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you do, nor do I know who put Sons on your friends' scents. But I do know one
thing," he said. He made a sudden motion with his hands, and yellow light
flared, suddenly bright, in the table lantern.
He had been a handsome man, once, and that still showed in the left side of
his face, in the strong jaw and firm cheekbones.
The right side of his face was a horror. The flesh looked, it looked ...
melted was the only word that came to Ian's mind. Open lesions had eaten into
skin, revealing the muscle and sinew beneath. The right ear was gone, and the
hair and most of the skin were gone from the skull on that side, white bone
showing through in spots.
Amazingly, except for the juncture of the lips, the lips were still intact,
and a thin layer of muscle covered the cheek. Soon, if this rot progressed,
that would be gone, and with it the Scion's ability to speak.
A bandage covered where the flesh of his neck was red and raw and open; the
cloth hung, soggy and limp, soaked with some sort of yellow fluid speckled
with spots of red like bloody lemonade.
"I know that if you do not help me, I do not have much longer. My flesh rots
more daily, and it is all that my chirurgeon and the
Old Vistarii woman who prepares my medicines can do to keep the maggots at
bay." Moving slowly, perhaps so as not to give any reason for alarm, he
reached into the front of his tunic and pulled out a folded square of white
linen, which he quickly unfolded and pressed up against his cheek.
"And when I am gone and it shall not be long, not at this rate will this curse
affect my son, my Heir, as well?
"Is this a curse laid on me, or on the Scion?
"Darien del Darien and I do what we can for you, and yours," he said. "And,
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even if you cannot help me, even if it's too late, I
swear that I shall bind him and his to your aid, forever, if you will protect
my son from this."
His voice was full more with fear than with pain as he pulled the cloth away
from his cheek. It came away with clotted bits of blood and pus; the Scion
quickly folded the cloth and put it away.
Hosea was at the Scion's side. Here the old man slept naked, and there would
have been something comical about his bony flanks
 at another time. "Be still; I'll not hurt you more, nor harm you at all." He
felt at the cheek, his fingers moving down the neck.
"You wash it frequently with clean water? Good; that should slow the progress
down. I'm sure your chirurgeon is applying a poultice, but if you have him add
one part goldenseal for every four of comfrey and five of calendula, it should
be more effective.
Boiled oats they must be boiled past edibility, mind allowed to cool should
soothe it some, and if you add some eyebright, nettles, goldenrod, goldenseal,
licorice root, red clover, burdock, and hypericum to your broth, it'll
increase your appetite, which would be all to the good."
"What is it?" Ian asked.
"It's called by many names." Hosea's eyes closed, wearily. "The Wasting
Disease. Elf-shot." His eyes met Ian's. "Or Odin's Curse."
A dome of stars hung over a milky plain of clouds, and when Ian looked down
below, where music and laughter still rang out
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20-%20Hidden%20Ways%203.htm (154 of 213)22-2-2006 0:42:08
Hidden Ways 3.htm from the grand hall, it felt like they were on an island in
an otherwise empty sea, and the music and laughter seemed more hollow and
frightened than jolly.
Or maybe it was Ian who was more hollow and frightened than jolly.
Next to him, Hosea no, here he was Orfindel leaned his elbows on the
balustrade. "So," he said. "It seems we have a problem."
"What do you mean 'we,' white man?"
"Eh?"
"Never mind." Ian shook his head. "Old joke, and not a very good one."
"But yes, we have a problem." Hosea touched a knuckle to his mouth. "Are you
going to do as the Scion asks?"
That was a strange way to put it. "Won't it work? Is there some other way?''
"One question at a time, Ian, one question at a time. Which one do you want
answered first?"
"Okay, first: will it work?"
"Is using one of the Brisingamen jewels to disrupt a curse possible? That's
perhaps like asking if one might be able to damage a stick of soft butter with
a chain saw. Together, the seven Brisingamen jewels hold conceal? ..." Hosea
shrugged. "Together they contain enough hidden matter to start the universe
all over again. The Scion has some natural resistance to the curse; simply
keeping one of the jewels near him would magnify that."
"Is there some other way?"
"I see none." Hosea shook his head. "Oh, perhaps, if it were anyone else.
There are some of the Old Vistarii still around, here and there, and perhaps
one or two of them, together, might be able to do something. And, of course,
Odin himself could lift the curse, no matter who cast it "
"If we knew where he was." It would take more than that, of course. Bending [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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