Kaya shifted around until she could gently butt her nose against my shoulder. “Meat-sauce nice. Has fire.”
So she liked her food spicy, huh? That actually made sense, all things considered. I reached out and stroked the soft velvet skin on her nose.
“I’m almost afraid to ask, how much meat did you eat?”
“Lots,” she answered happily.
Of course she had. I winced.
“Oh, it’s fine,” another man assured me. Unlike most of his compatriots, he was rather thin, with a full head of hair windblown in every direction. Smears of sauce were all over his arms and chest. “After all, without the two of you, we wouldn’t have been able to have the cook-off today. We made her one of the judges, so she can eat as much as she likes, and there’s no charge.”
Bless all of the gods for small favors. I blew out a relieved breath. “Thank you.”
“I’m Jimmee,” the thin man introduced himself, palm held up. “Ainlie, Magus.”
“Haikrysen,” I responded and touched my hand to his. The amount of calluses that I felt pressed against my skin told me clearly that this man worked hard for a living. “Ainlie, Jimmee. Did Kaya introduce herself?”
“She did,” Jimmee assured me with a soft chuckle. “Went around to every one of us before she ever tried a bite. She’s a sweetheart, that one.”
Kaya nudged me again. “Krys, try meat-sauce. Taste good.”
“Mine first,” Jimmee urged me, twisting to pick up a plate of ribs from the table. He held it up with an inviting smile. “Kaya likes mine best so far. Plenty of fire.”
Kaya nodded in support of this. “Good fire.”
Did I really want to put something in my mouth that was spicy enough for a dragon—a dragon that loved eating actual fire—to approve of? A little gingerly, I reached out for a smaller piece of meat and bit off a mouthful. As I’d expected, the sauce was hot enough to singe my nose hairs. My eyes started to water, the skin around my lips burned, but somehow my tongue didn’t catch fire. After that first few seconds of reaction, I swallowed and realized that under all of the spicy heat, it actually had been quite good. Hard on my raw throat, though.
“That is good.”
Jimmee gave me a proud of course kind of nod.
“This one,” Kaya urged me, leading me further along the row. “Try this one.”
Kaya led me to a man that had to be a blacksmith of some sort, the way his arms were built, and with that ruddy complexion to his skin. Most of my family looked like him because of all the forge fires.
“I’m Haikrysen. Ainlie.”
“Sarson, and ainlie, Magus.” Sarson held out a plate of grilled meat to me with a challenging quirk to his lips. “My sauce is better than ol’ Jimbo’s. His is too tame. You gotta have more heat to bring out the true flavor.”
More…heat? I looked at the plate and then glanced along the row at the dozen other men that were obviously eager to prove their sauce superior. More heat than the last batch of sauce that’d burned the roof of my mouth?
I was doomed.
Chapter Six: Moving In
I spent most of the next morning dreadfully regretting my sample tasting of the night before. When I woke up, my body informed me that the mouth would never eat barbecue again, the nose would report for duty sometime tomorrow, and the tongue was still swollen and sensitive. Why would anyone sane want to eat something so hot that it scorched your mouth? I vowed to stay away from anything with “meat-sauce” from this moment onward.
So of course, that was exactly what Kaya wanted for breakfast.
She was not pleased when I told her that barbecue cook-offs only happened once in a while and she couldn’t have it again for breakfast. I tried to escape the argument by getting dressed and heading down to the taproom for breakfast, but she curled around the front porch of the inn and put her head through a window so she could continue arguing. I was very thankful that the morning crowd only consisted of a few men and a bored serving girl. Even they were unwelcome witnesses to a spectacularly childish fight. As tempting as it was to sit in a back table, away from the front windows, I knew that Kaya would either try to enter through the doors (and she’d never have fitted into that narrow, low-beamed room) or try to stretch her head in through the window to reach me. With a grumpy sigh, I chose a table closer to the front and tried to reason with her as I sat over a mild breakfast.
