Valdemar 02.2 - The Colleguim Chronicles 02 - Intrigues by Lackey Mercedes

Author:Lackey, Mercedes [Lackey, Mercedes]
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy - Epic, Fantasy fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Fiction, Fantasy, General, Epic, Fantasy - General, Valdemar (Imaginary place), American Science Fiction And Fantasy
ISBN: 9780756406394
Publisher: DAW Hardcover
Published: 2010-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

10

MORNING was absolutely lovely. His room in the stables didn’t have glass panes, only parchment and shutters, and as cold as this winter had been he hadn’t opened the shutters once. Every window in this big room had glass in it, and he was right under an eastward-facing one. He woke with warmth soothing his battered face, and just lay there enjoying it for a while.

Slowly he managed to get his eyes open. They weren’t as swollen as he thought they would be, but he still couldn’t get them open more than a slit. Still, it was nice. With sunlight pouring in the open window and now warming his bed as well as his face, Mags was feeling remarkably comfortable, considering that his chest and belly were so black and blue it looked like he’d had ink poured all over him. And he didn’t want to think about what his face looked like.

He’d gotten off easy, and he knew it. Only the fact that the foreigner had wanted to know who had sent him and what Mags knew had kept the man from just taking out a sword or a knife and killing him on the spot. He could have gotten away with it too, before Dallen got there.

Strangely, that realization didn’t make Mags feel frightened, just grateful.

There were birds outside the window, just ordinary creatures chirping cheerfully, but caught up in the lassitude of this morning, Mags found it very pleasant to listen to. Whatever had been in that medicine that the Healer had given him last night had left him still feeling pleasantly numbed and just sleepy enough to enjoy lying abed. Aside from the bruises, of course. He made a conscious effort not to move, because moving still hurt quite a lot. Not moving was nice. He even closed his eyes and dozed a little, and woke up a second time only when a voice roused him.

“Usually when I see someone with two black eyes, they tell me the other fellow looks even worse,” said Bear, making him open those blackened eyes and squint at him.

The young Healer-Trainee was standing at the foot of his bed and peering at him somewhat anxiously through those thick lenses. He looked as if he had been awake for several candlemarks already.

“Nope. I barely nicked ’im,” Mags admitted. He wiggled his jaw a little. It hurt, but not nearly as much as last night. “Least I kin talk this mornin’. Bastard ’bout broke m’jaw and tried t’ knock out teeth.”

Bear came close and peered at his face, moving his head from side to side. “Most of the swelling is gone from around your eyes, or I doubt you’d be able to open them,” he observed, “Or at least, so I surmise. You’ll look like a ferret for a while, but that’s just looks, and I am pretty sure we can do something about the bruising so you don’t look like Gennie beat you at the Kirball game.”

Mags grunted. “ ’M not ’xactly anybody’s sweetheart.

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