In the House of Five Dragons
19. Breaking Dawn
“Those who survived the slaughter of the Fiori war were so few that most of modern VEIL has never seen war. They have known only this era of peace. Their only battles are of their own making.”
— From Accounts of Njorn Pass, by Alexander Ferro
Thainna eagerly returned to her room for her first night of sleep in a real bed, but then surprised herself by being unable to get comfortable. The bed was soft, but for a girl of the Rows, it was disconcertingly insubstantial. Every time she fell asleep, Thainna started and dug her nails into the mattress, clinging to it with a terror that didn’t match the two-foot drop to the floor.
Or maybe it was her dreams.
Rikard Mazrem chased Thainna up and up through the dark tower of her nightmare. She clutched a little gold and glass lamp to her chest, the one she had stolen from his bedroom the night before. Thain was somewhere at the top of the tower, she knew, and Thainna had to get the lamp to him. Quickly, before the Auction came…
But the stairs were crooked beneath Thainna’s feet and she staggered, falling. In a second, Rikard was on top of her. He sank long shadow-fingers into her chest, reaching for her heart…
There was a sharp knock at the door and Thainna jerked once more into wakefulness. Her head and eyes felt stuffed with sand. She sat and scrubbed at her face with her fingers.
“Come in,” Thainna called in a sleep-roughened voice.
Bastil opened the door and stood in the frame, gesturing impatiently for Thainna to rise.
“Get up, girl!” he said. “What’re you doing still abed?”
“Sorry, I didn’t sleep well.”
Bastil carried a large package wrapped in paper and sealed in stamped wax. He handed it to Thainna, who took it curiously. In spite of its size, the parcel was quite light.
“It’s from the temple of Surma,” Bastil said. “A courier brought it this morning. Is it important?”
Thainna had no idea, but she didn’t want to open anything sent by Narissa in front of the Mazrem steward. She set it aside and smiled disarmingly at Bastil… at least, she hoped that was what she was doing.
“It’s just some extra medicine,” said Thainna.
She rose and found her silver shoulder clasps under her pillow, then straightened out her tabba. Was it too rumpled by sleep? Rich people could be terribly fussy about clothes.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To see Lord and Lady Mazrem,” Bastil answered. “There’s a long list of visitors who wish to pay their respects.”
Thainna was still annoyed at being awake.
“What do you need me for, then?” she asked.
Bastil was clearly the more experienced hand at irritation. “To tell the lady of the house if Captain Mazrem is well enough to take visitors. His health and well-being are our top priorities, of course, but some of our lord’s requestors are important people.”
“Hae, then.”
Thainna finished tying her sandals, hauled her supplies over her shoulder, and followed Bastil out of the servant’s longhouse. They passed other serving staff going to and from the longhouse. Some nodded and waved to Bastil, but most made sure to look busy and avoided the steward’s attention.
The morning sun was bright and warm. Colorful birds sang in well-pruned trees. The grass was wet and slippery with dew, but not enough to soak through Thainna’s sandals. In the wheat-colored sunlight and clear, clean morning, she couldn’t hold on to her foul mood for long. By the time they made it to the Mazrem’s main house, Thainna found herself smiling and humming tunelessly. When she was done with Rikard, it would be time for another large breakfast from the servant’s kitchen. Yesterday had been full of more food than any day of her entire life.
For a moment, Thainna was almost grateful to the Crest for her new job.
Bastil took her through an atrium and into the main house. A pair of dressers waited at the door to Lord and Lady Mazrem’s bedroom. Bastil inspected the clothes they carried and nodded.
“Good. Wait here until you’re called,” he instructed the other servants.
They stood aside while Bastil opened the door for Thainna and ushered her inside. He followed her quietly.
Inside, layered curtains filtered the morning light into dim, colorful shadows that turned the bedroom into a secretive grotto. But not secret enough to keep Bastil away. The steward pulled open the drapes and tied them back, flooding the lavish bedroom with bright yellow sunlight. Laurael sat up in her bed, yawned and stretched. Rikard groaned and threw an arm over his face.
