Page 13 of The Chef

“He told me who he is, so you don’t have to call him captain in front of me,” Char replied, finally getting the mud unstuck from the tine.

Ralph nodded and set his cleaned fork aside on the cloth to dry, picking up a spoon next. He was serious, not prone to smiles, yet friendly even though he hated kitchen duty. “You saved our commander then,” he replied with a shrug. “Anyway, commander said to hurry you up. Captain Zain wants us moving out within the hour. It’s about four days to the city from here, and she wants to use all the daylight we have left. We’re packingup the tents, loading up the horses, and putting out fires right now.”

“Not with my potatoes in it, they’re not!” Char dropped his cleaned fork onto the pile and left Ralph with the rest, which was now only the things he’d used to make tea earlier, and rushed over to the kitchen area. Clarise and the healers were gone and the camp buzzing with activity as the tents were taken down and the horses saddled. Laura was loading Char’s pack donkey with the bags from around the fire, which Char saw with a flash of relief was still burning merrily. She had used the mitts to move the grill off to the side to cool.

“Hey!” she called with a smile when Char joined her. “I left that bag for the rest of the dishes. Anything else you need?”

“Just these,” Char explained before sticking his hands into the embers and starting to pull out potatoes. He placed them on the grill, which was cool enough it wouldn’t continue cooking them and was much better than the ground.

“Yes!” Laura cheered, then yelled over in the direction of the tents: “Hey, guys. Baked potatoes!”

“All right!” Jensen was the first to arrive, followed by everyone else except Fen and Clarise.

“They’re hot!” Char yelped when Jensen blithely reached for a potato.

“And I’m starving,” Jensen replied with an easy shrug. He pulled his sleeve down over his hand, grabbed a potato, smiled at Char, and then hustled off toward the tents again. The rest of the group followed his example until only three potatoes remained.

“Where’s Fen?” Char asked, wondering what to do with the two extras.

“Behind you,” Fen said. “I heard there were potatoes, so I came over.”

Fen and Captain Zain joined Char and Laura next to the fire. Laura was holding her potato with her sleeve over her hand, gently blowing on one of the rounded ends, although she nodded to her commanding officers.

“It’s just plain potato. Not even any salt. I’m not sure it’s fully cooked in the middle. And it’s covered in ash, too.” Char wrung his hands, unhappy he was inadvertently serving such a lackluster meal.

“It’s exactly what we need right now. Nothing fiddly, simple and filling. Much better than jerky I promise you,” Fen said as he yanked down his sleeve and grabbed a potato. “Clarise won’t be up to eating hers. Zain, go ahead. And Char, the last one is yours I believe?”

Char nodded, taking one in his bare hand. Zain’s left eyebrow lifted, and she shot Fen a look Char couldn’t interpret. She had changed out of her armor into a tunic and breeches and slipped her sleeve over her hand to take the last potato.

The potato was too hot for even Char to eat, so he used his free hand to tip the remaining water from the pot he had used to make tea over the fire, dousing it and sending up a plume of smoke. He brought the emptied pot down to the lake for Ralph to use to load all the cleaned dishes into, and by the time they both returned to Laura and the donkey to load the last supplies, the potatoes were cool enough to eat.

Fluffy, but dry and definitely needing seasoning, the potato somehow still tasted delicious. It had been a long time since breakfast, and a fraught day, so perhaps that was why Char kept taking bites even though lacking flavor. At least the ash provided a nice grilled flavor to offset the otherwise bland food. All too soon, the potato was gone.

“Right,” Zain said, dusting off her hands against her hips. “Let’s mount up and move out.”

Laura finished loading the last of the supplies onto the donkey. Char took the lead from her and headed over to the horses, finding his pony easily since it only had the one pack behind the saddle. Also, his pony was smaller than the warhorses, which helped. He mounted, secured the lead, and joined the group as Fen waved them forward, gladly leaving behind the lake and their completed mission. They would meet up with Zain’s larger group and then continue into Toval.

Chapter Eight

RAIN HAD BEENfalling the last four hours, beating heavily on Char’s soaked head and turning the roads to mush. His pony let out another unhappy whinny, echoed by the larger horses around them, but continued plodding gamely on. Lightning flashed, the bolt slashing across the faraway horizon, the boom of thunder muffled by the distance. And still, it poured.

Despite being only late afternoon, the sky was dark and the surroundings misty and shadowed. Char could barely see a few feet in front of his pony’s nose, and he sincerely hoped Fen and Zain, up at the front of their group, knew where they were going.

Suddenly a massive wall rose out of the gloom, towering over them by at least three stories. They rode parallel to it for a while, which was a relief since it helped cut the wind. Eventually they reached a gate set into the wall. People ran out to open the gate and they rode through a lengthy stone-flagged tunnel, horseshoes ringing against the stone and echoing through the space. They emerged in a courtyard where they were immediately swarmed by even more people. Someone untied the donkey’s lead and took the pony’s reins from Char. He dismounted and grabbed his bag, but Char had no idea where he was or where he was supposed to go. He awkwardly stood in thecourtyard, a flurry of activity going on around him, rain beating down on his head, and wondering what he should do.

“Char!” The call, muffled by rain and distance, was definitely Fen’s voice. “Char, where are you?”

“Here!” Char yelled back, waving his hand over his head and hoping wherever Fen was he’d see.

“There you are.” Fen materialized out of the gloom at Char’s side. “Indications are the weather isn’t going to improve any time soon. Why don’t you bed down with us tonight, and I’ll bring you over to the palace in the morning?”

“We’re in Etoval?” Char asked, surprised. Yes, the weather was terrible, but surely he wouldn’t have missed riding through the massive capital city.

“In the military complex north of the city. About a ten-minute ride away. Come on, let’s get out of the rain.”

Char followed Fen closely, afraid to lose sight of him in the bustle and the poor visibility. The courtyard was surrounded by buildings on the three sides that weren’t the gate and wall. Fen went to the right, where a path led deeper into the complex. The tall buildings on either side helped keep more of the rain off, which was nice. When they reached another courtyard, they dashed across through the rain. Then, they arrived at a path heading left, leading toward the middle of the complex and no longer following the line of the wall.

“This place is like a maze,” Char muttered, glancing around as they reached a third courtyard. Fen grinned over his shoulder at Char, the flash of his white teeth visible even in the rain-soaked gloom, and finally led Char into a building.

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