seemed cruel to him, but what did he know? They weren't exactly something he'd ever made before.
Tor set the food out Warden style and let people get their own when everyone started following their noses in at about nine. He didn't have a clock, but it was ready, so he let them eat, hoping he'd gotten the amount they'd need, at least close. If not he was sure that people would tell him. Loudly. Possibly with hitting being involved.
With a bit of creativity, he even managed a few decent sauces, and melted butter for the sea insects, which he hoped wouldn't just go to waste. He'd only had it once himself and wasn't a big fan personally, but they had a lot of them in a salt water tank near the back of the room, enough for the first week. People took them when getting food, and made impressed and happy noises about it, so it must not be that strange to them. Then again, the royals always did weird things didn't they? Giant bugs… Eeek.
Petra came and took a seat without more than a nod to him, not even smiling. She sat at the table furthest away from the food and waved him over, then Rolph, Karina and Ursala when they walked in together. They had to sit and wait for Ambassador Mutta, who wondered in, looking around, a bit amazed by the space it seemed, as boring as the decor was, just having wooden tables and walls. Polished light colored wood though, so kind of pretty. Petra got her to come over too, and stood as she approached. Rolph did as well, which meant Tor needed to get to his feet he decided, feeling a bit tired already. Karina rose, and then bowed as Mutta approached.
Was this protocol stuff? They all bowed to Mutta, except Petra, who simply stood and led them all over to the food. Well, she was in charge, he guessed, though it all seemed a bit over done for fish and bread. There was plenty left at least, so it didn't look like anyone would be starving that night. It was simple, but Tor had tasted it and decided it was good enough for the first meal.
If they wanted better, he was going to need help. Looking around at all the royals Tor wanted to shake his head about the odds of getting it, but didn't. He'd just have to be clever about it or something like that.
Tor didn't say much at all during the meal, just listening to Mutta's plan, which involved docking at the big port on the south end of the continent and then flying to the desert to work. It was basic and had a lot of holes, but they'd work around it. They also had to go to the main city, not exactly either the capital or a city. She tried to explain, but couldn't exactly manage it. That at least was just the southern port, so they'd be there to start with, making his ambassadorial duties light.
“We live in a garden…” The words were vague, like she couldn't explain it really. She just smiled and waved her hands instead.
When people started to finish, Tor got up and brought the cakes out, which took up half the serving table, but got a murmur of approval. Who didn't like cake? Well, out there in the world, some crazy person sat in a cave eating bugs and reviling cake, Tor guessed, since there was always one, but normal people liked it. And this was a good cake, nearly perfect. The frosting had set nicely and everything. He took a small piece back to the table with him for Mutta. Everyone else could jump up and fend for themselves, he decided. Tor waited for his because if it ran out he could do without.
Then, probably rudely, Tor pointed at things and asked, “what is that?” in Afrak. He repeated the words and built a picture of the objects quickly, holding the field of the word in mind. It wasn't magic, but it made everything easier to remember by far. After about half an hour Mutta ran him through everything again, asking him what it was in Afrak and having him name it while she pointed. He slightly mispronounced a few words, so he made a point of remembering them and trying to fix that. As everything wound down and people started to drift out Tor waved to Kolb and Wensa.
“Um, dishes? So me, you two, Karina and Rolph? If we do the first dishes, no one else can complain about the chore later, right? Well, they can, but anyone claiming to be too important or noble for it will have to eat their words without sauce. It's a good plan, don't you think?” The look he gave them was just level, slightly amused and filled with steel. The basic message was that if, after making the whole meal, Tor didn't get help with that part, he was going to mutiny.
For some reason no one seemed all that thrilled about the idea of being used as scullery help. They did it though, and with good enough humor once the task was started. Actually there was remarkably little playing around and the work went faster than he'd thought it would. The wash water was warm and he had a food dump that put the scraps into the outgoing water for the sea life to eat. Large plates of the cake were escaping back to the rooms he noticed, which was fine, but he wondered if everyone had gotten enough to eat?