“I’m sorry for intruding, Lord and Lady Mazrem,” Bastil said, bowing deeply. “However, I’m afraid that there are matters which demand your immediate attention.”
“What is it?” Laurael asked.
Beside her, Rikard rolled away and resumed his loud snoring.
“There are people lining up at the gates to see Captain Mazrem. VEIL sent additional knights to secure the estate, but the people are eager. There have already been some injuries.”
“Injuries?”
“Just minor ones,” Bastil assured Laurael quickly. “A few tried to climb the gates and the knights had to pull them down. There are others asking for audiences with Captain Mazrem, as well. General Saul Darius, Consul Liam Io and Alexander Ferro being particularly vocal. There’s even been word from General Castor of the Sun Court. The emperor’s offices have sent requests, of course.”
“Let me see.” Laurael snapped her fingers and Bastil handed her a sheaf of papers. “Turn up the lights.”
Bastil nodded to Thainna. She had no idea why. Bastil rolled his eyes and pointed impatiently to a lamp, a larger version of the one she had stolen the night before. Thainna hurried to hand it to him. Bastil lit it from a small emberbox, turned up the wick, and held it beside Lady Mazrem. She unfolded the letters and leafed through them, moving her lips as she read. After a moment, she handed them back to Bastil.
“Absolutely not,” Laurael said. Her tone was hard and final. She glanced at the snoring young man beside her. “My husband has been home barely a day. He needs rest. Peace and quiet.”
“I thought that perhaps the foster could keep us apprised of Lord Mazrem’s progress,” Bastil suggested delicately.
Laurael sighed. “Very well. Thainna, come here.”
Thainna stepped obediently to the bedside.
“Hae, Lady Mazrem?” she asked.
“What do you say to my husband’s health? Is he well enough to take visitors?”
Bastil and Lady Mazrem studied her closely. What was Thainna supposed to say? She wasn’t really a foster, after all. Still, other than being frothing mad, Captain Mazrem seemed to be in good health. His injuries didn’t seem to bother him much and, as Narissa had pointed out, Captain Mazrem walked all the way across Dormaen — perhaps further — with them.
Lady Mazrem knows that, too. She’s playing at politics, and Bastil just wants to get down to business.
Thainna didn’t know the noblewoman’s game, but knew instinctively that one was being played. Why else keep Captain Mazrem secluded? Thainna covered her indecision by circling the bed and pretending to examine Rikard more closely. To her surprise, she found something. There were scabbed-over gouges in the man’s palms.
“What happened to his hands?” Thainna asked.
“My husband was distraught yesterday. He used his blood,” said Laurael.
Thainna took a deep breath and knelt down. Bastil followed her around the bed, holding the lamp aloft. The blood had all been cleaned away, for the most part, but there was still a little of it under his fingernails. Not daring to touch Captain Mazrem, Thainna traced the line of his finger with her eyes, down to the VEIL knight’s bloodcap. It was closed and the gold was still clean.
Why hadn’t Rikard used his cannula? He must have already been bleeding from the nail-marks across his palms. Rikard wasn’t bleeding with intent — he was simply angry. Mad. Crazy enough to tear his own flesh open instead of using the bloodcap surgically installed there.
Was that what Laurael didn’t want anyone to see? If so, Thainna could hardly blame Lady Mazrem. This animal wasn’t the hero of Carce. Laurael probably wanted to keep Rikard secluded until he recovered, if he ever did.
And what did that mean for Thainna? The Crest wanted her to control Rikard. Could this help her do that, somehow? Thainna wasn’t sure.
But for right now, she would have to agree with someone. Lady Mazrem was powerful, but Bastil could just as easily make Thainna’s life here difficult. Was there a way to make them both happy?
