Wicked Chill (Away From Whipplethorn Book Four)

by Hartoin, A. W.

  “Is she in pain?” I asked.

  The emperor looked at his mother or, more accurately, he looked at her hands. “She has to be.”

  She shook her head. “The pain is tolerable.”

  “On a scale of one to ten. Ten being you want to die.” I buttoned up her bodice.

  She started to slip her gloves back on, but I stopped her. She fiddled with the gloves. “On a good day it’s a five.”

  “And on a bad day?”

  She looked away and I couldn’t read her lips.

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  “Eight,” said the emperor. “I have to go.” He turned and marched out of the room. I got a glimpse of Casper’s curious face in the second the door was open.

  “Well, I guess it’s just me and you,” I said.

  The empress’s face went all cold and distant.

  “It’s no use. You may as well talk to me. It’s only us and who would believe a lowly maid of all work that the empress of Austria talked to her.”

  “Excellent point,” she said, her face softening. “No one would believe it. Why can’t I put on my gloves? I’m uncomfortable this way.”

  I looked into her eyes for the first time and I saw the fear and pain, all mixed up with pride and anger. “I’m going to soak them in some herbs and see if I can’t relieve some of your pain. What have you tried?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing? Seriously? You’ve been living with this for ten years and you did nothing to try and fix it.”

  “It can’t be fixed,” she said.

  “You don’t know that. I’m going to do everything I can and, just between you and me, I’m not half bad at this stuff.”

  She smiled for the first time. “I can see you will, but it’s hopeless, because I won’t be the first empress of Austria to die early.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  I STOOD IN the emperor’s office counting gloves. Casper came in behind me and I felt his presence. Disapproval takes up a lot of space in a room.

  I turned. “Do you know the dates on these portraits?”

  His leaves rustled with his surprise. “I do. Why would you want to know their dates?”

  “I, the first healer to know everything, need to know when the last painting with gloves was painted.”

  “Gloves? Why should you care a fig about gloves?” he asked.

  “Because it’s important. The empress was told by her mother that there was once a deadly disease in the family. I need to find out if they had, what she has. I can ask somebody else about the gloves, if you don’t know,” I said.

  Casper grumbled and I waited as he ever-so-slowly looked over all the portraits of the royalty from Austria’s past. “1780.”

  “Which one is it?”

  Casper pointed to a rather small portrait of a young woman. She wore a green satin dress with a bow on the chest and at the elbows. It had a tight bodice and plenty of embroidery. I’d seen the style before. There were plenty of human portraits with the same style out in the palace, but this dress was different. The humans had their throats and forearms exposed. This fairy’s dress looked like it had extra panels put in to cover her chest and arms. Of course she had gloves. Almost no skin was exposed.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “Empress Maria Luisa.”

  “Did she have children?”

  “Why do you need to know that?” asked Casper, now curious instead of irritated.

  “I’m trying to figure things out. Did she have children?”

  “One. She died young.” He pointed to a portrait of an older man, very well-dressed in his state robes, but wearing no gloves.

  “So that’s where it ended,” I said.

  “What ended?”

  “Never mind. I have to go back to the empress.” I went to pass by the tree dryad, but in a rare moment of quickness, he grabbed my arm and one of his branches wrapped around my bicep.

  “Do you know what is wrong with Her Majesty?” There was pleading in his old face.

  “No. Not yet. But I’ll figure it out.”

  He let go and I returned to the empress. My exam seemed to have exhausted her. She lay back sleeping on the cushions of the fainting couch with her son sitting in my chair beside her. On the desk were the items I had requested. Agrimony, camu camu, white willow, and avocado oil. The emperor looked up at me as I crossed the room and made a bath for her hands, steeping the herbs and swirling the oil in with a discreet finger. It might not help her, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt, which was the best I could do. Once the basin had cooled, I carried it over and placed it on her lap.

  “This will make it leave her body?” asked the emperor.

  “I doubt it,” I said.

  His shoulders slumped. “Then why do it?”

  “Because she’s in pain. It’s better to try something, than nothing.” I pointed to her poor hands. “Pull back her sleeves and put her hands in.”

  “Me?” He seemed positively shocked.

  “You’re her son. You’d rather have a servant?” I pointed to myself. “Or some stranger. I don’t get you people at all.”

  “That’s abundantly clear from your behavior.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just do it. I have another problem to solve and Casper will take eight years to get from your office, where you sent him to spy on me.”

  “I only wanted to know what you were up to,” he said, gingerly taking his mother’s hand.

  “Just ask me next time. I wanted the name and time of the last family member who had this illness.” I pulled up the empress’s skirts and checked the pulse in her feet. Not good.

  “How would my office tell you that?” He dipped her hand in the water and surprisingly she didn’t wake.

  “The portraits of the emperor and empresses. Some wore gloves, but only the really old portraits. It looks like they had the same thing as the empress. I have to figure out what it is and why it’s back. Take off your gloves.”

  He straightened up. “You dare to order me. You forget yourself.”

  I pulled my bags of rejuvenation spell out of my pocket. “Out there you’re in charge. In here, it’s me.”

