Chapter 9
For the next ten days, Randen was what he later referred to as "an ironwork Herald". A frame of wires and pins held the broken bones in place during the Healing. With the bizarre apparatus attached to his body, he was forced to lie on his hale side, propped and braced to a fare-thee-well.
Morning saw Pell or Kyminn helping him with necessary personal needs and a sketchy wash. This was one of the few times that he was awake and alert enough to check in with Derris. Derris was steadily improving, but his own treatments left him as fatigued as his Herald. Still, they both treasured those moments.
Once he was cleaned and had eaten, Pell and Anya would arrive for the first of the day's healing sessions. These were focused on the shoulder, but they made sure not to neglect the cracked pelvis. Until it was stronger, he would be unable to even sit up without pain. Both healers agreed that that this was an unwise stress to place on his ravaged body.
The healing sessions always left Randen exhausted. Neither he nor the healers wanted him to rely solely on the powerful – and addictive – pain killing draughts. Fortunately, one of the side effects of the healing meant that Randen slept a lot.
The afternoon healing session was usually the hardest, since it was usually when they moved the pins and adjusted his arm. Pell would block the pain long enough for him to eat, then he would gulp down the laced wine and slide into a numbed slumber.
It was a surprise then, to open his eyes and find Keli adjusting his bandages. "Randen? How do you feel this morning?"
He blinked and spent a moment cataloging the various regions of discomfort. "Better, I think." He tried to shift and stilled. "Really?"
A laugh in her voice. "Really. Pell and Anya came in early this morning and decided the pins could come out. They pushed you into a deeper sleep and took the frame off." She peeled back the bandage to show him nine small pockmarks in his shoulder. "You'll always have the scars, but with time, you should have most of the use of your shoulder back."
He tried to sit up and she pushed him back. "That's if you pay attention to your healers and your exercises. You've got a long way to go before you can run off and be the dashing hero Herald again."
He slumped. "I won't be running anywhere." His voice was dull.
"No, you won't. But having two legs doesn't make you a Herald, any more than if I rode a white horse I'd be one. From what my mother has told me, a Herald is in here", she touched his chest lightly. "Not in your legs or arms. You haven't lost that. You may have lost your way for a bit, but you'll find it again. It's in you to do so."
Randen searched her face and was surprised to see that there was no pity there. No judgement, no naiveté, no adulation. Just a pragmatic honesty and compassion. "You've a long road, Herald Randen. Best put your foot on it now."
Randen essayed a dry smile. "I guess I've been told. So then…what comes next?"
"What comes next," she snorted, "is your breakfast. After that, some stretching exercises and more healing. Today we are going to start getting you to sit more upright and see how your hip tolerates the weight. It's our hope that in a few days we'll get your foot on the floor and getting some weight on it. Pell wants you standing within the sennight."
He sighed. "I can see this is going to take a while. Any chance I can see Derris today?"
A shadow loomed over his shoulder and Kyminn came around the side of his bed. "You can indeed. Now that your shoulder is out of the frame, we can move you around. But first, let's get you cleaned up. Can I interest you in a bath?"
Randen's eyes lit up. "A bath? With hot water and soap?" He tried not to calculate how long it had been since he'd been really, truly, clean. Bed bathes, while a vast improvement to the mud he'd arrived in, was not the same thing as a bath.
"Yes, a real bath." Kyminn laughed. Randen was startled to realize that it was the first time he'd heard the young man laugh. It was a mark of the strain of the last fortnight that a laugh fell oddly on his ears.
Getting shifted to the tub left Randen pale and shaking, but the bliss of being set into the steaming water more than made up for the discomfort. He fully intended to revel in the experience as long as he possibly could.
"Here," Kyminn handed him a cloth and some soap. "I'll do your hair. You still can't move that shoulder and you can't clean your hair with one hand."
Randen cleaned as much of himself as he was able, but was galled to realize just how little mobility he had. Even trying to sit up enough to reach his knee set his hip to throbbing. He sank back with a frustrated growl. "Gods! I can't do anything for myself! I'm as feeble as a day old chick!"
"Day old chicks have more sense," came a snort from behind him. Kyminn gave him a sharp rap on the head. Randen blinked in surprise.