“Captain Mazrem is healing well,” Thainna answered, looking back and forth between the lady and her steward. “His wounds are healing quickly, but he’s been… uh… affected by his trials. I think that Lord Mazrem can see visitors, but only a few and then only for a little while.”
Lady Mazrem nodded and smiled at Bastil. The steward sighed as though Thainna had carved her answer into a boulder and asked him to carry it across Dormaen.
“We shall allow my husband audiences, but we will be selective about who he sees,” said Laurael.
“Hae, Lady Mazrem,” Bastil said stiffly. He bowed and left, back straight and rigid.
Captain Mazrem had slept straight throughout the entire conversation. Thainna stood awkwardly at his bedside and wondered what to do next.
Laurael stood and called for her dressers. Thainna flinched at the sudden loud noise, but Rikard didn’t stir. The pair of servants she had seen outside scuttled into the bedroom to help Laurael undress and then wrap her in an elaborate new tabba. Thainna figured that Lady Mazrem had forgotten her entirely until the half-dressed noblewoman called for her.
“Thainna, come here.”
Thainna had to stand a few feet back to avoid colliding with the dressers laboring to clothe and paint their mistress. “My lady?”
“You were wise to agree with me, young foster. My husband isn’t ready to face with the world. He will be permitted visitors, as you’ve suggested, but all of Carce is eager to see Lord-Captain Mazrem.”
Thainna could think of nothing intelligent to say, so she nodded silently. Lady Mazrem wasn’t looking at Thainna, but into the hand mirror she was holding. One of the dressers braided her mistress’ hair and pinned it into an intricate spiral while the other powdered her cheeks.
“I want you to attend these visits, my dear,” said Lady Mazrem.
Thainna blinked. “What? Why?”
“If any of my husband’s visitors believe that their business is more important than his health, I would like you to tell them otherwise. A foster’s expert word will ensure that no one overtaxes Lord Mazrem.”
“I uh… Hae, my lady.”
“I’ll speak with Bastil and decide who can see him tomorrow.”
Laurael paused as the boy working on her face rubbed a floral-smelling paste into her pale skin. When he was done, Lady Mazrem inspected the results in her mirror once more. She was the palest Carcaen that Thainna had ever seen, almost as white-skinned as a Fiori.
“That’s enough for now,” said Laurael. “I’m hungry. We’ll finish in my sitting room once I’ve had breakfast. Thainna, bring my husband to me when you’ve finished with his care.”
Thainna and the dressers bowed to Lady Mazrem as she swept out of the room. The other servants wordlessly gathered up her discarded sleeping wrap and makeup, then left Thainna alone in the vast bedroom.
Almost alone. Thainna returned to the bed and the catatonic Rikard Mazrem.
Thank you very much, Lady Mazrem, for leaving me all alone with your mad husband.
As gently as she could, Thainna shook Rikard’s shoulder. He grunted, twitched and then ignored her. Weren’t soldiers supposed to be light sleepers? She shook him again, harder. Still nothing. Was he catching up on the full thirty years of sleep?
“Captain Mazrem? Captain Mazrem, sir? Please, wake up!”
Thainna gave the sleeping knight a hard shove and jumped back. Finally, Rikard stirred and sat. He blinked for a moment, then jumped from the bed and grabbed Thainna by the shoulders. The metal bloodcap dug hard into her skin.
“Where is Laura? Did they take her?” Rikard shouted.
His dark brown eyes loomed up in front of her like deep holes in the ground, threatening to swallow her. Thainna felt suddenly as though the whole world was spinning like a top. She retched, but there had been no time to eat.
“She… she’s just at breakfast,” Thainna groaned. “Let go of me!”
Rikard dropped Thainna. She sagged to the floor, shaking her head and wondering what had just happened. Her whole skull ached. Thainna felt as fragile and twisted around as a snail shell. Rikard rubbed at his eyes again and didn’t offer to help Thainna up. When the room stopped its dizzying spiral, she stood on her own and steadied herself against a bedpost.
