a jolt I realized the waiter was back at my elbow. He was smiling, but I’d seen happier faces on taxidermy. The oil in his hair would fuel the city for a month. I knew I had to order something, or they would turf me out.
I picked up the menu. It felt heavy. The prices were printed in tiny, swirly script. Maybe they kept them small and almost unreadable so people wouldn’t go crazy and start hurling themselves out the windows. But I couldn’t imagine anyone here would think twice about paying a week’s salary for a bit of barnyard chicken.
I started to have very unkind thoughts about Kate.
She’d sent me to the most expensive restaurant on the globe, and she was late. Not just a little late, or charmingly late, but very, very late now. She would take one look at the menu and say it was her treat. But I didn’t want it to be her treat. I wanted to pay for myself, and she was making that impossible.
My eyes swept the menu’s creamy pages. I figured if I spent nothing for a week, I could maybe afford a flavoured water.
“An Acqua Sprizzo, please,” I said with a world-weary air.
“Very good, monsieur. And something to accompany it perhaps?”
“No, thank you.”
“Perhaps some smoked salmon?”
“Thank you, no.”
“Just a little something from the menu to nibble on?”
I looked up at him and could see he was enjoying himself. I didn’t understand this fellow at all. In all my years serving aboard the
Aurora
, I had never tried to embarrass someone, or make them feel ill at ease.
“Waiters in a fine establishment such as this,” I told him quietly, “should listen to their guests, not harass them.”
He looked at me, his mouth twitching, but said nothing. “I’ll bring your Acqua Sprizzo, then, monsieur,” he said.
The water would buy me a few more minutes. After that they’d probably heave me down the elevator shaft.
I’d been all eager to see Kate. Now I was feeling flustered and angry, and I hated that. Why on earth had she asked to meet here? Couldn’t she understand I had very little money? I suppose she thought I still had heaps from the reward the Sky Guard had given me after our adventures last year. We’d discovered the secret island stronghold of Vikram Szpirglas’s notorious air pirates, and helped capture some of them. But the truth was, that reward money was enough for my two years’ tuition to the Academy, my room, board, and clothing, with just a little left over to help out my family back in Lionsgate City.
My heart sank when I saw the maître d’, followed by the greasy waiter, strutting purposefully to my table. He bent down, his breath unpleasantly warm against my ear.
“Perhaps monsieur would like to follow me quietly to the elevator so as to avoid any further embarrassment.”
“But I ordered a flavoured water!” I objected.
“Yes, and we doubt you will be able to pay for it.”
“How do you know?” I said angrily.
“Please, monsieur. You are a boy.”
“I’m a student at the Airship Academy!”
He compressed his lips disdainfully. “Anyone, I think, can buy an old uniform at a thrift shop.”
“I am waiting for a friend,” I said, trying to sound affronted and hating that my voice trembled.
“We rather think there is no friend, and you are merely escaping the rain. Come now.”
His hand closed around my arm, and I pulled it free, furious. He took hold again, tighter, as did the waiter, who had stepped around behind me and grabbed my other arm. I would not be manhandled by these two. Just let them try to move me to the elevator!
And then an amazing thing happened.
A waiter came crashing out through the kitchen doors, as if someone had hurled him. He gave a terrified look back over his shoulder as a small but furious man in a chef’s hat appeared in the doorway.
“Imbecile!” the chef shouted. “Next time why don’t you just put your whole hand in the food, hey? Yes, your whole hand, or maybe your face! I arrange the food on the plates
I picked up the menu. It felt heavy. The prices were printed in tiny, swirly script. Maybe they kept them small and almost unreadable so people wouldn’t go crazy and start hurling themselves out the windows. But I couldn’t imagine anyone here would think twice about paying a week’s salary for a bit of barnyard chicken.
I started to have very unkind thoughts about Kate.
She’d sent me to the most expensive restaurant on the globe, and she was late. Not just a little late, or charmingly late, but very, very late now. She would take one look at the menu and say it was her treat. But I didn’t want it to be her treat. I wanted to pay for myself, and she was making that impossible.
My eyes swept the menu’s creamy pages. I figured if I spent nothing for a week, I could maybe afford a flavoured water.
“An Acqua Sprizzo, please,” I said with a world-weary air.
“Very good, monsieur. And something to accompany it perhaps?”
“No, thank you.”
“Perhaps some smoked salmon?”
“Thank you, no.”
“Just a little something from the menu to nibble on?”
I looked up at him and could see he was enjoying himself. I didn’t understand this fellow at all. In all my years serving aboard the
Aurora
, I had never tried to embarrass someone, or make them feel ill at ease.
“Waiters in a fine establishment such as this,” I told him quietly, “should listen to their guests, not harass them.”
He looked at me, his mouth twitching, but said nothing. “I’ll bring your Acqua Sprizzo, then, monsieur,” he said.
The water would buy me a few more minutes. After that they’d probably heave me down the elevator shaft.
I’d been all eager to see Kate. Now I was feeling flustered and angry, and I hated that. Why on earth had she asked to meet here? Couldn’t she understand I had very little money? I suppose she thought I still had heaps from the reward the Sky Guard had given me after our adventures last year. We’d discovered the secret island stronghold of Vikram Szpirglas’s notorious air pirates, and helped capture some of them. But the truth was, that reward money was enough for my two years’ tuition to the Academy, my room, board, and clothing, with just a little left over to help out my family back in Lionsgate City.
My heart sank when I saw the maître d’, followed by the greasy waiter, strutting purposefully to my table. He bent down, his breath unpleasantly warm against my ear.
“Perhaps monsieur would like to follow me quietly to the elevator so as to avoid any further embarrassment.”
“But I ordered a flavoured water!” I objected.
“Yes, and we doubt you will be able to pay for it.”
“How do you know?” I said angrily.
“Please, monsieur. You are a boy.”
“I’m a student at the Airship Academy!”
He compressed his lips disdainfully. “Anyone, I think, can buy an old uniform at a thrift shop.”
“I am waiting for a friend,” I said, trying to sound affronted and hating that my voice trembled.
“We rather think there is no friend, and you are merely escaping the rain. Come now.”
His hand closed around my arm, and I pulled it free, furious. He took hold again, tighter, as did the waiter, who had stepped around behind me and grabbed my other arm. I would not be manhandled by these two. Just let them try to move me to the elevator!
And then an amazing thing happened.
A waiter came crashing out through the kitchen doors, as if someone had hurled him. He gave a terrified look back over his shoulder as a small but furious man in a chef’s hat appeared in the doorway.
“Imbecile!” the chef shouted. “Next time why don’t you just put your whole hand in the food, hey? Yes, your whole hand, or maybe your face! I arrange the food on the plates
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