I threw the bowl across the room, and it smashed against the wall. Instruments tumbled across the floor, bending, shattering. “It could have been finished earlier!” I cried, furious. “You’re a butcher, Teraj. What you did to her wasn’t healing Couldn’t you let her die in peace? Did you have to torture her, have to make her die like that? Everything I’ve seen of you has been a lie. You’re a charlatan, a hypocrite. Oh, you can be gentle with us, so long as we’re alive and willing to be healed. But let us choose death, and then you turn that other face of yours, and become brutal and hard. Why, Teraj? Is death the final insult to you, the ultimate proof of your failure? Can’t you see what it is to her? It’s not failure to her It’s freedom.” I pulled the blanket off the woman’s body, and stared at the closed wound, smooth, cleansed, beautiful. “You do a lovely job with a corpse,” I added bitterly. “I bet you mend your shirts expertly, too.”

Before he could reply, I turned and fled back to his house.

The Firelord was not in the house. There was no one there. But his bed was folded back neatly, and the fire blazed, so I presumed the women had carried him out to his favourite place by the waterfall. It was a relief to be alone. I heated some water, stripped, and washed all over. Then I put on clean clothes, combed my hair, and poured myself a cup of strong wine.

I sat in the glowing lights and shadows of the firelit house, and tried to soak in its peace. My whole body hummed with a force like firestone power, and when I touched my hands together I saw tiny sparks. I trembled, and felt unaccountably elated, as well as furious.

There was a movement in the doorway, and I stayed sitting where I was, expecting Shimer.

“Woman,” said a voice. It was Teraj. I stood up, and put the chalice on the table. My hand shook. I turned slowly, and faced him. He too had washed, and the bloodied apron was gone. He crossed the room and stood before me. I turned my face aside, and would not look at him.

“I will not apologise for what I did,” I said. “I cannot agree with your form of healing. I could not stand to see what you did to her while she was fully conscious. If she died because of me, then I am sorry. But I am not sorry that she is free.”