***
A week later, Ran-Del was relieved to be moved to the Hayden compound. He was surprised when Francesca had his hospital bed set up not in their bedroom, but in Nisa Palli’s old suite.
“Your medical staff can stay in the sitting room in case you need them,” she explained as a medtech helped Ran-Del climb into the bed.
Sitting up in bed, Ran-Del was too grateful for the isolation to question her choice. Nisa’s former bedroom looked almost as bare as a hospital room, as Nisa had taken her furniture when she moved out. A table and two chairs in one corner looked very temporary. Only a full length mirror mounted on the near wall reminded him that the room had been a bedroom.
Buster came in when the medtech left the room. He trotted to the bed, his eyes bright as he looked up at Ran-Del.
“Here, boy!” Ran-Del called.
Buster took a few steps back, got a running start, and hopped up onto the high bed.
“Ran-Del!” Francesca said. “Is that a good idea?”
Ran-Del rubbed the stiff bristles down Buster’s spine with relief. Real his new gift might be, but it didn’t work on Buster. He felt nothing from the Sansoussy hound except the warmth of his small body as the dog lay down beside him. “Why not? He won’t hurt anything.”
When she didn’t argue, Ran-Del decided to press his advantage. “In a week or so,” he said, looking out at the view of the gardens in the afternoon sunshine, “I’ll be able to walk more than a few steps and get around more. I’d like to go back to the forest to visit my grandparents.”
Francesca exuded consternation. “It’s too soon to think of going so far away.”
“I’ll ride in one of your flyters,” Ran-Del said. “All the way this time, not just to the edge of the forest.”
Francesca set her jaw. “I don’t mean to malign your people, but a Sansoussy village is a primitive place.”
He could see images of people in Sansoussy clothes washing open sores in a creek, eating undercooked meat from dirty plates, beating their clothes on river stones to wash them. Insulted and balked of relief, Ran-Del seethed. “I’m not your child or your chattel, Francesca. If I want to go visit my grandparents, I’ll go.”
“Not in my flyter,” Francesca said with satisfaction, “
It would take weeks for Ran-Del to heal enough to walk there, and many days to make the journey. He also saw in Francesca’s mind a resolve to restrain him if he tried.
She refused to argue further and finally left him alone with Buster, to rest.
Ran-Del lay back on the now-familiar hospital bed and tried to think of a way he could get to his village by himself. He couldn’t, and after a while he slept.
He woke convinced someone was in the room. When he looked around, a figure stood in the near corner, barely visible in the fading daylight from the window. He knew it was Francesca.
Ran-Del sat up, and the lights came on.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s all right.” Ran-Del had no idea what time it was, but he was quite sure he hadn’t heard the door chime. “Where is Buster? And how long have you been here? I didn’t hear the door.”
She smiled. “Buster is in the kennels, and I didn’t use the door—not the regular door.”
“What other door is there?”
She stepped to the ornately framed mirror on the wall and ran her hand behind the frame. The mirror slid into the wall, showing a gaping black rectangle behind it.
“This one,” Francesca said. “My great-great-grandfather was paranoid as hell. He had several passages built into the house as escape routes. The other end of this one comes out in his bedroom—our room, now. That’s how Pop was able to keep his affair with Nisa a secret.”
Ran-Del was intrigued with the door. “How does it work?” he asked. He put his feet down on the floor.
“Ran-Del!”
He held up a hand to fend her off. “I’m fine. I’m rested now, and I walked farther than this in the hospital.”
She oozed worry as he walked gingerly across the bedroom floor, but she demonstrated the action of the hidden door lock to him.
“At the other end there’s a door hidden in the paneling beside our bed,” she added. “That’s why I chose this room for you.”
“Would the lock work for me?” Ran-Del asked.
“All the locks in the house work for you.” She smiled when she said it. She seemed to have mellowed now that he was on his feet.
“I appreciate your concern, Francesca.” He steeled himself to touch her shoulder. “But I wish you wouldn’t treat me like a child. I need to visit my grandparents.”
Her softer mood evaporated, replaced by stern resolve. “I already called them on the com. Your grandfather answered. I told him what had happened.”
Ran-Del could see his grandfather’s face, his expression grave but calm. “How did he take the news?”
Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t know. He seemed concerned but not surprised.”
Ran-Del suffered a jolt of amazement. Had Grandfather known about his attack ahead of time?
“Are you hungry?” Francesca said. “I ordered dinner to be brought here so we could eat together.”
Her words brought the realization that he was ravenous. “Yes, I’m hungry. I could eat a lamel.”
She smiled, and he could tell she was relieved that he hadn’t mentioned his grandparents again. “We’re having prairie hen instead.”
“That will do.” Ran-Del started back for the bed, a little weak at the knees by the time he made it there.
He would have to get stronger as soon as he could or he would go crazy here in this city full of people.
The Sixth Discipline Page 79