Just outside the main doors, on the broad steps, there was a flurry of activity when Narcissa’s presence was noticed.

Hermia tapped Tyrel on the shoulder, caught Madoc’s eye since he was out of reach, and nodded in Evander’s direction; obediently, both joined Melanippe in flanking him as he dropped behind, allowing Narcissa to continue with Hermia and Kaveri and Mirren. Iole slipped off on her own; Kaveri assumed she intended to check on the injured guards.

Evander raised his voice, with all the skill Narcissa had displayed the prior day at being heard without shouting. “Her Gracious Serenity is not currently available to discuss yesterday’s extraordinary events. I’m sure you can understand that a public attempt on one’s life is an unsettling experience in our peaceful and law-abiding nation, and yet Her Gracious Serenity is determined to continue with the vital task of establishing Phleion’s hospital and guiding it through its first days in the world. The animals that attacked were not sent by Neaira or Oreios, but they were meant to give that impression. We will, therefore, not be abandoning or closing the hospitals. Return to your own business. No one will be permitted into Her Gracious Serenity’s presence today unless it is essential for the functioning of the hospital.”

“We’re entitled to be heard!” one man shouted.

“No,” Evander said calmly. “You are not. Do not mistake willingness to listen and concern for our people for the obligation to do so at all times or to tolerate disrespectful demands.” Kaveri glanced back, since something had changed in the sound of his voice, and discovered that he was following Narcissa with long swift strides that reminded Kaveri more than a little of the way the princess moved.

It was quieter inside the stone walls, and cooler as well.

The hospital was an impressive three full floors tall, presumably with an accessible roof as well. To reach Narcissa’s office they had to traverse what felt like miles of broad corridors, through which people in the colours Kaveri had noted yesterday hastened, and climb two wide flights of stairs. Evander unlocked a door with a key akin to the one Hermia had for the house but a little smaller, and stepped back; Hermia entered first, scanning everything, before returning to invite Narcissa inside.

A second door, a second key on the same metal ring, revealed Narcissa’s own office, before Evander turned to the L-shaped wooden desk that was heavy with piles of paper and wood-framed wax tablets.

“My door stays open,” he said absently, while Hermia checked the inner room as well. “I need to be accessible to the...” He said a word Kaveri didn’t understand. “... staff of the hospital for many different issues.”

“Sorry,” Tyrel said. “What staff? I don’t know that word.”

“Administrative. The people who take care of this,” he gestured to the contents of his desk. “The people who make sure that there are physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and support staff scheduled at all times, that all necessary supplies are available, that physician’s notes can be tracked and verified, that all tasks that cannot be done here have appropriate contracted specialists available, that we know how many patients are in the hospital and why and what they might need during or after their stay, that we have records on patients so we will know their history if they return. The jobs that are often forgotten or undervalued but keep any large and complex organization functioning successfully.”

“That’s a lot of work,” Madoc observed. “And it might just as well be magic. Tyrel and Kaveri and I learned to read over the past few years, but your alphabet is different. Mirren’s figured it out enough for us to make good guesses at business names and that sort of thing, but that’s about it.”

“Fortunately,” Tyrel said, “we’re very good at reading people. And better than you might think at intimidating rude ones.” He drew one of his throwing knives, a single piece of flat polished steel, and began to idly clean under a fingernail with the lethally sharp point. “Madoc and I grew up handling weapons, and we’ve noticed that it makes people who didn’t uneasy. Especially if they are at all unsure of our intentions.”

“Try not to frighten the ones who actually have a valid reason to be here,” Evander said, seating himself at the desk.

Evander’s office was minimalist and efficient, with the desk, two extra chairs of that simple locally-common design that resembled an hourglass from the front with cushions softening seat and back, and a wall that was all shelves for more paper. There was nothing decorative at all, but there was plenty of light from the large window behind his desk.

Narcissa’s office, in contrast, was very much personalized. Accessible only via Evander’s, it was larger and had windows on two sides partly shaded by curtains with small weights in the bottom. It held not only Narcissa's desk and ample shelf space and potted plants on every surface but considerable extra seating as well. Several stools and chairs were scattered around the space along with a single couch with one raised end. Like the furnishings of Narcissa's house, there was a distinct theme of plants and earthy colours, from the cushions to the rugs on the marble floors.

In one corner was a life-sized painted statue of a woman in her prime, in yellow and green, with a basket cradled in her arms, and inside it were real, not carved, bottles and jars and a mortar and pestle and several bunches of herbs—a personal shrine of sorts, perhaps?

“Feel free to sit down as often as you like,” Narcissa said absently, seating herself at her own desk. “Evander will allow few people past him to talk to me directly. I’d appreciate it if you could listen for that and respond accordingly. Under normal circumstances even two can find the day long and tedious, so if it’s quieter than expected it might be very tiresome.”

