by Taki Drake
The intense look on some of the mercenaries’ faces and the copious notes that one of the bankers was taking was both exciting and satisfying to Madrik. He realized how much he loved it when people grew in front of his eyes. When their problems or their needs were addressed, and he felt like he was part of that. It was a special satisfaction in his life and one that he wanted to keep feeling over and over again.
As Madrik was circulating through the crowd, he noticed a woman sitting by herself with her back against a tree trunk. She looked alone, rather than lonely. Both Madrik and the BHB felt a bump of curiosity. Walking over to her, Madrik half squatted to put his face closer to her level.
“Hi there. I hope you’re enjoying our impromptu tasting party.
“Thank you, I am. I didn’t realize a place like this existed.”
Madrik could feel the BHB’s attention sharpening in the background and the rise of anticipation in his companion. Somewhat confused, Madrik was unsure of what had drawn the BHB’s interest, Madrik continued to talk to the woman. “I hope you will be able to join us tomorrow for the Grand Opening. Everyone should have a good time. Okay, I hope they have a good time.”
Deep and bright blue eyes stared straight into Madrik’s face. The woman had an olive tone to her darker skin, and her hair was carefully done up, tucked into a complicated bun with braids. She said in a calm tone, “You may change your mind. After all, I’m a prostitute, and most bar owners don’t like prostitutes.”
Madrik was taken aback by her matter-of-fact announcement. Unable to process any conclusion, he said the first thing that came to his mind. “That must be a hard life.”
The woman’s eyes rounded in astonishment before she broke into peals of laughter. Almost choking she said, “What a horrible pun!”
Madrik felt his face flushed red as he broke into laughter also. When he could finally talk again, he commented, “Unwittingly placed, I promise you. However, I do hope that we see you tomorrow.”
Madrik stood up and turned to walk away. As he took a couple of steps, he heard the woman say behind him, “Thank you, Madrik. My name is Jasmyn, and I will be happy to be here tomorrow.”
Continuing to circulate through the crowd, Madrik didn’t think anything of his encounter with Jasmyn. He realized a while later that he didn’t really care what people did for a living as long as they could get along in his bar. He was not a person who needed to judge them, he was the person who Anchored the bar. That was both simultaneously enough and the right thing.
Chapter 24 – Jitters
The tasting was winding down, and Madrik could shoo most of his staff back into the bar. He was staring around the area trying to make sure that everything was picked up when a man in a colorful outfit of loose pants and vest over a fitted shirt came up to him to say, “Thank you so much for the opportunity to taste the fantastic food. My name is Tal, and I was wondering what arrangements you have made for entertainment at your Grand Opening?”
Madrik looked at him in shock. He had forgotten entirely about music! He hadn’t thought about entertainment! In the back recesses of his mind, the bar manager could feel his companion urgently trying to calm him down. It was fruitless as the surge of adrenaline and the realization of his oversight drove all rational thought out of the man’s mind.
He must’ve looked as shocked as he felt because Tal said in a soothing tone, “I didn’t mean to startle you, but the group of bards that I’m with was extremely impressed with the food. There are going to be a lot of people at your Grand Opening, and most events of this type would benefit from some musical entertainment. If you would like, we would be pleased to entertain at the Grand Opening. We can take turns amusing the crowd, possibly playing one type of music inside and if it goes the way we think it will, playing dance music outside.”
Madrik seized on the suggestion with the fervor of a drowning man. “That would be perfect. I won’t lie to you. I had totally forgotten about the music. I have no idea what we have to do to set up for you, but your offer would help deal with a horrendous oversight on my part.”
The Bard smiled happily. Rubbing his hands together, he commented, “You will have people from all over, possibly even other entertainers. The energy here is wonderful, and the audiences are receptive. It’s a bard’s dream!”
Madrik, his heart be slowing down to closer to normal and feeling like he had been saved in the nick of time answered, “You are a lifesaver.”
Starting to head back to the bar, he called over his shoulder to the Bard, “How about if we sit down and figure out what it is that you’re going to need. I can introduce you to the person coordinating on my side. If you have an assistant, please bring them, but let’s get this settled.”
As the bar manager disappeared through the bar’s door at a fast trot, he heard Tal laughing in the background. Unsure of what caused the bard so much amusement, Madrik was relieved to feel no concern or trepidation coming up his companion link. The BHB was just as happy as he was to have the Bard offer to entertain, although Madrik had a sneaking suspicion that the Bard was not unknown to his companion.
<<<>>>
Sitting down for a council of war, Madrik had his entire staff sitting around the table with a drink of their choice. The Bard had come in with his assistant, a woman that he introduced as Lila. Lila was a tall, willowy woman with brilliant purple eyes and feathers for hair. Her fragile -looking frame nonetheless communicated strength and a presence that was awe-inspiring.
When she spoke in greeting to the rest of the team, they all froze for a moment, enraptured by the music of her voice. I think that we are all getting a little more cosmopolitan, Madrik thought to himself. Nobody even stared too hard at her.
