Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [71]
All things considered, it was an auspicious beginning for continued relations.
The suite of rooms they had been granted, on the second story of the Palace and in the section reserved for other ambassadors, was far above anything that Karal had experienced, even as Ulrich’s secretary. It was composed of a total of five rooms. They had their own bathing room with an indoor water closet, two private bedrooms, a casual sitting room, and a reception room quite elegantly appointed. The suite was arranged in an odd pattern; they entered at the reception room, which led to the sitting room to the right. Then came the bedrooms, with the bathing room between them. The reception room and the sitting room were rather longer than they were wide, which might prove useful. Someone had pulled the shutters closed over the windows, so there was no way to tell what kind of view they had—if any—but from the hideous noise of hail pounding the wooden shutters, Karal was just as glad. There was a fine five-course meal waiting for them in the sitting room, and a servant who spoke some rudimentary Karsite to serve them, a young man, strongly built, with a thatch of thick, black hair and a pair of bushy eyebrows as thick as Karal’s ring-finger.
They settled into chairs on either side of a small table, and the servant filled their plates, then excused himself to draw a hot bath for his guests’ comfort.
Karal was hungry enough to have eaten the plates along with the savory roast chicken and succulent steamed roots. Ulrich barely picked at his meal, though, which told Karal that his master needed that hot bath very badly, and bed just as much. He always lost his appetite when his joints pained him.
“Don’t bother with that, sir,” Karal said, as Ulrich brought the same forkful of food to his mouth and laid it back down for the third time. “Go get into the bath; I’ll fix one of those little bread pockets for you, mix up your medicine, and bring both to you.”
Ulrich did not even argue which told Karal that his master was in more pain than he had thought. He allowed the servant to guide him into the bathing room, help him disrobe, and get into the bath.
The servant took himself into the master bedroom; Karal ate in silence for a little longer, then, when he reckoned that Ulrich had warmed and relaxed enough for his appetite to return, cut a slice of breast meat and laid it inside a sliced-open roll. A trickle of the white sauce followed it, and some thin slices of roots. Their saddlebags had arrived by that point, and before the servant took them to the proper rooms, he got Ulrich’s medicines, poured a glass of sweet, white wine, and mixed the powders into it.
He brought both to Ulrich, who lay back in the bath with the lines of pain and strain slowly easing from his face. His master looked up at his footsteps, and managed a smile.
“Food first,” Karal told him. “If you drink this, you might fall asleep before you manage to eat.”
“Especially on an empty stomach.” Ulrich accepted the bread pocket and managed to eat all of it, which surprised and gratified Karal. When Ulrich was truly exhausted, he often lost all semblance of appetite, and had to be reminded that he had to eat. When the last crumb was gone, the Priest held out his hand for the wine glass, and downed it in a single gulp.
“Be a good lad and call that servant to help me out now, would you?” his master said, when the last of the potion was gone. “You go finish your meal—and mine, if you’ve a mind to. I’ll be going straight to bed, I think.”
Karal went to the sitting room to do just that. “The Envoy needs some help getting to bed, please,” he said in careful Valdemaran. “He’s not young, and he has just had medicine that will make him sleepy.”
The servant nodded. “Yes, sir,” the young man replied. “Ah, I believe you should know that we servants assigned