“Boring is good when doing any kind of guard work,” Kaveri said. “We know that from experience: guard work and excitement generally are a bad combination. We’re good with being bored.”

That was half the truth. Boredom was better than excitement, but it eventually made it more difficult to stay as acutely focused on the details that needed attention.

Besides, Tyrel and Madoc both being excessively bored often meant that they’d start looking for ways to relieve the monotony, which could lead to excitement. A little less boredom might mean less overall excitement.

About four visitors in five were there to discuss hospital issues with Evander, or drop off more documents, or pick up documents.

That left one in five with other intentions.

“I’m here to talk to the princess.”

“Her Gracious Serenity is currently very busy. What’s it regarding? I can probably help.”

“You don’t make decisions, she does. I insist on talking to her.”

“She is not seeing anyone today outside of previously-arranged appointments or emergency situations, and I decide whether it is an emergency. You have given me no reason to believe that it is, in fact, an emergency.”

“Neaira and Oreios made it very clear that they do not approve! This whole hospital project needs to be closed down immediately!”

“They have not. Neaira’s high priests have been consistently supportive and her High Priest in Phleion assures us that the bear yesterday was not sent by Neaira—I have her letter right here, if you wish to see it, urging Her Gracious Serenity to stay courageous despite the attempt on her life and praying that she will stay safe. The Oracle has been saying the same since the immediate aftermath of the attack. The hospitals remain important and will remain open, and there is literally nothing you can say that will cause Her Gracious Serenity to change her mind on that. I have work to do. Please leave, before you need to be assisted on that score.”

Kaveri could overhear, though not see. She was quite sure Tyrel and Madoc would be more than happy to provide that assistance.

“Hey! I’m here to talk to Narcissa!”

“Not if you’re that disrespectful. Out. Now.”

“I have a right to...”

“Tyrel? Madoc? Would you mind?”

“Anything you say, Your Serenity,” Tyrel said.

Kaveri recognized the tone: fox, and probably bobcat, spotting legitimate prey to play with, something to alleviate the monotony. Maybe Evander had noticed their restlessness, since presumably he could have asked Melanippe.

The sounds of a brief flurry of motion made Narcissa look up from the documents on her desk, a line showing between her brows.

“Nothing to worry about,” Mirren said cheerfully. “Just someone being annoying. Tyrel and Madoc are showing him where the door is.”

“Very efficiently,” Hermia added, from where she was leaning on the doorframe to watch.

“I hope they don’t get hurt.”

Kaveri wondered which party Narcissa meant by the pronoun. “Not at all likely,” she said, more or less truthfully for either.

Peace ruled for a while, the only visitors dropping off mail or with hospital-related issues to discuss with Evander; now and then, Evander took things to Narcissa, who simply signed anything he offered for that purpose and added the rest to her own pile of things to deal with, and sometimes she handed him back things off her desk. Some of those things went into the hands of the khaki-clad messengers, mostly young, who kept delivering things.

Kaveri figured Tyrel and Madoc would make an effort not to terrify the messengers, but when she peeked, she did see them lounging against walls, Tyrel absently playing with a throwing knife, Madoc polishing his clawed knuckle-guards.

“Hermia,” Narcissa said, after one such delivery. “Thaleia is awake and in considerable pain despite all efforts to control it. Phaidra hasn’t woken yet, but with any luck she will very soon. Our new friends seem to have this job well in hand. Perhaps you and Melanippe should pay them a visit? Iole could use a friend right now, and Thaleia would be grateful for some distraction, I’m sure.”

“I don’t like leaving you,” Hermia said.

“There is not enough here to keep six busy. It’s unlikely there will be significant trouble anyway, but there will still be four here to handle it. They can and they will. Please. I’m worried about the others.”

“But...” Hermia broke off, and heaved a sigh. “Yes, milady.”

“Don’t hurry back. Stay and have lunch with them.”

Hermia inclined her head, and walked out of the room, back straight and head high. She collected Melanippe on the way through the outer room.

“Thank you for trusting us,” Kaveri said.

Narcissa raised one shoulder in an elegant and minimalistic shrug. “If you did somehow mean any harm, this is an unlikely place for that to suddenly be revealed.”

Lunch arrived on a multi-level cart tall enough to be a sort of table on wheels, pushed by a young woman in khaki with double narrow stripes of startlingly bright yellow. It held the usual: bread, fruit, wine and water and oil, cheese. The moonblood quartet took turns, making sure two were always on high alert; Narcissa remarked absently that most days, they’d eat and take a stroll outside or at least on the roof, but she’d prefer to stay in her office today.