As they were all getting settled down, the Storyteller wandered into the room. Apparently, he assumed that he was going to be part of the planning session and took a chair at the table in a matter-of-fact manner. Madrik didn’t see any reason to argue with the man since he was hoping that he would be helpful. After all, he reasoned, I can always ask him to leave.
Madrik started off the meeting by explaining that Tal and the rest of his bards were going to be entertaining the crowd outside and would be playing some sort of music inside. Wynn was extremely interested in what they were going to do, asking so many questions that Lila suggested that they take that discussion off into their own corner after the general meeting. Wynn happily agreed and settled back with a big smile on her face.
Only the Storyteller looked a little disgruntled. He kept staring out of the side of his eyes at Tal and was unusually quiet and hunched over. Finally, Madrik asked him, “Storyteller, are you feeling all right? You’re awfully quiet.”
The bar manager was looking at the Storyteller and could see that Tal’s grin had grown slightly broader. Looking back and forth between the two men, Madrik abruptly asked, “Storyteller, have you and Tal known each other for a long time?”
The Storyteller looked startled and opened his mouth but froze. When no sound was coming out of him, Tal responded instead, “Yes, Madrik. The Storyteller and I have known each other for a long time.”
Turning to the silent and now embarrassed man, Tal asked, “Gwyd, how have you been?”
“I am fine, thank you.”
Tal gave a short laugh and turned back to the table. Ignoring the personal issues, the Bard begin to explain how he was planning to set up the musical entertainment. He went over how his group would rotate so that everyone had time to enjoy the food at the party. The discussion became very animated, and the excitement around the table grew.
Madrik could tell that the Storyteller was feeling left out. He didn’t have his normal presence or energy level, and he seemed to be very inhibited by the presence of the bards. Taking pity on him, Madrik asked, “Storyteller, if it would not be too much trouble, I would really appreciate you having an area for nonmusical entertainment. Possibly, you could recount some entertaining tales or something of that order. Would you be willing to do that?”
The Storyteller appeared to perk up. Straightening and looking more like his old self for the first time since he had come into the bar and seen the Bard, the man said, “Unlike these others, all I need is a quiet corner. Stories are best told with a dedicated audience, so we probably should find someplace where there’s not too much music going on.”
From Madrik’s other side he heard part of a low comment made by Lila to Tal, “… never liked to share a stage.” While the bar manager could see that in the past dealings that he had with the Storyteller, he pretended not to have heard her comment and continued on with the discussion. Turning his attention back to the Storyteller, he heard the man saying, “… and I can just take that corner over there for my stories.”
The area that the Storyteller was indicating was an opening to an alcove that was lit by gentle light. Every time that Madrik saw the opening, he flashed back to a few days ago when the stranger from Earth had wandered into the bar and burdened Madrik with both an immeasurable burden and an incredible honor.
The special room that the BHB had created for that duty had no door, no way of closing it off. However, very few people that came into the bar noticed it. Even the regular drinkers did not appear to see it most of the time. Madrik could see that reaction in the barely-concealed startled looks on the faces of the people around the table when they saw the opening again.
For his staff, the room was something they had seen but appeared to fade from their thoughts over time. For the bards, it was if an electric shock had been applied to their posteriors. Both of them straightened in surprise and stared in amazed wonder at the opening. Lila curved her body around, trying to peer into the room and a melodious trill of sound escaped her lips.
Tal’s reaction was even more extreme. The widening of his eyes and his suddenly trembling hands showed Madrik that the Bard might know more about that room than the bar manager did. Resolving to follow up on that after they had survived the next day, Madrik turned to the Storyteller and said calmly but assertively, “No. I’m sorry, but that corner of the room is reserved.”
The Storyteller apparently was not used to being told no. His eyes widened in shock, and then a complicated mixture of anger, fear, and curiosity chased across his face. Before he could ask more questions, Madrik interjected, “It is not something I will explain now, but we need to find a better place for you. Besides which, if you try to tell a story in here it’s going to be too noisy. Your stories are so wonderful that they deserve the audience’s complete attention.”
Alastair interjected, saying, “How about the garden? The trees there are beautiful and flowering. I would think they would make a perfect setting for your stories.”
Wynn thought that was an excellent idea adding in her contribution, “I have these incredible lights that we could put out there that would give you a wonderful intimate illumination once it gets dark. It would be like a magical power in the trees where they would go to visit the Storyteller.”
Madrik could tell that the Storyteller was caught by the description. The idea of having his own area where he would not have to compete for attention had definitely hit a chord with him. The man feigned reluctance, but Madrik knew this is what he really wanted. Also for some reason, when Alastair had been talking about the trees, Madrik had caught the flash of pleasure leavened with a little pain that had appeared briefly on the Storyteller’s face. The bar manager knew there was more secrets behind that pain and one of these days he would find out. For right now, he just wanted to get to the planning session.
Vincent raised his hand up off the table and waved it in a bid for attention. Madrik was surprised the man had spoken up. It wasn’t that he was still rattled. In fact, he looked quite calm now. However, Vincent normally didn’t volunteer much, and Madrik thought that this was a good sign, so he asked, “Did you think of something, Vincent?”
