A/N – As always, this world belongs to Mercedes Lackey. I thank her for allowing us to play in it.
Chapter 1
The autumn sky was a deep, blue bowl, its warm sun soaking through his soft linen shirt. Kyminn drew in a deep breath, savouring the scent of ripe hay and frost-nipped poplar. Beneath the saddle, the grey gelding twitched an ear questioningly, the simple mind expressing a wistful plaint that there was food, water and other horses up ahead. When would the rider give the signal to join them?
Kyminn chuckled and gave Max a reassuring slap on the neck. "Soon", he told the horse. "I just need a moment."
A moment. The last fortnight had been made up of moments, yet he was still strangely reluctant to take this next step. Saying goodbye to his teammates had been wrenching, for all it had been expected. Herald Randen and his mentee Allek had been the first to depart, the Companions Derris and Jareth bearing them off at speeds no horse could dream of matching. Their orders to return to the capital with "all possible speed" had made the farewells brief.
Kyminn and Nikki had shared the road for a few days longer, the cavalry captain having been given charge of the group's team and wagon. While she would have preferred to be in the saddle of her immense warhorse Hugo, the beast was quite content to amble along at the wagon's pace, enjoying a respite from his labours.
That had been ten days ago, Kyminn taking the eastern fork towards Warford and its army training camp while Captain Ashkevron turned west, towards the Jaysong hills and the cavalry unit stationed there.
Kyminn shifted his weight in the saddle, a silent signal to the gelding to start forward again. The road was well tended, bending gently towards a wide plain. At one end, where a vigorous river emerged from the low hills, a series of low-slung stone buildings brooded over the roadway, a grey hawk guarding her nest.
Neatly fenced pastures, paddocks and yards spilled over around the buildings, horses and men moving to their own, unheard rhythm. Kyminn found himself conscious of the fact that he had straightened in his saddle. Unaccountably nervous, he resisted the urge to tug at his shirt or straighten his shaggy hair.
"Your business, sir?" The guardsman was polite and well turned out. Judging from the wary looks he was casting at Kyminn and his beasts, the fellow was probably a relatively new recruit, unsure of what to do with an armed, mounted stranger at his gate.
"Healer Kyminn Danner. I've been posted here as a Healer and trainer." The smile was friendly and open. "To be honest, to one told me who, exactly, I was to report to."
"Please dismount and wait here sir. Someone will be with you shortly." That at least, was something well within the youngster's experience – when in doubt, kick the problem upstairs. A whispered consultation with someone in the gatehouse, and a blue form trotted away into the clump of buildings.
Kyminn agreeably dismounted, one hand loosely holding the gelding's reins. The second horse, a bay gelding patiently toting Kyminn's gear, seemed quite happy to wait, hipshot and dozing in the afternoon sun. A furry head lifted from where it had been curled up on the packs and a blue-grey dog leapt lightly down, tail wagging in greeting.
The guardsman's incipient smile of welcome changed to a yelp of surprise and a clawing at his belt knife when two scarred, charcoal mastiffs emerged from the verge and joined the collie.
"Stop!" Kyminn lurched forward, one hand raised futilely at the sentry, the other waving at the dogs.
The dogs, trained, conditioned, and with instructions reinforced by Mindspeech, froze instantly, dropping to their bellies in a "Down! Stay!" posture.
The sentry was slower to react, only curtailing his own alarm after he realized the dogs were not actually threatening him. He still kept one cautious hand on his belt knife though, and didn't take his eyes off the massive dogs.
The tableau was broken when the second sentry returned, this time with a corporal in tow. That worthy took in the scene: sentry, stranger, horses, dogs. A small furrow appeared between his eyes, but the corporal's voice remained professional, if a trifle strained.
"Good afternoon sir. I understand you have orders that post you here?" A tiny gesture, and the sentry gratefully withdrew to the gate house.
Kyminn simply nodded politely and produced the necessary documents. The corporal's review was quick, but thorough.
"Thank you," he said, handing the papers back to Kyminn. "I'll take you to the post commander." The corporal eyed the dogs. "The dogs will have to remain out here. I'm not sure if anyone has explained this to you, but, generally speaking, people don't bring pets with them when they come here."
