The Pattern of the World by J.T. Greathouse

The Pattern of the World by J.T. Greathouse

Author:J.T. Greathouse [Greathouse, J.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781625676436
Publisher: JAB Books
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter Eighteen

A Question of Doctrine

Pinion

‘We could leave a scar, if you want,’ Running Doe murmured.

Pinion shook his head, sending another twinge beneath the bandages and liniments that wrapped the right side of his face.

Running Doe sagged. ‘I understand,’ she said, though she did not sound at all pleased with his decision.

He had accepted the old wiry-haired doctor’s medicines and bandages as a defence against the threat of infection, but would accept nothing more. Alder—Foolish Cur, he corrected himself—still refused to restore his severed hand. Pinion would bear his own reminder, the physical manifestation of his mistakes and those parts of himself he must leave behind if he were to have any hope for a future.

For two days he had flitted between waking and sleeping. He lingered, now, in that liminal space at the end of healing, ready to rise and take action but uncertain of what action to take. His life’s every goal, every driving force, had been stripped away from him. Yet in that raw nakedness he had begun to understand deep, difficult things, captured more in undercurrents of emotion than in any coherent argument. Things that had been veiled by the doctrine that had defined his world. An uneasy feeling that threatened to blossom into anger at the emperor, at his father, at everyone who had played a part in weaving and maintaining that veil. At himself, most of all, for having glimpsed behind it and yet refused to tear it away.

Running Doe left him to attend to her other patients. Another of the infirmary nurses brought him a bowl of thin congee, which he ate gratefully before rising from his bed, wincing at the flicker of pain beneath his bandages. Lying about only exacerbated his sense of aimlessness and reminded him too much of time spent dazed and stupefied on his back in a palanquin, borne away from the horror of Setting Sun Fortress. He had spent enough of his life wallowing in guilt, shame, and regret.

The warmth of the afternoon sun eased some of the tension in his wounds. A few of the Nayeni fighters scattered about the courtyard in groups eyed him warily. His own hackles rose at being surrounded by so many people he would have counted enemies not long ago, but he offered cordial nods and smiles. They were allies now in the struggle to survive the chaos that gripped the world. Still, he sought solitude and mounted the parapet walk, where he needed only to shrug off the occasional sideways glance of the archer keeping watch.

The city of Eastern Fortress sprawled out below him. Here and there people travelled through the streets, moving openly but quickly. The renewed alliance between the two Nayeni factions had restored something like peace to the embattled city. Pinion traced the maze of its streets and alleys, wondering what had become of Captain Huo. He had heard nothing of his fate while Burning Dog had held him prisoner, which gave him some hope that he had managed to escape.



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