“Yes, I’ve already had people ask if they can stay here and I know we have more rooms upstairs now. Do we have a policy for deciding who’s staying? And if so what is it?”
Madrik looked at the man in consideration and said, “The short answer is we don’t have a policy, yet. The longer answer is I wouldn’t have thought of the need for a policy and the fact that you did says you’re the right person to oversee that area. How about if you act as our hospitality manager and deal with it.? You can make the decisions, and if you need input, you can ask any of the staff here. Just make sure that there are no riots up there and that guests feel welcome.”
For the first time in the days that Madrik had known Vincent, he saw the man actually smile. It was a thing of warm and wondrous beauty. There was no holdback, no shadow in that smile. Vincent answered with more energy in his voice that Madrik had thought possible, “Yes! I would love to do that. I’ll go look at the rooms right now.”
With that, the man who had entered a shaking, screaming mass of a war-torn Vietnam veteran took off up the stairs, taking them two steps at a time with his joy in what he could do laid bare for everybody to see.
There was a frozen silence around the table for just a few moments. Before anyone could say anything, Wynn burst into tears, sobbing, “That was beautiful.”
Trying to get her calmed down took a little bit of time. The only way she stopped crying was when Madrik asked her to take the Storyteller into the garden and lay out the plan for the “storytelling theater.” His thanks for the description was apparent in the pleasure in which the Storyteller stood up and offered his arm to Wynn, saying, “My Lady, would you be so kind as to escort me to the garden?”
Wynn’s smile lit the room up and provided the signal for the end of the strategy meeting.
Madrik was doing the last consultations with Brechal and Alastair when Najeer came charging out of the kitchen. The cook had tracks of sweat down his face, but he looked flushed and happy. Excitedly, he asked “Well? What did they like?”
Alastair had been the one gathering all of the feedback for the cook, so he answered, drawing out his answer in an almost teasing manner. “Well, here’s what they liked.” With that introduction, he handed the cook the list of the food that had been served.
Najeer scanned down the list saying “I don’t understand. This is just a list of everything that I sent out, and all of these have the number ten after them. What does this say?”
Madrik answered for the grinning Alastair, “It means everything was perfect, and they loved everything you served.”
“But… But what should I serve tomorrow?”
“Everything. They’re going to want everything because it was amazing.”
Najeer, the quiet and restrained introvert that he was, stood in silence and stared Madrik in the face, looking into the man’s eyes intently. Switching to Alastair, his gaze seemed to drill into the bouncer’s skull, sifting through every iota of his mind. When his focus changed to Tal, the Bard raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and said, “I sampled everything. And so did my entire troupe. There was nothing that was less than perfection. And once having tasted your food, I’m not sure any of us will ever be satisfied with anything else again.”
Glancing wildly around the room, Najeer looked confused and almost frantic. Finally, the small man closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before exhaling in a long release of tension and doubt. When he opened his eyes again, tears were standing in the corners and welling up to trickle down his face. Still, he said not a word.
At last, moving with a speed that startled Madrik into adrenaline response, and Alastair into a defensive crouch, Najeer grabbed Madrik around the shoulders and gave him a brief, almost savage, embrace. With a muttered “thanks” the cook fled back to the sanctuary of his pots and pans, leaving only the heart-deep emotion of thankfulness and pleasure behind.
Chapter 25 – PARTY!
The day of the Badger Hole Bar Grand Opening dawned with the slow creeping of light illuminating the sky in streaks of colorful clouds. The dark shutters on the windows raised slowly an
d the people that had agreed to help with the day started arriving. Madrik’s staff was already on duty. He had been up since long before the dawn, obsessively worrying about a variety of things.
The bar manager had gone over all of his task lists multiple times, concerned that nothing be left out. He wanted everything to be perfect on this the BHB’s coming out party. The wordless assurance from his companion told him that this was not a concern of his partner.
Madrik knew that a perfect event was exactly what the Badger Hole Bar deserved. He was determined to do whatever he could to make it perfect, and he knew that his entire team was dedicated to the same thing.
Walking around the top floor, Madrik saw that the staff wing and his wing was closed off by beautiful gates of intricately carved wood. Looking like complex designs expressed in woods with grains and colors that he had never seen, the partitions that separated the public from their private areas were incredible works of art.
Walking a short way down the guest wing, Madrik noticed that there were placards on the outside of each door in the ten-room hallway. Vincent had apparently been busy and over half of the rooms were already assigned. Madrik was terribly amused by seeing the name of their bankers on one of the suites. Apparently, the BHB was habit-forming even for the staid financial people.
Turning and walking down the stairs, the bar manager could find no fault with the cleanliness or the way that the barroom was set up. Immaculate floors, pristine walls. There was nothing out of place there. Stopping on the last step, he looked around the bar room.
Wynn had apparently been busy. There were tablecloths and centerpieces on all of the tables. There was one area that was arranged differently. This table was nestled more closely to the inviting fire and had chairs layered with deep cushions. Madrik had noticed that their bar patrons seem to appreciate Wynn’s touches. Once again, he vowed to himself to expand her particular area after the Grand Opening. Until then, he was determined to allow Brechal the illusion of having won that particular fight.
