“See, that’s why you’re such a great advisor,” he said, and he meant it.
Idiot, thought Gerand as he exited the bedchambers.
11
They walked south for over an hour before Theo Kull’s encampment came into view.
“A warm fire, thick blankets, and thank the gods, horses,” said Yoren.
“Charming,” Alyssa said as he held her hand. She felt his grip tighten, and she wasn’t at all surprised when it slid up to latch onto her wrist.
“Behave yourself,” he told her. “I might suffer your barbed tongue in front of my father, but I’ll make you pay tenfold when we retire for the evening.”
Safely out of sight from the city’s walls and the prying eyes within, Theo’s camp stretched out for several hundred yards. Wagons formed its outer perimeter, some covered, some not. Several fires blazed within the circle. One side were twenty smaller tents, shelters for the mercenaries. On the other was a single large pavilion of a faded green color.
At their approach a couple of mercenaries drew their swords and beckoned them closer.
“Your name?” one of them asked.
“Yoren Kull,” he answered. “Take me to my father.”
The mercenary spat.
“Follow me.”
He led them through the camp. Alyssa took in what she could. From the way the men lazed about, it didn’t appear that they’d be marching anywhere soon. Most of the armed men were busy eating, telling stories, or gambling with wooden dice. A couple sneered at her, and given the status of her clothing and hair, she didn’t blame them. She hated them for it, but she didn’t blame them.
Theo sat in an ornate chair in the center of the pavilion. He didn’t stand when they entered through the flap. Alyssa had met him only once, in what felt like a lifetime ago. He was a big man, with big hands and an even bigger beard. He had a hungry smile. He seemed a man who coveted everything he saw with his beady brown eyes. He gestured to two chairs at the table before him. A snap of his fingers, and two servants hurried over cups, plates, and dinnerware. A third servant filled the cups with wine while a fourth plopped servings of meat and bread atop the plates.
“Welcome back, my son,” Theo said. “And I see you’ve brought your lover back from the abyss. She looks it, too!”
He guffawed. Yoren laughed along. Alyssa only stared.
“Come now, I only jest in good nature,” Theo said. “I would never be amused at seeing a woman in such a state. Would you like some of my girls to bathe and dress you before joining us? Nothing would trouble me more than an uncomfortable look crossing your face.”
“She’s only uncomfortable with me in the bedchambers,” Yoren said as he took his seat at the right hand of his father. “Though I fear I inherited that wonderful fault from you.”
Theo burst once more into laughter. Alyssa felt her heart cool. He might have a silver tongue, but Theo was a piggish brute. He wouldn’t have batted an eyelid seeing what his son had done to her the night before. In fact, he might have joined in.
Alyssa shuddered, and it did not go unnoticed.
“Forgive my son,” Theo said. “He offends when he means only humor. Let’s see, Mary? Mary! There you are girl. Clean her up, will you? I remember her a lovely one, so let’s make her match my memory.”
Mary was an older woman with gray hair tied behind her head in a bun. She had been the one directing the other servants that had laid out the food and dinnerware.
“Come with me,” Mary said, grabbing Alyssa’s hand. Her voice was firm but comforting. The look in her eye was guarded sympathy.
Next to the pavilion was a smaller tent for the servants. They slept on blankets on the ground, fifty of them crammed together in a tent meant for twenty. Beside the servants’ tent was a giant wooden tub. After a word from Mary, several younger girls rushed off carrying buckets to fetch hot water from the fires.
“It’ll be cold for a bit,” Mary said as she began stripping off Alyssa’s clothes. “Once we get some heat, maybe a few hot coals, you’ll be better.”
Alyssa glanced inside the tub. The water was hazy, but she’d bathed in worse when staying with her foster families. She let Mary strip her naked, glad that the two tents offered protection from the mercenaries that wandered about the rest of the camp.
“We’ll get these washed while you bathe,” Mary said.