‘It’s a good limb,’ she said, weighing it in her hands. ‘Could’ve got a fair price for it, too, if it wasn’t for that lightvine crawling through it. We’ll flush it out, but it’ll still need to be mentioned on the warranty. Folks are particular, see. You didn’t pick up that habit on Mazarile, did you?’

‘Habit?’ I asked, still with my upper arm stuck in the tube.

‘That’s what it tends to become, you don’t get it flushed out sooner or later. But it’s your choice – like this.’

She removed the bracelet, sliding it back along the arm, forcing it hard over the last bit, then lowered the entire severed limb into a green receptacle, similar to the flasks in the window.

Then she slid the false hand in through the end of the tube, before closing the hinged plate.

Somewhere between elbow and wrist – except there was no wrist – I felt a cold contact. I flinched, but only once.

‘Arm’s sucking itself on. It’ll hold itself pretty good until the connections have grown across the gap, but don’t go whacking anything for a few days.’

‘I wasn’t planning to.’

The seal released. I took that as a cue to withdraw my arm, taking in the point where it seemed to vanish into the jewelled hem of a silver and green gauntlet. It didn’t feel part of me yet. But neither did it feel like some grafted monstrosity. I stared, instead, with a quiet bewildered fascination, like a child seeing its fingers for the first time. I tried to make the hand close itself, but it stayed stiff and unresponsive, like it was made from a single piece of metal.

‘Like I said.’ The woman leaned in. ‘Too late for second thoughts.’

‘I’m not having any. You say it will bed itself in on its own?’

‘The more you try to use it, the quicker it’ll pick up the nerve impulses and start learning from them. After that, it’ll go pretty smoothly. Some itchiness, some pins and needles, that’s normal. But keep it dry and watch out for fungal infections under the sleeve. Any problems, you know where to find us.’

‘I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,’ I said.

Wobbly on my legs – from shock, more than anything else – I took the bracelet in my right hand and walked back into the main part of the shop. Paladin was still waiting there. I wasn’t sorry that he didn’t have a face, or any other means of registering distaste or disgust or astonishment.

‘We have to destroy this,’ I said, holding up the bracelet. ‘Leaving it here’s too risky, if the constables get a good description of me.’

‘We may not have much time,’ Paladin said. ‘And there may be a better solution.’