was, and he imagined that if he could climb up to it he might find himself looking out upon the same makeshift platforms and hovels from which he’d been removed.
The boys slept on pallets appreciably better than the one he had known at home, most of which were occupied now. A few boys’ eyes opened as chiming Eskie led him through the room, and he thought he recognized some from the bath.
She explained softly, “Everybody sleeps here, unless they’re purchased for a longer time. Even so, they’re carried back here after, to recover…but there’s no reason for me to explain this to you, is there? You won’t be serving in that way. And we’d better determine now if you’re capable of serving in other ways, which I hope you are. I would hate to see you cast into the laundry. Whatever you do, you don’t want to displease your master. He’s nice enough, providing you do as you’re told. Like most of his kind.” She stared hard into his eyes. “I hope you can understand what I’m telling you. It’s a matter of survival here.”
He sensed eyes observing him—gazes like those of lizards, watchful and cold.
Eskie took him to the kitchens next. The two connected kitchen chambers were smoky, the walls blackened with years of soot from cooking fires, even though the hearth built into the far wall exhausted into a chimney hole. The place smelled of old, rendered fat. The bald cook looked up at them as they entered, but his hands continued to work, grinding seeds with a pestle in a wide mortar.
Eskie led Diverus to an area full of polished silver trays, utensils, and pitchers. She selected a tray with an oddly shaped base and straps hanging off it. She lifted it over him and lowered it upon his head like a crown. His head was small, though, and the tray tipped. Eskie fitted the straps together beneath his chin and cinched them tightly. She tipped the tray with each hand. “Still too loose, we’ll have to find you a smaller one.”
The third one she tried seemed to fit him well enough that she didn’t cinch the straps. She placed a silver cup upon the tray, right at one edge, and filled it with liquid. He could feel the weight tipping the tray and tilted his head enough to counterbalance it.
“That’s good,” she told him. “That is what you want to do.” She set down the pitcher and strode across the kitchen. “Now,” she said from the far side. “Carry my drink to me.”
Diverus started forward. Liquid splashed his arm. He stopped and looked down at it and immediately the rest of the liquid spattered the floor in front of him, soaking his feet, followed by the clang of the cup itself as it bounced across the stones.
Eskie laughed and walked back to him. “You must not get distracted by things if you’re serving. You can’t go studying your feet without dousing the entire clientele should you be supporting a full tray.” She picked up the cup and filled it again. “Let’s try once more, see if you can do it.” She put the refilled cup on the tray and walked off again. “All right, come to me,” she called from across the room. The bald cook stopped to watch. Diverus cautiously walked across to Eskie without spilling the cup. When he reached her she said, “Now can you lower yourself so that I can reach the cup more easily?”
He thought about it for a moment before extending his back leg out, widening his stance to lower his torso. She took the cup. “Wonderful, Diverus! You learned that right away, faster than a lot of boys would’ve done.”
The cook said, “Clever lad, innit,” then went back to grinding.
She replaced the cup on the tray. “Now let’s see how you do with a full tray.”
After he had successfully walked the length of the kitchen twice while balancing a tray covered with cups, Eskie had the cook feed him again. She maintained that he was in need of extra nourishment. If Diverus passed out in the middle of the evening, a disaster would ensue. And while he might be forgiven, Bogrevil would certainly blame, and punish, her.
Once he’d eaten a cup of the soup that he would have again for dinner, she took him down to the lowest level of the paidika: the laundry.
This proved to be a large room at sea level with a square, shallow pool in