by Taki Drake
Madrik hadn’t felt hungry when he had left the barroom, but the sight and smell of the food on the tray woke his hunger to a ravenous level. Stopping only to fumble his way through opening the wine bottle, Madrik set about reducing the food to skimpy crumbs. The taste and odors were a mixture of familiar and strange. He didn’t bother to think about what he was eating. Instead, he just tried everything. With no prejudice and no expectation of whether he would like something or not, Madrik found that everything was delicious. He ate until he could not eat anymore, drinking water from a goblet and sipping a glass of the unusual wine.
His energy lasted long enough for him to finish the food. Pouring himself another half glass of wine, Madrik rose from the couch with a groan and made his way back to his bedroom.
The lighting in the bedroom was soft and easy on his eyes. The light in the bathroom was slightly brighter, calling him with the siren remembrance of the shower. Madrik made a beeline for the bathroom, determined not to go into bed smelling of sweat and the lingering stench of fear and adrenaline.
Placing his wineglass on the counter, he quickly stripped off his clothes. Noticing that a large basket had been thoughtfully placed under one end of the sink counter, he tossed his dirty clothes in there and padded his way into the shower. There were changes even in here. His partially articulated desire for soap and shampoo had been satisfied. Smiling, he looked at two bottles that were obviously from Earth. Where else would the BHB have gotten a distinctive baby shampoo and liquid soap with happy caveman pictures on the bottle?
As the hot water washed the fatigue from his muscles and rinsed the soap from his body, Madrik wondered if Emesh had brought the items for the BHB. Otherwise, there must be another way of getting things into the dimension.
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Madrik had slept like a log. He awoke refreshed and energized, which lasted long enough for him to get up, dress, and make his way back down to the barroom floor. As early as he was, Brechal was ahead of him. The big man was in the middle of a major organization for the bar. A large number of glasses and steins were spread out, covering the entire countertop and several of the tables. As he explored under the counter, Madrik could hear Brechal’s voice muttering in a language that sounded sharp and explosive. Smiling, Madrik thought that it was a perfect language for swearing. It just sounded nasty.
“Good morning,” Madrik called out.
There was a massive thump, and the barroom floor vibrated. After a pregnant pause, a flood of words in that sharp language seemed to fire from underneath the bar with the speed of machine gun bullets. Madrik attempted to hide his smile, but he knew just what it happened. He had startled Brechal, and the reaction had slammed the man’s head into something. I don’t think it’s a good idea to let him know that I thought that was funny. He probably would retaliate with something even worse.
When Brechal emerged, red-faced and flustered-looking from underneath the bar, Madrik was careful not to let even a trace of his amusement show on his face.
“I hope your sleep was comfortable, mine certainly was. I was exhausted and almost fell into bed.”
Brechal admitted quietly that he couldn’t remember getting all the way into bed and that he had slept the entire night through.
“Have you eaten yet, Brechal? We don’t have a very fancy kitchen set up yet, but we did get quite a bit of food yesterday. I can probably cobble something together to keep us fed until we get things straightened out.”
“We need a cook. Every good bar that I’ve ever seen has offered food. Considering how few people we have, unless we get a cook, we won’t be able to offer any decent food.”
“I agree. I have some notes on some items that we should have on the menu and that sort of thing, but I think that’s going to have to wait for more information from the people that are going to be providing our provisions.”
Nodding his agreement, Brechal went back to sorting glasses. After all, what was a bar without glassware?
<<<>>>
The morning was going smoothly, and both men had worked industriously for hours. They very seldom needed to speak to each other, both automatically doing whatever task needed to be done. Both of them willing to bend their hand to anything. The bar was starting to look like a place that someone might want to go for a drink. The BHB had provided Madrik with a chalkboard and colored chalk. He looked down at the chalkboard thinking that he should put together some sort of menu, or theme of the day when they opened. He was conflicted though, worried that it would be too tacky, for his vision. He had a feeling that it was going to end up looking like an old-time saloon anyway, even though the visitors would be nothing that those on earth would recognize.
What Brechal thought, Madrik didn’t know, because the big man was keeping a self-contained exterior. Madrik had a lot of empathy for this stage in the grieving process. The Stoic, “I’m okay” stage had been one of the hardest for him to get through.
He gave Brechal the gift of space. Not wanting to focus or wound, they simply worked together, and Madrik kept conversation to a minimum.
It was close to the mid-day meal time that they had selected earlier when Madrik realized that he was getting antsy. At first, he put it down to the fact this had been a day without strange incidents. Then he thought it was because that Emesh hadn’t shown up yet. He leaned on the BHB for reassurance but discovered that his companion shared his sense of disquiet.
The bar manager’s increased nervousness finally got through the invisible wall of isolation that Brechal had wrapped around himself. Pausing in the placement of yet a different configuration of glassware, the big man asked, “Is there something wrong? You’re fidgeting, and I have not seen you fidget except right before something comes bursting in on us.”
“I just don’t know, Brechal. I feel like a myriad of little ants are climbing up and down my nerves, and the BHB isn’t any better.”
