"If someone had not broken the entire shaft off," Set pointed out in a tight voice, "this would be easier." He did not stop, though, and as Heru cursed him, and his mother, and his father, he narrowed his eyes on the metal he could see close to the surface.

"I have it," he said, and finally pulled it free, dropping it carelessly in a blown glass bowl on the table, where the blood blended in with the fiery reds and oranges of the glass.

"Drink," he told Heru, as he placed his palm over the wound again, closing it once more. "You have survived to curse me another day."