Trudi Canavan - The Rogue

Tayend’s nose wrinkled. “I reckon I’ll stay up. I’ve been sleeping so much lately.”

Dannyl felt his good mood beginning to sour as a suspicion came over him. He resisted the urge to look at Achati, to see if the other man was thinking the same thing. If Tayend stayed up late …

“Dinnertime!” Achati interrupted, beckoning as another slave appeared in the main room’s doorway. “Are you hungry, too, Tayend?”

A delicious smell wafted into the room. Tayend’s expression changed to one of interest as he eyed the tray in the slave’s hands.

“I am.”

“Then sit and eat,” Achati invited.

Tayend settled on a stool and they all began to eat and talk.

“How are you feeling?” Achati asked Tayend after a while. “No problems with the seasickness cure?”

“No.” The Elyne shrugged. “I was a bit foggy when I first woke up, but it wore off after the bath. When are we leaving again?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

Tayend nodded. “Let’s hope there are no more storms.”

“Indeed.”

“I’ll probably read tonight. I haven’t had much chance to since we set off.”

“Do you need anything to read?” Achati asked.

Dannyl listened as they discussed books and the record of the attempt to subdue the Duna tribes that Achati had been given. Achati was giving Tayend his full attention, but then it was likely Tayend would sleep all the next day, and any day they were onboard ship. If he kept up this pattern he wasn’t going to get many chances to talk to Achati or Dannyl.

Which, I have to admit, I’m selfishly pleased at. I have most of Achati’s attention, even if we aren’t alone, since Tayend is mostly asleep when we’re awake, thanks to that seasickness cure.

A cure which Achati had given Tayend. I don’t suppose … Could Achati have intended this? Was it a clever way to keep Tayend out of his way? Our way?

Perhaps it was just a convenient side-effect. After all, Achati had said that not all people were affected so potently by the cure. Dannyl had offered to Heal away Tayend’s seasickness, but the Elyne had declined. Tayend was too proud to come to him for magical relief. Not when there was an alternative. Had Achati guessed this about him?

What would Tayend say if he knew what Achati and I discussed at the bathhouse? Dannyl felt a small pang of guilt, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the possibility that having a new lover might upset Tayend, or from ignoring Tayend’s warning about Achati.

Eventually Tayend is going to work it out, or else I’ll have to tell him. For now, Achati is right: it would be better Tayend was told once we are not spending hours cooped up in a ship together. I’m sure Tayend will have some disapproving things to say about it. I’ll just have to explain that I understand, and that it’s an “as long as it lasts” arrangement.

Dannyl felt a twinge at the last thought. What if it stopped being an “as long as it lasts” arrangement?

I’ll worry about that if it happens, because otherwise I’m not going to be much fun to be around. Again.

The hospice storeroom felt crowded with all the people in it, despite being a large room. All were standing around a table near the door. Sonea and Dorrien stood on one side, Cery and Anyi on the other. Nobody had bothered sitting down in the sole chair. The other chair was missing. Sonea made a mental note to tell one of the Healers.

“I only wish I’d known Lorandra had not regained her powers,” Anyi lamented. “Then I wouldn’t have left, and you might’ve caught both of them. But I didn’t know if you’d be able to take on the two of them. I had to warn you.”

Sonea smiled. “You couldn’t have known,” she said. “It must have been a shock to find yourself in the same room with her. Are you sure she didn’t recognise you from the Hearing?”

Anyi frowned. “I don’t think so. She didn’t behave as if she did, but she might have been pretending, so that I would stay. Then, once we met Skellin, she’d get him to take care of me.”

“If so, she couldn’t have had much confidence that Jemmi and Rek would believe her if she told them you were a spy.”

“Maybe they convinced her that I’d turned on Cery.”

“If I was in her place, I’d have insisted Jemmi find different bodyguards,” Cery said.

“Since she didn’t, it seems more likely she didn’t recognise Anyi,” mused Dorrien. “She would surely have been uneasy, otherwise, being around someone she knew had worked for the Guild in the past, even indirectly, especially when she was meeting her son.”

“Whatever the reason, our chance to catch Skellin was lost,” Cery said, sighing. He looked at Sonea. “Can Skellin remove the block on Lorandra’s mind?”

“Probably.” Sonea looked at Anyi. “Did anybody mention Lilia?”

The girl shook her head.

“Well, let’s hope that means Lorandra dumped her once she wasn’t useful any more. Or that Lilia had the sense to get away from her.”

“And that Lorandra didn’t kill her once she wasn’t useful any more,” Dorrien added grimly.

Sonea grimaced. “At least it means Lilia didn’t tell Lorandra that she had learned black magic. Or if she had, then Lorandra hadn’t realised this meant Lilia could instruct her. She would not have let Lilia go, if she’d known.”

“Lorandra wouldn’t have known what Lilia was imprisoned for unless Lilia or one of the guards told her,” Dorrien added thoughtfully. “But now that rumours about the pair escaping are spreading, Lorandra will soon learn what Lilia knows. We have to hope that she doesn’t know where Lilia is, and go back to fetch her. We have to find Lilia as soon as possible.”

“No. We don’t.” Sonea sighed as all turned to look at her. “Black Magician Kallen does. I’m supposed to be finding Skellin.”

“I suppose this means you need to meet with Kallen and tell him what happened last night,” Cery guessed, giving her a sympathetic glance.

“Yes. Without delay.”

He nodded and made a shooing motion. “Go then. We have nothing else to tell you.” Anyi shook her head in agreement.

“Go yourself,” Sonea replied, copying his shooing motion. “You’re in my hospice, remember?”

He grinned. “Oh, that’s right.”

Turning away, he led Anyi back to the hidden hatch by which he’d entered the room. Sonea waited until the pair were gone and the hatch was closed, then she turned to Dorrien. “Have you been introduced to Kallen before?”

He stepped forward and opened the door for her. “No. Anything I should know before I meet him?”

She stepped out into the corridor, saw a Healer approaching and changed her mind about what she intended to say.

“Only that he doesn’t have much of a sense of humour.”

“I have heard that noted before,” Dorrien said as he followed her down the corridor. “Though now that I think about it, it was said by you.”

“He takes his job very seriously.”

“That surely is a good thing.”

Sonea looked at him. He grinned. She shook her head. “There are limits.”

“To taking a job seriously?”

“To teasing me and getting away with it,” she replied tersely. They made their way through to the carriageway next to the hospice. The carriage she had arrived in was waiting, as she usually insisted that Dorrien finish his shift and go home once she’d arrived. She told the driver to head back to the Guild, then climbed in after Dorrien.

“Something about this doesn’t seem right,” Dorrien said, after the carriage had entered the street.

Sonea looked at him. “Something about what?”

“Last night.” He frowned. His gaze was fixed outside the window, but in a way that suggested he was lost in thought. “Anyi’s story. Maybe it was the way she told it. She kept rephrasing things, or stopping in the middle of sentences, as if she had to stop herself from saying something.”