“Laura didn’t go far. Not far,” Rikard said in a voice like a much younger man. Thainna wasn’t sure who he was talking to. “I was in dreams. Back in the bent and twisted, bring and drawn. The water dreamings are rising so bloody slow! Every night, they creep closer to the great tree and yet I can’t… I can’t…”
“Um,” Thainna answered uncertainly. Was that just gibberish or was he actually trying to say something? “Captain Mazrem, I need to check your bandages.”
Rikard sat down on the corner of the dais. “Hae.”
Other than the gouges in his hands, nothing much had changed since yesterday. Thainna changed Rikard’s bandages, applied fresh salve and very carefully cleaned the crusted blood on his hands. The knight was distant and unresponsive throughout the entire process. Thainna might as well have been caring for a doll.
“Captain Mazrem?” she asked.
He seemed so far away, like he was in another world. Maybe he was, for all Thainna knew. Eventually, Rikard looked at her.
“Your wife is waiting for you outside, sir,” she told him.
Rikard’s face lit up in a broad smile. “Outside of what?”
Thainna blinked.
“Uh, outside the house,” she said. “I’m supposed to take you to her. Lady’s orders.”
The dressers had left new clothes for Captain Mazrem. Thainna held them out and Rikard dressed himself, albeit slowly and with a few pointed reminders from his foster. When he was finished, Rikard followed Thainna from the bedroom, as obedient and eager as a puppy.
A puppy that may bare his teeth and bite me at any moment…
Yesterday, a maid had brought Thainna straight from the front gates to Lord and Lady Mazrem and the house was very, very large. Now Thainna was quickly lost and hesitantly asked directions from a woman balancing a basket of laundry across her shoulders. Stammering and staring at Rikard, the other woman told Thainna that she wasn’t far off. Straight through the terrestrium, then right at the next hallway.
Thainna thanked her and escorted Rikard to the terrestrium. It was a large, dim room with no windows, untouched by the dawn sunlight. Just as its name implied, the terrestrium floor was of loose, exposed dirt. There was barely enough light to see by, shed by lanterns hung in each of the distant corners and leaving most of the room shrouded in gray shadow.
They crossed the terrestrium carefully on a path of black basalt tiles. Thainna stepped from one to the next, and then stopped when she abruptly realized that Rikard was no longer following her. She looked back to find the knight wandering through the terrestrium, off the path and sunk up to his bare ankles in the soft, dark soil. Rikard’s expressions wavered between confusion and a deep scowl as he stared at the ground.
Thainna’s stomach flipped nervously. Now what? Lady Mazrem was expecting her husband for breakfast.
“Captain Mazrem? What are you doing?” she asked, keeping a safe distance away.
“Deep and dominion in a house of Saerus. Taken back into ringing fever and… and closing. The final devastation upon the call of the tree. A… a blight in the golden fields and curdled under sickness’ hand. The throne… the throne has been stolen.”
Rikard spoke carefully, deliberately. Curious in spite of herself, Thainna followed the black basalt trail back to him. The knight stared not at the ground, as she had first thought, but rather at his own feet, bare in the dirt. She had forgotten to make him put on his shoes.
“What are you talking about?” Thainna asked.
Rikard took a long, deep breath before answering. “Terrestrium, a place that honors the dead who came before. I remember, but I never lived in a house big enough to have one. Honors to Saerus in a house of the living. I was dead, dead to everyone, even me. I was gone so long, but they didn’t forget me.”
“Where did you go?” Thainna asked.
There were rumors, of course. Were they true? No one had ever listened much to them before, but now everything had changed. Thainna leaned forward on the hexagonal pathstone, pulled by her curiosity.
“Alterra. They took me to fight their war. I asked and I paid. I paid. Died and hated. Feared. Bleeding and blooded…”
So Rikard had gone to Alterra after he vanished from Fiore. But what did the rest of it mean?
“I don’t understand,” said Thainna.
“Alterra isn’t like… this.”
