Litany of Winter

Hans was still outside the room when the constable called him back.

”Mr. Schultz.”

Hans turned with the leather case in one hand.

The constable held out the folded paper. ”You forgot this.”

”Thank you.” Hans took it, glanced down as though checking the form, then looked past him toward Severin. ”Actually, one more thing. I need to see how he bears weight on that knee. The company will ask whether the injury affects his work.”

The constable looked into the room. Severin looked back and tried to seem puzzled rather than interested in why an insurance examiner had suddenly become so concerned about his legs.

”Make it quick,” the constable said. ”The nurse’ll be back any moment.”

Hans smiled politely. ”Of course.”

He stepped back inside and set the case on the table again.

Severin kept his voice low. ”You said we were finished.”

”We are.” Hans opened the case. ”Stand up.”

Severin stared at him while Hans took out a folded strip of cloth and bound it around the knee over the existing dressing. ”I need to assess the stability of the left knee under load.” His voice carried to the doorway.

The constable settled back into his chair outside.

Severin pushed the blanket away. ”Are you enjoying this?”

”A bit.” Hans lowered his voice again. ”Now do what I say.”

He got both feet to the floor before the knee started shaking. The trouble came when he tried to stand.

Hans caught him under the left arm before his knee folded. Pain pulled hard across Severin’s belly as he straightened, and for a few seconds the room narrowed around the edges. His right hand closed around Hans’s sleeve. The last two fingers lagged behind the others and nearly slipped free.

”Easy,” Hans murmured, tightening his hold under Severin’s arm.

Severin breathed through the pull beneath the bandage until the gray cleared. ”If this is part of your plan, it ain’t a good one.”

”I need to see if my plan will work first.”

That shut him up, and Hans shifted his grip to guide him away from the bed. Severin managed one step. The second sent a tremor through the left leg from thigh to ankle. By the third, the knee felt as though somebody had filled it with loose nails.

”Again,” Hans said.

”You do remember there’s a hole in me?”

”I remember. One more.”

Severin swore under his breath and shifted his weight forward. On the next step, his right hand tightened on Hans’s shoulder, but the weak fingers began to slide. Hans took more of his weight under the elbow before the grip gave way. At the doorway, the constable glanced over.

Hans raised his voice. ”Pain when you put weight on it?”

”Only when I use the bloody thing.”

The constable looked away again as Hans turned Severin carefully. The movement tugged at his abdomen badly enough that he stopped halfway and grabbed the side of his shirt.

”That’s enough,” Hans said.

He got Severin back to the bed and waited until he was sitting before letting go. Bent forward, Severin breathed through his nose while the shaking in his leg settled.

Hans crouched in front of him and retied the cloth around the knee, pulling it firm over the existing dressing without disturbing it.

”I think you can walk,” Hans said quietly. ”But you definitely can’t run.”

”No shit.”

Hans checked the knot and the way Severin held the leg.

”So?”

Hans gave the knot one final pull. ”You should be able to manage the corridor.”

Severin shifted higher on the mattress.

Hans stood and reached for the leather case. ”We need to be quick, so listen. There are others like the man you saw in that warehouse. Not many, but enough. The lightning was real too.”

The brown glove drew Severin’s attention. ”How?”

”It’s part of a pact I made.”

”What? That makes no bloody sense.”

”Not yet.”

Hans closed one compartment, then another. Outside, a porter rolled a trolley along the corridor. Both men stopped talking until the wheels passed the doorway.

When the sound faded, Hans continued. ”I belong to an Order that deals with these things. The man you saw was part of a cult. People like him seek out things they should leave alone and sometimes come back changed. The Order hunts them down, and we need recruits.”

Severin stared at him. ”You’re starting to make my story sound sensible.” He lowered his voice. ”Let’s say I believe all this. You want me to join you?”

”I think you’d be a good fit. You’ve got nowhere to go, and nobody waiting for you.” Hans latched one side of the case. ”You also helped me fight that man when you could’ve run.”

