Kaveri tried not to tug too obviously at the layers of her mantle. There were several styles for wrapping it, showing the colourful pattern in different ways against the pale minimally-decorated dress beneath, but clearly there was some trick she hadn't learned for making everything stay comfortably in place. Or maybe she'd just never be able to get accustomed to this much clothing.
Tyrel, beside her, caught her eye and gave her a sympathetic smile, which she returned.
While out for a morning stroll and a discussion about whether there was more to see or if they should leave that night, their attention had been caught by the number of people moving in this direction. Curious, they'd followed, and had joined the crowd. Most of those that comprised it looked, to Kaveri, like the sorts of men and women who did all the daily work of the city, labourers and craftsmen, the owners of very small businesses and those who worked for them, with only a few in finer clothes.
“There was a lot of activity here last night when I was exploring,” Mirren murmured. “I tried to get in and look but a workman chased me off.” Tyrel hadn't thought much about the ubiquity of cats around humans before Mirren joined them, but virtually everywhere, she was ignored as just another local mouser.
“What kind of activity?” Madoc asked.
“Bringing in a lot of things. Foodstuffs, I think. And a lot of lights were on very late. Finishing work up at the last minute, maybe?”
The assembly had gathered in front of an impressively large building even for Enodia, all neatly-dressed pale grey limestone with a few broad steps up to the doubled main doors. The steps were shaded by a great roof, the edges carved with figures and scenes, supported by columns adorned similarly, all the carvings painted in the half-dozen bright colours that were common in architectural decoration around here.
Flanking the doors were a pair of painted statues, just enough larger than human-sized to be imposing.
One was a mature woman in a pale yellow dress and modest green mantle, an infant cradled in one arm and a basket draped over the other, out of which spilled herbs and an infant's rattle and a mortar and pestle; at her feet, a brown bear-cub stood up on its back feet, one forepaw braced on her leg, to reach for a white ribbon or strip of bandage trailing from the basket.
The other was an elderly man in a white tunic that reached just below his knees, with twin scarlet bands along the bottom and sleeves, holding in his right hand some sort of inexplicable device at which he was looking, and in the left, a model of one of the four-spout public fountains that were the water source for less wealthy homes; from his belt dangled a substantial ring of keys at one side, a rectangular case at the other that probably meant something to Enodians. A goose was pressed close against his side, craning its head in rather improbable curiosity about the device.
While she didn't know all the symbolism, that would be both the major gods associated with health and healing, Kaveri figured. Smaller statues stood in niches in the wall to either side, though from here Kaveri had no idea what they represented. Very likely that offered a strong hint as to the purpose of the building.
The chatter stilled as the doors opened. The first out were a pair of women in, interestingly, tunics very like those men typically wore here, brilliantly white ones, edged with a broad vivid stripe of green at the bottom and neck and sleeves, and green crisscrossed their upper bodies in an X as well as forming a similar band at waist level that could not be the same as the belts holding their weapons. And they were quite visibly, and atypically, armed: each wore a long knife at one side, nearly a short sword, and a shorter one on the other. Each had her hair gathered smoothly out of the way with green and white ribbon, including a band across her forehead. Both looked athletic and alert, scanning the area intently.
“Bodyguards,” Madoc said in an undertone, and Tyrel nodded agreement.
Kaveri spotted another a short distance along the wall, at the base of the stairs, and checked the mirror position on the other side. Sure enough, there was a fourth.
“Someone important,” Tyrel said quietly. “For Enodia, there's fairly high security here right now. More city patrolmen than usual. Not all in uniforms.”
“Interesting,” Madoc said.
Unusual here. Enodia and its neighbours were an odd blend of tradition and practicality and innovation, but it seemed to work very well for them.
The next to emerge from the interior were two grey-haired men in long white tunics like those of the physician god, looking enough alike that from here Kaveri doubted she could tell them apart. Another mature man wore a white tunic that had bold scarlet bands, and with him was a woman in a green-bordered yellow dress and a green mantle that seemed simpler than most, a yellow veil over her grey hair. Priests of the two healer gods, maybe?
