I was still in the infirmary a few days later, but at least the drain was out of my chest now, and I was breathing a bit more easily. I’d received a massive telling off from Sir Erik about trying to intervene on my own – something I’d realised myself was a stupid idea – and found out I was being confined to the Company Headquarters for the next two months, apart from when I was required to go to the fifteenth and was losing a month’s pay. Neither of these worried me too much – I barely needed to spend any money if I didn’t want to and I was probably not going to be in a fit state for gallivanting around the city for a while yet, even if the thought of missing my first summer in Malin did grate on me. Still if I had to do it all over again, I couldn’t see myself doing anything differently – I would just have to be careful not to get separated from my companions lest I do anything foolish from now on.
So far Dr Haskell had appeared true to his word and kept my secret, and by the simple method of making sure I pulled my blanket fully over me whenever someone came in the room, I had managed to easily avoid any situation that might have given me away. Dr Haskell tended to work alone, some physicians used nurses to assist them, but Dr Haskell was ‘traditional’ in his lone working, relying on the effectiveness of healing potions to assist him in his more difficult work rather than direct physical assistance. He chuckled that he was a bit of a dinosaur in that respect and would probably have to change soon enough as physician-surgeons like him developed and attempted more complicated procedures. I found him good company, which was lucky as by and large he was my only company, as he sat at his desk in the corner of the infirmary drawing anatomical sketches or making notes on an article; he was one of those people who couldn’t think silently, and his work was punctuated by unconscious exclamations and mutterings. I didn’t mind though, it helped pass the time in what would have otherwise been a deeply boring recovery.
This morning however, he was absent, I guess he had both his own personal life and company business to attend to, so I was bored. At least, I was until there came a knock on the infirmary door, which then slowly opened to reveal a young lady. She was tall, with long black hair that fell in subtle waves down past her shoulders and contrasted with her pale skin, she was dressed in a simple skirt and loosely fitting light blouse, but even under its billowy form I could tell she would certainly never have been able to masquerade as a boy like I was able to.
“Hello?” I said, confused as to why she was here, she didn’t look like one of the company’s servants.
“Don’t recognise me do you?” she replied in a familiar voice.
“Matty?!” I said, so this is what she looked like, stunningly beautiful, I mentally kicked myself for not joining the dots sooner.
“Hi Neesh,” she smiled at me, “that’s a relief I wondered if you had brain damage or something for a second there.”
“Nope, everything’s working about as well as ever,” I said, gods I was babbling, wasn’t I? I needed to think of something meaningful to say. “Um, how are you?”
“Doing better than you by the looks of it,” she laughed, before becoming more serious, “relieved I guess and it was good to see my parents, but I know enough to know it’s going to be a long time before this leaves me, if it ever leaves me.” That made sense, she had been kidnapped and enslaved, that wasn’t something people just got over.
“Yeah, I get that,” I said, “still I’m really pleased to see you here, but, you know, what are you doing here?”
“Well, I came to see how my rescuer was getting on,” she said, giving me a strange look.
“I was hardly your rescuer, all I did was nearly get us both killed,” I said, shaking my head.
“True,” she smiled at me, “but as they were probably going to kill us anyway you get definite marks for effort. Besides, you were right, your friends did come and find you.”
“They did,” I smiled; Sir Erik after he had finished scolding me had told me about the search for me and the rescue. It made me quite embarrassed at the amount of trouble I caused.
“So what are you going to do now you’re free?” I asked.
“Well I’ve got a job, well an apprenticeship,” she said coyly. I hadn’t been in Malin long, but I had started to understand that an apprenticeship was a very significant thing, whether it was a knight apprenticeship like mine, or an apprenticeship to any other profession, they were all incredibly competitive and difficult to secure. After children finished their schooling at thirteen, they could try and get an apprenticeship. About seventy skilled professions – alchemists, plumbers, blacksmiths, bookkeepers, lawyers – began with an apprenticeship and only people who had completed an apprenticeship could practise in those professions. The professions that needed apprenticeship and the number of apprentices taken on each year were set by the Council who also paid salaries to the apprentices, just as I got my salary, whilst they trained. It was down to each profession though to decide how apprentices were recruited – some held elaborate competitions, even more competitive in their way than the Militia Trials, whilst others simply picked candidates by lottery.
Stolen novel; please report.
“An apprenticeship,” I beamed at her, “that’s fantastic, what are you apprenticing in and where are you doing it?” I hoped it would be close by, I really wanted to be this girl’s friend.
“Well that’s the other reason I’m here,” she said, “I’m going to be Dr Haskell’s apprentice.” My jaw dropped open. That was massive, only a dozen physicians and surgeons were taken on as apprentices each year, and each one was personally selected by their master to train under them. Normally only scions of noble houses got the opportunity to train as doctors – for Matty this would be life changing.
