In this scene, Pietas and his guide, whom he calls Dark Hair, approach a restaurant in Ruh City, near the starport. The all-powerful king has spent most of the story learning to humble himself, and the lesson has not yet been learned.
Dark Hair stopped in front of a building with small windows set high off the ground, and a wide wooden door painted green. "You see mark on door, nahee?"
"This?" He ran his fingers across it. A horizontal line carved into the wood followed by a space and then a dot. Likely the result of damage. "What is it?"
"Is sign for our kind. Gay. Here, no one kick us out. Here, we can eat."
Only a handful of people occupied the restaurant. Two sets of Kin males in the back. A few tables with female couples. Pietas and Dark Hair took a booth at the front and slid into it. Deep, dark, padded with lush leather and surrounded by ebony wood, it offered one step from daytime to night.
Unlike the bar in Old Ruh City, no one paid them attention. Like all other shops, the windows were high up on the wall.
"What's with the windows on this world?"
Dark Hair glanced upward. "Ah fay?"
"All the windows I've seen are too high up for anyone inside to see out."
"Why look out? Windows make light."
"Yes, but you can't see out them."
She laid back one ear and angled the other toward him. Curious. "And make nobody see in, either."
"How do you sell things in a store without windows?"
Both those pointy ears went back. "Silly nahee." With two fingers, she mimicked walking. "You go inside."
Pietas sat back in the booth. "You guys have so much to learn."
She lowered both eyebrows. "You not make sense."
The first Kin business that offered true competition by letting people see what they were getting stood to make a fortune. But that was not why he was here, was it?
He needed a horse. And right now, they both needed food. No wait staff, android or otherwise, in sight.
Pietas made a slight nod toward the back. "Those guys have no female with them. Is that allowed in all restaurants or just this one?"
She pushed back her hood and glanced their direction. "They sahnimay," she said, using Felis for homosexual. "Female sit other table."
A Kin male in a green apron came up to the table and bowed to Dark Hair. He spoke so rapidly in Felis Pietas couldn't understand him. Dark Hair said something back, just as fast. Without speaking to Pietas, he turned and left.
Pietas leaned toward her across the table. "What was that about?"
"I tell him bring food."
He drew back. "Humans ask each other what they want to eat."
"We eat same as bar. Yes? Good food."
The male returned with a pitcher of water and two glasses. He set them down, stole a glance at Pietas and then bowed to Dark Hair before scurrying away.
She motioned to him. "You do water."
"Because I'm male?"
She gave him that same look she'd offered every other time he'd asked that question.
He sighed. "Never mind. I'll pour."
Book Hooks is a weekly cooperative blog hop hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog.
