“No,” Letta said assuredly, “he doesn’t have anything but the pants he’s wearing. What can you give him?”
“That blue hamper is all our extras,” the woman said as she looked up at last, and pointed to her right. “Go look through there.”
Letta looked at Theus, who shrugged his acquiescence, and they strolled over to the large blue hamper, a canvas sack of great proportions mounted on a wooden frame. The hamper was more than half full, odds and ends of cloth mixed and lying haphazardly together, layer on top of layer.
A green shirt on top caught Theus’s eye, and he stretched across the hamper to retrieve it.
“These are all just cast-offs and lost items; you don’t have to settle for this,” Letta told him as she eyed the hamper critically.
“This is fine,” Theus replied, as he remembered the limited wardrobe he had possessed on the farm in the Jewel Hills. The hamper was like a great treasure chest of potential. He retrieved the green shirt and held it up in front of himself.
“It’s not bad,” Letta grudgingly agreed.
Theus slung the shirt over the side of the hamper, then began to root through the collection of clothing, seeking items that appealed to him, and appeared to be the approximate size he needed. Letta looked on with an expression of disapproval, but kept her silence. Five minutes later, Theus finished.
“I’ll wear this one now,” he pulled a yellow tunic over his head, and draped the other things over his arm.
“It’ll do for now,” Letta said. “We’ll get some better clothes for you later. Let’s go find a room for you.” She led the way out of the laundry and then through a warren of passageways that confused Theus, until they arrived at a doorway, and crossed a narrow open space to enter a different building.
“This is the north hall. We can start looking for empty rooms,” Letta said. “There won’t be any on the ground floor, so we might as well go up one or two flights to start the search.”
“So your medicine healed your own wounds so well you can do all this walking we’ve done this morning, and keep up with me, and feel alright?” Letta asked conversationally as they reached the landing of the third floor a minute later.
“I’m not completely healed, but much better,” Theus said. He thought about his remedy he had used to reduce his headache in the aftermath of a bad fall during the tournament in Great Falls. “It may take another day for complete healing, but it’ll come,” he assured his mistress.
“And,” she paused and took a deep breath after climbing the stairs, “you think you could heal more injuries, even people who have been badly burned?”
“I’d have to see them to be sure, but I think so, my lady. It couldn’t hurt to try,” Theus answered. They were walking down a hallway, and Theus saw light coming from an open doorway ahead.
“Let’s look in that room,” Letta spoke as she spotted the square of light in the hallway.
“I don’t know much about the north hall,” Letta told him as they reached the doorway. “I live in the palace servant’s wing.”
They pressed the door open wider.
“Is anyone home?” Letta asked loudly. They waited a second, and when no one answered, they entered the room.
It was a large rectangle, with two windows and a bed. The windows had curtains that were pulled open, but there were no other amenities in the room – no other furniture, no closet, no bedding on the bed.
“Shall we look for something better?” Letta asked.
Theus looked out the window, and saw a man leading a pair of mules out of a stable not far away. It was a homey sight, one that made him feel peaceful as he watched the familiar animals.
“No, this will be fine,” he answered. He walked over and laid his new-found wardrobe upon the bed.
“We can find some furniture and have it sent up here,” Letta conceded. If he was happy with the room, she was satisfied to end the hunt for a room.
“Shall we go see your burn victims now?” Theus asked.
“I really should get back to the kitchen,” Letta answered slowly, “but,” she paused, “Since you picked a room so quickly, yes, we can just run by there.
“Prepare yourself,” she added, staring directly at him, making eye contact that he could not break, “some of them are in very bad shape.”
She stepped out into the hall and looked at the door. “You’re in room five now, on the third floor of the north hall. Don’t forget that,” she pulled the door closed.
They left the building and walked outside, around the corner of the dark stone palace exterior.
“The hospice is around this way; it’s a faster walk outside,” Letta explained as they approached a small, white clapboard building that sat among a small grove of scrawny trees.
The building emitted groans, Theus noticed, or at least those inside the building groaned. The pair walked up to the door, then paused as Letta hesitated and took a deep breath before entering.
A man sat at a desk inside the door in a small hallway.
“We’re here to see Ruuner and Weese,” Letta said briefly to the attendant, then she led Theus past the man and into a room on the left.
Several beds were in rows against either of the long walls in the room, and each was occupied by a man or woman who moaned or lay silently and motionlessly.
“Weese? Are you awake?” Letta asked softly as she walked over to one of the closer beds, with Theus following closely.
The man in the bed lay silently, but turned his scarred head to see his visitor.
The man’s face was terribly scarred. One eye socket was empty, and the streaked and shiny skin continued from his face to his neck and to his torso that was covered with a sheet.
“What brings you Letta?” he rasped the question.
“Just in the neighborhood,” Letta responded with forced cheerfulness. “And I wanted to tell you that everyone misses you in the kitchen.”
“I miss the kitchen too,” Weese replied. Speech seemed to require considerable effort, for he lapsed into silence.
“We’ll let you rest. Take care, my friend,” Letta gently placed a hand on his cover, about where his shoulder should have been, then lifted it. She silently nodded her head towards the door, and led Theus out.
