“Free me.”
Khollo woke with a yell, reaching for his Sen-teel. Or his bow. Any weapon would do, really. Instead, he tried to sit up, missed the edge of the bed with his right hand, and fell to the rough floor of the smithy.
He groaned quietly and began taking inventory. His ribs hurt, but this was to be expected. It seemed that his weapons were not close at hand. At least he hadn’t landed on them. He was still in the smithy and, judging by the weak light coming from the entrance, it was not yet morning.
It was just a dream, Khollo told himself, shivering. Only a dream. It can’t be real.
But why couldn’t it be real?
Khollo growled with frustration and rubbed at his eyes blearily. He hated arguing with himself. There was no winning such a battle.
Khollo sat up slowly, looking around. The smithy was deserted, but the forge was still glowing warmly. The smiths must have bedded down in the keep. He wondered where Sermas and Hern had gotten to. Last night, it had seemed they wouldn’t let him out of their sight.
As Khollo stood and began belting on his weapons, he heard rapid footsteps in the snow outside.
“ – moaning and thrashing something terrible, sir, I didn’t know what to do, so – ”
“You did the right thing, fetching me and healer Ambal,” Janis replied shortly. “I’ve never heard of anything quite like this. Have you healer?”
“Never, my Lord,” Ambal replied. “Perhaps it is the pain again. Patients have been known to be driven mad – ”
The voices broke off abruptly as the speakers turned into the smithy and realized that Khollo was awake and waiting. Khollo tried for nonchalance.
“Good morning,” he said airily. “Bit early to be starting work yet, isn’t it?”
Janis and the healer exchanged a look, then looked back at Hern, who was bobbing nervously in the rear of the group. Hern shrugged.
“Khollo, are you feeling all right?” Janis asked.
Khollo shrugged. “No worse than I could expect, having been ripped apart by a monster and stitched back together. No signs of madness, or moaning and thrashing either.”
Janis sighed. “Khollo, we heard about the . . . incident last night with you and Hern and Sermas.”
Khollo shifted uneasily. “I was pretty exhausted last night,” he admitted. “Might have overdone it a bit. Won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Heard that before,” Janis muttered. “Khollo, I am confining you to the smithy until further notice. You are to rest, read up on tunneling and building, and recover your strength. The foremen will be instructed not to bother you for anything but the most important reasons. Am I clear?”
And once again I’m being treated like an invalid, Khollo groused. “Fine,” he said to Janis, sitting on the edge of the bed. “As you wish.”
Janis eyed him warily, searching Khollo’s eyes for deception. “Good,” he said finally, apparently satisfied. “Hern, you and Sermas are to stay with him at all times. And you, Healer Ambal.”
“My lord, the number of patients I have – ”
“We need our leaders in good health, healer,” Janis interjected. “The other wounded can be taken care of by the other healers.”
Ambal bowed. “As you wish.”
Janis clapped Khollo on the shoulder gently. “Get well,” he murmured.
Khollo nodded wordlessly. When Janis had gone, he glared at Hern. “I told you I was fine.”
Hern shrugged. “Well . . . the bruises on my shoulders and neck said otherwise, so I thought it best to report to Lord Kurkan. You have to admit, Khollo, you haven’t been yourself.”
“Any headaches? Dizziness? Disorientation?” Ambal asked.
“None,” Khollo growled. “I am perfectly fine, except for the occasional pain from my ribs.”
Khollo reached for his book but Ambal shoved it further away. “Oh no you don’t. That can wait. You need sleep, now.”
“But – ”
“I’d like to eventually move on to something other than nannying a rebellious squire,” Ambal informed him brusquely. “And the only way that happens is if you rest and get well.”
Khollo glared at his captors. It wasn’t fair. He felt fine, and yet he was expected to sleep his life away.
The young advisor lay down on his bunk, his back to the room. The others retreated a respectful distance and began talking quietly, though Khollo could not make out the words. Scowling, Khollo tried to sleep, but sleep was long in coming due to the frustrated thoughts whirling about within in his head. Finally, just before dawn, he fell asleep once more. A dreamless, peaceful sleep.
The peace was interrupted by a mighty crash.
Before the sound had faded, Khollo, was sitting bolt upright, looking around quietly. He could hear men shouting excitedly, triumphantly. Frowning, he looked about.
The smithy was quiet and warm, only Sermas, Hern, and Ambal were present. At the moment though, none were watching Khollo. They were all focused on something happening near the construction site in the courtyard.
“Well, it worked,” Sermas observed quietly. “Not how I would have chosen to do it though.
“Nearly took out a pillar in the process,” Hern added. “At least we got a morning’s worth of entertainment out of it.” He turned around and noticed Khollo. “You’re awake!”
“Obviously. What’s going on out there?”
“The diggers unearthed a massive boulder, right in the middle of one of the tunnels,” Hern explained. “They were having trouble breaking it up quickly, so once they managed to break it into four pieces they tied ropes around each piece and dragged them out of the tunnel instead of waiting and cutting it into more manageable chunks. The crashing noise was the last piece flipping over once they got it past the arches.”
That doesn’t hardly sound safe, Khollo thought.
