Bronwyn had been puzzling over for several days. She had realized aboard ship that she would have to rely upon the resources of the Harpers to get the dwarves settled. Disclosing membership in this secret organization was forbidden, except in extreme situations or to trusted friends. Though she had known Ebenezer for a relatively short time,