Rikard fell down to his knees in terrestrium dirt. He grabbed a handful and held it up toward Thainna, then clenched his fingers until soil squeezed from between them.
“Hands there are nothing,” Rikard said. “Swords are nothing. They left mine behind, in the snow and stone. I had only my own soul to fight with on the raw battlefields. Gods, how they screamed! I held and I hoped, but it wasn’t enough. To join their war, I needed blades that cut like mourning.”
“I’m sorry, Captain Mazrem, I still don’t understand.” Thainna crouched down on the cool basalt. Rikard did not seem to be in any hurry and she didn’t want to risk moving him. Besides, maybe he would say something that could help her in the Crest’s impossible task. “I’m trying. Please tell me again?”
Rikard sank his fingers into the terrestrium floor again and shocked Thainna by bursting into tears.
“The words are so fragile!” he said.
Alarmed, Thainna crawled out onto the dirt and gingerly patted the weeping knight’s shoulder. Words were… fragile? More likely, they were simply hard to find. Captain Mazrem was mangling the language badly. Of course, maybe that was what he meant. Maybe Terran words just weren’t meant to explain Alterran things.
Fragile. Try to use them and they shatter.
“Hae, hae! They break in my hands, in my mouth. Fragile,” he repeated. Rikard left streaks of mud across his face as he wiped at his tears with filthy hands. “It’s been so long since I used them! There are no voices there, in Alterra.”
Thainna nodded, though she still didn’t understand. “What did you mean about blades and… and the rest?”
Rikard squeezed his eyes shut, perhaps trying to avoid the distractions of the apparently confounding Terran world.
“I am… I was… Felt. I feel. I am,” the knight sighed and started again, a little more steadily. “In Alterra, thought and form are not independent, like they are in here.”
“What does that mean?”
“A Terran may think many things,” Rikard said. “But they do not change him. If he ponders rabbits, he does not become one. A Terran tree does not think. It does not have to dream in order to… to be. To exist.”
“But… Alterrans do? If they think of rabbits, they actually become one?” Thainna asked, trying to wrap her mind around the strange and alien concept. She wasn’t quite sure she believed it. Rikard Mazrem did not have to think himself a rabbit to still be quite mad.
“Hae, and… and no…” Rikard answered, struggling with each word. Beads of sweat actually stood out on his muddy brow. “If an Alterran could change his mind, it would make him from one thing into another. A wisdom into a curiosity. But they can’t change their minds. A curiosity cannot help himself but to ask questions. It’s his nature and he… he can’t change it. He is defined by it. Alterran thought is form.”
Thainna thought that she could almost grasp what Rikard was saying, but it was elusive, strange and he was not explaining it well.
“Blades? Weapons? Do you remember what you were saying about them?” Thainna pressed. Metaphorical weapons were exactly what she needed right now, if she were ever to control Captain Mazrem. If she was ever going to see Thain again.
“Terrans are… are not so bound. They can feel and think so many things without being undone. No Alterran can do that. It is… I was… terrible. Not even Flickerdim won more battles than I did. Gods, why is everything breaking? Fear to undo courage. Suspicion to undo trust. Dawn against dusk! Push against fall! Hail and fail!”
Rikard’s voice rose into a scream that made Thainna clap her hands over her ears until he quieted again. But she wasn’t the only one who heard Captain Mazrem’s shouts — a sandy-haired Lyncean house guard ran into the terrestrium, startling both occupants. He stared around the room with wide eyes and his hand was wrapped around the hilt of a sheathed gladius.
Before Thainna could say a word, Rikard was on his feet and leaping at the guard. The Lyncean gasped and fell back under the onslaught, struggling to free his sword. He brought it up between himself and Rikard, more as a barrier than a weapon.
“Lord Mazrem, sir! I’m so sorry–” he began, but Rikard either did not notice or did not care.
