Free Deepwoods (Book 1) by Honor Raconteur Page A

threshold. Her eyes turned up to the sky but it
looked just as angry and grey as it had the day before and even on this narrow
street, snowflakes fell with regular consistency. The storm had not yet passed.
She blew out an irritable breath. Will ye or nill ye, they were stuck here for
another day it seemed.
    She kept only the most casual of eyes on the dogs—they knew
better than to get out of her line of sight—and stood so she could look
sideways at Fei. “Are you awake or not?”
    “Tran-ren snores.”
    In other words, awake. Right. “So you ended up with Tran
and…?”
    “Hammon-jia.”
    Oh? So that’s where Hammon ended up. “He strikes me as a
good man.”
    “Yes, from what I’ve seen,” Fei agreed. After a long pause,
he added thoughtfully, “He’s certainly intelligent. He was respectful in asking
me questions last night, but also very curious. Why did you let him into the
guild?”
    “He agreed to do the books,” she responded cheerfully.
    Fei gave her quite the look, as if he knew she was only
half-kidding. “Siobhan-ajie. Why did you let him in?”
    He wanted a serious answer? She took a half step to face him
more fully and answered honestly, “For the same reason I let you into the
guild, and Conli, and Tran. Because you all had a look in your eyes as if you
were trying to find a proper place to belong, a place that would be home for
you unconditionally. He gave me multiple reasons for coming to Deepwoods, and
I’m not sure if even he realizes why he’s really here, but I think that if we
give him time he’ll find what he’s searching for. Besides, he’s one of the few
men that I can trust around Sylvie.”
    Fei inclined his head in agreement.
    “You’ve seen that sword spear he carries around?” She waited
for Fei’s nod to continue, “Find a way to subtly test his skills with that,
will you? I need to know how strong he is. I’d rather not put him in more
danger than he can handle.”
    Fei seemed to find this funny, as his eyes crinkled up. “You
don’t worry about that with Tran-ren or Wolf-ren.”
    “That’s because they think danger is fun ,” she
bemoaned. “If I tried to pull them out of trouble, they’d give me a look like a
pair of dogs being denied a treat. You’re the first sensible fighter I’ve ever
seen.”
    He shrugged.
    The dogs came back to her at that point and nosed at her
hands. She patted them and gave them a good scratch behind the ears, and almost
got knocked down by wagging tails of happiness. With a wave, she ushered them
all back inside, shivering a little as she went. When they came through the
door, she found Wolf already seated at one of the tables and three plates of
steaming food set out. Oh good, he’d ordered for all of them.
    As they took a seat, he whistled for the dogs, pointing them
toward bowls of scraps and water that sat next to his chair. As they happily
munched, the humans dug into their own food with happy smiles.
    Only with her plate clean did Siobhan sit back and asked
Wolf, “Is this cold typical of Wynngaard? The only time we’ve been through here
is during high summer or late spring.”
    “And we came this way during those times for good reason,”
he informed her dryly. “It’s only going to get colder.”
    She made a face. Not the answer she wanted.
    “That said, this snowstorm is unusual for this time of the
year. We should have another month or two before it gets this cold. I think
it’s just an unseasonal storm that’s sweeping through.” This would have sounded
vastly reassuring if he hadn’t added, “Or at least, I hope it is. Otherwise
we’re in for a cold winter up here.”
    “It didn’t seem as cold to me this morning,” Fei piped up,
lingering at the table with a hot cup of tea warming his hands. “We are out of
the wind here, though.”
    “Let’s check with the tower guards, see if they noticed any
other storms coming our direction,” Wolf suggested. “From their lookouts,
they’ve got quite the