'Wonderful,' he elaborated as I passed him. 'Sweet pastries to upset his digestion and tax him all the more. Thoughtful lad, aren't you?'
I kept my temper. Shrewd was not in his sitting room. The bedchamber?
'Will you truly bother him there? Well, why not? You've shown no other manners, why should I expect consideration now?' Wallace's voice was full of snide condescension.
I gripped my temper.
Don't just accept that from him. Turn and face him down now. This was not advice from Verity, but a command. I set the tray down atop a small table carefully. I took a breath and turned to face Wallace. 'Have you a dislike of me?' I asked directly.
He took a step back but tried to keep his sneer in place. 'A dislike? Why should I, a healer, mind if someone comes to disturb an ill man when he is finally resting?'
'This room reeks of Smoke. Why?'
Smoke?
An herb they use in the Mountains. Seldom for medicine, save pains nothing else will halt. But more often the burning fumes are breathed for pleasure. Much as we use carris seed at Springfest. Your brother has a liking for it.
As did his mother. If it is the same herb. She called it mirthleaf.
Almost the same leaf, but the Mountain plant grows taller with fleshier leaves. And thicker smoke.
My exchange with Verity had taken less than a blink of an eye. One can Skill information as fast as one can think it. Wallace was still pursing his lips over my question. 'Are you claiming to be a healer?' he demanded.
'No. But I've a working knowledge of herbs, one that suggests Smoke is not appropriate to a sick man's chambers.'
Wallace was still a moment as he formulated an answer. 'Well. A King's pleasures are not his healer's area of concern.'
'Perhaps they are mine, then,' I offered, and turned away from him. I picked up the tray and pushed open the door to the King's dimly lit bedchamber.
The reek of Smoke was heavier here, the air thick and cloying with it. Too hot a fire was burning, making the room close and stuffy. The air was still and stale as if no fresh wind had blown through the room for weeks. My own breath seemed heavy in my lungs. The King lay still, breathing stertorously beneath a mound of feather quilts. I looked about for a place to set down the tray of pastries. The small table close to his bed was littered. There was a censer for Smoke, the drifting ash thick on its top, but the burner was out and cold. Beside it was a goblet of lukewarm red wine, and a bowl with some nasty gray gruel in it. I set the vessels on the floor and brushed the table clean with my shirtsleeve before setting the tray down. As I approached the King's bed there was a fusty, fetid smell that became even stronger as I leaned over the King.
This is not like Shrewd at all.
Verity shared my dismay. He has not summoned me much of late. And I have been too busy to call upon him unless he bids me to. The last time I saw him was in his sitting room, in an evening. He complained of headaches, but this…
The thought trailed away between us. I glanced up from the King to find Wallace peering 'round the door at us. There was something in his face; I know not whether to call it satisfaction or confidence, but it roused me to fury. In two steps I had reached the door. I slammed it, and had the satisfaction of hearing him yelp as he jerked his pinched fingers out. I dropped into place an ancient bar that had probably never been used in my lifetime.
I moved to the tall windows, jerked aside the tapestries that covered it, and flung wide the wooden shutters. Clear sunlight and fresh cold air spilled into the room.
Fitz, this is rash.
I made no reply. Instead, I moved about the room, dumping censer after censer of ash and herb out the open window. I brushed the clinging ash out with my hand to free the room from its reek. From about the room I gathered half a dozen sticky goblets of stale wine, and a trayful of bowls and plates of untouched or half-eaten food. I stacked them by the door. Wallace was pounding on it and howling with fury. I leaned against it and spoke through the crack. 'Hush!' I told him sweetly. 'You'll waken the King.'
Have a boy sent with ewers of warm water. And tell Mistress Hasty that the King's bed requires clean linens, I requested of Verity.
Such orders cannot come from me. A pause. Don't waste time in anger. Think, and you'll see why it must be so.
I understood, but knew also that I would not leave Shrewd in this dingy, smelly room any more than I would abandon him to a dungeon. There was half a ewer of water, stale, but mostly clean. I set it to warm by the hearth. I wiped his bed table clean of ash and set out the tea and pastry tray atop it. Rummaging boldly through the King's chest, I found a clean nightshirt, and then washing herbs. Leftover, no doubt, from Cheffers's time. I had never thought I would so miss a valet.
Wallace's pounding ceased. I did not miss it. I took the warmed water scented with the herbs and a washing cloth and set it by the King's bedside. 'King Shrewd,' I said gently. He stirred slightly. The rims of his eyes were red, the lashes gummed together. When he opened his lids, he blinked red veined eyes at the light.
'Boy?' He squinted about the room. 'Where is Wallace?'
'Away for the moment. I've brought you warm wash water and fresh pastries from the kitchen. And hot tea.'
'I… I don't know. The window's open. Why is the window open? Wallace has warned me about taking a chill.'
'I opened it to clear the air in the room. But I'll close it if you like.'
'I smell the sea. It's a clear day, isn't it? Listen to those gulls cry a storm coming… No. No, close the window, boy. I dare not take a chill, not as ill as I am already.'
I moved slowly to close the wooden shutters. 'Has Your Majesty been ill long? Not much has been said of it about the palace.'
'Long enough. Oh, forever it seems. It is not so much that I am ill as that I am never well. I am sick, and then I get a bit better, but as soon as I try to do anything, I am sick again, and worse than ever. I am so weary of being sick, boy. So tired of always feeling tired.'
'Come, sir. This will make you feel better.' I damped the cloth and wiped his face gently. He recovered himself enough to motion me aside as he washed his own hands, and then wiped his face again more firmly. I was appalled at how the wash water had yellowed as it cleansed him.
'I've found a clean nightshirt for. you. Shall I help you into it? Or would you rather that I sent for a boy to bring a tub and warm water? I would bring clean linens for the bed while you bathed.'
'I, oh, I haven't the energy, boy. Where is that Wallace? He knows I cannot manage alone. What possessed him to leave me?'
'A warm bath might help you to rest,' I tried persuasively. Up close, the old man smelled. Shrewd had always been a cleanly man; I think that his grubbiness distressed me more than anything else.
'But bathing can lead to chills. So Wallace says. A damp skin, a cool wind, and whisk, I'm gone. Or so he says.' Had Shrewd really become this fretful old man? I could scarcely believe what I was hearing from him.
'Well, perhaps just a hot cup of tea, then. And a pastry. Cook Sara said these were your favorites.' I poured the steaming tea into the cup and saw his nose twitch appreciatively. He had a sip or two, and then sat up to look at the carefully arranged pastries. He bade me join him, and I ate a pastry with him, licking the rich filling from my fingers. I understood why they were his favorites. He was well into a second when there were three solid thuds against the door.
'Unbar it, Bastard. Or the men with me will take it down. And if any harm has come to my father, you shall die where you stand.' Regal did not sound at all pleased with me.
'What's this, boy? The door barred? What goes on here? Regal, what goes on here?' It pained me to hear the King's voice crack querulously.
I crossed the room, I unbarred the door. It was flung open before I could touch it, and two of Regal's more muscular guards seized me. They wore his satin colors like bulldogs with ribbons about their necks. I offered no resistance, so they had no real excuse to throw me up against the wall, but they did. It awoke every pain I still bore from yesterday. They held me there while Wallace rushed in, tut-tutting about how cold the room was, and