Soon after they finished, before the cart had even been removed, most of the people Evander had turned away that morning reappeared, all at the same time.

Over half a dozen extra bodies instantly made the outer office feel crowded, and on top of that there was the cacophony of voices, all of them talking over each other and each striving to be the loudest. Evander, on the other hand, never raised his own voice at all, despite being drowned out.

One took advantage of the chaos to slip around the others and in the door of Narcissa’s office.

He made it only a single step before he found his path blocked by Kaveri and Mirren.

“You do not have permission to come in here,” Mirren said. “These weapons are not toys for children or the theatre, and we can and will use them. Go away, until His Serenity gives you permission.”

“These damned hospitals are against the will of the gods!” the intruder bellowed. “Oreios made that very clear! They have to be closed!”

Narcissa looked up and sighed. “Oreios has no authority over the hospitals, even if that had actually been his eagle yesterday. It wasn’t even the right variety of eagle. The hospitals will remain open, with the support of Neaira and Makarios and Aithre. I do not take orders from anyone save my parents and brother, and I have no time for anyone who behaves so rudely. Leave now. Alone or by force, that’s your decision.”

“Oreios is...”

Kaveri didn’t give him time to finish the statement: she seized his thumb, twisted to spin him around, and forced his arm up behind his back, her other hand on his far shoulder. He was so obviously not expecting that from a woman of her size that she had him helpless before he could process that she was doing anything, and by then, it was too late. “I have this one,” she told Mirren in their mixed-language argot they used among themselves. “The boys could probably use extra hands.” She switched back to Enodian, and gave his thumb a small twist just to make sure she had his attention. Over his yelp she said, “Door. Now.” When he hesitated, she gave him another little reminder that she could hurt him if she chose. Unwillingly, he shuffled back out of Narcissa’s office and towards Evander’s door.

Mirren, meanwhile, nodded and took her at her word, joining Tyrel and Madoc in driving them back from Evander’s desk and forcing them collectively out of the room. The sight of Madoc pulling on his glove and deliberately fastening the buckles while giving the intruders a grin that showed his teeth seemed to contribute quite a lot to a sudden decision to leave. The one who hesitated changed his mind when he saw the gleam of Mirren’s small push-knife peeking from between her fingers and Tyrel tossed his throwing knife neatly from one hand to the other and back.

Freed, Kaveri’s captive lingered in the corridor, spitting insults about foreigners and uncivilized barbarians who responded with excessive force to a citizen’s rightful attempt to speak to the royal family.

“His Serenity is also part of the royal family,” Tyrel said. “If talking to him isn’t good enough, and you can’t do it politely, then too bad. Where my brother and I come from, the consequences of talking rudely to the person in charge are usually bloody and sometimes lethal. Enodians like to learn, right? We can demonstrate...”

That was enough. He finally left.

“Really?” Evander said, with mild curiosity. “Bloody or lethal, over rudeness?”

“Not really,” Tyrel laughed. “The person in charge has to be a respected... what’s the word? Not just a guard, but a professional at fighting?”

“Warrior? Most often military in Enodia, but sometimes the city watch.”

“Has to be a respected warrior who can’t depend on anyone but his own shieldmate. He’d lose respect if he had to let anyone else defend him. But if you’re disrespectful to him, he will probably punch, slap, or kick you, no weapons.”

“That sounds... direct. Thank you. That was impressively fast and clean.”

“They’re not warriors,” Madoc said. “They’re easy to push around. But we’ll stay alert.” He adjusted his glove, and flexed each finger in turn to check the fit, the polished steel claws on fingertips and knuckles flashing in the sunlight. “I think I’ll leave this on.”

“It does get attention.”

“That’s the idea. Part of it, anyway. Block attacks, do some damage, and be scary. Perfect combination.”

“I... suppose so. Just try to be less scary when someone comes to get the lunch cart.”

“We will,” Tyrel said, slipping his throwing knife back into the holder across his chest with the others. “You do what you need, and we’ll try to prevent any more interruptions.”

Narcissa rose and came to the door linking the offices, depositing her empty lunch dishes on the cart. “You’re repeating yourself so much that it’s interfering with your ability to get anything done. Suppose I address everyone at once. Tell people that tomorrow at noon I will make a statement in front of the hospital about yesterday and the future.”

“That could be dangerous,” Evander protested.

“I don’t see that we have much choice. We have protectors. It will be... well, better than the alternative.” She dropped back a step and inclined her head gracefully as a youth in khaki with chestnut stripes darted in the door and skidded to a hasty stop. “It’s all right. Don’t mind me.”

She returned to her own desk.

Kaveri, following, heard Evander mutter something under his breath but he didn’t argue, and he passed on the message for the rest of the afternoon.