Savil took the statement as an unsubtle request and made a hasty exit.
She got back just in time to see Andrel give Vanyel some kind of sedative to drink. But it was Jaysen who sat with the boy until Andrel's sedative took effect. And it was Jaysen who righted the armor-stand, and picked up the broken-backed lute from the floor with a wince at seeing the fine instrument so ruined.
'I'll see to getting this fixed, if it can be,' he said, when he saw Savil watching him before she knelt to put out the fire. They daren't have a fire here while Vanyel was asleep, nor candles burning, either - not unless Andrel could do something to keep him from going into another fit.
'Jays, what am I going to do with him?' she asked, quietly, standing up with a wince as a pulled muscle in her back told her what a fool she'd been. He motioned that she should precede him out the door, and she half turned to see his face as she walked past him. 'He's sick with backlash, and he's getting sicker, not better. His channels are all raw; you can't Mindtouch him without doing that to him, throwing him into convulsions. That was what set all this off, Mardic trying to soothe him out of a bad dream. What am I going to do the next time he has a nightmare?'
Jaysen shrugged helplessly, and shut the door behind her. She made a circuit of the common room, setting candles erect and lighting them. 'If you don't know, be damned if I do. Andy, can we keep him sedated long enough to heal?''
Andrel grimaced, looking as if he'd swallowed something sour. 'With any other patient I'd tell you where to put that question - what I just gave the boy was argonel.'
Jaysen and Savil both started with surprise, and in Savil's case the surprise was not unmixed with shock. 'Great good gods, Andy!'
'Ease up; he's safe enough,' Andrel interrupted her, throwing himself down on the couch with his usual lack of concern for the furniture. He groaned, stretched, and then raised an eyebrow at the Seneschal's Herald. 'Jaysen, may I mention that you have lovely legs?'
Jaysen, who was attired only in shirt and hose and only just now really realized this, blushed a furious scarlet, but refused to be distracted. 'Argonel, Andy - ' he began, taking a chair and crossing his legs primly.
'He's burning it off at a respectable rate, or I wouldn't have given it to him,' Andrel replied. 'The benefit of it is that it's a muscle relaxant and a sedative; he won't be able to go into convulsions again even if you Mindtouch him. I won't speak for him tossing the Palace around, but he won't go into physical convulsions. As for him healing, well that depends entirely on what you mean.'
Savil took another chair, flopping down into it with a tired thud as loud as the one Andrel had made connecting with the couch cushions.
'Physically,' she said, flatly. 'Pure physical healing. Backlash symptoms, exhaustion, blood loss. I'll worry about raw channels later.'
'Yes, I can keep him sedated long enough for the effects of backlash to wear off, for his physical energy to recover and for him to replace the blood he lost. I can combine the argonel with jervain, and dull out all the Gift- senses enough so that they aren't so sensitive. That might let the channels heal. I don't know for sure; I've never seen nor read of anything like this, Gifts being blasted open like his were.'
'Mentally?' Jaysen prodded, frowning. 'Emotionally?'
'At this point I don't think even Lance can help him,' Andrel replied sadly. 'You both felt - '
Jaysen nodded, ruefully. 'That's - I think perhaps I picked up something more than either of you,' he said, a shadow of guilt crossing his face. 'He - he thinks that everything he touches is doomed, cursed. Because of - what he and 'Lendel were. And I know exactly where he got that particularly poisonous little thought. Only it isn't a 'little thought' anymore. It's as much an obsession as Tylendel’s was.'
He hung his head, and wouldn't look at her. 'I never thought - ' he faltered. 'I never guessed - I thought he was just a user - '
Savil was not feeling charitable just now. 'Damn right, you never thought,' she snapped. 'You never thought at all! You and your damned provincial - '
'Savil,' Andrel said, warningly, his head turned slightly to the side, nodding at the door to Vanyel's room.
She subsided. If she got angry, Van might pick it up; it might set him off again. 'Sorry, Jays,' she finally said grudgingly, not feeling sorry at all.
'At least you didn't send somebody out to cut their wrists,' he answered unhappily.
She winced. 'No - I just - hell, this isn't getting us anywhere. Andy, you think you can get him physically recovered, right?'
Candlelight reflected in his eyes, which had gone inward-looking. 'I would say yes, cautiously.'
'Let's worry about that, then, for a couple of days. I have a germ of an idea, but whether or not I can pull it off is going to depend very strongly on whether or not you can get Vanyel fit to ride.''
'If I can't get him to that point in the next couple of weeks or so, it's never going to happen,' Andrel replied.
'What's the chance we can do something about the way he's barricading himself - or even help him get some of his power under his own control?''
He pondered her question while the fire crackled beside him. 'Why don't you ask your Companions? He may be able to barricade against you, but I doubt he can do much against Yfandes.'
She pressed her hand to her eyes and shook her head. 'Gods, why in hell didn't I think of that?' And at the same time, Mindsent
She sent their dilemma in a complicated thought-burst, and waited while Kellan digested the information, and possibly conferred with Felar and Yfandes.
