Talon! came Lelas voice from above. He hurried up the broad wooden steps, and saw her standing next to the wagon, a rapt expression on her face. Look! She pointed skyward.
Snow was falling, tiny flakes blown about by a gentle but persistent breeze, most of them melting upon reaching the ground. Its just snow, Talon said.
Lela threw him a pout, one of her many expressions which caused his stomach to go hollow. Its wonderful, she said. Dont you think its beautiful?
Talon watched the flakes falling for a moment, then said, I never thought of it. In my village, snow means months inside our houses or hunting in drifts as high as your chest. For some reason, just mentioning the word chest caused his eyes to drift to Lelas ample bosom, though after an instant he averted his eyes. My toes always hurt after a hunt.
Oh, she said in mock disapproval. You have no sense of beauty. I come from a land that never sees snow. Its wonderful!
Talon smiled. If you say so. He looked into the rear of the wagon and saw that it was empty. I need to go tell the driver Ive finished. He closed the large wooden doors down into the cellar, then moved around to the kitchen door. Once inside, he realized how cold the air outside had become, for the kitchen seemed hot and close to him.
The wagon driver and an apprentice teamster sat at a small table in the corner of the kitchen, eating the meal Martha had prepared for them. They looked up as Talon approached. Wagons unloaded, he said.
The teamster, a gaunt man whose nose looked like a buzzards beak grinned, showing that he was missing two front teeth. Be a good lad and unhitch the horses, will you? Were not done quite yet and it wouldnt do to leave them shivering out in the cold. Well be staying the night and heading back north first thing in the morning.
Talon nodded, and turned back towards the door. Lars intercepted him. You shouldnt have to see to his team. Thats his job.
Talon shrugged. I dont mind. No guests to worry about and its either see to horses or scrub pots in here. Not much to choose from.
Lars said, Suit yourself, and returned to his duties.
Talon went back outside. The few moments in the kitchen had turned the air outside from brisk to uncomfortable. He hurried to the wagon and led the horses to the mouth of the barn. He had developed a fair hand in dealing with the fractious animals, and while his few attempts at riding had been less than pleasant, he found stable-work easy and mostly enjoyable. The heavy wagon had been drawn by a team of four, and it took a bit of convincing to get the animals to back up enough to put the wagon neatly out of the way. He quickly unhitched each animal, took it inside and got it into a stall. Then he set to brushing each of them. Even after having stood motionless for nearly a half-hour while he unloaded, the horses were still damp from their long pull to the inn that afternoon. Steam rose from their backs as he brushed, as the air turned bitterly cold.
By the time water and fodder had been placed in the stalls, Talon knew that the weather was turning serious. He went out into the stabling yard and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting, but he could see that the clouds were growing darker and thicker and the snow more insistent. He thought the teamster and his apprentice needed to be quick on the road to Latagore or else they would find themselves in snow up to their hubs in the next few days. If they were lucky. If a big storm was heading their way, they could find themselves snowed in for the winter at Kendricks.
Supper passed uneventfully. After the kitchen had been cleaned and the bread readied for baking in the morning, Talon was about to retire to the room he shared with Lars and Gibbs, when Lela approached him. Dont go to your room, yet, she said in a whisper. She put her hand upon his arm and led him to the pantry between the common room and the dining room. She pushed the door to the common room slightly ajar.
Gibbs was sitting quietly before the hearth, staring into the dying embers as he nursed a mug of ale. Lela closed the door, a mischievous smile in place. Lars needs the room for a while.
For what? asked Talon.
Her eyes widened and she giggled. For what? You dont know?
He frowned. If I knew, would I ask?
She playfully put her hand on his stomach and gave him a gentle push. He and Meggie are there.
Talon said, Why? Then before she could answer, he realized. They need to be alone? he asked.
Of course, you fool! she said playfully.
With my people it is different, he explained. We live in community buildings during the winter, and often a man and woman will lie together under bearskins. Everyone else pretends not to notice.
