King’s Wrath

‘I’ll say,’ Loethar replied. ‘You called me handsome just hours earlier.’

‘I didn’t call you handsome. You did,’ she corrected. ‘Janus has an affliction that compels him to say outrageous remarks. It doesn’t prevent him from being a good physic.’

‘And you know this how?’ Janus asked, smiling softly at her.

‘I know,’ she replied, turning to the physic. ‘I trust you with our emperor.’

‘Emp—?’ Janus’s head swung back, his expression shocked, as he looked at Loethar. ‘No, it can’t be.’

‘I’m embarrassed and disappointed to say it is,’ Loethar replied. ‘I am Elka’s prisoner.’

‘She has wonderful breasts,’ Janus said. ‘Forgive me,’ he added, looking instantly contrite.

‘She does. You’re forgiven,’ Loethar said.

‘Right, gentlemen,’ Elka said, her tone chilly. ‘Shall we focus on the task at hand?’

‘I’d like to focus on your arse,’ Janus remarked, looking at her with an expression of fresh mortification.

Loethar laughed openly. ‘Marvellous!’

‘Janus, I’ll find a way to close your mouth even if I have to stitch your lips together,’ Elka said sweetly.

Janus pointed at her, his expression a mixture of remorse and defiance. ‘It comes on especially strong when I’m nervous and sober. You were warned.’

She nodded. ‘That’s true, and I will bear the repercussions of my own decision. Can’t you try and concentrate on something else? Like your patient?’

‘This is not a good place to be doing an examination,’ Janus remarked, looking around. ‘My hut —’

‘Is too dangerous,’ Elka finished. ‘I’ll carry Loethar slightly higher up into those trees for coverage. We can’t go any higher, though. He has been suffering from the sickness of height and is barely recovered from one bout.’

The doctor nodded. ‘I suffer the same myself.’

‘All right then. Let’s get to those trees.’

Later, with the doctor finally sitting back on the ground and after much peering and prodding by him and cursing by Loethar, Janus took a deep breath. ‘All right. We have bones to set, cuts to stitch and bruises that can use some unguent.’

‘Do you need my help?’

‘Not really. You’re a distraction for my foul mouth.’ She couldn’t help but smile. ‘And it’s hard enough concentrating when I know who I’m working on. How has it come about that I am repairing our emperor?’

Elka smiled. ‘It’s a long story,’ she said, just as Loethar said the same thing. She threw an amused glance at him, which he returned.

‘Well, you can tell me all about it in between more curses because what I’m about to do is not going to be without discomfort,’ Janus said to Loethar.

‘I understand.’

Janus glanced at Elka. ‘Just light me a fire and get some water on to boil. I shall take it from there. I want to feel your tits on my —’

And to the roar of Loethar’s amusement, Elka stomped away to find kindling.

10 (#ulink_d37fc4fc-f328-5129-9c32-e765d4ac70b8)

They’d been heading north since they began walking. It was getting cooler the higher they went but it was still relatively mild — enough that Evie had rolled up her cloak and tied it to hang at her side. She felt ridiculous in this garb but the more she looked around at this landscape, the more foreign it all felt. The growing pit in her stomach had begun to assure her that she was nowhere close to anything familiar.

Corbel, as he now insisted she call him, looked anything but awkward. In fact, he seemed to stand even taller than she recalled and was that a slight swagger in his walk? Where was the withdrawn, closed individual she had loved all these anni? Now there was a glint in his eyes and a smile playing constantly at the corner of his lips. He was happy, Evie realised, and almost childish in his excitement, pointing out this plant or that landscape, none of it of any interest to her.

She was still trying to come to terms with the alienation she was feeling, not to mention the anger at him as much as fear. And yet instead of explaining he insisted they walk.

‘Reg!’

‘Corbel,’ he replied.

She took a breath to ensure her words came out calmly. ‘Corbel, where exactly are we going? And why exactly am I here?’

‘I’ve tried to explain —’

‘Except you’ve explained nothing,’ she huffed, catching up with him. ‘Slow down. I can’t walk as fast as you.’

He halved his long stride with obvious effort. ‘I wish there could have been a better way to ease you back into your world.’

‘My world?’ she hurled at him, her voice full of accusation. ‘My world is the city I belong in, where I’m a healer and everything makes sense.’

Corbel stopped. ‘Nothing made sense! Nothing. And you know it. You were the misfit there. You said it often enough. The world you belong to, Evie, is here. It was called Denova and your place of belonging is Penraven. And yes, you are still a healer.’

‘Have you any idea how this feels?’ she begged.

He gazed at her for several moments and she saw only pain in his expression. Finally, he nodded. ‘I do. I have lived with that confusion and despair every minute of the last twenty anni, looking after you in a strange land.’

She hadn’t expected that. She bit back on the ready retort as she considered his words … ‘I … I haven’t considered it from that point of view. I’m trying to wrap my mind around the notion that this is where you come from. Rationality and science is my life. Magic has no place.’

‘Really?’ he asked. ‘Search your heart, Evie, and perhaps you can privately call yourself a liar. I won’t.’

She glared at him. ‘That’s a ridiculous accusation.’

‘Is it?’ He shrugged. ‘You can’t keep pretending what you did every day to save lives was science. Both of us know that’s a lie. Perhaps you couldn’t explain the strange skill you have to heal people, but I can assure you, Evie, it wasn’t all scientific training. I’m taking you to a place where you can ask all the questions you need and you will get a far better insight than I can provide.’

‘Where? To the man you call Sergius?’

He shook his head. ‘He told me never to look for him should I ever bring you back. He made me promise that when I came back I would first take you to meet someone called the Qirin.’

Her mistrust deepened. ‘Who and what is the Qirin?’

Corbel shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But I suppose we shall soon find out.’

‘Corbel, I’m tired.’

‘It’s not far and I promise you a roof over your head tonight, perhaps even a bath.’