  The emperor stared at me and then the blubbery bags. “What on earth is that?”

  “A spell I made this morning. I think it will help your mother’s legs to heal.”

  “Stop calling her my mother.”

  “That’s who she is.”

  “She is the Empress of Austria.”

  I didn’t know what to do with that. Even if Mom was empress of everything, she’d still be Mom.

  “Fine. It will help the empress’s legs to heal. Now take off your gloves,” I said.

  The emperor slipped off first the left and then the right. Both hands were smooth and unblemished.

  “Why are you wearing gloves?” I asked.

  He looked down at his mother, sorry the empress, and said, “Her Majesty requested that I wear them.”

  “Hmm. To distract from her wearing them, I guess.” I opened a spell bag and squeezed out the contents onto the empress’s left leg. It landed in a solid lump and then relaxed, oozing over the sides of her emaciated leg.

  The emperor leaned back. “That is disgusting. What did you make it out of? Dead troll?”

  “Dead pig actually.” I grinned at him and spread the ooze to cover the leg from foot to thigh and then did the other one.

  He pinched his nose. I guess royalty wasn’t used to anything but sweet smells. I had no such problem. Lrag’s spell did stink, but it didn’t bother me. I’d begun to think of it as the smell of success.

  “What’s next?” he asked, all nasally with his closed nose.

  I wiped off my hands and took out one of the empress’s hands, running my thumb over the horrid bumps. They were softer and some of the crust came away with my touch. Hopefully, that was a good thing. I took a closer look at her nails. They seemed unchanged.

  The empress stirred. “Maxi, she is touching me again.”<
br />
  “Yes, ma’am. It must be allowed.”

  I put her hand back in the herbal brew. “How’s the pain?” I didn’t bother to address the question to the emperor, but asked the empress herself.

  She, however, answered the question to the emperor. “The pain is much better. What is this liquid?”

  I sighed. This was so ridiculous. I told her the ingredients and mixed up another batch for her to use in the evening.

  “What is that smell, Maxi,” she asked, wrinkling her delicate features.

  “It’s a spell to mend your legs. I want it to stay on for as long as possible,” I said.

  She looked at the emperor. “I have duties to attend to.”

  “This,” I said, “is your most important duty, getting well. We can’t have you dying. The country would explode.”

  The empress focused on me. “How bad is it?”

  It took me a second to recover from my surprise. She wanted my opinion. I couldn’t believe it. “Bad, but not like Paris. Your people need you healthy. I know that much.”

  “This disgusting pink stuff will help?” She wavered between asking me and asking the emperor.

  I checked the pulses in her feet. They’d improved so much, even I was surprised. “It will help your legs. Any pain down there?”

  “None anymore. It’s…just gone, like it never happened.” She seemed astonished more than pleased.

  “Great. Let’s try to stay here for another couple of hours, but I think your legs will be all set.”

  She lifted her hideous hands out of the water. “And this?”

  “That I’m working on. I need a better family history to figure it out. How good are your records before 1780?” I asked.

  The empress looked at the emperor. “Our lives are fully documented.” There was something behind the royal mask, a glimpse of unhappiness.

  Casper arrived, his leaves shaking at his first sight of the empress’s hands. “Your…Majesties…I…”

  “Good. You’re here. Mattie will be needing all the family records before 1780.” The emperor looked at me. “Healer records?”

  “Yes and a complete family tree. Birth and death records. I have to find out where this started and how it stopped,” I said.

  Casper blanched. “That is sacred royal information. I can’t give that to a maid of all work. People will ask questions.”

  I examined the empress’s hand again. More of the crust came off, but there was no change in the nails. “He’s right. But the cardinal is a different story. Have the records loaded in his carriage and say…say that he wants to write the definitive history of the family.”

  But the cardinal can’t know of this.” Casper waved a hand at the exhausted empress.

  “He’ll just go with it,” I said.

  The emperor scowled at me. “What have you told him?”

  “Hello. Nothing. I can’t.” I went to the basin in the corner and stuck my arms in deep until the pushed-up sleeves were wet. I rumpled my dress and mussed my hair.

  “What are you doing?” asked the emperor.

  “I’m a maid,” I said. “I have to look like I’ve been doing maid stuff.”

  “You’re leaving?” He stood up.

  “Yes. I can’t be here all day and won’t people be wondering where you two are. Isn’t there a breakfast you’re supposed to be at?”

  “My brother,” said the emperor with a faint look of distaste, “is handling that.”

  “Does he know?”

  “The archduke knows nothing.”

  I had the feeling that he wasn’t just talking about the empress’s illness. “Alright then. Casper can you have those records gathered.”

  The poor old dryad huffed and puffed his way out of the room.

  “You know, he could really use an assistant,” I said.

  The emperor gave me a rare smile. “He keeps firing them. He’s fired you six times already.”

  “He’s kind of a pain, isn’t he?”

  He glanced at the empress, who’d fallen asleep again. “He is, but he’s been with the family forever. What should we do now?”

  I checked to make sure the empress was truly asleep and put my finger in the herbal bath. I gave it a swirl and it heated to steaming in an instant. “Soak the hands until it gets cold. Take off the goo in an hour or so. Tonight she should soak her hands again and I’ll check her again tomorrow.”

