Robin Hobb - The Complete Soldier Son Trilogy - Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade’s Magic

He was a spare old man with a fringe of trimmed grey hair around a bald pate. He wore rimless spectacles and a white smock over his uniform shirt. A spattering of faded brown on the smock showed that it was well used. The hand he held out to each of us in turn was veiny but strong. ‘Dr Amicas,’ he introduced himself gravely. He smelled strongly of pipe tobacco. He nodded his head almost continuously. He looked at us more over than through his spectacles when he spoke. ‘Young Caulder came racing in here close to an hour ago, abrim with the news that he’d found a New Noble cadet trying to crawl back to Carneston House.’ The doctor worked his mouth for an instant as if wishing for a pipe that wasn’t there. He seemed to choose his words carefully. ‘He seemed to know a mite too much about this cadet for someone who’d just chanced upon him. Of course your friend there hasn’t said anything different from Caulder’s tale, so I’ll have to take it at face value.’ He gestured at Gord as he spoke, but Gord still didn’t look up at us. He hadn’t made a sound since we entered the room.

‘What happened to him, sir?’ Spink asked the doctor, almost as if Gord weren’t sitting there.

‘He says he slipped on the steps of the library and fell all the way to the bottom, and then tried to crawl back to his dormitory.’ The doctor gave in to himself. He took a pipe from one trouser pocket and a pouch of tobacco from the other. He loaded his pipe carefully and lit it before he spoke again, and his tone was clinical. ‘However, it looks to me as if he was attacked by several men and restrained while someone hit him. Repeatedly, but not in the face.’ The doctor took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily. ‘I’m afraid that in my years here, I’ve become an expert in the bruises that a bushwhacking leaves. I’m so tired of this sort of thing,’ he added.

‘Caulder told us that Gord was beaten,’ I said. At my words, Gord lifted his head and gave me a look that I could not interpret.

‘I suspect he witnessed it,’ the doctor said. ‘Caulder is often the first one to run and tell me of injuries to first-year cadets. Lately he has reported several “accidents” befalling new nobility cadets, accidents he claims to have witnessed. The first-years from Skeltzin Hall seem to be remarkably unlucky about falling down stairs and walking into doors. I’m distressed to see that clumsiness spreading to Carneston House.’ The doctor set his glasses firmly back on his nose and clasped his hands in front of himself. ‘But no one ever contradicts what that little gossip-monger lad says. Thus I have no basis on which to attempt to put a stop to it.’ He looked pointedly at Gord, but the fat cadet was working at his buttons and didn’t meet the doctor’s gaze. Gord’s knuckles were scuffed and grazed. I folded my lips, guessing that he’d got in a few licks of his own before he went down.

‘New Noble first-years are being beaten?’ Spink sounded far more shocked than I was.

Dr Amicas gave a brief snort of bitter laughter. ‘Well, that is what I would say, based solely on my examinations. But it’s not just first-years experiencing this plague of “accidents”. My written reports speak of everything from falling tree branches to tumbling down a rain-soaked riverbank.’ He looked at us severely. ‘That second-year cadet nearly drowned. I don’t know what makes all of you keep silent as you do; will you wait until one of you is killed before you make complaint? Because until you speak up on your own behalf, there is nothing I can do for any of you. Nothing.’

‘Sir, respectfully, this is the first we have heard of this. I hadn’t heard of any cadets having such accidents.’ Spink was appalled. I held my silence. I had the most peculiar feeling of hearing something that I’d already known. Had I truly suspected such things were going on at the Academy?

‘No? Well, I’ve had to send two lads home this year already. One for a badly shattered leg and the fellow who ended up in the river with a punctured lung came down with pneumonia. And now this young man, with fist-sized bruises all over his chest and belly from “falling down the steps”.’ He snatched his glasses off again, and this time polished them furiously with the edge of his smock. ‘What do you think? That the bullies who do this will respect you for not reporting them? That there is some sort of honour or courage to enduring this sort of abuse?’

‘I hadn’t heard anything about it, sir,’ Spink repeated doggedly. An edge of anger tinged his voice now.

‘Well. You do now. So think about it. All three of you.’ He had been leaning against the bunk that Gord sat on. He straightened suddenly. ‘I was born to be a healer, not a soldier. Circumstance puts this uniform on my back, but I cover it with the smock of my vocation. Yet sometimes I feel that I’m more of a fighter than you lads born to soldier. Why do you take this? Why?’

None of us attempted to answer. He shook his old head at us, and I suspect he felt disgust for our lack of spark. ‘Well, take your friend back to your dormitory. There’s nothing broken and nothing bleeding, and he should be able to get through the day tomorrow. In two or three days, he’ll feel like himself again.’ He swung his attention more directly to Gord. ‘You drink one of those powders I gave you tonight, and another in the morning. They’ll make you a bit woozy, but you’ll probably manage to get through your classes. And eat less, Cadet! If you weren’t fat as a hog, you’d have been able to put up a better fight, or at least run away. You’re supposed to look like a soldier, not a tavern keeper!’

Gord made no reply, but only lowered his head more. I winced at the harshness of the doctor’s last words, even as I had to agree with them. Gord moved slowly to get off the bed; I could almost feel his pain as he stood. He grunted softly with pain as he shouldered into his jacket. It was caked with mud and pine needles. He hadn’t picked up that dirt from the library steps. He fumbled at his jacket buttons as if to do them up and then let his hands drop to his sides.

‘You didn’t have to send for them. I could have got back by myself. Sir.’ Those were the only words that Gord spoke. When Spink and I tried to help him stand, he waved us away. He came to his feet, lurched slightly, and then walked toward the door. Spink and I followed him. The doctor watched us leave.

Outside the infirmary, the rain had stopped but the leafless trees were still swaying to the storm’s wind.

‘What happened to you? Where did you go, why did you leave?’

When Gord didn’t answer, Spink added, ‘I beat Trist. He apologized to me. He would have apologized to you, too, if you had been there.’

Gord had never been a fast walker. He lagged between us, as ever, and when he spoke in a low voice, I had to turn my head and look back at him to hear his answer in the night wind. ‘Oh. And that solves everything, doesn’t it? I’m sure that has put an end to his mockery and resentment of me forever. Thank you, Spink.’

It was the first time I’d ever heard Gord speak sarcastically or bitterly. I stopped and so did Spink. Gord walked on, both arms crossed protectively over his unbuttoned jacket and gut, and passed between us without pausing.

Spink and I exchanged glances and then hurried after Gord. He caught at Gord’s elbow. ‘I still want to know what really happened,’ Spink demanded. ‘I want to know why you just left the room like that.’

It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I wouldn’t like the answers to those questions.

Gord shrugged off Spink’s hand. He kept walking as he spoke, but he sounded short of breath. ‘I left because I didn’t want to witness anyone breaking an Academy rule. Because, by the honour code, I would have had to report it.’ His voice was tight, from anger or from speaking past pain. I could not tell which. ‘And what happened to me was that I went to the library. I found it closed. Then, I “fell down the steps”. And afterwards, Caulder ran and reported it, and some orderlies were sent to pick me up and take me to the infirmary. When the doctor asked me for the names of two cadets who might be willing to walk me back to my dormitory, I gave him yours. But only because if I had not, he would not have released me tonight. And I’m very much looking forward to my family carriage coming for me tomorrow evening.’ He did not look at either of us. We matched our pace to his.