The document Batu had returned for was a relay accounting Khulgen had sent to the residence instead of the administrative quarter. A clerk had attached a short explanation to it, identifying the delivery as an error. The papers had been sitting on the writing table since the first hour of the morning.
Batu had just picked them up when Saran came through the house corridor already moving toward the exit, Toqoqan against her shoulder and her outer coat still untied.
"The guild charter doesn't include an appeal process."
Her pace suggested she was already thinking beyond the room. "Khulgen sent a Bulgar craftsman to me this morning because nobody could tell him what happens after a rejected application. I need to write the procedure before two more men arrive asking the same question."
She shifted Toqoqan into Batu's arms with the ease of repetition, already turning toward the door again.
"Don't give him anything small. He'll try to eat it."
