“New uniform. I hope you like it,” I said, hoping I sounded sincere when I couldn’t have cared less what the old tree stump liked.
“Yes. It’s an excellent choice. The cardinal, despite his origins, does know how to behave before the court.”
I wanted to break off one of his branches and beat him with it. Who was he to say anything about the cardinal’s origins? Where did Casper come from? A royal cradle? Doubtful.
Casper’s leaves shook and there was actually mirth on his elderly face. “You don’t like that? Good. Shows deference and loyalty. Perhaps you’ll do after all. Come.”
He turned slowly and I looked at Gledit, who grinned and yawned at the slow process. Once Casper actually began walking, we started to follow, but he held up one gnarled hand and Gledit stopped, looking extremely disappointed.
“Good luck,” he said before he flew off the desk.
I watched him leave, for some reason sad to see him go. Casper got the spot in the floor where the stairs were supposed to be and he tapped it. The wood folded back and, for the first time, I began to get nervous.
Chapter Twenty-four
THE EMPRESS LAY on a tufted blue fainting couch with her eyes closed. There was a bandage wrapped around her head, blue-green bruises covered her cheek, and her right eye was blackened. Despite this, she was formally dressed in a sea foam green dress with a very tight waist and a full skirt. The skirt was elegantly draped off the side of the couch, but it couldn’t conceal the two lumps under it. Her legs were heavily bandaged under there, which wasn’t necessary if the healer had knitted the bones right. Oddest of all, the empress was wearing shoes, fancy high heels like what Delphine used to make. Her feet were so swollen I didn’t know how they got them on her or why. I felt little from her, more than the archduke who was a complete blank, but not much. Just a certain evasiveness.
The only other person in the room was the emperor. He was working at a white enameled desk and didn’t look up when we came in. Casper and I waited while his quill scratched over the parchment and I looked around the room. I’d expected to meet in the emperor’s office, but Casper took me to the empress’s. He said she rarely used it, preferring to conduct business in her boudoir, which wasn’t her bedroom Casper informed me with some exasperation at my ignorance. How was I supposed to know what a boudoir was?
The office was nearly as plain as the emperor’s, but it was done in cream and pink with the fainting couch, the desk, and a few chairs as the only furniture. No pictures on the wall or flowers. She seemed to be a woman who liked decoration, given her dress and carefully curled hair arranged around the bandages.
The emperor kept scratching away and I wanted to go over and examine my patient. If they wouldn’t let me talk to her or touch her, it was going to be nearly impossible. The dress covered her almost completely and she wore silk gloves like her son. The only skin visible was her face and the tops of her swollen feet. Not a lot to work with.
Then I spotted a basin under the couch. I started for it. Casper tried to hold me back, but I shook off his hand. This was ridiculous. I had a job to do. Just let me do it.
I knelt beside the couch and pulled the basin out. It was a fine porcelain chamber pot painted with lilies and covered by a linen towel. I peeked under the towel and frowned.
“How long has she been vomiting?” I asked Casper.
“I can’t speak to Her Majesty’s person.”
“Who can?”
The emperor stood up. “I can. You will address yourself to me.”
“Fine. How long?”
He didn’t answer.
“It’s not a hard question. Your mother has been vomiting for how long?”
“Healer Gruber doesn’t ask such personal questions,” he said, his face dark as an anubis. “It’s indelicate.”
“Let me get this straight. I can’t talk to her, touch her, or ask personal questions. What exactly can I do?”
“Your job is to heal the empress,” said Casper. “Do it.”
“How?” I asked and I was sincere about it.
“However you normally do it,” said the emperor.
“I can’t do anything that’s normal. Has it occurred to you that this is why she’s so terribly ill?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said the emperor. “Get on with it.”
He was totally serious. I wasn’t to do anything. There was only one reason I could come up with that made sense. He didn’t want me to help her. He was an emperor in waiting. A man with one hand on power, but never both. The empress was fairly young, considering she was his mother. If she didn’t want to give up power, he would have to take it.
“I don’t know why you bothered with this whole thing,” I said, getting to my feet. “Nobody knows about me and they won’t. Who are you trying to impress with your so-called attempt at helping your mother? Casper? Nanny?”
“Silence,” said Casper. He probably bellowed it, from the look on his face, but I didn’t care.
“Well, you’re not fooling me. I’m not here to heal her. I’m here to look like you want me to heal her.”
The emperor stared at me. His mouth had dropped open. I guess nobody had ever talked to him like that before. I didn’t care what happened in that moment, I was going to say it. Casper grabbed my arm and squeezed until pain shot up into my shoulder. I ignored him. The empress’s eyes were slitted open. She was awake. I wanted her to hear what her son was up to. I couldn’t help her, but maybe she could find a way to help herself.
“My mother is trapped in France,” I said. “I don’t know if she’s alive, dead, or hurt. Do you think for a second that if she was in that condition that I would ever, ever, stop a healer from helping her? I would do almost anything to see my mother right now. I love her. I would save her at all costs. You will stand there and talk about how things are done, while your mother dies. You are no son. I won’t take your money and sully my conscience.”
