Chapter 3
“I can’t see the title of his book from here,” Sylin said.
Rylana peered through the front window of the coffee shop. Sylin had followed her down from the rooftop terrace and stood beside her, apparently not eager to enter.
Zilek and Jildarin sat at a back table near the swinging door to the kitchen. Jildarin had his book open, his finger touching a page as he looked intently from it to Zilek and back again. Asking his brother’s opinion on something in the text? The text on humans?
Zilek grinned broadly and thrust his arm into the air above the table. The gesture looked sexual, but maybe Rylana was mistaken. Maybe that motion indicated something to do with dragon flight or landing. But Jildarin wouldn’t have met with his brother to ask for advice on those topics.
“Spying on dragons generally isn’t wise,” Sylin said but didn’t move away.
“Zalani already mentioned that.”
“Yet here you are.”
“I want to make sure Zilek isn’t giving his brother bad advice.”
“If they’re discussing dating you, Zilek is definitely giving bad advice.”
“Is that what they’re talking about? Can you hear them through the window?” Rylana would have believed it since elves had keen hearing.
“No, but I’m fluent in lewd gestures.”
“Two hells.”
Zilek, perhaps sensing an elf in the street, looked in their direction. Rylana sprang to the side of the window and out of his view.
Sylin didn’t. She bared her teeth at him.
The sound of laughter in a familiar baritone floated out as someone opened the door to walk out.
“It sounds like Zilek is looking forward to your date,” Rylana said.
The departing patron held the door open for Sylin, but she shook her head. “Our meeting isn’t for another ten minutes. If you’re going to spy, you’ve got time.”
Sylin extended her hand toward the alley.
Rylana hesitated. “Didn’t you advise against that?”
“Yes, but you won’t heed my sage counsel.”
Rylana thought about walking straight in and sitting down at a table near the dragons.
In the past, Zilek had spoken while she was in earshot—about sex, her feminine appeal, and her ability to be a good servant—so it wasn’t as if he would avoid the topic if she could hear.
If that was the subject matter, however, Jildarin might be more reserved.
“I’ll only spy for a minute,” Rylana decided.
“I assumed,” Sylin said.
Rylana stuck her tongue out at her, then trotted down the alley to the coffee shop’s back door. If the dragons’ discussion didn’t have anything to do with her, she would leave them be, but she had a hunch…
When she knocked, a bemused Tezilly, with soapy hands, let her into the small kitchen.
Most of the space in the rear of the shop was devoted to a storeroom piled high with magical gnomish storage containers that kept beans imported from the south fresh.
Brella was manning the espresso machine, and Tezilly returned to washing dishes.
“Are Zilek and Jildarin still in there?” Rylana whispered when Vilma, their half-gnome assistant, entered the kitchen with empty mugs.
“Yes.” Vilma pointed through the door toward the corner table. “Chef Jildarin is refusing to order any flavored water, as he calls it, but since Zilek has imbibed two coffees and tips generously, we’re not asking his brother to leave.”
“Also because he’s a dragon?”
“That may have influenced our decision as well.”
“I have no trouble booting out non-paying customers of any species,” Brella said, “but the pompous brother does tip well.”
“You don’t think Jildarin is pompous too?” Tezilly took the mugs to the sink to wash.
“Not as pompous,” Brella said.
“He burned a dragon into our chalkboard and insisted we host our unveiling of the special brews at his diner.”
“That was because he was scheming to get the elf queen to visit,” Rylana whispered, “not out of arrogance or pomposity. Other adjectives might have been involved.”
“Undoubtedly.”
Vilma walked back out, carrying drinks for another table.
During lulls when Brella wasn’t steaming milk or grinding beans, Rylana could hear conversations through the swinging door, and she crept closer.
Normally, picking out a pair of voices among the susurrus of many other conversations wouldn’t be easy, but Zilek’s baritone carried, and she heard him clearly.
“Really, dear brother. Courting. You are not a peacock strutting about and showing off his tail plumage. Besides, humans call it courting when marriage is the ultimate desired goal. Surely, you do not intend to marry or, as our kind would call it, form a long-term pair-bond with your bookkeeper.”
“She is my business partner,” Jildarin said, his earnest voice quieter.
