“That wealth won’t be left to me. It’s been years since I even sent a letter home. As for spoiling, my father was stern and strict, not lenient or loving, and he never gave my brother or me anything that we didn’t work for.”
“So, you only had, what, eight servants?”
“Hardly.Hehad a personal butler, but we kids had to fend for ourselves after Mother died.”
“Oh? Who cleaned the toilets?”
“There was a gnomish clockwork scrubber.”
“I knew you were spoiled.”
“The wolves didn’t have any clockwork servants, huh?”
“Not a one.” Sylin peered out the window.
Someone even more impeccably dressed than Jildarin was walking toward the front door of the diner. The man appeared to be of a similar age, with the same bronze skin and silver hair, but his was long and drawn back in a ponytail.
“That’s another dragon,” Sylin said with certainty. “I wonder if it’s the brother. Zilek.”
“He’s a regular in town,” Brella said, cruising past with her now-empty burlap bags draped over one arm. “Goes to the symphony, the opera, the museum galas, the tinkerers’ clockworkball. He seems to be enjoying the offerings that abound in Tranquility.”
“A dragon who goes to balls and the opera? Is the whole family…?” Rylana extended a hand toward Sylin.
“Quirky,” she said firmly, not making it a question.
“The brothers may qualify in that department,” Brella said, “though I know less about the one who set up shop across the street. As my partner said, he keeps to himself and is a touch grouchy.”
“Atouch,” Tezilly said, dropping off coffees at a nearby table, then lingering to chat with the patrons there. The owners seemed to be capable of tending the shop and also following multiple conversations.
“Two or three touches,” Brella said in agreement, then headed to the kitchen.
“I wonder if Jildarin would kick me out if I tried to buy something to eat,” Rylana mused.
“The soup that makes people horny?”
“I was thinking of the bacon that smelled so good earlier. Pork doesn’t have any aphrodisiacal qualities that I know of.”
“It sounds like the spices are the problem. They could be onanything.”
“Does that mean you’re staying here?” Rylana waved toward the wood-beamed ceiling of the coffee shop.
Sylin raised a finger when Tezilly strolled past. “Another cup of the dark roast, please.”
“I’ll take that as ayes,” Rylana said.
“While I enjoy my coffee, I’ll monitor out the window to see if you’re thrown out.”
“I won’t be gone long.”
“Oh, I’m certain of it. Leave your pack and bow if you want me to watch them.”
“Somehow, I thinkI’llneed more watching than my belongings.”
“Yes, but they’ll be easier to protect while I enjoy my next cup. Ah.” Sylin almost purred when Tezilly delivered another coffee with two more cookies balanced on the saucer.
Rylana left her bow, quiver, and pack beside the table and stood. “Those dragons aren’t the only quirky ones around here, you know.”
“I’m quick to recognize like kind, yes.” Sylin sipped from her cup. “Excellent. Why don’t you ask the ladies that own this place if they need a bookkeeper?”