A stride behind was a strikingly-tall woman in the vivid orange-tinged yellow they called saffron here, with sinuous indigo borders, and a mantle of saffron and indigo that looked as sheer as a veil; gold pinned a saffron veil over her silvering hair, and gleamed as heavy dangly earrings and a collection of bangles. Dark blue markings circled her forearms, but Kaveri couldn't make out any details. Her eyes were heavily emphasized with black, and her lips dyed a deep berry red.
Behind them was another woman. Kaveri suspected there were pleasant curves under the rich indigo-and-emerald draperies wrapped artistically over her pale dress and pinned with gold; more gold secured a green veil over her coiled dark hair, and glittered in her ears and around her wrists. It was hard to see details from here, but Kaveri thought her lips and eyes had been darkened more subtly, perhaps to make them more visible.
To her left and a step or two behind was a man whose dyed and embroidered costume looked equally expensive if uncommon, the pale blue tunic with its wide intricate forest-green borders long enough to cover his knees and over it a highly-decorated open-fronted blue and green robe of a sort Kaveri had seen only a handful of times. The position reminded her of the one Madoc still fell into automatically with Tyrel at times, close at hand and available but not enough so to be in the way, but nothing suggested to her that he was another bodyguard.
Behind them were a number of other men, whom Kaveri decided were local notables in their best finery, none of which equalled that of the lady and her companion—who were also, almost certainly, younger than anyone else on the steps except perhaps the bodyguards.
The lady allowed a moment for those around her to arrange themselves, then glanced to the side, at one of the city notables, and nodded.
He stepped forward, and raised his hands for quiet.
“Phleion is honoured to not only be home to this marvellous new facility, but to have Her Gracious Serenity Narcissa Diamantina as our guest to open the door to our citizens.”
Under the considerable cheering, Mirren said, “Royal family.”
That explained the extra security, although most places would have had far more for a member of the royal family. But then, everything they'd seen suggested that Enodia's royals were popular and well-liked, and violent crime in Enodia was minimal, so maybe they felt little need.
Her Gracious Serenity waited courteously for him to step back—Kaveri figured he was the mayor or whatever the local equivalent was—and then turned her attention to the waiting crowd.
“I see,” she said, “that I'm not alone in being excited by this newest addition to your city.” She spread her hands gracefully to either side, emcompassing the enormous edifice. Her voice carried powerfully, without sounding like a shout: a neat trick they'd encountered when Mirren dragged them to the theatre, but rarely outside of that. “Three years ago, Enodia's first Crown-sponsored public hospital opened in Orthia. The impact on community health has been dramatic. The demand was even higher than we expected, and we've had to make some rapid changes since it opened, to make certain that it would never be necessary to turn anyone away. The plan is now to open further hospitals, beginning in major cities. This, of course, is the next step in that plan, the first hospital outside the capital. All citizens of the nation are important to us, and while we would like everyone to have a life of security and comfort, poverty is a difficult weight to shift. For many people, an injury or illness can be catastrophic. They cannot afford the services of a physician, or they cannot afford to follow that physician's best advice or to purchase the medicine recommended. Women bear children at great personal risk, all too often in unsanitary surroundings without a midwife, and often must soon after get up and perform household tasks, increasing their risk.”
She paused while the crowd muttered agreement about the injustice. She looked, to Kaveri, absolutely relaxed and at home, speaking to the large crowd—no fumbling for something to do with her hands, no stumbling over words, no hint of self-consciousness. But then, she was from the royal family, and public speaking was probably a useful skill for them, right? The language was obviously the same as the Enodian they’d been learning, but every syllable was smoother and indefinably more refined, pleasant to the ear—but then, that was typical, that the version of any language spoken by common folk tended to sound more rough-and-ready than that of an educated upper class.
