The Quest

by Wilbur Smith

  ‘I am here on the orders of Dr. Hannah.’ The little man kept bowing and smirking. ‘I am your barber.’

  ‘I have no need of your doubtless excellent services,’ said Taita, brusquely, and tried to push past him.

  The barber stepped in front of him. ‘Please, my lord. Dr. Hannah was most insistent. It will go hard for me if you refuse.’

  Taita hesitated. For longer than he cared to remember he had taken no particular interest in his appearance. Now he ran his fingers through the long hair and silver beard that hung almost as far as his waist. He kept them washed and combed, but apart from that he allowed them to grow in wild but comfortable disarray. In truth, until he had received the recent gift from Dr. Rei he had not even possessed a mirror. He looked at the barber dubiously. ‘I fear that, unless you are an alchemist, there is little you can do to transmute this dross into gold.’

  ‘Please, my lord, at least let me try. If I do not, Dr. Hannah will be displeased.’

  The little barber’s agitation was comical. He must be terrified of the formidable Hannah. Taita sighed and acquiesced with as good grace as he could muster. ‘Oh, very well, but be sharp about it.’

  The barber led him out on to the terrace where he had already placed a stool in the sunshine. His instruments were at hand. After the first few minutes Taita found his ministrations quite soothing and he relaxed.

  While the barber snipped and combed, Taita turned his mind to the scroll that waited for him in the library and reviewed the sections that he had read the previous day. He decided that the author’s grasp of his subject was fragmentary and that he should provide the missing material himself, as soon as he had the opportunity. Then his thoughts turned to Fenn. He missed her sorely. He wondered how she was faring and what had become of Sidudu. He took no notice of the abundant clippings of grey hair that fell like autumn leaves on to the paving stones.

  At last the little barber interrupted his thoughts by holding up a large bronze mirror in front of his eyes. ‘I hope my work pleases you.’

  Taita blinked. His image was wavering and distorted by the uneven surface of the metal, then suddenly it came into focus, and he was startled by what he saw. He hardly recognized the face that stared back at him haughtily. It appeared far younger than he knew it was. The barber had trimmed his hair to shoulder length and tied it back behind his head with a leather thong. He had clipped his beard short and square.

  ‘Your skull has a fine shape,’ said the barber. ‘You have a wide, deep brow. Yours is the head of a philosopher. The fashion in which I have swept your hair back shows off its nobility to best advantage. Before, your beard masked the strength of your jaw. Cropping it shorter, as I have done, enhances and emphasizes it.’

  In his youth Taita had been pleased with his appearance — perhaps too pleased. At the time it had compensated a little for the loss of his manhood. Now he saw that, even after all this time, he had not entirely lost his looks.

  Fenn will be surprised, he thought, and smiled with pleasure. In the mirror his new teeth gleamed and the expression in his eyes quickened.

  ‘You have done well,’ he conceded. ‘I would not have thought it possible to make so much of such unpromising material.’

  When Hannah called upon him that evening, she studied his features thoughtfully. ‘Long ago I decided that dalliance consumed time that might otherwise have been applied to more rewarding and productive business,’ she told him. ‘However, I can see why some women might consider you handsome, my lord. With your permission, and in the interest of scientific knowledge, I should like to invite some carefully selected members of the Guild to meet you and to be apprised of what you have been able to achieve.’

  ‘What you and your colleagues have been able to achieve,’ Taita corrected her. ‘I owe you that courtesy at the very least.’

  Some days later he was conducted back to Hannah’s operating room to find that it had been rearranged as an impromptu lecture theatre.

  A semicircle of stools was set out in front of the stone table. Eight men and women were already seated, including Gibba, Rei and Assem.

  Hannah led Taita back to the table and asked him to sit facing the small audience. Apart from the surgeons who had attended him from the beginning, Taita had met none of the others. This was strange when he considered how long he had been at the Cloud Gardens. The sanatorium must cover a greater area than he had realized, or perhaps other departments were detached from the main buildings and tucked away, like the library, in the forest. However, the most likely possibility was that much of the Cloud Gardens was still concealed from him by the dark arts of Eos. Like a child’s puzzle, boxes were hidden within boxes.

