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

When Hannah came to change his dressing he looked down as she worked, and he saw that a soft sticky scab covered the wound. It looked like the resin that oozes from a cut or blaze made in the bark of the gum arabic tree. Hannah was careful not to disturb it, and to prevent it from adhering to the linen bandages she coated it with a greasy ointment that Dr Assem had provided.

On the fourth morning he awoke in the grip of an agony so deep that he screamed involuntarily before he could exert his mental powers to check the pain. The nurses rushed to his side and sent immediately for Dr Hannah. By the time she appeared he had rallied his forces and reduced it to the extent that he could speak intelligibly.

'It is bad,' Hannah said, 'but you knew it would be.“

'It is far beyond anything I have ever known. It feels as though a crucible of molten lead has been poured over my belly,' he whispered.

'I can call Dr Assem to administer a potion.'

'No,' he replied. 'I will come to terms with it alone.'

'Six more days,' she warned him. 'Maybe longer.'

'I shall survive.' The agony was dread and constant. It filled his existence to the exclusion of all else. He did not think of Eos, or even of Fenn. The pain was all.

He managed with great effort to hold it off during waking hours, but as soon as sleep overcame him his defences slipped and it returned in full force. He came awake, whimpering and moaning with its intensity. He lived with the temptation to yield and send for Assem with his narcotics, but resisted with all his mental and physical strength. The danger of letting himself be carried into a stupor outweighed the pain. His resolve was all the shield he had left against Eos and the Lie.

On the sixth day the pain faded, only to be replaced at once by the itching, which was almost more difficult to resist than the pain. He wanted to rip off the dressings and tear at his flesh with his fingernails.

The only relief he had was when Hannah came to change the dressings.

Once she had removed the soiled bandages she bathed him with a warm herbal solution that was soothing and comforting.

By this time the huge scab that covered his lower belly and crotch had turned as hard and black as the skin of a great crocodile of the azure lake. These periods of surcease were brief. No sooner had Hannah bound him up with fresh linen strips than the itching returned in full force. It drove him to the borders of sanity. There seemed no end to it.

He lost track of the days.

At one stage Rei came to him. While the nurses prised apart his jaws she removed the stitches from his gums. He had forgotten about them in the overwhelming anguish of the main wound. However, the faint relief afforded him by their removal was sufficient to stiffen his resolve.

When he awoke one morning he felt such a rush of relief that he moaned. The pain and the itching were gone. The peace that followed was so blessed that he fell into a deep, healing sleep that lasted a day and a night. When he woke again he found Hannah kneeling beside his sleeping mat. While he was asleep she had unwrapped his bandages.

He was so exhausted that he had not even been conscious of what she was doing. As he raised his head she smiled at him with proprietary pride.

I I

'Mortification is always the greatest danger, but there is no sign of it.

Your body is not heated with fever. The seed graft has taken across the whole area. You have crossed the sea of pain and reached the far shore,'

she told him. 'Considering the depth and extent of your wound, your courage and fortitude have been exemplary, although I expected no less of you. Now I can remove the catheter.'

The copper tube slipped out easily, and again the relief was a delight.

He was surprised by how weak and wasted the ordeal had left him.

Hannah and the nurses had to help him to sit up. He looked down at his body. It had been lean before but now it was skeletally thin. The flesh had melted away until every rib showed.

'The scab is beginning to come away,' Hannah told him. 'Look how it is lifting and sloughing off around its borders. See the healing beneath it.' With a forefinger she traced the demarcating line along which the old and new skin met. The two blended together flawlessly. The old skin was crinkled with age like crepe cloth, the hair growing upon it wispy and grey. The narrow strip of exposed new skin was as smooth and firm as polished ivory. A fine down grew upon it, becoming denser in a line extending downwards from his navel. It was the first fluffy promise of the luxuriant bush of pubic hair it would become. In the middle of the scab crust was the aperture from which Hannah had removed the copper catheter. Hannah covered it with another thick layer of Dr Assem's herbal ointment.

'The ointment will soften and help to lift away the dry scab without damaging the new tissue beneath it,' she explained, as she bandaged him again.

Before she had finished Dr Rei came into the room and knelt beside Taita's head. She slipped her finger into his mouth. 'Is anything happening in here?' she asked. Her manner was relaxed and friendly, in contrast to her formerly serious and professional mien.

Taita's voice was muffled by her finger. 'I can feel something growing.

There are hard lumps below the surface of my gums, which are tender when you touch them.'

'Teething pains.' Rei chuckled. 'You are passing through your second infancy, my lord Taita.' She ran her finger to the back of his mouth, and laughed again. 'Yes, a full set, including your wisdom teeth. They will show themselves within days. Then you can eat more substantial fare than pap and broth.'

Within a week Rei returned. She brought with her a mirror of burnished silver. Its surface was so true that the image it presented to

Taita of the interior of his mouth was only slightly distorted. 'Like a string of pearls from the Arabian Sea,' she said, as Taita gazed for the first time at his new teeth. 'Probably more regular and pleasingly shaped than the first crop you grew so long ago.' Before she left, she said, 'Please accept the mirror as my gift. I warrant you will have more to admire with it before too long.'

The moon had waxed and waned once more before the last flakes of the scab at the base of Taita's belly crumbled away. By now he was eating normally and regaining the flesh he had lost. He spent several hours each day exercising with his long staff in a series of movements that he had designed to build up his suppleness and strength. Dr Assem had prescribed a diet that included large quantities of herbs and vegetables. All these measures were proving most beneficial. The hollows in his cheeks filled out, his colour was healthier, and it seemed to him that the muscles that replaced those he had lost were firmer and stronger. Soon he was able to discard his crutches and walk around the lakeshore without having to stop and rest. However, Hannah would not allow him to leave the sanatorium unaccompanied, and one of the male nurses went with him. As he regained his strength, the constant surveillance and restriction became more difficult to endure. He was increasingly bored and restless, demanding of Hannah, 'When will you allow me to leave my cell and return to the world?'

'The oligarchs have cautioned me to keep you here until you are fully recovered. However, your days need not be wasted. Let me show you something that will help you pass the time.' She conducted him to the sanatorium's library, which stood in the forest at some distance from the main complex. It was a large building that comprised a series of enormous interconnected rooms. On all four walls of each one stone shelves reached from floor to ceiling, stacked with papyrus scrolls and clay tablets.

'On our shelves we have more than ten thousand works and as many scientific studies,' Hannah told him, with pride. 'Most are unique. No other copies exist. It would take a normal lifetime to read even half.'