"What do you think you are doing?" the Haspur snarled, his beak parted in threat.
Startled, the human glanced around for help from the guards. But the guards were not disposed to interfere, at least not yet. T'fyrr hadn't done anything contrary to their orders, and Nightingale doubted that they had any idea just how much pressure those hand-claws could exert.
And if they did, they still might not interfere.
The man made an abortive move to free his wrist and discovered just how strong a Haspur's grip was. Nightingale stayed out of the way and in the background. The less she drew attention to herself, the better. Too many people already had her marked as it was; she didn't need to add the physician to the list.
Finally the man decided that answering was better than standing there with his wrist in the grip of a giant predator_although he tried to look as important as possible. That was a bit difficult, given that he was also wincing from the pain of T'fyrr's grip.
"I am going to wake him," the physician said arrogantly.
Oh, truly? Then he is more of a fool than I took him for! Nightingale thought in surprise. If Harperus' trance had not been self-induced, it would have been very serious indeed. It might have been dangerous to Harperus to wake him_and it might have been impossible.
And even though the trance was self-induced, and therefore it was unlikely the physician could break down the wall of Harperus' will, trying to wake him could easily interfere with the self-healing process.
"And just how much do you know about the Deliambrens?" T'fyrr all but purred, dangerously. "Have you studied Deliambren head injuries? Have you ever had a Deliambren patient before?"
"Well, no, but_" the man stuttered, surprised into telling the truth. He had probably never had anyone challenge his expertise before.
"Have you ever had any nonhuman as a patient?" T'fyrr persisted, his eyes narrowing, his voice dropping another half-octave so that the purr became a growl. "Have you even studied nonhuman injuries?"
The man blanched and tried to bluff. "No, but that hardly matters whe_ouch!" T'fyrr had tightened his talons on the man's wrist. Nightingale winced. Surely the bones were grinding together by now.
"Why then is it so imperative that Lord Harperus be wakened?" T'fyrr asked, "when you know that you know nothing of how his body functions, and in waking him you might kill him? Is this on the orders of the King?" He pulled the man a little closer to him, effortlessly, and looked down at him with his beak no more than a few inches from the physicians face.
"It_no_ow!_it's because of the escape, you fool!" The physician was dead-white now, with anger as much as with fear, although fear was swiftly gaining the upper hand.
After all, there is a beak fully capable of biting through his spine less than a hand's-breadth from his nose.
T'fyrr shook the wrist he held, ever so slightly. "What escape?" he asked urgently, and Nightingale felt the hair on the back of her neck rise, both in reaction to his dangerously icy tone and in premonition. Her stomach knotted with T'fyrr's, both of them with chills of fear running down their backs.
"The man_the man who was caught here," the physician stammered, unable to look away from T'fyrr's eyes. "He escaped early this evening. We need to talk to the Envoy to discover if there was anyone he recognized among the rest of his attackers. We need to find more of the perpetrators before they have a chance to get away."
"What?" T'fyrr dropped the man's wrist; the physician did not even stop to gather up his instruments. He fled the suite, leaving only T'fyrr and the guards. T'fyrr turned toward the guard nearest him, who shrugged.
"I hadn't heard anything, Sire," the man said. "We've been here as long as you have. I can send to find out, though."
"Do that," T'fyrr ordered brusquely. "If the man really did escape, there are now at least three people who need to see that Lord Harperus does not get a chance to identify them, all loose in this Palace. Now we don't know who any of them are; they could be among the very servants sent here to serve Lord Harperus. You might consider that when you send your message."
The guard's grim face grew a bit grimmer, and he himself disappeared for a moment or two, leaving his fellow twice as vigilant. When he returned, it was with his own Captain striding by his side. Nightingale recognized the Captain from the High King's suite; he was one of the ones usually close at Theovere's side.
"I understand you have not heard the latest of our incidents, Sire T'fyrr," the Captain said with careful courtesy. "I can tell it to you in brief: the Palace does not normally hold prisoners. Normally we send them elsewhere, within the city, which has better gaols than we. This time, however, it was deemed better to keep the man here, in one of the storage rooms in the cellars, with a guard on his door. Not," he added, with a wry lift of an eyebrow, "one of us. This was merely a Palace guard, not one of the Elite."
T'fyrr nodded, and the Captain went on. "I am told that at about dinner time, according to the guard left on duty, a woman appeared with whom several of the guards were familiar, he among them. She is ostensibly a maid here, and yet no one will admit now to having her in their service. At any rate, there was supposedly a good reason for her to be in the storage area, and when she saw the guard who knew her, she flirted with him as she has often done in the past. He allowed his caution to slip; she was only a woman after all, and alone."
"She then incapacitated the guard and let the prisoner escape," T'fyrr concluded, seeing the obvious direction the tale was heading.