the beds. The dogs didn’t help as they got up and kept circling her as she moved, nosing at her legs in a clear signal that they wanted to go out when she did.
“Alright, alright,” she muttered softly. “Wait a minute, will you?”
Denney lifted her head a scant inch off the pillow and pried open one eye. “Uhhh?”
“I’ll take care of ‘em,” she told the still mostly asleep woman.
Reassured, Denney’s head dropped back down and she went right back into a deep sleep.
Opening the door, Siobhan let the dogs go out first before following after, shutting the door firmly behind her. She didn’t get more than a step before Fei came out of the room two doors down. He took in the sight with nothing more than a good morning grunt.
“Morning,” she greeted wryly. She, Fei and Wolf were the only three in the guild that even tried to wake up early. But while Fei might be moving, it didn’t mean he had properly woken up yet, and she didn’t try to really talk to him until he’d downed either food or tea.
They all clumped down the stairs and toward the front door. Siobhan stepped outside with the dogs, fully expecting Fei to stay indoors and simply keep an eye on things from the window. But he surprised her by coming out as well, stopping on the 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