It was better to sleep than to think about what had happened and the situation I was left in because of it.
I supposed that situation wasn’t as bad as it could have been, although every fiber of my being ached for Dushka and the Sons. But it wasn’t like I was completely alone.
“Conrad, we’re here,” Mara said shaking my shoulder and making me realize the wagon had stopped.
I muttered as I came out of sleep and sat up, only to find we were at the gates of the college. It was after dark and things were quiet, but I didn’t think it was that late.
“We’re back already?” I asked groggily, sitting up all the way.
“Just now,” Darius said as he and Leander gathered our dusty packs.
I nodded, yawned, and pulled myself to crouch, searching for my pack. All of the student healer in each of the wagons seemed weighed down and older than when we’d left. It took more effort than it should have for me to hoist my pack to my shoulder, then scoot to the end of the wagon to jump down.
“I need a drink,” I said, not meaning it flippantly, or even that I needed alcohol. I really wanted a large, cool glass of water, like I hadn’t had in days.
“I just want to sleep in my own bed again,” Mara said with a sigh as she hopped down from the wagon and walked beside me toward the gate. “For days.”
I was a little confused by the fact that the college’s gate was closed and that we had to wait for someone to come unlock it and let us in. Since the infirmary was on the college grounds and the fountain of mineral water was right there beyond the gate, it was never shut, and definitely not locked. But it was now.
“I didn’t expect them to throw a party to welcome us home, but you’d think they would at least keep the gate open for us,” Leander said in a teasing tone.
Darius chuckled at his joke, but only half-heartedly, and he was the only one.
“Why is the gate closed?” Magister Flaccus demanded as he pushed his way through us to get to the center. “Let us in at once.”
“Magister Flaccus, is that you?” I recognized the man who approached to unlock the gate as one of the orderlies from the infirmary. One of the larger, more muscular orderlies.
“What is the meaning of this, Jessup?” Magister Flaccus demanded of the man as he fumbled with his keys to unlock the gate. “We’ve only been gone a week. Have you forgotten what we look like?”
“Thank God it’s you,” Jessup said, opening the gate, but only enough for us to walk in single-file. He seemed terrified to do that and glanced up and down the street, as if making certain no one who shouldn’t get in was following us.
He wasn’t going to find anyone, though. The streets were all but empty.
Then I spotted the clock over the main building’s doorway.
“It’s only nine o’clock,” I said. “Why are the streets empty?”
“You have no idea what it’s been like since you lot left,” Jessup said, hurrying to lock the gate behind us once we were all safely inside the college’s walls.
“What do you mean?” Magister Flaccus demanded, his brow dark and knitted.
Jessup gestured for us to come away from the gate, all the way to the other side of the fountain, as if the rushing waters would mask whatever he had to say from anyone passing by the college.
“Two days after you lot left, word got out that the new army was obliterated in the mountains,” Jessup said. “We all guessed it was true, since why else would they call for two dozen student healers to go all the way out to Aktau?”
“The new army was met with resistance in the mountains,” Magister Flaccus said in guarded tones.
I exchanged a look with Mara, Leander, and Darius. Resistance was putting it mildly.
“Rumors spread like wildfire from there,” Jessup said. “King Julius had required that everyone provide a man for the new army, whether those men were young, old, infirm, or forced. Which means everyone has lost a loved one or has fears that their loved ones will never come home.”
I sucked in a hard breath, not needing to know the rest of Jessup’s story to guess what had happened.
“There was anxiety and unrest,” Jessup said. “Then the list of casualties was posted in the old town square.”
He had to take a breath to steady himself, as if reliving some horror in his mind.
I shifted anxiously, hefting my pack higher on my shoulder and gazing around at the others. Lucius in particular looked interested in what Jessup had to say.