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Two parts of the mansion
Gabriel found his way back to Animal's suite, surprised again that the huge mansion seemed so empty of activity. In the entrance hall, with the light streaming through the window, he saw that the whitewash on the walls and ceiling was badly peeling, and cracks seemed to go through the paint and into the walls themselves.
Animal was eating breakfast when Gabriel entered the suite, steaming vegetable omelets that made Gabriel's mouth water despite his own breakfast. Animal waved with his fork, his mouth too full to speak. He swallowed ostentatiously. "I’ll call for Rose if you want some," he said after wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "She said you ate leftovers this morning." He looked amused. "Not her fault she overslept," he added, a trifle defensively. "Those drugs you gave her knocked her out cold."
"I know," Gabriel said nervously. He added, "I thought I'd see about the lass before the day gets too old."
"The lass?" Animal asked, puzzled. Then he laughed. "The Bearer's daughter. Trust me, my friend, the Bearer will not welcome you to his quarters before high noon. He's an old, fat man, and he needs his rest."
Gabriel smiled at Animal's characterization, although he was taken aback by his lack of respect.
"Tell you what," Animal continued. "I'll show you the mural walls you've bought me with your timely arrival."
“A wall?” Gabriel said, puzzled. “I heard you discussing something about a room – in trade for your hospitality.”
Animal nodded. “I forgot that you missed the Bearer’s grand humiliation of me,” he said sourly. “It’s not the room I want, but its wall for painting. I’ll explain it all if you’ll come.” Although his tone was again desultory, he looked so hopeful that Gabriel was sure the man would be crushed if he refused. He nodded.
Animal jumped up. "I bet Rose would like to see it, too," he said. "You don't mind, do you?" Without waiting for a reply, he went out the sliding glass door leading to a courtyard behind the living area and whistled shrilly. Rose appeared at once from an identical sliding glass door across the courtyard to the right, ran nimbly to her master, and fell to her knees.
"Enough scrubbing!" Animal said. "We visit the revel hall!"
Rose said in her small voice, "The suite is not ready, my lord."
Animal laughed expansively. "Gabriel doesn't mind," he said with great assurance. "Probably prefer to clean it himself." He glared at Gabriel. "Anyway, plenty of time for that when it's not morning light." Without looking to see if either the slave girl or the man were following, Animal strode to the front door and down the corridor. The other two hastened to catch up.
Animal continued his quick pace, once in a while glancing back at Gabriel, the corners of his mouth, practically hidden by his unkempt beard and mustache, twitching in what Gabriel understood to be enthusiasm. He walked so fast that the corridors went by as a blur for Gabriel, and he wondered if he would be able to find his way back without help. Unlike the night before, when Animal had followed service hallways from the Bearer's State Room to his own suite, today he kept to the main corridors. For the third time that morning, Gabriel was struck by how empty they were.
Animal entered a foyer similar to the entrance hallway, and came to a halt before a huge set of ornately carved wooden doors that were nearly two stories high. He reverently touched one of the carvings on the door, a squatting gargoyle glaring out hostilely. Animal turned to Gabriel. "Can your carvers in Harmony make such things?"
Gabriel stepped forward to examine the gargoyle more closely, and as he did so the gargoyle's eyes seemed to follow him, glittering. With a forefinger he touched the creature's fur, in which every hair seemed outlined against the wood. He answered slowly, "We have a woman, Tenanine, a furniture maker, who is known for her fine woodwork, so that a chest of drawers from her is considered a handsome joining present. She decorates them with carvings – but I don’t think she could do anything near to this creature."
Animal sighed. "Then the art is lost forever," he said. "No one in Riviera can match this ancient, either." He pushed open the door, which gave a hideous groan, as if the hinges had not been oiled for an age or more.
The room inside was enormous, with parquet floors covered here and there with groups of tables and chairs. It jutted out like a peninsula onto the great lawn, and all three of those walls had large windows spaced throughout There were skylights in the ceiling. Animal walked to the middle of the room and turned around slowly, lost in thought, his companions forgotten. Gabriel followed him slowly, not anxious to disturb his reverie.
