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CHAPTER 4: TO ANIMAL’S LIVING QUARTERS
Gabriel was too exhausted to pay much attention to the arrangements made in the throne room. He vaguely understood from Jonquil that his baggage, which had been toted by a slave from the stables, would be delivered immediately to Animal's quarters. Gabriel carried only his medicine sack, slung across his shoulder. He numbly followed Animal and the stumbling slave-girl Rose from the throne room. Rose's back leaked blood in the places where the whip-marks crossed, and he wondered that she did not go into shock. The clinical voice within him reported that the bleeding was not altogether bad, as it would save the cuts from becoming infected by her hair, which hung below her shoulders.
As they exited the throne room through the grand doorway, Animal stood formally aside and gestured him to proceed. They went into a foyer, much larger than the throne room itself, and several people called out casual greetings to Animal, which he ignored. He crossed the room with a gait that was brisk despite a studied laziness, opened a door and went through it, evidently expecting that both Rose and Gabriel would follow automatically.
When they crossed the threshold Animal was already several feet ahead of them, striding quickly down a narrow, poorly lit corridor, pretense of laziness gone. Rose stumbled. She straightened up immediately but then stumbled again, this time falling and landing on her right knee with a quiet whimper. Animal strode ahead, oblivious. "Wait," Gabriel shouted after him, as he hurried towards the girl who was struggling to her feet again. Animal stopped and turned around.
Gabriel almost reached out to support Rose, but he stopped himself, looking at the man who in a less than enthusiastic way had offered him hospitality. Animal was lanky and unkempt, with brown hair that straggled well past his shoulders and a beard that had been combed but not trimmed. He crossed his long, thin arms and tapped his foot, waiting for Gabriel to say why he had interrupted their progress.
Gabriel took a deep breath. He had used this method to try to calm himself so many times in the last hours that it was a wonder he was not hyperventilating, he thought. He took another breath, slower, and said carefully, "The Bearer said I was to consider her mine," indicating the girl. Animal nodded, his sour frown becoming more pronounced. Gabriel continued, softly, as he might speak to an awakening watch dog, "If I look to her wounds, can I have your word then that you’ll not punish her for it?"
Animal's sour frown slowly transformed into an even sourer grin. "Weren't you paying attention back there, Healer?" His lips formed slowly around each word, as if Gabriel were simple. "I'm a pansy. I don't beat my slaves enough. That's why the Bearer took it upon himself to do it."
Gabriel looked uncertainly from Animal to Rose and back again. Rose struggled to her feet and stumbled over to Animal, where she fell to her knees and rested on her haunches, her head down. "Forgive me, master," she said in a low, frightened voice.
To Gabriel's surprise, Animal lowered himself down until he was at the same level as Rose. Almost tenderly he scooped the slave's hair from her back and pulled it over her right shoulder, removing it from contact with the whip marks. "You're not hurt," he said with a gruffness belied by his actions. "Get up and walk before I give you a real punishment."
Rose immediately stood up. She swayed uncertainly. Animal stood up and put out his arm, which she grasped. "Okay, now," Animal said, and he began walking down the corridor, Rose clinging to him. Gabriel followed a few feet behind, feeling lost and foolish. Animal looked over his shoulder and said, in his sour voice, "The quarters aren't far. You can numb her wounds to your heart's content there."
The corridor was long and narrow and lit only by a few scattered lanterns. They passed several closed doors and a few hallways leading off to the right and left. Some of the doorways had piles of rubbish near them.
The hallway ended at a door like the one they had originally entered. The trio went through it and Gabriel found himself in a cavernous room. He looked to his left. A jolt of terror slashed through his body. Three ghosts were crossing the room. One of them stopped suddenly and Gabriel realized with foolish relief that he was looking at his own reflection. The entire wall to his right, except for a set of doors, was a huge picture window, made into a ghoulish mirror by the darkness outside. His own image seemed to be all lines and shadows.
Animal, Rose still on his arm, turned back to Gabriel. "Entrance hall," he informed the healer sourly. He stalked towards a hallway, grander than the one they had just left, opposite the window wall. Gabriel again followed behind. He turned now and again in what seemed a maze, but always in a broad, well-lit, clean corridor. A few slaves scurried by on solitary errands, keeping their heads carefully lowered as they passed.
Animal stopped before a door, fumbled for a key, and opened it. With uncharacteristic politeness, he stood aside and motioned Gabriel to precede him.
Gabriel entered into a meticulously clean living area furnished with an overstuffed couch and a couple of chairs and footstools. Behind it was a dining area, separated by a counter from a small kitchen. The back wall, like the entrance hall, was made entirely of a picture window except for a door in its center.
Rose was lighting lamps throughout the room. As she did so, Gabriel's attention was drawn to the wall to his right. It was covered with a huge painting directly on the wall, a painting which exactly captured the great lawn Gabriel had seen on the way to the stable earlier that day. Each tree was perfectly rendered and swaying in the breeze; each person's thoughts were revealed through their face or body position. A woman reclined in relaxation; a man tiredly but happily threw a ball to a young girl; an older woman admired a rose bush, each thorn carefully drawn. Gabriel's attention was particularly caught by a slave who pushed a lawnmower, his biceps hard and gleaming with sweat, his face showing focus and pride and fear.
Animal looked at him looking at the painting, the tiniest sour smile on the painter's lips. He stood motionless, merely watching. At last Gabriel looked over to Animal, and it seemed to him that in that instant, in this hellish land, he knew Animal's heart and all that was in it, and they passed from strangers to brothers.
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