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Sabriel ignored him, and said, "Come in" Her voice shook, and she realized that shaky nerves and weakness would be with her for a while

The door swung open silently and a short, robed figure drifted in It was si cowled and so without a visible face, but this one’s habit was of light cream rather than black It had a simple cotton underdress draped over one arm, a thick towel over the other and its Charter-woven hands held a long woollen surcoat and a pair of slippers Without a word, it went to the end of the bed and put the garments on Sabriel’s feet Then it crossed to a porcelain basin that sat in a silver filigree stand, above a tiled area of the floor to the left of the fire There, it twisted a bronze wheel, and stealed fro sulphurous and unpleasant Sabriel wrinkled her nose

"Hot springs," coet "You won’t s perrandfather who said that? Or great-great-aunt? Ah, memory"

The servant stood immobile while the basin filled, then twisted the wheel to cut the floater slopped over the riet--who leapt to his feet and padded away, keeping a cautious distance froht Perhaps the imposed shape impressed behavior too, over the years--or centuries She liked cats The school had a cat, a plump marht about the way it slept on the sill of the Prefect’s Rooeneral, and what her friends would be doing Her eyelids drooped as she i on about silver salvers

A sharp clang woke her with yet another start, sending further stabs of pain through tiredhad tapped the bronze wheel with the poker from the fireplace It was obviously i cold," explained Mogget, leaping up to the bed again "And they’ll be serving dinner in half an hour"

"They?" asked Sabriel, sitting up and reaching forward to grab slippers and towel, preparatory to sidling out of bed and into the his head in the direction of the sending, who had stepped back fro out a bar of soap

Sabriel shuffled over to the basin, the torapped firhtfully hot, but before she could do anything with it, the sending stepped forward, whisked the towel off her and upended the whole basin over her head

Sabriel shrieked, but, again before she could do anything else, the sending had put back the basin, turned the wheel forparticular attention to her head, as if it wanted to get soap in Sabriel’s eyes, or suspected an infestation of nits

"What are you doing!" Sabriel protested, as the strangely cool hands of the sending scrubbed at her back and then, quite without interest, at her brsts and stoh to wash myself, thank you!"

But Miss Prionte’s techniques for dealing with dos It kept scrubbing, occasionally tipping hot water over Sabriel

"How do I stop it?" she spluttered to Mogget, as stillstarted to scrub lower regions

"You can’t," replied Mogget, who seemed quite amused by the spectacle "This one’s particularly recalcitrant"

"What do youow!stop that! What do you et "Every Abhorsen seeet like this one after a few hundred years Privileged family retainers, who always think they know best Practically hu paused in its scrubbing just long enough to flick so way and yowled as it hit hireat basin-load of water hit Sabriel, she saw the cat shoot under the bed, his tail dividing the bedspread

"That’s enough, thank you!" she pronounced, as the last drench of water drained out through a grille in the tiled area The sending had probably finished anyway, thought Sabriel, as it stopped washing and started to towel her dry She snatched the towel back fro counterattacked by co another minor tussle Eventually, between the two of theed on the underdress and surcoat, and sub

She was ad the tiny, repeated silver key motif on the black surcoat in thesounded so opened the door A split second later, Mogget raced through, with a cry that Sabriel thought was "Dinner!" She followed, ratherthe door behind her

Dinner was in the , stately rooround floor, it was dolassat the western end The ed a scene fros around the house, was heavily laden with Charter Magic Perhaps there was no real glass in it at all, Sabrielsun play in and around the toiling figures that were building the Wall As with the sendings, if you looked closely enough you could see tiny Charter h the , but judging from the sun, it was almost dusk Sabriel realized she must have slept for a full day, or possibly even two

A table nearly as long as the hall stretched away froht and lustrous timber, heavily laden with silver salt cellars, candelabra and rather fantastic-looking decanters and covered dishes But only two places were fully set, with a plethora of knives, forks, spoons and other instrus in her Etiquette textbook She’d never seen a real golden straw for sucking the innards out of a poh-backed chair at the head of the table and the other was to the left of this, in front of a cushioned stool Sabriel wondered which was hers, till Mogget jumped up on the stool and said, "Come on! They won’t serve till you’re seated"

"They" werethe cream-dressed tyrant of the bedroom They were all basically the same; human in shape, but cowled or veiled Only their hands were visible, and these were alhtly etched on prosthetic hands carved frorouped around a door--the kitchen door, for Sabriel saw fires beyond the--and stared at her It was rather unnerving, not to et said caustically "Your new s moved, till Sabriel stepped forward They stepped forward, too, and all dropped to one knee, or whatever supported theht hand, Charter ers

Sabriel stared for a moment, but it was clear they offered their services, or loyalty, and expected her to do soently pressed each upthrust hand in turn, feeling the Charter-spells that et had spoken truly, for souess

"I thank you," she said slowly "On behalf of my father, and for the kindness you have shownon with The sendings stood, bowed and went about their business The one in the cream habit pulled out Sabriel’s chair and placed her napkin as she sat It was of crisp black linen, dusted with tiny silver keys, a et, Sabriel noticed, had a plain white napkin, with evidence of old stains

"I’ve had to eat in the kitchen for the last teeks," Mogget said sourly, as two sendings approached fronaled their arrival with a tantalizing odor of spices and hot food