Epilogue
It wasn’t until the queen had departed from Tranquility, apparently having completed all the diplomatic meetings she wished, that Captain Tassani returned to the diner. After lunchtime, he found Rylana in the office, running cost calculations for new items Jildarin wanted to add to the menu.
“Greetings, fair Sergeant-Bookkeeper Rylana.” Tassani swept his cloak wide and bowed to her through the doorway.
“I’ve finally caught up with all the extra duties that the queen’s visit inspired, not to mention interrogating the elves who turned on us the other night and figuring out what to do with them.
It’s been a rough few days, and I would love to take you for that coffee date of which we spoke. Are you available?”
“I…” Rylana peered past him and into the hallway.
Jildarin was peering from the kitchen toward them. When their eyes met, he scowled at Tassani’s back, then withdrew to his dinner preparations.
“I think I could get away for a few minutes.” Rylana didn’t know if she wanted to date Tassani, especially since her mind kept drifting back to the kiss that she’d shared with Jildarin, but she was curious about what had happened with the elves after that eventful night.
“Excellent.” Tassani bowed again, then stepped back to make room for her to exit the small office.
When they peeked into the kitchen, they found Jildarin glowering through the doorway as he ran a meat grinder to make sausages for the evening menu.
Despite the forbidding glower, Tassani paused.
“Chef Jildarin, you may be relieved to know that the elves who overindulged in enchanted morels the other night have all mostly recovered from the ordeal. A few are still having twinges in their lower abdominal areas, but, by some stroke of fate, those were the elves who were part of the plot against Queen Fareesa’s daughter, so they’re receiving no sympathy from me or my fellow loyal officers.
” Tassani tilted his head. “Did you somehow know which elves to give more morels to?”
“I did not. Perhaps the gods guided my hands.”
“The gods have been active of late,” Tassani murmured. “Fair afternoon, Chef.” He bowed politely to Jildarin before leading the way out of the diner.
Jildarin’s return grunt wasn’t as polite, and he went back to grinding meat.
“I don’t think that dragon cares for me,” Tassani remarked as he and Rylana entered the coffee shop and selected a table near the towering roasting equipment against the side wall. “Since I’ve done nothing untoward to him, I’ll assume it has to do with his feelings for you.”
“He’s made it clear that he doesn’t have feelings for me, not romantic feelings.”
“Has he made that clear? Men who aren’t interested in women don’t usually buy them beds; at least, that is not an elven custom.”
“Dragons are unique beings with their own customs.”
“Yes, but I’m quite familiar with their kind. They also don’t buy bedroom furniture for any but their mates.”
“Has any dragon ever bought bedroom furniture for anyone?” Rylana inhaled the warm scents of roasting beans as she sat across from Tassani. “I’ve not heard armoires, mattresses, or vanities mentioned in the descriptions of dragon lairs.”
“That is true, but a dragon who has pair-bonded with a female will often assist in preparing the nesting area with prime materials. That is not something he would deign to do for a dragon of minimal importance to him.”
“We’re just business partners.” Rylana nodded thanks to Vilma when the half-gnome brought her usual latte with two cookies perched on the saucer. Today, they were white-and-brown checkered and half-dipped in chocolate.
“That’s a relief,” Tassani said after ordering tea for himself. “After witnessing him up close the other night, I wouldn’t want to irk him overmuch. I know he could have done much more than knocking elves off the rooftop. Those who were burned could easily have been incinerated.”
“He did suggest we shouldn’t kill anyone. He doesn’t want to get kicked out of the city and lose his diner.”
“That being the primary reason a dragon would refrain from utterly annihilating enemies,” Tassani said.
“It’s his reason for things. Jildarin generally looks favorably upon elves, from what I’ve seen, but if you start hostilities in or on his diner, you get what you deserve.”
“Most decidedly.” Tassani’s tea arrived. He picked up a cookie and saluted her with it before popping it into his mouth.
“What will happen to the elves who tried to kill Sylin?” Rylana asked. “Was the ringleader among them, or were they taking orders from an elder from that ambitious family?”
“The latter, I gather, but they’ve resisted my attempts to learn through questioning.
Those who live in the enclave and have ties to the Shaldonas haven’t been forthright with answers either.
Of course, one can’t use magical interrogation methods on members of such an important and distinguished family. ” Tassani sighed wistfully.
“I know someone who could arrange a delivery of a large serving of enchanted morels.”
“I doubt that would cause them to grow loquacious and truthful.”
Rylana sipped from her latte. “You don’t think people doubling over in the lavatory are moved to blurt veracities?”
“Obscenities, more likely.” Tassani swirled the tea ball in his cup, and earthy odors that mingled with the scent of anise wafted into the air.
Was that the preferred elven blend that Brella had accused of tasting like dirt? Maybe she’d deigned to carry the tea despite her distaste for it.
“Do elves swear?” Rylana asked.
“When the occasion warrants it.”
“Has there been a lot of swearing in the Garden of Confinement these past few days?”
“A tremendous amount, yes.”
