Valefour turned to his comrades and shrugged. “Hardly the worst idea. Show us what you’ve got.”
Ophidia rose from her place by the campfire, wiping berry-stained fingers on her trousers. “Yes, show us what you have in the kitchen. Tell us how we can help.”
Elyssandra shook her hands at them frantically. “No, no — you should just take it easy and rest. We’ll handle the work.”
Newt strode up to the cottage’s door. “Nonsense. We’ve got plenty of hands, and we can put them all together for a feast. Have you got any flour? We rarely get to eat bread unless Valefour brings it back from up top.”
Braiden regarded the demons guiltily. Even the most basic of amenities were denied them. He didn’t know how long or how far Valefour truly could stray from the ruined portal below, but it clearly hadn’t allowed them to secure many comforts beyond what they could craft from materials readily available within the burning meadow.
If all this business with the Heirloom and the portal somehow fell through, Braiden resolved that he would make the trek up and down the dungeon as many times as it would take to help equip the demons for a better life underground. Perhaps they could even request some help from the burrowfolk.
The demons streamed in through the front door of Elyssandra’s cottage, even as the elf waved her hands and clutched at her hair in a panic. She sidled over to Braiden, whispering out of the side of her mouth.
“I really appreciate them being so enthusiastic about this, but Iama little embarrassed that they’ll be putting any effort into cooking for themselves at all. Doesn’t that defeat the point of us cooking for them?”
Warren watched the doorway warily as the demons filed in. “More than that,” he said, “can your cottage even accommodate all of these visitors all at once?”
Well over twenty of them, Braiden had last counted.
“At least I’m petite,” Bones said, “because I don’t have any meat. I barely take up any space.”
Augustin laughed, clapping Bones on the back. The skeleton rattled and clacked. “You take up plenty of space, friend Bones. Don’t you worry about that.”
“Thanks,” Bones said. “I think.”
They followed the demons into the house. The cottage had maintained its usual size, or at least the same configuration for accommodating Bones, Elyssandra, and Warren. There was a door for each of their bedrooms in the walls, as well as one for a common lavatory. And then Braiden noticed the door in the far wall.
Lucie was running about, touching things, oohing and aahing, marveling at the elven furniture. With a twinge, Braiden realized this must have been the first time the demon child had ever seen anything like this. This was the first time she had been indoors.
“What’s this?” Lucie asked, heading for the same door Braiden had been wondering about. “Is this how it works?” she asked, turning the knob.
The tinkerer inside her must have given her the correct instincts for operating a door, something she’d never actually seen before. Braiden smiled and said nothing. Let the little girl explore to her heart’s content.
She turned the knob and pushed the door open. The breath rushed out of Braiden’s body.
The cottage now extended into a long hallway, opening into a vast space as big as a palatial ballroom. Stairs wound upward on either side at the far end of a pair of long tables. It was a banquet hall, he realized, somehow doubling as a foyer.
And up on the second level, past the gleaming wooden banisters, he saw several doors lining the wood-paneled walls — nearly twenty of them.
Elyssandra rushed up to him, staring wide-eyed at the great new room.
“The cottage turned itself into a mansion,” she breathed. “It’s making room for everyone.”
Chapter
Twenty-Five
The smellof baking bread and cake filled the walls of Elyssandra’s hairpin cottage. It took Braiden some time to notice that the kitchen had expanded itself as well, making room to accommodate the sudden influx of so many more cooks.
Newt’s appetite for bread had encouraged them to turn out a few crusty loaves within a matter of hours. While there wasn’t much time, nor did they have the equipment to create fancy iced cakes, there were still more than enough ingredients to make simpler pound cakes and sponge cakes.
Many of them were flavored with the fiery berries plucked straight from the burning meadow’s bushes. Spiceberries, Braiden learned they were called, somehow offered a fruity, cinnamon-laced burst of flavor when used in desserts and pastries and an edge of peppery spice in more savory dishes.
He added a few to his regular recipe of Gwerenese Omelette, as passed down from Granny Bethilda, lending the dish a more genuine Gwerenese twist.
Lucie marveled as Augustin demonstrated his special technique for preparing scrambled eggs, conjuring a tiny tornado in the middle of the pan.
Warren and Elyssandra frantically chopped vegetables, making their best effort at preparing a hearty party stew with whatever ingredients they had on hand, as well as what the demons had gathered from the burning meadow.
