But I was very done there because the guards marched me right out of the room. It was literally go with them or lose my arms. I was going to have bruises as it was.
“For fuck’s sake, ease up! I’ll go with you.”
One let go and started walking in front of me, and then the other released my arm and hung back behind me. I didn’t stop or fight or anything like that—I just walked between them. Running away wasn’t really an option because I had no idea where to go. No one to turn to either. I didn’t know who Lars was, but maybe he’d know something that could help my situation.
We walked down hallways that were just as impressive as they’d been with Hydris. I was still upset about him abandoning me because it had felt like I had an ally in this crazy place. An ally with clout. And now he was gone and I was off to… What? Get a temp job in a palace? I wasn’t even sure I had skills a place like this would want. Did they need someone to teach strength training or yoga?
The windows were starting to be up near the ceiling, making me think we were in the basement again. And then we came around a corner and the sound of a hell of a lot of people talking and rushing around hit me right along with a blast of moist heat. The kitchen. It was an enormous open space with huge ovens lining one wall, all kinds of equipment that could’ve been for cooking or torture, and yeah, tons of people carrying ingredients or trays of food, mixing, chopping, or plucking. Everyone seemed to have a job, but on the whole, it looked like chaos.
A man came over to us. He was elderly to the extreme but also seemed unusually spry, like Dick Van Dyke being a hundred years old and still dancing down a red carpet. He wore all black in vest, shirt, and pants that stopped just below his knees, hose or knee socks, and pointy-toed shoes with heels. Compared tothe other people down here, he was spotless and pressed to a fine crease. Was this Lars?
“What’s this then?” he asked as his sharp gaze flicked between me and the guards.
“Lord Mannix wants the human to work for his keep,” the guard on my right said as if he was trying to sound like Batman.
“A human?” Lars peered at me like he might need glasses. “Displease your owner, did you?”
“Owner? Nobodyownsme, buddy. I’ll earn my keep like Lord Dipshit wants because I’m not an asshole who expects free room and board, but no one’s going toownme.”
“Alright, alright.” The old man waved me back. “Don’t have a fit.”
“I’m not having a fit. Just making sure we’re on the same page.”
“You can go.”
“I can— Oh.” He was talking to the guards, who both stomped off the way we’d come.
“Alright then. I’m Lars, the butler.”
“Bridge.”
“So tell me, Bridge, why would two palace guards be delivering you down here?”
I told him what had happened to me so far, from my splashing arrival and meeting Hydris to what that one guy had said about the powerful magic.
“Lord Valborg,” he said with a nod, “likes for everyone to think he’s a spellworker, but it’s all talk.”
That was disappointing. “So he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?”
“Oh, he knows a great deal, but he can’t work the magic at all.”
“All talk, no action.”
“Basically.” He clapped his hands together like he was wickedly excited. “So, Bridge, what work would you like to do until they figure out why you’re here?”
“WhyI’m here?” That was a weird way to put it.
“Strapping lad like you must be comfortable with physical labor.” He started walking away, so I hustled to follow him. “How about the gardens or the stables?”
“Well, um, you should know that I’ve never really done any gardening and haven’t spent time around horses since I was a kid.”
He waved that away as he walked fast enough that I had to trot to keep up with him. “They need more muscle. You’ll probably spend most of your time lifting and toting.”
I accepted that. If I couldn’t get my usual workouts and the classes I taught, then I’d improvise with manual labor. And I didn’t mind doing something since I didn’t like the idea of being a freeloader. A little help would’ve been nice since I was here involuntarily after all, but expecting a handout from Mannix seemed stupid. And if Hydris wasn’t even going to stick around long enough to find out where I went… I sighed.
We exited out a door, up a few steps, and?—
“Wow.”
