Rokhaset nodded slowly. “Yet this, in itself, gives us an answer. If the effects of the elixir remain with you for this long—even if only the senses are affected—then at the worst you merely need take one before you go on a . . . shopping trip. With careful planning, even taking into consideration the costs we would have to charge you for the mikhsteri H’adamant, I am sure it would remain a very profitable venture on both sides.”
He tilted his head in that birdlike fashion. “Clinton Slade, I must return home now. In the wake of our battle I have spent far too much time here, though I do not regret that time. I have informed Meshatar and Tordamil that we must go; they are taking their leave of your family. Send them my apologies, but I can no longer ignore my people. Please, come visit us soon, however. I would be honored to entertain your family in my home.”
We shook hands and went with him to Winston’s Cave—where the iron grid had been removed and the handholds down replaced by Nowëthada stone-shaping. Meshatar and Tordamil came hurrying up just as Rokhaset entered, so we got to say goodbye to them too. Then we headed back down the path.
“So, Clint . . .”
“What?”
“We’ll have to be pretty careful.”
“You mean to not let people know we can see in the dark—and maybe see other things, too? Yeah.”
“More than that.”
I turned to see what she was talking about, as we emerged from Winston’s Gap. “Holy Mother of God!”
Jodi was carrying the gate, which had been left way off to the side as no one had wanted to carry it down the hill at the time. It weighed in at something like five hundred pounds.
“You just better hope that it doesn’t wear off while you’re pulling stunts like that, girl!”
“I’d bet I’d feel it happening.”
I reached out, wondering if I had the same ludicrous strength. She relinquished her hold, and I hefted the mass of steel. The gate felt more like forty, fifty pounds, if that. “Well, shit fire and save matches. You know, this is even weirder’n it looks. I haven’t felt like Superman at home, an’ the chairs I was draggin’ into place before dinner didn’t feel any lighter, so what gives?”
Jodi the scientist answered. “We’ll just have to experiment and find out. Maybe Rokhaset’s a little off—maybe these abilities will go away when we’re around a lot of iron.”
I lifted the gate a bit higher. “Counterpoint: just what is it I’m holding, then?”
Jodi studied it, frowning. “Okay,” she admitted a bit grudgingly, “I’d say that counts as a falsified theory. Maybe it’s expectations; we don’t get the high-end strength and toughness unless we’re either trying to use it, or maybe panicked into using it. We can test that. And see whether it’s decreasing or staying steady. Remember, we never had any chance to test out exactly how strong we were back in the Lisharithada caverns. So it may be—probably is—slowly fading in effect. We just need to know how long it’ll take.”
I chuckled suddenly. “Nope. I can tell you it’s going to be staying steady. However it happened, we’ve got ’em for the rest of our lives.”
“What? Clint, how can you say that?” She stared at me as my smile widened.
“Because it comes from the H’adamant elixir.”
“And? What’s your point?”
I couldn’t help letting my smile turn into an evil grin. “Why, Jodi, everyone knows that.”
I paused for dramatic effect.
“Diamonds are forever.”
THE END