Part 79 (1/2)

”Remarkable,” said Dionket at length. ”The accelerated tissue-repair program of the Adversary has restored the ankle completely. The tibia still has some incomplete regeneration about the medullary cavity but appears quite adequate for normal load-bearing function.”

Five Tanu minds intoned: Praise be to Tana.

Basil appended fervently: In saecula saeculorum!

He felt some kind of frame withdrawing support from his body. Then he was standing on his own two feet and realized he was stark naked. He stepped down from a sort of pedestal.

Creyn smiled at him. ”Do you feel weak?”

”Not a bit of it, old chap. Just ravenously hungry.”

Creyn helped him into a white-cotton robe and slippers.

”These healers who have helped you are Dionket, once President of our Guild of Redactors, Lord Peredeyr Firstcomer, Meyn the Unsleeping, and Lady Brintil.”

Basil said, ”I thank you for your-er-professional ministrations. I'm amazed that you could do the job so quickly. I thought that Skin treatment for injuries such as this took considerably longer.”

”It usually does,” Dionket said, ”when traditional redactive techniques are employed. But we used an experimental method on you-a concerted, intensive operation involving five healers rather than one.”

”Mm,” said Basil. ”Glad I was able to take advantage of it.”

Dionket and the three touched Basil's mind briefly through his grey torc, then filed out. The don said to Creyn, ”I must also thank my rescuer for bringing me off Monte Rosa. I don't suppose Remillard is still here?”

Creyn's face showed no expression. ”He is. It was his modification of the Skin program that we used to heal you.”

”Judas priest! Then I owe him double thanks, don't I?” They came out of the infirmary and mounted an open stairway that led to the first floor of the lodge. ”I don't mind telling you it was a shocker, having him show up on the mountaintop, all armoured like some archetypal G.o.d of the machine. I didn't see anything of the man himself. The prospect of seeing him face to face is a trifle unnerving ... the challenger of the galaxy, the metapsychic paragon who became the deepest-dyed villain our race has ever known ... ”

”He eats mushroom omelettes and popcorn with Brother Anatoly,” Creyn said. ”And puts his feet up on the hearth fender to warm them on stormy nights like this. And forgets to put the lid down on the toilet.”

Basil laughed. ”Point taken. One of us after all, eh?”

”No,” said Creyn. ”But I think he would like to be.”

Basil paused at the head of the stairs. His eyes met those of the Tanu who had become his friend on the long exodus from drowned Muriah. ”There were hints dropped by Bleyn the Champion while we were on our expedition: that Remillard has actually been working mind to mind with Elizabeth. Is it true?”

”Together, they cured the chalet housekeeper's baby of the black-torc syndrome. More than that-they raised the little one to full operancy. Torcless metafunction.”

”Good G.o.d. And when Remillard brought me here-”

”The Adversary was intrigued when we proposed putting you into our healing Skin. He had never seen the psychoactive substance in use. When Dionket Lord Healer demonstrated our customary redactive programme the Adversary conceived this new technique, which he described as a spinoff from the more elaborate procedure used on the infant. Elizabeth bade us follow his instructions, saying he had been a paramount designer of metaconcert programmes in your Galactic Milieu. The result was your accelerated healing.”

They came into a small sitting room where there was a fire.

Basil said, ”That name you apply to Remillard: the Adversary.

Would you care to explain its significance?” He touched the grey metal at his throat. ”I catch odd mental overtones from you, old chap. Just how deeply has Elizabeth become involved with this b.a.s.t.a.r.d?”

”I'll tell you everything I know, as well as the conclusions I've drawn and confided to no one ... Basil, you and I have both loved her without hope. We have seen her self-doubting and tempted to despair, not knowing where her destiny lies.

Now she fears this Adversary, at the same time that she is drawn inextricably into his...o...b..t. We may be able to help her.”