Read Intrigues: Book Two of the Collegium Chronicles (a Valdemar Novel) Online

Authors: Mercedes Lackey

Tags: #Fantasy - Epic, #Fantasy - General, #American Science Fiction And Fantasy, #Fantasy fiction, #Fiction - Fantasy, #General, #Fiction, #Fantasy, #Valdemar (Imaginary place), #Epic

Intrigues: Book Two of the Collegium Chronicles (a Valdemar Novel) (25 page)

BOOK: Intrigues: Book Two of the Collegium Chronicles (a Valdemar Novel)
2.32Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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Mags rushed the man anyway. Maybe if he took the bodyguard by surprise—
He dropped and rolled when he was almost on top of the man, hoping to knock his feet out from under them, but the foreigner must have been ready for that. The man dodged, and out of nowhere, there was a tremendous thwack to Mags’ head, and he saw stars, then felt himself hauled to his feet by the collar and pinned to the wall by his shoulders.
The look in the man’s eyes absolutely terrified him, because it was both furious and utterly impersonal.
“You, horse-boy,” spat the bodyguard. “What are you doing here? How did you find us? Who sent you?”
“I don’ know nothin’—” Mags began, and the man delivered a blow to his gut that doubled him over, and a second to his face that opened up a painful gash along his cheek. The pain that went through his body and skull drove all thought right out of his head.
“Who sent you?” the man repeated.
“I don’—” This time the blow to his gut was followed by a slam into the wall that rammed his head against it. He saw stars again, and his vision grayed out. He could hardly breathe.
“Tell me!” the bodyguard spat, and slammed his head into the wall again. He couldn’t even think well enough to defend himself.
“You will tell me!” A blow to the jaw loosened his teeth as well and his mouth filled with blood.
The trumpeting of an enraged stallion interrupted the interrogation, and the man whirled, dropping Mags, who slid down the wall, and slumped to the dirt of the alley, dazed.
Dallen’s bulk filled the end of the alley. The Companion shrieked with rage, dancing in place, but unable to wedge himself into the narrow space.
The man spat a curse and wrestled his sword out, banging it against the walls on either side of him. He plunged at Dallen in a fury. Dallen lashed out at him with forehooves, but had to give way. The man must have practiced fighting against a warhorse, if not a Companion, because he kept dodging the lethal hooves and getting in closer and closer with his blows, and it was clear he was aiming to slash open one of the big arteries or veins of the legs.
Mags fought off the dizziness, the dazzle in front of his eyes, and the nausea and pain of the beating, trying to get his breath again, trying to get up and fight back. After all, this wasn’t the first time someone had tried to beat him to death—and Dallen needed him! He fumbled for, and found, his knife. As he had been taught, he weighed it carefully in his hand for a precious moment. Squinting until the double images resolved into one, he flung the little blade at the man’s back.
The man howled and cursed in pain. The knife lodged for a moment in his shoulderblade, then clattered to the ground.
In a fury, he looked from Mags to Dallen and back again, and evidently realized that where there was one Companion, there soon would be more.
He turned back to Dallen, but this time, the whirlwind strikes of his sword were meant to drive Dallen back, not to kill him. The moment that Dallen’s bulk was clear of the cul-de-sac entrance, he darted away.
Mags dropped to his knees, then doubled over again, unable to decide what part of himself to hold, since so much hurt.
He wished he could pass out; unconsciousness would be very welcome right now. Unfortunately, his body refused to cooperate.
:Mags!:
The frantic call rang through his skull and made more stars explode behind his eyes.
:Don’—think s’hard—:
he gasped mentally.
:—hurts—:
Slowly, he managed to get to his feet again. With one hand on the wall and the other on his gut, he stumbled to the entrance and fell against Dallen’s neck. Dallen immediately knelt in the filth of the alley to let him drag himself over the Companion’s back. He put both his arms around Dallen’s neck, hanging on as best he could, balanced on the broad white surface like a sack of roots.
Dallen lurched to his feet without unbalancing Mags.
:Then others will chase him,:
came a whisper of thought.
