Bitter Tea

Morning peeked into the canyon, smiling faintly down on Airi and Mildred as they walked through Stonecliff. Even in the morning, it felt like a ghost town.

It was the first time Airi had seen Mildred in plainclothes. She wore one of Airi’s dresses, a deep blue dress that brought out the jeweled tones in her hair. This morning, she’d let her hair fall to her waist, rather than bundle it in her usual crown braid.

Mildred caught Airi looking. “What?”

“Nothing. You look happier, for some reason.”

“This is a determined expression,” Mildred corrected. “I’m thinking about how to defeat Gold.”

“Mm-hm.”

They followed Fiona’s instructions on how to get to Gold’s Lair: left, up the ladder, past the blacksmith, up another ladder... the town was incredibly confusing. Especially since every corner seemed to have a blacksmith.

"It's a mining town," Mildred said. "We get nearly all of our gold from here."

Airi looked through the window of a grocery store and saw jeweled necklaces in the display, hanging like bunches of grapes. Wasn’t this a bit much, even for a mining town?

They reached a narrow ledge that hugged the cliff face, fenced off by tatters of rope. The uneven cliff side lay to their left, jutting out in inconvenient places, and to their right was a sheer drop to the Lullaby River.

“Gold's Lair should be straight ahead from here,” Mildred said.

When the cave entrance came into view, they were greeted by two men who pointed pickaxes at them without a second’s hesitation. The uncanny gleam in their eyes reminded Airi of wolves.

“What’re you doing here?” asked one of the men. “I’ve never seen you in town. You’re outsiders, aren’t you? Get away from here! It’s not for you.” His pickaxe slammed down an inch from Airi’s foot. She jumped back, scattering pebbles over the cliff edge.

“We just wanted to—” Airi said.

“They must be coveting our gold,” the other man muttered. “They’re like the other intruders. They want to take what’s rightfully ours!”

The men rumbled with anger. Though they were dressed like blacksmiths and miners, they wore gold watches and jewels that gleamed peculiarly in the sun. “They must be spies. They were sent to kill the dragon. Or worse, they’re here to steal our gold!”

Mildred held her arm out, signaling Airi to retreat, which Airi gladly did. Her other arm she held out, as if warding off evil. “Please listen for a moment, sir. This is just a misunderstanding. The dragon, it’s not—”

In one movement, the man grabbed Mildred by the neck and hoisted her over the cliff’s edge. Mildred gasped, legs dangling. Her hands plucked at the fingers around her neck. Airi didn’t dare to breathe.

“Are you here to steal our gold? Tell me! Are you?” he roared, spit flying out of his mouth. He raised his pickaxe, and the morning light painted it gold.

“N-no!” Mildred wheezed. Her black irises flashed with terror, and she reached down feebly, perhaps searching for her spellbook. There was no way she would be able to cast a spell before the man killed her. “Please let me go!”

The man didn’t seem to hear her. “You’re here to steal our gold, aren’t you? You’re here to take the dragon away! Well, we won’t let you!”

Airi hugged the cliff wall so tightly that her fingers bled. “Please, sir,” she said. “We’re not here to take anything from you. We were just out for a stroll. Please let her go. Please.”

The man’s eyes lost a bit of their unnatural shine. He threw Mildred to the ground at Airi's feet. Airi pulled Mildred to her feet, and they stumbled down the path as fast as they could.

There was blood on Mildred’s hand.

“It’s not mine,” Mildred said, wiping it off. “It’s yours.” Her voice was still scratchy, and her neck had begun to bruise.

Airi eyed the bruise as she wrapped a bandage around the scrape on her left hand. “I vote that we don’t go back there,” she said.

“We have to. It’s the only way to Gold's Lair.”

“They’re never going to let us in.”

“Couldn’t you, like, cast a spell that throws them over the cliff?”

Mildred glared at Airi. “We’re not allowed to kill anyone. We’ll just have to convince them. Why don’t you put that mouth of yours to use and gather some useful information?”

They split up. Finding someone to talk to was going to be difficult. Even when they passed each other on the streets, the people didn’t bother to say hello. They walked briskly down the street, eyes darting from side to side. When she knocked on shop doors, no one answered.