The bartender looked consideringly at Madrik. Without a word, he reached under the bar and pulled out his cudgel from the day before. Laying it on the bar, the bartender proceeded to rapidly put glasses away. He was moving much faster than he had before and Madrik was impressed. He watched in astonishment as Brechal, acting like he had an extra set of hands made the entire bar top of glassware disappear. Only when the bartender moved to the far end of the bar to finish putting the last of the glass steins out of the way did Madrik realize that Brechal not only had two hands and two arms but also had tentacles. Tentacles?! When did that happen? Was it something I saw and just didn’t realize?
Madrik could feel the amusement along the companion bond as the BHB realized that his partner had been clueless. There was a little boy delight in something forbidden that Madrik vowed to investigate later. There had to be something weird associated with those tentacles, but he was just too antsy to follow it up right now.
The feeling of an unreachable invisible itch intensified and Madrik stopped any attempt to do useful work. He found his hands opening and clenching in front of his body and consciously tried to drop them to his side. That didn’t work very well because his staff was suddenly in one of his hands. Moving by instinct, Madrik stepped away from the table that he had been near and turned toward the right-hand door.
Up until now, the door had not opened. When Madrik had nonchalantly gone over and tried both of the flanking doors on that side of the bar, even the handles didn’t appear to work. Frozen solid in their pivots, they look more decorative than anything else.
Why then was he standing in front of the right-hand door, staff in hand and backed by the large presence of the bartender? Madrik had no idea, but he sensed that he was in the right place at the right time. Something was coming this way, and he didn’t know what it was.
From behind him, Brechal’s voice rumbled, low-toned and pitched for Madrik’s ears only. “Remember that the storyteller said anything coming in through the right-hand door was part of the problem solution.”
“Thank you, I remember. But I also know that e
verybody can make mistakes. Also, the bar has changed, and maybe it’s not like it was before.”
“True, so we better be ready. How do you want to handle this?”
Madrik said, his confusion and trepidation sounding clearly in his voice, “I have no idea. I think we are going to have to make it up as we go along.”
“great! It’s another blasted learning experience.”
“Welcome to the Badger Hole Bar.”
Chapter 16 – Shoes!
The two men hadn’t been standing there for very long when the BHB gave him a split second warning of an incoming arrival. There was a groan like someone in pain, and the fire flashed high in the fireplace. There is no more time, no more ability to adjust. Madrik grasped his staff more tightly, and Brechal came up even with Madrik but off to the left side. They both stared intently at the door. Even ready for the unexpected, they both jumped in surprise as the door slammed open and a figure came scrambling through on all fours.
It was a woman, looking like someone from Madrik’s hometown. She was a strawberry blonde with violet eyes, but any other aspect of her appearance was hidden behind a look of sheer terror. She was clutching a cigar box in her hand and trying to watch behind her as she desperately scrambled to get away. Moving by instinct, the two men quickly detoured around her, grabbing the door and slamming it closed. There was a clicking sound as the door fastened, cutting off what sounded like two voices screaming in rage.
The sudden absence of movement and sound left all three of them in a quiet pool of alert anticipation. When no further drama occurred, the woman shakily started to get to her feet. Moving so quickly that Madrik wasn’t conscious of his intent, Brechal was next to the woman and reaching down a hand to assist her. Staring at his huge palm and fingers, the woman’s eyes widened in surprise, and she looked up, and up until she was staring at the large man’s face.
What she saw there apparently reassured her, at least at some level. Brechal managed to get her over to a table and seated on a chair. Madrik grabbed a glass of water from the bar and placed in front of her, sliding into a chair on the opposite side of the table.
How could she be part of the solution? She looks like a stiff wind would blow her over and she is obviously frightened.
The BHB disagreed with him. Instead of sharing his doubts, he could feel his companion’s joy at her presence and a bubbling excitement that Madrik had no way of interpreting. Something about the woman was special, and the BHB knew it, but he didn’t. Dammit! Another thing to figure out.
Brechal came up to the table with a layered drink like the one that he had made the day before. Placing it down in front of the woman, the big man said, “For the shock.”
Once again the woman stared at Brechal’s face, searching for something in his eyes. She didn’t appear to be overly startled at his appearance. Instead, it was more of a soul-searching look rather than anything that would rely on trivial appearances. Nodding her head, she picked up the drink and chugged it. Her eyes widened, and tears ran down her face, as she struggled to breathe. Both Madrik and Brechal stared at her in shock, unable to believe what they had just seen. Even they had sipped their drinks on the previous day, taking a good 20 minutes to get all of it down. This tiny slip of a person had practically inhaled it.
Coupled with the fear and stress reaction that she was probably going through, Madrik knew that she would be drunk in just a few moments. Before then, he decided to find out what he could. Even though the BHB was all happy and bouncy about the woman being there, Madrik felt like he was supposed to understand what everybody could do and what their purpose might be. He decided to start off the conversation.
Pointing first to himself and then to the bartender, Madrik said, “Hello there. My name is Madrik, and this big gentleman is Brechal.”