Around here we notice, she said. Looking at him with a glimmer in her eye, she said, You look troubled. What is it?
Talons mind returned to Meggies quirky smile and upturned nose, and the way her thin frame swayed slightly when she walked. At last he said, I dont know.
Suddenly, Lelas eyes widened. Youre jealous!
Talon said, I dont know that word.
You want Meggie for yourself! she said with a merry laugh.
Suddenly Talons face was flushed and he wanted to be just about anywhere else. I dont know what you mean, he stammered.
Lela gave the boy an appraising look for a long minute. Then she said, Youre turning into a handsome young man, Talon. She put her arms around his waist and pressed closer, her face just in front of his. Have you known a woman before?
Talon felt his pulse race and he found himself speechless. Eventually, he shook his head.
Lela laughed and thrust herself away from him. You are such a boy.
Abruptly, Talon found himself angry. For some reason the remark stung and he almost shouted, No, I am a man of the Orosini! I went upon my vision quest and He paused. I would have had my manhood tattoos upon my face had my family not been killed.
Lelas expression softened, and she stepped back towards him. Im sorry. I forgot.
His anger soon fled as she pressed herself against him and kissed him, her soft, warm lips causing stirrings that threatened to overpower him. He grabbed her hard, and pulled her into him, eliciting a squeak of protest. She pushed him back slightly and said, Gently.
Talon blinked in confusion, his mind swimming in feelings he could put no name to; he ached to pull her back into an embrace.
She grinned. You know nothing of the game of women and men.
Game?
She took him by the hand. Ive seen those games Robert and Magnus have taught you. Now I think its time to teach you the best game of all.
Feeling fearful and flushed with anticipation, Talon clung to Lelas hand as she led him through the common room towards the room she shared with Meggie.
Seeing what was transpiring, Gibbs grinned and hoisted his ale-jack in salute. As they climbed the stairs to the now-empty guests rooms, he said, Got to get another girl working here; thats all there is for it.
Lacking any other comfort, he elected for one more ale before finding a place for himself for the night.
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER FIVE
Journey
TALON SNEEZED.
Too much pepper, said Leo.
Talon wiped away the tears in his eyes with the hem of his apron and nodded. He had been working in the kitchen for a year now and over the last four months had come to feel at home there. He still served elsewhere at Kendricks discretion, but most of his time recently had been spent with the cook.
Four months earlier Leo had walked in one day and beckoned Talon to his side, showing him how to prepare dishes for baking pies, a simple task involving lard and wheat flour. From there he had moved on to washing vegetables and fruits. He then worked his way up to preparing simple dishes. In the last few weeks, Talon had learned the basics of baking, cooking meats, and was now being trained how to make sauces.
Talon smiled.
Whats amusing you, young fellow? asked Leo.
I was just thinking how much more there is to getting food ready to eat than what I learned as a boy. My father and the other men of my village would sit around a large spit upon which a deer turned, talking about the hunt or crops or which son was the fastest runner, and the women baked bread or cooked stews or soup.
My mother would have gawked in wonder at the spices in your cupboard, Leo.
Simple fare can be challenging, too, Talon. A spit of beef must be dusted lightly with salt and pepper at the right moment, then graced, perhaps, with a kiss of garlic just before presentation.
Talon grinned. My mother would never have understood presentation.
Youve only seen the barest glimpse of it, boy, said Leo. What we do here is wasted upon commoners for the most part, and even those lords and ladies who stop by on their travels would count our fare rustic compared to the tables at which theyve dined in the great cities.
The noble tables of Rillanon and Roldem are each night piled high with the efforts of dozens of cooks and hundreds of kitchen whelps such as yourself. Each plate is graced with just such a portion of this dish, just such a portion of that delicacy. There is an art in this, boy.
Talon said, If you say so, Leo. Though Im not sure what you mean by art. We have no such word in my language.
Leo stopped stirring his own reduction sauce and said, You dont?
