Anna von Wessen (19 page)

XIX:

Mending

N
ext day, Anna forbore seeking out Vaya Eleria, when she found that she was missing from the weapons room. She was not eager to bring about a repeat of the previous evening’s unpleasantness; and after thinking on it, really she did feel a little foolish for her show of sympathy. The anger invoked by this realisation made her wish to keep from Vaya just as long as was possible. So she went for Greyson.

“What do you want with me?” he asked grumpily, as she shook him from his sleep.

“I want to shoot with you. Come outside.”

“No. I’m sleeping.”

“Come outside – or I’ll shoot
at
you
.
”

“I’m not so tired, really, when I come to think of it. Lead the way.”

While they stood out in the morning sun, examining the targets they had tacked to the distant wooden posts, Clyde Whist came to meet them. Greyson spied his great lanky form striding towards them through the grass, and pointed him out.

“Hullo!” said Clyde. “Where’s Vaya?”

It was clear, from his manner, that he had seen Vaya since her return from Night House; and his happiness concerning that return (which very possibly might not have been) was evident. Greyson took note of this attitude, and its meaning; and began smiling himself.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Anna answered sourly.

“Ah! Is our Vaya having a fit of her famous temper, then?”

“
Your
Vaya,” Anna muttered. “I want nothing to do with her.”

“Oh, don’t be that way, Anna! She’s not so bad, when you get to know her.”

“I tried that already. I’ll not be making any more attempts.”

They were just at the end of this exchange; and Clyde was taking possession of Greyson’s bolt-gun, so as to make a round of his own, when there came a shrill cry from the door to the weapons room.

“What are you all doing out here?”

Their three heads swivelled towards the door, where Vaya was standing with her arms crossed irritably.

“Well, hello, Vaya dear!” Clyde said cheerfully. “Come out and join us, do!”

“It’s too sunny,” Vaya answered crossly. “Come inside.”

Next moment she ducked back into the castle, and Clyde started off across the lawn.

“And is that what you do?” Anna asked. “You come when she calls?”

“Usually,” replied Clyde, in his usual chipper tones.

Anna followed with heavy feet, as Greyson made after Clyde.

Once they had all come through the door, Vaya sprang to it, and slammed it shut. Then she went to the windows, and drew down the shades nearly to the sashes, as though the light in some way afflicted her.

“How gloomy it is in here!” said Clyde. “Does it better suit your inner blackness, Vaya?”

Vaya gave a thin smile at Clyde’s comment, and went through the semi-darkness towards the wall, where she had propped up her sword. “Care for a go, Clyde?” she asked.

“Are we not invited?” Greyson asked, with his face grown very morose.

“Do you wish to be?” Vaya returned roughly.

“I suppose so.”

“Then get yourself a sword, and stop your whining!”

“Your conviviality is overwhelming,” Anna remarked.

“If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

“We were here first.”

“What matter? This castle is mine. I will go where I like, when I like. Right now I would like to be here – and I would like you to go.”

“I am not your servant. I’ll not jump at your command.”

“You nasty little termagant! One day you’ll regret how you’ve made free with me.”

“I suppose
you
shall be the one to make me regret it?”

Vaya’s face twisted suddenly in a fit of anger; and she darted her sword across the room, so that Anna needed duck her head down, to avoid being skewered.

“That’s enough of this!” she cried, as she loosed her own dagger from her belt, and flew towards Vaya. Clyde leapt in betwixt them, in an attempt to quell the violence, while Greyson stood open-mouthed at the edge of the room.

“You evil beast!” Anna cried, as she flung Clyde’s arms aside with a single hand. “You’re nothing but a filthy coward! Come for me now, if you like. We shall end this here!”

“For goodness’ sake, Greyson!” exclaimed Clyde, as he fought desperately (and with little success) to pry apart the feuding opponents. “Won’t you come and help me?”

Greyson dashed forward jerkily; but when he had reached the disjointed circle, he was immediately caught in the nose by Vaya’s elbow, and sent sprawling across the room.

“You’re a worthless little lout, Greyson,” Clyde observed moodily.

Clyde strove on, but was quickly shoved away from the fighting pair. Without his assistance, Vaya’s strength was quick to demonstrate its dominance over Anna’s; and even Anna’s remarkable celerity could not keep her from being ploughed across the floor, as if by a bull; then pinioned ruthlessly to the wall. Vaya shook her by the shoulders, and sent her head crashing into the stone; whereupon Anna snaked an arm free, and went for Vaya with her dagger. But Vaya dropped her hold immediately, and parried the blow with the tip of her sword, which she had somehow managed to regain. It seemed she was trying to pierce Anna with the point. So furious was Anna at this repeat craven performance, that a great wave of strength came suddenly into her arms, and Vaya went spinning off like a top. She went down very hard to the floor, and in so doing landed accidentally upon Greyson, who found himself suddenly with Vaya’s blade sticking nearly in his chest. Yet he appeared almost mesmerised.