I grabbed Casper’s long fingers and peeled them off my arm. I shouldn’t have shown my strength, but I couldn’t help it. I was so angry, for so many reasons. We needed that money. My ‘almost patient’ would die without the help she needed. Her son wanted her dead. My mother could very well be crying out for me to help her at that very moment and I would never know. Why did things have to be so messed up?
I stomped across the room, flung open the door, and left. The halls inside the desk were confusing. I should’ve paid more attention to where I was going. I took a left and a hand grabbed me from behind, spun me around, and rammed me into the wall. Flames erupted in my hands. The emperor, who had me by the shoulders, jumped back and pressed himself against the wall. “You’re a kindler.”
“Surprise. Surprise. Yes, I am, but I made sure our contract covered all my abilities, so you can’t reveal it.” I let the flames grow until they were the size of my head and snapping in anger.
“I know.” He stared at the flames. “I never imagined.”
“I never imagined that you were trying to kill your mother.”
He focused on me and his face flushed, whether it was from my flames or not I couldn’t tell. “I’m not. I followed you to bring you back.”
Because your mother heard what I said.
“Really?” I asked with a sneer.
“Please. You’re making me nervous. Can you put out the flames?” he asked.
My fire went out with a poof and we stared at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move.
“You’re a kindler,” he said again.
“I know.”
He sucked in a breath. “And you’re inside wood. Get out. Get out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please.”
“You could burn down the desk. The whole palace.”
“Yep.” I crossed my arms. It was nice to see a guy so filled with dignity panicked. Loser.
“Get out!”
“I will when I choose.” I held up a finger and a pretty little blue flame burst to life on
the tip. “Right now, I think I’ll stay.”
“I am the emperor. You have to leave. I’ll call the guards.”
“And tell them what? That I’m a kindler? Oh wait, you can’t do that.”
“I will—” He doubled over in pain.
“There’s that pesky contract for you,” I said.
He gasped and managed, barely, to stand back up. “I’ll tell them that you are a thief.”
“Then I’ll light a little bitty flame in your shorts. What’re you going to tell them about that?”
“You can’t touch me, you insolent girl.”
I leaned forward, smiling. “I don’t have to touch you. Want a demonstration?”
He started breathing hard. “What do you want?”
“To examine your mother.”
His body jolted in surprise. “What?”
“I’m a healer. I want to help her. It’s the job you paid me for. I want to do it. No restrictions. No talk about how things are done.”
“That’s what you want?”
“That’s it. Not so much to ask, is it?”
He shook his head and said something with his head bowed. I couldn’t see his lips, so I waited.
“Did you hear me?” he asked.
“No. I was thinking of your mother and how I hope to thwart your plans.”
“I’m not trying to kill my mother. I said I would talk to her. It’s not me that insists on court protocol.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m telling you the truth.” He even seemed sincere about it.
“We’ll see.” I could see his distress. What I didn’t feel was love. There was something. Duty, maybe.
Casper came around the corner, breathing hard. I guess he was doing his version of running. “Your…Majesty, are…you…well?”
“Fine, Casper,” said the emperor. “Mattie and I have come to an agreement.”
Casper blinked. “What did you say?”
“An agreement. She will treat the empress.”
“As it should be.”
I grinned. “Exactly as it should be.”
Casper frowned and the emperor took off to his mother’s room.
“What did you do, girl?” Casper asked me.
I fluttered my eyelashes. “Whatever do you mean?”
“You did something to affect His Majesty. He would never allow you back in that room otherwise.”
“Maybe he saw sense.”
“He’s royalty. Sense has nothing to do with it.”
“I can’t argue with that.” I left him and went back to the empress’s room. The emperor was kneeling at her side. They both looked at me and she said, “I will not speak to her. I will not.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
He calls his own mother ‘Your Majesty’. How weird could they get?
The empress glanced at me again. “Bring her in.”
I grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the side of the fainting couch. They both looked shocked that I would do such a thing. I’m guessing sitting wasn’t supposed to be part of healing. Forget that.
“Do I address my questions to you?” I asked the emperor.
“Yes.”
“How long has she been ill?”
“Nearly ten years.”
Whoa.
“Has it always been the same or is she getting worse?” I asked.
The emperor frowned.
“Your Majesty, these are not impertinent questions. I need the facts. It’s not personal. It’s healing.”
The empress nodded slightly, although she looked like she wanted to have me tarred and feathered.
“She’s getting worse,” said the emperor.
“Gradually or suddenly?”
“Gradually,” said the empress.
I nodded. “I need to examine you. Then I’ll have more questions.”
They agreed and I started with the legs. It seemed the least intrusive part to examine. I unwrapped the thick bandages and I saw instantly why the healer had bothered with them. The bones weren’t knitted completely. The empress had serious swelling and bruising, which should’ve gotten better when the bones were knitted. Her feet were cold and pale. Not much blood flow. Lrag’s rejuvenation goo might help. I asked more questions and reluctantly the emperor passed on that his mother was experiencing diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting. I plucked at the skin on her hand and it didn’t bounce back as it should. She was very dehydrated and underweight.
