‘No, thank you,’ she said. ‘Perhaps His Imperial Majesty would like it.’ Zek held the grape up for Ozorne.
He accepted it gravely. ‘Thank you, Master Zek.’
Watching him eat the grape, Daine said hesitantly, ‘I – heard your birds are sick. It’s why I came, but – are they better? Do you not need me to look at them?’
Ozorne’s face brightened. ‘No, but I thought – after your journey, and all this – when do you wish to see them? I can arrange it for the morning tomorrow, if you don’t mind.’
‘Um – if they’re sick, I’d like to see them now. If you can have a servant show me the way—’
‘Servants don’t go near my birds, except to prepare their food. Are you certain? It seems too much to ask, to have you look at them the night you arrive.’
She grinned. ‘Keeping me here when you have sick animals is asking too much.’
He got to his feet, and she followed. ‘Do you mind if I veil us?’ he asked. ‘Otherwise we will be followed; my ministers will want me to stay …’
Daine looked around. ‘I really should tell the others.’ The problem was that she could spot no one else from her company. While she had been in conversation with the emperor, the crowd had moved away from them to watch dancers in the garden. All she could see were richly dressed backs.
Ozorne raised a hand, and a slave appeared at his elbow. ‘Inform Duke Gareth of the Tortallan guests that Mistress Veralidaine has gone to look at our birds. And send the mage Lindhall Reed to us in the aviary.’
The slave bowed deeply, and the emperor offered Daine his arm. She didn’t see how she could refuse without being rude, and surely the slave would obey the order to tell Duke Gareth where she was. Carefully she rested her palm on Ozorne’s forearm, as she had seen court ladies do at home. The emperor gestured, and a copy of him split away from them to walk back to his throne. The shining barrier that hid the raised seat vanished when the copy reached the dais, and the illusion blended with the copy on the throne. Daine watched it, fascinated, as Ozorne led her through a small door at the back of the antechamber and into a narrow hall. Kitten followed, while Zek settled himself comfortably on Daine’s shoulder.
Globes like those in the room they had just left were placed at intervals along the hall. Passing the first, Ozorne gestured. It lifted free of the clawed iron foot that held it up and followed them, lighting their way through a maze of corridors and empty public rooms.
‘I’ve tried everything,’ he explained. Since the humans they passed bowed to them, Daine realized he must have dropped the invisibility spell once they’d left the reception. ‘The new quarters were finished this spring, and after we moved them in they seemed fine. Then some of my birds took sick. I noticed a palsy in their heads. They became listless; their appetites fell off. Within two weeks of the first signs, the victims die. I know a great deal of bird medicine, and Lindhall Reed has made a study of it, which is why I asked him to join us. Indeed, there he is now.’
Lindhall awaited them in front of a pair of broad white doors on which green flowering vines had been painted. He bowed low to the emperor and smiled at Daine, then turned and opened both doors, thrusting them wide. He clapped twice. Light-globes in the hall that lay before them came to life, to reveal a wonder. On the walls, birds had been inlaid with gold strips. Tiny gems served them as eyes, while craftsmen had used pieces of bright, colourful stone for their plumage. Kitten trilled her appreciation.
‘Oh, glory,’ breathed Daine. ‘Your Imperial Majesty, this is – wondrous.’
‘It is well enough,’ the emperor said coolly, surveying the inlays. ‘We thought it pretty when we designed it, but no image can take the place of a living bird.’
She couldn’t disagree, but the walls still had to be the finest thing to come from human hands.
At the end of the hall stood another pair of doors, these made of long glass panels. They were frosted and set in a network of metal pieces enamelled a bright, emerald green and shaped like vines.
‘I am a fool.’ Ozorne was upset. ‘They will be asleep. We can have light-globes – they are used to that; I often read here at night, but to disturb their rest, even to care for sick ones …’
‘You must leave that to me,’ Daine told him. ‘I won’t frighten them, and I won’t let the ones who are well interrupt their rest. It’s more important to start work now.’
‘Master Lindhall, will you remain and get whatever Veralidaine needs?’ enquired the emperor. When Daine looked at him curiously, he tried to smile. ‘To see them ill, and to be helpless – do you think less of me? I cannot watch.’
She smiled. ‘I don’t think less of you, sire. I know what it’s like to be helpless when a creature you love is ill and you can’t do anything.’
Lindhall sketched a rune in the air with a glowing finger. When the design was complete, the glass doors opened. He bowed deeply to the emperor, holding the posture, until Daine realized that both of them were waiting for her to do the same. Again she’d forgotten that she was not dealing with King Jonathan! She curtsied, wobbling a bit, as Zek squeaked and hung on to her curls. Kitten sat up on her hindquarters and bowed, too.
Emperor Ozorne nodded and left, vanishing in plain view as he passed the white doors.
Lindhall went into the aviary first, using finger-snaps to wake two small light-globes near the entrance. They illuminated the area around the door, revealing a marble bench and walks that led between banks of large, thick-leafed plants. Daine looked up and saw the shadows of trees overhead. In the darkness she could hear the murmur of fountains and brooks, and the brush of damp greenery. In her mind, she could hear the whispers of sleeping and waking birds, both well and ill.
Lindhall closed the doors behind them.
‘You don’t have to stay,’ she said quietly. The number of birds in this chamber was surprising, and the thread of ill health weaving through her senses made her feel slightly ill herself. She was starting to regret the last grape she’d eaten. ‘It’ll be fair boring.’
‘I believe I will stay in any event,’ he said, breathy voice kind. ‘Partly because I should like to see you at work, but also partly because I know Numair will feel better if I am with you.’
Daine nodded. ‘Would you mind holding Zek, then?’ she asked. To the marmoset she explained, ‘I’m going to need that shoulder.’
Resigned, the tiny animal climbed down her outstretched arm and onto Lindhall’s immense palm. Zek was beginning to realize that his new friend had her own ways of doing things. Lindhall sat on the bench, stroking Zek’s many-coloured fur with one finger, while Kitten leaped up beside him and settled down to wait. ‘Daine, may I give you a word of warning?’
Looking around, the girl saw the immense bole of a tree nearby. ‘About what, sir?’ She settled into a fold between two large roots, resting her back against the tree.
‘The emperor.’ Lindhall’s pale eyes were troubled. ‘He shows his best side in regard to his birds, and to animals in general. He possesses – other sides.’
She smiled at him. ‘I’ll keep it in mind.’ She didn’t think she had needed the extra warning – not after two years of finding imperial claws hooked into all parts of Tortall. Closing her eyes, she called her patients to her.
The ones in the best condition came first, heads bobbing on weakened necks. Some barely had the strength to fly, a result both of the disease and of the appetite loss that went with it. Daine looked deep inside herself until she found the pool of her magic. She drew it up not in threads, but in ropes, sending fibres of it into each of the birds resting on her shoulders and legs.
If they had a disease, it was like none she had ever seen. To her inner eyes, it shadowed the dab of copper fire that was each bird’s wild magic, leaving a film