The Herald rubbed the side of his nose with one long finger. “For the usual Chosen, who come in here at about age thirteen or fourteen, and who are lacking in a lot of skills you already have, it takes about five years. For you, though, I don’t know,” Jadus replied honestly. “Nobody will know until we find out just how much you know, plus there is a very great deal about the Heralds and this land that you absolutely must know before you can serve in the field and—” He paused and looked thoughtful for a moment, as if he had suddenly come up with a novel idea. “Actually, that may not quite be true. Something just occurred to me—and we might as well see if my option is a sound one right away.” The Herald smiled warmly. “Let’s trot you around, Alberich, and see what comes of it. The person I want you to see is on the way to the Collegium anyway.”

“Well enough,” Alberich replied with resignation. “Lead, I follow.”

It was not his first excursion out into the grounds within the Palace walls, but it would be the farthest he had gone since he’d been encouraged to start leaving his bed. The Healers and his own caution kept him close to the building; he had not wanted to risk running into anyone who had the potential to be overtly hostile. He’d already had enough sour or sorrowful looks from some of the Healers and Healer-trainees he’d encountered. Once it was widely known that he was Karsite, well—no one was claiming that Valdemarans were without prejudice or incapable of holding a grudge, though in this case, he could hardly blame them.

So he had gone out, but hadn’t taken the kind of long, arduous hikes he would have done, had he been conditioning himself at home. Not that he was weak and shaky; he’d been putting himself through a course of physical exercise since that first hour of getting himself out of bed and looking out the window. He knew, far better than the Healers did, what he was and was not capable of, and he knew very well that he was still young enough that his body would respond to being pushed to the limit by increasing where that limit stood. So at this moment he was as fit as he had ever been, if a bit thinner and paler.

As it turned out, it was a very good thing that he was.

Jadus led him through the gardens to a long, low building set off by itself. He had very little attention to spare for what were probably quite lovely gardens, once he realized just what that building was.