Rylana inched closer to the door, pressing her ear against the slats and hoping Vilma wouldn’t return and crack her in the head as she entered.
“Yes, a business partner so trusted and dear that you purchased an entire bedroom set to ensure she doesn’t dare think of sleeping anywhere but in your lair.” Zilek chuckled. “Yet you have not taken her.”
“Taken her where?”
“Oh, my brother. How have you spent so much time among humans yet know so little of them?”
“I spend most of my time in the kitchen, and I’ve learned a great deal about their tastes in food. But, as to your other statement, no, it would be illogical for a dragon to seek to marry a human.”
“Further, it is something Mother would forbid. By clawing your eyes out. And certainly clawing your bookkeeper’s eyes out, if not ripping her head off entirely. Aunt Lysilria would do that. With glee.”
“I am aware,” Jildarin said stiffly. “And you will not speak to them of this.”
“This what? You’ve done nothing with your business partner aside from let her kiss you at the back of the elven ballet.
I admit, when I sent an alcoholic drink in your direction, I hoped it would lead to that, as you could use a sexual release to make you less tense and testy, but I believe the elves interrupted you before you could mate.
How disappointing for you both. Why did you not carry on later?
I understand that Mother forbids it, but we are not hatchlings who obey her every whim anymore.
You, as she’s informed me, are being particularly recalcitrant.
” Even though Zilek had tried multiple times to get Jildarin to mate with female dragons, he didn’t sound that peeved.
Maybe he even sounded like he admired his brother’s defiance of their mother?
Of course, that could be Rylana’s imagination.
It was possible that Zilek wanted his brother to get into trouble with their family.
Or, in pursuing a relationship with Rylana, eventually realize the error of his ways and fly swiftly into the wings of one of the fertile female dragons who wanted him.
Rylana rubbed her face. How had she ended up interested in someone so… complicated?
“I am not a hatchling,” Jildarin agreed quietly.
“Certainly not. But at the moment, you are a human male. And you’ve admitted you’re now having urges that are in line with those of their kind.”
Rylana’s cheeks heated as she remembered the conversation she’d had with Jildarin in the park before the kiss.
He’d admitted to some confusion over experiencing dawn trees, as ogres called them, in the mornings.
Apparently, since he’d been spending more time in his human form, and around Rylana a great deal, such episodes were occurring frequently.
A part of her was delighted that she had that effect on Jildarin.
A part of her worried she was inadvertently making his life more difficult.
His mother and aunt would doubtless leave him alone if he satisfied the clan requirements to mate with fertile females and create offspring. Dragon females and dragon offspring.
“Listen, Zilek. Urges are not what I wish to discuss with you. This book does not mention them at all.”
“Then what is the point in reading it?”
“As I said, I am attempting to learn about pursuing intimacy with human mates and what they consider culturally normal and proper. It is not because I desire a marriage that I am reading about courting but because I do not wish to offend Rylana or act in what a human would consider an inappropriate manner. She has stood at my side several times, and I would be loath to lose such a valuable business partner. I also do not wish her family to have more reasons to sabotage the diner. I have worked very hard to build my business and establish a reputation as an excellent chef who is capable of creating exquisite food. I do not wish to move the diner or have anything else untoward befall it.”
“Why would her family care if you had sex with her?”
“They care very much. This book assures me of that. A father, in particular, is a gatekeeper when it comes to a daughter’s virginity and the selection of an appropriate mate. See, here? Chapter Two is all about this topic.”
“Dear brother, I assure you that your bookkeeper is not a virgin.”
“She has mentioned a former lover, so I believe that is correct. According to this text, however, it is common for the father to believe his daughter chaste and want to protect the status of her maidenhead. Even if that time has passed for Rylana, he may desire a say in her mating plans, to ensure a suitor is of a suitable lineage with laudable prospects in life. In short, her father will want to secure a proper choice for his daughter.”
“A dragon would without a doubt be a proper choice for any daughter. And our lineage and prospects are impeccable. We are of Clan Killcrusher, my brother. More distinguished than any other during the war. During wars going back for millennia. What better being could a parent dream might show interest in one’s offspring?
