Blood of Dragons - Страница 56

‘You sick like she said you are? Are we going to catch your disease?’

The younger guard huffed as he spoke, hurrying to keep up with the older one. His grip was not as tight as the older man’s; plainly he didn’t even want to touch Selden’s scaled arm. In response, Selden went off into one of his coughing fits. Over and over, the air was squeezed from his lungs and he struggled to take in each shallow breath. Be calm, he told himself. Be calm. He had discovered it was the only way to recover his breathing. He closed his eyes, went limp and made them drag him as he put all his focus into trying to get breath back into his body. Why? he asked himself. Why not die on the way and thwart the Duke?

But breathe he did, if shallowly, on the long haul that continued down several flights of stairs and then through an endless dim corridor. Lanterns in alcoves burned with low flames, and a short train of servants bearing armloads of bloodied sheets and basins met them and streamed past them in a nightmarish parade.

‘How can he lose so much blood and still live?’ the younger guard asked.

‘Shut up! Someone hears you, that can be called treason,’ the other barked.

They marched on in silence. At the end of that hall, they handed Selden over to two servants in spotless white robes. They escorted him, just as urgently, through grandly carved doors into an antechamber where two servants garbed in pale green seized him without comment. Another set of impressive doors, and he entered the Duke’s lavish bedchamber.

A death chamber, he thought, for the smell of death permeated the room. The heavy drapes of the bed had been roped back and lamps burned everywhere. Incense burned as well, and Selden lowered his face, trying not to breathe the smoke that would choke him. The basket of bloody cloths by the grand bed smelled of rot, the red stains streaked with brown and black. The circle of healers around his bed looked terrified, as did the guards who stood watch behind them. At the end of the bed, his hands clasped behind him, stood Chancellor Ellik. He was elaborately and carefully attired, as if he had readied himself for a special occasion. Did he hope to proclaim the Duke’s death tonight?

The Duke himself sprawled on his back, his head thrown back, his mouth open wide. He pulled in breaths and pushed them out with a sound like a bellows. Selden thought him unconscious until the bony head on the ropy neck turned toward him. The man’s pale-blue eyes were framed in pools of red. ‘Laggards!’ he croaked. His withered lips trembled as if he wished to utter a thousand curses. Then they firmed and he said only, ‘The blood!’

They dragged Selden forward and one healer brought out a gleaming knife while others set a small table, a white cloth and a polished silver basin ready. He fell to his knees, but they paid no more attention to him than if he were a chicken being prepared for the pot. His left hand was seized and drawn forward, and when his wrist was over the basin, the healer cut him with a deft and practised flick of his knife. His blood, thin and bright red, ran freely. Selden watched dully as his life poured out of his body and into the bowl. It fell in spatters and then a tiny stream. The gathered healers watched it puddle and then pool in the basin.

‘Enough!’ one cried suddenly, and with an expert wrap and a tight twist, a white cloth bound Selden’s wrist. An assistant darted forward to seize his hand and hold it up over his head. Selden sagged helplessly in their grip. He longed to be taken away, to not witness any of this, but they held him there. Through stunned eyes he watched them pour his blood into a crystal goblet. No less than four healers assisted in the lifting of the Duke’s head, while two held the goblet to his lips. Another one bade him, ‘Sip slowly, my lord.’

Breathe it in and choke on it, Selden thought. But he did not. The Duke sipped his blood and then, gaining strength, lifted his own head and drank it. In horror, Selden watched colour come back into the man’s face. His tongue, greyish, lapped at the last scarlet drops in the glass. He drew in a deeper breath. Then he tried to sit up. He could not manage it but there was unmistakably new strength in his voice as he commanded, ‘Bring him here! Directly to me!’

They dragged Selden to the bedside on his knees. One of the attendants forcibly bent his head down before the Duke while another snatched the cloth from his wrist. His face was pressed hard against the bedding. Selden struggled to draw breath, but no one cared. Someone grasped his arm firmly and twisted his wrist toward the Duke.

He felt the cracked lips brush his wrist in an obscene caress. The Duke’s tongue was warm and wet as it probed for his wound, leaving chill slime as its track on his arm. Selden gave a low moan of disgust as the old man’s mouth latched onto his wrist and suckled at his blood.

