Overheard
Did really nobody overhear Gen's midnight sword-drills with Ambassador Ornon?
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Eugenides shook his head … "I promised to bark like a sheepdog instead."
The Eddisians chuckled again.
"You don't, though?" Aulus had to ask.
The king eyed him with disgust. "Give me some credit," he said, and when Aulus was visibly relieved, added, "Not when anyone else can hear me."
(King of Attolia, Chapter 11)
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At the small back gateway of the palace of Attolia, the sentry shifted wearily from one foot to the other. Nobody came this way; nobody went this way; it was just a long-forgotten archway that seemed to exist only for the purpose of keeping a member of the Royal Guard awake and at attention by it all night long. He shifted again. From the guardroom facing him came the sounds of his fellow guard's snores. It was a full two hours yet before they would swap over, and he would be the one to get to put his feet up and snatch what sleep he could, still in full uniform and breastplate.
Two more hours...
He rocked to and fro on his toes, the slight jingle of his uniform buckles loud in the night silence. Everything, everywhere, in the palace, was quiet. Some few sounds drifted up from the city, but otherwise – well, there was only the one sound. Not that it was a sustained noise, just something he had noticed every night-duty at about this time, for weeks. Since the Queen's wedding, in fact. At about this time of night, somewhere in the palace, a dog barked.
Obviously, there were the hound pens, but they were over on the other side, beyond the guard barracks. This was nearer, somewhere in the residential part of the palace. Where no dogs ought to be. Such an oddity, of course, he ought to have reported, particularly after the recent trouble with the – king – and the hounds in the lion court. But the sentry rocked back on his heels and smiled. If he knew anything about the palace, and as a veteran he did, that dog barked somewhere near the wretched Eddisian ambassador's quarters.
If Ambassador Ornon was having a problem with a dog barking every night, he could complain directly to the – king – couldn't he?
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