Eventually, she came across a store without any gold or jewels in its window. Ironically, it was a jewelry shop.

She knocked, and the door opened. A hunched old man with glasses stood there.

“Hello,” he said, squinting. “You’re the newspaper girl, aren’t you? What’s the headline today? Did someone’s gold get stolen again?”

Airi thought fast. “Actually, I was hoping to get an interview with you for the newspaper. We’re doing a special column.”

The old man looked surprised. “Well, yes... for the newspaper, you say? I suppose I’m free. Come in. It’s not good to talk in the street.”

In the man’s dining room, Airi enjoyed a cup of hot tea. The faded silk curtains were drawn back to let sunlight into the room.

The old man sipped his tea. “Well, if it’s me you’re curious about, I’ll gladly tell you. I’m a jeweler by trade, but after the dragon appeared twenty years ago, my trade became... obsolete.” He looked at his lined hands.

“Mm, fascinating. So, twenty years ago, the dragon just appeared out of nowhere? I’d like to hear your account of things.”

“Well, yes... that year was particularly hard, I remember. The miners had exhausted all the nearby ore veins. Then the dragon appeared, and we never had to worry about mining ore again.”

“How helpful of the dragon,” Airi said. “It hasn’t eaten anyone, right?”

“That’s what people say. Me personally, I’m waiting for my wife to tell me what she thinks of Gold.”

“Huh?”

The old man nodded at a crystalwing pinned to the wall. Airi saw the faintly colored outline of a smiling woman with her arm around the old man, if he were twenty years younger. It looked like a vintage photograph.

“Your wife was a mage?”

“She has a little mana. Only enough to warm a cup of tea.” Airi saw a dust-covered teacup on the windowsill. “She spent months heating up cups of tea next to that crystalwing until the image was visible.”

Airi stared at the crystalwing. “‘Has?’ Then, she’s not...” Dead?

“Well, with the jewelry store failing, we couldn’t afford to lose our house, so... she visited the dragon. It gives gold to anyone who asks; why couldn’t it give some to us, too?”

Airi nodded. “That makes sense. What happened next?”

“Well, she hasn’t come back yet, but she’ll return. It’s only been five years, and they never found any bodies in Gold’s Lair. That must mean that Gold is keeping them prisoner somewhere, right?”

“...Yeah. Yeah, that must be it.” Airi cleared her throat. “So you never thought to go and... I don’t know, find your wife?”

The old man set his teacup down with a shaky clink. “Well... I’m sure she’d be angry if I ran after her and ended up getting captured myself.”

To be fair to the old man, if Airi were in his place, she wouldn’t have gone to Gold’s Lair either. “Okay, let’s move on to the next topic. What’s your opinion on the guards at the entrance to Gold’s Lair? We’re trying to gather varied perspectives, so feel free to speak your mind.”

“You mean Jack and Roger, and their whole lot of retired miners? Well, I’m grateful that they’re protecting Gold. You know, it’s thanks to Gold that we’re able to live a life of such leisure.” The old man swallowed a bitter sip of tea.

“I see. Thank you.”

Jack. Roger. Airi mentally reminded herself to remember their names.

“And do you know Jack and Roger well?” she asked.

“Not very. They’re quite a bit younger than me. Er... is this relevant to the interview?”

Airi flashed a quick smile. “Oh, of course. This is an opinion piece on Gold’s Lair, after all. And I think we can agree that Jack and Roger are very important to Gold’s Lair. So, what were you saying about them?”

“Well, I know they both have daughters. That’s about it. But everyone knows that. It drives their fathers mad when they play together, yet they always seem to get away with it.”

Jackpot!

“Thank you, sir. This was very helpful,” Airi said, bowing her head. “I’d better go and get working on the newspaper now.”

“Best of luck with the newspaper,” the old man said. “Er, this interview that we had. When will it feature in the paper?”

Airi glanced over her shoulder. The jeweler stood in the doorway, wringing his hands. He was still wearing that gold wedding ring, waiting for a wife who would never return. He said that he was grateful towards the dragon, yet out of all the shops in Stonecliff, only his house was devoid of gold and jewels.

“I don’t know,” she said, telling him the truth for the first time. She could taste the bitterness of the tea in her mouth.