A look of palpable relief crossed Lady Orchid’s face. “Thank you, honored lady.”
“I would like to see Gavin now.”
Here, Lady Orchid hesitated. “That may not be wise.”
Alice tensed. “What’s wrong?” She bolted out of the bed and realized for the first time she wore no shoes or stockings. The maid bustled forward to slip her feet into a pair of soft white slippers. “You said-”
“It is possible to see him,” Lady Orchid said quickly. “I am just uncertain that you truly wish it.”
“Lady-”
“Very well.” She said something to the mute maid, who scurried out. Moments later, the door opened again and a strange chair entered. Alice had seen wheelchairs before, but this one walked on delicate spider legs. White curtains shrouded the occupant. Alice strode forward and thrust them aside. Gavin sat within. In stark contrast to all the white clothing Alice had seen so far, Gavin wore plain black silk from neck to ankle. A round cap that flared out on all sides covered his hair. A day’s worth of pale stubble covered his chin, and the ugly salamander still curled around his left ear. He didn’t look up when Alice yanked the curtains away. His attention was rooted on a small painting in his lap. On the canvas, a woman with a white face and tiny ruby lips in a trailing red robe fanned herself near a shimmering brook. Chinese characters flowed down one side of the painting. Gavin stared at the painting as if he might fall into it.
“Gavin?” Alice touched his arm. “Gavin!”
He didn’t respond. Alice’s heart twisted and sank. It was his first fugue state in quite some time, and she had been hoping that the plague might have somehow left him. A foolish hope.
“The painting hung on the wall of his room,” Lady Orchid supplied. “If he is like other Dragon Men, he will eventually come out of this state and work on something fantastic.”
“And burn out his mind all the faster,” Alice retorted. “Gavin! Darling, speak to me!”
But Gavin continued staring at the painting. Alice licked her lips. Clockworkers experienced two kinds of fugue states. The first, often triggered by an odd idea or a piece of machinery that needed repair or even a stray word, sent them into a frenzy of experimentation, designing, and building. The second, often triggered by something beautiful, usually something with a pattern to it, drew them into a trance. Music was a favorite trigger, but artwork or the spreading pattern in a droplet of blood could do the trick as well. Both fugues disturbed Alice greatly. During a building fugue, clockworkers turned into snarling monsters that treated even their closest loved ones like filth, and during a trance fugue, clockworkers stared and drooled. Alice always feared Gavin might not come back from whatever place he was visiting.
“Gavin,” she repeated.
“He is speaking with dragons,” Lady Orchid said through Phipps. “It is very bad luck to disturb him.”
Alice ignored this. She shook Gavin’s shoulder. “Gavin! Darling, listen to my voice. Come back to me. Please, Gavin. Follow my voice and come back to me.”
Still no response. Disregarding the presence of Phipps and Lady Orchid, Alice leaned into the chair and kissed him. The kiss went delicate and deep. She felt like a single leaf landing on a pool to create tiny ripples that flowed out in all directions. Gavin jerked and gasped for breath. He blinked and looked around.
“What-?” he said. “Alice?”
Alice sighed with relief. “I’ll explain in a moment. Can you stand up?”
“Yes.” He started to glance down at the painting in his lap. “What is-?” Alice took the artwork away from him.
Lady Orchid’s face was hard with disapproval, but she only said, “It is not good to discuss powerful ideas with the door open.”
Gavin scrambled out of the chair, looking like his old self. He snatched the cap off his head and stared at it. “What happened? What’s going on? Why am I wearing black pajamas and a hat indoors?”
Alice quickly explained the situation to him. When she finished, Gavin nodded. “We need to work with her, then. Where’s my ship?”
“Prince Kung’s men deflated your ship and brought it here under cover of darkness last night. It and all the automatons aboard it are safely hidden on the palace grounds.”
“What about Lieutenant Li and his men?”
Alice had completely forgotten about them, and she felt a little guilty that she hadn’t asked after them.
“They are safe.”
“Safe? What does that mean?” Gavin asked.
Lady Orchid cocked her head. “Is he important to you, Lord Ennock?”
“I’m not a lord-”
“The blessing of dragons makes you a lord.”
“Oh. Uh, Li is important to me, yes. I want to know what happened to him and his men. Did you turn them over to Su Shun for execution?”
“Certainly not!” Lady Orchid looked horrified at the idea. “Su Shun would torture them to find out what they know, and we would be undone. At the moment, they are waiting in one of the outbuildings. The men who can read and write will be executed with honor so they cannot be forced to write what they know, and those who are illiterate will have their tongues cut out so they cannot betray us. We are merciful here.”
Phipps clearly had a hard time translating these words. Gavin looked as unhappy as Alice felt.
“No,” Alice and Gavin said together.
“I beg your pardon?”
“No,” Gavin repeated. “Li is a good man who did his duty, and his men don’t deserve any of this. If you kill or maim them in any way, I won’t help you. That’s the end of it.”
“But-”
“I won’t discuss it.” Gavin folded his arms. “I’d rather go mad from the plague.”
“I. . very well, Lord Ennock. We will keep them here until this is over.”
Gavin bowed to her in a perfect imitation of the gesture Lady Orchid had made earlier. “Thank you, Lady Orchid. You are most kind.”
His words seemed to placate her a little. “We must discuss what to do next, then.”
“You don’t know?” Phipps said. “I thought you had a plan.”
“Your pardon. I have only recently arrived in Peking with my son after fleeing Jehol for our lives. There has been little time for planning.”
“Well.” Alice sat on the bed again, and Click moved into her lap. “It seems to me that there’s only one quick, sure way to put your son on the throne, Lady Orchid.”
“And what is that?”
“We must steal the Jade Hand.”
Chapter Eleven
A faint tremble shook the table as Cixi set her teacup on it. Prince Kung paused over his own cup to glance at the ceiling, as if it were at fault.
“The war machines are stomping about,” Kung said. “I wonder if Su Shun will invade even if he does not find Lady Michaels.”
“He cannot hold the throne if he does not invade,” Cixi said. “No emperor can be so disfigured as he. This war is a distraction from his disqualification.”
“He is a warlord, and he intends to prove it to the world.” Prince Kung drained his cup. They were sitting in his chambers, again with the spy holes closed. Zaichun was squirreled away in another room, still in disguise. So far as the servants were concerned, Kung was sheltering a recently widowed cousin, a casualty of the second war over opium. “One wonders what you thought of the conversation with the foreigners.”
Cixi pursed her lips. “It is difficult to discuss anything with such people. They have no manners, and they ask direct questions that make a lady of any delicacy blush. One is forced to say things one would never normally say. It is quite shocking. No wonder they are called barbarians.”