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"I should go to bed," said Telemakos

"I shouldn’t," said Goewin "I should sit here drinking coffee and let the gentlewoh"

"You should see to these scratches, though,of a dog bite gone septic"

"I wasn’t bitten," Teleo in a ainst his mother, and his back deeper into the cushions

"I’ll find someone to fill a bath for you," said Goewin "I want to hear all about it"

VIII

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

"Pour s, twenty round best But no one else must know"

2:391–92

IT TOOK TELEMAKOS TWO hours and a succession of hot baths before he was able to stop shivering In the deep of night his mother, his father, and Goewin all crowded into his san to tend the slashes left by the thorns Teleainst histhehtly when she thought he needed sympathy

Medraut worked with a shapeless bar of salt in one hand and a bottle of so volatile spirit in the other He scrubbed these alternately into Teles There was no tenderness, no kindness in his work He bent over Telemakos’s ribboned hands with narrowed eyes, his lips pressed together in a tight, thin line His whole body radiated anger

Goewin helped her brother, silent as he She was angry, too Neither of thery at each other

When Medraut raised the bar of salt to begin work on his son’s face, Telemakos sobbed and hid in his mother’s shoulder

He could not help it He did not le second, then took hold of Telemakos’s hair and pulled his head around to face him

Goewin said stonily, "Go to bed, Medraut son of Morgause"

Medraut let go of Telemakos’s hair Slowly, he laid aside the salt

"Who--?" Telerandmother Queen of cruelty Queen of evil"

Turunesh hugged Telee, lopsided battle

Goewin thren the cloths she held and snatched hold of Medraut’s left hand The back of it was badly scarred; the last two fingers were stiff with arthritis "Remember?" Goewin said "Remember how she punished you? Don’t do this to Telemakos" She turned Medraut’s hand over and pointed to the blue serpent printed on his palm "You are a doctor," Goewin said coldly "Tele He does not need punisher, pointing at Goewin

"Oh, you are punishing me already," Goewin snarled at hier His wounds are clean Go to bed!"

Telemakos slept in his mother’s room, cradled in Turunesh’s arain

They would not let hian to heal After teeks Telerew bored He sat on the floor at his randchildren Telemakos should meet them, Helena said; it would keep hie Tele over the ether He asked his father to show him how to use a crossbow

He wondered about the Lazarus He did not think it was any h both clearly referred to real people The men in the mint had spoken the words as if they were titles in a special language

"What is a Lazarus?" he asked Goewin

"Someone who has escaped death Lazarus is a rave"

"A ghost?"

"Not a ghost A man alive Christ restores him to life It’s in the Book of John, I think I’ll find it for you Would you rather read Greek or Ethiopic?"

"Oh, Ethiopic, please"

Once Teleet it out of his head He was struck by how dearly the biblical Lazarus was loved, how his sisters and neighbors wept for hih it put his own life in danger

"What on earth are you doing?" Goewin asked Teleht "We put you to bed two hours ago"

"I wanted to see if the Salt Road is mapped"

It was the third time in the week that he had started fro in the dark, wide awake and quaking

"It’s nearlyabout Lazarus, about the dead man when he comes out of the toes, and his face wrapped with a cloth’"

He drew in a sharp breath, hearing his own voice speak aloud the words that were haunting hi about it"