“You’re a marvellous swordsman, Vaya Eleria,” he declared, quite at the top of his voice. Perhaps this was mere exuberance on his part; or perhaps it was the fact that his larynx was at the moment crushed beneath the power of Vaya’s knee.

Vaya’s expression contorted into one of disgust. She took hold of Greyson by the scruff of his neck, and tossed him away from her. She then chased after him with her sword, and drove him from the room.

Clyde burst out laughing at this little comic show; but was quick to cease, when he caught sight of Anna, crumpled on the floor beneath the effects of Vaya’s recent brutality.

“My goodness, Anna!” he cried, as he hurried across the room to aid her. “Are you all right?”

While he was assisting Anna to her feet, he made to shoot an accusatory glance towards Vaya; but was much surprised to find her, too, sunk down to the floor, with her head dropped down in her hands.

“And what is the matter with
you,
I wonder?” he asked incredulously.

She looked up at him, with a fierce gleam in her eye. “It’s none of your concern!” she shouted.

“Certainly it is! Now, you know I love you dearly, Vaya – but you cannot make holes in walls with others’ heads! Look what you’ve done to poor Anna! You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“I’m fine,” Anna growled, as she shook off Clyde’s hold upon her arm. “Thank you, Clyde – but I’m fine.”

“You see?” said Vaya. “She’s fine.”

“You,”
said Anna, as she pointed towards Vaya with a shaking finger. “Don’t you speak to me. Don’t you
look
at me. Don’t you come near me, ever again! Oh, how I loathe you!”

“Likewise!”

“Vaya!”

This latter remonstration came from Clyde; but Anna did not wait long enough to see what might play out after it. She made quickly from the room, tripping sideways upon a broken ankle, and holding in place with her right arm the shattered left. Her eyes were nearly crossed from what trauma her head had suffered against the wall. Each step was excruciating, and brought with it the anticipation of collapse; but still she would not halt, when Clyde called after her; and she would not condescend to shift, till she was out of Vaya Eleria’s sight.

~

Knowing very well (just as she had the last time) that it would not do to go to Ephram with her hurts, Anna went directly to her chamber, and lay down upon her bed. She snapped the ankle bone herself into place; but about the arm she could do little. It was fractured in several places, and none of these fractures were clean. She could feel the splintered bits of bone, scraping against the loose flesh.

Less infuriated by the actual wounds, than by her second inability to inflict pain upon Vaya Eleria, she scarcely noticed these flaming aches. She had even nearly begun to fall asleep (with the maddening image of Vaya’s laughing face, just disappearing from its repeated orbit behind her eyes), when all of a sudden there sounded a voice above her head.

“Anna!”

She started awake, and reached up to grab the throat of her visitor. She tried to look into their face; but it seemed her eyes could not penetrate the thick murk of the room.

“Who is that?” she demanded.

“Can you not see me?” asked the distinct voice of Greyson; though possessive of a slight gurgle, on account of Anna’s hand wrapped round his throat.

“No,” Anna answered.

“It’s hardly dark in here.”

“It’s dark enough. What do you want?”

“I came to see if you’re all right.”

“Why did you not come
before?
Why come now, when I’m nearly asleep?”

“I suppose I didn’t think of it that way.”

“You never think, Greyson,” Anna grumbled, rolling away from him. “That’s why you’re always getting into trouble.”

“
Me?
” he exclaimed. “Me into trouble? Well – from the Lumarian with half of her body all broken to bits, and a foul attitude to boot! Someday Vaya Eleria will kill you, you know.”

“You seem terribly concerned,” Anna muttered.

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t tell you, if I weren’t.”

“Well, Greyson – I’ll tell you what. She’s free to kill me, whenever she likes! Honestly I would prefer sooner, rather than later.”

“Why are you being this way? The last time I saw you with a broken bone, it was after a six-hour raid on a hundred-pack of wolves! Why do you not strike her back? Why do you not fight her?”

“You’re one to talk! You follow her round like a moonstruck puppy. Why don’t
you
have a little backbone?”

“That’s different. I couldn’t fight her – even if I tried. So I might as well be pleasant.”

“That makes no sense whatever.”

“Perhaps not,” Greyson admitted. “But you must confess that I have a point.”

“About
what?
”

“About how you’re a bloody coward!”

“Why, I ought to –”

What she ought to have done, however, was left unsaid; for there came then a soft knocking upon the door.

“Who is it?” she hollered.

“Vaya.”

At this single, simple word, Anna began to seethe with rage; but even through the boiling bubble of it, she marked a strange quality in the speaker’s voice. It could have been neither more meek nor more concessional.

“What kind of trick is this?” she asked loudly.

“No trick,” Vaya answered. “Nothing of the kind.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I promise you, Anna.”

“Well – come in, then! You can’t do much more, anyway, than you’ve done already.”

The door opened slowly. Yet the torch in the corridor had gone out, and there was nothing but creaking hinges, and the sound of Vaya Eleria’s feet, to warn Anna of her place. She squinted towards the doorway, and scooted back a little nearer to the headboard; but as well as she prepared herself for an impending attack, still she could not see the potential aggressor. Her eyes were failing her – and Vaya Eleria was more invisible, then, than was even the dim form of Greyson, hovering in place beside the bed.