”And what does joining this Order require?”

”For that, I need you to come with me.”

Severin gave a quiet laugh. ”Where?”

”We can’t talk about much more in here. What I can tell you is that the Order gives you a bed, hot food, wages and proper work. If you survive.”

Severin frowned. ”Survive what?”

Hans did not answer before the constable shifted outside the doorway.

He closed the case halfway. ”We’ll talk once we’re out of this room.”

The constable was still there, boots planted apart beneath the chair. Severin kept his voice low. ”What’s the catch?”

”You’ll have to keep secrets and follow strict orders. The work itself probably won’t help you live to old age.” Hans opened the case again and checked the folded cloths. ”If you join us, you’ll train first and learn more about what we do. After that, if you choose, you can attempt a pact. That’s how I got the lightning.”

”What about the pact? What does it cost?”

Hans tapped the smoked lens over his blind eye. ”Everyone who survives a pact pays the same price.” He lowered his hand. ”The gift won’t be like mine, though. They’re all different.”

Severin thought he had misheard the first part. ”You lose an eye for something you don’t even get to choose?”

”Going blind in one eye is the easy part.”

Outside, the constable scraped his chair against the floor. Hans immediately raised his voice. ”Keep the knee elevated when you can. If the swelling worsens, tell the ward doctor.”

The constable looked in. ”Nearly done?”

”Just finishing.”

Severin waited until the man looked away. ”Do I have to take this pact?”

”No. You can join us, learn more and train first, then decide later.” Hans glanced toward the doorway. ”If you refuse it but still want to stay with the Order, you can apply to work as a clerk or with the healers.”

At least that sounded like something a real organization would say. Severin closed his right hand. The little finger still moved a fraction late. Hans had used his own gift until he could barely control the hand carrying it, and now he was offering Severin a chance to lose an eye for something equally useful and equally broken.

He tried to dismiss the offer and got as far as the constable outside the door. Once the hospital put him out, he still had nowhere to sleep and no wages waiting. Hans could change both of those. The answers mattered too.

Severin kept rubbing his thumb along the edge of the blanket. ”What if I say no?”

”Then I leave, and you probably never see me again. You deal with the police on your own.”

”All right. But if I go with you, won’t they still be looking for me?”

Hans checked the corridor again. ”You don’t need to worry about that.”

Severin sat a little straighter. ”Fine. I’ll come and hear the rest. Better than jail anyway.”

”Good. When I come back, you do exactly what I tell you.”

”Hopefully this plan’s better.”

Hans smiled. ”You can’t run and you can’t fight properly, so I’ll work with what I have.”

”Just tell me when.”

Hans closed the clasp and rose. Severin had spent most of his life taking work from men he could not trust. Now he was putting his life in a Vhaldrik stranger’s hands for promises that might not even be real.

The nurse appeared at the far end of the corridor, and Hans stepped toward the door as soon as he saw her.

”To summarize for the company,” he said in the careful Aethermerian he had used on arrival, ”you are not presently fit for manual labor. You can put some weight on the knee, but the abdominal wound prevents lifting or sudden movement.”

The constable stood as Hans reached him. ”That all?”

”Yes, sir. Thank you for your patience.”

Hans handed him the paper again, waited while the constable glanced at it, then took it back and walked down the corridor without looking at Severin.

The nurse passed Hans halfway down the corridor and entered the room. ”You again,” she said when she saw Severin sitting higher in bed. ”Didn’t I tell you not to stand without me?”

”Sorry. The insurance man asked me to.”

She looked after Hans as he walked away. ”They always bloody do.”

While she prepared the dressing tray, Severin traced the route in his head without turning toward the door.

Twelve paces to the door, then the turn. He would have to take the left leg slowly and avoid any sudden twist. If the right hand failed, use the wall.

When the nurse turned to wet a cloth, Severin slid his good foot to the floor and counted the seconds before the bad leg followed.