Chapter 21

The pot had become a cup now. Where it had been huge and black, now it was crystal and the liquid shone white between his fingers. The cup shrank to a thimble and then it vanished.

Paul looked down at himself and saw that the knife still stuck in him. He pulled it out and let it drop to the floor where it shattered like glass. Guards in black surrounded him and pointed swords at him. The King was shouting incoherently at them. One of them shrugged and stabbed Paul with his sword. Paul felt a burning pain as the steel sliced through him, but as the guard withdrew the sword the wound vanished. Another guard tried with the same result. He felt a power in him that he didn't understand. The cauldron had irrevocably changed him. He knew that in his bones. The power moved like blood through him. It gave him words.