Shadows Return - Lynn Flewelling [83]
He turned and scrutinized the door. This one had a keyhole! Alec’s lips stretched in a thin, slightly crooked grin as he looked around again at the host of new possibilities the sparse little room offered to a trained eye.
His gaolers were getting careless.
Khenir returned with a tray, towels, and a large book under one arm. He set them on the bed and locked the door from the inside, then knelt by the tub.
“Is that more meat?” Alec asked hopefully.
“Yes. Do you need some help?” Khenir asked, noting the abandoned washcloth.
Alec colored and glanced away. “Yes. What did he do to me? I can hardly move!”
“He bled you. We gave you what nourishment we could but he kept you asleep, to make it easier on you.”
Alec grimaced. “How thoughtful. So, do you know what that creature is, or what it’s for? I thought he said he was going to make some kind of medicine, not a monster!”
“I’m a slave, just like you. Ilban does not confide in me.” He scrubbed gently at Alec’s back. “But he did agree to let me care for you here.”
“You asked him?”
“Yes. And look!” Khenir rose and went to the tray, lifting a bowl for Alec to see. “Boiled chicken and turnips! And he’s sent you a new book to pass the time.”
“He must be very pleased with me.” Alec’s mouth was already watering again, in spite of the broth still warming his belly.
Khenir finished with Alec’s bath and helped him into a clean robe. When Alec was settled in bed with his back to the headboard, Khenir lifted the tray onto his lap.
Alec let out a small moan. Besides the chicken dish, there was warm bread, a wedge of blue-mottled cheese, and a mug of cider, too. But he didn’t dare eat any of it. “What if it’s drugged again?”
“I’m sure it’s not,” Khenir assured him. “I watched the cook myself as he prepared it. As Ilban said, he doesn’t need you at the moment.”
“But when he does?” Alec cocked an eyebrow at the other man. “Will you tell me when the drugs go in again?”
“I swear to you, I didn’t know!”
Alec shrugged, then grabbed up the horn spoon and dug in. Food had never tasted so good.
As he mopped the last precious drops of gravy from the bowl with the bread, he said without looking up, “You have the key to this room.”
“Yes.”
Alec let the pause that followed ripen.
Khenir’s eyes filled with fear. “By the Light, Alec, don’t ask that of me!”
“But I can get away, if I get the chance. I could help you, too.”
Just then they heard the sound of footsteps crossing the workshop overhead, then the low murmur of a deep voice.
“Keep your voice down! He’ll hear you,” Khenir whispered, trembling now. “I’ve survived this long with both my feet, Alec. I mean to keep them. There are slave takers out there, just waiting for fools like you. Not to mention the common, everyday folk who’d grab you in a heartbeat, for the bounty. I told you before; you won’t get half a mile with that face of yours, and that yellow hair. And even if you did, all you’d have to do is open your mouth and they’d know what you are. No, don’t think of it. You’re too weak to get out of bed, much less out of the house.”
“So you’ve just given up?” Alec hissed back. “I can’t! There’s someone…” He caught himself and held his tongue. “You have the key in your pocket, right? I can make it look like I attacked you, overpowered you.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Khenir replied miserably, unable to meet his eye. “I’m sorry. So sorry. Go to sleep.” He hurried from the room, locking the door securely behind him.
“At least you left me the lamp,” Alec muttered. With light, he could make a thorough search, take the bed apart if he had to, to find something to work the lock. He tried to get up, but a wave of dizziness overtook him, and he fell back against the pillow. Yhakobin’s foul blood magic had left him too weak to move.
His eye fell on the tray Khenir had left behind. The horn spoon still lay in the empty soup bowl! He grabbed it and tested