We were still at it when Mari Wangsgard came into the taproom.
She looked better this morning; or at least, her dark green uniform with the form-fitting jacket and wide-cut trousers edged in tan was sharp instead of wrinkled to death, and she didn’t look harried as she had yesterday. I had a few seconds to openly study her as she walked toward me. Now that I could pay proper attention, she looked quite striking. Dark red hair, brown eyes that tended more toward liquid gold in color, skin darkened by the sun. No one would ever describe her as ‘pretty’ with such strong features, but she had an elegance all of her own. Without a by your leave, she came to my table and took the chair next to mine, slinging into it with easy grace as if she owned the place.
“Morning, Magus.”
“Good morning, Wangsgard.” The name felt odd in my mouth. This was a woman I was going to be working closely with for the foreseeable future. It didn’t make sense to keep this formal tone between us. “I don’t suppose we can drop the formalities?”
She’d half-turned, trying to signal one of the serving girls, but she twisted back to look at me with faint surprise.
“I thought Chahirans are usually formal?”
“Well, sure, with people that we don’t know. But I know you.” I paused, trying to put it into the right words. “We’re going to be working together for a while. To quote my mentor, when you work with people, you might as well start out as friends.”
A strain of tension that I hadn’t been truly aware of eased from her posture and expression. She went from semi-formal to a more relaxed air, eyes warm. “I must say I agree. I’m glad you’re not like the rumors. In that case, call me Mari.”
“Krys,” I offered with what I hoped is a charming smile. “And please explain what you mean by rumors.”
“Ah, there are stories floating around about you mages. About how you’ll take on kings and queens to get your way, and how you insist on formalities, things like that.”
Fortunately I wasn’t drinking or eating anything when she said that. If I had been, I would have choked. I laughed outright, slapping a hand on my leg as I did so.
Mari’s eyebrows flew up at my reaction. “I take it…the rumors are off?”
“Completely off,” I choked out, trying to get hold of myself. Breathe…breathe…deep breaths. Don’t think about it or you’ll set yourself off again. I took in another deep breath.
“The bit about queens and kings I almost understand, considering how much bargaining Garth has done with both monarchs. But the formalities? We drop formalities as much as possible. Believe me, we avoid things like that. Formal mage robes are very hot and uncomfortable.”
“Garth?” she parroted in a questioning tone.
“Rhebengarthen,” I clarified. I didn’t say more, curious to see if she knew enough to recognize the name.
Her eyes went as wide as saucers, jaw dropping. Ah, apparently she did know enough. “You know the Advent Mage?”
“Sure, he’s my mentor.” That impressed her even more. As flattering as it was, however, I didn’t want to mislead her. “Mari, that isn’t as impressive as it sounded. There’s only about a dozen Chahiran Mages. Garth is, of course, the first ever discovered and he took all of us under his wing. We’ve all been taught by or worked with him at some point in time.”
“Garth-friend nice,” Kaya assured her, raising a claw to stroke her collar. “Give pretty.”
“He made the necklace,” I expounded, trying not to smile. Mari’s obvious awestruck expression tickled my funny bone badly. “He and Kaya have been fast friends ever since.”
Mari closed her mou
th, head shaking a bit side-to-side. “Well. Any woman is charmed by a man that gives her jewelry, right, Kaya?”
Kaya bobbed her head up and down. “Is.”
“Duly noted.” I eyed Mari in growing approval. So, she wasn’t so stuck on reputations and such that she got hung up on it, eh? Good. People that fixated on making the “right connections” were usually people that I had no desire to associate with.
I waited until she caught a passing serving girl and gave an order for breakfast before asking, “So, Mari, what brings you to us at this early hour of the morning?”
“Well, I wanted to talk to you about your permanent living quarters. Normally, we put our hired firefighters up in an apartment near the office, but with you…” she trailed off with a significant glance at Kaya.
“Yes,” I sighed, putting my tea cup back on the table, “that’s not going to work. Kaya insists on being near me.”