"I know exactly what you were thinking. You were thinking that you're a fit, disciplined Herald, that if you work hard enough, maybe push it just a little bit, then you'll be fit sooner. You're thinking how Healers are always conservative, that we always think slower is better and all risk is bad." Kyminn tossed up his hands in exasperation. "Everyone seems to think that we want our patients to stay in bed longer, that we want them to recover as slowly as possible. Why is that? Why do people always forget that healers can actually, you know, see the progress of recovery, can see if you're well enough to try something? But no – everyone thinks that we take some sadistic pleasure in keeping people trapped in bed. Because waiting on them hand and fit is what we live for. That's us, trying to keep people sick longer so we get more beets and chickens out of them." A snort.
Randen said in a small voice. "Kyminn? I don't have any beets or chickens. Does this mean I have to leave?" He caught Kyminn's eye and the two of them burst out laughing.
Pell gave a quick tap and stuck his head around the corner. "What are you two on about?"
"Beets, chickens and the evil plots of Healers." Randen said cheerily.
"I see." Pell thought about it, and decided not to ask. "Ready to go see Derris now?" Pell helped Kyminn move the stretcher over to the tub. Randen hadn't noticed before, but it was part stretcher, part bed. The frame had been cleverly notched so that the end could lift up, letting the patient sit up or lie down as needed.
Pell looked at Randen with the unfocused look that meant he was using his gift. "Hmm. You're doing well this morning. I think we'll try sitting you up a bit more." He adjusted the frame. "Remind me to send a sketch of this off to Healer's. It's similar to something that we use, but got some refinements they might want to consider."
"Is that so?" Randen was intrigued as he let them settle him into the frame.
"Of course. We're always on the lookout for knowledge." A snort. "Well, most of us. I'll be the first to admit that there are some who think any change will bring on chaos, doom, thunderstorms and flatulence, but we are living things. We grow or we die." He helped Randen slip into a clean set of whites. Randen noticed that someone had carefully undone the side seam on the tunic and added a set of ties so that it could slip over his shoulder and bandaging. As they worked, Kyminn padded across to the door. They could hear him speaking briefly with someone.
Kyminn returned with two guardsmen. Both nodded respectfully. "Herald Randen," said one as the four men carefully picked up the stretcher and moved it outside.
Randen had been indoors for so long that the sun came as a shock. He closed his eyes and basked in the spring sunlight, savoring the light.
Kyminn's voice broke into his thoughts. "Today isn't just an important step in your healing. It's a big day for Derris too."
Randen swiveled his head. "What's going on?"
A shake of Kyminn's head. "It's a surprise. Since it's his treatment, it seems only fair that he gets to hear it first."
The spring sunlight was cut off when they entered the barn, but Randen didn't notice. He hadn't seen Derris in ten days and he anxiously looked the Companion over from forelock to fetlock and back again.
Derris gave a deep whicker of welcome, his blue eyes dark with emotion. Kyminn gently ran his hand over the Companion's shoulder and leg.
"The bones are knitting very well, as is the tear in his chest. It's still going to be a while yet before he can put any weight on it." An apologetic look over at Randen. "I'm hoping that he will be able to stand on his own in a fortnight. A horse…or Companion…has a lot of weight balanced on four legs and four shoulders. Walking means that those bones and muscles have to be strong enough to bear several hundredweight. It's going to take a long time."
Derris lowered his head slowly and pressed it against the chest of his chosen. Randen wrapped his good arm around the great head and savored the contact. His voice muffled against the hide, he asked, "When?"
A slow smile. "By the end of summer, you'll be on his back where you belong. He might not be up to running races and jumping fences, but he'll be able to carry you again."
Derris carefully stamped a rear foot and Randen gave a choked laugh. "He says thank you, that's all very well and good, but what is this surprise you have for us?"
Randen tugged on Derris's mane to bring the companion's head around to where he stood. Derris swung his head, an equine expression of comical surprise on his face at the temerity of someone hauling on a Companion. Kyminn didn't seem to notice.
"Well," he said thoughtfully, "it occurred to me that you were in that frame in the canyon for four days. And since then, you've been supported in this barn for another ten." An overly casual shrug. "Now, a horse wouldn't mind…"
A warning equine snort greeted this statement.
"And it's true that since the frame takes the weight off, you could rest there for quite some time while you continue to recover…"
White ears pinned back warningly.
"Or….your shoulder is healed enough that it can flex some – carefully! Enough that we can loosen the sling so that you could…if you wanted…lie down for a few hours?" Kyminn was grinning.
The bugle of agreement nearly deafened them.
