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.
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.'