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“Well, there was a riot right from the start,” he said at last. “People were none too happy to have their tender loved ones shunted off into an army whose sole purpose was to chase after another army that had mutinied.”
That wasn’t exactly what had happened with General Rufus, but I didn’t think the details were important.
“And since so many of the soldiers that had made up the peacekeeping force in the city were sent off to be officers in the new army, there was hardly anyone left to keep the rioters in check,” Jessup went on. “That meant that the riot grew. Fast.”
“What a disgrace,” Magister Flaccus hissed.
It might have been dark, but I still saw every one of the indignant or wary looks that the returning student healers sent his way. Lucius especially looked ready to murder the man with his bare hands.
To his credit, Magister Flaccus picked up on the mood of the students surrounding him immediately.
“There should have been greater protections,” he said, seeming to backtrack on his original statement. “The families should have been informed of their losses in a gentler way. The king could have made a public statement.” He flinched, then turned to Jessup. “Did the king make a public statement?”
“He did not,” Jessup said, his voice dropping to a timbre that, to my ears, betrayed a complete lack of respect for the king. “He ordered the few soldiers and peacekeepers left in the city to fortify the palace. He and everyone connected to the army, including half the Senate, holed up in there for the first few days.”
“And I suppose the rioters tore through the city and destroyed it,” Magister Flaccus said.
I didn’t need Jessup’s indignant snap of, “They did not, sir,” to know the city hadn’t been destroyed.
There was no smell of smoke or ash in the air, like there had been after the Battle of the Coronation. There was no coppery-bright smell of blood either. The city was silent and empty, but more like a trap about to be sprung rather than one that had already caused mayhem.
“The rioters focused their efforts on the palace, and on the homes of the generals and senators they see as responsible for sending their loved ones off to die,” Jessup went on. “The rioting only lasted for two days, before the king called on the navy to put everyone back in their places.”
My brow shot up and my eyes went wide at that. I’d no idea the Old Realm had a navy that was powerful enough to step in and take the place of the army.
My surprise and the reasons behind it were confirmed when Darius said, “I thought the navy was all but destroyed in the foreign wars. I didn’t realize we really had one anymore.”
“We have one,” Mara answered. All eyes turned to her. She looked far more terrified than I would have expected her too. “It isn’t much, but it still exists.”
“It does,” Jessup said, taking a step back from her, as though he’d just realized who she was—the king’s niece. Which could have explained why Mara looked so anxious. “And the sailors are currently acting as peacekeepers and militia to keep the citizens of Royersford from murdering their king,” Jessup went on. “And also to keep anyone who isn’t from Royersford from wandering into the city to do the same.”
“That must be what the checkpoints we encountered at the edge of the city were all about,” one of the other student healers said.
I blinked and turned to see who had spoken, but it was hard to tell in the dark. I wished I hadn’t been asleep at the time. I’d missed seeing things that I really ought to have seen.
“So what happens now?” Darius asked, though it was unclear whether he was asking Magister Flaccus or Jessup. “Is the city in lockdown or something?”
“Is that why no one is on the streets and why the gate was locked?” Leander followed with questions of his own.
“Something like that,” Jessup said. He turned to Magister Flaccus and said, “Magister Titus has ordered you be sent to him as soon as you return, be it day or night. The infirmary is still open to treat the sick and wounded, but—” He swallowed thickly and took a breath before going on. “But we’ve got three of the senators who signed the order to create the new army being treated for knife wounds and blunt force trauma in one of the private wards, and too many people in the city know about it. They were demanding that the senators be turned over to them before the sailors came in to keep the peace.”
I winced at that information. Healers and infirmaries were meant to be neutral parties in times of war and conflict. But if the college was seen to be harboring the men who had blood on their hands, then we would end up as a target in no time.
“We have to get them out of here,” I said, speaking my thoughts aloud before I could think better of it.
Magister Flaccus turned to me with a look of utter indignation. “Master Conrad, did we not teach you on day one of this course that your duty as a healer is to heal the sick and injured, no matter who they are or what sins they have committed?”
I figured that was not the time to point out to him that I hadn’t been there for day one of the course.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t treat them,” I stammered, racing to find a way to cover my tracks and appear neutral. “I’m saying we should treat them someplace other than the college. We have a duty to the people of Royersford to care for them without taking sides. By moving the senators to another location, even treating them in secret, we are keeping our arms open to the sick and injured, just like we’re supposed to.”
I wasn’t convinced I’d made a good argument. There were a few tense moments as Magister Flaccus narrowed his eyes at me.
Finally, and against all odds, he said, “You’re right. We must make arrangements to move the senators to another location, up on one of the hills. Then we must make a public statement to the people of Royersford that we no longer have the senators in our care. We must be seen as allies of the people.”
I had been on the verge of changing my opinion of Magister Flaccus until that last statement. He was just trying to cover his own ass. He didn’t really care about serving the people.
There wasn’t much more to say from there, or more to hear. Magister Flaccus sent us back to the dormitories, and he, I assumed, went off to meet with Magister Titus, the dean of the college.
