I had entirely forgotten about my numb hand. All pain and harm fall away when a sorcerer enters the Gods’ Realm, and that had distracted me. The numbness had spread halfway to my elbow, so I’d better deal with it right away. “Mighty Harik, I was wondering if you’d take a look at my hand.”
The god squinted one eye and regarded me.
“It’s been numb for a few days.” I held up the hand. “I can’t tell what the heck is wrong with it.”
Harik kept squinting for a few more seconds and then leaned forward. “Come, let me see it.”
I walked toward him as far as I could without stepping off the big patch of dirt, and then I stuck out my hand, palm up.
Harik leaned farther forward and scratched his mighty chin with his thumb. “Does it hurt?”
“No.”
“Turn it over. Did it go numb all at once?”
I shook my head. “It started with my thumb, and it’s way up past my wrist now.”
“So it’s spreading, then. Mm-hmm. Hold it up over your head. Shake it a little.”
I suddenly felt stupid. “Wait, are you screwing with me?”
“Do you want it to rot and fall off? Then shake it.”
I shook my hand over my head.
“Ah. Did you drop anything on it recently? Slam it in something?” Harik’s eyebrows pulled together as he examined me.
“No and no. Nothing like that.”
“Flex your fingers. Have you touched a poisonous creature lately? Or a supernatural one?”
“No! Oh, wait. Sort of. A possessed, talking dog slobbered on it. On my . . . well, on my thumb.” I closed my eyes so I could pretend I was alone while I felt as stupid as a dead rat.
“Ah, Memweck’s spittle. That is your problem, most certainly.” When I opened my eyes, Harik had leaned back again. “I regret to say there is nothing you can do about it.” He shooed me with one hand.
As I backed up to the center of the dirt patch, I said, “Do you mean it’s going to stay numb?”
“Oh, no. Not after the numbness spreads to your heart and kills you.”
“That is amusing, Mighty Harik. I’m sure I’ll think about it and laugh someday. Maybe I can’t fix it, but somebody sure as hell can. Would you be interested in telling me who?”
“I could help if I choose. I’d need a reason to do so.” Harik showed a little smile.
“Fine, we’ll roll it into our bargain today!”
Harik shook his head. “Let us not taint our current bargain with minor issues.”
“Damn it! All right, but I won’t forget.” I considered things I might do—or do without—that Harik might like. “How about this? Five squares in exchange for a month of impotence.”
Harik snorted and gazed at the forest. “Ridiculous! It is the Tooth or nothing, for five squares.”
“That’s as tempting as an acid-soaked thorn under the tongue. Six months of impotence for four squares.”
Harik jumped up and bellowed, “Listen, sorcerer! That woman down there in your world will lose her life! However, the Tooth is already lost. She is a memory. She is the memory of a girl who was not really your daughter. A girl you knew little more than a month. A person’s life is worth far more than some memories. Pay attention! I am the damned God of Death! I know about these things!”
Listening to Harik boom was like taking a beating under a waterfall. I gazed at the brown, grainy dirt under my feet. Sorcerers were required to stand on it while the gods consented to trade with them and ruin their lives.
Everything Harik said about Bea and Manon was true. If I didn’t take the deal, Bea would die. And if I lost Manon, what had I really lost except for pain and grief?
Harik sat down and leaned on one arm as he pushed back his night-black hair. “Well, Murderer?”
I tried to obliterate Harik with my stare, but it didn’t work any better than the past hundred times I had tried. Harik’s deal made sense. I needed to agree before I thought too much about it. I opened my mouth to say yes, but instead I coughed and said, “I won’t take your deal, Harik. I’ll never take that deal.”
I dropped out of the Gods’ Realm. I didn’t want to hear any arguments from Harik, since he might convince me. Smacking back into my body, I found myself holding Bea’s hand.
With the power I still had, I could save Bea from dying right away. Maybe Halla still had some more silk to bandage her with. I bellowed, “Halla!” I didn’t care if Leddie’s whole army came. I’d have loved for a few to show up just then.
Nobody answered except Bea. “I think I saw here there . . .” She flopped her hand over with one finger pointing straight at my knee.
I pressed my palm against Bea’s belly, and she screamed.
“Yell all you want, young woman. You’ll feel a damn sight better in a couple of minutes.” I didn’t say that I could only give her less than a day of pain lying on that grassy spot. If we moved her, she’d die within a few hundred feet. I also didn’t tell her that I’d given her life away for some memories.
I levered my other hand out of Bea’s grasp so I could use it to mend her guts the best I could. I flexed the hand and realized it was still numb. Staring at my still-numb hand, I said, “Son of a bitch!”
NINETEEN
During the deepest part of the night, the half-moon dragged itself up from behind the worn-out civilized mountains. Those peaks stood between us and the Empire proper. I had already murdered one bumbling man who walked up and nearly stepped on Bea in the darkness. Now in the good moonlight, I felt confident I’d spot any visitors before they saw us, and I dared to converse with Bea in whispers.
I
