Bastion

they did make it that way. Meanwhile, judging by everything I’ve read about the Hawkbrothers, we can trust them to have made good work of this.
    There was more, because this had been Hawkbrother-made. On the left side of the little room was another niche that ended at about waist height, with another, deeper depression. This depression had a much smaller hole in it.
    In short: this was a basin for washing the hands and face. It had probably once boasted a plug for the bottom.
    This could not have been better unless it had the same sort of flushing-water setup the Palace and Collegia had. With a slight smile he left the little room and went hunting for supplies.
    Amily woke up first. It had been very nice sleeping cuddled together (at last!) even if they hadn’t done anything but kiss and fondle. They’d certainly kept each other warmer than they would have been sleeping separately. He rather thought that no one had noticed that they had gone off together last night, since Bear and Lena had retired right after supper to the caravan, Lita had gone to bed not that long after, making up for the fact that she had nothad the luxury of a nap on the way, and Jakyr had stayed up with Milles, talking. It wouldn’t be too long before someone noticed, however . . .
    Well, cross that river when they came to it. Amily wasn’t a Bard, so Lita probably wouldn’t say anything. Bear and Lena certainly wouldn’t. That left Jakyr, and if Jakyr took against it, Lita would almost certainly come out on their side. The ensuing argument would probably cause both the Herald and the Bard to forget what they were arguing about.
    When Amily emerged from their cavelet, still sleepy eyed, he took her by the hand and conveyed her wordlessly to his little discovery in all its newly decorated glory. Beside the latrines, a big bag of soft hay. In the other niche was a wax plug that fit in the hole of the “sink”, and on the stone shelf of the “sink,” a lit lantern, a box of soft soap and a bucket of water with a dipper.
    Amily stared. “Was all this—I mean the stone—here already?”
    He nodded. “I tried it out. The latrines are made for something with a wider behind than a human, but it still isn’t a bad fit. I have to warn you, though, it’s startling cold to sit on, and it’s going to get worse the colder the winter gets.”
    “And here I thought we’d have to be digging our own! It would have been even colder out there in the valley, sitting in a canvas-sided box on a couple of boards or something.” She kissed him, then shooed him out. He left, chuckling. He knew very well how to deal with a deep-pit latrine like this one; collect the ashes from the fires, and toss them down as often as you collected them. Even if there wasn’t a bit of runoff to clean things up periodically, it would all compost nicely, and probably provide for cave insects.
    He was organizing the kitchen area a little better when Amily came out, all smiles. “I even had a good wash. Now, if you find some sort of hertasi bathtub, I will be in sheer heaven.”
    “For all I know, they made something of the sort. I’ll see what I can find,” he began, when Lita appeared from her own cavelet.
    Unlike Amily and Lena, she was wearing breeches. The other two had opted for divided skirts, like very wide trews, on this journey. Mags had a notion he wasn’t going to see any of them in skirts or gowns or even Bardic robes at all, which didn’t bother him in the least. One less thing for them to worry about; he just hoped that the locals were not going to get their knickers in a knot over it.
    “Found the hertasi jakes, did you?” Lita said cheerfully. “One less thing that I have to look for then. Point me in the direction?”
    Amily did, then helped Mags set up for a more substantial breakfast than he’d made for the Guard before they left.
    A lot of things had been left when the bandits had been cleared out that weren’t worth the looting. Mags had found three slabs of stone that set up to make a very passable sort of oven when set against the rock wall. He raked all of the coals back there while he built up the fire again, and he got out all the three-legged pots and pans that you used over an open fire when you didn’t have a way to suspend them, arranging them on and in their cupboard. He didn’t remember if there was a tripod to hang pots from in the supplies, but there certainly hadn’t been one in the pot box that was slung under the