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foxgloves."
"The very thing! Brew some quick and fetch it!"
Tolui darted away. Gorgidas thrust a hand under Arghun's tunic; the skin at
the khagan's groin was starting to grow cool. The Greek swore under his
breath. Arghun, bemused a moment before, was turning angry; hemlock left the
victim's mind clear to the end.
Dizabul hesitantly approached his father, knelt to take his hand. Against
every Arshaum custom, there were tears in his eyes. "I was wrong, father.
Forgive me, I beg," he said. Arigh snarled something short and angry at his
brother, but Gorgidas could guess how much that admission had cost the proud
young prince.
Before Arghun could reply, a handful of concubines rushed toward him,
shrieking. He shouted them away with something close to his healthy vigor,
grumbling to Arigh, "The last thing I need is a pack of women wailing around
me."
"Will he pull through?" Goudeles asked Gorgidas. He was suddenly full of
respect; they were in the Greek's province now, not his.
The physician was feeling for Arghun's pulse and did not answer. His fingers
read a disquieting story; the khagan's heartbeat was strong, but slow and
getting slower. "Tolui! Hurry, you son of a mangy goat!" the Greek shouted. To
get more speed, he would have called the shaman worse, had he known how.
Tolui came trotting up, holding a steaming two-eared cup in both hands. "Give
that to me!" Gorgidas exclaimed, snatching it away from him. The shaman did
not protest. A healer himself, he knew another when he saw one.
"Bitter," Arghun said when the Greek pressed the cup to his lips, but he drank
it down. He sighed as the warm brew filled his stomach. Gorgidas seized his
wrist again. The foxglove tea was as potent in this world as in his own; the
khagan's heartbeat steadied, then began to pick up.
"Feel how far the coldness has spread," Gorgidas ordered Tolui.
The shaman obeyed without question. "Here," he said, pointing. It was still
below Arghun's navel an advance, but a tiny one.
"If he dies," Arigh said, voice chill with menace, "it will not be a horse
sacrificed over his tomb, Dizabul; it will be you. But for you, this cursed
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Bogoraz would have been run out long since." Sunk in misery, Dizabul only
shook his head.
Arghun cuffed at his elder son. "I don't plan on dying for a while yet, boy."
He turned to Gorgidas. "How am I doing?" The physician palpated his belly. The
hemlock had moved no further. He told the khagan so.
"I can feel that for myself," Arghun said. "You seem to know this filthy
poison what does it mean? Will I get my legs back?" The khagan's eyebrows shot
up. "By the wind spirits! Will I get my prick back? I don't use it as much as
I used to, but I'd miss it."
The Greek could only toss his head in ignorance. Men who puked up hemlock were
not common enough for him to risk predictions. As yet he was far from sure
Arghun would survive; he had not thought past that.
Lankinos Skylitzes held a wool coat, a long light robe, and a black felt
skullcap in front of him. "What is this, a rummage sale?" Gorgidas snapped.
"Don't bother me with such trash."
"Sorry," the Videssian officer said, and sounded as if he meant it; like
Goudeles, he was taking a new look at the physician. "I thought you might be
interested. It's all that's left of Bogoraz."
"Oh."
Gorgidas felt Arghun's pulse again. The khagan's heart was still beating
steadily. "Get me more of that foxglove tea, if you would," the Greek said to
Tolui. Arigh smiled as he translated. He knew Gorgidas well enough to realize
his return to courtesy was a good sign. The physician added, "And bring back
some blankets, too; we should keep the poisoned parts as warm as we can."
Gorgidas stayed by Arghun through the night. Not until after midnight was he
sure he had won. Then at last the chill of the hemlock began, ever so slowly,
to retreat. As the sky grew light in the east, the khagan had feeling halfway
down his thighs, though his legs would not yet answer him.
"Sleep," Arghun told the Greek. "I don't think you can do much more for me
now and if you prod me one more time I may wring your neck." The twinkle in
his eye gave the lie to his threatening words.
The physician yawned until his jaw cracked; his eyes felt full of grit. He
started to protest, but realized Arghun was right. His judgment would start
slipping if he stayed awake much longer. "You rout me out if anything goes
wrong," he warned Tolui. The shaman nodded solemnly.
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