  One of the new faces was a woman’s. The others were men, but all appeared to be distinguished and dignified scientists. Their attitude was attentive and serious. After she had introduced Taita, in the most flattering terms, Hannah went on to outline the treatment he had undergone. Rei described how she had removed Taita’s worn or rotten teeth, and seeded the cavities in his gums. After that she invited each guest in turn to come forward and examine the new ones. Taita sat stoically through the examinations and answered the questions they levelled at him. When they had returned to their stools Hannah came to stand beside him again.

  She described Taita’s castration and the extent of the injuries inflicted upon him. Her listeners were horrified. The woman surgeon was particularly moved and expressed her sympathy eloquently.

  ‘Thank you for your concern,’ Taita replied, ‘but it happened a long time ago. Over the years the memory has faded. The human mind has a trick of burying what is most painful to recall.’ They nodded and murmured agreement.

  Hannah went on to describe the preliminary tests she had carried out, and the preparations she had made for the surgery.

  Taita expected that at this stage of her lecture she might describe the harvesting and preparation of the seedings for grafting. He had been kept ignorant of this and was most anxious to have it explained. He was disappointed that she made no effort to do so. He presumed that her audience were fully informed, and had probably employed the same techniques in their own work. In any event Hannah went on to an account of the surgery, describing how she had dissected out the scar tissue to form a foundation on which the graft could be set. Her audience asked many searching, erudite questions, which she answered at length. Finally she told them, ‘As you are all well aware, Lord Taita is a magus of the highest level, and is also an eminent surgeon and scientific observer in his own right. The reconstruction of his organs of procreation was an unusually intimate and sensitive experience for him. I have no need to tell you that he was subjected to a great deal of pain. All of this was a gross imposition on the dignity and privacy of such an extraordinary person. Despite this, he has agreed to allow us to examine and evaluate the results. I am sure we all realize that this was not an easy decision for him to make. We should be grateful for this opportunity.’

  At last she turned to Taita. ‘With your permission, Lord Taita.’

  Taita nodded and stretched out on the table top. Gibba came to stand on the opposite side of the table from Hannah. Between them they lifted the skirts of Taita’s tunic. ‘You may come forward to obtain a better view,’ Hannah told the onlookers. They left their stools and formed a circle round the table.

  Taita had become so accustomed to being pored over that he felt no particular embarrassment under their scrutiny. He raised himself on his elbows and looked down his body as Hannah resumed her lecture.

  ‘You will observe how the new skin has covered the wound. It has the suppleness and elasticity that one would expect to find in a pubertal male. In contrast please note the hair on the pubes, which is well advanced. It has grown with extraordinary rapidity.’ She laid her hand on the area she was discussing. ‘This whole fleshy promontory comprises the Mons pubis. If you feel it you will discern how the cushion of flesh has already formed over the pelvic bone. You will observe that the general development appr
oximates that of a ten-year-old male. This has been achieved in the weeks since the surgery was performed. Now observe the penis. The prepuce is well formed, not too tight as it is in many young boys.’ She took the foreskin and drew it back carefully.

  Taita’s glans penis emerged from its hood of loose skin. It was little larger than a ripe acorn, soft and glossy pink. Hannah went on, ‘Please note the opening of the urethra. We formed this by inserting a catheter during the operation. When we removed it the aperture was round, but now you will see that it has become a characteristic slit.’ Hannah slid the foreskin back.

  She turned her attention to the scrotum below the immature shaft.

  ‘The sac is developing normally but with the usual extraordinary rapidity we have noted in all our other seedings.’ She squeezed it gently. ‘There! It already contains the immature testicles.’ She looked across the table at the lone female visitor. ‘Dr. Lusulu, would you care to examine them for yourself?’

