“What do you think, Lieutenant?” Alice said, deciding Cixi couldn’t understand her. “Should we say why we’re here?”
“We have to tell someone,” Phipps said. “We can’t just walk into the Forbidden City and look around for a cure. We need aid. And it sounds like this new emperor won’t be very helpful, to say the least.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Alice admitted. “But I don’t trust her.”
“No,” Phipps said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t all cooperate for the moment. Remember, we have something she desperately wants-your remaining alive and healthy.”
“Very well. Translate again, if you would.” She took a deep breath. “Lady Orchid, we have come to China to find a cure for clock-er, Dragon Men.”
Phipps translated this. There was a long pause, and then Cixi said, “Why?”
The question took Alice aback. “The Dragon Man in the room next-door is my fiance. He will die soon. I. . want him to live.”
“But being a Dragon Man is the greatest honor a commoner can achieve,” Cixi said, clearly shocked. “Regardless of how Su Shun feels about you, your fiance could walk into the Forbidden City right now and they would treat him with honor and reverence.”
“Until he goes mad and dies,” Alice said bitterly.
“His funeral would be enormous, and he would be buried in the Cemetery of Midnight Dragons. The eunuchs would burn incense on his grave every month, and his name would be added to the list of Dragon Men for recitation every New Year. No one would ever forget him.”
“Look, I don’t wish to debate this.” Alice fumbled in her own sleeve and produced a rather grubby handkerchief, with which she dabbed her eyes. Her other hand still bore the corks. “I can cure the plague, or blessing, or whatever you to call it, among normal patients, but people who become Dragon Men change the organism somehow, and the disease becomes immune to my cure. I later learned that several cures in England have been invented and destroyed over the years, and China’s reputation led me to believe a cure for Dragon Men may exist here. So we have come. That is the end of it.”
“I see.” Cixi sat down, and the maid pushed a stool under her. “Then I regret to inform you that there is no cure for Dragon Men.”
The words struck Alice with all the impact of a physical blow, and the room rocked from side to side. Her vision dimmed. She saw Gavin chained to a wall in a straitjacket, howling and screaming, foaming at the mouth, biting at his lips until they bled. She saw his eyes, wild and terrible and filled with pain. It was the eventual fate of every clockworker.
She came back to herself. She tried to deny the words, tell herself Cixi was lying. But Cixi had no reason to lie about this. Slowly, she brought herself fully upright on the bed, forcing herself to face the awful truth. Phipps’s face was iron. Click watched them both.
“How do you know this?” Alice said hoarsely.
“I was Imperial Concubine. I had my own eunuchs, my own maids, and my own spies. And I had the emperor’s ear. I know-knew-everything that happened in the Forbidden City. If someone had cured a Dragon Man, I would have heard of it before the emperor did. But if you don’t believe me, think of this-why would we want to cure Dragon Men? The very idea is ridiculous! No one would even research such a thing.”
“Clockworkers do as they wish,” Alice replied weakly. “They-”
“Not here. The Jade Hand speaks in their ears, and they build what the emperor desires.”
“The Jade Hand speaks? Is that the salamander Lieutenant Li implanted in Gavin’s ear?”
“Indeed. No Dragon Man has ever researched a cure for the blessing of dragons, no matter what you may have heard. The blessing is a sacred thing. Emperor Xianfeng lived in fear of contracting it, but even he could not bring himself to order any of the Dragon Men to look into a cure of any kind.”
“Oh God,” Alice moaned. The world was falling apart around her. She had put herself and Gavin in mortal danger for a cure that didn’t exist. “What will we do, then?”
“But. .,” Lady Orchid continued.
Alice looked at her. “But?”
“There is no reason we could not look for a cure.” Lady Orchid spoke slowly, as if the words were difficult to say. “If my son were on the throne, and I were regent, I could order it done.”
“I don’t understand,” Alice said. “You just said-”
“The Dragon Men haven’t found a cure in large part because the emperor has never ordered them to look for one. If my son sat on the throne, I could tell him to order all the Dragon Men in the empire to look for a cure. Since China would not be at war, the Dragon Men would be. . unoccupied. Imagine how much they might accomplish if the Jade Hand forced them all to work together.”
“Oh. I–I don’t think so,” Alice said. “Frankly, I don’t know that I can trust you, Lady Orchid, rude as that sounds.”
“I understand fully, but what other options do you have, Lady Michaels?”
“Gavin is brilliant. He might find a cure on his own.”
“Perhaps.” Lady Orchid’s tone was languid now. “Does he have a full laboratory on that ship of his? We didn’t see one. Has he shown any expertise at working with the blessing of dragons? I don’t recall hearing of any.”
“No,” Alice admitted. “But we could go look for someone who does have it. Unless you plan to keep us here.”
“Of course not. You are not prisoners. You are free to leave at any time.” She paused. “How much time does your fiance have before the blessing takes him, more or less?”
“I don’t know. A month, we think. Two at most.”
“And in that time, you think you can find a Dragon Man, persuade him to begin research, and create this cure you seek.” Lady Orchid examined her nails. “That would be quite an accomplishment.”
“She’s toying with you,” Phipps added after the translation.
“I’m aware of that. I don’t like it.”
“You won’t find any such Dragon Man in China, of course,” Lady Orchid continued as if there had been no interruption. “No Chinese Dragon Man would work on a cure. So you must spend a certain amount of time traveling back the way you came. That may prove difficult. Your ship is rather conspicuous. You yourself do not blend in with Chinese. And you do not speak our language. I wonder how far such a lady could run before Su Shun found her, especially with so many people seeking her.”
Alice sighed. “Let’s cut through the treacle.”
“I don’t know how to translate that,” Phipps put in.
“You are saying that if I don’t help you,” Alice said, “then we have no chance of finding a cure before Gavin. . succumbs, and I stand a good chance of being captured and killed. But if we do help you, you’ll put all your resources toward creating a cure.”
“I give you my sworn word as a member of the Imperial Court, Lady Michaels. I swear to you by the spirits of my ancestors and as a lady of the Yehenara clan that if you help me, I will fulfill this obligation to you.”
And she bowed low before Alice.
“She is bowing as if before a lord,” Phipps said. “Either she means every word, or she is the most skilled liar in all of China.”
Alice still didn’t trust Lady Orchid, but neither did she see an alternative. “All right,” she said. “I agree to your terms.”