"There," said Animal suddenly, jabbing his finger towards the middle of the far wall, "That’s where it will begin. The first focal point will be just opposite the main door, capturing revelers as they enter. Their eyes will be drawn by the lines from one scene to the next, inevitably, until the whole cycle is before them and they take it in as a whole." Suddenly he laughed with pleasure.
"But what will you paint?" Gabriel asked, mystified.
Animal threw his arms wide. "What will I paint? Everything! The lifecycle will be on this wall. Birth, here," and he pointed again opposite the center wall, twirling his arm once more. "Infancy, childhood, youth, all the way into dotage and death. I told the Bearer, how we live will be recorded here. The generations will know us!" He turned suddenly to Gabriel. "Tell me," he said, "Do your painters have permanent pigments, or do they fade after a few years?"
Gabriel said uncertainly, "I have a picture of my grandfather as a young man, but it is faded and cracked."
"Bah!" Animal replied. "So much is lost." He shrugged. "My mural will be so valued that youngsters will retouch it, year after year, just to learn the craft." Then he laughed, sourly, so that Gabriel could not tell if he had spoken in jest.
While Gabriel and Animal were talking, Rose had walked to the wall where Animal indicated his mural would be, and touched it softly with her fingertip. The two men walked towards her and she looked up. "It's the same as the canvas you've been using, master," she said softly.
"Of course it is!" Animal boomed. "This is what I've been practicing for!"
"When do you start?" Gabriel asked.
Animal looked at him as if he were a stupid child. "Start?" he said. "I just did." He laughed again, less sourly than usual, and pulled a measuring tape out of a pocket Gabriel would have guessed was too threadbare to hold anything. Yet, impossibly, from another pocket came a pad of paper and a sharp pencil.
Animal put both Gabriel and Rose to work, measuring from wall to wall, and window to window. He sent Rose to fetch a ladder so he could measure floor to ceiling as well. With a frown he looked down. "I'll have to have the floor sanded and repolished before I begin," he said, mostly to himself. "Otherwise some matron will insist on doing it in the middle of the mural for some solstice celebration. Have to supervise the slaves myself or it'll never get done." He frowned, and went back to his measurements.
In the midst of his activity Animal stopped short. "Well, Healer," he said, "It's past the noon hour and the light too bright for creativity. Shall I take you to the Bearer's quarters, where you can face your own destiny?" He smiled his usual sour smile.
Gabriel nodded, although his heart dropped at the thought that he would have to see the Bearer again along with his daughter. They turned to leave. Rose suddenly dropped to her knees before Animal. "What is it?" he asked her, gruffly.
"Master... this slave is happy for you." She looked at the floor, her face red.
Animal took her hand and raised her from the ground. He growled, "You'll regret it enough when you have to help me grind the pigments," but he smiled at her at the same time.
****
The Bearer's quarters were barely controlled chaos. A baby squalled in the arms of a slave who ineffectually begged him to quiet; a couple of children played tag with a tawny-coated dog; and the woman in the picture Animal had shown the Bearer was whipping a kneeling slave on the chest, daring him to beg for mercy. Rose instinctively stepped closer to Animal, and Gabriel wished that there was a place he could seek shelter as well.
Animal, taking a deep breath, approached the Bearer's mate and waited politely until she had finished her beating. "Lady Yesnid," he said.
Winded, she looked up and frowned at Animal. "You brought the Healer?" she asked curtly.
Animal nodded. "As you see," he said, and beckoned Gabriel forward.
The woman gave him a once-over. "Animal couldn't supply you with a change of clothes?" she asked, and Gabriel realized with dismay that he was still wearing his riding clothes, which he had thrown on that morning when he went to the stables. He blushed.
The woman laughed, prettily. "No matter. My husband warned me you looked a sight." She tilted her head, coquettishly. "Can you do anything for a horrible wart on my wrist?" she asked.
