The Vampire & Her Witch

”Give me the almonds,” Jocelynn said, making fists with her hands and giving her sister a determined look.

”Jocey...” Ashlynn started

”You said I needed something to do.” Jocelynn wiped her hair out of her face and sat up straight, and there was a brightness in her voice that surprised both of them. ”You said the tea was the problem.”

”Well, this isn’t tea,” Jocelynn said. ”Give me the horrible almonds and tell me exactly how you want them and I will sit there and skin every single one of them, and when Mother walks in and asks who made it, you are going to tell her the truth,” she insisted, pointing a finger at Ashynn’s generous chest as if she wanted to poke her.

Ashlynn stared at her for a heartbeat, feeling Jocelynn’s will firming right before her eyes, and a small smile formed at the corner of her lips.

”And after the almonds, I’ll stir the rice too,” Jocelynn added. ”On one condition. You have to finish telling me the story.”

”The story?” Ashlynn asked, blinking in surprise.

”About you and my new sister-in-law,” Jocelynn said brightly. ”You told me about the dress you wore and the Ancient Oak Tree, and then you lost your fish, and you never finished the story. I want to hear the rest... And how you knew you were in love, and who said ’I love you’ first and... I want to hear it all while I sit there stirring by the fire.”

”As long as you keep talking, I’ll keep stirring,” Jocelynn promised. ”So you better not leave out any of the spicy bits!”

For a moment Ashlynn didn’t seem to be able to answer that at all.

Then she laughed as she stood up, reaching for the anchor rope and hauling the anchor up.

”I’ll tell you,” Ashlynn promised. ”But if you expect details from me, you’d better be prepared to share details of your own when it’s your turn,” she warned, setting the anchor down on the floorboards of the boat and returning to her seat to take up the oars.

”It won’t be my turn for a long time,” Jocelynn said. ”If my time ever comes. That’s why I need to hear about your love, so I know how to spot the real thing if it ever finds me...”

”All right, all right, I give,” Ashlynn said as she dipped the oars in the water before nodding toward the tiller. ”Let’s head for the reeds by the north bank, the ones Master Odhar told us about,” Ashlynn said.

”Why?” Jocelynn asked, even as she put her hands on the tiller and leaned into it to change the boat’s course. ”We already have the fish...”

”But the stuffing isn’t just made of rice cooked in sweetened almond milk and spices,” Ashlynn said. ”It’s full of shredded fish too. I need the small ones for Snow on the Sea and for the dish I want to try making for Mother too,” Ashlynn said, keeping an eye on the basket that held their prize fish as they towed it through the water toward the reeds.

”Here will do,” she said a few moments later before she made a great show of looking for something in the bottom of the boat.

”Right,” Ashlynn said, as she gathered the net into loops over her forearm, working with a practiced efficiency and speed that Jocelynn couldn’t follow as she did, and she suspected she never would.

Once she had everything ready, Ashlynn went very still, allowing the boat to drift with the current, like it was an ordinary log or fallen branch. She didn’t drop the anchor or do anything more to disturb the water than she already had, and her eyes searched the calmly flowing river, looking for signs of movement beneath the surface.

Then she threw.

The net opened flat in the air, whistling as it went, a wide grey ring hanging against the pale winter sky for a heartbeat, and then it dropped, and the weights carried it down where it closed beneath the surface.

”What do you think, Jocey?” Ashlynn asked with a smile on her lips as she held her pose. ”Do you think one toss will get us enough panfish for the stuffing?”

”I think you’ll find a lost boot and a wet branch,” Jocelynn teased.

”Care to make a wager?” Ashlynn said confidently. ”Virve always says you can bet on anything for a bit of fun.”

”Fine,” Jocelynn said. ”If I win and you have to cast again, then... Then you have to take me on a shopping trip in the Vale. With Adala and Charlotte too,” she said.

”And if I win?” Ashlynn asked. ”What will you do for me?”

”I’ll give you and Nyrielle a night off,” Jocelynn promised. ”I’ll handle the lords who want audiences and the clerks with the paperwork... All of it. You two can take a night off from the empire and just be together, and I’ll get all the work done.”

”Oh, in that case,” Ashlynn said, smiling widely as she hauled the net in hand over hand, much faster than Jocelynn had hauled in their prize fish. The net came up heavy and full; a shivering silver mass of panfish spilling over the floorboards of the boat, dozens of them, bright as coins in the morning sun.

”Oh,” Jocelynn said, slumping slightly in defeat.

”That,” said Ashlynn, looking at the sun and then at the pile of them and then at her sister. ”That should be plenty. But don’t worry,” she added gently. ”I’ll still take you, Adala, and Charlotte out shopping. It’s something I wanted to do anyway. But a night off... that’s something I won’t lose,” she said with a light laugh.

”But I think this is enough to shred for Snow on the Sea and plenty for my own surprise dish too,” Ashlynn said with a wide smile.

”What is it? What kind of thing are you going to surprise Mother with?” Jocelynn asked, setting aside her disappointment as she watched her sister gathering up her catch. It wasn’t difficult, she realized, and her heart felt even warmer knowing she’d be able to give Ashlynn and Nyrielle something precious, even if it was just a night to spend together.

”I said it’s a surprise, didn’t I?” Ashlynn teased. ”Or would you rather I tell you about the things I learned to cook in the Briar instead of the time Nyri taught me how to paint waves with finger paints?”

”You! No fair!” Jocelynn pouted. ”You have to tell me all of it eventually,” she insisted as she pulled on the tiller, aiming the coble back at the docks of Lothian City. ”One of these days, you’ll tell me all of it.”

”I will,” Ashlynn agreed as she started to row again. ”But first, we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to be ready for Mother’s arrival.”