12
THAYU AND I went back into the room with the others.
In the absence of further information we could only wait. I gathered that Asha didn’t expect to let us wait very long, or he would have provided us with beds.
A soldier did turn up, however, with a trolley of food. When he took the lid off the tray and revealed the closely packed square containers covered with lids, I remembered these meals from the two weeks I’d spent aboard a military ship on the way to Asto. Even the smell was the same. Apparently rations hadn’t gotten any more interesting in the intervening time.
I thanked the man, and he left the room.
Ynggi lifted the corner of the lid on one of the containers. He sniffed the steam that came out and recoiled.
“I think you’ll need to be careful which ones you eat,” I said.
