They stayed in the infirmary all the next day.

  Conner finally woke late in the morning. Diana was summoned and took his statement as well. Lothair brought them their meals and ate with them, keeping up an unrelenting torrent of conversation. She noticed that none of the master slayers ever left them alone in the infirmary, so perhaps they thought another attack might be forthcoming.

  Pentarch brought books down to the infirmary, and they were able to study in the afternoon as normal. It was a blessing because lying useless in bed had already begun to drive Vero mad.

  She was halfway through an elven treatise on the nature of the opposition between sanguine humors – warm and wet – and phlegmatic humors – cold and dry – with focus on their interactions within the human body. She pondered why elves would write a treatise on human biology rather than their own- until she learned of the procedures they used to test their theories.

  When her studies were finished, they played his game with the colored stones together. Vero was becoming an expert at shuffling her pieces around the board. She still had yet to win, but she came very close more than once before he found some crucial flaw in her defenses she overlooked. Pentarch’s tactics were methodical, grinding, and mildly craven in Vero’s opinion. Even when she lost, at least she still played with dash. It was just infuriating the way it always came to naught against his careful positioning.

  “What have you done about those bastards who attacked us?” Vero asked, while her opponent considered his move.

  Trapped in the infirmary as she was, it was almost impossible to get any news from the outside.

  “The ones who escaped the ill-fated ambush with their lives, you mean?” Pentarch countered, in his typically infuriating schoolmaster tone.

  “Oh no, I’m interested in all of them. Have the ashes of the dead been spread yet? If not, I should like a chance to piss in their urns.”

  He brought his pikes to bear against her cavalry. “I understand your anger. But I’d advise you not to be so flippant about the men you’ve killed. News of the battle has already inflamed tensions between the cliques, and I don’t want you making things worse.”

  Vero and Conner each had replies on their tongues, and spoke over one another to deliver them. “They attacked us!” “I only killed one of them.”

  Pentarch ignored her, and replied to Conner’s outburst. “So you and Vero claim. And Iosephus backs you, for his part of it. Except that we are known to be allies. The others have already started claiming that this was a grand conspiracy by all of us to attack them.”

  Vero snorted derisively. “A clever ploy I had. To take a lad without a weapon and someone’s grandfather- with the intention to ambush a group of men armed with stouts clubs, who were only just innocently roaming the halls in hoods.”

  “Of course, all the physical evidence supports your claims, but it’s inconvenient to let facts stand in the way of a good story. I’m sure that I’m the one being blamed for that. If you all are liars, then I am a liar too, and we’re all liars together. I planted all the evidence and hid all the assassins… somewhere.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” Conner was outraged.

  “Not to anyone who has already made up their mind,” Vero answered.

  “You shouldn’t underestimate a man’s ability to invent any conspiracy, no matter how wild. Particularly if the alternative is to accept that evidence has proven him wrong,” Pentarch added.

  “They won’t go free, will they?” Conner sounded more hurt than worried.

  “I should have made sure all of them were dead.” Vero observed blankly.

  “This world is a harsh one, but there’s no need to succumb to cynicism. The other attackers are currently languishing in the dungeons. Lothair, the Toad, and I will convene a judicial tribunal to determine their punishment. I’m certain the Toad will do his best to ameliorate their sentence, but I believe that they shall be occupying prison cells for some time yet. I still recommend that both of you be circumspect when discussing the incident.”

  Conner turned over in his bed and pulled his blanket over himself.

  “And how long shall I have to wait before the next attack comes?” Vero asked. “I don’t enjoy serving as a live target.”

  “It’s our suspicion that they’ll try something more subtle next time. The chaos they’ve caused already has started to upset the neutrals who typically prefer to stay out of leadership politics.”

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  “You may consider me chief among them,” Vero quipped.

  “And I,” Conner added from under his blanket.

  Pentarch continued, “I’ve charged Lothair with preparing all your food personally. I’ve ordered your room sealed, and I intend to have Iosephus go over it from top to bottom searching for curses before you sleep there again.”

  “Hmm…” Vero advanced the infantry to defend her flank.

  She intended to do her own search of that room before she lay her head down there again.

  Diana promised to take her and Conner somewhere special that evening, to celebrate their recovery.

  Vero thought the lad might be too weak to join them, but he insisted he was alright. She needed to help him into his boots.

  Diana led them through a natural cavern accessible from one of the upper layers of the donjon. The cave eventually took them into a thin valley, which snaked through the sharp peaks that surrounded the fortress.

  There was only space enough for them to walk single file, but they were at least shielded from the wind. Large flakes of snow lazily glided down from the dark sky and occasionally reflected the aurora of light, the glow of which could only be seen indirectly.

