Chapter 6 #3
The Kennelmaster assigned Coyome to guard Topi, and Sagam and Asahi were waiting outside for me and Tallu as soon as we stepped down.
I was still concerned with Asahi’s condition, but Sagam had admitted Asahi was resting during the day, sleeping nearly every moment he was in the cart, and he looked better for it.
I could still see some evidence of pain, but he moved fluidly and was nearly back to himself.
The Kennelmaster spoke with the innkeeper, and he gave the man a couple of silver coins. The innkeeper bowed, low enough to be a sign of respect, before he gestured the Kennelmaster inside.
We were given a private room, large enough for all nine of us who weren’t staying with the horses. There wasn’t quite enough seating, but the innkeeper brought in a few extra chairs, helped by a serving girl, who then immediately returned with a tea tray and some snacks.
She bowed, keeping her eyes low. I was so used to servants bowing with their fingers forming a triangle that the more common show of respect was disconcerting. I glanced at Tallu, but he still had his hood up, his back rigidly straight as he looked out the window into an inner courtyard.
“Our noon meal will be ready soon,” she said, her voice slightly nervous.
I turned back to her quickly and saw her glance around the room, her eyes fixing on Topi, where she sat, both hands clenched on the arms of her chair, Coyome looming behind her.
The cut from where she’d been hit with a rock had scabbed over, but the flesh around it was red and hinted at infection.
“We have baths, and rooms for sleeping…”
Brave girl, I thought, trying to get Topi alone, away from the room full of men who looked considerably more dangerous now that we had been a week in the woods. No wonder she was concerned for Topi’s safety.
The Kennelmaster saw it, too, and shook his head, opening his mouth to answer no, but Tallu’s voice cut through the room.
His back was still to the door and the girl, and I couldn’t see his eyes, or his face, or whatever expression was on it, but when he spoke, it was with a ring of authority that made the Kennelmaster’s mouth twitch unhappily.
It was impossible to hear the way Tallu spoke and not realize that this was a man one obeyed.
“After the meal, we will all need baths. Have them prepared.” Tallu turned, and the servant gaped at him.
He exuded a presence that even so many days on the road couldn’t hide.
“The girl, too. She’s a traitor to the Imperium, and we are returning her back to the capital city so that the emperor himself might decide what to do with her. ”
This time, when the servant looked at Topi, her expression was guarded. Tallu had offered no proof, and yet his authority alone was enough to make the girl switch her allegiance.
She bowed lower, and I saw her fingers twitch, as though trying to decide if she should form a triangle, before she left.
“I thought we were trying not to draw attention to ourselves,” I said in a low voice.
There was a hiss next to me, and Asahi said, “That is impossible.”
His words were almost a sneer, but when I turned to look at him, his face was placid, no expression of disdain on it. Next to him, Sagam was unmoved, and I wondered if I had misheard, or, worse, I was beginning to hear things.
Perhaps it was one of the ghosts Tallu worried would attach themselves to Hallu. It had been over a week since anyone had attacked me, and I had assumed a head wound would have healed itself by now.
Tallu turned back to the window, children’s laughter coming in from the open pane. Crossing to his side, I watched two children dressed in servants’ clothing take handfuls of water from the pond, throwing them at each other.
In the tree above them, three ravens observed the scene, Ratcatcher bouncing on his branch as their play caused the small fish in the pond to speed across the water. He dove down but was unable to catch any, returning to the branch with a wet beak, shaking his head to rid himself of water.
I heard Sagam speaking quietly with two of the other Dogs, the clink of porcelain. Coyome said, “It’s safe.”
Sagam came abreast of Tallu, standing on his other side, a cup of tea carefully held in his hands. “No poison.”
Tallu glanced at him, face impassive, then took the cup and drank nearly the whole thing. I watched him with concern. He hadn’t been eating much.
I had assumed it was just the road, the food not what he was used to. But in the reflected light from the courtyard, I could see the beginnings of a gaunt hollowness in his cheeks.
When the servant brought back a meal, Sagam tasted everything on Tallu’s plate before presenting it to him. Still, Tallu picked at the food, only taking larger bites when he caught me staring at him.
“Picky eater,” Asahi muttered, but when I turned to him sharply, no one else seemed to have taken notice of his words. It was as though he hadn’t spoken.
