Chapter Thirty-six
I was awakened from a sound sleep by a pillow hitting me in my face. I immediately rolled out of bed holding the boot knife that I had under my own pillow, staring about in the gray predawn light as I strained to see who had attacked me.
“Oh, good. You’re awake.” Lord Esclaur, leaning on one elbow, smiled.
The bunk above me creaked as Jeff looked bleary-eyed over the edge of his bed. Lord Esclaur’s smile widened to include him too. I sighed and sat down on my bunk, and began to run my hand through my hair, nearly stabbing myself in the eye. I found my boot sheath and put the knife back.
“Is this the embassy?” Esclaur asked, looking around the room. While the rest of the house was furnished in elegance and grace, the room looked exactly what it was, a soldier’s barracks. There were two sets of bunk beds with two foot-lockers, and that was it.
I nodded, yawning.
“How exciting. I can now tell my friends that I spent the night in the cat’s den.” He threw back the blanket, glanced down, then snatched it up again. “Uhm, I seem to have lost my clothes.”
I mumbled at him that they all had been sweat-soaked.
“My goodness, I really must’ve been sick.” He sat up again, making sure the essential parts remained covered. “You don’t happen to have a spare robe, do you, Rabbit?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, muttering that I had left all my robes at Freston.
“Well, maybe the trooper has something I can wear.” Jeff grunted “No” and then wondered aloud what sin he had committed to be afflicted with chatter so early in the morning, “my lord.”
“Surely someone in this place must have something I can put on.” Esclaur smiled again, ignoring Jeff. “Will you see to it, Rabbit? I can’t wander about naked.”
I mumbled that I would see what I could do, then stood up, yawning and stretching.
“Rabbit,” Jeff said. “What’s that by your foot?”
I glanced down and was suddenly wide awake. I carefully moved my foot away from the spider about to climb on it.
“There too,” Jeff said, leaning down and pointing.
I looked and saw another one glowing against the dark blanket on my bed. That was not good. “Uh, maybe you should check your bunks.”
There were squeaks and thumps as Jeff and Lord Esclaur (the lordling managing to keep decently covered) searched around.
“There’s one here also,” Jeff whispered. He eased out of his bunk, climbing down to stand next to me. At that, Esclaur decided to join us, just on general principle, wrapping his blanket (after shaking it out) around him.
“There’s another,” I said, pointing at the floor. “Four of them.”
“Five,” Esclaur said, looking in a corner.
We huddled closer.
All the spiders were the same—long, pale and nasty looking, like the one we’d seen in the garden. The first one moved towards my foot again, apparently fascinated with my big toe, and I reached for one of my boots next to my footlocker.
“Steady,” Esclaur murmured. He grabbed the other boot.
“Don’t miss,” Jeff said softly, somehow managing to contort and get one of his own boots without moving his feet. “We don’t want angry spiders running about our exposed parts.” There was a silent count and then we raised our boots and brought them down, again and again. Jeff swarmed up to his bunk, knocking his bed guest to the floor where it was pounded flat. I did the same with the one riding on my blanket. Then we turned berserker, snapping off blankets, flipping mattresses, moving the footlockers, shifting the bunks themselves as we discovered three more spiders. Another spider crawled out from the boot Jeff held and he yelled, shaking it off his hand onto the floor, where Esclaur and I pounced on it, our boot heels coming down in rapid succession.
The door was flung open but we ignored the royal guards standing there with their swords drawn and their mouths open. “Were you bit, Jeff? Did it bite you?” I asked. Breathing hard, Esclaur and I clustered around Jeff, staring at his hand. I grabbed it and moved it closer to the window, straining to see in the light. “It doesn’t look like it, but maybe I should get Laurel—” I turned to go and came face to face with Groskin and Slevoic standing just outside the bedroom door. I raised my hand to push my hair out of my face and Groskin slammed down to the floor while Slevoic, after a moment’s hesitation, took a step back. I scowled at Groskin. “Oh, get up. My hair was in my eyes.”
“You threatened him,” Slevoic said as Groskin slowly rose and straightened his tabard, keeping his eyes on the floor. “You saw,” Slevoic said to the two guards. “Rabbit threatened Groskin.”
“Go away, Slevoic.” I said as I made to go past him, but he pulled a knife and stepped in front of me. I sighed. “Yeah, right.”
“Heavens, is that you, Slewy?” Lord Esclaur said, coming to stand beside me, his blanket still wrapped around him, and carrying his quiz glass. “What on earth are you doing lurking outside Lord Rabbit’s door?” He raised his glass, peering at the lieutenant’s knife. “Comparing weapons with your friends?”
I watched Slevoic, who was staring in blue-eyed amazement at Lord Esclaur. “A little Border healing,” I said.
Slevoic recovered fast. “It was probably a little Border poisoning to begin with, puke.”
“I was poisoned?” Esclaur’s voice rose to a squeak, his quiz glass forgotten.
“Yeah. See what happens when you hang out with freaks?”
“But your mother wasn’t there, Slevoic,” I said.
The two royal guards blocked the lieutenant, one catching his arm and pushing his knife hand down.
“Why are you up, my lord?” The royal physician had come up on us from the stairs and, to her credit, only blinked at my smalls. And in that blink I was behind the door. I felt a presence next to me and looked. Lord Esclaur had beaten me inside the room and was also peering around the door, his head just below mine. There was a snicker and Esclaur and I opened the door so that Jeff was in the healer’s line of sight. There was a thud as he dove for a bunk, forgetting about spiders at the double threat of a woman physician.
The healer didn’t miss a beat. “Why do you have a knife out, Lieutenant?” She listened to Slevoic for a few sentences. “Stuff and nonsense. Lord Rabbit had nothing to do with Lord Esclaur’s poisoning and I’m sure he has better things to do than to threaten you. Put it away before you hurt yourself and make more work for me.” She swept up to the door, which I had closed again to a narrow slit, and addressed my eyeball. “Open the door, my lord, so I may attend to my charge.” There was a breeze and then another thud as Lord Esclaur ran and jumped into his bed. Furious whispers were exchanged as he made Jeff find another hiding place.
I made a diving leap for my own bunk, snatching up the blanket to fling around me (after snapping it very hard—I hadn’t forgotten the pale beasties). “Come in—” I stopped and tried for a few octaves lower. “Come in.”
Lord Esclaur slid down in his bed until only his eyes showed over his blanket as the physician approached him, and another bout of whispers started as she tried to get Lord Esclaur to release the cover.
“It isn’t enough that we’ve had excitement and alarms all through the night. You have to create more, before the sun rises,” Suiden said from the hallway, wearing a beautifully brocaded robe, its gold threads winking in the weak dawn light. Groskin and Slevoic, taken unawares, spun around while the royal guards snapped to attention. The captain’s green-eyed gaze, though, was aimed in the room, and Groskin tried to sneak down the stairs. “Where are you going, Lieutenant?” Suiden said, without turning around.