  Then they emerged out into a wider area with a small pool of liquid water surrounded by slushy snowmelt. Steam slowly drifted upwards from its surface. Vero heard stories of mountains which carried their own heat and ran with warm water even in winter, but she had never seen an example before.

  “Wait back there.” Diana directed Conner the way they had just come. “Undress and we’ll tell you when to come out.”

  Vero remembered the difficulty the lad had putting on his boots in the first place. “Can you manage?”

  Conner blushed and assured her that he could. They waited for him to go out of sight before taking off their own clothes.

  Diana was bulkier than Vero and the hair on her legs was coarser. Her breasts were much larger, and Vero could not help but also notice that her nipples were frozen to hard points by the chill air. Not traditionally beautiful, perhaps, but Vero still admired her thick frame and the clear musculature in her arms.

  She slipped into the pool and Vero quickly followed her. The water was scalding after stepping out of the freezing snow, but Vero adjusted herself and found a comfortable position to sit in with the water up to her shoulders. Her aches began to subside almost at once into a slow throbbing.

  “You can come out now, I’m sure you’re cold enough!” Diana called out.

  The lad rushed towards the spring, holding himself to keep warm as well as he could. Vero self-consciously averted her eyes until he had submerged in the hot spring, although she noticed that Diana did not.

  The giantess was grinning broadly. “No need to be embarrassed lad. I’m sure it gets larger in the summer.”

  Conner avoided looking at either of them, and Vero decided to let him be.

  “How many in the fortress know these hot springs are here?” she asked.

  “Oh…” Diana laid back and let the nobs of her knees and toes break the surface. “…not many. All the master slayers, the two of you- now. And whatever paramours have earned their way out here- I can tell you Philip has been here, at least. I can’t tell you for certain who else the other three might have brought. Iosephus doesn’t seem interested in that sort of thing. Too old now, probably. I’m sure Pentarch must have a lover hidden somewhere among the maids- although I don’t know her…”

  Diana did not seem to be aware of Pentarch’s impotence. Or perhaps it was not so complete an incapacity as he led her to believe.

  “…Lothair has brought at least two girls here- that I know of. Probably more. He’s a rascal, that one. Has he tried pinching your bottom yet?”

  Vero shook her head.

  “He will if you give him the slightest reason to think that you’ll let him get away with it. He gives up if you tell him ‘No’ firmly enough, but make sure it’s a very firm ‘No’. Unless you are interested, that is. Not a looker to be sure, but he knows how a woman likes to be handled better than most men- or so I’ve heard.”

  Vero assure Diana she was not interested.

  She held up the lamp to try and see what was at the bottom of the spring. Vero could feel a shelf of flat stone directly beneath her, but it was too dark to see any more. “How deep does this spring go?”

  “Gods know,” Diana answered. “There are a few crevasses down there, but the spaces aren’t wide. You’d risk getting trapped and drowning if you tried to explore it. I should think it would get hotter as you go deeper as well.”

  “From what source does the heat emanate?”

  “No one knows. I think Pentarch suspects it’s the Fiend, somewhere under the mountain.”

  “Do you believe that the Fiend really resides under these mountains?”

  “Some sort of evil spirit? Unquestionably. The Fiend, as in, the supreme personification of evil? I think that’s something of a stretch. Pentarch might believe it really is, but he’s rather religious. Us giants concern ourselves less with otherworldly things than you smaller folk.”

  “Does it not concern you that this pool might be caused by an outflowing of daemonic power?”

  “Why would a daemon wish to create something so wonderful?”

  “To bait the trap.”

  “That’s exactly the type of miserable thinking that will keep you alive forever.” Diana dismissed the notion and closed her eyes.

  Vero turned to Conner. “Are you well? Not feeling faint, are you?”

  Conner shook his head. “No, my Lady. Only a little sore.”

  “You may call me Vero, if you like. Jean insisted on gifting me a title. I’ve never seen the need for a surname.”

  “It’s my honor to be allowed to use your title, Dame Veronique- unless you command me to do otherwise.”

  “I command nothing, do as you like.”

  “Thank-you, my Lady.”

  “The boy has less of a sense of adventure than you do.” Diana fetched water and wine skins, along with crude wooden traveling cups from her bag.

  Conner became flush and looked away when she briefly emerged from the water. Diana poured a cup for each of them.

  “It’s medicinal,” she informed them.

  Vero found it very sweet and pleasant. Diana kept her cup full, and Vero soon felt lightheaded. The wine and heat did relax her muscles, and her pains continued to fade until they were only a mild discomfort on the edge of her perception.

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