not seeming to realize the extent of his own wound. 'I didn't mean to kill her! We need women!' Neqa dropped to the ground, her blood spouting. Neq heaved his captors forward and they all fell. It was too late for Neqa. Her teeth were bared in the rictus of the terminal agony; her red blood pooled in the dry dirt. 'Damn!' Yod repeated. 'It's his fault. Hold him!' They held Neq. Under Yod's grim direction they tied his hands again by the wrists, this time stretched forward. Four men hauled against his body while two pulled each rope, putting a terrible strain on his arms. Yod positioned himself and swung his sword as though he were splitting wood. Neq felt horrendous pain, and blanked out. He came to immediately, or so it seemed. The pain had intensified unbearably, and sweet smoke stung his nostrils. They were holding torches to his wrists, burning them so the flesh bubbled and popped. Then nothing more.
CHAPTER EIGHT
He woke at dusk. His arms terminated in great crude bandages, hurting ferociously. Neqa lay beside him, pale and cold. His bracelet was still on her wrist. He woke again, shivering, in the dark. Nothing had changed but the hour. Toward morning he became delirious. Light again, and someone was tending him. It was the cage-man, the surgeon. 'You'll live. I'll bury her. You two saved me; I owe you that much.' '_I'll_ bury her!' Neq cried weakly. But he had no hands. He cursed meaninglessly as he watched Dick do it, as the dirt fell over her dead lovely face, over his bracelet, over his dreams. He had loved a crazy. Miss Smith was gone forever. Neqa was dead. Time passed. Dick the surgeon turned out to be no phony; he knew his medicine. The fevers and the chills subsided, strength of a sort came back; the thigh wound, excavated and cleaned, healed. But the hands were gone, and so was love. Dick did everything, though he was no nomad. 'I owe it to you,' he said. 'Her life, your hands?all because of me.' 'They would have done it anyway,' Neq said, not caring how the blame was parceled out. 'They ambushed us before we ever saw you. We were already prisoners.' 'She took several minutes to get me out of that cage, and she waited while I got some circulation back into my legs so I could walk. She would have gotten away, otherwise.' 'You can't bring her back. If you owe me a favor, kill me too. Then I won't hurt any more?any way.' 'I deal in life, not death. After Helicon, this is just an incident. I do owe you, but not that.' He looked about. 'We should get away from here. They dumped you both and left?but they could come back at any time. I was lucky they didn't see me following them.' Neq was not in a position to argue further. He talked with only a part of his consciousness, the least important part. The rest was obsesssed with what had happened, and his impotence in the face of such calamity. Only one thing kept him going. At first it was intangible, nebulous, a background emotion that gave him strength without comprehension. But gradually, as the days passed, it became solid, better defined, until it occupied the clear forefront of his mind, and he knew the need for what it was. Vengeance. 'You are a surgeon,' Neq said. 'From what was mooted, the best in the world.' 'Not necessarily. I was 'trained by a master, and he trained others. I've heard of remarkable surgery in the Aleutians?' 'You do talk like a crazy. Can you operate on me?' 'Without my equipment, my laboratory, drugs, competent assistants?' 'Was that what you told Yod?' 'Essentially. Surgery without sterilization procedures, anesthetics?' 'They sterilized my wrists, all right. With living torches!' 'I know. Yod is an outlaw, but he keeps his word. He wanted you to live.' 'I keep my word too,' Neq said. 'But if there are ways to sterilize, why couldn't you?' 'Try a flaming torch on abdominal surgery!' Neq nodded. 'So Yod figured you were lying.' 'I wasn't going to help him anyway. Any life I might save for him would mean death, for others. His tribe deserves extermination.' 'That may come,' Neq said, but decided against clarifying the matter. 'We'll get equipment, somewhere.' 'Yes, with the necessary facilities I could operate. But in what manner? I can't give you back your hands. No one can do that.' 'Tyl said?he said that the Nameless One, our Master of Empire, the Weaponless?by whatever name you know him?he said that man had been made strong by an underworld surgeon. You?' 'I had considerable assistance. And there was a strong possibility of failure. As it was, I understand I rendered him sterile.' 'If you could do that for him, you can do this for me.' 'What do you want?' Neq held up his truncated right arm. 'My sword.' 'Without a hand?' 'My sword will be my hand.' Dick studied him appraisingly. 'Yes, I could do that. Insert a metal brace, attach the blade?it wouldn't be flexible, but there'd be plenty of power.' 'Neq nodded. 'It would be awkward,' Dick continued, considering it further. 