The guest-room over the Watch-wall had a cot, a stool, a window that looked at the ridge, and a hook on the back of the door for a coat, which Teodor used for his own coat and nothing else, since he did not want to be the sort of guest who hung things up that were not his.
He was sitting on the cot with his slate on his knees when the Regent came to the door. He heard the step first. It was a careful step, a little slow on the second stair, as a man walks when he is carrying a lamp in one hand and has decided not to hurry. Then the knock, very soft. Then the voice.
“May I come in?”
Teodor considered the question. It was a good question. It was the kind his mother asked people when she wanted to know whether they would say yes before she told them what she wanted. He decided that it was a fair one, and that he was allowed to answer it.
“Yes,” he said. “It is the Hold’s room, but I am in it, so you should ask me.”
The door opened. The Regent came in with the lamp, and stood just inside the threshold with his head a little bent under the low beam, since he was taller than the door had been built for. He looked at the cot, and at the boy on it with his feet tucked under him, and at the…