  The emperor stared at the steaming bowl. “It won’t work as well without you to heat it, will it?”

  “Probably not.” I checked her pulses again. More improvement.

  “Because of your fire?”

  “I think so. It does something to the remedies. I don’t know how it works. It’s not like there’s anyone to ask.”

  “Before you, I’d never heard of another kindler.”

  “I’m the only one that I know of. Right now, that is,” I said.

  “I wonder if all the others in history have been healers, too.”

  “I never thought about it. Maybe,” I said. “Do I look messy enough?”

  He smiled. “I think so. Maybe just twist your apron a little.”

  I turned my apron off center and opened the door. “Until tomorrow.”

  He walked over to open the door. “Our agreement is binding.”

  “Believe me, I know it.”

  “So I can say this to you and no other.”

  He made me nervous. He was looking at me with yearning that I didn’t want to see. “You don’t have to say anything. This is a business arrangement.”

  He pulled out a plain linen bag, lumpy with coins. “On that note, here’s your payment.”

  The weight of the coins felt good in my hand, like safety was contained in that little bag.

  “What I want to tell you is—”

  Oh, no.

  “Really. It’s not necessary,” I said quickly.

  “I want you to understand,” he said, turning the doorknob, “why it’s the way it is between her and me.”

  Her?

  “Nanny raised me,” he said, opening the door. “She is my mother.”

  I looked into his eyes and I saw the truth of it. He didn’t want me to call the empress his mother because she wasn’t, not in any way that counted.

  “I understand.”

  “Probably not,” he said. “Royalty is different.”

  “My brother is a spriggan. He says he’s a wood fairy. I understand more than you think.” I slipped out the door and walked slowly through the passages in the desk, somehow finding my way. I was in no hurry to get back to the cathedral. It’d been so nice to play the healer instead of the cleaner for a while.

  I found the stairs and took each one like I was Casper. When I reached the top, the old dryad was waiting for me.

  “Not in a hurry, are you?” he asked.

  “You should talk,” I said.

  He stared at me for a second and then laughed a slow, low chuckle. “Only you would say such a thing to me.”

  “Is it refreshing?”

  “I suppose it is.” He leaned over and gazed into my eyes. “You’re not afraid of me?”

  “Nope.”

  “You should be. I’m the power behind the throne.”

  “There’s power in other places.”

  He nodded. “True enough.”

  An anubis climbed over the edge of the desk. He didn’t give me so much as a glance and said to Casper in German. “They’re at the gate.”

  “Who?” asked Casper.

  “Rioters. They are breaking through. Where are Their Majesties? Nobody knows.” The anubis sniffed. “She has been with them.”

  “She was cleaning the offices,” said Casper. “I have just seen Their Majesties. Do not disturb them. Secure the desk and the room.”

  “Sir, we must remove them to safety.”

  “They can’t possibly get through the palace defenses,” said Casper, a bit exasperated.

  Another anubis ran across the desk. “They’re through
the gate.”

  Casper froze and the anubis stared at him.

  “Sir, what are your orders?” asked the first anubis.

  A shiver went through Casper’s leaves. “Lock down the palace. Go! Now!”

  The anubis ran off the desk and went for the stairs. I could protect Their Majesties, but Casper pulled me back. “The cardinal is waiting for you in his carriage. You must get to him. He’s not well.”

  “How unwell?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, girl. Do I look like you? Go to him.” He grabbed me by the shoulders. “Much depends on the cardinal’s health and support. Get him. The anubis will know where you should hide.”

  Casper let go and went for the stairs, fast for him. I watched for a split second before taking off and spinning in a circle. How did I get in? How do I get out?

  Leanna flew through one of the human doors, waving frantically. “Mattie, this way.”

  I darted over and we flew through a series of royal rooms. It was chaos. Guards were trying and failing to secure doors. There were fairy tour groups everywhere, including school groups with kids as young as seven.

  Leanna was talking, but I only got glimpses of her face as she flew at her top speed, dodging human tourists and guards. When she slowed to enter one of the doors to the servants’ hall, I snagged her wing. “What’s happening?”

  She turned, her eyes wild and she screamed.

  I patted her arm. “It’s just me. What’s happening?”

  “The Fifth Column. They’ve convinced the people that the empress is dead and the emperor isn’t telling the people.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “I know—”

  An explosion rocked the hall as a wall stove broke into a million pieces. I grabbed Leanna and drove her to the floor. A hail of debris rained down around us. A large piece missed our heads by a mere inch. I coughed and got to my knees in time to see dozens of brown winged fairies rushing through the entrance. They were carrying pikes and screaming about the empress’s death.

  Leanna stood up. “She’s not dead!”

  I grabbed her and dragged her backward. “Stop it. They won’t hear you. They’ve totally lost it.”

  A group of anubis marched up in a pig’s head formation. Gerald thought I didn’t listen to him about tactics and other boring stuff, but I did. The anubis carried full-length shields and curved C-shaped swords. A group of the winged imperial guards came in from the opposite direction, pinning the rioters and us in between.