Interregnum by S. J. A. Turney Read Free Book Online

head for a few days, or I’ll just let you bleed next time. If you’re getting kit from Athas, can you give me your tunic afterwards? It’s quite good quality material and I could turn it into good bandages with some washing.”
    Quintillian nodded, wincing as the activity tensed muscles in his neck that pulled gently on the stitches. He craned his neck in an attempt to examine his own shoulder, but couldn’t see far enough round and the movement hurt. Instead, he examined the smaller wound on his leg.
    “Your stitching’s very precise” he complemented the medic. “Did you ever practice in one of the major hospitals or temples?”
    Mercurias shook his head.
    “I’ve always been in the army” he replied. “Thirty some years I’ve been with these men. I’ve treated everything from splinters to deep slashes to gangrene to trench foot. When I joined I knew nothing, just apprenticed myself to one of the combat medics. In the old days there was a lot of activity on the northern borders. Particularly with Kiva’s unit. I was well and truly dropped into the shit at the deep end.”
    He frowned.
    “You have a habit of asking earnest, simple questions and getting more truth out of people than they should be willing to give. I don’t think you’re half as naïve as you act, Quintillian. I think you play people to find out as much as you can.”
    The lad raised his hands in defence, but the medic continued. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think you’re sly or devious or manipulative in any bad way. It’s just how you deal with people, isn’t it. People find themselves telling you things that they perhaps shouldn’t. I know that I told you things I wouldn’t, and I think the Captain did too. That’s a useful talent to have, but it could get you into a lot of trouble. Be careful. I’ve known people just as incisive who’ve fallen a long way because of their wit.”
Quintillian smiled benignly.
“My tutor always told me to find out everything you can about a subject before you pass any kind of judgement on it.”
“Wise words,” the medic replied, “but bear what I said in mind. Now stay here while I go and get a tunic from Athas for you.”
    Mercurias reached the top step and turned to look at the young man, standing at the window with his hands clasped behind his back. This boy was really something; much like his uncle used to be. Maybe that’s why Kiva’d agreed to take him on. Sighing with the weight of the world, he turned back and descended the stairs.
    Quintillian stood at the window and gazed out into the dawn light. The farmyard was in shadow on this side, the sun still barely rising above the horizon. Perhaps two miles away, over the crest of the hill would be a bag of coins hidden beneath a thorny bush. Many miles beyond that was the city of Velutio, and beyond that: the sea. If he tried hard, he thought he could almost smell the brine and hear the gulls. Below, whatever meeting the company had had must have broken up. Two of the men he didn’t know left the house, moving out toward the hill. For a moment, he pondered the possibility that the captain had sent them after the gold but, even if they’d had the faintest idea where to find it, these men were not the sort to do that. The two men would be scouts, out to see whether the enemy army had left and the coast was clear.
    These men, for all their brash roughness and mercenary cause, were men of honour. He’d played a dangerous game earlier with the captain to test that, impugning the man’s honour. Most of those who’d served under the Emperors were dutiful and honourable and, despite the changes the world had undergone around them, many of them would not have changed in their hearts. The army had had a code. Oh, Quintillian hadn’t been born during those glory days, but he read so much. Voracious, his tutor had called him, and he read far too much to wander this world innocently. Darius would be so jealous when he returned to the