After a short time, he felt the Duke’s claw-like hands fasten their own grip on his arm. The sucking grew stronger and an ache extended from his wrist to the inside of his elbow and then up his arm. When it reached his armpit he thought he would faint with the pain. The world was spinning and the distant cries of amazement and joy that reached his ears mocked his death.

Ellik watched in repugnance as the Duke suckled at the freak’s arm. Coward. What battle could not do, disease has done. It has made him a coward, and he will perform any act, no matter how demeaning, to hold death at bay. Long practice kept his thoughts hidden. To any onlooker, he watched with concerned eyes as his beloved duke tried once more to snatch life from the jaws of death.

The Duke breathed through his nose as he sucked the blood, a panting breath that took on the same rhythm as coitus. The Chancellor looked aside from the revolting display, expecting that at any moment the Duke would breathe his last. But as the slow moments dragged by and the breathing became stronger, he looked back at the man. Horror blossomed in him. Thin he still was, but there was a faint flush on his cheeks now. His eyes were half-opened as if in pleasure, and they were brighter than Ellik had seen them in months.

‘My lord. My lord, may it not displease you that I speak, but if you wish to preserve this creature’s life so that you may have a later treatment of his blood, you must stop now.’

The healer who gripped the dragon-man’s wrist spoke in a timorous voice. His thumb was on the creature’s pulse. The Duke paid no heed. The healer shot a frightened glance at the older man who grasped the dragon-man’s forearm. Now Ellik noticed that he, too, kept a monitoring thumb on the pulse point inside the creature’s elbow. He met the younger man’s stare, gave his head a tiny shake, and pressed down. The Duke sucked harder for three breaths and then abruptly lifted his head. His voice was stronger, thick with his drink as he demanded, ‘Has he died? The blood has stopped!’

‘No, my duke, he is not dead, but he flutters close to it.’ The healer spoke in a gentle voice full of deference. ‘Would you finish him now, or send him back to be fed up again for a later treatment?’

Greed and caution warred in the Duke’s face. Abruptly, he pushed the thin wrist away from his mouth. ‘Take him away. Bid my daughter feed my fine blue cow fat again. Whatever Lady Chassim desires for him, she may have! See that she does all she can to bring him to where he can be bled again. Tell her this is my most ardent wish for her, if she would retain the goodwill of her duke.’

‘My lord,’ the healers chorused. Ellik saw concern in how quickly they bandaged the creature’s wrist. Before they wrapped it, he glimpsed the deep purple bruising all around the wound. The Duke’s teeth had left deep dents in the flesh.

‘I will eat now,’ the Duke declared.

As he leaned back into his pillows with a deep sigh of contentment, the room around him erupted into a frantic bustle of activity. A basket of clean cloths appeared as the used ones were whisked way. Fresh bedclothes were brought, and the servants deftly folded away the soiled ones as the new ones were spread over him so that not even for a moment was he chilled. An array of musicians bearing their instruments trooped in and stood ready against the wall in case he should bid them to play. A narrow table was carried into the room, followed by an ant stream of servants bearing trays of all manner of food and drink. Water beaded on the outside of pitchers of iced wine while other pots steamed fragrantly with hot, mulled drinks. Covered platters stood shoulder to shoulder with steaming tureens. The array would have done credit to a banquet and once again Ellik wondered where the hardy warrior he had once followed had gone.

The Chancellor cleared his throat and the Duke’s eyes turned to him. He waited, watching the Duke count and measure the words he would give him, and knew he was on the cusp of losing all he had gained. ‘Your gift has pleased me,’ the old man said at last.

Ellik waited ten heartbeats. The Duke said no more, and in that quiet, the Chancellor read that he would not keep his promise to him. When a man hopes to live, he does not prepare a stronger man to take his place. It would be more important to him now that he coddle his daughter so that she might keep his blood-cow alive. ‘Lady Chassim’ he had called her. He could not recall the Duke ever granting her both honorific and name when he had spoken of her before. Her status had changed in his mind. He would not again offer his daughter to Ellik. But the Chancellor replied only, ‘Then I am very well pleased, my lord.’ He lowered his eyes, so that no one might see how his mind seethed with fresh plans to take the reward he had earned.