He could barely remember what he had ever wanted to do in life. Everything was clouded by pain and weakness, and the iron hammers that pounded in his head. He vomited and then slipped gratefully into emptiness.
The young man did not know that his healers gave him sleeping remedies and pain remedies every few hours because they were afraid that, otherwise, he would never survive the journey. He simply took the cups they offered him and slipped back into his dreams, where he was healthy and strong.
He had not valued his health until it was gone. The malady had snuck up on him, like a snake sliding into his bed in the night. He fought it as best he could, but he was laid low by attacks of vomiting and weakness. At first, his father thought he would eventually shake off his illness, but after the Great Khangan witnessed an attack of vomiting, he became afraid and called in all the medicuses, herbal healers, and wise women he could find. They gave him herbal tinctures and enemas, they prayed for him, and they let his blood. None of it helped. In fact, he got worse.
The only medicus he remembered clearly was Tahir Djiaman din Dashar. When the great healer entered Amir’s room, his first words were “Prince, I do not know how to heal you.” Amir was feeling well that day, so he saw the sad look in the man’s eyes and understood what it meant.
Tahir sat down by his bed. The conversation between them was carried out in low voices. “I have lived for many years, but there is still much I do not know.”
“Will I die?”
“I cannot know that, Your Highness.”
“Then you should leave.”
Tahir shrugged. “I have considered that, but I am old.”
“My father will take your life, and that will not help me.” A spasm of pain caused Amir to double over, but he waited for it to pass. Then he continued. “You are the only one who was brave enough to tell me the truth.”
The old man’s eyes were sorrowful. “I would give my life to save yours if I could.”
“But you can’t.” Amir was silent for a moment. “Write out an order, and I will put my seal on it. With that order, they will let you out of the city. Leave the Khanganate; that way, at least one of us will survive.”
***
Amir was sick for many weeks after that. Then, he had a period of relative calm. He began to feel better. The servants gave him milk to drink and bathed him in warm water that smelled of pine trees. One day, his father came to him. The Great Khangan sat down on his bed and stroked his hair. The servants slipped away, leaving father and son alone.
“Amir, you are dying.”
“I know, Father.”
“I received a letter from Tahir Djiaman din Dashar. You let him go. Why did you do that?”
“He knew I was dying, and he refused to lie to me.”
“Yes. That is why I did not stop him. We were both right.”
A spark of hope leaped up in Amir’s chest, only to be beaten back by a wave of nausea. “What do you mean, Father?” he looked up and waited.
“He writes that you are being poisoned. He does not know how, but he has found someone who recognized the poison from its symptoms. This person can help you.”
“I am willing to try.”
“She is a woman—the Countess of Earton, in Ativerna. I have asked about her. People say she works wonders. I cannot bring her here, however. The distance is too great, and her husband is away on state business.”
The boy nodded. He knew he couldn’t wait.
“I have decided that you will go to Earton.”
“But…”
“If it is poison, the person responsible will have a harder time getting to you on the ship. I know it is winter, and the gulf is treacherous, but we have no choice.”
“Father, if I go there…”
“It’s a chance—a very small chance, but a chance nonetheless. I will write to King Edward. I will give you gold and men and carrier pigeons. You must write to me, Son.”
“I will do everything I can to get better, Father.” Amir’s face was serious.
The Great Khangan sighed. He had other sons, but none of them were as wise and good as Amir. “You are my son from my most beloved wife, and you are the only one I can trust with the country when I am gone.”
“There are those who would not like to hear you say that.”
“When you leave, I will announce that Rashad is my heir. Then we will see what happens.”
“Don’t…”
“The others would be worse.”
“What if…”
“I know. Making Rashad my heir puts him at risk. Damn it all…” Amir saw tears on his father’s face for the first time. “Come back alive, Son. Just come back.”
“I will do my best, Father.”
***
He remembered more thoughts, words, and feelings… Is it possible that I ever lived a normal life? The pain returned. He waited. It ebbed away.
There was a crash. Amir opened his eyes. The sunlight came streaming into his room with an intensity that made his eyes tear up.
“Who the hell do you think you are and what are you doing in here?”
The voice belonged to a woman, and she was far from happy. As she continued venting her anger, Amir listened and was filled with wonder. He pried his eyes all the way open. He was no longer on the ship. He was lying in a bright, sunny room where everything was white and clean and smelled sharply of something he could not identify. And in the middle of the room, he saw a woman the likes of which he had never seen before.
She was tall and dressed in green and white, with a thick, golden braid over one shoulder. More surprising still, she was scolding his medical men without any concern for their rank or their delicate ears.
“Have you lost your minds?” she bellowed. “Burning incense in a sick room? Stick that pipe up your nose and get out of here. And take that dirty fur pelt with you.”
“But this is the skin of a foal that was never born. It has been sanctified!” One of the medicuses bleated.
“Get it out! If I see it anywhere near my patient again, I’ll cut it into pieces and feed it to you!”