  ‘Thank you, Dr. Hannah,’ the woman said. She seemed to be in the region of thirty-five years, but when Taita studied her aura he saw that this was deceptive and that she was much older. Her demure attitude did not accurately depict her true nature, which contained a lascivious streak. She took his scrotum and deftly located the two little orbs it contained. She rolled them thoughtfully between her fingers. ‘Yes,’ she said at last. ‘They seem perfectly formed. Do you have any sensation there, Lord Taita?’

  ‘Yes.’ His voice was husky.

  The woman continued to touch him as she studied his face. ‘You must not be embarrassed, my lord. You must learn to enjoy the manly parts that Dr. Hannah has returned to you, to delight in and glory in them.’

  She moved her fingers up to the shaft of his penis. ‘Do you have sensation here yet?’ She began to move her fingers up and down the shaft. ‘Can you feel how I am manipulating you?’

  ‘Very distinctly,’ Taita replied, his voice huskier still. This new feeling far exceeded any that he had experienced before. In the short time since the small appendage had made its appearance he had treated it with caution and reserve. He had handled it only when he was forced to do so, in response to the demands of hygiene and nature. Even then his touch had been clumsy and inept, certainly lacking the dexterity and expertise that Dr. Lusulu was demonstrating.

  ‘What dimensions do you expect the organs to attain when they are fully developed?’ Dr. Lusulu asked Hannah.

  ‘We can be no more certain of that than we could be in the case of a child. However, I expect that they will eventually be a close copy of the original organs.’

  ‘How very interesting,’ Dr. Lusulu murmured. ‘Do you think it might be possible at some future time to grow organs and parts that are superior to the original? For example, to replace a clubbed foot or a cleft palate with a perfect specimen, an abnormally small penis with a larger one? Is that impossible?’

  ‘Impossible? No, Doctor, nothing is impossible until you prove it to be so. Even if I never achieve my goals, those who follow me might do so.’

  Their discussion lasted a little longer, then Lusulu broke off and transferred her attention to Taita. She was still stroking his parts, and now she looked pleased. ‘Oh, very good,’ she said. ‘The member is functional. The patient is nearing full erection. That really is proof of your skills, Dr. Hannah. Do you think he will be able to reach orgasm yet? Or is it too soon for that advance?’ By now the shaft in her hand had more than doubled its dimensions and the prepuce was fully retracted. Both women studied it with full attention.’

  Hannah considered the question seriously, then replied, ‘I think that orgasm may already be possible, but it will be some time before ejaculation is achieved.’

  ‘Perhaps we should put it to the test. What do you think, Doctor?’

  They were conducting the discussion in cool impersonal tones. However, the unfamiliar sensations that Dr. Lusulu was creating with her simple hand movements were so pervasive that Taita was thrown into a state of confusion. He had no idea where or how it would end. For someone who was accustomed to being in full control of himself and all those about him, it was an alarming prospect. He reached down and removed her hand. ‘Thank you, Doctor,’ he said. ‘We are all impressed by Dr. Hannah’s surgical brilliance. I certainly am. Nevertheless, I feel that the test that you are suggesting might better be conducted in a less public environment.’ He straightened the skirts of his tunic and sat up.

  Dr. Lusulu smiled at him and said, ‘I wish you much joy.’ From the look in her eyes it was plain that she did not subscribe to the philosophy on dalliance that Dr. Hannah professed.

  Now that Taita had access to the great library, the days passed quickly. As Hannah had remarked, a lifetime would be too short to take in all of the knowledge that was stored there. Oddly, he mustered no interest in the locked and barred room. Like the weeping woman in the night and many other unexplained occurrences, the thought simply receded into the mists of his memory.

  When he was not studying, he spent much time in discussion with Hannah, Rei and Assem. They took turns to guide him through some of the other laboratories where they were engaged in a number of extraordinary projects.

