Peering out the back flap, instinctively checking for an escape route, she saw moonlight reflecting from water about a stone’s throw away and knew that she was not far from the monks’ old fish pond—the only place around here she could get anything like a bath.
She accepted Feronantus’s invitation. The knights retreated to their chapter house, whence she heard the popping of bungs and pouring of ale. She stripped and made a direct line for the pond. Drawing closer to it, she moved faster, since an impressive number of bugs seemed to be landing on her exposed skin. By the time she reached the shore, she was at the core of a humming swarm of mosquitoes and biting flies and had to dive into the water, if only to save her life. But it was worth it to feel the dirt of the road being rinsed from her skin and her hair. She swam for a while, bobbing her head up out of the water just long enough to breathe in air and mosquitoes, then diving before the bugs could do more serious damage.
The way back to the tent was a headlong sprint through an almost tangible mass of aroused insects. Bats swooped as well, making her groan when they squeaked too close. Unable to really see where she was going, she plunged through a group of knights who were on their way to the chapter house. Being seen naked meant nothing to her, but some of the knights gasped and looked the other way, imagining that she’d be mortified. The tallest of the group—Cnán instantly recognized him as Percival—took stock of the situation, moved adroitly to the entrance of her tent, peeled back the flap, and then stood there as if carved in marble, modestly averting his gaze. She dove through the opening. He let the flap drop.
The knights, now feeling free to speak their minds, issued a few good-natured complaints about her ungenerously having drawn so many insects into their camp. “At least I am clean!” she shouted from her enclosed fastness, “which is more than I can say for any of you.” This silenced them. Not, she guessed, because her words had struck home, but because they simply had no conception of what she was talking about.
She spent a few moments rolling around on the grass, slicking the water and the bugs from her skin. It was actually not the worst bath she’d ever had. Then she dressed in a linen tunic and doeskin breeches from her kit—clothes she had been saving against the unlikely possibility that she might have to costume herself as something other than a scurrying wretch.
Some part of her was wondering how she would look in the eyes of Percival. He had, in general, paid her no attention whatsoever. And yet there had been more than simple consideration in his act of holding the tent open. There had been…nobility? Brotherhood? She flung her short wet hair briskly at that thought.
She wanted Percival to see her in some better condition than wet and naked and covered with bugs. But another part of her—speaking, curiously, in the voice of her mother—was reminding her just how dangerous it was to feel any such desire. Emotion led to attachment; attachment led to…
While she was dressing, the jovial chitchat in the chapter house ceased. Someone protested he was not ready—voice too drunk and muffled to identify. Moments later, she heard a man howl, then scream long and loud. The murmur of conversation was slow to resume after that. But the aroma of cooking meat drew her to the place anyway. As she approached the door, Raphael came out, shoulders square, flexing his fingers. The fingers were stained green at the tips. He had been crushing more herbs.
His posture spoke of satisfaction, a job well done.
“Was it Illarion who cried out?” she asked.
“Yes. His ear—what’s left of it—is fine.”
“Fine? One side of his face is twice the size of the other.”
“That actually had little to do with the ear,” he insisted. “Thank the maggots and that poor girl and her poultice. I finally took the trouble to look in his mouth. The man had an abscessed molar.”
The words were unfamiliar.
“A toothache,” Raphael said. He lifted a sheathed dagger and pulled from one pocket a metal tool with long pincers, still stained with blood. “I yanked it out. The man has a jawbone like that of an ass. He’s already feeling better.”
She gave him an incredulous look. He tried, but failed, to prevent a grin from splitting his face. “I didn’t say he felt grateful,” he pointed out, raising his hands in mock surrender. Then he used them to shoo her inside. “Get you in. There’s hot food and plenty.”
Cnán enjoyed the Syrian’s company but was happy to take his leave in this case. The pincers evoked a queasy reaction quite unlike her response to swords and daggers.
She entered the chapter house and felt something so unfamiliar that it took her a few moments to identify it: she felt safe.
She knew what it was to belong, surrounded by courage and kept from harm by the luck, skill, and daring of the knights of the Ordo Militum Vindicis Intactae.
CHAPTER 4:
THE YOUNG PONY
“This is a task for a fool.” Gansukh paced back and forth in the long hall outside the throne room. Sunlight streamed through windows covered in intricate latticework, and dust danced in the wake of Gansukh’s pacing. “I fought at the siege of Kozelsk. I was handpicked by General Subutai himself, to help infiltrate the city. This…this mission is not—”
“Protecting the Khagan is not important?” Chucai interrupted dryly.
Gansukh stopped and peered at the tall minister through the shafts of sunlight. “Of course it is,” he said. “My bow and my sword are his to command. I would lay down—”
“It is easy to die for your Khagan,” Chucai said. He glanced down at the floor, shrugging his shoulders gently. It was a tiny motion, but it quelled Gansukh’s outburst as easily as if he had punched the younger man in the chest. “Perhaps that is why Chagatai Khan chose you for this mission. When Great General Subutai picked you to go over the wall of Kozelsk, was it because he needed a wild-blooded fool who would die for him?”
Gansukh shook his head.
“Do you think less of Chagatai Khan, then? Is his vision not as clear and far-seeing as the Great General’s?”
“I…I do not know,” Gansukh said.
“These Khans are proud men,” Chucai said. “Stubborn too. It took me many years to convince Genghis to tax rather than slaughter. This…this is a negotiation, not a battle.” A brief smile flickered across Chucai’s face. “Warriors fight, Gansukh; that is their purpose in life. But eventually, there is no one left to fight, and they must learn how to think.”
“Your words are filled with wisdom, Master Chucai,” Gansukh said, bowing his head. “I will reflect on them.”
“Do,” Chucai said as he began walking down the corridor. “Stay and rest a few days while you reflect, and partake in the pleasures of Karakorum.”
“I have my ger…” Gansukh eyed the rafters as he followed Chucai down the halls. Surrounded by stone and wood, he felt as if he were inside a tomb. At any moment the high ceilings could collapse and bury him, and he would never see the sky again.
Chucai shook his head. “You will stay in the palace,” he said. He eyed the young emissary, and the skin at the corners of his eyes wrinkled, as if he were hiding a laugh. “You cannot hope to understand the Khagan if you do not stay close to him.” He stopped beside a door panel, his hand resting on the wooden frame. “When you hunt a deer, do you not place yourself in the animal’s world? Do you not follow in its footsteps, see what it sees, smell what it smells?” When Gansukh nodded, Chucai slid open the door.