One Night in Boukos by A.J. Demas

Author:A.J. Demas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sexton's Cottage

Chapter 12

“These are delicious.”

“Mm-hm. One hundred percent goat-free.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Imported sheep cheese from Kos. Only because this is a good restaurant. Look, it’s written up on the wall.”

Pheres pointed with his half-eaten cheese pastry, and Bedar saw that there was indeed a neat red inscription over the takeout-food counter at the front of the restaurant: Genuine Kossian Telema Cheese Served Here. He dipped another of the triangles of crisp pastry into the garlicky yogurt sauce that had come with them. Pheres stuffed the rest of his pastry in his mouth and reached for another olive.

“You might want to slow down a little,” said Bedar. “I should be very sorry if you made yourself unwell.”

Pheres nodded, and chewed deliberately for a moment. He swallowed. “We have to get on with our investigation, though. We may have better luck at one of the other gates.”

“We may,” said Bedar. “But that is no reason for you to give yourself indigestion.”

“No, sir.” Pheres nibbled gingerly on the olive. “I think our shrimp are coming—look.”

Bedar looked. The waiter, in his bright red tunic and white apron, was navigating between the crowded tables on his way from the kitchen, holding aloft a steaming plate.

“I can’t believe you’ve never had them before,” said Pheres.

The restaurant was a small one, tucked in between a bookstore and a barber’s shop just inside the Eastern Gate of the city. They had stopped in, after inquiring fruitlessly at the gate shrine, because Pheres had heard from someone at the Horses that the food here was very good, and Bedar had decided that he needed to eat before taking another step. A proper meal, sitting down—which, interestingly, was the way you ate in Boukossian restaurants, although reclining on couches, which he found awkward, was the fashion in all private dining rooms.

The shrimp arrived, crisp and fried to perfection, with another kind of yogurt to dip them in, this one full of herbs which Pheres could not identify. Bedar discovered that he had in fact eaten shrimp before, just that morning, and Pheres was amused by his story of the mysterious leaf-wrapped parcels.

“Did you order anything else?” Bedar asked.

“Some grilled mushrooms and baked figs. That’s all.”

“It seems enough.”

“I’ll finish anything you can’t eat. Not a cheap date, am I?”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Pheres laughed. He seemed to be having a good time. He had got rather excited at the idea of going into a fine restaurant, and when Bedar had suggested that he order for them, he had considered the menu on the wall quite seriously and seemed to feel it an important responsibility to introduce Bedar to all the best Pseuchaian dishes.

“Do you know that there is a Zashian name almost the same as yours?” said Bedar. “Fereza. It comes from a western dialect. It means ‘shepherd,’ I think. ‘Guardian of flocks.’”

“No, I didn’t know that. It’s interesting. My name means ‘wolf.’”

“Ah. The opposite.”

“Pretty much. ‘Fereza,’” he repeated. “I like it.”

“I thought you might.”

“So what do you do, Bedar?” Pheres asked as Bedar refilled their wine-cups.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.