Ilario, the Stone Golem Read Online Free

across Onorata’s body as he
    bent down, peering very closely.
    ‘These things are so rare. Nor do I know, to be honest. And most
    “hermaphrodites” are men born looking in some way like a woman, or
    women who have what resemble the man’s parts. Or nothing changes
    until they become adult, and then a woman merely coughs and testicles
    appear . . . I thought the true hermaphrodite was only a rumour. A fable.’
    I sighed as he lifted Onorata with all gentleness, and laid her back on
    the wooden chest’s bedding.
    I put my hands to the hem of my shift. ‘You want another look?’
    ‘May I? The last occasions have been a little fraught . . . ’
    His voice became muffled as he bent down.
    The iron instruments were cold, making me flinch.
    In accented Alexandrine Egyptian, Baris¸ observed, ‘You have little
    more than the eunuch has, as testes go! I wish I had you for an autopsy,
    to find out for certain whether this lump is testes or ovary . . . ’
    ‘Well, I’m damn glad you don’t!’
    Baris¸ gave me something perilously close to a grin, and gestured for
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    me to pull my shift back down. ‘A shame I go back to Edirne now my
    captain has recovered. You could put it in your will that I could have
    your body.’
    Having pulled my shift down, I shrugged my way into the voluminous
    Venetian over-robe that Honorius had gifted me, and began to lace up
    the front of it.
    ‘Firstly, I’m not dying! And, secondly, if I do die in Venice, not only will my friend Rekhmire’ follow you to Edirne and kill you several times,
    each more horrible than the last . . . I, personally, will haunt you.’
    The Turkish doctor called for a bowl to bathe his hands. Deadpan, he
    remarked, ‘I begin to see the advantages in the Hippocratic Oath . . . ’
    Having washed, he took a wax tablet and stylus from an inside pocket
    of his tunic, and poised the one over the other.
    ‘I may write to Ephesus and Padua with my findings,’ he remarked,
    small bright eyes focusing on me. ‘But I have a number of additional
    questions I wish you will answer, Ilario . . . Which only you can answer.
    You must know which is best – the male orgasm or the female orgasm?
    So, which? Or is it that you feel you only know what’s normal for a
    hermaphrodite, and not for a man or a woman? How is your sexual
    appetite? When your man-parts are spent; is it possible to function as a
    woman until the male refractory period passes? Have you ever dually
    and simultaneously—’
    Honorius walked into the room, perfunctorily rapping on the door.
    ‘Oh thank God!’
    Honorius ignored that. ‘I need to talk to you. Alone.’
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    3
    ‘Alone’ meant three of us; my father sending one of his men for
    Rekhmire’. Four, if Onorata counted – blissfully silent, since asleep in
    her lidless oak chest.
    Honorius himself served mulled wine into ceramic bowls. He sat on
    the joint-stool by the bed, set his own wine down on the stone hearth,
    and scratched at his hair until it stood up in tufts, giving him the
    semblance of a fierce, if ruffled, owl.
    He broke the silence.
    ‘A letter has arrived. Written to me.’
    Fear stabbed under the joining of my ribs.
    I ignored Rekhmire’’s concerned frown and held out my hand. ‘Show
    me!’
    Silently, Honorius fished out creased papers from his sleeve, and held
    one out between two fingers. I took it.
    ‘From King Rodrigo Sanguerra.’
    If my sight blurred with shock, I still recognised Hunulf’s penmanship:
    a particular curve on the ‘d’ and ‘g’. He’s long wanted my nominal
    position as scribe to the Sanguerra family.
    I reached for the bowl with my other hand, welcoming the hot taste of
    spiced wine, and finding my fingers shaking only a little as I read.
    ‘Translated freely,’ I observed, ‘it appears to say, “Get your arse back
    here before I sequester your estates and put your family under
    attainder”—’
    Rekhmire’ snickered, caught Honorius’s glare, and glossed it: ‘You see
    why