“How’s Frentis?” he asked.
“Angry,” Nortah said. “Doesn’t know what to do with it, we’ve had to drag him out of three fights already. He begged the Aspect to let him come with us but got a day in the stables for his pains.”
“Keep an eye on him when you get back. I don’t like him being around Master Rensial on his own. Tell him I’m well, I’ll be back soon. And tell him to make sure he visits Scratch every day.”
Nortah nodded. It was unspoken but acknowledged that he would lead whilst Vaelin recovered. “They said you killed four of them,” he said. “Impressive.”
“Three. There was a girl, she had pretended to be a sister here for years. She killed herself when she failed to kill me.”
“A girl?” A faintly wicked smile played on Nortah’s lips as he glanced at the scar on Vaelin’s arm. “How close did you let her get, brother?”
“Too close.” A lesson I won’t forget.
“Brother Nillin had been at the Fourth Order for over twelve years,” Caenis said. “He was one of their most respected scholars, author of three books on linguistics, teacher of languages to the novice brothers, and all the time he was waiting to kill Aspect Dendrahl.”
“The fat bastard’s got you to thank he’s still with us,” Nortah said. “How did you reckon it out anyway?”
“I didn’t. I was returning a book the Aspect had lent me. I kicked the door in when I heard him screaming.” He paused, his sombre mood deepening visibly. “Brother Nillin put up a fair fight for a man in his forty-seventh year.”
“What’d you do him with?” Dentos asked.
“I didn’t have a weapon, couldn’t see the point of carrying one around the Fourth Order. I had to use my hands.”
“Couldn’t have been easy,” Barkus commented. “Facing off unarmed against a man with a knife.”
“The man was skilled but…” Caenis shrugged.
“He wasn’t one of us,” Vaelin finished.
Caenis nodded. “Which begs the question why wait until the Orders are full of boys from the Sixth Order before making their move.”
“Nothing about this makes sense,” Nortah said, yawning. “Although I can understand someone wanting the Aspect of the Second Order dead. One more minute of the boring old fool’s twaddle and I’d’ve strangled him myself.”
“Is that why you were expelled?” Vaelin asked.
Dentos snickered and Nortah’s smile for once seemed to have some genuine humour in it. “There was a misunderstanding with one of the sisters. Apparently relaxation massage has certain limitations. At least I think that’s what she said before she slapped me and ran off.”
Vaelin let them laugh for a few seconds before cutting in, raising his gaze to meet each of their eyes in turn. “I don’t know what happened here, brothers. I don’t understand it any better than you do. I do know that we live in perilous times, that the only trust we can have is in each other. Heed Master Sollis, obey the Aspect and, above all, guard each other well.”
The door opened and Sister Sherin entered with a bowl of steaming water, the first time he had seen her all day. “Out!” she commanded. “Time for Brother Vaelin’s wash and you lot have been here long enough.”
“A wash eh?” Nortah raised an eyebrow, leaning close to Sherin as she placed the bowl on the table, Vaelin noting how his gaze scanned her from head to toe. “I trust you’ll be very thorough, Sister.”
Sherin gave Nortah the same wearied, uninterested glance he recognised from her encounters with amorous drunks in the treatment room. “Don’t you have to go and play with your sword somewhere, brother?”
Laughing wryly Nortah followed the others from the room.
“Your friend could do with a lesson in manners,” Sherin observed, placing the bowl on the small table beside the bed. “His demeanour is unseemly for a brother.”
“My order has many different brothers within its ranks, some of them more seemly than others.”
She raised an eyebrow but said nothing, dipping her cloth into the bowl and making to pull back the covers. “I’m strong enough now to wash myself, Sister,” he told her, gently but firmly holding on to the blankets.
She gave him a bemused look. “Trust me when I say, brother, you have nothing I haven’t seen before. Who do you think washed you when you were unconscious?”
Vaelin drove the uncomfortable thought to the back of his mind and kept hold of the bed clothes. “Even so. I’m stronger now.”
“As you wish.” She dropped the cloth into the bowl and moved back. “Since you’re so much stronger you can meet with the Aspect today. She’s been asking for you. In the gardens at noon. I’ll help you, if you can stand to accept my help that is.”