  ‘Do you recall Dr. Lusulu’s question regarding replacing bodily parts with improved versions?’ Hannah asked. ‘Well, let us consider a soldier with legs that can carry him at the speed of a horse. What if we could grow him more than one pair of arms? A pair to fire a bow, a second to wield a battleaxe, the third to swing a sword and the last to carry a shield. Nothing could stand against such a warrior.’

  ‘A slave with four strong arms and extremely short legs could be sent into the most confined stopes in the mines to shovel out the gold ore in great quantities,’ said Rei. ‘How much better if his intelligence was reduced to that of an ox, so that he was inured to hardship and would work in the harshest conditions without complaint? Dr. Assem has grown herbs that will achieve that mental effect. In time Dr. Hannah and I might be able to create the physical improvements.’

  ‘No doubt you saw the trained apes that stand guard at the entrance to the tunnel that leads into these gardens,’ Hannah said.

  ‘Yes, I have seen them, and heard them referred to as trogs,’ Taita replied.

  Hannah looked a little annoyed. ‘A term coined by the common people. The name we use is troglodyte. They were originally derived from a species of arboreal apes that inhabit the great forests in the south. Over the centuries that we have bred them in captivity we have been able, by surgical procedure and the use of certain herbs, to enhance their intelligence and aggression to the level at which they are most useful to us. By similar techniques we have been able to manipulate them until they respond completely to the will of the person who controls them. Of course, their minds are rudimentary and brutish, which makes them much more susceptible than humans to manipulation. However, we are experimenting with the same techniques on some of our slaves and captives. We have had exciting results. Once you are a member of the Guild I will be pleased to show them to you.’

  Taita was sickened by these revelations. They are discussing putting together creatures that are no longer men, but aberrant monstrosities, he thought, but he was careful not to express his horror. These people are tainted with the evil of Eos. Their brilliance has been perverted and corrupted by her poison. How I miss the company of decent, honest men, like Meren and Nakonto. How I long for the fresh bright innocence of Fenn.

  Some time later when they were returning from the library, he raised again with Hannah the subject of when he would be allowed to leave the Cloud Gardens and return to Mutangi, even for a short time. ‘My companions must be much distressed by my continued absence. I should like to reassure them of my safety and well-being. Then I would be happy indeed to return here to begin my initiation into the Guild.’

  ‘Unfortunately, my lord, the decision does not rest with me,’ she replied. ‘It seems that the Supreme Council wishes you to remain in the Cloud Gardens until you have been fully init
iated.’ She smiled at him.

  ‘Be not downcast, my lord. This should not be longer than another year. I assure you, we will do all in our power to make the time you spend with us as fruitful and productive as possible.’

  The prospect of another year without being able to see Fenn or Meren appalled Taita, but he took consolation from the thought that the witch would not wait that long before she made her decisive move in the game she was playing with him.

  His grafted parts continued to grow with amazing rapidity. He remembered Dr. Lusulu’s advice: ‘You must learn to enjoy the manly parts that Doctor Hannah has returned to you. You must learn to delight in them, to glory in them.’ Alone on his sleeping mat in the night he began to explore himself. The sensations aroused by his own touch were so intense that they intruded into his dreams. The lascivious devils that the imp of the grotto had set loose in his mind became more insistent and demanding. The dreams were at once shocking and fascinating. In them he was visited by a beautiful hoary. She displayed her womanly parts shamelessly to him, and he saw that they were as perfectly formed as an orchid. The woman smell and taste of her was sweeter than any fruit.

  For the first time in almost a century he felt his loins erupt. It was a sensation so powerful that it went far beyond ecstasy or even agony.

  He awoke panting and shaking, as though in fever. He was drenched in sweat and his own bodily fluids. It seemed an age before he could return from the far borders of his imagination to which the dream woman had transported him.

  He rose and lit the oil lamp. He found the silver mirror that Rei had given him and went back to kneel on the mat. By the light of the lamp he gazed with awe at the reflection of his genitalia. They were still tumescent, and as the imp had shown him in the waters of the pool: perfectly formed, majestic and weighty.