Tassani appeared more satisfied than remorseful, so Rylana decided not to feel guilty that she’d come up with the plan to incapacitate the elves.
It had to have irked him that so many of his troops had disobeyed him, even if their orders had come from above.
Had he been more amenable to taking instructions from that ambitious family, they might have approached him directly.
Rylana was glad he’d remained loyal to the queen and that he hadn’t been one of the elves angling for Sylin.
“Do you think,” Rylana asked, “that those elves with that particular allegiance will be removed from duty or—even better—shipped off to a remote jungle island from which they’ll never escape?”
“I do not think that, no.”
“Is it likely they’ll continue to be a problem for Sylin if she remains in Tranquility?”
Tassani sipped from his cup as he considered his answer.
“The fact that she didn’t return to the south with the queen to assume a role in the elven court and train to become the heir to the scepter is probably a point in her favor, at least in their eyes, but…
as long as she exists, they will see her as a threat to the succession plans they’ve had for years.
Decades. Even if she isn’t interested in becoming the next queen…
Fareesa may choose her for the position, regardless, assuming she’ll change her mind. ”
“She’s killed a lot of elves. Your people wouldn’t accept her as their ruler even if she agreed to do it, right?” Rylana recalled asking him something similar before, and he hadn’t promised it would be a deal-killer, but she found that hard to believe.
Tassani waved a vague hand. “Her lack of an upbringing in our culture might be more of a sticking point. As I believe I mentioned before, we like and respect warriors.” He smiled at her over the lip of his cup.
“Even assassin warriors?”
“We prefer those who honorably dispatch their enemies, but, from what I saw the other evening, I suspect she can fight openly as well as by springing from the shadows at someone’s back.”
“She can.” Rylana knew that from her many sparring matches with Sylin and hadn’t been surprised by her rooftop knife handling.
What had surprised her was that the queen had received training at some point, enough to handle herself in the chaos of battle with aplomb.
“I don’t think Sylin will ever agree to be anyone’s queen though. ”
“Mm,” was all Tassani murmured.
Rylana shook her head, distressed for Sylin that the Shaldona-aligned elves might yet harass her. Or outright try to end her life.
“It’s also possible that Queen Fareesa, not being geriatric herself yet,” Tassani said, “will wait to see if Sylinesla has children and if she can establish a relationship with them. Perhaps she would offer to have them raised and trained in the elven way.”
Rylana almost choked on her latte. “I can’t imagine Sylin with children.”
“Even warrioresses occasionally take mates and give birth.” Amusement glinted in Tassani’s eyes.
“Oh, I’m sure, but Sylin is about as maternal as an executioner’s axe.”
“Then she may appreciate the queen’s offer to help raise her offspring.”
“She’s not even dating anyone.”
“Is she not going to share a coffee beverage with the dragon Zilek-grozanarav at this very coffee shop?”
“Not by choice.” Rylana frowned at him. How had he even heard about that? Zilek had a big mouth. “And they’re certainly not going to mate. Even if they did, which they won’t, dragons and elves can’t have offspring.”
“A few old legends suggest there are ways for that to be possible—magically aided, of course—but it’s hard to know if there’s any truth to those tales or how much to trust the genealogy records that far back.”
“Genealogy?”
“Reputedly, one of the elven kings from millennia ago was half dragon. He united the various tribes and enclaves around the world and formed what is now our kingdom. It was long enough ago to be the stuff of legend, and few believe all the stories about him were true, but if a half-dragon from the elven royal line came into existence, I’m sure people would accept him or her as a ruler.
We hold dragons in high esteem, after all. ”
“Have you met Zilek?”
“We hold some dragons in higher esteem than others.”
“I would hope so.”
Rylana took another sip from her latte, her mind shying away from the thought of birthing half-dragon children.
Or would they have to be hatched? Perhaps she would bring it up the next time she had coffee with Sylin.
Wouldn’t she be delighted to learn that the elves would happily accept her hypothetical half-dragon offspring as worthy rulers?
The front door opened, and Jildarin stepped into the coffee shop.
His hair was combed, his jaw shaven, and his white chef’s coat crisp and free of stains, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
He gazed at Rylana for a moment before walking to her table.
Though Tassani’s back was to the door, he must have sensed a dragon arriving because he turned in his chair.
This time, Jildarin didn’t glower at him. His face set with determination, he walked past the captain’s chair to stand in front of Rylana. He clasped his hands behind his back and gazed down at her.
“After our interlude in the park, I said that our… lip pressing was a mistake.”
“Our kiss, yes,” Rylana said. “I remember.”
Tassani arched his eyebrows.
“I think…” Jildarin looked from her toward the window, then to the coffee roaster, and finally back to her. “No, I am certain…”
“Yes?” she prompted at the long pause.
“The kiss was not a mistake.” Jildarin nodded at her, then, hands still clasped behind his back, walked out the door.
Rylana gazed after him, surprised.
Tassani, who didn’t appear surprised in the least, sipped from his teacup. Sounding rueful, he said, “I think—no, I’m certain that I’m not getting a second date.”
THE END
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