“The temples of Neaira and Makarios do their best,” her gestures acknowledged the woman in yellow and green and the man in white and red, respectively, “and many of their priests are highly skilled, but they were meant as houses of worship, and lack the facilities to meet the need. Both temples have been enthusiastic partners in this venture, as have those of several other gods with an interest in health and healing. Their priests work beside secular physicians in Orthia and will do so here. Aithre's Oracles,” she gestured to the tall woman in saffron and indigo, “have given it their blessing and have foreseen great benefits to Enodia from this project. The new public hospitals will ensure that the injured and the sick have access to the services of a physician without cost and without judgement. Women can bear their children in a clean safe setting with expert midwives at hand, and have time to recover, and will leave with necessary supplies. The trained nursing staff will make sure that those who come here receive care promptly in an emergency, and that those who need to stay longer have clean bedding, healthy meals, and any assistance they need. That assistance, and the nursing care, will be available at any time of day or night, even outside of the traditional hours of an independent physician.” She paused briefly after each statement to let the cheering fade. It certainly sounded not only compassionate but sensible to Kaveri, far more so than she was used to civilized cultures coming up with.
“There has been some concern in the capital about physician students within the hospitals, fears that they will use patients as practice. I can assure you that all students will be closely supervised. Each new generation of physicians needs to learn, this is highly important, but not at the expense of patient safety.” Another pause, a longer one.
“Another issue has arisen repeatedly in the hospital in the capital. Patients have been advised that they should stay for several days, but they have been unable to do so without losing their livelihood, which may affect not only them but a spouse, elderly parents, children, or others. This has led several times to tragic consequences that could have been avoided. To this end, a new law is coming into force.”
That silenced the crowd—in surprise, Kaveri thought.
“Hospital physicians will have the right and responsibility of providing a written document to patients in genuine need which can then be delivered to an employer. To terminate employment as the result purely of a stay in the hospital will result in legal penalties. We feel that this is the best way to ensure that the health of our citizens is given the priority it deserves.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Dead stillness, for the span of a couple of heartbeats, before the eruption of voices—some cheering, some not so pleased.
“Formal notice,” the princess' voice climbed over the uproar, firmly. “Formal notice will be provided to all businesses registered in the tax records over the next few days, here and in Orthia. Provisions have been made to verify said documents and for a small business to appeal, since we do not want such businesses forced into hardship. After the Midsummer celebrations end, this law will be enforced. A strong and healthy population means a strong and healthy nation, and that ultimately benefits all of us. Health should not be a privilege of the wealthy, but a right of all citizens.”
Both brothers half-turned, scanning the unsettled mass of humans around them. Kaveri glanced at Mirren, who was by far the best judge of anything within a city, and found her frowning thoughtfully but not particularly apprehensive, so Kaveri assumed she wasn't anticipating a riot. The grumbling was probably on the part of business-owners who feared they'd have to keep an employee whose health was failing. Kaveri had no sympathy at all. Even in Dunnval, being injured or ill meant being off-duty for a while and missing opportunities for plunder, but not being tossed outside the palisades and abandoned, and within her own people, the ill or injured were tended without complaint by the rest of the tribe, each aware that they could be the next to need it.
Kieran raised his head, sniffing at the air. Not only his nostrils flared, but he opened his mouth, inhaling to catch every trace of scent. Kaveri glanced down distractedly, wondering what had caught his attention.
Then he growled, a low and threatening sound that made the fine hairs stand up on the back of her neck. Slowly, his ears flattened and the fur along his spine rose, muscle tensing visibly, the growl increasingly deep and guttural.
Not in all the time she'd known him had she ever heard a sound like that from the amarog.
Nearby townspeople began to edge farther away, quite understandably.
Kaveri looked at Tyrel questioningly, and wasn't the only one; Tyrel just spread his hands, equally confused.
“He's not saying anything. Kieran, what...?”
Kieran's poised stillness exploded into motion, the moon-woven leash simply dissolving into a brief shimmer of yellow light.
But he wasn't the main reason for the screaming that erupted off to one side of the crowd and spread rapidly: that was the great brown bear currently charging at the party on the steps.
The two closest women in the short white and green tunics ran to put themselves between the princess and the bear, and Kaveri saw the other two coming quickly, but that bear would be able to swat them out of the way with a single blow each.
Kieran met it face-on, teeth bared in a savage snarl and his tail aggressively high. It took a swipe at him with one massive paw; he ducked under it and lunged for its throat, and it barely evaded the snapping fangs.
“What the hell...?” Madoc began.
“Questions later,” Tyrel said, one of his throwing knives already in his hand. “It's after the princess. Protect her.”