“Has she been eating and drinking normally?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
The empress nodded yes, but the emperor emphatically said, “No.” They exchanged angry looks.
“I want to see the healer’s notes.” I couldn’t listen to her heart rate with any luck, Healer Gruber would’ve been noting it.
The emperor surprised me by producing a large green leather book from the desk.
“No, Max, I forbid it,” said the empress, attempting and failing to sit up. I could feel the fear radiating off her.
“She needs the information, ma’am,” said the emperor as he gave it to me.
I started at the back and worked my way forward. The healer had observed everything I had and he had no clue what was wrong with her. Her heart rate was normal and she had been declining for ten years. Before that she had been super healthy. There was only one thing missing in the notes and the empress wasn’t going to like it.
“I have to examine you fully,” I said.
“She has,” said the empress.
“You have,” said the emperor.
“No, I haven’t and according to his notes, neither has Healer Gruber.”
“What do you hope to discover?”
“Whatever it is that she’s hiding.” I touched the empress’s hand and she jerked it away. “I must see.”
“There’s nothing to see,” said the emperor, growing red in the face. I couldn’t tell if he knew what I was going to find out or not.
“There is. Look at how your mother is dressed. She’s completely covered. More importantly, she was last night. All the other ladies wore low-cut dresses. They showed a lot of skin, but not her.”
“She’s the empress of Austria. My mother has to show a certain decorum.”
I looked the empress in the eyes. She stared back, steely and proud, but couldn’t sustain it. She looked away. “I don’t think that’s it and I have to see.”
“Is she seen?” asked the empress, raising her eyes to look at me imperiously.
“I didn’t ask, ma’am,” said her son.
“Didn’t you think that was important?” she fixed her cold eyes on him.
“Healer Gruber isn’t seen.” He looked at me. “Are you?”
“Your mother isn’t part of the contract, so I can’t say.” For some reason, I didn’t want to tell them. It was like they were asking if I was good enough for them. Why should I have to prove it? I doubted they ever had to prove anything. Their whole lives were handed to them.
“She must say,” said the empress.
“Or what?” I asked.
“She is seen,” said the emperor. “She can stop blood, so a human must’ve seen her.”
“A maid who has been seen?” asked the empress. “I demand to know who this girl is.”
“Demand all you want, but your son and I have a deal,” I said.
The emperor knelt by his mother’s side. “Trust me. I believe she is seen. It’s the only thing that explains her power.”
She eyed me. “What power?”
“Her…great healing power. Please just let her see, ma’am.”
A look passed between them as if they’d been business partners for so long, they’d forgotten they were mother and son.
The empress extended a shaking hand and I tugged her glove off. The emperor slapped a hand over his mouth and I did my best not to recoil. The empress’s hand was hideous and it was all I could do to make myself touch it. Her skin was thick and dark, covered in raised, crusty bumps. But her finge
rnails were what caused me to have a shiver. They were thick, dark yellow, claws that resembled a horen’s claws, only a horen’s claws were somehow elegant in their deadliness. The empress’s fingers were purely gross.
“Do you know what that is?” asked the emperor in a shaking voice.
“No.” I pulled out Ibn’s book and leafed through the pages. I didn’t expect to find anything. I’d read the whole thing and I would’ve remembered those fingernails. I needed time to think. Grandma Vi had said something about hair and fingernails. What was it? She’d died so early in my training, some things were said in passing. She was going to teach me later, but later never came.
I came to the end of the book. Fingernails. Diarrhea. Vomiting. I stood up and reached for the buttons under the empress’s chin.
“What is she doing?” she asked.
“I want to see how far it goes. It’s not on your legs. How about the arms and chest?”
She pursed her lips and nodded.
I unbuttoned to her waist. The emperor turned away and it was a good thing to. He didn’t want to see that. Neither did I. The empress’s chest was covered with the same crusty bumps and it was beginning to spread up her neck. It was only a matter of time before it reached her face. I said nothing. All I could think was that it was a death sentence, if I didn’t figure it out.
The emperor must’ve asked a question, because the empress said, “Turn and face it.”
The emperor slowly turned. “Oh, mother. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t need to know,” she said, her face calm and matter-of-fact.
“It’s spreading,” I said.
“I will be dead before the people see.”
“How do you know?”
“The more it spreads, the weaker I get. I can barely dress myself these days.”
The emperor gasped. “You dress yourself?”
“Maxi, dear, how do you think I managed to keep this,” she waved her claws at him, “a secret? Our servants are loyal, but some things can’t be kept quiet and secrecy is vital. Only Casper can know. He would die before he betrayed the family.”
“You shouldn’t be working in this condition,” said the emperor.
I bet you don’t want her working.
Wicked Chill (Away From Whipplethorn Book Four) Page 24