The men crashed together into the ground and tumbled. The guard’s sword spun free, skittering across the dirt. Blood gleamed darkly on the stones, but Thainna wasn’t sure who it belonged to and did not dare touch it. She jumped up and grabbed Rikard by the elbow, trying to yank him away, but the maddened knight was much larger and stronger than Thainna.
“Lord Mazrem! Stop, please!” she cried. “Captain Mazrem!”
He tore free of her grasp and punched the guard again, driving his fist into the other man’s mouth.
“Rikard, stop! He didn’t do anything. He’s one of your guards. He’s here to help you!”
The Lyncean managed to pull his knee up between himself and his madly snarling master. He shoved as Thainna found her grip and yanked Rikard back with all her strength. The guard barely managed to squirm out from under Rikard before he lashed out with claw-hooked fingers. Rikard whirled on Thainna and easily threw her to the ground, pinning her there with one bare, dirty foot.
“Lord Mazrem!” shouted the guard in alarm, but Rikard ignored him.
Thainna coughed and gasped. “Rikard, no! I’m taking you to your wife, remember?”
The crushing weight on her chest vanished. Rikard jumped back and clapped his hands over his ears. She approached warily, holding out her open hands as she would to a hissing alley cat. The blond guard approached cautiously, but Thainna waved him back.
“Captain Mazrem? Rikard? Can you hear me?” she asked. It was a stupid question, even to her own ears, but she could think of nothing better to say.
“Hae,” he whimpered. “Thainna. Thain. Talon and foster.”
She flinched at the words tumbling out of Rikard like blood from an unstaunched wound. Thainna grabbed his arm and tugged until the knight dropped his hands from his ears. Rikard took her face in his hands and held Thainna’s wide-eyed gaze for a moment before releasing her.
“Breakfast, then,” he said in a voice like the rustle of dry leaves.
Thainna reluctantly scrubbed the mud off her skin with the corner of her tabba. It was a shame to dirty her nice new clothes. Rikard didn’t seem to be injured, but it was hard to tell in the dark terrestrium with so much dirt all over him. Thainna looked back at the house guard.
“Did he hurt you?” she asked.
“Nothing important, ma’am,” he answered. He picked up his sword from where it had fallen, shook the dirt off and resheathed the blade.
Thank the gods. Thainna wasn’t sure what she would do if the guard asked her to look at his injuries.
“Would you come with us to find Lady Mazrem, then?” Thainna asked.
“Hae, ma’am. I’m sorry, I haven’t seen you around before. May I have your name?”
“Thainna. Mana Narissa sent me at General Hern’s orders to take care of Captain Mazrem.”
“I’m Karl Skaintos,” the guard introduced himself. “Thank you for your help with… with Captain Mazrem.”
Thainna smiled at Karl and returned her attention to Rikard. “Let’s go see your wife, my lord.”
Rikard nodded and let Thainna lead him from the terrestrium, Karl following at a respectful distance.
Lady Mazrem was waiting for her husband on the veranda, as promised. The cool morning breeze blew strands of mahogany hair dramatically out behind her and Laurael looked every inch like the moon goddess who shared her name. Karl bowed to his mistress. Rikard put his hand on her shoulder, but Laurael took one look at her mud-smeared husband and pulled away.
“Are you… well?” Laurael asked.
“Hae,” he said. “I missed you.”
Lady Mazrem gave him a short, careful kiss. “Please eat, my lord. You must restore yourself.”
Rikard helped himself to a small breakfast of buttered bread and honey. Despite his disheveled clothes, he looked quite calm, as though he had not just assaulted one of his own guards.
“What happened?” Lady Mazrem asked Thainna, frowning at her husband’s filthy clothes and face. She raised a carefully plucked eyebrow at Thainna’s equally dirty tabba.
Thainna explained as best she could. Laurael glanced up at Karl when Thainna came to his part of the story, but otherwise listened closely.
“Do you still maintain that my husband can endure visitors?” she asked when Thainna had finished.
“Hae, my lady. But maybe we should be careful to avoid… startling Captain Mazrem or discussing things that might upset him.”
Laurael nodded and glanced back at Rikard.
“When you’re done eating, we’ll visit the bathhouse, my lord,” she said. “Karl, have a dresser bring new clothes. Thainna, I’ll send for you later to replace his bandages.”
Thainna and Karl both bowed, then retreated inside to carry out their orders. Thainna had to jog to keep up with the much taller guardsman. He noticed her struggle and slowed until she could keep pace. The blood on Karl’s lip was dry, but his uniform — not the saela of a VEIL knight, but a skirt and vest of steel-studded leather over a knee-length tabba of plain green — was now spattered with red.
“Is something wrong, mana?” Karl asked politely.
“I was going to ask you just that,” said Thainna. “You just got attacked.”
She couldn’t make an accurate estimate of Karl’s age. Like most Lynceans, he was huge and muscular. Even Lyncean boys had little of the softness Thainna associated with youth. But the guard’s hair was still pale blond, with no sign of gray, and his face was smooth. Thainna guessed he was still a young man.
“I’m fine, but thank you,” he said. “I’ll clean off and change after I find the dressers.”
“You don’t seem very upset about what happened.”
Karl walked quietly for a moment before answering.
“I’m surprised,” he admitted. “I’ve been in a few brawls and I’m not going to cry over a split lip, but I never thought I’d get into a fight with Rikard Mazrem.”
They fell silent again. At a crossing of hallways, Karl stopped and turned to Thainna.
“The wardrobes are this way,” he said, gesturing to the hall on his right. “Miss Thainna, may I ask you something?”
“Um… hae,” Thainna said, blushing. She was pretty sure she knew what Karl wanted to ask.
She was wrong.
“What do you think is the matter with Captain Mazrem?” Karl asked. “You’re a foster. You must know. Is he mad?”
“Oh… Well, I don’t know.” Thainna thought about the conversation in the terrestrium. “I don’t… I mean, I don’t think so. I believe his experiences in Alterra have left Lord Mazrem deeply scarred. But given adequate time, I think that he will recover.”
That sounded like something a proper foster would say, didn’t it? Thainna thought proudly.
“Thank you,” Karl said. “I wanted to be a VEIL knight when I grew up, just like Captain Mazrem. Until I was old enough to understand what was involved in their blood pacts… I couldn’t do it, so I contented myself with serving his widow. When I saw him this morning, in the terrestrium, and he jumped on me… I hate to think of Rikard Mazrem being reduced to that. I hope he’ll recover soon.”
The guard smiled, winced as it strained his recently split lip, and put his hand to his mouth. Thainna laughed at his sheepish expression and instantly felt guilty for it as Karl flushed bright pink. He covered his embarrassment with a small bow and retreated in the direction of the wardrobes.
Thainna made her way back up to the servant’s longhouse to find some food before Lord and Lady Mazrem finished their bath. The servant’s kitchen was smaller than those in the manor houses, but was still a wonder to a street urchin like Thainna. The long, well-worn counters were covered in salt and powdery white flour. A pair of huge brick ovens filled the kitchen with blistering, crackling heat.
Several young children gathered around a taller, rounder shape. Arliss was an enormously fat woman with cheeks baked permanently red by the heat of the ovens. She handed out brown biscuits and butter to each of the children and then waved them out of the kitchen.
“Good morning, Arliss,” Thainna greeted the other Talon when the children were gone.
“Morning.”
In defiance of her otherwise jolly appearance, Arliss had dark, tired circles under her eyes. She held out a wood plate piled high with more biscuits and Thainna’s stomach rumbled. She took two and bolted them down, one after the other. Delicious. Thainna barely suppressed a groan of pleasure.
“I’ve heard that there was some excitement this morning,” Arliss said.
“Some, hae,” Thainna answered after she finished swallowing. “Captain Mazrem attacked one of his guards. Can I have some more of these?”