Most of the crowd was, quite sensibly, fleeing in the opposite direction, which gave reaching the steps some similarity to being four fish swimming upstream against a fierce current, but that was better than having more bystanders at risk. With any luck, enough of the local patrolmen would keep their heads to look out for anyone at risk of being trampled or who couldn't move quickly.
What exactly they were going to do, Kaveri had no idea. They had no weapons at hand other than small ones that could be hidden: Tyrel's knives, Madoc's weighted knuckle-guards, and Mirren had, hidden in her clothes, both a push-knife, a small blade with a T-shaped handle, and a butterfly knife, a longer blade with a two-part handle that folded around it on either side. Kaveri's belt, an intricate multi-hued braid of linen cords, had elaborate knots on each end that concealed small lead weights. The sort of knife that could be carried openly as a tool and for eating had only a short single-edged blade. None of those were things that would be very effective against a bear.
Most of the party on the steps had disappeared already, behind the closed front doors of the hospital. The princess remained, watching the battle of bear and amarog fixedly, her face pale and set.
“Cissa, this is stupid,” her companion said in exasperation. “We have to move!”
One of the guard-women clearly agreed, the only one with a narrow stripe of red dividing green from white on her tunic, red stripes woven into the green crisscrossing her chest, and a red ribbon joining the green and white securing her hair; she was similarly urging the princess into motion. Two of the others had fallen into place around them protectively; the nearer gave the moonblood quartet a warning look, clearly with no intention of letting them get any closer. The last was pounding on the hospital doors with the hilt of her knife and demanding that it be opened immediately.
“Oh gods,” Mirren whispered. “Look at the blood.”
Kaveri glanced at her, startled—discomfort with blood wasn't like Mirren—then followed her line of sight.
The bear was rising up to its full height, towering over Kieran.
The blood on its fur, and streaking Kieran's, was partly yellow, but partly a pale shimmering blue, the colour of Meyar.
How can that possibly be?
It doesn't matter right now.
“Duck!” Madoc bellowed.
Not the time to look for why. Kaveri dropped flat to the ground, aware of Mirren and Tyrel doing the same, and of Madoc darting past the startled guards to tackle both the princess and her companion.
Great wings battered the air just above, and Kaveri heard one of the guards cry out in pain. She got to her hands and knees, cursing the entangling folds that hampered motion worse than the corset she'd worn in Galimont, and looked up, spotting a great eagle just gaining height.
Kieran saw it too.
And actually climbed the bear to get enough height to fling himself at it. It shrieked and dodged, a drunken and uneven stagger to one side, but several feathers drifted down and Kaveri saw blood splatter.
Blood that was pale aquamarine, the colour of Sahen.
Kieran landed hard and stumbled.
The bear hesitated only briefly, torn between targets, and chose the original one: it started towards the steps again.
The eagle circled higher, but Kaveri had no doubt it was only preparing for another attack.
“Enough is enough,” Madoc said, scrambling to his feet and hauling Narcissa up with him. Unceremoniously, he seized her upper arm with one hand, that of her companion in the other, and hauled them bodily away from the savage battle, towards the far end of the steps. “Mirren! Find a door we can get behind!”
One of the guards stayed behind them, covering their escape. In a move probably as blasphemous as it was pragmatic, she snatched up one of the smaller statues from its niche and flung it at the bear. Her aim was excellent: it reared up with a bellow of pain, pawing at the side of its face. The guard fell back a couple of steps to grab another, but the bear charged at her with that deceptive speed that few people believed until they'd actually seen a beast that large run. She had to throw too hastily and it was only a glancing blow. With one swipe, it tossed her aside.
She rolled down the steps, and didn't move.
Kieran shook himself hard and raced after the bear, blocking its path again. He was seriously injured, that was obvious even at a glance, but Kaveri was certain he was too far gone in berserk rage to even notice.
They had to finish this. There were already at least two human injuries, one possibly worse. But with everything moving so fast and with so much going on at once, where to start?
With being able to move freely!
Kaveri began to hastily unwrap the offending length of drapery. Tyrel grabbed one end to help, but didn't let go; instead, he gave her a manic grin.
“Think this'll work as a net?”
