Page 43 of Wicked Curses
“Interesting little history you two have,” Zeth remarked.
“If he wasn’t Cole’s brother and about to be family, I’d have gladly killed him… more than a few times.” She didn’t delude herself into thinking she’d succeed but would sure like to try. “I like his brothers, Cole, Brokk, and Varo; it would upset them to lose him.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Sahira squinted one eye shut and poured herself more whiskey. “Yeah, for some reason, they love the jerk. And though he’s many things, most of them obnoxious, Orin is loyal to those he loves.”
“Didn’t he fight against his father in the Lord’s war?” Radagast asked. “That’s what some lycan told us.”
“Yeah, but they’ve forgiven him, and he had his reasons.”
Zeth grunted and resumed drinking as Radagast stared at the bar. “What about you?” Zeth asked. “What’s your story, warlock?”
Radagast frowned at him, apparently unimpressed by Zeth’s blunt manner. “I don’t have a story. My family is mostly dead. I had a cousin who was still alive before I came here, but I’m not sure if he still is. I was searching for a good time when I ended up here.”
“How long have you been here?” Sahira asked.
“Seventy-two years.”
Sahira’s eyes watered when she downed the rest of her drink. She shook her head and suppressed a yuck sound as Zeth poured her more.
The clock behind them ticked away the minutes until Zeth spoke again; his voice was a little less steady as he did so. “What do you think about what Belda said?”
“I’m trying not to,” Sahira answered.
Radagast sipped some more of his drink. “The whiskey is helping with that.”
“Have you given up hope of leaving?”
“I’m not sure,” Radagast admitted.
Sahira wondered if the alcohol had something to do with this admission or if he would have said it without the whiskey. He stared at the back wall as if it wasn’t there before drinking some more and setting his glass down.
“I’ve also searched the Barren Lands with no luck. I haven’t spent as much time out there as Belda and some others, but I think we’ve all traveled those inhospitable lands by now, even the pixies. It’s tough to retain hope for anything after being out there.”
Squinting one eye closed again, Sahira raised the bottle and poured the last few drops into her glass. The bottle clinked against the table when she set it down.
Zeth lifted it. “Would you like more?”
She and Radagast nodded, and Zeth rose to go to the bar. Belda handed him another bottle, and he returned with it. He set it in the middle of the table as Fred returned to perch on her shoulder.
“Sing a song with me, toots!” the pixie shouted.
She was drunk enough to do exactly that, but… “What song?”
“Fields of Many Flowers!”
Sahira was familiar with the pixies’ drinking ballad but didn’t know all the words. That didn’t stop her from singing along as Fred belted the song from her shoulder while she swayed back and forth.
At some point in their drunken torture of others, Zeth chimed in, and Radagast mumbled a couple of lines from “Butterflies Dancing in the Rain.” Fred mainly stuck to pixie ballads, but Sahira didn’t mind. She’d always loved listening to the pixies sing.
Fred gave a loud cheer when they finished their fifth song before passing out on her shoulder. Sahira giggled as his tiny snores filled her ear.
“Beautiful silence!” Radagast said as he lifted his drink, and they all clinked together in the middle.
The whiskey had relaxed him enough that his neatly ordered hair was now disheveled from running his hand through it. Red color stained his pale cheeks, and his eyes twinkled.
“You’re only saying that because he’s not snoring inyourear,” Sahira said with another giggle.
