Free With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony

Heaven?"
     
    Thanatos made a derisive snort, despite having no flesh in his nose. "Purgatory," he said. "The place of indecision-and of decision. All the Incarnations are here."
     
    "Oh. I-haven't been beyond life before." She was somewhat intimidated by all this.
     
    "And what brought you, ravishing mortal maiden?"
     
    "Oh, I am no maiden! I-my husband Cedric-I have come to beg for his life. I love him!"
     
    "Without doubt," Thanatos agreed. He snapped his bone-fingers, and a servant hurried in with a file box. Thanatos opened the box and riffled through the cards. "Cedric Kaftan, age eighteen, to go to Heaven five days hence," he remarked. "A good man, not requiring my personal attention." His square eye-sockets seemed to squint at the card. "A very good man! He loves you well indeed."
     
    "Yes. I must save him. You must-"
     
    Thanatos gazed at her through the midnight frames of his eyes, and suddenly she felt a chill not of death. It had not occurred to her before that the Incarnation might require a price for the favor she asked-and what did she have to offer?
     
    Then she thought again of Cedric, lying in the hospital, and knew that there was no price she would not pay to have him whole again.
     
    But when Thanatos spoke again, he surprised her. "Good and lovely mortal, I cannot do the thing you request. I do not cause folk to die; I merely see to the proper routing of the souls of those who are fated to die. It is true that I have some discretion; on occasion I will postpone a particular demise. But your husband is beyond postponement; to extend his life would be only to extend his pain. He will neither walk nor talk again."
     
    "No!" Niobe cried. It was literal; her tears wet her robe. "He's so young, so bonnie! I love him!"
     
    Even Death softened before that beauteous plea. "I would help you if I could," Thanatos said. "To be Incarnated is not to be without conscience. But the remedy you seek is not within my province."
     
    "Then whose province is it in?" she demanded brokenly.
     
    "At this point, I suspect only Chronos can help him."
     
    "Who?"
     
    "The Incarnation of Time. He can travel in time, when he chooses, and change mortal events by acting before they occur. Therefore if he-"
     
    "Before the shot was fired!" she exclaimed. "So that Cedric is never hurt!"
     
    The cowled skull nodded. "That is what Chronos can do."
     
    The strangeness of talking to the Incarnation of Death was fading. The renewed chance to save Cedric recharged her. "Where-how-can I find Chronos?"
     
    "You could search all Purgatory and not find him," Thanatos said. "He travels in time. But if he cares to meet you, he will do so."
     
    "But I must meet with him! I have so little time-"
     
    There was a chime that sounded like a funeral gong. "That will be Chronos now," Thanatos said.
     
    "Now? But how-?"
     
    "He knows our future. He is surely responding to the notice I will send him shortly."
     
    A servant ushered Chronos in. He was a tall, thin man in a white cloak, bearing an Hourglass. "Ah, Clotho," he said.
     
    "Who?" she asked, confused.
     
    Chronos looked at her again. "Oh, has it come to that? My apology; it is happening sooner than I hoped. In that case, you must introduce yourself."
     
    He had evidently mistaken her for someone else. "I- I am Niobe Kaftan-a, a mortal woman," she said.
     
    "Niobe," Chronos repeated as if getting it straight. "Yes, of course. And you are here to-?"
     
    "Here to save my husband, Cedric."
     
    He nodded. "That, too. But that really is not wise."
     
    "Not wise!" she exclaimed indignantly. "I love him!"
     
    It was almost as if she had struck the Incarnation. He blanched, but then recovered. "Love is mortal," Chronos said sadly. "It passes, in the course of time."
     
    "I don't care, so long as it passes naturally! Cedric is dying and he's not yet nineteen!"
     
    Chronos shook his head. "I could travel to the moment before his problem commenced and change the event- but I