Awakening (Amrocar 3)

Again the dreams came to him. His master had decided that their residence was dirty, and He had been set to cleaning it, using only a small brush and rag. He knew that His master was growing more and more power-hungry and insane, but was unable to do anything about it. He tried once to tell a kindly looking stranger what was happening, how His master had committed several murders, but His master had seen Him talking to the poor man, and the stranger had been killed. He had been beaten severely after that, and His memories of the next few days were hazy from pain. He scrubbed at the wooden floor angrily, with tears in His eyes. It seemed there was nothing He could do.

Joshua awoke once more to the inside of a cool tent. He was wrapped in loose bandages, and he could feel some sort of cool salve against his skin. Even his hands and face were wrapped, and he immediately developed a desire to itch. With an effort he restrained himself. With the amount of damage he remembered suffering, his skin might very well flake off if he scratched at it. But soon the desire was overwhelming, and his hand twitched to his side and scraped along it as best it could despite his misgivings. But instead of the pain he expected, it was merely the satisfying relief of an itch well scratched. Gratified, he set himself to scratching, and in a few moments felt better. Finally he looked about the tent. There were no furnishings except the cot on which he lay and one chair, and nothing to indicate who had rescued him, or what their intentions were. At the very least they couldn’t very well have locked a tent, so he rose and went to the opening. Pulling the flap aside a little, he peered out through the slit onto a busy camp. There were people cooking over small fires, people cleaning weapons, and people eating and talking in small groups. They looked friendly, was his first impression. It was early morning, and it seemed that the camp was breaking its fast. At the sight Joshua’s stomach gave a loud rumble, and he felt hollow inside. He weighed his options in his mind for a minute, but the lack of any obvious restraints seemed to indicate that he was not a prisoner. When he carefully poked his head out the door, there wasn’t even a guard. Emboldened, he ducked his head to clear the low opening and stepped outside.
The camp was large, but not so large that he couldn’t see the outskirts from where he stood near the center. And stationed around the edges were men covered in shining metal plates. With the sun low, they were tolerable to look at, but Joshua could see how the man who had found him had been too bright to see. These, then, were the Paladins of Amrocar. But why hadn’t they killed or restrained him? Were they so confident of their abilities that they had no fear of him? Joshua shook his head ruefully. At this point, without his Summoner unlocking or explaining his powers, he was little threat to anyone.
His line of thought was interrupted by an excited voice. “Master! Master, you must not move around!” Joshua’s first thought was that his Summoner had somehow found him, but a glance soon dispelled that notion. The young man who appeared from around the corner of the tent was only too obviously a healer, wearing the rising sun insignia of Amrocar on his tunic. “Master, you must stay in bed until you have healed!" The healer hustled him back inside and onto the bed, not touching Joshua any more than he had to. Joshua allowed himself to be fussed over, not knowing how to stop this bundle of energy from plying his trade.
“Now, these dressings must be-“The healer stopped himself. He had begun to unwrap the dressing from Joshua’s right arm, and encountered the healthy pink skin beneath. “But, what is this?” He looked at Joshua in surprise. “You were badly burned last eve.” Suspicion grew in his eyes, and Joshua cursed himself for a fool. Of course his Summoner would make his new form heal quickly. But his sense of disaster was forestalled.
“Ha! You are from Chalcydon, yes? You have healed in the shadows of night!” The healer seemed quite pleased with himself for figuring this out. “I have heard about your folk, of course, but never seen one myself. I will so inform the Adept. Perhaps he will allow us to move at night from now on. Well, no worry, I shall fetch clothes for you from our stores.” With that he hustled out of the tent and off into the camp.
Joshua looked at himself with some consternation. He had never heard of Chalcydon, nor of anyone who could heal themselves in shadows. In fact, almost everything the young healer had just said was incomprehensible, excepting one thing. The healer was going to bring him clothes. He was obviously not a captive, and with clothes he could perhaps ask around and see if anyone knew what might have happened to his Summoner. He seemed to have the features to pass as a native of ‘Chalcydon’, wherever that was. It occurred to him that his Summoner must be a person of great subtlety and intelligence, to have made him blend in so well. But why had the Paladins not identified him as a demon? His Summoner must have somehow protected him from detection, but he was sure it wouldn’t stand up to a close inspection.
In a relatively short time the young healer returned with an armful of clothing. He laid it out on the chair and Joshua rose and went over to look at it. It was mostly dark brown and maroon fabrics, of a loose and flowing cut.
“We didn’t have all of this in black, of course, but I got as close as I could within our stores. I know your folk prefer loose clothes over tight, so these are the largest we have. You may need to wear a belt for the pants, so I brought one. Oh, and I brought you”; here he pulled a long curved knife out from where it had been clipped behind his back. “Ta-dah! A Chalcydonian longknife. One of the Paladins had bought it for his son, and he said you could have it.” At Joshua’s blank look he said quickly, “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll get another one. We trade with Chalcydon regularly.”
Joshua essayed a smile and the healer seemed relieved. “Don’t worry, I would never try to indebt a Chalcydonian to myself.” With that strange statement he left the tent and pulled the flaps closed behind him, fastening them with a simple thong to indicate the occupant did not want visitors.
Joshua quickly started pulling off his bandages. His skin was completely healed underneath, so he wiped off the remnants of salve with the bandages and donned the clothing provided. Unfamiliar to clothing in general, it took him a few minutes to figure out exactly what went where, but common sense and some quick peeks through the flaps of the tent showed him where he had gone wrong. What he had originally thought was a hat with holes for his ears must be worn under the other clothes, then.
After sorting himself out he clipped the longknife to his belt and walked back and forth for a bit, getting a feel for the new restrictions on his movement. The clothing wasn’t as much of a hindrance as he had feared, so he opened up the flaps and ducked outside. The Healer was waiting