Page 99 of Ale Storm

“No, you’re despicable.”

“You’ll recognize my value more after he speaks with your father, and your dragon has permission to enjoy your company. On ovens and elsewhere.”

“Despicable.”

“Don’t forget you owe me some meals for my security services tonight,” Sylin said before heading out the back door and disappearing into the night.

EPILOGUE

“Perhaps access to the grotto could be through a trapdoor installed behind the bar,” Jildarin suggested as he removed from the wall the plaque listing the very important persons who’d eaten at the Dragon Diner. Queen Fareesa, thus far, but he was about to make an addition. “Or we could remove the furnishings from the small room across from the kitchen and turn it into a more spacious and grander grotto entrance.”

“The small room across from the kitchen is my office.” Rylana, who was noshing a late lunch in one of the seats at the bar, pointed her fork down the hallway. “I use the furnishings. The desk and chair are where I tally the day’s earnings and subtract grocery bills, rent payments, and other various costs from the income to ensure we stay within our budget and earn a profit each month.”

“Perhaps you could do such work from a corner of the grotto.”

“Yes, I’d love to move the desk into a dank windowless basement and squint by candlelight at the books.” Rylana didn’t point out that the tiny office was also windowless; at least some daylight filtered in from the dining room, kitchen, and storeroom.

“Our future subterranean eating area will not be dank.” Jildarin frowned at her as he rested the plaque on the bar. “It will be expertly carved out of the earth by dwarven engineers, and I will keep it fastidiously clean and maintained in such a state as the wine cellar that Zilek visits.”

“Uh-huh. We’re only a block from the lake, you know. The water table has got to be pretty close to the surface here. If we start digging, we might end up putting in an underground pool instead of a grotto.”

Jildarin looked in the direction of Lumi Lake. “I had not considered that.”

“Zilek’s wine club meets up on the ridge. Basements are more feasible up there.”

“And the dragon caves with which I’m intimately familiar tend to be high in mountains, well above nearby rivers and bodies of water.”

“That’s good. No dragon wants a flooded cave.”

“Correct.”

“Speaking of Zilek, I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“The last I heard, he was still in the south for his hunt. He said he intended to acquire exotic fare.”

“Huh. Maybe I’ll let Sylin know that gleaming glacial mammoth meat might be coming her way. Or maybe he’ll get one of the giant ice sloths that we also discussed. I owe Sylin a favor for catching the dwarf thief and said you might be able to cook such meat into something sumptuous.”

“I am capable of that and enjoy properly preparing the rare as well as the mundane.”

“You’re talented at both.” Smiling, Rylana bit into the last of her crispy-fried rabbit sandwich. It was smothered in a cheesy cayenne sauce that was so delicious that Jildarin could have slathered it onto any meat and made it taste wonderful.

Apparently, there was an overabundance of rabbits in the city parks, due to a lack of natural predators in Tranquility, and some trappers had been sent to remedy the problem. When Jildarin had heard about their work, he’d requested the meat, saying there was no reason to be wasteful. People were now raving about his buttermilk-marinated crispy-fried rabbit meals. Only a talented chef could take pest animals from the park and turn them into a popular summer dish.

“I’m always game to entertain ideas of expanding the restaurant, especially since the rooftop terrace will be seasonal, and help you research possibilities,” Rylana said, “but we may want to consider a horizontal expansion rather than another vertical one. There’s not a tenant next door at the moment, is there?” According to the faded signage, the building, which was directly across from the coffee shop, had once been a sewing factory, but its windows and doors were boarded up. “Maybe we could find out who the landlord is and lease it. Or even offer to buy it. Saving to have enough funds for a real-estate purchase would be a worthy goal for us to work toward.”

“Hm.” Jildarin’s gaze shifted in that direction. “Perhaps we could consider that, but that structure has windows. It couldn’t be a grotto.”

“I haven’t noticed the ogres and dwarves of the city, despite being naturally subterranean dwellers, avoiding our diner because of its proliferation of windows.”

“I suppose that’s true. One does want the patrons to be comfortable while they dine though.”

“That’s not overly concerned you before. Are you sure you aren’t the one pining for a cave-like chamber in the city? So you could move your lair from the storeroom and into a grotto?”

Jildarin hesitated. “I do miss sleeping in a lightless environment fully ensconced by stone. That is very soothing and restful for a dragon.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And the storeroom sees so much activity…” Jildarin grimaced in that direction, perhaps thinking of all the people who’d crowded in the night before. “It’s not an ideal lair.”