They walked without stopping, and left the clapboard building.
“Oh, that hurts so badly! I hope I never have to see them like that again! They were such great people, so full of life,” she shuddered, and Theus knew without seeing that tears were on her cheeks.
“Let’s get back to the kitchen. You decide if you think you can heal them,” she said brusquely, walking quickly, still staying ahead of Theus and keeping her face averted from him.
“I can do it,” he said simply.
She came to a full stop, then whirled suddenly.
“You are telling me that you can heal that?” she asked in disbelief. “Those poor broken, burned bodies? You can heal them?” he saw the moisture in her bright eyes.
“It will take time, and some rare ingredients, but I know how to do it,” Theus answered.
She stared, then whirled and started walking quickly again, forcing him to quickstep to keep up.
“How much will it cost?” she asked without looking at him.
“I don’t know; I’ve never tried to buy the ingredients before,” Theus answered.
“Are you making this up?” Letta sounded angry as she asked.
“No, I think it’s possible. I’ll need to go to a market, or give you a list of what I need,” he answered as they entered a door and stepped back inside the palace.
Chapter 4
Theus spent the rest of the day working at odd jobs in the kitchen, helping in menial tasks as he was assigned.
That evening, when the dinner dishes were done, Letta came to see him. She had avoided him all day, ever since she had led him back to the kitchen.
“Will you sleep with the dogs tonight again and keep the kitchen clean?” she demanded of Theus abruptly.
>
He was caught by surprise. “Yes, my lady,” he stuttered his reply.
“Good. Then tomorrow I’ll have Molly take you out to the markets and you can look into these ingredients you think you need. I don’t promise I can’t give you enough money to buy anything expensive, but you can check the prices,” Letta told him. “Is that fair?”
“Yes, my lady,” he answered again. “And can I go to my own room tomorrow sometime, and get bedding?”
Letta made a raspberry noise through pursed lips. “I’ll tell Molly to swing by the laundry to get sheets for your bed. Now, you go get your space ready for the dogs; they should arrive in the next few minutes.” And with that the chief slave of the kitchen was gone for the evening.
Theus’s pack of beagles rejoined him just a few minutes later, jumping joyfully on him when they entered the kitchen and found his scent.
“Larsey, look at you jumping with the rest of the gang,” Theus observed with a grin.
“I hear tell you’re the one that healed the old boy up – made him right as rain, didn’t you?” the evening dogkeeper said fondly.
“It was easy – I had the medicine right on hand,” Theus answered.
“Can you heal anything else?” the man asked.
“Somethings,” Theus answered cautiously. He hadn’t considered the cost of buying supplies before Letta had raised the question, and the topic hadn’t faded far from his awareness.
“My wife has a goiter on her neck; it’s so big it makes it hard for her to breath sometimes,” the huntsman said. “Would you be able to come to my home to look at her sometime? Maybe offer a cure?”
“If I’m allowed to leave the palace, I’ll be happy to check on her. I might get to go out tomorrow; where do you live?” Theus asked.
“We’re a block south of Bipping Bridge, in the blue housing square, on the second floor,” the dog handler immediately recited his address.
“What’s your name? What’s your wife’s name?” Theus felt he had to ask, even though he thought it was unlikely he would be able to venture out about the city freely.
“I’m Gance, and my wife is Losa,” the man said gratefully, making Theus feel disheartened by the false hope he might be planting in the man’s heart.
“I can’t promise that I’ll see her,” he tried to backpedal out of the conversation.
“I understand, young fellow, and I appreciate your good heart for considering us,” the man said in a kindly manner, thought seemingly still confident that Theus would manage to treat the illness.
Theus and the dogs were soon settled into their corner, lying in a heap among the blankets. The dogs grew still, and Theus found that his mind was meandering drowsily towards sleep, investigating his situation as it delved towards rest.
He was healthy at last, and able to begin to consider his situation. His situation was a far cry from anything he had ever experienced before. During his months of life of adventure since he’d left the farm in the Jewel Hills, he’d been exposed to a great many new faces of the world. He’d come to experience travel and cities and money and employment, romance and competition, freedom and servanthood.
He’d not been prepared to experience life as a slave. He’d only had two days of slavery, and nothing bad in the process, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t like the notion of being owned, of not controlling his own life, of limits on his choices. He had one goal in mind – to return to Coriae – and slavery was a word that stood in the way of his getting back to her.
He was going to need a day or two or more to figure out what the best way was going to be to start the journey back to a normal life, but he would figure out his route to return to freedom, and he would go. And with that happy conclusion, his mind allowed itself to finally fall fully asleep.
The dogs woke him in the morning, when Mally arrived to retrieve them. They leapt up from their resting place, awakening Theus, who bid them and Mally farewell, then sat in the darkness of the empty kitchen for a few minutes, wondering what to do.
He considered trying to go find his room, on the third floor of the north building, but immediately dismissed the idea. Even if there was daylight present, he wouldn’t know how to find his way across the vast palace grounds to find the hall where he had claimed a room.
