Something slammed against the registry door hard enough to rattle the latch inside its bracket.
Marrick yanked it open and yelled for the watch guard as rain blew sideways across the threshold into the room. A courier stumbled through with a cylinder clutched to his chest, and his exhausted horse sagged against the hitching post.
Hajin caught the man's arm before his knees could fold, "Whoa, whoa, I've got you, sit down before you fall down!"
They walked him toward a chair as rainwater spread across the floor beneath his ruined coat.
"Princess Didi's dispatch," he gasped, lifting the cylinder above his soaked sleeve, "six relay horses, three hundred leagues, and they killed both my escorts at the southern pass."
"Shit."
He set the cylinder on the table and came back from the watch kitchen with a bowl of broth.
His fingers couldn't close around the rim, so Marrick steadied it while a guard led the horse to covered stalls.