“I don’t really know what is suitable for the two of you,” she admitted frankly. “We haven’t seen dragons in these parts for a good hundred years. I thought, since there are no emergencies, I’d take the day and show you what I’ve got available. You tell me what works.”
“Sounds good.” Far better than being shoved into a place and then having to find a way to make it work. “While we’re out, maybe you can introduce me to some of your blacksmiths?”
Mari’s breakfast arrived and was placed in front of her. She paused long enough to move things about as she liked it. “Certainly. Need some work done?”
“Quite the opposite, really. I don’t know about normal firefighters, but I can’t imagine just sitting around in between breakouts. I’d like to work, if I can.”
Her fork and knife paused in midair above her plate. “You know blacksmithing?”
I couldn’t help the smirk. “Mari, my family has made swords for the past three hundred years. We’re famous in Chahir for it. Yes, I can do most basic blacksmithing.”
She ruminated on this as she chewed a mouthful of food, a slight crease in between her brows, eyes weighing me. “I bet with your fire control, you’re better than most blacksmiths.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” I wasn’t being falsely modest, either. Blacksmithing was more about knowing how to mold metal in the shape you wanted it than how to control fire. “I can work faster than most of them, though.”
“I imagine so.”
Kaya’s nose inched in, forcing some of the occupants of nearby tables to move to accommodate her. “Meat-sauce?”
Mari shot me a silent look that asked for a translation.
I heaved a put-upon sigh. Was barbecue sauce the dragon version of a nreesce’s peanut butter addiction? “Maybe while you’re at it, you can tell me where to buy barbecue sauce?”
~*~
“Out of all the places, I think I like this one the best.”
Mari watched Kaya poke her nose into every nook and cranny. “I think she does too.”
We’d seen two or three places, all large enough to house a dragon, but none of them really worked for various reasons. This place would after some improvements. The building was actually a dry dock, meant for ship repairs off of the Paswaters Lake, but abandoned after the shipping company folded. The large, open area meant for the ships opened on both sides of the building by very large, sliding doors. The setup was perfect for Kaya—because the banks of the lake had been built up many generations ago to prevent flooding, this building sat on a slight rise, so Kaya could see over the town and the surrounding area just by poking her nose out. Actually, she was currently doing just that, tail thumping happily at the view.
The dry dock took up most of the building’s space, but off to the side was a long set of offices, storage rooms, and one room that served as a break room. With a little work, it could easily be converted over to living quarters for me. The place had the air of disuse with cobwebs thick enough to catch small children, but the wood floors under my feet were sound enough. Even under Kaya’s weight, nothing creaked. A few hours of leaving the windows and doors open should clear out this musty smell as well.
“It will take a few days to renovate the place into living space for you,” Mari commented thoughtfully, clearly taking mental notes on what needed to be done. “Still, it shouldn’t be difficult. We just need to add a few fixtures to make a bathroom and kitchen area.” She shot me a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. “Of course, it seems like a bit of work for someone who’s only staying six months. Sure you won’t sign up for longer than that?”
I had to be cautious on how I responded to this. “Mari, this is off the record, All right?” I waited for her nod before continuing. “The truth is, I’m hoping that Kaya and I fit in with your city so well that we don’t need to leave. I can’t go back to Chahir—not with her. She wouldn’t be accepted there. I’m afraid they’d try to kill her. As it is, they barely tolerate magic at all. The Empire of Sol or Hain are really my only options, unless I want to immigrate off this continent completely.”
“Krys,” she turned to face me straight on, “you and Kaya are the fastest, most effective firefighters I’ve ever seen or heard of. You did in one hour what would have taken several hundred of us at least a week, and that’s if we had a miracle and the dry spell hadn’t lasted. The City Council is drooling over the idea of keeping you two permanently. Are you telling me you’d actually stay if you felt this is a good place to settle down?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
A radiant smile broke out over Mari’s face. She was already attractive, but when she smiled like that—it was like watching a second sun rise. For a moment, I forgot to breathe. “Then I’ll get carpenters up here today to start working on the place.”
