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riel was startled awake by something loud dropping to the floor. The hard straw-filled cushion that formed her bed lay directly upon the polished planks and it transmitted the slightest vibration. The snap of the sliding panels being closed indicated someone had entered her room. She sat up, clutching the down comforter against her breast and stared into the dim chamber.
Thin golden light suffused her new room, filtered by the paper panels yet preserving its warmth. The dim glow was comforting and she had been enjoying the first solid sleep since her capture. Still easily startled, Uriel grew anxious as she considered who might have entered her chamber with such violence. A muffled moan came from the opposite corner of the room where another bed lay empty.
"Who's there?" Uriel breathed as she made out the shape of a small person curled in a knot upon the wooden floor between the beds.
"Uriel?" the ball croaked,"Is that you?"
"Lemony!" Uriel cried, rushing to her friend's side, then recoiling as the reek of her unwashed body and stale rice wine slammed into her senses. Holding her breath, she touched the little monk's grimy hand and gazed into her dirty face. Her hair bristled upon her tattooed scalp, putting Uriel in mind of a hedgehog. She looked like she had been rolled repeatedly through filth.
"Stupid sewers," Lemony groaned, "Made me wade through them but the water went up to my thighs while it went up to everyone else's shins. I hate short-cuts and they're always worse because I'm short."
"I'll get you a bath," Uriel said firmly.
"I'm so tired," Lemony moaned, "Just let me sleep a little, then I'll bathe."
"I can't sleep with this stink," Uriel replied pointedly, "and you don't want to lie in bed in those disgusting clothes."
"I can lie here. Just let me sleep," Lemony pleaded.
Uriel rose and cracked open the sliding door, causing the guard posted in the blossoming courtyard to glance at her with a distinctly bored expression.
"My friend needs a bath and fresh clothes."
The guard shrugged and turned his back to her.
"You really need to make sure my friend gets a bath," Uriel warned, "Because Kiku tends to hurt people when I'm mistreated and I really feel like screaming about now."
The man blanched and departed. Within a few moments a pair of women servants arrived, one with a bundle of clothing, the other with a bucket containing assorted scrubbing materials and soap. Between the three of them and the guard the grumbling monk was gently borne to the guild's communal bathing facility, a place Uriel had recently found to her liking. It was a pity Tyria had not yet caught onto the idea.
Buckets of hot water were now being carried into the chamber by a couple more servants and dumped into the enormous tub. Meanwhile, Uriel helped the other two women remove Lemony's filthy gear and was mildly startled when the monk's hand shot out to clasp something bound up in a crusty purple kerchief. One of the servants tried to prize it from her dirty hand but she snarled in protest, opening one eye to glare possessively.
"Let me have it," Uriel asked gently, "I'll make sure you get it back."
"Mine," Lemony sobbed, "belongs to me."
Tears cleansed a trail through the filth on the monk's face, having reached the limits of her endurance.
"Easy, Lem, just relax. You'll like the bath. Nice and warm."
Lemony released the nasty thing into Uriel's outstretched hand and she placed it dutifully beside the pile of clean clothes laid out on the bench near the bath. Now that she was naked, the servants resorted to dousing the monk with buckets of water as she stood huddled over a grate. They lathered her repeatedly and scrubbed her golden flesh until the patina of grime was removed. One of the servants even shaved her scalp until she somewhat resembled the Lemony Uriel knew and loved. But there was a hollowness in her cheeks from too little food and rest and her ribs stared from her tattooed flanks.
"I want food and drink waiting for her in my room, too," Uriel said, enjoying her new found authority while it lasted, "Dumplings or noodles, nothing heavy."
By the time the two of them were scrubbed down for the tub, the water was ready and Uriel slid into it with a sigh of contentment. Lemony was eased into it across from her and her eyes opened for the first time and gazed wearily at Uriel.
"This is nice," she murmured, yawning as wisps of steam curled off of the water around her, "Thank you."
"I've been worried sick about you," Uriel confessed quickly, emotion catching in her throat. She was so glad to see her beloved friend again, whole if not healthy. Lemony closed her eyes, her head falling back against the edge of the tub.
"I've been worried for both of us," Lemony replied, "Are the servants still here?"
"They've withdrawn. One of them is around to help but I waved her away."
"Pendaran may still be alive," Lemony said quietly, "They sealed him in the sewers near Tahnnaki so he would starve to death without anyone finding him."
Uriel felt the blood drain from her face. If Pendaran died, the curse would come back to her. She chided herself for being so selfish and thinking only about herself rather than his cruel fate. And poor Luitha trapped in the darkness with him.
"What are we going to do?" Uriel thought aloud, "Kiku is not going to let us look for him. Trust me, when she wants someone dead, she means it."
"Morisedd will come," Lemony sighed, "He always does. I'll give him Pen's things and then he can hire someone to do a finding spell."
"I wish I had your optimism," Uriel grumbled, "I sure don't."
"You underestimate him."
"So the stuff in the kerchief is Pendaran's? Where did you get it?"
"That creepy ritualist with the rag on his face keeps trophies of everyone he's offed. You should have seen some of the stuff in his chest. He's not right in the head."
Uriel frowned, unwilling to press Lemony harder for information. The monk's gentle visage was becoming increasingly lined with grief.
"Relax, Lem," she soothed, "We'll get some food in you and then you can sleep in a nice clean bed."
"I'd like that," Lemony murmured, "At least the baths are wonderful in Cantha."
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