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.'
Taita walked slowly through the rooms, picking up a scroll or tablet at random and glancing at its contents. The entrance to the final room was closed with a heavy bronze grating. He looked askance at Hannah.
'Unfortunately, my lord, entrance to that particular room, and to the editions kept in it, is restricted to members of the Guild,' she said.
'I understand,' Taita assured her, then looked back at the rooms
I THE QUEST
through which they had come. 'This must be the greatest treasury of knowledge that civilized man has ever assembled.'
'I agree with your estimation, my lord. You will find much to fascinate you and stimulate your mind, and perhaps even open for you new avenues of philosophical thought.'
'I shall certainly avail myself of the opportunity.' Over the following weeks Taita spent many hours each day in the library. Only when the light through the high windows grew too dim for easy reading did he make his way back to his quarters in the main building.
One morning when he had finished his breakfast he was surprised and a little irritated to find a stranger waiting outside his door. 'Who are you?' he demanded impatiently. He was anxious to get to the library and finish reading the scroll on astral travel and communication, which had engaged his full attention over the preceding days. 'Speak up, fellow.'
'I am here on the orders of Dr Hannah.' The little man kept bowing and smirking. 'I am your barber.'
'I have no need of your doubtless excellent services,' said Taita, brusquely, and tried to push past him.
The barber stepped in front of him. 'Please, my lord. Dr Hannah was most insistent. It will go hard for me if you refuse.'
Taita hesitated. For longer than he cared to remember he had taken no particular interest in his appearance. Now he ran his fingers through the long hair and silver beard that hung almost as far as his waist. He kept them washed and combed, but apart from that he allowed them to grow in wild but comfortable disarray. In truth, until he had received the recent gift from Dr Rei he had not even possessed a mirror. He looked at the barber dubiously. 'I fear that, unless you are an alchemist, there is little you can do to transmute this dross into gold.'
'Please, my lord, at least let me try. If I do not, Dr Hannah will be displeased.'
The little barber's agitation was comical. He must be terrified of the formidable Hannah. Taita sighed and acquiesced with as good grace as he could muster. 'Oh, very well, but be sharp about it.'
The barber led him out on to the terrace where he had already placed a stool in the sunshine. His instruments were at hand. After the first few minutes Taita found his ministrations quite soothing and he relaxed.
While the barber snipped and combed, Taita turned his mind to the scroll that waited for him in the library and reviewed the sections that he had read the previous day. He decided that the author's grasp of his
subject was fragmentary and that he should provide the missing material himself, as soon as he had the opportunity. Then his thoughts turned to Fenn. He missed her sorely. He wondered how she was faring and What had become of Sidudu. He took no notice of the abundant clippings of grey hair that fell like autumn leaves on to the paving stones.