Then, with
the filled canteens knotted together by their straps, he put on his
boots and climbed to the cave where Tau waited with water tablets.
Half an hour later Dane sat cross-legged by the fire, turning a spit
strung with three small birds Asaki had brought in. One foot closer to
the heat began to tingle and he eased off his boot; his cramped toes
suddenly seeming to have doubled in size. He was staring wide-eyed at
these same toes, puffed, red, and increasingly painful to the touch,
when Nymani squatted beside him, inspected his foot closely, and ordered
him to take off his other boot.
"What is it?" Dane found that shedding the other boot was a minor
torture in itself.
Nymani was cutting tiny splinters, hardly thicker than a needle, from a
stick.
"Sand worm--lays eggs in flesh. We burn them out or you have bad foot."
"Burn them out!" Dane echoed, and then swallowed as he watched Nymani
advance a splinter to the fire.
"Burn them," the Khatkan repeated firmly. "Burn tonight, hurt some
tomorrow; all well soon. No burn--very bad."
Dane ruefully prepared to pay the consequences of his first brush with
the unpleasant surprises Khatka had to offer.
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