Javes found Tali a chair to sit next to him at the table. Normally, guests would come to the reception room, but Javes guessed he wasn’t a guest and both of them were too dirty for the chairs with the delicate floral patterned fabric in the other room.
So they sat around the table and the maid distributed tea and cakes. The kitchen smelled familiar, of hearty meals and bread. For a little while, the talk was about food.
Javes asked where his father was, and the answer was, as expected, travelling.
Then Belo asked about the trek and Javes answered as efficiently as possible. Ysherra already seemed so long ago and far away and, now that he was here, he wanted to present Karlen’s map to the doga as soon as possible.
“We were pretty worried,” Belo said. “With our army and the Aranians trad
