Mindgames Ch. 02

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. Animal ignored greetings people called out to him. He crossed the room with a gait that was brisk despite a studied laziness and went through a side door. When Rose and Gabriel crossed the threshold, Animal was already several feet ahead of them, striding quickly down a narrow corridor, all pretense of laziness gone. Rose stumbled. She straightened up immediately but then lost her footing again. She fell and landed on her right knee with a quiet whimper. Animal strode ahead, oblivious. "Wait," Gabriel shouted after him, as the girl who was struggling to her feet. 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 unkempt, with brown hair that straggled down his back and a beard that had been combed but not trimmed. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot, waiting for Gabriel to speak.

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, indicating the girl, "The Bearer said I was to consider her mine." Animal nodded, his 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 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. Rose struggled to her feet and stumbled over to Animal, where she fell to her knees, her eyes lowered. "Forgive me, master," she said in a low, frightened voice.

To Gabriel's surprise, Animal almost tenderly scooped the Rose'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 held 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, "The quarters aren't far. You can numb her wounds to your heart's content there."

They passed closed doors, some of them with piles of rubbish next to them, and a few hallways leading off to either side. At last the corridor ended at a doorway. The three of them went through it and Gabriel found himself in a cavernous room. The wall on the left was a huge picture window with a door in it, looking out into the pink light of dusk over the lawn. Gabriel had never seen so much glass. He gasped at the extravagance of it.

Animal, with Rose still on his arm, turned back to Gabriel. "Entrance hall," he informed the healer. He turned towards a hallway, grander and better lit than the one they had just left, opposite the window wall. Gabriel followed behind. Animal made a few turns, but they remained in broad corridors. They were empty of people, although Gabriel heard noises from behind closed doors.

Animal stopped abruptly and opened a door on the right. With uncharacteristic politeness, he stood aside and motioned Gabriel to precede him.

Gabriel entered a meticulously clean living area furnished with an overstuffed couch and a couple of chairs, footstools, and small tables. 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 sliding 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 and the activities Gabriel had seen on it earlier. Each tree was perfectly rendered; 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 eye was particularly drawn by a slave who pushed a lawnmower, his biceps hard and gleaming with sweat, his face showing focus and pride and fear.

At last Gabriel looked over to Animal. The painter stood motionless, watching, trying and failing to appear nonchalant. It seemed to Gabriel 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.