Rohana had left it at that. She had complied with the law that every child of Comyn blood-legitimate or illegitimate; and in law Jaelle was illegitimate-must be tested. More was not necessary. She was sure it was the shock of rapport with her dying mother that had forced Jaelle to barricade her own laran, but she had not tried to find out. But was Jaelle’s fear still so acute? Domna Alida only said, unoffended, when Jaelle swore at her, “You are ill, Jaelle. You do not know what you are saying. Shall I really put you to the indignity of having your hands tied?”
Magda almost cried out: “No, you mustn’t!”
“Jaelle,” Rohana persuaded, “you are not one of those Amazons who makes a great thing of swaggering and comparing scars.”
Alida said coolly, “If she wishes to end her days looking like a battle-scarred veteran of the campaigns at Corresanti, that is her affair; I am only concerned about her eyesight!”
Peter was still holding Jaelle’s hand in his. He raised his free hand to Jaelle’s cheek, caressed the smooth skin below the red slash. He said, as if there were no one in the room but himself and Jaelle, “You are so beautiful. It would be so dreadful to let that beauty be spoiled.”
Jaelle moved her other hand, clumsily, toward his; and Magda knew-they all knew-that she would not protest further.
That wasn’t fair, Magda thought. Jaelle is too vulnerable. Peter should not have done it. …
Lady Alida moved her hand, and Magda could see the blue stone in it-a jewel? A brilliant flash, a twisting, sickening glare . . . Magda turned her eyes away, unable to endure the sight. The leronis said.quietly, “You were too busy cursing me to let me explain, Jaelle, but I need not touch your mind for this. I am going to be doing some very delicate cell-reconstruction work, so you must lie as quietly as possible, and try to make your mind as blank as you can, so that your thoughts will not interfere. You can sleep if you wish; it will be all the better if you do. I do not think you will feel any pain, but if you do you must tell me at once, so that your pain will not blur what I am doing.”
Magda listened, in amazed curiosity. Hypnosis? All that about making her mind a blank . . .?
“Rohana, you must monitor,” Alida instructed. “And you must warn me if I come too close to the nerves, or to the small muscles near the corner of the eye,” Alida warned, and again the blue jewel flashed in her hand. Magda felt a little, twisting ripple deep in her body, almost a sickness. Alida looked up, her face now remote and mask like, looking at Magda without really seeing her.
“Do not look directly at the matrix, mestra; many people cannot endure the sight.”
Magda turned her eyes away, but found them drawn back. Fakery, nonsense; but what are they going to do to Jaelle?
Rohana approached Jaelle, bending over her; ignoring Peter, who still knelt on the far side of the bed, holding Jaelle’s hands. Jaelle’s eyes had fallen shut again. Rohana ran her fingertips along Jaelle’s face, not quite touching her; down across the bared shoulder and the swollen, horribly festered wound there. It seemed to Magda that a line of light followed Rohana’s fingertips, began to glow along Jaelle’s skin . . . As if I could see the bones through the skin….
Rohana said, -No, not the bones, the nerve currents that lie among them . . .. But Rohana had not spoken, not raised her head; she was bending intently over Jaelle.
Alida was holding the jewel stone before her eyes with one hand, her face set in an almost inhuman calm. Now Magda could see, around the two wounds, a dull pulsing, a kind of glow around the inflamed flesh.
Alida said, “Now,” and Rohana began to move her fingertips along the wound in the collarbone and shoulder. She did not touch Jaelle, but as the small lines of light followed her fingers, the swollen flesh seemed to move and ripple, dull colors swirling inside it; to heave, tremble and change color, from angry inflamed red to thick festering purple and then, almost, to a dull black, the lights in the flesh dimming, pulsing. Magda caught her breath; was this some ghastly hypnotic illusion? Blood oozed from the wound.