Instead he took the bedding he had shared with the dogs and stuffed it into the cupboard space where it was stored, then waited for anyone else to arrive in the kitchen.
Minutes later, he grew restless, and decided to try to help the bakers get a start on the day by lighting the oven fire for them early. He walked cautiously in the dark kitchen to where the ovens were, and withdrew the flint and steel from a drawer, ready to create a spark. He found the tinder and kindling, and slowly worked in the fading darkness as the sun started to light the world outside, and to shine its faint beams into the kitchen.
By the time he had the tinder set, the door opened, and a pair of bakers walked in with lanterns. They thanked Theus for the work he had done and quickly had a small blaze started, beginning the process of baking the palace’s daily supply of bread and other food stuffs.
Theus stood back and watched, until Letta entered the kitchen along with other workers several minutes later. Her eyes searched the kitchen the moment she entered the vast work space, until she spotted Theus, and then she walked immediately towards him.
“How are you this morning, my young helper?” she asked with a sincere tone of kindness and concern in her voice, one that Theus was happy to hear.
“The dogs stayed with me all night, and Mally took them away this morning. I started to get the tinder ready in the ovens, but then the bakers came,” he recounted his evening.
“And no surprise inspection from Colandra? That’s good,” Letta celebrated with a smile. “I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in two weeks,” she told him.
“You go sit at your counter and relax. We’ve give you a bite of breakfast, and then Molly will take you shopping in the markets,” she promised.
Theus did as told, and enjoyed a nice breakfast a half hour later, his efforts to keep the dogs at bay overnight appreciated by the kitchen crew members who did not have to rise early to clean up.
By the time he finished his breakfast, the sun was shining brightly outside, its light entering the kitchen and rendering the lanterns superfluous. He sat back lazily, his stomach full and his mind sleepy.
“Theus come here,” Letta called, and he promptly crossed the kitchen.
Letta stood next to a plump girl with apple cheeks and a warm smile, who gave a small curtsy as he arrived.
“This is Molly. She’ll go with you to visit the markets this morning to see if you can find the supplies you need for the project we discussed yesterday,” Letta said. She handed him a large canvas bag. “Carry your goods in this. Molly has the coins I’ve given her – don’t think you have to spend them all.
“And wear this around your neck,” she held up a black leather collar with red triangles decorating it.
“It shows that you’re property of the palace,” she explained. “You won’t be hassled in the market.”
Theus rolled his eyes at the unexpected requirement, but held his head still and his chin up as Letta applied the collar around him, then clasped it shut in the back
“Do you want to get your shoes?” Molly asked.
“I don’t have any,” he replied simply.
“Buy him some,” Letta said promptly. She reached into a pocket and pulled out more coins, which she handed to Molly.
“Then we’re off,” Molly said. “I’ve got your shopping list as well,” she told Letta, then led the way out of the kitchen and into the palace, following a hallway Theus had not walked through before.
The hallway was a formal one, elegant in a way that reminded Theus of the mansion Lord Warrell and his family had lived in, and he momentarily thought of Coriae.
They passed out through a pair of glass doors and walked across the wide lawn that separated the palace f
rom the defensive wall that surrounded the grounds. Molly smiled sweetly at the guards in the gatehouse, and then the two of them were free of the palace.
Theus looked up and down the busy streets. Commerce was evident, as wagons and traders and others traveled busily along the paved roads, while storefronts were open. There was a crowd, and an opportunity to disappear into it quickly. He looked around for clues as to where the harbor front might be; he would surely be able to claim passage aboard a freighter carrying goods away from Southsand and back in the direction of Great Forks, he told himself.
“Letta said that I should tell you that if you try to run away, she and I will be the ones who will be severely punished for trusting you,” Molly spoke up, as if she were reading his mind.
Theus felt a barrier erupt into his thoughts about running away. He wouldn’t try to make his break to the waterfront that day. He wouldn’t imperil Letta, who had been a benign overseer so far, or Molly, who he had just met. But he felt frustrated at the ease with which the women had manipulated him.
“What do you want from the markets?” Molly asked. “Tell me that, and I’ll have an idea of where to go first.”
“I need aloe, vanilla, black tea, charyn crystals, vinegar – that’s white vinegar – honey, zinnia petals, milk, silver-cleaning compound,” Theus rattled off a list of items he had in mind.
“That’s a load!” Molly said, stunned by the volume of material requested. I don’t even know what some of those are. Let’s go to the west market and get some of the easy ones, then figure out what to do next.”
She led him to the right. They walked together along the busy city street.
“I came to the palace three years ago. My mother died of the wasting illness, so I went to an orphanage, and they sold me to the palace,” Molly spoke forthrightly about her path to becoming a slave. “Lady Letta tells me you were a doctor who was captured on a boat?” she asked.
“No, I’m not a doctor, but I learned a lot of medical remedies when I worked at a shop in Great Falls,” Theus fudged the facts. “I was on a boat, and we were captured by pirates, so now I’m a slave at the palace, for a while.”
The Deadly Magician (The Memory Stones Series Book 2) Page 6