Talon was fluent in Roldemish and now found himself being corrected only on pronunciation and occasionally on his delight in profanity, which seemed to amuse Leo, irritate Robert, and outrage Martha. The Orosini were comfortable with sex and other natural body functions, and Talon found it oddly amusing that describing defecation or the sex act was considered bad in Roldemish society.
No, said Talon. The closest the Orosini tongue can get is graceful or beauty, but the idea of doing something just to do it is not something I grew up with. Talon had come to terms with the destruction of his family over the last year. Rather than the terrible pain it had given him, now it had become more of a dark memory which haunted him from time to time. The desperate anguish was gone, for the most part. Learning to do new things was part of the reason; and Lela was the rest.
Well, then, said Leo. You learn something new every day.
Talon agreed. We have he corrected himself, had art in some of the crafts the women practise. My grandmother made patterned blankets that were prized by everyone in the village. Our shaman and his acolytes would make prayer you dont have a word for it, circles of patterns of coloured sand. They would chant and pray while they worked, sometimes for days, in a special tent that they would put up and work inside. When they were finished, the entire village would gather to see the work and to chant as the wind took the prayer to the gods. Some of them were beautiful. Talon paused. Those paintings Kendrick hangs in the dining room
Yes? asked Leo.
I wish some of my grandmothers blankets or the sand prayer-circles could be remembered like that, hung on a wall for people to see. They were beautiful.
An eye for beauty, young Talon, is a gift. Leo said.
Just then, Lela walked into the kitchen.
And speaking of beauty muttered Leo with a grin.
Talon glanced at the girl and smiled slightly. His people could mask their feelings around strangers, but he felt now that the kitchen-staff were his family and everyone knew of his relationship with Lela. He had slept in her bed almost every night for the better part of the last year. Close to sixteen years of age, a man by the standards of his people, he would have been wed and a father by now had his village survived.
Lela returned his gesture with a smile.
To what do I owe this pleasure? asked Leo. Is the washing done?
Yes, she said pertly. Meggie and Martha are folding the last of the dyed bedding and I came to see what needed to be done here.
Of course you did, said the cook with a chuckle. He moved Talon gently aside, dipped a spoon into the sauce the young man was preparing and tasted it. He stared off into space reflectively for a long moment, then said, Simple, yet bland. His fingers danced across the small jars of spices before him, picking up a pinch of this, a dash of that, which he added to the sauce. This is for chicken, lad, and slowly roasted chicken. It is a bland meat, not full of flavour like those lovely partridges and turkeys you bring home from the hunt. Those require a simple sauce to bring out the birds taste. This sauce needs to give the bird flavour. Here! He poked the spoon at Talons lips. Taste!
Talon did so and nodded. It was exactly the sauce he had been trying to make. So I should have used more spices, Leo?
By twice, my boy, by twice. The cook put down the spoon and wiped his hands on his apron. Now, be a good lad and go and help Lela wash vegetables.
Talon nodded and went over to the large wooden sink attached to the rear wall of the kitchen. It had a drain that cleverly went out through the wall and emptied into a small culvert that ran along the base of the building, then into a pipe under the ground and eventually into the cess pit Kendrick had dug beyond the outer wall of the courtyard. He hefted a bucket of cold water and stood there, pouring slowly while Lela washed the freshly-dug vegetables. It was the first of the spring crop and the thought of fresh carrots, radishes, and turnips made Talons mouth water.
Why the sauce? asked Lela. We dont have any guests tonight.
Thats why, said Talon. Leo decided that since we had no one to complain about the sauce, hed let me try another one.
You must be making progress, Lela observed. He didnt throw this one across the kitchen.
True, said Talon. You people can be strange at times.
Were strange? She flicked water from her fingers at him as he put down the bucket. From what youve said about your people, youre the strange one.
Talons features darkened. It hardly matters. Im the only one left.
She tried not to look amused. Ah, Ive hurt your feelings. Playfully, she kissed his cheek. Ill have to make it up to you.