Kolb kept washing as he talked, handing plates and silver off to the Prince for drying and stacking.
“It's a fighter thing. Gather provisions when you can, because you don't know what’s going to happen later. If they were hungry now they'd just eat more, you didn't run out of food, so it's probably fine. I'll listen for grumbling, but it should be all right.”
That got a nod from Wensa.
“Indeed. No one here would complain openly about the food, not on the first day, but I'll listen too. So far if anyone has complaints it'll be an individual food preference issue. Lobster and whitefish with rosemary sauce and fresh melted butter, while at sea? Then that lovely cake for desert? Most impressive. Really I figured it would be sea biscuits and limes for us, not having a cooking staff. I wasn't aware of your kitchen skills.” The Royal Guard Captain smiled at him, approvingly, which shocked Tor a little and made him blush. It wasn't like they were the best buddies ever or anything.
After a bit Tor understood she was trying to be nice to him, probably because they weren't the best of friends, and had kind of gotten off to a rocky start, relationship wise, what with her wanting him tortured, and Tor thinking she wanted to kill him. For months.
Karina was busy putting away the dishes, walking quickly from one secured rack to another. The plates were stacked like normal, but between four supports that just touched the sides of the dishware, so they couldn't shift much if the boat rocked. The cupboards were done to look like dark cherry wood with brass handles. The dowels themselves looked and felt like wood, but that was just an illusion of course. When she made sure the last was in place she turned and looked at Tor.
“We should make some rolls for breakfast tonight, and get people to work at each meal.” Her gaze shifted to Wensa and then Kolb, looking a bit more “Royal Princess” suddenly. “If we keep making him do it all, by day three Tor will be serving a big pot of potage for every meal and handing out sternum punches to any whiners. I'll help, but…”
But she didn't know how to cook or bake. Why should she? That was something she'd never had to do at all. She hadn't even warmed her own food. Servants did that, and when there were no servants, you hired some. But here she was just as clueless as anyone. Less really, because she'd helped at the bakery for a week, practically a professional compared to the rest of this crowd. Even when he couldn't go, she went and helped Box along with Davie, who’d apparently dragged a rather battered and beaten looking Jerral along towards the end to scrub the whole place with an old toothbrush. Karina would do to start with.
They didn't finish until one in the morning, but had sweet spice rolls, bread for the next day and all the breakfast prep they could do without fixing the food itself. Tor was about to fall over by the time he got to his room only to be woken up while it was still dark out by an insistent pounding on his door.
“Tor wake up! Emergency!” It was one of Kolb's people, one of the medium sized giant guys, drunk off his rear, and sopping wet. He was also naked and had three other naked people in the hall with him, two guys and a girl. All huge and hard looking. In all ways from there flat abs to… Well…
“'mergency?” Tor felt like his mouth had been wired shut and looked at them sleepily with one eye. What did they need? If they were looking for sex lubricant they really should have waited for morning. They could use cooking oil, but he wasn't getting it for them right now and if they went into his kitchen and messed things up he'd dangle them all over the side by one hand. That meant they'd all swim, because there was no way he could hold them up.
“It's the baths! Flooding! The ships sinking!” The girl, Dara he thought her name was, screamed. It got everyone to wake up and come to the hall quickly enough. Tor was already padding down the hall, glad he at least slept in nice tan silk clothes. At least that night he did. There was water on the floor to be certain. Three foot deep. It wasn't a big deal yet, the door had steps going down in case of spills which would buy them some time.
Sizing up the situation he got it without too much trouble. Being creative people they'd taken a plate from the kitchen, focus stone in a deep red-black, so military issue, that had probably carried cake back to a room, and covered the drain on the floor, noticing that the whole room, about a hundred foot on each side, could be turned into a pool by blocking it. It worked pretty well and they found the room filled a bit faster than they'd realized it would. No big problem, except the plate had gotten stuck to the floor, the water emptying under pressure from the
