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‘This one’s dead,’ Jizell said, her voice cold. ‘I’d wager he’s been gone over an hour.’
‘I almost sacrificed myself for a dead man?’ the guard with the broken ankle exclaimed. Leesha ignored him, moving over to the other injured man.
With his round, freckled face and slender form, he seemed more a boy than a man. He had been badly beaten, but he was breathing, and his heart was strong. Leesha inspected him swiftly, cutting away his bright patchwork clothes as she probed for broken bones and searched for the sources of the blood that soaked his motley.
‘What happened?’ Jizell asked the injured guard, as she inspected the break in his ankle.
‘We were headin’ in from last patrol,’ the guard said through gritted teeth. ‘Found these two, Jongleurs by their look, lyin’ on the walk. Must’a been robbed after a show. They was both alive, but in a bad way. It was dark by then, but neither of them looked like they’d last the night without a Gatherer to tend them. I remembered this hospit, and we ran hard as we could, tryin’ to stay under eaves, outta sight from windies.’
Jizell nodded. ‘You did the right thing,’ she said.
‘Tell that to poor Jonsin,’ the guard said. ‘Creator, what will I tell his wife?’
‘That’s a worry for the morrow,’ Jizell said, lifting a flask to the man’s lips. ‘Drink this.’
The guard looked at her dubiously. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘It will put you to sleep,’ Jizell said. ‘I need to set your ankle, and I promise you, you don’t want to be awake when I do.’
The guard quaffed the potion quickly.
Leesha was cleaning out the younger one’s wounds when he started awake with a gasp, sitting up. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but the other was a bright green, and darted about wildly. ‘Jaycob!’ he cried.
He thrashed wildly, and it took Leesha, Kadie, and the last guard to wrestle him back down. He turned his one piercing eye on Leesha. ‘Where is Jaycob?’ he asked. ‘Is he all right?’
‘The older man who was found with you?’ Leesha asked, and he nodded.
Leesha hesitated, picking her words, but the pause was answer enough, and he screamed, thrashing again. The guard pinned him hard, looking him in the eyes.
‘Did you see who did this to you?’ he asked.
‘He’s in no condition …’ Leesha began, but the man cut her off with a glare.
‘I lost a man tonight,’ he said. ‘I don’t have time to wait.’ He turned back to the boy. ‘Well?’ he asked.
The boy looked at him with eyes filling with tears. Finally, he shook his head, but the guard didn’t let up. ‘You must have seen something,’ he pressed.
‘That’s enough,’ Leesha said, grabbing the man’s wrists and pulling hard. He resisted for a moment, and then let go. ‘Wait in the other room,’ she ordered. He scowled, but complied.
The boy was weeping openly when Leesha turned back to him. ‘Just put me back out into the night,’ he said, holding up a crippled hand. ‘I was meant to die a long time ago, and everyone that tries to save me ends up dead.’
Leesha took the crippled hand in hers and looked him in the eye. ‘I’ll take my chances,’ she said, squeezing. ‘We survivors have to look out for one another.’ She put the flask of sleeping draught to his lips, and held his hand, lending him strength until his eyes slipped closed.
The sound of fiddling filled the hospit. Patients clapped their hands, and the apprentices danced as they went about their tasks. Even Leesha and Jizell had a spring in their step.
‘To think young Rojer was worried he had no way to pay,’ Jizell said as they prepared lunch. ‘I’ve half a mind to pay him to come entertain the patients after he’s back on his feet.’
‘The patients and the girls love him,’ Leesha agreed.
‘I’ve seen you dancing when you think no one is looking,’ Jizell said.
Leesha smiled. When he wasn’t fiddling, Rojer spun tales that had the apprentices clustered at the foot of his bed, or taught them makeup tricks he claimed came from the Duke’s own courtesans. Jizell mothered him constantly, and the apprentices all shined and doted on him.
‘An extra-thick slice of beef for him, then,’ Leesha said, cutting the meat and laying it on a platter already overladen with potatoes and fruit.
Jizell shook her head. ‘I don’t know where that boy puts it,’ she said. ‘You and the others have been stuffing him for a full moon and more, and he’s still thin as a reed.’
‘Lunch!’ she bellowed, and the girls filtered in to collect the trays. Roni moved directly for the over-laden one, but Leesha swept it out of reach. ‘I’ll take this one myself,’ she said, smiling at the looks of disappointment around the kitchen.
‘Rojer needs to take a break and eat something, not spin private tales while you girls cut his meat,’ Jizell said. ‘You can all fawn on him later.’
‘Intermission!’ Leesha called as she swept into the room, but she needn’t have bothered. The bow slipped from the fiddle strings with a squeak the moment she appeared. Rojer smiled and waved, knocking over a wooden cup as he tried to set his fiddle aside. His broken fingers and arm had mended neatly, but his leg casts were still on strings, and he could not easily reach the bedstand.
‘You must be hungry today,’ she laughed, setting the tray across his lap and taking the fiddle. Rojer looked at the tray dubiously, smiling up at her.
‘I don’t suppose you could help me cut?’ he asked, holding up his crippled hand.
Leesha raised her eyebrows at him. ‘Your fingers seem nimble enough when you work your fiddle,’ she said. ‘Why are they deficient now?’
‘Because I hate eating alone,’ Rojer laughed.
Leesha smiled, sitting on the side of the bed and taking the knife and fork. She cut a thick bite of meat, dragging it through the gravy and potatoes before bringing it up to Rojer’s mouth. He smiled at her, and a bit of gravy leaked from his mouth, making Leesha titter. Rojer blushed, his fair cheeks turning as red as his hair.
‘I can lift the fork myself,’ he said.
‘You want me to just cut up the meat and leave?’ Leesha asked, and Rojer shook his head vigorously. ‘Then hush,’ she said, lifting another forkful to his mouth.
‘It’s not my fiddle, you know,’ Rojer said, glancing back to the instrument after a few moments of silence. ‘It’s Jaycob’s. Mine was broken when …’
Leesha frowned as he trailed off.