:I am getting you back up to the Healers now.:
And without another thought, Dallen sped grimly back up to the Collegium, with Mags clinging dizzily to his neck.
:S’allright, :
he managed, as they were about halfway there.
:Been beat this bad afore—wha’s goin’ on?:
:The others are converging on the inn right now, with the Guard,:
Dallen said.
:They’ll try and catch the bastards.:
:Shouldn’ we—:
:No. We are doing nothing. You have done enough. You are in no shape to assist in any way at all.:
Dallen rushed through the gates, passing Guards that were nothing more than blue blurs to Mags, and into the Collegia grounds.
:I’m taking you to Healers’ Collegium,:
Dallen said, when they didn’t stop at either the stable or at Heralds’ Collegium.
Finally Dallen stopped. They were met at the door by a single Healer and by Gennie, and the flash of outrage in Dallen’s mind that there was not a herd of Healers waiting for them was enough to set stars dancing in front of Mags’ vision again.
:Sorry,:
Dallen said, and damped down the connection between them so that less was getting through. But it was very clear that he was still enraged.
“Calm down,” the Healer ordered, wincing, as Gennie helped Mags down off of Dallen’s back. “He’s one single Trainee who’s been beaten up; he’s neither bleeding to death inside, nor has any broken bones, I can tell you that much. Stop acting as if he was going to die at any moment, you big fool.”
Dallen snorted and whinnied angrily, as Gennie held Mags up so the Healer could peel back his eyelids and peer into his eyes.
“He has a mild concussion. His insides are badly bruised, but quite intact. I’m sure he hurts all over. Stop fussing,” the Healer snapped.
“Tol’ ’im—been beat this bad afore—” Mags managed.
“And you shut up. Companion, go to your stable. Trainee, you are going straight to a bed. Give him a hand, Trainee Gennie, and both of you follow me.”
With Gennie keeping him from falling over, Mags followed the Healer into a part of the Collegium he had never been before—a big room with a great many beds in it, most of them empty. Gennie helped him down onto the nearest one, then when the Healer started to strip Mags’ clothing off of him, flushed crimson and beat a hasty retreat.
The Healer peeled everything off him but his boots, singlet and hose, tossing the clothing aside. “That Companion of yours could stand to have better manners,” he grumbled. “It’s not as if you’re the only sick or injured person here right now.”
Mags thought about saying something, but his jaw hurt too much to move. In fact, everything hurt more and more the longer he sat here.
He winced as the Healer’s hands moved over his body, probing the places where the blows had fallen. Then he sighed with relief as the hands rested on those spots, as warmth poured from the hands, and the relief from pain followed the warmth.
“Your assailant has done this before,” the man said laconically. “He was quite methodical about inflicting the most pain while doing the least damage.”
“ ’s thet good?” Mags asked, as the room started to spin in circles around him. “Uh, I dunno’f’I’m gonna be sick—”
The man’s hands rested on his head a moment, and some of the dizziness cleared away, and with it the nausea.
“Well, it isn’t bad for you,” the Healer said. “It means most of this is soft tissue damage, and I can tend it myself without help. One decent night and a day of rest and you’ll be fit to go right out and Kirball to your heart’s content. Yes, yes, I know you are on one of the Kirball teams, and I am very much aware that your captain wants you ready for the first game. And you will be. But not until you get that day and night. So—”
A hand to the middle of his chest shoved Mags down onto the bed. He wasn’t expecting it, and fell right over.
“You need time for that concussion to clear up, and a number of medicines and some more Healing. You can talk to whosoever you want, but you stay there until tomorrow afternoon. Maybe even until the next morning, if I decide I have the time to continue treating you and you need it.”
Mags blinked up at the man, owlishly. At least there was only one of him now, not two. “Dinner?” he said hopefully, for now that the nausea had begun to ebb, his stomach was growling.
The Healer lost that irritated look, and chuckled. “You’re a resilient rascal. I think that can be managed.”
