All Fall Down Read Online Free Page B

least three things at once. During my training I had interminable lessons in herb lore and anatomy, accompanied by practicums where we went into the countryside to gather herbs and other natural substances for medicines, or studied the inner workings of the body through dissections (frowned upon by the priestesses of Inyanna, but viewed by the city elders as a convenient way to dispose of the bodies of executed criminals). And life in the field was no different. I was used to rising early to compound my medicines and see to the patients in my care, patients whose complaints could range from the simple nausea of early pregnancy to lung ailments to the variety of diseases that had plagued men since the beginning of time: pox, mumps, a variety of fevers, ague.  
    For lack of anything better to do, I tried to calculate how long it might take for Frin to travel to Lystare and inform my superiors of my capture. By all rights he should have been able to take my mare, abandoned in Aunde, but there was no guarantee one of the other inhabitants might not try to lay claim to so rich a prize. Very well, I would allow that he would might have to walk. The tiny hamlet had not even been noted on my maps, but I had estimated it lay a little more than a hundred miles from the capital city. Walking at a brisk pace, a man might be able to achieve that distance in a week—possibly less, if he were able to obtain the occasional lift from a passing carter or merchant. Still, it would probably be some time before anyone with the means to do anything about it learned of my capture.
    And once they did, what then? Even if Frin had managed to commit the faces of the slavers to his memory, they had been very careful not to call one another by name during the raid. Their anonymity would no doubt protect them from any sort of reprisals. No, my only chance of salvation lay in someone traveling to the slave markets of Myalme and making inquiries there. Even then I was none too sanguine about my chances for rescue. Our sale had been a quiet, underhanded transaction. We hadn’t even been placed on display for the general round of buyers to see us. Who would ever know that a small group from Aunde, including a displaced physician of the Golden Palm, had been sold there one evening?
    As if to mirror my dark mood, the skies chose that moment to open up. For a few moments it seemed as if the heavy canvas that covered us would be enough to protect us from the deluge, but that hope proved short-lived. Once the material was soaked through, it began to drip upon me and everyone else in the back of the wagon. The other occupants scrambled to grab their blankets to protect themselves as best they could, while I once again offered the meager protection of my cloak to Elissa.  
    From a storage trunk located immediately behind the driver’s seat, Dorus produced a broad-brimmed felt hat, which he grimly clapped on his head. However, he did not stop, instead slapping the reins across the horses' backs to increase their speed as best they could in the rapidly liquefying mud of the roadway.
    His haste led me to wonder whether we were drawing near to our destination. I hoped so. No matter what awaited us at the end of our journey, surely it couldn’t be any worse than the increasingly sodden misery in which we all sat. Beside me, Elissa began to shake with the cold. The poor girl had been taken in only her shift, which of course was completely unsuitable for the wet, cold weather.
    There wasn’t much I could do besides let her burrow up against me in a vain attempt to combine our body heat. Although I was better dressed than most of the other captives, in a plain but well-made gown of wool with detachable sleeves and a stout chemise of medium-weight linen, the garments didn’t do me much good once they were soaked through. At least I had been wearing my sturdy calf-high boots when the slavers captured me. They protected my feet much better than the low indoor shoes most