Protector of the Flight (14 page)

He
bowed deeply. “Your Shield, Bastien, brought it in. We have an understanding.”

“Serves
me right for not paying attention,” Alexa muttered.

“I
will have the Chevalier Exotique’s leathers ready by this evening.” He bowed
again.

“Please
send them to me at the Castle,” Alexa said, “and put them on my account.”

“I’ll
pay you back!” Calli said when Marian translated.

Alexa
shrugged, smiled and replied in English. “A gift. Many people will be giving
you gifts to get in your good graces. Expect something from the Citymasters and
the Singer, too. Let’s head to the Nom de Nom for lunch.”

“You’ll
love it,” Marian said and Calli couldn’t tell whether that was being sarcastic
or not.

10

T
hey walked up to
a shabby, narrow stone building with a sign that changed magically from black
letters on a white background to white letters on a black background.

This
was the place that held monster trophies. Calli didn’t think she was ready, but
it would be better getting used to dead monsters hanging on walls than live
ones attacking.

Alexa
said, “Acclimatizing you, Calli. The Nom de Nom is one of the main hangouts for
the Chevaliers, so you’ll probably be spending plenty of time here. The
trophies are in the upper third of the room. You might want to look up after
we’ve settled in a booth.” She hesitated. “This place isn’t as bad as the
Assayer’s Office. If you need to, uh, get more of an idea what you’ll be
facing, you can go there.” She opened the door to the scent of smoke and food
and liquor. “And there’s a back room you should see.”

The
moment Calli walked in, conversation stopped. The place wasn’t packed, but the
bar on her right was full, with Chevaliers leaning or sitting on stools. Of the
five booths, two were taken. Alexa scowled at the couple in the last booth
against the wall and they got up and moved to one closer to the door. A
waitress hurried over to wipe the table.

All
the Chevaliers watched Calli with considering gazes. Well, they were getting an
eyeful of the Exotique they might want to mate with. Calli wondered if she’d
find more or fewer tokens on the Choosing table after this visit.

A
woman at the bar flinched, slipped from her seat and left.

Feeling
self-conscious and wanting to get this “trophy” ordeal over with, Calli glanced
up. Time seemed to stop and fear bubbled up her throat.

The
first thing she saw was the torso of a snarling beast with spines on its arms.
She tried to swallow but couldn’t pull her gaze away from the fierce glass
eyes, the open muzzle that showed sharp, deadly teeth. Its fur was yellow, as
was the underside of its digited paws. Yellow skin, yellow fur. Slayer.

Marian
picked up one of Calli’s hands and curved her fingers around a mug handle. Her
spit had dried, so she took a gulp, and cold, yeasty ale slid down her throat.
She tore her gaze away to Marian who was gesturing for her to slide into the
bench opposite Alexa, who faced the room. Calli decided that having people
stare into the back of her head—her blond head—would feel better than meeting a
stream of brown-eyed stares. She managed to pick one foot up after the other to
get to the table and slide in on what seemed to be a red leather bench. Leather
made from cows or something—not monster hide.

“I
ordered burgers for lunch,” Alexa said.

Marian
took the outside seat and Calli closed her eyes a moment in thanks that these
two women were so protective.

At
least for now. They seemed to think that she’d go out and fight monsters like
the slayer, or the larger beast next to it. This one snarled, too, its fangs as
sharp as the slayers, its black furred head more massive. On either side of the
head were huge paws with long, curved,
sharply
pointed claws that looked
more like blades than anything else.

“Render,”
Alexa said, and removed a little woven basket of tea leaves from her mug,
placing it on a saucer.

Calli
forced herself to savor the ale. It was perfect. Rich, mellow, just to her
taste, already warming her stomach. She’d settled enough from shock to glance
up at the next mounted trophy of a horror—another torso. Gray, lizard-like
skin, bony head with no nose, two arms with two suckered tentacles in front and
behind each arm, a soul-sucker.

