Several weeks later, I was interrupted in my duties for the Lieutenant Handelen and notified that Rodelleth wished to speak with me. I knew not to dally or put the guard off, so I set out immediately for the commander’s large tent. There Rodelleth did tell me that she had written notice to the Captain of the King’s Guard informing them of Culufinnel leaving her ranks and the circumstances of his departure. I shrugged, saying it was unfortunate, but necessary, to tell the Captain, so that the matter is laid out before him for proper consideration.
Then I do believe she smirked, and taking up a thick scroll from her desk told me that it was his reply to her, and it seems that I am well known to the Captain. Unfurling the scroll, she read, 'In the night of the fifth day of the Autumn Festival, Parnard Teludarion was seen balancing a lit candelabra on his forehead and running up and down the feast-hall tables. Witnesses say that he tripped over a bowl of fruit and tumbled into the wall, dropping the candelabra underneath a fringed curtain, and so started the fire in the King’s feast-hall. Had it not been for the diligence and speedy resolve of the King’s Guard, the hall would have been utterly destroyed.'
I remembered that evening very well of course, and described it to Rodelleth in detail. It was a very long time ago, this accident that could have happened to anyone. I could not help it that the bowl of fruit was on the table, and on such occasions we were always very sportive, and our frolics the merriest, and our pranks the drollest, and if our attention were not diverted elsewhere, the fire would not have burned quite so hot, and the damage would not have been quite so great.
Rodelleth listened to my explanation while looking over the scroll, and said that the King’s Guard reported several other frolics, as I chose to call them, and my excuses for each of them, which she thought were plainly frivolous. I did not much like her tone, or how she twisted my words around this way and that to produce a desired result, that is, to make me look like a fool. I began to grow uneasy when she motioned to a soldier standing off to the side. She murmured a few words in his ear before dismissing him, turned her unwanted attention back to me, and said that although Handelen thought I was a very good servant, she would be informing him at once of this information, and no doubt, he would rue his decision of putting his trust in a base, shiftless person.
I know not how I managed to control my anger, for my blood was up at the prattling of a frosty-eyed vixen who seems to think herself a queen by the way she carries herself, but it is well for Rodelleth that I did. I asked permission to leave at once, as this was wearying talk, and because I had a full day’s work of cleaning to do for her brother, I would rather spend it washing his linen than enduring vicious abuse. She laughed in my face, then treated me to another helping, and with unnecessary spitefulness did contemn me, and sent me away with the greatest scorn in the world, saying, “Soon my brother will no longer require the trifling services of a villain.” A guard took me back to the Lieutenant’s tent, as if I could not be trusted to find my way back alone. Lately I have been taking more care than usual in my work, but it is finished now, and I am very troubled to think how low I am brought since my arrival at Thangúlhad Fortress, an evil place that seems to love threats and estrangement.
