The Perishable Ingredient

Belboz replied in the silent speech. He resisted the urge to taunt or gloat; the offer having been made, he would have to seize the chance now before Astra understood the consequences. He would have leisure to do as he liked later, once the deal was complete.

He began, "It will be hard. I do have some special talent in the restoration of dead tissue. It appears that there is quite a bit of that, although enough remains so that the cord that binds his body and soul together will hold for an hour, maybe two. I could perhaps give him more time by placing him in a Sart Chamber for safekeeping -- Checkers has had experience with it, but of course she could not tell you anyting about it. Such is the nature of Sart Chambers. It does give a shock to the system though. Probably better not do it. But to do this quickly, I will have to use a lot of valuable material. Are you sure that you offer of service stands? Would you perform an oath before Fortua, with the honour of the Royal House as forfeit, to give me your unconditional service if I can save his life?"

Astra hesitated. Belboz's terms were hard. To pledge the honour of the Royal House before the great Fortua was one of the weightiest oaths she could swear. It was more serious than anything written on paper - the final court of judgment should she break it was not in this world. Nevertheless, it was a choice that she felt that she had to make.

She replied, "Lady Fortua, hear my promise. I, Astra, do swear that if Belboz can save Fred's life and allow him to live to his natural term, then I shall give unconditional service to him for the rest of my natural life, unless Belboz explicitly releases me from that oath. Should I break this oath, the honour of the Royal of Aqualaria shall be forfeit."

To her surprise and chagrin, she heard herself saying these words, softly but clearly enough for Checkers and Fred (if he were in shape to understand) to hear.

"A little gift in return, Princess," replied Belboz silently. The qualifying phrase about explicit release did not bother him. Belboz spoke audibly now. "The damage is severe. This little monster burned him badly, with some form of spell. It is a good thing that the Princess struck him down before he could hurt anyone else. I am happy that you got your voice back, Princess. As they would say in your homeland, Lady Fortua and the Pantheon smile upon those who display courage, wisdom, and fidelity to their word. I have some small experience in tailoring dead matter to the use of the living -- the necromatic arts have a bad reputation, but I find that in cases like these they can be literal lifesavers. But first, don't touch him! I shall float him over the ground, and move him that way; it will be easier on him. Checkers, if you can take the rear, and Astra, if you can take Fred's sword and the front, we should be able to get to a part of the cave that I have carved out, the Chamber of Animation. I believe that I have the materials and knowledge to save Fred!"

As the three moved with all deliberate speed through the tunnels and the keystone room, Belboz thought of the steps required to perform the recovery. He was not exaggerating to Astra when he said that this would be difficult. He was not an expert necromancer by any means. However, he was confident that, given the ingredients, he could save Fred's life. He had most of the material in his stock. However, there was one ingredient, the perishable one, that could create a problem. Fred would require a lot of blood. He would need five measures of blood for safety. The problem was, the blood had to be fresh and from a compatible body.

That ruled out his own body, unfortunately. Although he appeared to be an old human mage, he was still in reality a dragon. An infusion of dragon blood would not help Fred - that was just the way things were. Astra would gladly give hers - but three measures was the most that she could safely give. That left two more measures to find.

He had two sources. First, there were humans in the caverns, or at least, they were human at one time. It would not be difficult to change them back, in all probability. Finding one and transporting him or her back might consume some time, though. Obtaining this blood without tipping off Checkers as to what he was might also pose a problem. He still needed to carry on the charade of the benevolent Belboz to try to find out the strange power that she had, and how it worked. He felt that he could learn more if Checkers were not actively resisting him. It would not do to simply kill the donor to get the blood, and there was the risk that the subject might talk if Belboz left him or her alive. Most of them had bad memorizes of Belboz, and would not speak kindly of him. He thought about placing Checkers in a Sart Chamber again to get her out of the way while this was done. It allowed him to preserve her for months while he was waiting for another would-be hero to come to the caves, but he decided against it. That would take too much time, and he observed that there was too much unpredictability when the Dolomite Glider and magic mixed.

The other solution was obvious, and the problem with it was also obvious. Checkers could probably give up two measures of blood. No time would be spent searching for a donor, and she probably would be willing to give two measures of blood to save Fred's life. Precious time would be saved. The problem was compatibility. Belboz had experimented with some species of snakes, and found that a transfer of blood from, say, a coral snake to a grass snake would work, but a transfer from a coral snake to a cobra would not. He knew that humans had a very limited compatibility with anything else, but he knew nothing at all about Gliders. If one ignored the difference in the bone and muscle structure of their arms, they appeared to be similar to humans. But they still might not be compatible.

Belboz, weighing his choices, decided to try to

1. find another live human.
2. use Checkers.

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