When
she turned her gaze back to the table, she saw the other women watching her with
understanding in their eyes. “Is that it?” she croaked.

“There
are dreeths,” Alexa said.

“Of
course, how could I forget dreeths? What are they?”

“Quetzalcoatlus,”
Marian said.

“The
Aztec plumed-serpent god?”

Alex
huffed out a breath. “According to Marian, the biggest pterodactyl-type
dinosaur on Earth is called a quetzalcoatlus.”

“Oh.”

“It
has a bigger belly, though.”

“Sorta
bat winged?” asked Calli, trying to imagine the thing.

“Yes.
Clawed front legs and spurred, too.”

“Huh.”

“Marian?”
Alexa held both hands out, palms up.

“Oh,
very well,” Marian said. She linked fingers with Alexa and to Calli’s amazement
a 3-D image formed above the table of a flying reptile.

“Not
a dragon,” Calli said, looking at the hideous thing.

“No,”
Marian and Alexa said in unison.

Its
beak was long and curved. “More sharp teeth. Everything around here has sharp
teeth except us and volarans.”

“The
teeth are poison, like slayer spines,” Alexa said.

“Of
course they are,” muttered Calli. “Regular teeth would be too easy. How big?”

“About
the size of a bungalow,” Alexa said.

A
short shriek and the clatter of plates toppling onto their table caused Marian
and Alexa to break apart. They snatched two meals. Calli saw one plate
overturn. “No!” The burger and bun stopped in midair, the plate turned right
side up and the food slid back onto the thick pottery. Marian reached out and
nabbed it, smiling at Calli. “You saved it.”

She’d
used magic! Instinctively she’d stopped the mouthwatering food from falling.
She’d even repiled the strange white fries. She looked at one dubiously. “What
are these?”

“Turnip
fries,” Alexa said, biting into her burger.

“Turnip?”

“They
don’t have potatoes,” Marian explained sadly.

“I
taught the cook burgers and buns, and they’re all the rage, of course, but without
fries…” Alexa shrugged.

“What
kind of meat?” Calli bit off the end of a turnip fry. Not even hot oil and salt
could make it good. She dropped the fry onto the plate.

“Cow,”
Marian said.

“Okay,”
Calli said. “We got mustard and ketchup?”

“Something
that might barely pass for about a gold coin more,” Alexa said.

“Shoot.”

“I’m
working on that,” Marian said.

Since
she was working on so many other projects, Calli didn’t think she’d be seeing
the condiments soon.

“Ketchup
is easier than mustard. They grow plenty of tomatoes here.” Marian peeled off
her bun and showed lettuce and tomato.

The
burger was plump and juicy and had Calli forgetting about everything except
eating. The lettuce and tomato actually had taste, unlike most of the standard
stuff she’d had in diners. She bit, swallowed. Breakfast seemed days instead of
hours ago.

A
man cleared his throat.

Calli
looked up to see a tall, somber-looking guy wearing brown cotton trousers and
shirt with a sleeveless tunic of dark gray over it. His left temple showed a
streak of silver—that indicated he had magical powers, she remembered.

He
made a little half bow to Alexa, then Marian, addressing them by name. Alexa
gestured that he could join them and scooted over so he could sit next to her.
He raised a hand and the waitress hurried over. Calli heard “burger,” and
smiled. By the time Alexa, Marian and she were done with Lladrana, the people
would sure have some Americanizations in their language.

Alexa
put her sandwich down. Calli noticed she’d only eaten a couple of fries.
“Calli, this is Sevair Masif, Representative of the Cities and Towns to the
Marshalls.”

Another
new face. Another guy looking her over coolly. “Tell him I’m pleased to meet
him.” Though she really wasn’t much, she inclined her head. “What cities?”

Marian
muffled a snort beside her.

“They
just aren’t as urban as we are,” Alexa said.

“Castleton
is, like, the main city, right? And it doesn’t have mustard and ketchup?”

Alexa
sighed.

