"Here, Burrich," Jason said matter-of-factly. "This pup's for you, now." He turned away from me. I watched with interest as he broke a corner as big as his fist off a dark loaf, and then drew his belt knife to take a wedge of cheese off a wheel. He pushed these into my hands, and then stepping to the fire, began sawing a man-sized portion of meat off the joint. I wasted no time in filling my mouth with bread and cheese. Beside me, the man called Burrich set down his mug and glared around at Jason.

"What's this?" he asked, sounding very much like the man in the warm chamber. He had the same unruly blackness to his hair and beard, but his face was angular and narrow. His face had the color of a man much outdoors. His eyes were brown rather than black, and his hands were long-fingered and clever. He smelled of horses and dogs and blood and leathers.

"He's yours to watch over, Burrich. Prince Verity says so.

"Why?"

"You're Chivalry's man, ain't you? Care for his horse, his hounds, and his hawks?"

"So?"

"So, you got his little bastid, at least until Chivalry gets back and does otherwise with him." Jason offered me the slab of dripping meat. I looked from the bread to the cheese I gripped, loath to surrender either, but longing for the hot meat, too. He shrugged at seeing my dilemma, and with a fighting man's practicality, flipped the meat casually onto the table beside my hip. I stuffed as much bread into my mouth as I could and shifted to where I could watch the meat.

"Chivalry's bastard?"

Jason shrugged, busy with getting himself bread and meat and cheese of his own. "So said the old plowman what left him here." He layered the meat and cheese onto a slab of bread, took an immense bite, and then spoke through it. "Said Chivalry ought to be glad he'd seeded one child, somewhere, and should feed and care for him himself now.