“Are you all right, Anna?” Vaya asked. Her voice, if not her actual form, told Anna that she stood still beside the chamber door. Anna relaxed a little against her pillows.

“I’m fine,” she answered sharply. “I’m perfectly fine – no thanks to you.”

“I am truly sorry, Anna.”

“That is exactly what you said, after you broke my leg.”

“She broke your leg!” Greyson exclaimed.

“Quiet!” Anna hissed, with a sharp wallop delivered immediately to his boney hip.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“Anyway,” said Anna, as she turned her attention back to Vaya. “An apology from you detracts little from my expectation of future injury.”

“I know. I deserve every word of it.”

“Of course you do.”

“Will you let me have a look at you?”

“Excuse me?”

Anna could detect the outline of Vaya’s shadow, now, as it moved nearer. Soon she stood just beside the bed – though, unsurprisingly, on the opposite side as Greyson.

“Let me have a look,” she repeated. “I am trained as a mender.”

“Is there anything you
can’t
do?” Greyson asked dreamily.

“There is much that I cannot do,” Vaya answered bitterly. “Now – please leave us, Greyson Menuch. I would like to talk with Anna.”

“He needn’t go,” said Anna. “This is
my
chamber, you’ll have the kindness to remember.”

“Fine,” Vaya rejoined stiffly. “I apologise.”

She sat down upon the edge of the bed, and drew near to Anna. “What ails you?” she asked.

“You.”

Much to Anna’s surprise, Vaya began earnestly to laugh at this. “I suppose I deserve that, as well,” she said. “I have many faults, Anna – I don’t deny it. But won’t you let me try to make it right?”

“I think we shall have to wait and see.”

“Of course you’re right.”

Vaya reached, then, for Anna’s left hand, which lay limp upon the coverlet. “Is it broken?” she asked.

“Very much so. The whole arm is shot.”

“Your foot, too?”

“I’ve seen to it already.”

“May I examine your arm, then?”

“If you like. I doubt, though, that’s there’s anything to be done for it.”

Vaya went to the window, and drew open the curtains. The last of the day’s fading grey light poured through, as she returned to the bed, and took up Anna’s hand again. Then she moved her fingers to the crooked forearm. She touched the broken elbow, and the jellied upper arm. These were four individual separations of bone (though the bones of the hand, really, might be better called
demolished
than
separated
); and between them, places where the bone had been ground almost to a powder, and therefore disappeared. But Vaya placed an arm on either side of Anna’s broken one, almost like a splint, and then pressed them together with a single movement. Anna cried out, as the breaks quite suddenly fused themselves together again. Then Vaya placed Anna’s hand between her own two palms, and pushed against it from either side. There were many small cracking sounds, as the bones which were still whole forced their way back into their normal positions.

Anna sat looking down at her arm wonderingly, and prodding it with her fingers. Still there were small indentations, little round soft spots where there was only skin, and the bone would need to grow back; but nevertheless when she raised her arm, flexed it at the elbow and wiggled her fingers, these motions were fluid and painless.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“I told you. I learnt mending, many years ago.”

“I care not what you say about mending. Teo could not have done what you just did, if his head had depended upon it.”

“Perhaps not – but it’s all the same.”

“Well, I would thank you – but seeing as you’ve only fixed what you yourself had broken, I’m not sure it’s necessary.”

“Surely it’s not. I’m only glad I could do something for you.”

Vaya was quiet for a moment, staring with a blank expression down at the dark green coverlet. “And I want to say again,” she continued at last, “how very sorry I am – for everything I’ve done to you. I am sorry, Anna, for the way I’ve spoken to you; for the way I’ve injured you. Though I thought little of it all when I did it, still I am ashamed, when I think back on it. I don’t ask you to forgive me – but I wish for you to know, how very wrong I know I was.”

She even reached down, after she had said this, to pat the hand she had mended. Then she stood quickly, and looked to Greyson. “I owe you an apology, as well,” she said. “I am sorry for all the times I’ve pushed you down the stairs. And I’m especially sorry, for the time I shoved you out of the window.”

“No apology necessary!” Greyson squeaked. “All is forgotten.”

“Well – that is very good, then. Goodnight, both of you.”

Anna nodded, and Greyson smiled bemusedly, as Vaya quit the room. When the door had closed behind her, Greyson twirled round in a circle, and then fell on the bed beside Anna.

“Oh, oh!” he said, with his hands pressed together, and shaking towards the ceiling. “Isn’t she wonderful? Isn’t she just wonderful, Anna?”

“I’m afraid she is still by no means my favourite person, Greyson.”

“Oh, Anna! But look at how she fixed your arm! And what about that beautiful apology?”

“I would not call it beautiful. Besides – I’ve yet to decide if it is even sufficient.”

“You’ll tell me when you have?”

“I don’t see why not.”