“One fried chicken! It’s hot, so be careful!”
After I set the giant plate piled high with fried food on the table, the men with their wooden tankards were whipped into a frenzy. “Food’s here!” They stabbed at the chicken one after another and eventually drained their tankards of beer dry. “Whew. This place serves fine chicken. Pairs with the beer a little too well, if you ask me.”
“You there, another round. Chop-chop.”
“Thanks, sir! I’ll get your order in!”
After gathering up the empty tankards and plate, I passed through the turmoil of customers in the dining room and headed into the kitchen.
“Table eight ordered another six beers! I’ll bring out table one’s whiskey!”
“Feil! Take this, too—table eleven!”
“Ya got it!”
“Would you believe those buggers put in such a picky order?! I’m tacking on a service charge! Also, Feil, call in Ilecia, will ya?! If those geezers so much as grumble, you stick a knife right into their table, ya hear?!”
“Ya got it!”
We were so busy, I barely had time to catch my breath.
Once I finished serving up the drinks and food, I went to grab the arm of a busty brunette who’d been sat down by five regulars— the old “geezers”—and started hauling her back with me. It was Ilecia.
“Sorry. Time’s up, so I’m ’fraid I’ll have to take the young lady back,” I told them. I gave the red-faced old men a service smile. I saw them practically every day.
“Feil! Who gave ya permission to take Ilecia away from us, huh?!”
“It’s the young’un! Don’t do this to us!”
Just as anticipated, the perverts started their caterwauling. I didn’t hesitate to smack a fist down on the table.
“Keep it down! Quit groping the lady’s behind and just drink your beer!”
That shut all five of them up fast. They stared at one another over the table like kids who’d gotten caught red-handed.
“Frightenin’. Just downright terrifyin’. Feil’s basically turned into a mini-me of the cook!”
“Ever since the ball and chain gave him permission to tell us off, the kid’s changed on us.”
“When he just started back in the spring, he used to be so kind to his elders.”
I collected the empty plates on their table. “Aren’t your wives comin’ to collect you soon, sirs?” I reminded them. Then, with a sigh, I said, “You’ll be caught droolin’ over Ilecia again. Remember all the trouble you got in last time?”
As I left them, Ilecia happily called out to me. “Feil, take a look at this!” Then she showed off her open apron dress—or rather her exposed cleavage.
“I got a tip!” She showed off two copper coins buried between her breasts.
I just scowled at her.
“Please go back to work,” I said. “The boss is already ’bout to blow his top.”
“You got it!”
The Horse’s Drool Pavilion, where I worked, was packed yet another night. It was getting pretty late, but the guests were showing no signs of easing up, and the place was filled with their bellowed conversations and the smell of booze, fried foods, and middle-aged fogies just back from work.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ilecia went back to serving the dining room, and I started quickly heading back to help the boss in the kitchen.
“Waiter, you got a sec?” Somebody whispered at me to stop.
“Yes, sir! Be right there!”
I whipped my head around.
A thirty-something man, haggard and wearing a dark-green cloak crowded with pockets, was inconspicuously drinking in a corner alone. He looked like the traveler type. It wasn’t unusual to see them in Raddermark, considering this was a commerce town.
“Were you born and raised here?” he asked me.
“Uh? No, sir. I came here as a student.”
“I see… Good, then. Sounds like you’ll have no worries, even if you’ve got to abandon the town someday.”
He propped his chin in his hand against the table as he drank the stiffest booze we served. Then he eyed me blearily.
I had no idea what the guy was going on about, but I couldn’t wave him off since he was a customer. “Uh-huh,” I said as a response and tried to manage my best, tiniest service-worker smile. I didn’t say anything significant to him. The best way this could end was for him to get bored of me and for me to get out as fast as I could.
But the guy didn’t care what I thought and just kept jabbering away.
“Did you know? This town’s doomed soon. The will of the god—her wrath—will swallow it whole. And no one’ll be able to stop her.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But that’s a secret, you hear? I hold the key to doom. As soon as I got it, I heard what I’m sure is the god’s voice. So that’s why I came to this town. I’m an apostle of the god who seeks the end.”
“I see,” I said.
“And right now, I’m picking out a sacrifice. Something sacred for that thing to eat. The older and purer, the better. I’ve got something in my sights, but I need to escape the eyes of the people who want to get in the way of my mission, you see.”
“Sounds very tough. In that case, are you sure you should be drinking here, sir?”
Something felt off about this. I felt like I’d heard all this before, about someone looking for something… I tried to search my memories, but nothing came to mind right away. If I really thought about it, I’d probably come up with an answer, but I couldn’t find a reason to spend so much effort thinking about the ramblings of a drunk man.
Then again…
“I’ll tell you something. A treat for you. When you see silver in the sky, you scram. The end will begin with something beautiful. Don’t know if you’d make it if you take off right then, though.”
At the same time, everything he was going on about seemed strangely specific, and I couldn’t help but start to get drawn in.
“Feil!! Quit chattin’ up the customers and get your ass over here to cook!!”
If the boss hadn’t stuck his head out from the kitchen and bellowed at me, I might have asked the guy an actual question myself. But I was so shocked by the stiff scolding, I remembered I was at work. It was time to do my job.
“Yes, sir! Sorry, boss!”
I put on my best customer-service smile, bobbed my head, and moved to leave the drunk, who’d shown no signs of ordering anything.
“I’m sorry, sir,” I told him. “I’m ’fraid my boss has called me over.”
When it came down to it, my work for that day was more important than the hypothetical end of the world—the hunger I’d be in the next day was more tangible, after all.