“What happened?” asked Tal, always anxious for anything that broke the monotony of his days. He scratched at his beard, which was now long enough to reach below his breastbone.
“Don’t rightly know,” said Will, sitting down on the floor. “I carried out the porridge like usual this morning, then when I got back to the kitchen, I found old Charles lying facedown on the floor. I rolled him over and his eyes were wide-open, like he had been startled by something. His face was pale and his lips was blue. Very disturbing, if you don’t mind me saying.”
“So, who’s taking his place?”
“I don’t know. But I assumed as long as it takes Zirga to figure out who’s cooking, it’ll be that much longer before supper is ready. Not to mention, even longer, if whoever’s going to cook has to help burn Charles.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
“You’re welcome.”
As Will turned to leave, Tal said, “Will?”
“Yes,” said Will over his shoulder.
“If it comes up, remind Zirga that I know how to cook.”
Will nodded. “If it comes up, yes,” he said, and left the cell.
Tal sat back. He wondered if this might be the opportunity he had been waiting for. Trying to keep anticipation to a minimum, he returned to his meditations, but just in case, he started recalling his cooking lessons with Leo at Kendrick’s.
Supper never came.
There weren’t many prisoners in the fortress, apparently, for the next morning when the early meal didn’t arrive, Tal heard only a small number of voices complaining. He waited.
Some time in the mid-morning, Tal heard the latch to his cell move, then the door opened. Will entered, followed by Anatoli, one of the two guards who had met him at the dock, and after them came Zirga.
Tal stood up.
“You cook?” asked Zirga.
“Yes,” answered Tal.
“Come along, then,” said Zirga.
And so, Tal left his cell for the first time in more than a year. He walked down the long steps that led to the ground level of the keep, then followed Zirga and the others through the old main hall into the kitchen.
The place was a disaster. Someone had tried to boil up porridge and burned it. Zirga turned to him and said, “We have a problem.”
“Apparently,” said Tal. “You have no cook.”
“Yes, and I have fourteen prisoners, three guards, and myself to feed.”
“Cooking for eighteen people is no problem,” said Tal.
“For you, perhaps, if what you say is true. But for Anatoli here, it is a problem.”
The large guard looked up, embarrassed, but said nothing.
“He claimed he remembered how his mother made porridge, and we can see the result. So, needless to say, I have no wish to see him make stew for the prisoners or cook supper for the guards. Can you do this?”
“I can, but I’ll need help,” said Tal.
“Why?”
Tal held out his stump. “There are things in the kitchen I could manage with one hand if I were cooking for myself alone. Cooking for eighteen? I will need help.”
Zirga thought about it a moment, then said, “I am breaking rules by allowing you out of your cell. Specials are never let out of their cells.”
“But you need to eat,” said Tal. “And who else is to know?”
“Yes, that is true. Very well. You may have these two to help.” He waved at Will and Anatoli. “What can you do?”
Tal said, “Give me a moment,” and hurried over to the pantry. He took a quick inventory, and said, “I can make a stew. Is there any meat?”
Zirga said, “In the summer house. Will will show you.”
As the Governor turned to leave, Tal said, “But I’ll need to take a bath first.”
Zirga turned. “A bath? Why?”
Tal held up his left hand, shoving fingernails black with filth right under Zirga’s nose. “Do you want this in your stew?”
Zirga paused and looked at Tal, really studying him for the first time. Then he looked at Will and Anatoli. “All of you, take a bath.”
“We’ll need clean clothing,” said Tal.
“There’s clothing in the armory. Anatoli will take you there.”
Less than two hours later, a fully revived Tal stood over two large pots of bubbling broth. He and the others had had to endure a cold bath, as there was no time to heat the water, but Tal didn’t mind. As a child he had bathed in the streams of the Orosini Mountains in the early spring, when the water consisted of ice melt. Will had seemed less thrilled about being clean than Tal, but after a bath and fresh clothing, he looked like a different man. Will did have a face under the grime and hair. It was narrow and constantly set in a grin, with eyes that seemed always to squint.