intended recipient, it will never read the same way twice.’
‘How is it that the captain didn’t realize?’-
Melilot chuckled. ‘You don’t have to read and write to become a captain of the
guard,’ he said. ‘He can about manage to tell whether the clerk who witnesses
his mark on the watch-report is holding the page right side up; but anything
more complicated and his head starts to swim anyway.’
He seized the lobster, tore off a claw, and cracked it between his teeth; oil
ran down his chin and dripped on his green robe. Picking out the meat, he went
on. ‘But what’s interesting is how he came by it. Make a guess.’
Jarveena shook her head.
‘One of the imperial bodyguards from Ranke, one of the detachment who escorted
the Prince along the Generals’ Road, called to inspect the local guardhouse this
morning at dawn. Apparently he made himself most unpopular, to the point that,
when he let fall that scroll without noticing, Aye-Gophlan thought more of
secreting it than giving it back. Why he’s ready to believe that an imperial
officer would carry a document in Old High Yenized, I can’t guess. Perhaps
that’s part of the magic.’
He thrust gobbets of succulent flesh into his mouth and chomped for a while.
Jarveena tried not to drool.
To distract herself by the first means to mind, she said, ‘Why did he tell you
all this … ? Ah, I’m an idiot. He didn’t.’
‘Correct.’ Melilot looked smug. ‘For that you deserve a taste of lobster. Here!’
He tossed over a lump that by his standards was generous, and a chunk of bread