Gabriel said, as politely as he could, "Perhaps, ma'am. But first could I meet the young lady?"
Yesnid laughed again. "My husband spoke truth about you," she said. With a toss of her head, she indicated a divan across the room. "That's Carmen," she said.
As Gabriel walked to where Yesnid had indicated, he saw a girl of about 16, smearing with a wooden stick what appeared to be honey into the crotch of a slave woman, who whimpered softly. When Gabriel approached, the girl looked up with a pretty smile. "Hello," she said.
"Hello," Gabriel replied.
"Are you my Healer?" the girl demanded.
"I am," said Gabriel.
"Just a minute," she said. She pursed her lips and gave a long, low whistle, and the tawny dog that had been playing with the other children bounded over to her. Carmen grabbed the dog's muzzle and led it into the slave woman's crotch. The slave whimpered. Carmen laughed. "She hates that," she told Gabriel confidingly.
"Then why do you do it?" Gabriel asked.
Carmen looked taken aback by the question, like one of Gabriel's young cousins might have looked if he posed a math problem too difficult for them. Then she answered triumphantly, "Because I can!"
Animal, who had followed Gabriel over, snorted with amusement. "What say you finish torturing your cunt later?" he said in a surprisingly kind voice to the girl. She shrugged and pulled the dog back.
"Go wash before you drip on the rug," she ordered the slave, who fell to her knees and crawled away backwards. Carmen yelled after her, "And don't come, either, you slut!" Then she turned her attention back to Gabriel. "Heal me," she commanded.
Gabriel took a deep breath to steady himself, and reminded himself she was very young, badly raised. He sat down on the edge of the divan. "Aren't you going to ask me how your brother fares?" he said.
Carmen looked taken aback again, and then said, "My father told me already."
"He couldn't have told you everything," Gabriel said, "because he didn't know." Carmen looked offended, and then pleased. "He couldn't have told you how bravely your brother rode for weeks on end over land he did not know, and how, when he arrived in Harmony, he begged me to come ahead and not wait for him, or how fine a young man we all thought him."
Carmen thought for a moment. "He stayed behind because he can't stand the sight of me," she pronounced, at last.
"Oh, no," Gabriel declared solemnly. "He wanted nothing more than to return, but he was ill from his journey. And," he added with a conspiratorial wink, "some think he was slightly loathe to leave Bessna, the pretty girl who nursed him."
"If he liked a slave so, why didn't your people give her to him?" Carmen asked peevishly. "He is the Bearer's son and deserves respect."
Gabriel smiled a little at the rote quality with which the girl spoke. "We have no slaves in Harmony," he said quietly. "Bessna is free to stay or go as her own will desires, the same as you."
At this Carmen's face scrunched up as though she would cry, and closed her eyes tight. "I can't go anywhere," she whined, "will it or no. My legs don't work."
Gabriel said nothing but silently observed her until curiosity got the better of her and she opened her eyes, completely tear free. "Don't you feel sorry for me?" she demanded.
"I don't know yet," Gabriel replied.
"Are you going to heal me?" she asked.
"I don't know that yet, either," he responded.
Behind him, Carmen's mother tsked. "Of course he'll heal you, Darling," she said soothingly. "He hasn't travelled all this way for nothing."
Gabriel reminded himself to be patient, and slowly turned to Yesnid. As politely as he could muster, he said, "Is there a private room where I can examine the child?"
Yesnid looked offended but nodded, snapping her fingers for the slave she had been beating earlier. "Carry Carmen to her bedroom," she ordered. The slave bent over the girl, lifting her and her blankets easily and carrying her quickly across the living quarters and down a hallway. Gabriel noted that he placed the child with great care on her bed, a large four poster affair, and tucked blankets in around her . The girl ignored him as he bowed his way out of the room. Gabriel closed the door behind him, took another deep breath, and turned to the child. "Why don't you know?" she demanded, as if her mother had not interrupted their conversation.
"For one thing, I don't know what's wrong with you or if I can fix it," Gabriel said slowly. "For another thing, I don't know if you want to be fixed." He approached her bed.
"I fell off a horse, that's what wrong with me," the girl exclaimed. "I haven't walked since." She gave a toss of her head, as if she were proud of this fact.
"According to Tobias, your accident was close to a year ago, is that right?" Gabriel said, sitting on the bed next to her.
The girl nodded. "It was Tobby's fault I fell. He never should have dared me to take that jump."
Gabriel watched her steadily. "Seems to me a girl your age is old enough to know what she can or can't do on a horse," he said.
Carmen scrunched up her mouth in a pout, but when she saw this only made Gabriel smile, she shrugged. "I'll tell my Da you're not nice," she said.
"He didn't come all this way to be nice to you, Darling," the Bearer said, from the door which he had opened, unnoticed. "But you must be nice to him."
Carmen's face scrunched into another pout again, and the Bearer laughed. "She's her father's daughter, Healer," he said. "You'll have your work cut out for you."
Gabriel noticed with annoyance that the Bearer, uninvited into the room, seemed to expand to fill all of its space. Speaking as courteously as he could, he said, "With respect, Bearer, my examination of a patient must be private."
The Bearer guffawed. "Courage, great courage!" he said. "Very well, I'll amuse myself until you finish." He walked down the hallway without closing the door and, with some annoyance, Gabriel walked over and closed it himself. He began his physical examination of the girl. He was puzzled that when he unexpectedly ran a pointer up the sole of the child's left foot, her back arched in a perfect reflex. Yet she denied all sensation, and when he did the same to the right foot as she watched him, there was no reflex whatsoever.
As he worked with her on some basic physical therapy exercises, she acted bored, looking off into the middle distance and sighing. Yet, when after an hour he got up to leave, she
called after him petulantly, "You're not leaving me here, are you? I want to go back to the living room!"
Gabriel turned back to her. "Have you a wheel contraption?" he asked her. "I'll get it for you."
"A what?" the child asked, her eyebrows puckering into a frown.
"A chair, on wheels," Gabriel said. "Surely you must have one. How else can you get around?"
Carmen tossed her head. "Turbo carries me," she said. "I want him. TURBO," she shrieked, so shrilly and unexpectedly that Gabriel's ears rang. The slave who had carried her into the room came running down the hall and skidded to his knees in front of the child. "Carry me!" she commanded and he, as gently as before, lifted her and carried her to the living room. Gabriel followed slowly behind.
The living room was still a confusion of children and slaves. In one corner, the Bearer sat on an armchair, a slave girl sitting on his lap, leaning back against him, as he reached around and toyed with one of her nipples. Although her arms dangled by her side, and she made no move to resist, she looked ready to cry. With a shock Gabriel realized the child was Rose. Animal, sitting on a sofa nearby, studiously watched the children squabble on the other side of the room.
Noticing Gabriel, the Bearer stood up unconcernedly, Rose tumbling to the floor in the process, where she stayed on her hands and knees, trembling. "Just getting her warmed up for you," the Bearer said with a grin to Gabriel. "Hard to find them so tender in these living quarters!" He gestured to his two year old son, who was slapping the ass of a slave girl with his chubby hands. Gabriel turned away in disgust. Animal, meanwhile, had stood up precipitously. Snapping his fingers for Rose, he nodded peremptorily to the room and made for the door, Rose crawling after him. Gabriel stopped only long enough to arrange with the Bearer that he would return in two days to work with the girls again, and then stepped quickly after Animal.
When he turned the first corner, Animal stopped and waited for the other two to catch up. With a slight toss of his head he indicated to Rose to stand up. She did so, sniffing. "Did he hurt you?" Gabriel asked her softly.
Rose shook her head and said, after a moment with a trembling voice, "No, master."
Animal snorted. "He honored her, Healer, by deigning to notice her." If Gabriel had not looked at Animal at that moment, he would not have seen the hard, bitter look on his face as he turned and walked down the corridor.
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