Marian
said, “We did tell you that people would give you presents. This man did me a
wonderful favor by sending my teacher and me and Jaquar an excellent cook.”

“He
had a spice master send me a gift of tea. Expensive here. You want to ask him
for mustard?”

Marian
frowned. “Have you asked about mustard, Alexa? I think the southern part of
Lladrana might make it, or the country south of here.”

“Haven’t
asked,” Alexa said. “How important is mustard to you, Calli? Enough to ask for
it as a gift instead of anything else? Tea’s important to me.”

“And
let me tell you, that cook has been a lifesaver…or at least made my crotchety
old mentor into a reasonable human being,” Marian said.

The
waitress set down Masif’s plate and curtsied.

“Gifts.
No strings attached?” Calli asked.

Alexa
said something apologetic to Masif. He nodded and began eating, a little
awkwardly, as if he wasn’t used to eating with his hands, concentrating on
making sure the bun’s contents didn’t slip. For some reason Calli found that
endearing.

“No
strings attached.” Alexa grinned. “The thing is, everyone wants to get on our
good sides, and since we’re virtually inexplicable, no one expects anything in
return…at least not for the first gift.”

“Huh,”
Calli said. “No strings? Ask the guy if he intends to put something on my
Choosing table.”

Eyes
dancing, Alexa did. All three Exotiques stared at him. A faint redness appeared
on his cheekbones under his golden skin. He seemed to grit his teeth around his
bite of burger. Glancing at her, then away, he swallowed and said something
that sounded flowery.

Alexa
coughed. Marian turned to Calli and said, “He asked if you’d be unhappy if he
did so.”

“Unhappy.”
She looked at Marian. “What’s the word for ‘no’?”

Alexa
laughed. “I learned the word for ‘no’ within an hour here!”

Calli
could believe that.

“Ttho,”
said Marian.

Stomach
fluttering with butterflies, Calli met Masif’s gaze and said, “Ttho.”

His
eyes went big and he looked as if he was having second thoughts. Since she
sensed he was a very serious man, she liked the fact she made him nervous. She
didn’t see that they had much in common, but he looked like a stand-up guy, and
the more choices she had, the better.

They
all ate in silence. When they were done, Marian said, “Speaking of the Choosing
and Bonding, we’d better get back.”

“There’re
hours until evening,” Alexa grumbled. “Marian—”

“Back,”
Marian said firmly. “You can’t prepare for something this life altering too
early.”

Calli’s
burger turned to lead in her stomach.

“Just
gonna dump Sevair?” asked Alexa.

“If
he’s going to put a token on the Choosing table, he’ll have to prepare, too,”
Marian said. She gestured around them. “The place is almost empty. Most of the
Chevaliers are probably up in Horseshoe Hall meditating and bathing and
Singing.”

“Singing?”
asked Calli.

“Praying,”
Marian said.

“Oh.”
It would probably be a good thing to do a bit of that herself. Calli didn’t
consider herself a very spiritual person. Her dad certainly didn’t truck with
any sort of religion, so she wasn’t quite sure who she’d pray to. The closest
she’d come to a spiritual experience lately was flying on Thunder. That decided
her. “I’d like to see the volarans again.”

“Shoot,”
Marian said, digging into a pocket of her gown and dropping a couple of gold
coins into Alexa’s outstretched hand.

Alexa
winked at Calli. “I won the bet that you’d want to fly again before this
evening.”

Calli
stared at Marian. “You’re the one who was there when I took off and landed
yesterday. You like volarans better than Alexa, why would you think I wouldn’t
want to fly today?”

“You
fell off yesterday. You don’t have the tack you like. You should be thinking of
the Choosing and Bonding ritual and preparing for it.”

“I
won’t fall off. Thunder wouldn’t let me. Bastien’s bringing a variety of tack
for me to examine, so I’ll find something acceptable. As for preparing for the
Choosing and Bonding, I’d rather keep my mind and hands occupied. Furthermore,
I think the most spiritual experience I’ve had in my life was on the back of
that volaran yesterday.”