“Did you say something?” I asked him. Asahi blinked just once, his frown creasing his forehead. His eyes were a clear brown, and he glanced at Tallu beside me before returning his gaze to me.
“I said nothing, Your—” Asahi cut himself off before he could finish the title.
“I must have misheard.” I blinked down at my food, shoving some of the steamed bun in my mouth to cover my confusion.
Conversation was limited, everyone all too aware of the thin walls and the chance of listening ears. When we were done, the servants returned to clear the tables and lead us to the baths.
“We have a servants’ bath, for the…” The serving girl trailed off, eyes on Topi before she dropped them. “There are no exits. It’s private.”
“Take her,” the Kennelmaster directed Coyome. Before Coyome could touch her shoulder, Topi stood, her chin raised. She strode out, past the whispering servants, following the serving girl down a long hall.
“This way?” Another servant gestured, her palm up.
The Dogs surrounded Tallu, and I saw the servant glance backward, her eyes flicking from Tallu to his guards, then back to him.
They weren’t wearing their swords—it would have been too obvious—but it was impossible for them to fully mask how lethal they were.
In the Mountainside Palace, the communal baths were inside a large bathhouse, the water from the lake heated and pumped into the building.
Here, they had moved the stream that circled around the building, and based on the steam rising into the air, the large bathing areas were in the open.
We passed through a high wall of wood with decorative knots and whorls moving through it.
Just beyond the first door, there were two smaller doors. The servant nervously gestured to one. “We have a private bath, if you’d prefer?”
Without speaking, Tallu put his hand on my lower back, nudging me toward the private room. Asahi and Sagam broke off, the former walking in before us. He examined the shower room, then went out to the bathing pool. When he was satisfied, he returned. “It’s safe.”
“Wait here while we bathe.” Tallu gestured to the doorway.
“Your—my lord, we must maintain your safety,” Sagam said. “What if someone attacks?”
“I’m sure we’re more likely to be attacked by mosquitoes here than any warrior,” I said. “Unless you have some unrevealed defense against biting insects? If you do, I demand an explanation for why I have all these welts on my back from forest mosquitoes.”
Sagam’s mouth went flat and unhappy, and he opened his mouth to protest, but Tallu cut him off. “You will wait. Here.”
I heard Asahi’s voice loud in my head, even though his mouth didn’t move. “Let him be. See if he can survive without us.”
“Of course, my lord,” Sagam said, nodding in a near bow.
He didn’t react. He hadn’t heard Asahi because Asahi hadn’t spoken.
My head began to ache. The last thing I needed was to be going mad and assuming bad intentions from the man who’d risked himself multiple times to save my life.
Asahi had kept my secrets when he had no reason to, and I was ungratefully imagining him spewing such hatred.
Because the other option was that I was suddenly hearing his innermost thoughts, and they were poison. I could not believe the man who had kept my secrets, who had saved my life, believed any of the toxic words I was hearing.
Sagam and Asahi stepped through the curtain, and I turned to Tallu, raising one eyebrow. “You know, they have seen you naked before. They’ve seen me naked before.”
Tallu shook his head, turning away from me to begin the complicated process of freeing himself from his clothes. As his fingers worked the buttons from their clasps, he spoke to his hands. “Is it not enough that I dislike it?”
After a moment’s hesitation, I followed him, undressing as I mulled over all the things he wasn’t saying. “Yes. That can be enough.”
When we were both naked, Tallu started the shower, and I stood back, watching as he scrubbed the grime of the road from himself.
His long muscles still enticed me, and the gauntness I’d seen earlier must have been a trick of the light.
I watched the twist of the dragon tattoo along his arm as he turned, the water finally running clear.
When it was my turn, I closed my eyes, enjoying the spray against my cheeks.
I scratched my fingers through the stubble that had grown since I’d shaved the previous morning before taking a handful of the sand they used to wash and scrubbing it over my body.
By the time I finished, the hot water pounding against my body had relaxed muscles in my back that long and uncomfortable rides in the wagon had knotted like an experienced sailor.
Tallu stood waiting, a towel pulled around his waist, and I admired the strength of his back and the darkness of his wet hair. When he turned back to me, I startled, jerking forward.
“Tallu,” I said, “you’re bleeding.”