Zalani stepped out of the kitchen with her face flushed, her hair down, and her dress rumpled with a few buttons unfastened. She gripped the hand of a burly man who probably had orc blood but managed to have a broad, handsome face regardless, and they walked toward the dining room. He wore a pleased grin. When Zalani spotted Rylana, she halted and pointed her companion toward the back exit, then made shooing motions. Still grinning, he bowed to her and headed that way.
“Did you have the soup?” Rylana guessed.
“Uhm, let’s say yes.” Did Zalani's cheeks redden even more as she glanced at Rolf? “Do you know when Jildarin is returning?”
“Any minute,” Rylana said, though she had no idea. Maybe his hunt would keep him out all night. Or maybe he would let his brother talk him into the wine gathering afterward.
“He won’t be happy about this, will he?” Zalani looked around the dining room with wide eyes—maybe it hadn’t been as busy and chaotic when she’d slipped away forherrendezvous. “I shouldn’t have…”
“Not during work hours, no.” Rylana couldn’t manage more censure than that. After all, she’d also succumbed to the soup’s allure when she’d been told better. “We need to get these people out of here, and clean up the mess they have to be making in the storeroom.”
In Jildarin'slair. She winced.
The cry of someone’s climax came from a corner, and Rylana glanced toward the front window, half-expecting to spot Jildarin striding toward the door. But only the teenage boys were back out there with their noses pressed to the glass.
“You and Rolf and Gniknik, get all those people out of the hallway, kitchen, and storeroom. Tell them Jildarin is coming, and he’ll be in his dragon form. And furious. Then clean up the best you can.” Rylana rolled up her sleeves. “Sylin, will you help me roust the people out here?”
“Did you say roust or rouse? Because the latter is sufficiently handled, I believe.” Sylin still looked amused. Of course.Shedidn’t care about helping and winning the trust of the dragon owner.
“You know what I said. Come on.”
“I’m not grabbing any naked body parts,” Sylin warned but did follow Rylana toward a couple that had finished and dozed off under a table.
“Do you only assassinate fully dressed people?”
“Ideally. Even if they’re nude, I don’t usually have to grab anything to do my work.”
Shaking her head, Rylana pulled a sleeping man out by hisboots. Sylin hefted the woman over her shoulder, her elven strength coming in handy. Rylana had to drag her load across the floor and into the street.
“You boys, go home,” Rylana told the peepers. “The boss is on his way back.”
“The dragon?” One of the taller boys lifted his chin. “He can’t change in town. I’m not afraid of him.”
“I’m a little afraid of him,” one of the others whispered.
“I think I see him flying toward the southern edge of the city now.” Rylana pointed down the street, though she didn’t see anything in the dark sky.
Most of the boys swore and sprinted into the alley. The one who wasn’t afraid hesitated, realized he was alone, and then slunk off in another direction. Sylin laid the sleeping woman down against the wall, eliciting a groan.
“The ones who are still engaged won’t be as easy to evict,” she warned.
“We’ll do it anyway.”
“Does this really fall under the purview of a bookkeeper?”
“It does tonight.”
Back inside, Rolf and Gniknik were maneuvering a snoring woman onto a long flat board with wheels. Some contraption the gnome had made to carry cargo? Rolf pointed at her chest when it jiggled, jostled by the movement. Gniknik slapped his hand out of the air and told him to grab her by the shoulders. They used the wheeled device to push the woman out the door. Zalani, who was throwing a bucket of water on a couple still engaged, had to step aside so they could pass.
An irate man lunged for her. Rylana stepped in, caught his arm, and twisted it behind his back, forcing his nose against the wall.
“No attacking the staff,” she said. “Take your lady friend, and go home.”
His shoulder muscles bunched, and he tried to escape, but Rylana's years as a mercenary had left her capable of keeping a man pinned—especially one whose thinking and reflexes were slowed by dragon spices.
“Let’s go, Jowlark.” His companion took his free arm and nodded to Rylana that she would take him away.
She released the man, but as she headed toward another couple, a hint of smoke reached her nose.
