The priest’s critical expression broke into a surprised but heartwarming smile. ‘Lady, you have answered well and wisely. Love by itself is the healer, not honour, not need, not duty. For love alone will my god Hantukama answer summons, and lend your warrior the strength to live.’
Mara felt weak in the knees. In an overwhelming rush of relief she heard the priest excuse her from the room, that he have solitude to invoke his sacred rituals.
Alone except for his assistant, a boy with shorn hair and a loincloth not so very different from a slave’s, the priest of Hantukama set up his brazier. All the while he worked, his voice intoned a chant that rose and fell, like poetry, like music, but not; the guards beyond the closed screen felt the hair prickle at their napes, and they sweated, aware of powers beyond their understanding being summoned beyond the wall. The priest opened a voluminous satchel and set forth small bundles of herbs, each one painstakingly blessed, and tied with threads spun in a ritual known only to a handful of his brethren who wandered the Empire in Hantukama’s service. Each little bundle had a packet attached, labelled with holy symbols and sealed with scented wax. Not even the assistant knew what ingredients made up the fine powders inside. Out of respect, the boy had never dared to ask.
The priest sorted through his sacred remedies, lifting them, weighing them, sensing to the depths the viruses imbued within each. He discarded the ones made for coughs, and others ensorcelled to encourage fruitful childbirth. He laid others, for blood loss, and infections, and fevers, and proper digestion, in a neat array to one side. To these he added still more, for reinstatement of the spirit, and restoration of circulation, and the knitting of injured bone and sinew. He deliberated a moment, touched Keyoke’s hand, and added another, for strength. Over the leg, he clicked his tongue. He could not restore tissue that had been severed and discarded. Had the cut limb been saved in turpentine, he might have managed; but maybe not. The belly wound offered difficulty enough.
‘Old warrior,’ murmured the priest between invocations, ‘let us hope that you love yourself enough to transmute the shame of bearing a crutch into the pride of wearing a badge of honour.’
His wizened hands rearranged the remedies into patterns, and blessed them, again and again; at one point Keyoke’s body lay ringed with little bundles of herbs. At another, he wore them in rows down the nerve centres of his torso and abdomen. Then the boy assistant lit the brazier, and one by one, with the appropriate song of praise to Hantukama, the bundles were lit and consumed. The packets of powder were dusted in the air above Keyoke, with murmured exhortations to breathe deep, breathe in the strength of the earth and the regenerative powers of the god.
The last of the herbs went up in smoke, and the chamber swirled with incense. The priest gathered his inner energies into a tight knot and became a channel for the glory of his god. He bent over Keyoke and touched the chilly hands that lay unmoving on the coverlet. ‘Old warrior,’ he intoned, ‘in the name of Hantukama, I ask that you give up your sword arm. Your hands are not yours but my god’s, to work for peace and harmony. Give up your striving, and walk in love, and find your strength returned in full measure.’
The priest paused, then, waiting as quietly as a fish in the depths of a noon-heated pool. ‘Find your strength,’ he murmured, and his voice held a coaxing tone, as though he spoke to a tiny child.
At last, reluctantly, a warming began beneath his fingers. The sensation grew to a glow that brightened softly yellow.
The priest nodded and set his hands over Keyoke’s face. ‘Old warrior,’ he intoned, ‘in the grace of Hantukama, I ask that you give up your senses, vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Your senses are not yours but my god’s, for experiencing the glory that is life. Give up your speech, and walk in joy, and find your senses enhanced and fully vital.’
The glow happened more slowly this time. The priest fought sagging shoulders, while he moved on and laid dry hands over Keyoke’s heart. ‘Old warrior, by the will of Hantukama, I ask that you give up your desires. Your spirit is not yours but my god’s, for reflecting the perfection that is wholeness. Give up your wants, and live in compassion, and find your being filled in full measure.’
The priest waited, huddled into himself like old stone. The assistant watched with folded arms and wide eyes. And when the glow came, it crackled and blazed like a new fire and bathed the sick man from head to foot in curtains of impenetrable brilliance.
The priest withdrew his hands, cupped as though they held something inestimably precious. ‘Keyoke,’ he said gently.
The warrior opened his eyes, stiffened sharply, and cried out at the blinding light that stabbed into his eyes and filled his spirit with awe.