***
Lily was in a foul mood. She had been up late, watching the boy while he slept and spoon-feeding him beaten egg whites and activated charcoal. It was almost light out when she finally let a pair of Virman women take over and went to lie down for a few hours. Jaimie had woken her up by banging on her door.
“My Lady, the Khangan medicuses are in there. You said not to let anyone near the patient.”
“Where is Tahir?”
“With the boy. He won’t let them touch him.”
Lily slammed the door in his face and began to throw on whatever clothes she could find. She quickly braided her hair as she ran through the halls, bursting into the infirmary just in time. One of the Virman nurses was standing between the boy and his Khangan healers. She had her hands on her hips and looked like she was ready to grab an axe if words failed her.
Tahir was doing his best to keep the three other bearded old men as far as he could from the sickbed. One was waving a heavy bronze censer like a weapon, another was shaking what looked like a dirty rag, and the third had bouquets of herbs and bird feathers hung around his neck. When Lily saw the smoke coming from the censer and the dirt falling from the rag and the bunches of herbs, she lost any tact she might have possessed.
Aldonai had blessed the countess with both height and weight, and over the past several months that weight had turned from fat into muscle. Lily’s first move was to grab the censer and slam it against the floor. She would call the maids to clean up when she was done. The Khangan men turned to her with indignation all over their faces, but before any of them could say a word, Lilian Earton launched her attack.
***
When the storm was over and the opponents utterly cowed, the countess set out her conditions. “Go bathe yourselves and wash your clothes. After that, whenever one of you wishes to visit the patient, you will first obtain permission from myself or Tahir. If
any of you is found in here without that permission, I will have you arrested on suspicion of poisoning. Instead of bothering the patient, I want you to write down for me in detail what methods and remedies you have used on the prince. And I want to see samples. Now, get out!”
Her voice was convincing, and the Khangan healers hurried to the door. Once they were gone and the door was shut, Lily turned to assess what needed to be re-cleaned. Just then, she heard a noise from the boy’s bed. She knelt down and watched the boy’s face.
His eyes were open, and he looked at her with interest. “Who are you?”
“I am Lilian Earton, the Countess of Earton. You are in my home.”
“My name is Amir Gulim. I am the eldest son of the Great Khangan.”
“Yes, and you’re the victim of poisoning, as well. I don’t think you’re as bad off as I feared, but you will have to stay here for lengthy treatment.”
A light filled the boy’s eyes. “I did not expect you to say that my malady could be treated.”
“I will not lie to you. You are in great danger, but I will do my best to keep you alive.”
“If you help me, my father…”
Lily put her hand over the boy’s mouth. “Be quiet. You must get better before there can be any talk of that. Now, I have to examine you. Tell me where it hurts.”
The boy nodded. Lily pulled back the blanket and began palpating various parts of his body. “Does it hurt here? What about here? Or here?”
The boy turned pale but answered as best he could. He almost cried out when Lily pulled the blanket completely off and began pressing on his stomach with her long fingers. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This won’t take long.”
Then she sneezed. The broken censer was still giving off smoke.
“Open a window,” she commanded. The smell was overpowering. It was a blend of sheep’s manure and something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. What do they put in those things?
When she was done examining the boy, she tucked his blanket around him and nodded to the nurse. “Milk, egg whites, and activated charcoal. If he is better, we will try to give him something light to eat tomorrow. I won’t risk it today.”
The nurse took a clean spoon and began to feed the boy milk and egg whites. Then she gave him a small portion of the adsorbent and reached for the milk again.
Lily picked up the censer, which Tahir had moved to the windowsill and sniffed. None of this makes sense. She opened the censer and found the insides caked with a strange, dried substance. What on earth have they been burning in here?
She asked Tahir, but he only knew that censers were used to burn holy herbs.
The countess took a towel from the table and wrapped the censer in it. Then, after a pause, she used another towel to collect the bits of herbs and dirt that had fallen to the floor from the foal’s skin.
“I’ll take these back to my laboratory.”
Tahir was curious. “What for, My Lady?”
“I just have an idea…”
***
No sooner did Lily leave the infirmary than she was accosted by Lons Avels. “My Lady!”
“What is it?”
“I wrote the letter. Will you look at it?”
She reached for it. “You are a miracle, Lons.”
He blushed. “I try, My Lady…”
Your Majesty,
I write to inform you that the Great Khangan has sent his eldest son and heir to Earton to undergo treatment with Tahir Djiaman din Dashara. The boy is seriously ill, but I will pray for his recovery.
I remain your faithful servant,
Lilian Earton
The second letter was even more to the point.
Dear Father,
The Great Khangan has sent his son to Earton in hopes of recovering his health. We will do what we can, but I am not assured of success. Keep an eye on your affairs in the Khanganate with this in mind.
Your loving daughter
“Will you send them by pigeon?”
“Yes, My Lady.”
The countess threw her braid over her other shoulder. “Fine. Write them out neatly and send them.”
Lons bowed and left. Lily reflected that she would be at a loss if she had to leave her secretary at home when she paid her visit to Edward’s court. Still, how can I take him with me without putting him in danger? There was one idea she had been pondering lately. She smiled. His own mother won’t recognize him!
