“Have this brought to Lady Megari,” she instructed one. “And bring me another bowl. No, not that one, you fool.” She shoved the girl out of the way. “One with a lid.” She made a show of dramatically arranging the tray. “Thisis for Lord Takkan.”
For Takkan?
“Have you seen him, Lady Zairena?” one of the maids asked worriedly. “Is he better?”
“He drifts in and out of consciousness,” she murmured, loud enough for me to hear. “His fever has broken, but he’srefused all food. Even water. Lady Bushian is beside herself.”
Concern tugged at my heartstrings, and I peeked over my shoulder to see what Zairena was preparing for him. A soup, it looked like.
“Chiruan, have you any more dried red dates and fork root?”
Chiruan disappeared into the pantry and returned with a large red lacquer box I’d seen at his side once or twice. A cloud of faintly familiar smells wafted into the air: spices and herbs from across Lor’yan.
I made the mistake of appearing curious. Rai caught me staring and blocked my view. “Intrigued by the old man’s recipe box, I see. Must be the spices.”
Kenton snickered. “He’s got some in there that’ll make a perfect incense against a demon like you.”
I ignored the cooks, crouching by the buckets to finish my scrubbing.
“I have no more need of assistance,” Zairena was saying to Chiruan and the other servants. She rolled up her sleeves and stirred her pot. “I’ve disturbed you all enough. Go, finish your lunch.” A pause. “Except you, Lina. Come here.”
I rose slowly.
Zairena wore a wolf’s smile as she stirred her pot. “I heard you were famous in Tianyi Village for your soup. I plan on making Takkan a broth that might whet his appetite, something lighter than all those herbal soups Chiruan has been sending to the castle.”
Her spoon clanged against the sides of the pot, an unwelcome percussion. But that was not why I flinched. Did she actually mean for me to help?
“You know how hot it gets in the kitchen, laboring over a soup. Already a terrible thirst ails me.” Her gaze landed on my lunch, growing cold on the table, still practically untouched. “Kindly fetch me some fresh water.”
Fresh water? I started for the well behind the cooking ranges.
“No, no. The water there is warm—and dirty, with all those bits of charcoal and rice floating about the trough. I should like clean, cold water. The well by the southeast bridge has some I find especially refreshing. Bring a few buckets back, will you?”
Could she be serious? Rain was falling in sheets, so hard I could have caught bucketfuls of water from the sky before I reached the southeast well. But no one spoke up for me.
“Why the pout, Lina? The cold and the rain should not bother one such as you.”
Resentfully, I kicked my skirts and obeyed.
My robes became soaked within seconds of my stepping outside. I ducked into the stables as the storm worsened, banging my hip against one of the horse troughs. Straw floated in its waters, and I made a silent snort.
Gods, how satisfying would it be to throw a bucket of horse water at Zairena’s face!
But as I prepared to go back out into the rain, the trough’s murky water swirled, and a dry, familiar voice boomed from within: “Only for you, Princess, would I suffer the indignity of having to be heard from a horse trough.”
It was the last voice I expected to hear, especially coming out of the horse trough, and I jumped back, startled.
Sure enough, it was Seryu! His ruby-red eyes sparkled through the floating pieces of hay, the outline of his green hair a familiar comfort.
“You’re harder to track down than the sons of the wind, you know that?” the dragon admonished. “Here I was, worried that Grandfather had changed his mind and thrown a lightning bolt into your brothers’ cave. Instead it turns out you’ve found yourself a castle.”
I’m resourceful,I replied through my thoughts, recovering an air of my old self.Always have been.
I put my finger to my lips, glancing around to make sure we were alone.I’m sorry about the river. I ran into soldiers.
“I know,” he answered. “I was angry at first, until I heard your brothers searching for you. Who knew six cranes could squawk so loudly, and over the Taijin Sea?”
That was odd; Hasegehadtaken me far from our hideaway in the forest, but I could still see the Zhensa from my window if I looked hard enough.Why can’t they find me?
