Drink Deep

Ch11: Iva the Servant

Leena woke to her servant, Iva, sitting near her side. She cleared her throat. "How long have I been asleep?"

The girl looked sullen. "Two days, and no one showed up, left me here to watch over you. You're not a much-loved princess, are you?"

The pain in Leena's heart felt heavy and hard to breathe around. Adoration had been hers for a decade, only to be shoved in a tent at the end of the nation. That a maid found her lacking enough to say rude things to someone who just woke up from an illness did not help.

Had she been ill? Did draining every bit of herself to clear a field of Blackrot count as being sick? "Can I have some water?"

"Pour your own!" Iva's tone was ridiculously sharp. "Those arms need to move if you don't want to be stuck in bed for life."

Leena sat up and poured herself a glass of water from the carafe near her bed, slowly and shakily.

Iva ranted with increasing speed. "Fainting like that after doing a miracle. They are going to push you to do this again and again. Either you do it or you'll be sent back home. The master must have no use for you if he doesn't check in."

It almost sounded like she cared, so it confused the girl. "I guess I need to get ready and find him myself. You're sitting here ranting instead of at least letting him know I'm awake."

The maid's eyes darted to the table closer to the inn's door. A basket of fruit was half eaten through, a nearby block of cheese was sliced up, and nothing but bones filled a 3rd bowl. She strode over to it and picked through them. A tray with easily handled morsels was sorted and placed on a plate in the young princess' hands. "Don't sit here and say I'm doing nothing, just because you woke up and heard 2 minutes of grumbling. You have no idea what my plans are or how worried I was."

She marched out with the discards and bowls.

Leena didn't know enough about the layout to feel comfortable wandering around outside, not while she was still shaking, but that part passed in half a candlemark.

She felt grimy, like nobody had washed her. That was hard to tell in the warm environment of a room wrapped around a chimney. If she felt this way at home, she could be certain that the servant was lax in her duties.

Her father fired women like this one. Apparently, her fiancé did not.

She found her clean towels in the chest by the foot of the bed. Some of the drinking water helped scrub her face, and anywhere else she could reach with her clothes still on. Never had she slept in bed in day clothes, but here she was, in the things she had worn in the field.

She scrubbed her neck until it felt sore, then realized she hadn't felt the chain around her neck. "Madness?"

The horned statue popped into view before her. "You haven't called me for a week, little princess."

"Iva told me I was asleep for 2 days."

"No, 2 days ago was when that fool you're betrothed to finally went and put you back in the hotel. He moved some of the camp closer to where you fell, fearing you wouldn't recover."

"Why would she lie like that?"

The statue gave a feral grin. "People like to play games with those they think they can control. She thinks you're a young, malleable miss who can bend to her temper."

The child stared at him shrewdly. "Don't you do the same?"

"No." He waited long enough for her skepticism to bore through him. Of all the things for this child to pick up on. "Or hardly at all. I know the knowledge, so it's natural for me to direct your thoughts."

They spent hours talking before the maid came back with her betrothed in tow. Then she stepped back to allow them some privacy.

"You worried me by staying asleep for so long, Leena."

"I was told I was asleep for 2 days."

Andrik looked towards the Iva, and she shook her head at him. He then turned toward his fiancé. "No, princess, she had tended you for the past two days. We worried that we would lose you, and so I didn't think to send anyone to get her. That is my fault."

Leena thought back over the maid's answer. It was true that she never said anything about how long she was out directly. But she could kick the duke for trusting Iva more. "The way she worded it requires that either she refused to answer my question or she lied to me. I don't care which it was. Get rid of her, find someone less rude."

The duke's lips twisted finely. "Few women want to be near blighted lands, let alone travel across them, never settling down. I can look for another maid, princess, but Iva is what you have. You will have to make do until someone else is willing to endure hardship with us."

"But..."

He slashed his hand across the distance between them, not touching her. For a moment, she thought he would hit her. "This isn't debatable. You are stuck with her, and next time you complain, you do so outside your servant's hearing."

The young lord strode out, agitated. He disliked how spoiled and immature his betrothed could be.

As for Leena, she yelled at his retreating back, "It's not like you check in with me to see if I have complaints to keep between us!"

The princess scowled at the servant, annoyed that her 10 short years had left her at a disadvantage with the taller girl. She very much wanted to punch her.