He tucked blankets in around Mags, and left him with a pitcher of water and a cup on a little table beside him. “Drink as much of that as you can—what I do tends to release a lot of nasty things that need to be purged out of you. The privy is right on the other side of this wall. Someone will come around with food for you in a bit. Someone else will be checking on you all night. Several someones, probably. Don’t get up except to visit the privy; you’ll find you are still dizzy if you do, and I don’t want you undoing what I did by falling.”
With that, the Healer left—
:I was listening. Are you sure you are going to be all right?:
Dallen asked anxiously.
:If that Healer is neglecting you—if you are really hurt—:
:I’m fine, :
Mags reassured him, lying back and closing his eyes, because the room still had an unsettling tendency to move a little.
:’E’s right, Dallen, I didn’ get hurt that bad, thanks to you. Wha’s goin’ on down i’ city? They ketch ’em?:
Mags’ unspoken prayer that the Heralds and Guards had caught the phony envoys was answered in the negative.
:No,:
Dallen replied, sounding deflated.
:No, they ran. They left behind their insane fellow, but there’s no sense to be gotten out of him.:
Mags sighed, and cursed a little. So, they were back to where they had begun with nothing to show for it.
:Maybe Bear can get something out of him,:
Dallen suggested,
:Or a really good Mindspeaker. And look on the bright side! They are foreign! Maybe this is what the Foreseers were on about!:
:Mebbe. Hope so.:
Mags sighed.
:Hate t’ go through this jest t’ end up wi’ ev’one still angry at me fer something I ain’t done yet.:
“Is it safe to come in?” asked Gennie from a little distance away.
“Reckon,” Mags said shortly, because his jaw still hurt.
:Kin we talk like this?:
:Surely. That Healer is the most terrifying man I have ever met in my life.:
He heard Gennie come in and felt her sit down on the side of the bed.
:Are you really going to be all right? What happened?:
:Was runnin’ errands down in city. Saw one’a them phony envoy-bodyguards. Follered ’im, had Dallen tell Nikolas a’course, and Nikolas said t’ keep follerin’.:
“Oho, so that’s why people went boiling down to the city!” Gennie said. “I guess you got caught?”
:Aye. Ran fer it, got lost an’ got trapped. Reckon I was driven now—if I’d’a been in their shoes, I’d’a learnt th’ alleys ’round where they was like I could run ’em blind. Cornered me in a place Dallen couldn’t fit.:
“You were lucky!”
:Don’t I know it!:
He sighed.
:Least I kin say I was follerin’ orders proper.:
His stomach growled and Gennie patted his hand. “I’ll go get you some food. Something you can eat with a sore jaw.”
:Thanks.:
She came back shortly with soup, mashed roots, and a custard. He managed to get his swollen and bruised eyes open enough to see to eat, and about the time he finished the Healer turned up again.
“Ah good, this isn’t the thing to take on an empty stomach, unless you want it even emptier.” He handed Mags a mug. Mags knew very well it was medicine, it was probably going to taste nasty, and that he might as well get it down in a hurry.
It wasn’t as nasty as he thought. In fact, the Healer had, very considerately, sweetened it with honey.
“Thenkee sor,” he managed.
The Healer just grunted and sat down on the bed. “Hold still. I’m going to do something about those eyes and that jaw before I leave.”
Once again, warmth spread out from the Healer’s touch, and drove the pain away. Mags sighed with relief, and relaxed, and the next thing he knew, it was morning.
10
M
ORNING was absolutely lovely. His room in the stables didn’t have glass panes, only parchment and shutters, and as cold as this winter had been he hadn’t opened the shutters once. Every window in this big room had glass in it, and he was right under an eastward-facing one. He woke with warmth soothing his battered face, and just lay there enjoying it for a while.
Slowly he managed to get his eyes open. They weren’t as swollen as he thought they would be, but he still couldn’t get them open more than a slit. Still, it was nice. With sunlight pouring in the open window and now warming his bed as well as his face, Mags was feeling remarkably comfortable, considering that his chest and belly were so black and blue it looked like he’d had ink poured all over him. And he didn’t want to think about what his face looked like.
BOOK: Intrigues: Book Two of the Collegium Chronicles (a Valdemar Novel)
2.32Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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