‘Of course. Are you not?’
He grunted.
Her hoarse whisper was like a voice in his head. ‘You do little to dispel that notion. Anyone seeing you sitting here alone, staring into nothing, would be certain your wits had preceded your body to the grave.’
‘Those of us with wits call it thinking. It’s what people who don’t make assumptions do.’
She moved alongside him and followed his gaze. ‘And what do you think?’
‘I think you will have seen that I was right about the boy.’
‘You think he is capable.’
‘Not yet. There is much he must learn. That which is within him must be set free.’
‘Can it?’
‘There are ways.’
‘How can the ways come to pass?’
‘That is what occupies my thoughts.’
‘Will they come to pass?’
‘They will.’
She put a hand on his shoulder. He ignored it, but did not remove it.
A softness crept into her rasp. ‘They must.’
****
When Brann woke, his head was in pain more than his body. Moving his eyelids was too much effort. Groaning was beyond him. The last words he remembered saying were, ‘Wine? What is wine?’
Now he knew. It was what demons created for times when ale wouldn’t cause enough pain the next morning.
He was too hot, so he pushed the blanket to his waist. He needed the feel of something against him, so he pulled the blanket back over him. He curled on his side, but his limbs were restless. He squeezed his eyes shut against the pounding in his skull.
He sat up with a shouted gasp as icy water crashed over him.
‘Good, you’re up,’ Salus said, as jovial as the water was cold. ‘You can carry your bed out to the sun. It needs to dry off.’
He wiped water and fringe from his eyes and waited a moment before lifting his head. Marlo held a dripping bucket, and wore a sheepish grin that Brann wanted to smash from his face. Except that he wanted even more to never again move a muscle. He made to roll back onto his mattress, but Salus stretched out a big arm.
‘No, you don’t. Cassian’s orders. You do your recovery today, then start training tomorrow.’
Brann managed a groan and slowly stood up. His head felt like it had been filled with lead that was expanding with a relentless thumping pulse.
‘Boss wants to see you first of all. Probably wants to see if you survived the second attempt on your life.’
Brann looked up sharply and immediately regretted the sudden movement. ‘Second?’
Salus nodded solemnly. ‘Your own attempt, using excessive amounts of alcohol. It was a most valiant attempt, I must say.’
‘Was I in a bad state?’
Marlo laughed. ‘Entertaining mostly. Then bad.’
‘How bad?’
‘Couldn’t even bite your finger. That’s when we took you to bed. Well, when I say took, I mean carried.’
Brann grunted and shuffled towards the door. Salus coughed pointedly. ‘Your bed.’
Brann turned and lifted the end of the wooden cot, dragging it behind him, screeching against the tiled floor. Marlo stepped beside him and helped to pull it.
Brann looked at him. ‘Would you not be better taking the other end?’
‘I would if you looked capable of steering on your own.’
‘Why are you here anyway? You were only helping me because my hands were full.’
Marlo grinned. ‘I won the chance to handle the bucket.’
Brann’s reply was snatched away by the stabbing pain of the sunlight as he stepped from the doorway. He dropped his side of the bed and clutched his hands to his eyes, yelling in misery. Marlo dragged the bed to one side and left it to dry in the heat. By the time Brann had eased his eyes open to slits, the boy had gone.
‘If you’re ready?’ Salus was waiting.
‘Never felt less like it, but don’t feel like it’s changing any time soon so I may as well,’ Brann grumbled.
Cassian was watching his fighters spar when they found him. Brann was still trying not to vomit from the smell of the food cooking in the kitchens that they had passed on the way, but still managed to curse inwardly that the Master of the School could not have been occupied in the cool shade of his residence.
‘Ah, my young warrior!’ The old soldier beamed. ‘I’m so glad to see you again. I did tell you this last night, but you didn’t seem to be taking much in at that stage. Did you enjoy your introduction to wine?’
Brann rubbed the heels of his hands against his temples. ‘Even my hair hurts. Why could you not have had a normal drink, like ale?’
‘If we had expected you to return, we would have ordered some in.’
‘Oh, very funny.’
Cassian frowned. ‘It was not a joke.’ He beamed and clapped Brann on the shoulder. ‘It was a surprise, but be assured, it was a surprise of the most pleasant sort. And you certainly seemed to like the wine when you were drinking it.’
‘Well I don’t now.’
‘Your dancing on the table was most amusing, though not as amusing as your spectacular fall from it. And it did serve to cure your shaking last night. Although I see it is now causing the shaking this morning.’ He handed Brann his waterskin, old leather that still had a feel of high quality. ‘My victory present to you. Drink and refill it regularly.’
Aware that his mouth was tongue-sticking dry, Brann drank greedily. Cassian tipped the waterskin back down. ‘Easy, easy. Build up slowly or it will hit your stomach and bounce back with all it finds there.’
Salus grinned. ‘That might actually not be the worst thing that could happen.’
‘Perhaps.’ Cassian clapped Brann on the back. He was sure it caused his head to burst. ‘What will be, will be. In the meantime, our friend Salus will introduce you to my good lady wife. She will take care of you today. We will start improving you tomorrow.’
Brann swayed slightly, waiting for his vision to stop dancing. It didn’t, so he accepted that he would just have to follow both of the two Saluses that were walking back towards the main house.
After a while, Cassian’s final words sank in. ‘Improve me?’
‘You can always improve.’
‘But I thought what I did yesterday worked.’
‘It worked against him.’
‘Yes, so I was thinking I would just be…’
‘You will not fight him again.’
‘Oh. That’s true.’
They were about to enter the house, but Salus wheeled to face him. He placed his hands on Brann’s shoulders and bent to look into his eyes. For once, he looked stern. ‘The