Arliss whistled and handed Thainna more biscuits. The cook went to a large tiled box and poured a cup of cold lemon water from a pitcher inside.
“Want some?” Arliss asked.
“Hae, please!”
Thainna had never eaten so well in her life and fought to follow her own advice to Captain Mazrem to avoid gorging. Arliss gave Thainna a cup and then sat on a stout stool that creaked under her weight. Thainna guzzled down half of her water and finished the rest of her breakfast.
“Why did Lord Mazrem attack one of his own guards?” Arliss asked.
“I’m not really sure there was a reason.”
“If he keeps that sort of thing up, it should make your job easy, hae?” said Arliss. “If Lord Mazrem’s gone soft in the head, how hard can it be to control him? And then you can get back to your life.”
My life.
Thainna looked away. The food was suddenly as heavy as lead in her stomach. She was sitting in a nice, warm kitchen, eating like a rich woman while Thain was a prisoner. Thainna slept in a soft bed while her twin… what? Did the Crest keep him in a dungeon? There were places, unpleasant places that Thainna knew the House of Five Dragons used. Was Thain in one of those? What would happen to him if she did not get results fast enough? Would the Crest torture her brother? Kill him?
The thought was enough to force a sob up into Thainna’s throat. She pushed aside the rest of her biscuits and pressed her fingertips to her eyelids, fighting for breath against the painful needling in her breast.
“I… I don’t know what to do,” Thainna said. “Karl asked me if I thought Rikard was mad. I’m not sure if he is, but his own wife can’t seem to rein him in. How am I supposed to do it?”
Arliss shook her head. “Sometimes the Crest asks a lot of us.”
“Hae.”
A tall manservant came into the kitchen then and Arliss stood to find him a pitcher of milk.
“You’re covered all over in mud,” Arliss said by way of farewell. “Go change.”
Thainna nodded, then pinched a final biscuit from the sideboard before heading back to her room. The flat, sick sensation in her guts would not last forever and a girl from the Rows was always hungry.
Thainna closed the door to her room and picked up the package Bastil had given her earlier that morning. The wax seals were the bright cerulean blue of the Surmaen temple, but they weren’t marked with the goddess’ seashells or curvaceous mother-shape. Instead, someone — Narissa or one of her House-bound priests — had carved a curving shortscribe character into the wax: dragon. Probably to make sure that Thainna didn’t open it in front of anyone, she guessed. As if she would be so foolish…
Narissa doesn’t have much faith in me, Thainna thought. Still, she could hardly blame the priestess — this whole job was far too much for Thainna.
Inside the parcel were spare clothes: three spare tabbae, a belt and a sash similar to the one Thainna wore now, additional soles for her sandals and an extra pair of shoulder-clasps. The last of these were longer, pinned on either end of fine silver chains. They would let the top of her tabba hang lower, showing off more of her back and shoulders.
Thainna snorted. What did Narissa think that she could do with those? Seduce the great Lord-Captain Rikard Mazrem away from his beautiful and commanding wife? Thainna couldn’t even charm one of his guards.
There was more in Narissa’s package. Another canister of salve and more bandages, as well as several more sealed jars. One by one, Thainna peeled off the wax and sniffed the contents. She recognized the spicy scent of ophellion and the bitter-burnt smell of cardak, but the others were unfamiliar. None of the containers bore any useful markings or labels that might be incriminating.
Thainna sighed and set aside the ophellion and cardak. The rest she wrapped again and hid under her bed with the stolen lamp. Not long after she had changed into a fresh tabba and was notching her new belt around her waist, someone knocked at the door.
“A minute!” Thainna called out.
She threw the jars of cardak and ophellion into her satchel, along with the extra salve and bandages, then answered the door. A young page waited outside, fidgeting.
“Hae, what is it?” Thainna asked.
“Lady Mazrem says that they’re done in the bathhouse and you should come now.”
Thainna threw her bag over her shoulder and followed the boy.
