Now You See Me

Ten: Tempura Tantrums

No matter what I said, Lorien refused to tell me what it was about the beggar that had scared him so much.

"She did not scare me," he finally snapped, when I started to get annoyed. "You did. You would not listen to me when I said she was dangerous!"

"That's because you wouldn't give me a reason! Jesus, how many times do I have to ask?"

"We cannot speak about it here," he said, dropping his voice to a whisper as a family walked past, all staring at us. "They might hear us. I will tell you when we get back to St Martin's. In the meantime"- he straightened up and looked around us - "I am really quite hungry. That place looks good."

He wandered off to stare into the window of a nearby shop without another word. I groaned and ran a hand through my hair, thinking of how much time we could've saved if he'd just told me that in the first place. I didn't understand, exactly, but despite the fact that Lorien was unsettled in more ways than one, he was also more experienced in this strange supernatural sub-society than I was. I had no reason to dispute his judgement.

Lunch was awkward. Lorien let go of all his previous vehemence and was back to being sullen, shifty and uncommunicative. He picked at his meal with little enthusiasm – the remains of it, at least. While he was angry with me, he got through it at a rate of knots, but had lost all his momentum.

"Tempura?"

I looked up at the waitress who had come to stand beside our table. A platter of battered shrimp and vegetables was balanced on one of her arms. She smiled, I assumed at me, but her eyes were focused on the minimarket across the road. I swallowed my mouthful. It seemed to stick on the way down.

"No, thanks. I'm good."

"Are you sure?" she said, thrusting the tray at me so that the tempura almost fell into my food anyway. I swallowed again and shuffled my chair away. The woman was making me nervous; I felt my hands start to sweat as my heart sped up. I suddenly wanted to be out of there, as soon as possible. There was a loud crunching noise that made me jump, but it was only Lorien chewing on an ice cube from his glass. His expression was frosty – it was the same expression he wore while regarding the beggar woman. My stomach flopped and lurched with discomfort.

"He said no," the elf said, and slid on his jacket. "The bill, please."

I followed his lead in getting ready to leave, taking the opportunity to step away from the waitress, who was still smiling with her tempura, eyes glazed and staring out the window.

"Excuse me," Lorien said to another member of staff, as they passed with a stack of dirty plates. "Your colleague is harassing my friend."

The waiter took one look at the statuesque woman and rolled his eyes.

"She's been doing this a lot lately," he said. "I apologise, sirs. We don't know why she does it. Hang on a moment while I put these in the kitchen, and we'll take her away for you."

He indicated the dirty plates, and then walked off towards the back of the restaurant. Lorien sidled up to me when he was out of earshot, eyes never leaving the waitress. She still hadn't moved. Her arm was extended towards my seat, and as I watched a couple of tempura shrimps slid into the remains of my noodles.

"We should go back to the centre," he said. "There is something very wrong."

I nodded, closing my eyes and trying to suppress my breathing rate, which had rocketed to the point where I was starting to feel dizzy. Lorien put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed as if he understood perfectly.

The waiter returned with two others from the kitchen, who between them took the woman away. She was unreactive to their coaxing; she stayed stock-still so they had to drag her, and they left a trail of tempura as they went.