After I'd insistently shooed away three curious wine-girls, intrigued by what I was doing, I'd been left alone. I was aware of whispered comments going on back behind the bar, discussing the new me in tones of disbelief, but dismissed them easily as I lost myself in the words.
Well, I suppose it was odd to see a man reading in a cantina, ignoring attractive women.
Fouad eventually arrived. His face was troubled.
I glanced up, marking my place with a finger. 'What?'
'Is this a plan I should know about?'
'Is what a plan?'
He gestured. 'You sitting here all afternoon.'
'I've spent many an afternoon sitting here, Fouad. Not lately, maybe, but certainly often enough before.'
He leaned closer. 'People wish to kill you.'
I figured it out. 'You think I'm trying to lure sword-dancers to come in here after me.'
'Aren't you?' Nervously he smoothed the front of his robes. 'Damages can be expensive, Tiger. Broken stools and tables, shattered crockery …' He trailed off, figuring that was enough imagery to get his point across.
It was. 'Fouad, I'm just reading. Nothing more. Del's sleeping, so I came out here.'
His expression was a fascinating amalgam of disbelief and worry. 'But you can't read.'
'Who told you that?'
'You did. Some years ago.'
Well, yes, I probably had. 'I learned how.' I didn't bother to explain how I learned how; some stories are better left untold.
'So, you're reading just to read?'
'Yes, Fouad. Reading just to read.' That, and to learn what I could about magery, since it seemed to concern me in very personal ways now. 'I'm not attempting to lure sword-dancers to come in here after me.'
'And if they do come? You're sitting out here in front of the gods and everybody.'
I dropped my right hand beneath the table, closed it around the sheathed sword, and raised it to a level where he could see the hilt. 'Satisfied?'
Fouad's concern bled away, replaced by a relieved smile. 'Yes.'
'Good.' I resettled the sword against the wall, hidden behind and beneath the table. 'Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue my reading.'
'Damages should concern you, Tiger,' he pointed out. 'It's not all profit, you know, operating a cantina.'
'I'm sure you'll provide a thorough accounting of profits and expenses, Fouad. I trust you.' I tapped the page with an impatient finger. 'Do you mind?'
Shaking his head, Fouad wandered away muttering about losing his best corner to a man who wanted to read and who expected all his food and drink for free.
Well, sure. Why should I pay for what I own?
* * *
The next interruption was Del. 'What are you doing?'
I scowled up at her, annoyed as her shadow slanted across the page I was reading. Since I was losing light as the sun went down, it mattered. With no little asperity, I replied, 'I should think it's obvious.'
Her face was creased from the mattress, flushed from recent awakening. She looked very young. 'What are you drinking?' She bent forward as if considering helping herself to what was in my cup, then wrinkled her nose as she caught a whiff. 'Never mind.'
Del glanced around, looking for someone to take her order, then wandered over to the bar to place it herself when all of the girls disappeared into the back; it was their way of exhibiting jealousy. Apparently Fouad hadn't yet informed them Del was their boss as much as he was.
I followed her with my eyes, as did every other man in the cantina, though as yet there weren't many. Within the hour the common room ought to begin filling up. In the meantime, Del, oblivious to the stares, served as distraction and the object of lustful thoughts, even draped in a sleep-wrinkled burnous, with a sword hilt poking above her shoulder.
I heard raised voices from behind the curtain, including Fouad's. The three girls abruptly reappeared, each wearing an outraged expression that altered to sullen resentment as they saw Del at the bar. One of them, rubbing her rump, even deigned to inquire as to Del's wishes; the other two started working the tables, suggesting more drinks. None of them looked happy.
Hmmm. Maybe I ought to have a word with them. Couldn't have them displaying bad tempers to the customers. No doubt Fouad would appreciate me taking a hand in the running of the business.
Del came back with a cup and flask. 'Water,' she declared, eyeing my aqivi. 'We musn't drink up all the profits.'
I poured my cup full and availed myself of a portion of the profits. Del sighed and shook her head, hooking a stool to the table.
I closed Umir's book with a thump, latched the hook and hasp, and set it down on the bench next to me so it wasn't in evidence to casual customers. 'You're only half awake, bascha. Why don't you go back to bed?'
'Oh, no, I'm very awake. I doubt I'll be able to sleep again until well after dark.' She drank her water, eyes guileless over the rim of the cup. 'In fact, there's no need to stay the night here. We could get a start now.'
'I haven't slept.'
'But you've spent the balance of the day resting, Tiger, reading a book in a quiet corner. Unless you consider that exhausting labor.'
'Well, it might be,' I declared irritably. 'It's written by several people in several different tongues. I have to translate all of them in my head before I can figure out what anybody's talking about, and even then I can't always sort through their meanings, since I've been a mage all of a couple of months. It's mental labor, bascha.'
Her expression made an eloquent statement: she did not consider my explanation good enough.
'Come on, Del, we've been through this. We leave in the morning. After we've had a chance to sleep in a real bed.'
'You could have slept in a real bed this afternoon.'
'I was, in case you haven't noticed, being a considerate individual. I let you have the whole bed all to yourself.'
'Considerate?' Del eyed my jug. 'How much of that have you had?'
I brightened. 'Enough that I wouldn't trust myself to stay ahorse.'
'Hah,' she retorted. 'You wouldn't admit to being too drunk to sit a horse if you were lying face-down in a puddle of piss.'
'I dunno,' I slurred, blinking owlishly. 'I might need you to help me to bed. You know, hold me up, take my sandals off, undress me …' I waggled suggestive eyebrows at her.
Del's face was perfectly bland, but I saw the faintest hint of a twitch at one corner of her mouth. 'Dream on.'
I stiffened on my bench. 'That's cruel. I told you how I feel about dreams.'
She was laughing at me unrepentantly even as she rose. 'I will leave you to your reading, then.'
'Wait—where are you going?' I started to reach for the book and my sword. 'Back to bed?'
She paused. 'Don't look so hopeful, Tiger. No, not to bed. I have it in mind to purchase some new clothing. Something– different.'
'Why? What kind of clothing? How different?'
'Something suitable for serving liquor.'
I stood up so fast I overset the bench. 'You're not—you can't mean—tell me you don't …' I stopped, untangled my brain, started over from an entirely different direction, a more positive direction in view of Del's tendancy to disapprove of what she described as my tendancy toward possessiveness. With immense courtesy, I queried, 'What is it you intend to do, pray tell?'
'Learn how to run a cantina.'
Alarm reasserted itself. 'By being a wine-girl?'
