Then the man left, closing the door behind him, leaving Alberich alone in his tiny cell of a room.
Not that his quarters in the barracks—when he'd actually been in them, which was rare—were any larger. But the two rooms could not have been more different.
The outer wall of this room held a large window with actual glass panes in it; the wall directly opposite held the door. The other two walls were blank, and the room was tiled in a pale gray-green. A restful color, if a trifle dull. Tiles on a wall, though; that was something odd.
For furnishings, well, there were the bed he was on, a little three-legged table, and a stool to match. Not much need for a clothes chest in a sickroom, he supposed. He was, he discovered, wearing only smallclothes beneath his blankets and sheet. And they weren't even his smallclothes. Everything about him that was Karsite was gone.
On the other hand, perhaps that was just as well. The less to mark him as the enemy, the better.
From where he was lying in bed, all he could see was a single white cloud, a mere wisp of a thing, drifting from one side to the other. Not a very inspiring view. In fact, there was nothing much in this place to occupy the mind.
Suddenly, he wanted to actually look out that window. He wanted to see more than just sky and clouds. He felt stifled; this was the longest period of time that he had spent without seeing the outside world since—well, he couldn't remember. Even when he'd been a cadet, he'd been outside, riding, exercising, training. Even when he'd been hurt before, he'd been in his own quarters, able—indeed, expected—to get about and take up light duties.
His hands were still bandaged, but lightly, and they didn't hurt so much anymore. He could use them—carefully. Well, the sooner he got out of bed, the sooner he'd finish healing. Gingerly, he slid his legs out from under the covers and put his feet on the cold tiled floor, sitting straight up on the edge of the bed. There was a painful twinge in his chest; an ungentle reminder of broken ribs.
Nothing wrong with my legs, anyway. There were some pink patches—healing burns—but at least no one had broken any foot or leg bones when they'd beaten him. A good thing, too—if his leg had been broken, he'd never have been able to get onto Kantor's back, now, would he?
He'd been hurt in the line of duty often enough to know to pause after every movement to see how badly he felt. There was no point in undoing the work of healing by passing out and falling on the floor because he tried to leap out of bed like a healthy person. So he hesitated for a moment with his feet chilling on the tiles, testing for a sign of weakness, waiting for his vision to blur or fade out. But other than those twinges, he was fine. So far, so good.
Now the true test; standing up. If that didn't make him pass out, nothing would....
It didn't. Now to get to the window.
Moments later—moments that had felt like far longer, as half-healed bits of him protested his movement vehemently with every step—he stood at the window, sweating, shaking, but looking out.
What he saw was not what he had expected.
He supposed he would look out on an enclosed courtyard, certainly something with high walls around it. Surely they would not have put him inside anything less secure. Instead, he saw gardens, wonderful gardens, and they were extensive enough that he couldn't see the walls that must certainly be there. These were no common pleasure parks or bits of waste ground for just anyone to stroll about on.
Directly beneath his window was a graveled path, bordered on either side with a low herbaceous hedge. To either side of that were trees in ornamental clumps, with planted beds of foliage arranged around and among them.
The gardens themselves must have been very old, for the trees looked ancient, the grass as smooth and even as plush, the bushes and flowering plants as if they had been there since the beginning of time. There were stone benches and individual seats placed to best enjoy sun or shade, and lanterns hung from wrought-metal stands beside the benches. Nowhere were there fences to keep people away from the plantings, or even confine them to the paths, except for that little hedge, and it wasn't even knee-high. Once or twice, Alberich had seen gardens like this behind the homes of the wealthy, but never this extensive.
His room was on the second floor of this building, giving him an elevated view; it was a uniquely advantageous one for determining what his surroundings were like. There must have been a door directly below his window, for the path led up to it, and people were entering and leaving from directly below where he stood. Young people, he saw with a start. They wore tunics and trews, or long robes, in a paler color of green than the Healer he had seen. Some of them couldn't be older than ten!
:Those are Healer-trainees,: said Kantor tentatively. :Where we are—it's Healer's Collegium, where young Healers are taught, as well as being a House of Healing. You're on the grounds of a complex that includes Herald's Collegium, where the Heralds are trained, Healer's Collegium, and Bardic Collegium. And the Palace. That's why all the gardens, of course; the pleasure gardens for the Palace, the herb gardens for the Healers, and kitchen gardens. They're open to everyone within the walls.:
The Palace! They allowed him, a Karsite, to be within the same walls that enclosed the Palace? Granted, he was hurt, but still—if he were an assassin, he wouldn't let a little thing like that stop him! And most of the time he was unwatched, unguarded—how could they possibly trust him?
:You're with me,: Kantor replied simply.
The simple, bald statement took him utterly by surprise. He was "with" Kantor—and these people considered that to be enough to trust him within reach of the rulers of their land.
He recalled the attitude of the Healer and revised that. Some of them considered that to be enough.
Or maybe he is just like that with all of his patients.
He looked out on the gardens for a little, before answering. :So these people train Healers in one central place?:
:Mostly. Sometimes they apprentice with an older Healer, or are trained at one of the Temples of Healing, especially if they are uneasy about leaving their homes, but that's rare. We prefer that our Healers come here to learn so that we know that they've gotten a standard education—and any special training that their Gifts and talents might warrant.: Kantor paused. :Would you rather that I not speak to you this way?:
He thought about it for a moment; it seemed to him that this sharing of thoughts should have seemed like a violation, yet it didn't. He couldn't account for that very foreign feeling—unless, perhaps, he'd gotten used to it while he was semiconscious, so now it just didn't raise the instinctive alarm in him that it ordinarily would have. And he could not deny how useful it was to be able to silently speak and ask questions about this place and these people. :No—I would rather you helped me. I said that I would give all of you a trial; I don't know that I can manage that without you. But—where are you?:
:Right here.: He would not have believed that anything as big as a horse could have hidden itself virtually in plain sight—but there was just a little movement, and Kantor stepped into view through a screen of bushes. He was followed by two more of the white Companions, then another two. They all stood just below his window, to one side of the path, looking up at him with eyes so vivid a blue that even from here they struck him with their intensity. :We're all five of us waiting for our Chosen to heal in there,: he said, with wry humor :Heralds have a habit of winding up in the hands of Healers.: