The face that greeted Sean when he opened his eyes was hardly the one he wanted. Sandrine bent over him, grave and professionally concerned. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes.” His mouth tasted foul. “Water.”
She fitted in a straw, let him drink, then held up her free hand and asked, “How many fingers do you see?”
“Oh, let the lad be. Move aside! You poke and prod me enough for ten patients!” The face that replaced Sandrine’s was ancient and seamed and smiling. “Hello, lad. Remember me?”
The name swam up through the depths. “Insgar.”
“Those dolts wanted to take you to the Praetorian Academy. Lock you away in some tower. Nothing to see but a continent of ruin and black rock. Idiots, the lot of them. I am two hundred and twenty-seven years old by Serenese reckoning. Do you know how I have survived this long?”
“Where is Elenya?”
“Eating a well-deserved meal. Pay attention. I survived, lad, by taking time for pleasure! And joy! Though both have been redefined by the limitations of age, I’ll warrant you that. And the only way you can make room for either is by ignoring all the dolts out there and all their frantic little conversations that add up to absolutely nothing.”
“How long . . .”
“Several days, thanks to the good doctor. Whom I have taken as my new personal physician. No doubt I’ll run her off as soon as her government duty-time is done.”
Sandrine said, “Never, Mistress.”
“Humph. Give us a moment, would you please.” When the door clicked shut behind the doctor, Insgar pushed a button on the side of Sean’s bed, cranking him up to a seated position. She then touched a handle on her wheelless chair, lifting her up to where she sat at eye level. “How much do you remember?”
“Everything.” Sean swallowed hard. “I remember it all.”
“That’s good, lad. Very good indeed. Because there’s much you will be able to teach us once you’re recovered. Vital information that we should have gone after long ago.” She shook her head. “Still, the risk you took. Was this idea of yours truly gifted by the cloud?”
“Yes.”
“I was envious of you when I heard, but only for an instant. All my life I’ve yearned for such a contact, since before I knew I could transit. But now, seeing what it cost you . . .” She shook her head again. “We will talk more in the coming days. But one thing I give you now. The reason I demanded you be brought here to rest. The one thing I can offer you in your hour of healing.” Her voice was scarcely above a whisper yet carried the force of two long centuries. “An adept is not someone gifted with enormous abilities. Those dolts are a dime a dozen. We have a hundred worlds and more to draw from, you don’t think we can find recruits with enormous abilities? Idiots, the lot of them. I should know. I ran the Watcher school for the first thirty years of its existence. Almost all of my students left as they arrived, content to carry out orders better than the next dolt. No. An adept is someone with the courage to see what needs doing, and then finding it within themselves to act.”
For reasons Sean could not explain, the words caused the back of his eyes to burn fiercely. “I lost my courage.”
“I know you did, lad. I know. Your valor has been eaten away, the audacity to act crushed, the daring to defy logic consumed, the flame of life almost extinguished.” She touched her chair handle a second time, drawing closer still. “But all this will return, do you hear me? I know it for a fact because I have been where you are now. You will heal, and you will grow from your experience, and the next time such courage is required, you will be ready. Only take time for—”
Her words were cut short by the door slamming back. Elenya flew in, across the stone floor and into his arms. He held her and tried to reply to the woman at the same time, for Insgar remained where she was, smiling at them both.
The room had tall windows along both far walls, and the sunlight was gentled by the veil of white-blonde hair that spilled across his vision. Sean breathed in the warmth and the joy and the love, and tried to fight the rising wave of fatigue, for the moment was too precious to lose to slumber. But his body had a mind of its own. And he was soon swept away.