“He’s probably still asleep—”
“If he’s woken up, he will no doubt be glad of the rolls,” Erich said, shrugging. “I don’t mind going to look. If he’s still asleep, I will be glad of the rolls. You eat that one, Mie. You’re too thin.” He turned and disappeared back into the kitchens, coming back almost at once with a generous plateful of rolls.
Tan was still asleep, but Captain Geroen, sitting in his room with his legs stretched out and a glower on his coarse-featured face, was glad to see the sweet rolls and didn’t question Mienthe’s right to look in on the spy.
“I never thought a legist could wear himself out with a quill like a soldier on a forced march,” the captain said. “Makes me glad to be a speaker and not a legist. Even aside from liking crows better than just their feathers.” He gave the bed a disgusted scowl.
“You think he’s all right, though?” Mienthe asked. She trusted her cousin’s judgment, but she wasn’t certain she liked the guard captain. He frightened her a little. Erich didn’t seem frightened, but then he wouldn’t. He leaned in the doorway and ate another roll himself.
“I should think so, lady. Just exhausted.” The captain gave the bed another disgusted look, but this time Mienthe thought she could see concern hiding behind his grim features. “With more than the effort of lifting a quill, to be fair, from what he said of his past days. No, he’ll be up and about—”
Tan shifted, moved a hand, made a wordless mutter of protest, opened his eyes, tried to sit up, and groaned.
Captain Geroen wiped honey off his fingers with the cloth that had been draped over the plate, stalked over to the bed, and put a surprisingly gentle hand under Tan’s elbow to help him sit up. Then he poured some water into a glass, set it on the bed table, stepped back and glowered at the spy, fists on his hips. “Stiff, are you?”
Tan glanced past the captain to take in Mienthe’s presence, and Erich’s beyond her. He seemed half amused and half dismayed to find his room so crowded. But he nodded thanks for the water and said to Geroen, with a deliberate good humor that had more than a slight edge of mockery to it, “Well, I see Bertaud—forgive me, let us by all means be respectful, I mean to say Lord Bertaud—didn’t flog the flesh off your bones. What astonishing leniency!”
The captain looked embarrassed, an expression that sat oddly on his heavy features. “He’s not much for the post and the whip, is our lord. But I did think he might dismiss me.”
“After the shocking example you set for your pure-minded naive young guardsmen? I should hardly be astonished he found a more suitable penalty.”
“Hah. He told you about that, did he?”
“He did. I admit I’m surprised to find you here watching me sleep. Flattering though it is to be the focus of your personal attention, I should imagine the new captain of the entire city guard might have one or two other matters of almost equal consequence to absorb his attention.”
When he put it that way, Mienthe was surprised, too. But Geroen only lifted a heavy eyebrow at Tan. “I have been attending to them, as happens. And then I came back to look in on you. Just how long do you think you’ve been out?”
Tan leaned back against the pillows, looking faintly disturbed. “I see. How long, then?”
Mienthe said anxiously, “You worked right through that whole day and collapsed well after dark. That was fifty hours ago, more or less.”
“So a good morning to you, esteemed sir!” said Captain Geroen drily. “We were beginning to wonder whether you’d ever wake again or just sleep till you turned to stone, and the bed linens around you.”
“Ah.” Tan seemed slightly stunned. “One would think I’d had to write out all eighteen copies myself. No wonder I’m so—” He turned his head toward the plate of rolls Mienthe still held and finished plaintively, “So close to collapsing a second time for want of sustenance. Lady Mienthe, are any of those, by chance, for me?”
Mienthe laughed. “All of them, if you like! And we can send to the kitchens if you’d like something else.” She handed the tray to Captain Geroen to put on the bed table, where Tan could reach them. “We should go—I’m sure you want to eat and wash and dress, and I should tell my cousin you’re awake—”
Tan waved a sweet roll at her. “Lady Mienthe, you are a jewel among women. Sit, please, and tell me all that has happened in the past two days—or at least, if anything important has happened, perhaps you might mention it to me? Any official protests from Linularinum? Alarms in the night? Has Istierinan presented himself to Iaor with a demand for my return?”