The Lost Mage (26 page)

“Oh, yes please, I always prefer a warm meal to a cold one,” he said with a smile.

“No, sweetie, not hot temperature-wise, hot spicy, do you like spicy food?” As soon as she’d asked, Nora thought it better not to go that route. After all, who knew what spices he was used to? “You know what? He’ll just have them mild. Thanks.”

“And what do you want on the side?”

“I’ll have onion rings with mine.” Nora looked at Darakin. “Do you like potatoes?”

“Yes.”

“He’ll have mashed potatoes with gravy.”

“Okey-dokey.” Mary made a note on her pad and left the table.

While they waited for their food, Darakin looked around.

“What are you looking for?”

“Anything out of the ordinary.”

She laughed. “In a place like this,
everything
is out of the ordinary. They’re wearing antennae for heaven’s sake.”

“Well, we are here to look for signs of the krekdapop.”

“I doubt he’ll pop up in the middle of the restaurant.”

“But the scrying bowl had to show me the sign for this place for a reason.”

“Let’s just have a nice meal and afterwards we can scrounge around the back alleys and such, okay?”

“Okay.”

Mary arrived soon with two dishes. She placed Nora’s sandwich in front of her and a plate of wings in front of Darakin. She then put down a few plastic packages next to Darakin’s plate.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“No, we’re good for now, thanks.”

When she had gone, Darakin picked up the plastic package. “What’s this?”

“Moist towelette.”

“Moist what?”

“It’s for after you eat the wings, when you’re fingers are all sticky. It’s a paper towel with some soap on it. You’ll see. Try the wings.”

Darakin picked up a wing and bit into it. His eyes lit in delight. “Mm, that’sh good.”

“No talking with your mouth full. It’s considered impolite here, remember?”

“Sorry.”

“So they’re not too hot, I mean spicy for you?”

He finished chewing and put the wing down. “Nora, we are not completely without comforts in my realm. We do use spices.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you. I just have no idea.”

“As a traveling mage who barters his services for meals, I’ve tasted many different cuisines. It is impolite not to eat what you’re offered in someone’s home, so I’ve had to eat a lot of things, even some that I might have preferred not to.”

“Such as?”

“Well, there’s a village that specializes in rat dishes. They have no good hunting grounds and meat is too expensive to have brought in. They have trouble getting mages there. You see, most won’t go back, once they’ve had to eat rat stew. I only went there once.”

“Ugh. I don’t blame you. Don’t tell me anymore. I don’t want to know.”

Darakin picked up his fork and tried the potatoes. He made a sound of approval without opening his mouth.

When he was stopped eating his wings (making sure to leave some for Mrowley’s doggie bag), Nora tore open the moist towelette and handed it to him. He gaped in amazement as he used it to clean his hands.

“This is really handy. I’d love to have something like this at home to carry in my satchel.”

“They wouldn’t burn you at the stake if you showed up with something like that?”

“Burn me at the stake? Why would you suggest something so barbaric?” Darakin stared at her in horror.

“Here, way back before technology, people who were suspected of being witches were burned at the stake.”

His eyes opened even wider. “I thought you people were civilized! This culture seems to accept people of all different races without prejudice. I can’t believe the witches allowed it. In my realm, the witches would destroy anyone who would try such a thing.”

“I should have known. You see, most of the people who were accused of witchcraft were just regular people who’d run afoul of the village leaders or some other person with influence. A lot of innocent people suffered terribly during those times.”

“I don’t understand that at all. Magic users are revered in my society.”

“I’m sorry. It was a long, long time ago. Let’s forget about it. Do you want dessert? They have some pretty delicious cakes and sundaes here.”

“How can a day be delicious?”

“Not Sunday, s-u-n-d-a-e. It’s a dessert that covers ice cream with delicious toppings, like fudge or chocolate. You know what? I’ll just pick something off the menu and we can split it. The desserts here are too big for one person, anyway. ”

Mary came back to the table.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“We need a doggie bag.” Darakin was pleased to have remembered the correct term.

“Right. I’ll bring two boxes over.”

“No, we need a doggie bag to take our leftovers home in.”

“Got it. I’ll bring two boxes and you can fill them with the food.”

Nora stepped in. “Thank you.” She picked up the dessert card from the table and perused it for a minute. “We’d also like to split a dark side of the moon sundae.”

“One dark side. Coming up.”

“I thought we needed a bag,” Darakin said in confusion.

“The boxes are the bag.”

“Nora,” Darakin asked in frustration, “how can a bag be a box. Is this some sort of riddle?”

“No, they used to give bags, but now most places use Styrofoam boxes. But everybody still asks for a doggie bag.”

Mary returned with Styrofoam boxes for their leftovers. “Be right back with that dessert.”

True to her word, she returned with the sundae and two spoons.

Darakin stared in wonder at the huge dish of ice cream with its rich toppings. Nora laughed.

“Wait ‘til you taste it.” She handed him a spoon and then lifted her own spoon to her side. “Now, make sure you get some ice cream and topping in each spoonful, it’s better that way.”

He did as Nora asked and put the spoon in his mouth. A huge smile lit his face. “That’s better than anything I’ve ever tasted!”

“I know, right?”

The two finished eating the sundae in silence. When they were done, they sat back and contemplated their full bellies.

“I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much in one sitting before,” Darakin said after a few minutes.

“Well, I don’t recommend doing it every day, but it is nice to splurge once in awhile.”

Mary returned to clear their dessert dishes. “Anything else?”

“No, thank you, just the check.”

“Coming right up. Oh, and I’ll bring you a bag for those, as well,” she indicated the boxes with a nod of her head.

“What? But I asked for a bag before.” Darakin sputtered at Mary’s retreating form.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I asked for a bag. You said you use boxes instead and yet now she’s bringing us a bag? Why didn’t she just do that in the first place?”

“Oh, it’s just a bag to carry the boxes in. You wouldn’t put your food directly in it.”

“Why not? If you don’t mind my saying so, Nora, your society wastes a lot of materials.”

She chuckled. “No doubt about that. We’re getting better, but it’s taking some time to go green.”

“Go green?”

“It’s what the move toward environmentalism is called.”

Darakin shook his head. “I’ll just never figure this realm out.”

“Sure you will. All in good time.”

When Mary returned with the check, Nora tucked some cash in the little binder and stood up. “Ready?”

“Sure. Now we can go look for signs of the krekdapop?”

“Yep.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Once they were outside, Darakin stared at the sign depicting the dancing utensils as though it would give him a clue. He sighed.

“Well, the sign tells me nothing.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll go behind the restaurant and check the alleys. Seems like a more likely place to find a slimy demon, doesn’t it?”

“I guess.”

Darakin followed Nora to an alley between the restaurant’s building and its neighbor. She led the way down the narrow passageway toward a truck lane that ran behind the buildings. When they reached the road they looked around.

“Well, this is the dumpster for the restaurant. It’s where they put all their garbage. Then a truck comes by early in the morning and empties it.”

“A truck?”

“Mm hmm. A mechanical beast. Bigger than a car, but smaller than the bus.”

“Ah.”

“I’m going to check this dumpster then.” Darakin hoisted himself up the side of the bin and peered inside.