An eyebrow arched upward, slowly. Finally, Kyminn said only, "I'm afraid that won't be possible. They are not pets, nor are they exactly mine. I suggest that I explain the situation to the commander and let him or her decide how to proceed."
Corporals don't become corporals by being stupid. Recognizing immediately that tangling with a Healer who may or may not be considered to outrank him – or getting between the same and the commander - was not a winnable situation, he too kicked the problem upstairs. After all, the commandant was perfectly capable of ripping the Healer a new orifice if such an action was so required. The corporal simply nodded and said, "As you say, sir. However, they will have to be under control. They can't run around loose inside."
That pronouncement caused still more delays. Kyminn hadn't used leads on the dogs since Lord Balvel had handed them over the spring before. In point of fact, Kyminn had quite forgotten about the leashes, having left them in the wagon. One of the sentries was sent to procure some leather strapping, finally returning with some spare reins that could be buckled around the dog's collars. The fact that the dogs hadn't made so much as a twitch since Kyminn had told them to lie down and stay seemed to be lost on the soldiers. Possibly, the dogs were better drilled than some of the recruits. Kyminn wisely decided not to voice this thought.
Eventually, dogs appropriately accoutered and Kyminn now considered presentable, the cavalcade was admitted to the fort. Kyminn acquiesced silently when two guardsmen appeared to take the horses in from him. He wasn't going to leave them in someone else's care without checking on them, but that part could wait. For now.
The corporal led Kyminn to a building bearing a discreet sign proclaiming "Headquarters – Office of the Commandant." The orderly within looked like he wanted to protest the presence of several large dogs in his pin-neat office, but refrained. His face, when Kyminn instructed the animals to "Stay" in the outer office, was a study in silent frustration.
Base commander and Healer eyed each other, assessing, measuring. On one side of the desk sat a solid, chunky man. He looked like he might have been carved out of the same native stone as the buildings themselves. Close-cropped salt and pepper hair, more salt than pepper, framed a weathered face, deep set blue eyes revealing nothing of his thoughts.
Those same blue eyes, trained to quickly assess the mettle of the young men and woman in his charge, flicked thoughtfully over the newcomer. Average height and build, green eyes quiet under a thatch of dirty blonde hair. Reasonably fit with signs of sword calluses on his palms. Good. Temperament…ah…that was key, now wasn't it? This calm confidence – was it justified or was it young-cockerel cockiness? That would make a difference, and only time would tell which was which.
"You have orders?" The commandant held out his hand, his words abrupt.
"Yes sir." Kyminn surrendered the documents yet again. He wanted to sit down, but had not been invited to do so. Something told him that this man would consider it presumptuous.
This time, the documents were reviewed carefully, with some sections being read a second or third time. Finally, the commandant looked up.
"So." A pause. "Close the door and sit down. This is going to take a while."
The eyebrow arched up again, but Kyminn silently complied. The orderly looked even less happy to have the dogs on his side of the door while their master was on the other.
"I am Major Silas, the commander of this base." One thick finger tapped the letter. "From my perspective, this letter has so many holes in it that I very nearly doubt that you are even the person so named."
Kyminn straightened in alarm, wondering how on earth he was to suddenly prove his bona-fides to this man, this far from Haven or anyone who could vouch for him. The major shook his head, forestalling Kyminn's protest.
"I said 'very nearly'. I say that because I can't picture even the most idiotic imposter being stupid enough to forge the signature of Dean of Healer's, much less that of the King's Own. If you're a spy," the major carefully didn't notice Kyminn's sudden flinch, "you're a particularly poor one."
Kyminn wanted to point out that, as a matter of fact, he'd been a rather good spy, in one sense of the word, but again took advantage of a chance to keep his mouth shut.
"So I'm going to start from the beginning. You are a trained Healer, yes?"