Can you imagine the extreme honor a female of a lesser species would feel to be chosen? ”
Rylana rolled her eyes and debated going out there, if only to put an end to Jildarin getting advice on this topic from Zilek.
“Not all humans respect dragons,” Jildarin said. “As you know, many believe us dumb beasts.”
“Many believe us dangerous beasts. Correctly so.”
Jildarin said something else that Rylana didn’t catch. She had to spring back when Vilma came in with more empty dishes.
“Do you want a latte?” Tezilly whispered, waving at the espresso machine.
Rylana nodded and leaned close again to the door as soon as it stopped swinging.
“It is possible,” Jildarin was saying, “that Rylana’s father would object to me seeking to spend time with her.”
“You spend your days and nights with her now.”
“As her business partner, not as her mate. He may believe—”
“What a human believes is insignificant. Listen, Jildarin.” A thump sounded.
Had Zilek slammed the book shut? “If you desire to mate with her, simply ram her against a wall and press your mouth to her lips while molding your hard heated body to hers. Then, when your instincts inform you that the time is proper, you will tear her clothing asunder and thrust into her like an elk stag mounting a female in the depths of the primordial forest. It will be raw and wild and sensational. The experience is quite different from mating with a dragon female, especially the part where you’re not in danger of having your head torn off if you don’t please her sufficiently.
You will enjoy it. And I am certain she will be an eager participant and also enjoy it.
Most likely, she will grab you and use her hands and words and gasps of desire to instruct you on the affair herself.
As I’ve noted before, she has an appealing sternness about her. ” Zilek chuckled.
Rylana’s cheeks heated to scorching, but she didn’t know if it was from embarrassment or because of the imagery that had formed in her mind at Zilek’s words.
They’d been so vivid that she could imagine enacting the scenario right there in the coffee shop or maybe they could fly out and find a primordial forest.
“You will not fantasize about my business partner,” Jildarin said, his own voice stern.
Rylana wondered what expression on Zilek’s face had prompted the comment. Or what gestures he might be making.
“Forgive me, my brother. I was not able to convince the beautiful elf Layothlee to mate with me before she left Tranquility. Last night, I took a human woman to my lair, but it was only moderately satisfying, and I continue to have females on my mind. I wonder if the half-elf who serves you is sexually available at this time. Of course, I would prefer the beautiful elf assassin who lurks in the street and has not yet come in. She is as beautiful as the acrobat, and she has a measure of sternness about her as well.”
“Is she not the one who cut the tip of Melovikar’s tail off in the war? I remember him cursing an elf assassin.”
“As you are aware yourself, a warrioress who is not afraid to fight our kind has some appeal. Those of us who’ve grown up around female dragons have learned to seek out challenging mates rather than meek ones.
You must believe that true, else you’d not want to court the archer who shot you during the war. ” Zilek chuckled.
“I do appreciate that Rylana is a warrioress in addition to being able to most swiftly calculate the numbers for our business.”
“Your eyes grew hungry with longing as you spoke those latter words. You are a strange male, my brother. For any species.”
“I am a practical one.”
“Then let me give you one last piece of advice before my date arrives. Be careful with that book and whatever rituals and requirements for courting that it desires you to fulfill. I spotted three of the Sunclaw females flying through the Icefang Mountains last night. I believe the sisters, Loxvonla and Foxvonla, in particular, have not forgotten that you are here, and they still want to mate with you. If you are wise, you will satisfy them first. Then, you may take your human female and sate your more simian urges. But do not have thoughts of a prolonged relationship or marriage. Should the clan hear about that, they will redouble their efforts to eliminate your bookkeeper as a distraction.”
“I do not want her to be endangered. That is why I have hesitated. When we kissed, it seemed unwise.”
“And yet… you have that book.”
“I am drawn to her.”
“Of course you are. As I said, you can surreptitiously mate with her now and then, but do not flaunt your relationship or allow others to witness it in any way. Else the clan—and Mother—will find out. You must not seek anything more than sex with her. There cannot be more between a dragon and a human.”
“No,” Jildarin said softly.
Rylana hadn’t been thinking about marriage or courting or anything beyond enjoying the present with Jildarin, but she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment at the words. Without realizing it, had she come to want more with him?