I yanked my mind back to business. “While we’re waiting, I guess I should do some shopping around for furniture.”
Kaya had obviously been tracking our conversation, as she turned and lowered her head to my level. “New home?”
“That’s right. You like this place, don’t you?”
She bobbed her head up and down. “Like. Needs pretties.”
Garth, I’m going to strangle you.
Mari had been around us half a day already, and had picked up enough of Kaya’s lingo to understand what she meant. She slapped a hand over her mouth to stop a laugh. I shot her a dirty look.
“And you were wondering why I insist on working as a blacksmith while we’re not firefighting? I have to in order to afford her bad habits!”
Lowering her hand, Mari gave me a beatific smile. “Why don’t we go back down so I can introduce you to a few blacksmiths?”
“That’d be good,” I allowed with a sigh.
~*~
Mellor was an interesting city and quite unlike most Solian cities in the way it was laid out. Most Solian cities were very functional, even militaristic, in their structure. There were precise intervals between streets, the buildings had a rather uniform look to them, and the whole city was easy to fortify. Mellor had that basic structure in place but it had been influenced from all of the trading and shipping going on between Khobunter and Libendorf. The place had grown beyond its original rigid boundaries. Now, it was far more inviting to the eyes.
The streets still adhered to that grid like pattern, but instead of the buildings all being made of depressing grey stone, people had started to paint the structures in different colors. The architecture had changed slightly, too, including awnings and different shaped roofs than just a flat tar roof. The skyline fluctuated instead of staying monotonously flat. People had added flowers and trees along the sidewalks, instead of it all being confined to just the centralized city parks. The city radiated with an invitation that felt warm and welcoming.
The city had been laid out on a nice, flat area near the lake. Well, to my eyes, Paswaters Lake was more like a small sea. Regardless, a good portion of Mellor’s business came from trade, shipbuilding, or artistry. That meant I had more than a few options of which blacksmith I wanted t
o work with.
The blacksmith that I hired on with wasn’t better than any of the others. Other factors decided the matter for me. Ken Maese had a certain feel to him that reminded me strongly of my uncle, the man I’d trained under for most of my life. Maese had the same massive build, as if he could crush rocks with his bare fists, ruddy skin and a bass voice that vibrated the air. The only difference between the two men was Maese was Solian dark and my uncle Chahiran fair. The way Maese spoke, and worked, and some of his mannerisms struck a chord of familiarity with me.
The smithy didn’t have a prime town location, instead hovering on the city’s outskirts. Actually, the shop was only a stone’s throw from the place that Kaya and I would soon move into. I’d always lived close to where I worked, and here there was enough space for Kaya to hang about, if she chose to.
Within two days of settling into Mellor, a pattern started to develop. I worked at the smithy in the mornings, trained with Kaya in the afternoons, and spent most of the evening putting our new living quarters into shape.
It was on one of those mornings that I was hailed from the smithy’s doorway. “Krys?”
I looked up towards the smith’s doorway, pausing in mid-stride with a long bar of cooling metal in my hands. Mari stood just inside the doorway, and for once, she had on something other than a uniform. Actually, I quite liked what she wore. The dark leather skirt flirted around her ankles, with a matching vest, and a stark white shirt. The simple clothes somehow enhanced her femininity. The look on her face didn’t shout trouble to me, so I put the bar down casually instead of springing to alert.
“Hello, Mari.”
“Hi. Am I interrupting?” She stepped more fully inside, away from the doorway.
“This isn’t something that’s high priority,” I assured her. Actually, the project had been moldering in a long forgotten corner of Maese’s shop until I picked it up.
“Excellent. I’m not sure what your plans are today, but I’m hoping that I can steal you away for a few hours.”
I was always amiable to being stolen by beautiful women. “I don’t have plans,” I assured her. “Where are we going?”
Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Page 8