'For sleeping, for eating. You would not be able to use that hand for any constructive purpose, except chopping firewood. But once you learned to control it you might re-enter the circle. Much of your fighting skill is in your brain, I'm sure; you could overcome a substantial flexibility handicap. You would not be the warrior you were, but you could still be more than most.' Neq nodded again. 'I could give you a hook on the other arm, maybe even pincers. So you could dress, feed yourself.' 'Start now.' 'But I told you: I'll need anesthetics, instruments, sterilization?' 'Knock me out. Pass your knife through the fire.' Dick laughed without humor. 'Impossible!' Then: 'You're serious.' 'Every day she lies cold while her murderers live is a torture to me. I must have my sword.' 'But only Yod killed her, actually.' 'They're all guilty. Every man who touched her?every one shall die.' Dick shook his head. 'I'm afraid of you. I thought I had learned complete hatred during my time in the cage, choking on the miasma of my own refuse, but I fear what you will do.' 'You won't have to watch.' 'I'll be responsible, though.' 'If you will not do it, tell me you will. Then kill me in my sleep.' Dick shuddered. 'No, I'll fix you up. In my own way. We'll have to go back to what remains of Helicon for my supplies. They aren't all gone. I went back once to make sure. Gruesome experience.' 'I know. But such a trip would take time!' Dick looked at him. 'You may dismiss pain when you're fighting in the circle or elsewhere. But this, when you're calm?let me make a small demonstration. Hold out your arm.' Neq held out one bandaged stump. Dick took hold of it and applied pressure. The pain started slowly, but built up appallingly. Neq took it, not flinching, knowing he was being tested but not knowing how long he could withstand it. 'That's just hand pressure,' Dick said. 'How will you like it when I start cutting? Scraping off the new scar tissue, cauterizing living flesh, laying open the muscle and tendons and tying wires to them? Hamering a metal spike into the radius?the long bone of the forearm? And another into the ulna, so that you will be able to twist your weapon as you once twisted your wrist, and perhaps to flex it a little. You're fortunate that your hands were severed below the wrists, leaving the main bones connected; that gives us much more leeway for reconstruction. But the pain?' As he talked, he twisted. 'Knock me out!' Neq cried again. 'I can't knock you out for the duration. I'd be substituting brain damage for hand damage. And I'll need your cooperation, because I'll be working without assistants. You have to be conscious. That means a local anesthetic? and even so, it will hurt a fair amount. Like this.' Neq, sweating acceded. He had not known there could be so much pain remaining in his mutilated limbs. 'We'll go to Helicon.' 'One other thing,' Dick said. 'I don't want to exploit your weakness by bartering with you now, not on a matter like this, but I have my own welfare to look out for. Once you have your sword, you won't need me or want me along.' 'That's true.' 'I'm not strong. I spent weeks, months in that cage. I lost track. I was able to exercise some, and I knew which muscles to concentrate on, but I never was strong for the wilderness life. I'm in no condition to survive by myself. I'd only get captured again, or killed by savages.' 'Yes.' 'Deliver me to the crazies before you start your mission.' 'But that would take months!' 'Steal one of Yod's trucks. You can kill some outlaws in the process. I can drive; I can teach you?even with metal instead of hands. That's worth knowing.' 'Yes...' Neq said, realizing that the man had a point. Dick had repaid anything he owed for his freedom by tending to Neq after the amputation and finding food?probably stolen from Yod's tribe at great risk?for otherwise Neq would have died. The operation was a new obligation. So it was a fair bargain. And Neq could do some damage while taking the truck. Then the tribe would be on guard?pointlessly?while the two made their journey to the crazies. It was, on balance, worthwhile, Dick had a different entrance to Helicon. It was a stairway under a nomad burial marker, leading into a dank tunnel that in turn led to the main vault. Neq speculated privately that there must be numerous such ports?perhaps one for every underworld inmate of rank. That meant that many more could have escaped the flames and slaughter. No wonder the defense of the mountain had collapsed so quickly! They fetched the drugs and instruments. Under the film of ash much of Helicon was untouched. Had the under-worlders had any spunk they could have restored it to a considerable extent. Nomads would have. Neq could not do much, but he could carry. Dick fixed a pack for him and he hauled everything they needed to the nearby hostel and set up for the operation.
* * *
Time passed. When Neq emerged from the intermittent haze of drugs and pain, his right arm terminated in a fixed full-length sword. His left had dull pincers that he could open and close with some discomfort by flexing wrong-seeming muscles. The first time he tried to practice with the sword, the pain was prohibitive. But as his flesh healed around the metal and callus and scar-tissue formed, that problem eased. Eventually he was able to
