Page 23 of Ale Storm

“That must not be it,” she said.

“It’s closed, regardless.” Sylin had drawn her utility knife and was watching the dragons, but she apparently had eyes in the back of her head, because she always observed everything.

“That doesn’t mean there couldn’t be an enchanted morel dropped in a crevice,” Rylana said, raising her voice since the gongs of the pillars had grown even louder. She willed them to blast both dragons with beams.

Despite her words, the closer Rylana got to the foraging booth, the less the horn glowed. She turned around. It had glowed more near something she’d already passed. But what? With dozens of booths and wagons, not to mention the shoppers themselves with bags of goods, there had to be thousands of items nearby.

“Clear out of the market immediately!” the gnome with the megaphone called. “If you’ve not departed in five minutes, you’ll be detained and taken to Peacekeeper Headquarters.”

The dragon roared again.

“For your own protection!” the gnome yelled.

“They must know exactly how close they can get to that pillar,” Sylin observed, then looked at Rylana. “You’d better not get much farther away from it.”

“I won’t.” She’d turned back and was pointing the horn all around.

But in booth after booth, the doors over the counters slammed down, the vendors not bothering to put out their closed signs.

Both dragons roared and flew over the precise aisle that Rylana and Sylin occupied. Cursing, Rylana darted between two booths. Sylin must not have believed her sufficiently protected, probably since the stands were made from wood—flammable wood—because she grabbed Rylana’s arm and pulled her behind a stone fountain. She almost pulled her into the fountain.

“I guess we would be less likely to burst into flames that way.” Rylana ducked below the fountain’s lip as fire roiled in the sky above them.

Booms sounded nearby. Cannons?

A fiery projectile blasted upward toward the dragons. They split apart, and the flaming cannonball just missed them. A moment later, a beam from a pillar lanced into the sky. It caught one of the dragons in the wing, and an angry screech ripped through the market.

“No violence is permitted within the borders of Tranquility!” the megaphone-wielding gnome called. “Nor are dragons allowed to enter the city in their native forms—especially not to spew fire! All dragons will depart at once!”

The sisters roared at the gnome, but, with weapons now firing in their direction, they flapped their wings and took off toward the mountains. Before disappearing from view, they both looked back, their eyes icy as they locked onto Rylana for several long seconds.

Though it was foolish, she stood and made a lewd goblin gesture at their backs.

“Mature,” Sylin remarked.

“I told you my maturity is a work in progress.”

Though the golems and peacekeepers continued to usher people out of the market, Rylana couldn’t keep from jogging back to their original aisle and lifting the horn again. But whatever had prompted its magic to flare up was gone. The glow had stopped.

7

As twilight descended, Rylana and Sylin returned to the Dragon Diner. Rylana felt like she’d failed her mission by not figuring out what made the horn glow. As she kept reminding herself, that wasn’t the reason she’d gone to the market, and she had managed to keep ahold of Jildarin’s ingredients, despite the chaos. She hadn’t so much as broken the vinegar bottle.

Though an hour of the dinner service remained, most of the customers had cleared out. Since the diner was less than a half mile away from the market, they’d probably heard the alarms gonging. Judging by the absence of people on the rooftop terrace, they’d seen the dragons in the sky too.

“Those sisters are bad for business,” Rylana said.

“Yes,” Sylin said, “the discomfort they cause your diners is our greatest concern.”

“I didn’t say it was the greatest. I just have another reason to find them annoying.” Rylana held the door open for Sylin. “Do you want something to eat?”

“Usually.”

“Is it strange that you can enjoy food so much and be so lean?”

“No, I exercise assiduously. Not twenty minutes ago, I hefted a slow human out of the way of a dragon attack.”

“You tugged me; you didn’t heft me.”