Faerie Lord

Seventy-Eight

‘Do you have a diagnosis?’ Madame Cardui asked, buttoning her blouse.

Chief Wizard Healer Danaus, who had carried out the examination with his back turned, said quietly, ‘I’m afraid you test positive.’

‘I have the time plague?’

‘In its early stages, yes.’

They were in the Chief Wizard’s private consulting rooms. There was a guard on the door and military grade privacy spells were in place. With Queen Blue no longer in the Palace, her Gatekeeper dead and Pyrgus in stasis, Madame Cardui was painfully aware the state of her own health had political implications. She said quietly, ‘What do you suggest?’

‘Immediate stasis,’ Danaus said bluntly.

‘Impossible,’ said Madame Cardui. She finished adjusting her clothing and added, ‘You may turn round now.’

Danaus turned his large bulk slowly. He had a sober, strained expression on his face, impossible…?’ he echoed tiredly.

Madame Cardui said briskly, ‘Until Her Majesty returns, I am needed in the Palace.’

Danaus shook his head. ‘No one is indispensable.’

Madame Cardui sighed, ‘I’m afraid I am, Chief Wizard Healer. At least until Queen Blue returns, and possibly beyond then. It is simply impossible for me to go into immediate stasis.’

‘Impossible or not, it is necessary.’ They stood looking at each other in silence; then, to her astonishment and not a little shock, he reached out to take her hand. ‘Cynthia,’ he said quietly, ‘Prince Pyrgus is a young man hardly more than a child. You have seen how the fever has ravaged him. Gatekeeper Fogarty was a mature man when he caught the fever. You saw how quickly it killed him.’ He looked deep into her eyes. ‘Forgive me, Cynthia, but you are older even than Gatekeeper Fogarty. You may not feel it, you do not look it, but that’s the simple fact of it: I have your medical records.’

Madame Cardui extricated her hand gently and turned her head away. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘that’s true. Alan never knew how many years there were between us the difference between faerie and human physiology, of course – and I felt no great need to tell him.’ She looked back at Danaus, her eyes suddenly fierce. ‘But it’s not the age that counts, is it? As I understand this plague, what is really important is the amount of future one has left remaining. Is this not so, Chief Wizard Healer? An eighty-year-old faerie with a hundred years remaining is surely better off than an eighty-year-old human who might be lucky to have ten?’

‘You are not an eighty-year-old faerie,’ Danaus said gently. ‘You do not have a hundred years remaining.’

‘No,’ Madame Cardui agreed, ‘but you take my point.’

‘I understand the point you are making, but there is something else that must be taken into consideration. Our research shows that the disease progresses more quickly when contracted late in life.’

That was something else he hadn’t mentioned before. She blinked, but managed to keep the irritation from her voice. ‘You’re saying that the disease uses up the remaining future of an adult at a faster rate than it uses up the future of a child?’

‘That is exactly what I am saying. The plague is at its most virulent when it first strikes. Had you contracted this disease fifty years ago, it might take months, perhaps even years, to burn up the future you now have remaining. But since you have only just become ill, the time left to you will be short.’ He hesitated, then added, ‘Perhaps very short.’ He looked at her soberly. ‘Your only hope – your only hope – is immediate stasis. That at least will keep you alive indefinitely, even if it does not permit you to function.’

‘You did not recommend stasis in the case of Princess Nymphalis.’

‘Your case is entirely different – I’ve just explained that in great detail.’

She knew she was being an irritating old woman. She also knew he had her best interests at heart. The trouble was Chief Wizard Healer Danaus exactly lived up to his title. He was a healer first, foremost, always and nothing more. His grasp of politics was confined to lobbying for an increase in his department’s budget. He saw the time fever solely as a disease to be battled, a plague to be stopped. He had no realisation of its wider implications. He would not see, for example, how it weakened the Realm, left it open to revolution from within or attack from without. He would not see the importance of strong leadership at a time like this. Comma functioned perfectly well as a holding operation, but he did not have the experience to handle an emergency. Danaus could not realise how precarious a position they were all in with their Queen absent. (And Madame Cardui blamed herself for that little eventuality. She should never have allowed Blue to leave the Palace. But she had been so concerned with Alan’s visions that her judgement had been clouded – she admitted that now, at least to herself.)

Madame Cardui took a deep breath. ‘Your diagnosis of my condition is based on early warning signs, is it not?’

‘There is no doubt in my mind,’ said Danaus grimly. ‘You have the fever. To try to convince yourself otherwise would be a grave mistake.’

Madame Cardui shook her head, ‘I understand I have the disease, but the fever has not actually manifested yet.’

‘It could do so literally at any minute.’

‘But until it does, my future is not in peril?’

‘Technically no. But -’

‘Chief Wizard Healer,’ Madame Cardui said with a note of finality in her voice, ‘there can be no question of placing me in stasis now. I have far too much to do. I would suggest you put a stasis chamber on standby. When the fever manifests, you have my permission to place me in it immediately.’

‘That assumes I, or some other healer, will be with you when the fever manifests,’ Danaus said.

Madame Cardui said nothing.

Danaus said, ‘Madame Cardui, I cannot stress strongly enough the risk involved in what you are asking me to do. At your age, the fever could burn up your available future within an hour or so at most, probably less and possibly a great deal less. If the fever strikes while you are asleep tonight, you will be dead by morning. If the fever strikes while you are alone, you could be dead before anyone arrives to help. Even if the fever strikes while you are surrounded by people and I am miraculously standing by your side, you might be dead before we got you to the stasis chamber.’

‘That’s a risk I’ll have to take,’ said Madame Cardui.