That was a question Kyminn was quite happy to answer. "Yes sir. I received most of my training from my grandmother – a Haven trained healer, and my mother. I later enrolled in the Collegium and graduated into my Greens." Kyminn pulled a thong from around his neck and passed it to the major. The thong was looped through a metal disk. One side was enameled in healer green, the other side bore the sigil of the Healer's College. While such items were easy enough to forge, the penalties for doing so were severe, especially since one's Gift or skills at healing were easy enough to verify.
The major examined it carefully and handed it back with a nod. "Very well. I should ask, do you have any other Gifts aside from Healing?"
A stillness settled over Kyminn. This was a moment he'd always avoided – publicly presenting himself as a Healer while not having an actual Healing gift. Well, not of the expected sort anyway. "Yes and no, major. My Gifts include Animal Healing, Animal Mindspeech, Animal Empathy and a very specific kind of Animal Foresight." He paused and said carefully, "I'd ask you to note that actual Healing of people is not one of the Gifts I mentioned."
A brief narrowing of the pale blue eyes, then, astonishingly, a small shrug. "Most of our troops have never seen an actual Healer. They are actually far more familiar with, and comfortable with, herb healing and non-mystical techniques." The last was dry. "There are two other Healers here already, both with the Healing gift. Normally, we wouldn't have so many of your sort here, but as a training command, we are much larger than the usual Guard post. Also, recruits manage to hurt themselves in more ways you can possibly imagine. Expect to be busy."
A tension slid out of Kyminn, his muscles unknotting in relief. He simply nodded, gratefully.
The finger tapped the letter again. "Now, about this training. Suppose you explain it to me?"
Briefly, Kyminn explained to the major what he had being doing for the past several moons. How he and "some others, including a cavalry captain" had been buying horses for the Guard and using the captain's experience and his particular Gifts to expedite the training of the beasts. If Kyminn carefully avoided mentioning that the other two members of the group had been a pair of Heralds, and that the group had been delivering quite a bit more than trained horses to the Guard, well, the major didn't need to know that. The major, for his part, declined to ask why, exactly, this young Healer had come with orders signed by the King's Own, or how it came to be that said Healer 'just happened' to be traveling about with a cavalry captain and 'some others'. There was a lot to be said for discretion.
Finally, the major sat back in his chair. "I believe I understand. I'll be honest, we weren't aware that you were coming. When I heard there was an armed Healer and his pack of attack dogs at my gate, claiming to be here to train my troops…I was disinclined to welcome you."
"And now sir?" Kyminn cocked his head, curious.
"I'm reserving judgement. I will say this though; I can see how your skills will be an asset to our training. We don't accept recruits who can't ride, but getting them and their mounts trained up has its own challenges. I can see how you can help smooth that process out." He paused and glanced at the door. "I do have one question though. What were you planning on doing with those dogs? Or is that someone else's business?"
Kyminn twisted his face in chagrin. "Strictly speaking, they aren't my dogs. They were…loaned to us…for the summer. When…the others…returned to the capital, they weren't able to take the dogs. And when Captain Ashkevron was recalled to duty, it's not like she could take them with her." A wry shrug. "As I'm the only civilian of the lot, I sort of ended up with them. And since they belong to either the crown or their original owner, well, I can't sell them off or abandon them. So I guess I'll be taking care of them for the time being. I will, however, try to get the matter cleared up."
"See that you do. I hold you completely responsible for their care and behavior, is that understood? If they bite someone, or chase the horses or anything like that, you're the first person I'm going to string up, clear?"
Kyminn nodded. "Yes sir. They won't be a problem sir."
"Good. See my orderly, Corporal Lyell on your way out. He'll have your quarters assignment. Ask him to point out the kitchen, you can see the cook's quartermaster to arrange food for those beasts of yours. Tomorrow morning, right after breakfast, report to Captain Rath. He'll work you into the training schedule. Once that's set, get yourself onto the duty roster with the other Healers. Like I said, you're going to be busy." The major gave a nod of dismissal.
"Yes sir." Moments later, Kyminn found himself in the outer office, staring bemusedly at the pointedly closed door to the major's office. The orderly was glaring balefully at Kyminn, looking pointedly from the dogs to Kyminn and back again.
"Aaaand…welcome to Warford, Kyminn," the healer muttered to himself. This was going to be interesting.