Bound by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #2)(10)

“Anytime.” I looked over my shoulder as he held the door open for me and winked. “Just make sure you have something for us to sit on the next time I come over.”

I turned away, then trotted down to the sidewalk where my steambike waited for me. As I looked around at the rows of houses lining the street, the realization struck me that I was out of touch with the shifter community. Ever since I’d moved out of Roanas’s house and taken up residence in Rowanville to be closer to the Enforcer’s Guild, I’d stopped coming to Shiftertown except on business, and as a result I didn’t really know what was going on. When I was under Roanas’s care, I’d often tagged along with him on errands, and aside from the Jaguar Clan the rest of the community had tolerated me just fine. There were a few grandmothers who gave me tea and cookies, and I’d had both shifter and human friends at school – one of the few civic programs Canalo did fund for everyone in the state. But I hadn’t seen any of those people in a few years. By Magorah, for all I knew those grannies could have passed away by now.

So instead of heading down the hill and back towards Solantha Palace, I drove in the opposite direction, heading toward the Cat’s Meow, a popular diner run by the Tiger Clan. It stood proudly near the center of Shiftertown, sandwiched between a welder’s shop and a florist, the storefront wall painted a dark orange with black stripes running across diagonally. My lips twitched at the outrageous paint job – that was one thing that hadn’t changed.

Rather than parking my bike in front of the diner, I went around the block, then ducked into an alley. Closing my eyes, I mumbled the Words to the illusion spell Iannis had taught me, envisioning myself as a tigress shifter with short blonde hair wearing a pair of jeans and a conservative sweater. If I went in there as myself no one would talk to me, but I also didn’t want to look too attractive and draw attention I didn’t want. I made sure to add an extra layer of illusion to mask my scent before I sauntered around the block and into the bar.

Like the exterior, the inside of the diner was much the same as it had been when I’d left Shiftertown – rows of orange and black booths along both walls, tables scattered in the open space between, and a bar dominating the center that stood bastion between the dining area and the kitchen. It was around ten in the morning, and though the place wasn’t packed a good portion of the booths and tables were taken up.

I chose a seat at the bar, the best place for me to listen around and strike up a conversation if needed, and ordered a stack of pancakes since I hadn’t had time for breakfast this morning. The food arrived quickly, and I tuned my sensitive ears into the buzz of conversation around me, hoping to hear something of interest.

“… we’re going on vacation to Naraka next weekend,” a woman was saying, her voice high pitched with excitement. “I can’t wait!”

“Naraka?” the other woman asked, sounding amazed. “That’s across the Western Sea, isn’t it?”

“It’s a nation of islands, right off the coast of Garai,” the woman said. “We’ve never had the money to go abroad before, and my mate is so excited!”

“… I’m going to invest in the mining business,” someone else, a male, was saying, his voice lower than the woman’s. “Someone recently told me about a great opportunity in the mines up north.”

“Mining?” another male scoffed. “I’ve never taken you for a businessman before. Listen, pay off your house and buy up as many supplies as you can. With the rebellion coming, you don’t know how the economic landscape’s going to change.”

I gave my plate a bewildered frown as I continued listening to the conversations in the room. About half the people here seemed to be talking about finances -- investments or vacations or paying off debts – which I wasn’t used to hearing from shifters. Most of us don’t have a ton of money, and the conversations I remembered when Roanas used to bring me here usually revolved around the shifter community’s discontent with the status quo. But today everybody seemed hopeful, optimistic even.

“Hey there.” A male tiger shifter with dark, shaggy hair and orange eyes sat down on the bar stool next to mine. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“I’m not from around here.” I smiled, dragging my attention from my thoughts and focusing them on the male next to me. “Just visiting from Parabas, actually,” I said, pulling the first town that came to mind – the city up north that Lakin had transferred from.

“Oh really?” the male’s eyes brightened. “It’s beautiful up there – so much greener than Northern Canalo.”

“True, but Solantha Bay is lovely too,” I gushed, easily slipping into the role of tourist. I’d spoken to enough of them that I knew how to behave like one. “The Firegate Bridge is just spectacular. Have you ever walked across it?”

We chatted together for a little while as I finished my pancakes, and though I tried to keep things friendly it was clear the guy was trying to hit on me. So after I was done, I reached into the money pouch tied to my belt to settle up so I could head out.

“Oh don’t worry about that,” the male said, pulling out a pandanum coin and several bronze ones from a large money pouch. “I’ve got it.”

“No kidding.” I stared down at the pouch, wondering how I hadn’t noticed it before. “Say, I noticed a lot of people seem to be flush in these parts. Did the Canalo government give some kind of handout to the shifters here?”