Both Madrik and the woman heard the muttered comment from Brechal who contributed, “Gentleman? I think I’ve been insulted.”
Madrik ignored the commentary, and continued, saying, “You just came through a door into my bar. Considering that we are not open for business yet and considering that door has never opened before I’m a bit curious about who you are and why you’re here.”
The woman said, “I’m not exactly sure what you want me to tell you. I think I’m here because my grandmother left me this box.” She pointed to the old cigar box that she held clutched in her lap. “Two people were trying to steal it, and when they thought I was going to get away, they were going to hurt me. My gran just died, and one of them had been her nurse. Gran would talk about things, and the nurse decided that there was a big treasure someplace and that I knew where it was. She and some man were going to hurt me to make me tell. So I fooled them a little bit and tried to get away, but that didn’t work very well.”
Brechal broke in with a comment, “You got cornered?”
The woman grimaced, saying, “I tried the best I could, but I’m not very accomplished at that sort of cloak and dagger stuff. After all, I’m just a waitress. gran told me that I can work magic, but I don’t know what it means, and she didn’t explain a lot to me.”
Madrik had a thoughtful look on his face. He thought he understood some of the BHB’s excitement and hoped that this woman was who she appeared to be. Selecting from the myriad questions that were jostling in his brain, trying to get out, the bar manager chose to go with a simple one, “Tell me about how you learned that you could control magic.”
“First of all, nobody controls magic. It’s something you can manipulate, maybe even persuade into all sorts of possibilities, but never control. Magic has a force of its own, and it is all around us, all of the time.”
Madrik gave a short laugh and asked his question in a slightly more refined form, “Okay, I can accept that but how did you learn that you could use magic then?”
The woman laughed, her voice musical but a little ragged. Madrik found himself smiling in response because her mirth was contagious. At a different time, especially after more sleep, he thought that the intelligence that he saw in her eyes would fit in well. Right now, she was operating on fumes and both he, and she knew it.
She answered him, her voice dropping to a soft tone, “I think I always could on some level. gran said I was special, but I never believed her.”
The silence held for several seconds while no one spoke or made any noise. Finally, the woman continued. “I can remember so much now. It’s funny, I guess I always have, but never considered my memories to be about anything special.”
“Oh, what happened that you remembered?”
“I remember the first time I used magic.”
“How old were you then?”
“Eight,” she answered, “I survived a horrible disaster that killed both my parents and many other people. When they pulled me from the rubble, I was unharmed. I have memories of hiding in a quiet space filled with a fog that moved. One that felt funny on my skin but was a safe place for me to go.”
Madrik and Brechal looked at each other in surprise and surmise. Was it possible that this woman had encountered the chaos fog before?
Turning his attention back to the drooping young woman, Madrik continued his questioning. He said, “You had no idea then that you are working magic. Didn’t you ever wonder why or how you survived? Did it occur to you that that type of environment wasn’t available in the hotel, which meant that you had to have left it? Didn’t it occur to you that you actually physically left the hotel to survive?”
“Why would I? I thought it was a dream even though the desire to return to that place happened every year on the same day, growing in intensity each time.” The woman had an arrested expression on her face as if she had just connected two pieces of the puzzle that was the story of her own life. Madrik knew how that felt when a click of sudden connection translated into something that finally made sense.
“Well, lady of mystery, how about if you tell us your name, so we have some way to address you. Makeup one if you need to, but both of our names have been off
ered to you, and it is only courteous to offer one in return.”
The woman blushed slightly in embarrassment and said, “My name is Rosalie Wynn. My apologies for any rudeness, it was not intended.”
Madrik responded, “Rosalie, may I call you Rosalie or do you prefer, Wynn?”
She shrugged. “Call me what you want, but if you want me to answer, I prefer Wynn.”
“Is there a story behind being called by your last name?”
Wynn smiled and shook her head. “You just want to know everything don’t you?”
Madrik’s responding smile told her all she needed to know. A snort of air through Brechal’s large nose drew attention to the big man. The big man snorted again, and said, “That’s our bar manager. He wants to know everything about everyone so that he can fit all of us puzzle pieces together.”
A shrug and slightly pink cheeks were all the acknowledgment he was going to get from Madrik. The gleeful agreement over the companion bond intensified the color of Madrik’s face and made him wince a little bit in reaction to the enthusiastic reinforcement that he heard along the bond.
Brechal came over and laid a platter with sliced cheeses and meats on it in the center of the table. Madrik’s nod of thanks went unanswered, but Wynn’s obvious pleasure extracted a comment from the big man.
Looking down at his feet, Brechal muttered, “It’s not much, but I’m not a cook.” Switching his gaze to Madrik, the bartender added forcefully, “We need a cook!”
“I understand, Brechal. I’m working on things as fast as I can.”
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Over the cheese and meat platter, the three of them heard more about the story of Wynn’s grandmother. It was an intriguing story and one that was new to both men. Brechal was especially curious about the whole world of magic that the old woman had tried to explain. He took over some of the questioning, allowing Madrik to simply observe the interaction of the two of them and draw his own conclusions on how they would work out as part of his team.