The Quest - Smith Wilbur (читаем книги онлайн бесплатно TXT) 📗

Hannah saw his interest. 'I like to work with sharp knives,' she explained, 'for your comfort as well as my own.' She indicated two technicians sitting at another worktable in the far corner of the room.

'Those men are skilled cutlers. They will resharpen each scalpel as soon as its edge becomes dull. You will be grateful to them before the day is done.' She turned to her assistants. 'If all is in readiness we can proceed.'

The two male nurses swabbed Taita's lower body with a pungent smelling liquid. At the same time the surgeons washed their hands and forearms in a bowl of the same fluid. Dr Rei came to Taita's side. The markings she had made the previous day had faded until they were barely visible. Now she renewed them, then stood back to make way for Hannah.

'I am about to make the first incision. Lord Taita, will you please compose yourself to resist the pain?' she said.

Taita grasped the Periapt of Lostris, which lay upon his naked chest.

He filled his mind with a soft mist, and let the circle of their faces above him recede until they were vague outlines.

Hannah's voice reverberated strangely in his ears, seeming to come from a distance: 'Are you prepared?' she asked.

'I am. You may begin.' He felt a tugging sensation as she made the

first incision, and as she went deeper he felt the first pain, but it was not unbearable. He let himself drop a level until he was just aware of her touch and the bite of her scalpel. He could hear their voices. Time passed. Once or twice the pain flared brightly as Hannah worked in a sensitive area, but Taita dropped a little deeper. When the pain receded he let himself rise to just below the surface, and listened to their discussions, which enabled him to follow their progress.

'Very well,' said Hannah, with obvious satisfaction. 'We have removed all the scar tissue, and we are ready to insert the catheter. Can you hear me, Lord Taita?'

'Yes,' Taita whispered, his voice echoing in his ears.

'Everything is going even better than I had hoped. I am placing the tube now.'

Taita felt it being worked into him, a mildly uncomfortable sensation that he did not need to suppress.

Already fresh urine is flowing from your bladder,' said Hannah. 'All is in readiness. You may relax, while we wait for the seedings to be brought from the laboratory.'

There followed a long silence. Taita let himself drift deeper until he was only just conscious of his surroundings. The silence continued, but he felt no sense of alarm or urgency. Then, gradually, he became aware of an alien presence in the room. He heard a voice that he knew was Hannah's, but it was very different now: soft, trembling with fear or some other strong emotion. 'This is the essence,' she said.

Taita brought himself to the level of bearable pain. He opened his eyes to slits so that he was looking through the screen of his own eyelashes. He saw Hannah's hands above him. They were cupped round an alabaster pot similar to that which had held the seeding for Meren's eye but much larger. Hannah lowered it from his line of vision and Taita heard the light scraping sound of a spoon against the alabaster as Hannah scooped out some of the contents. Moments later he felt a sensation of cold in the area of the open wound in his groin, and a light touch as the seeding was spread over it. This was followed by an acute stinging sensation in the same area. He masked it, then something else caught his half-open eyes.

He realized, for the first time, that a strange figure stood against the far wall. It had appeared without a sound, a tall but statuesque shape, veiled from head to floor in filmy black silk. The only movement was a light undulation as the person's chest rose and fell with each breath. The bosom beneath the veil was proudly feminine, perfect in size and shape.

Taita was possessed by an overpowering sense of awe and fear. He opened his Inner Eye and saw that the veiled figure threw no aura.

He was certain that it was Eos, not one of her shadowy manifestations but Eos, with whom he had come to do battle.

He wanted to sit up and challenge her, but as soon as he tried to rise from his trance to full consciousness the pain soared and drove him back.

He wanted to speak, but no words rose to his tongue. He could only stare at her. Then he felt the softest touch on his temples, like that of teasing fairy fingers. He knew it was not Hannah: Eos was trying to enter his mind and take out his thoughts. Swiftly he raised his mental barriers to frustrate her. The fairy touch withdrew: Eos had sensed his resistance and, like a skilled swordsman, had given ground. He imagined her poised for the riposte. She had made her first delicate test of his defences. He knew he should have felt threatened and intimidated by her presence, repelled by her wickedness, the great weight of her evil, but instead he felt a strong, unnatural attraction to her. Demeter had warned him of her beauty and the effect it had on all men who gazed upon it, and he tried to keep his guard high, but he found that he still longed to look upon her fateful beauty.

At that moment Hannah moved to the foot of the table and blocked his view. He wanted to shout at her to stand aside, but now that Eos was not directly in his eye his self-control reasserted itself. It was a valuable discovery. He had learnt that if he looked upon her she was irresistible.

If he turned away his eyes the attraction, although powerful, could be denied. He lay staring quietly at the ceiling, and allowed the pain to rise to the pitch at which it acted as a counter to the animal craving she aroused in him. Hannah was bandaging the open wound now and he concentrated on the touch of her hands and the feel of the linen strips being laid upon his body. When she had finished Hannah came back to his side. Taita looked at the far wall, but Eos was gone. Only the faintest psychic trace of her remained, a haunting sweetness that hung in the air like a precious perfume.

Dr Rei took Hannah's place at the head of the table, opened his mouth and placed wooden wedges between his jaws. He felt her settle the forceps over the first of his teeth and masked the pain before she began the extraction. Rei was expert: she pulled out his teeth in rapid succession. Then Taita felt the sting of the seeding being placed in the open wounds, and the prick of the needle as she closed the wounds with sutures.

Gently the two male nurses lifted Taita down from the stone table and laid him on a light litter. Hannah walked beside him as they carried him to his quarters. When they reached his room she saw him safely transferred from the litter to his sleeping mat. Then she made the arrangements for his comfort and care.

At last she knelt on the floor beside him. 'One of the nurses will remain at your side night and day. They will send for me the moment they detect any adverse change in your condition. If there is anything you need you have only to let them know. I will call upon you morning and evening to change the dressings on your wound and to observe your progress,' she told him. 'I do not have to warn you of what lies ahead.

You were present during the grafting of the seedings into the eye socket of your protege. You will remember the pain and discomfort he endured.

You know, too, of the usual sequence of events - three days relatively free of pain, six days of agony, and relief on the tenth. However, because your wound is so much larger than that of Colonel Cambyses, your pain will be more intense. You will need all your skills to keep it under control.'

Once again Hannah's predictions proved accurate. The first three days passed with only minor discomfort; a dull ache in the pit of his stomach and a burning sensation when he passed water. His mouth hurt more. It was difficult to prevent himself worrying with his tongue the stitches that Rei had placed in his gums. He could eat no solid food, and took only a light broth of mashed vegetables. He could walk only with the greatest difficulty. They had provided him with a pair of crutches, but he needed the help of a nurse to reach the washroom when he needed to use the nightsoil pot.