***
Her laboratory was calm and quiet. Lily looked at the long rows of glass bottles on her shelves and sighed. So much work went into those. She had obtained the chlorides from sea salt and purchased the acids and bases from the tanners in Altver. Back home, it had simply been a matter of time and patience to obtain a more or less pure hydroxide.
What do I have that would react with mercury?
If the mercury was divalent, as it usually was in nature, it would produce a yellow residue when mixed with a base. If mixed with potassium iodide, the residue would be red.
Lily suspected that the prince had had a stroke of luck; she didn’t know who had been poisoning him at home, but the boy seemed to have improved during the voyage, meaning that the doses were small and infrequent.
Let’s figure this out!
She scraped out everything she could from the inside of the censer and divided it into equal portions, which she transferred into jars. Then, she began adding the bases. She could hardly believe her eyes when she spotted yellow residue swimming in the gray liquid of the first jar.
Tahir, who had been watching her movements with increasing interest, looked up to see what this meant. Lily set the jar down on the table. “I don’t know how it started, but some of the poison is in the center.”
“The censer was prepared by Sulan Mavvar din Sharaya.”
“Where is he?”
***
If it hadn’t been for Tahir, Lily would have caused an international incident. Her first instinct was to rip the head off the idiot who had been poisoning the boy with mercury vapors. However, after a talking-to from Tahir, she called Rashad Omar din Darashaya to her laboratory and explained to him what they were looking for. He immediately authorized her to search his ships.
Lily now knew what she sought. All of the censers were removed from the walls of the ships’ quarters, along with the rugs and bed sheets in the prince’s room.
When opened and tested, all of the censers gave up the same yellowish residue. Rashad called for Sulan, the medicus who had been swinging the censer, and Lily went to search his room. In no time, she found something that stopped her in her tracks. She opened a richly encrusted box and found a piece of cinnabar—mercury sulfide. To be sure, she applied her base again; the yellow color left no doubt.
The countess was ready to have the man arrested, but Tahir stopped her. “He may not have meant any harm, My Lady.”
“Why do you think that?”
“There is an old story that once, the Star Mare came to earth. An evil man tried to harm her, and this stone—cinnabar, as you call it—represents droplets of her blood.”
Lily nodded. “I see. Where do you use it?”
“Priests paint their faces with it.”
“Do you ever eat it?”
“That would be sacrilege, My Lady.”
“What about putting it in censers?”
“That is only done in extreme cases, to call on the Mare’s mercy.”
The countess shook her head in disgust.
***
The formal investigative committee consisted of Lily, Tahir, Jaimie, Rashad and the two other captains, whose names Lily could not remember, Lons, Taris, and Pastor Vopler. Mirrie sat on her stepmother’s lap, and their two dogs lay in the corner. Two Virmans guarded the door. Helke had been invited but claimed to be too busy to attend. Lily knew he disliked Khangans for some reason.
Working together, the group tried to understand how the boy had been poisoned initially. The mercury vapors from the censers were
no more than supporting doses. Who started the terrible process, and how?
Rashad gave them as much information as he could. Sulan was not the official court healer. That had been Tahir’s job, and Tahir swore he had never used cinnabar as a remedy. In fact, he had seen enough elderly priests—men who had applied cinnabar to their skin throughout their whole lives—to suspect that the substance was not harmless.
After a silence, Jaimie spoke up. “My Lady,” he said quietly, turning his face to Lilian, “is this blood of the Star Mare easy to obtain? I must confess I have never seen it before.”
Lily played with her braid. He was right. “Tahir-jan?” she asked the healer.
“Lilian-jan, it is a sacred substance. It cannot be bought or sold. It could only be obtained at a temple.”
“That does not seem difficult.”
Rashad spoke up. “My Lady, there are no temples at the Great Khangan’s palace. He does not keep holy men the way that you do,” and he looked at Pastor Vopler, who nodded in assent.
“I have heard the same thing,” he said.
Lily found that odd. “How do the people who live at the palace pray?”
“They go to the temple in the city once every ten days,” Tahir answered.
Lons, who had said nothing up until that point, became excited. “The easiest way to obtain this poison would be if you had a brother who served at the temple. Or a cousin, uncle, nephew…any relative, really. That way, the culprit would know about the properties of this ci-na…”
“Cinnabar,” Lily finished for him.
“Exactly. I expect that the priests are aware of the harm this substance causes,” Tahir agreed. He added, “It is the blood from the Mare’s wound. It can bring nothing but harm.”
Lily felt she no longer understood. “Then why do the priests put it on their faces?” she asked.
“Because the world is not perfect, Lilian-jan.” Tahir replied. He looked tired. “I will instruct you in the finer points of our religion some other time.”
The countess bowed her head in assent.
They needed to know more about the ties among the Khangan’s wives. Tahir had never been interested in such matters, and Rashad was not close enough to the royal family to have such knowledge. They would have to ask the heir.
Palace Intrigue (Medieval Tale Book 3) Page 27