A Pyre of Men and Mountain by T.S. Howard

Author:T.S. Howard [T.S. Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maelan Press
Published: 2022-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

Simple Lies

A shattering bowl punctuated Synick’s entrance back into the Foxglove Inn, slipping from the fingers of a pale-faced innkeeper.

“Synick?” Jesika gasped. “How? What are you…” She stared at him. “You were dead.”

“Only on the inside, I’m afraid.” Synick gave her his best grin, but she wasn’t sold.

“How are you back? They found a rope leading down the wall. They said you killed yourself, along with the Wolfheart boy.”

He only shrugged. “It’s a long story.”

That earned him an empty wooden tankard thrown at his head. He deftly plucked it out of the air and learned that it was, in fact, only half-empty, right up until a hops-heavy beer splashed out onto his face.

Squinting hard, he puffed the draft from between his lips and nostrils. “Well, the service is better than I remember,” he said.

In a flash, Jesika stepped forward with a rag in hand. “Oh, you blue-eyed bastard,” she said, then was on him. Synick was blinded for a moment as the beer was swabbed from his face, then again as Jesika removed it and forced her face into his, kissing him suddenly.

Synick barely had time to register what was happening before the two warring sides of him began fighting. One portion of his heart craved the validation and victory that came from a kiss given so willingly and from so beautiful a woman. The other felt panic and betrayal. Before either side could manifest, Jesika pulled away.

“You’ve got some nerve, bastard,” she said. “Coming in here every day and making me love you, then disappearing without a trace, then coming back when I’d given you up for dead.”

Synick was tongue-tied, thinking only of Vavelt and how she would react if she’d seen what Jesika just did.

“I,” he started, then coughed. “Jesika, I—”

“There’s no need to pretend, Synick. I don’t care about the game anymore. I thought I’d lost you, and I didn’t know what that meant to me until I did. What happened to you? Where have you been? How did you survive beyond the wall?”

Synick was losing the point. “I met someone,” he stammered, trying to regain control of the conversation. “I met someone I love, Jesika.”

She froze, eyeing him for a long moment.

“You mean to tell me,” she said, after a quiet pause, “that you slipped out of the city in the dead of night, walked among the snow wolves and didn’t die, and have come back after all these weeks just to tell me that you don’t want to be with me?”

“Well, no—”

She cast around for something else to throw, then settled for the wet rag. It missed as Synick tossed his head to the side.

“Listen,” he placated. “It’s not like that. I actually like you very much. It’s just that—” He was cut off.

“You met someone?” she finished for him. “Who, Synick, a wolf? Is that what you’ve been doing out there? You really expect that you can just waltz into my tavern after vanishing like that and return just to turn me away?” She seemed to decide on a different approach, her throwing hands occupying themselves with his hair now.

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