Read Online Law of the Broken Earth by Rachel Neumeier - Free Book Online

looked in several times this very day, once this very afternoon. Of course he was perfectly well.
    Nevertheless, she found herself wandering restlessly toward his room, even though she had no real business to take her in that direction.
    “Mie!” said Erich as she passed the kitchens—of course he had been in the kitchens—and swung out the door to stride along beside her. He handed her a sweet roll, wrapped in paper to keep the honey and butter from dripping onto the floor. “Where are you going?”
    Mienthe hesitated.
    “To see if the spy is awake,” Erich said cheerfully. “Yes, I thought so. You should let me come.”
    “I ought to ask one of my maids to come,” Mienthe muttered. “I meant to, Erich, truly, but Karin wasn’t handy just now.”
    “And Emnis might worry and fuss,” Erich said comfortably. “So she might. I will go with you. Wait a little and I will get a plate of sweet rolls. Nobody would be surprised if you brought the spy some rolls.” His voice was deeper and somehow grittier than it had been even last year, which was when his voice had finally broken.His slight accent seemed to have become a little more pronounced with that change.
    “He’s probably still asleep—”
    “If he’s woken up, he will no doubt be glad of the rolls,” Erich said, shrugging. “I don’t mind going to look. If he’s still asleep,
I
will be glad of the rolls. You eat that one, Mie. You’re too thin.” He turned and disappeared back into the kitchens, coming back almost at once with a generous plateful of rolls.
    Tan was still asleep, but Captain Geroen, sitting in his room with his legs stretched out and a glower on his coarse-featured face, was glad to see the sweet rolls and didn’t question Mienthe’s right to look in on the spy.
    “I never thought a legist could wear himself out with a quill like a soldier on a forced march,” the captain said. “Makes me glad to be a speaker and not a legist. Even aside from liking crows better than just their feathers.” He gave the bed a disgusted scowl.
    “You think he’s all right, though?” Mienthe asked. She trusted her cousin’s judgment, but she wasn’t certain she liked the guard captain. He frightened her a little. Erich didn’t seem frightened, but then he wouldn’t. He leaned in the doorway and ate another roll himself.
    “I should think so, lady. Just exhausted.” The captain gave the bed another disgusted look, but this time Mienthe thought she could see concern hiding behind his grim features. “With more than the effort of lifting a quill, to be fair, from what he said of his past days. No, he’ll be up and about—”
    Tan shifted, moved a hand, made a wordless mutter of protest, opened his eyes, tried to sit up, and groaned.
    Captain Geroen wiped honey off his fingers with the cloth that had been draped over the plate, stalked over to the bed, and put a surprisingly gentle hand under Tan’s elbow to help him sit up. Then he poured some water into a glass, set it on the bed table, stepped back and glowered at the spy, fists on his hips. “Stiff, are you?”
    Tan glanced past the captain to take in Mienthe’s presence, and Erich’s beyond her. He seemed half amused and half dismayed to find his room so crowded. But he nodded thanks for the water and said to Geroen, with a deliberate good humor that had more than a slight edge of mockery to it, “Well, I see Bertaud—forgive me, let us by all means be respectful, I mean to say
Lord
Bertaud—didn’t flog the flesh off your bones. What astonishing leniency!”
    The captain looked embarrassed, an expression that sat oddly on his heavy features. “He’s not much for the post and the whip, is our lord. But I did think he might dismiss me.”
    “After the shocking example you set for your pure-minded naive young guardsmen? I should hardly be astonished he found a more suitable penalty.”
    “Hah. He told you about that, did he?”
    “He did. I admit I’m surprised to find you