“No way,” I said, “that’s amazing.”
“Yeah,” she said, “it’s all a bit unreal. I have to come live here, Mrs Elthorpe has given me a small room on the servant’s floor, but it’s a bit scary, apart from you know I’ve never lived away from home before. Still I’m glad I already have a friend here.”
“You do?” I said, confused.
“Yes, you! You idiot,” she laughed.
“Oh,” I said, I really was an idiot, “yeah you do, totally.”
---------------------------------------------------------
“Well I always thought you were an idiot Neesh, but this really takes the biscuit,” Alex said, lightheartedly.
“I know, I know, everyone has told me how dumb I was already ok,” I said sheepishly, despite his joking tone I knew Alex was lecturing just as much as Sir Erik had been.
“I mean you are pretty beat up,” Dene said, not entirely helpfully, “how long are you going to be laid up for anyway.”
“Not too much longer I hope,” I said, “but then I’m confined to quarters for the rest of the summer anyway.”
“That’s rubbish,” Fig said, “I guess though you’ve gotten off pretty lightly, I think our Captain would have had you whipped.”
“I guess,” I said, “they docked my wages as well, not that it matters I suppose as trapped here I’ll have nothing to spend them on.”
“You could always give what’s left to me,” Dene said with a grin, “I’ll make sure they get put to good use.”
“He means he’ll spend them on pulp novels about swordsmen,” Alex said, Dene’s love of really bad writing was well known to us; that was despite him already being a better swordsman in real life than most of the heroes of his fantasy stories.
It was nice to see the boys, they had come to visit me this afternoon and hear what had happened to me having known I had gone missing but not what had happened. I actually couldn’t tell them all of what happened, Sir Shi had ordered me to say nothing about my rescue - for reasons even I understood. So I had told the boys the story up until I was knocked out. I told them about waking up and meeting Matty, who they seemed strangely interested in, and my own escape and attempt and how eventually I had been rescued but I made out I had been being held in some criminal hideaway in Northgate - not the Parasian embassy compound!
Not that my rescue had gone unnoticed - it was no common knowledge that something had happened at the Parasian embassy the night of my rescue. Word on the street, according to Alex, was that a gang had tried to rob some of its storehouses (which wasn’t far from the truth) and now Lancel and his men were in even more of a grump than they had been before. The Prince was now preparing to leave truly, along with the whole embassy, which was a sign that war was probably now inevitable even if the Council was pretending it wasn’t (again according to Alex). Still apparently, far from being worried, most Malinese were just glad the Parasians were leaving.
“So what are you all doing for autumn exercises?” Fig said, changing the subject and breaking my train of thought.
“Autumn what?” I said, genuinely confused.
“Neesh, you really need to read up about the apprentices’ training programme,” Alex said, “every autumn apprentices spend a month on a special training operation with their company - it’s to build on all the company training we’re doing over the summer, or should be doing if we’re not in the infirmary!”
“Yeah,” Dene said, “my squad is travelling to Soltis to take part in a tournament there, it will be a fortnight’s sail upstream and then a ride across country from Enos to get there, five days of the tournament and then a week to come back down stream.”
“That sounds amazing,” I said. The Kingdom of Solliste was meant to be the most beautiful on the continent, a kingdom ruled by Pixies, and famous for its knightly tournaments. I remember Frederick going when he was a boy, as a squire, and coming back with fantastic tales of jousting and banquets.
“Yeah Dene lucked out,” Fig sighed, “I am escorting a merchant caravan to the Hamule gap. It’s going to be boring and I don’t even get to see Trieste.”
“You’re not missing that much,” I said. He honestly wasn’t. Hamule, although a key strategic town that guarded the only reliable pass through the Great Eastern Mountains, was basically a large castle dominating a ramshackle town most Malinese would think of as a village. If it hadn't been for the pass I doubted the town would have existed. As it was, most trade still came from the Est through Solliste, certainly in summer, so it was strange that a caravan was making for the pass at this time of year.
“What about you Alex?” I asked.
“Oh not too bad, but not as fun as Dene’s, my squad is off into the hinterland to break in a load of new horses,” he said. The hinterland was what the Malinese called the small ring of country outside the city that was under its direct control.
“We’re taking bets on how many times he gets thrown off,” Dene said.
“I’ll have you know I’m an excellent horseman,” Alex said, in mock offence, “I shall not be unseated even once.”
“Eight times,” I said, with a grin. “I guess I’ll have to ask Sir Steven what we’re getting up to then. I wonder what it will be? With my luck at the moment it will be learning how to dig field latrines or something.”