“Worth a try!”
The eagle stooped again, aiming for the princess and those around her. The back and outer wings were very dark, the underside very pale except a broad sooty collar across the upper chest and dark striping on flight feathers and tail. She didn't recognize what type of eagle it was, which was a shame since that might have offered a hint about how to deal with it. She knew only that the short broad wings and long tail meant it should live in woodland where agility was key, not the long effortless open-country glides that came with longer wings—and that, factoring in the size as well, it would be a very powerful bird that could do extensive damage to a human.
Kaveri and Tyrel ran after them, but just as the eagle came lower, they stopped and at the last instant snapped the length of fabric up into its path.
Too focused and moving too fast, it flew right into it.
Kaveri and Tyrel jerked it tighter, dragging the eagle downwards and tangling it in moon-woven fabric, while it fought and shrieked. One-handed, Kaveri untied her belt and wrapped part of it around her lower arm, leaving enough rope that she could get substantial force behind the weighted end.
It took her three tries, because it was thrashing so much, but she finally got in a solid blow on the eagle's skull.
The thrashing stopped instantly.
Tyrel drew his dagger from his back, and slashed open the eagle's throat, spilling aquamarine blood everywhere.
It wasn't going to heal from that, not in the middle of the day with no moonlight.
Both panting, Kaveri and Tyrel shared a quick triumphant smile, then turned to look for the next threat.
Mirren, maybe thanks to her nocturnal explorations, had led the others to a nearby shop, one with a sign showing a three-legged table flanked by a chair and a stool. The wooden door was less sturdy, and the brick wall less thick, than the metal-bound wood and solid stone of the hospital, but it was cover, and with any luck the door wouldn't be locked. Someone, without stopping, had sliced off enough of the injured guard's tunic that the woman could press it over the wounds with her good hand, slowing the blood at least a little; one of the others was staying close to her, though still watching all directions alertly.
As Mirren reached out to open the door, an arrow pinned her hand to the wood. She screamed, but once a quick tug at the arrow with her free hand determined that it was fixed too securely to get it loose readily, she had the sense not to fight against it; she twisted in place to try to find the source.
Madoc, in an instant, tracked the direction it came from and pulled Narcissa between his own body and the brick wall. The two uninjured guards whipped around, scanning for the source, but there was little they could do against an archer other than interposing their own bodies.
“I've got Mirren,” Kaveri said, already gathering the skirt of her dress so she could run more quickly.
“Archer,” Tyrel said, spinning in place and racing in the opposite direction. Many buildings had balconies on the second and third floors, especially the sort that had living space above shops or workshops, and rooftops here were generally flat and accessible. The angle suggested that the archer was up high somewhere and within a limited range of buildings. That should be enough for Tyrel to go on.
The next arrow thudded home in Madoc's upper chest, just below his collarbone, slamming him into the princess and then her into the wall with what must be bruising, if not bone-breaking, force. Narcissa cried out.
Let that be shock or insult or pressure, not pain, Kaveri prayed. Don't let her be hurt. No arrow could possibly go right through, could it? This isn't the right area for those massive northern longbows, and other than them, it's not possible, is it?
“Cissa!” The princess' companion slid an arm around her waist, holding her against him. Kaveri saw wet crimson, but wasn't sure how much might be from Narcissa and how much might be from the guard-woman wounded by the eagle.
“Brace yourself,” Kaveri said to Mirren, who took a deep breath and nodded. The arrow had an oddly thick shaft, with little fletching, and she didn't think she could break it; instead, she planted one hand against the door for leverage, seized the arrow in the other, and pulled, trying her best to come straight out. It didn't come easily, embedded deeply as it was, and she winced in time with Mirren's every flinch and every involuntary sound as she worked it out of the wood. As it finally came loose, Mirren swayed alarmingly. Kaveri flipped one end of her weighted belt around Mirren's shoulder from behind and hastily used the whole thing to tie her injured hand close to her body, careful of the arrow still piercing it. She made sure her friend's good hand was on the wall before turning her attention to Madoc and the princess.
“Oh, I'm fine, thanks,” Madoc said through clenched teeth. “Leave it or it'll bleed worse. Inside, now! Everyone!”