The Twelfth Moon || ✔️

37. Muffled Whispers

          "Sari, can ya' get me two ales?" Talek shouted at me from the other side of the bar.

          I'd recently been promoted. On the busier nights, when Talek was short-staffed, he'd taught me how to properly pour an ale. I didn't receive more coins, but I was happy not to be surrounded by dirty dishes all the time.

          "There you go," I said as I passed him the two ales. My serving duties were still limited to behind the counter, as Talek preferred to deliver the ales to the clients himself. I had a hunch it had something to do about the extra coins he'd receive, that he did not want to share.

          I didn't mind it very much, though. I was thankful he'd offered me a job to begin with. Besides, I was living and breathing in the Manor and I didn't have to pay even a single coin for my stay there. Meanwhile, Talek had a family to provide for.

          "Girl, give me another one!" A man shouted. He slammed an empty glass down at the bar, making a statement he needed his drink refilled. He was a regular customer, Bertel, who spent most of his nights here. His wife would come find him here occasionally, and she'd always angrily drag him back home. It was always a spectacle to watch.

          At the edge of the bar, a woman was flaunting herself over a man who barely looked interested. He shushed her away, resulting in an offended sigh from her, before she marched over to another man. She was hunting for coin, too, I realized.

          Talek realized it too, and he quickly threw her out of the bar. Whores weren't welcome here, not if they came to bother his customers.

          Moments like these made me even more thankful for the chance Talek had given me.

          The door swung open and shut the entire evening, making room for new customers to enter. Tonight was especially busy, for some reason unbeknownst to me.

          But as the door swung open once more, my nostrils flared open. The smell of the air around me shifted, ever so slightly. If I wouldn't have been practicing my smelling abilities over the past few weeks, I wouldn't even have noticed that three wolves just entered this bar. They went to a small booth in the back of the pub, chasing away a young couple that was seated there.

          For some reason, they needed their privacy. Why else would they come to this bar, where no wolves ever came, and sit so closed off from the rest of the bar? They were too on edge to have even smelled me out.

          Then again, with all the spilled ale, I probably smelled more like the drink than like a wolf.

          I pricked my ears, trying to locate their words in the rubble of chatter in this bar, as the men shuffled in their seats.

          Talek went over to their table with an annoyed glance, since they had just chased away two already paying customers, but he backed down as soon as he realized what they were, when one of them snarled at him to back off.

          He came back to the bar with big eyes and a small voice. "Sari, could you go serve the men in the back?" he asked me.

          That told me that Talek clearly knew about me. But I wondered if he knew all about me. Somehow, he was scared of those three men, but not of me. And I came from the enemy. "Of course," I answered dryly, not wanting to give anything away.

          I spilled another glass of ale over me before I had to walk over to them, in a desperate attempt to hide my scent. If I were to get close to them, they'd recognize me. And they would know who I am. "Sun burn me," I grumbled, trying to sell my act to Talek. "Do you have a shirt in the back I could borrow?"