“Drowned, to be more precise,” Aloysius added, the words clipped. “There was another healer at court then.” His pale eyes floated up to the ceiling, as if inspecting for cobwebs. “He asked permission to autopsy the body. The girl’s lungs were filled with the gold, thoroughly saturated. She could draw no breath because there was simply no room for air.”
I took a deep breath of my own, suddenly aware of the way my chest expanded so fully. I’d never thought to be grateful for that before.
“How curious,” I muttered. “Could someone bring up a basinof hot water and some towels?” Aloysius gestured toward one of the servants. “And you believe you caught this from the maid? Did she have occasion to come into close contact with you?”
His face turned stony before he shifted away, and I understood immediately just how close their contact had been.
“I’m not here to pass judgment on you, Your Majesty. I’m only trying to determine how this spreads. Is anyone else at court ill?”
Aloysius shook his head. “Not that we’re aware of, but the tremors occur across the body at random. It’s possible someone is hidingit.”
I frowned, thinking this through. “If the maid had it first…is there reason to believe she might have also spread it to the footman?” I didn’t dare to meet the king’s eyes.
“It’s very likely,” Aloysius supplied after a long silence.
“I don’t mean to pry, Your Majesty, but is there anyone else you might have passed it along to?”
“Of course not!” He struck the tabletop as another tremor shivered across his face like lightning.
I raised my hands in defense. “I meant nothing by it, sir, just—”
I was saved as the door opened and servants rolled in a cart full of towels, basins of hot water, and soap.
“What’s this for?” he snapped as I dipped the cloths into the steaming water.
“I want to try washing you—”
A cry of indignation escaped from him. “You think this is all just dirt? You think I don’t bathe?” He struggled to sit up, glaring daggers at Aloysius. “Who is this imbecile? Where did you drag her in from?”
I wanted to pinch the bridge of my nose to ward off my headache, but my hands were still gloved and covered in Marnaigne’s fluids.
“I know it’s not dirt, Your Majesty.” I turned to my valise and pulled out a glass vial. “This is a mix I’ve made of yarrow and witch hazel.” I removed the stopper and allowed him to smell it. His nose twitched, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the smell or the Shivers. “They’re very strong astringents.”
King Marnaigne shrugged as if the word meant nothing to him.
“Astringents can help to draw water out of tissue. Your skin,” I added helpfully. “We’re going to try to draw out the…” I paused, feeling uncomfortable that there wasn’t a proper term for the gold leaking out of the king’s body.
From his corner, Aloysius made a soft noise. “I’ve heard the servants call it the Brilliance.”
“The Brilliance,” I repeated.
King Marnaigne fumed darkly. “Superstitious fools. You’ll never guess what they claim all this is,” he said, running his fingers over the gold dried across his body.
Wordlessly, I shook my head.
“Sins,” he said, spitting the word as though it disgusted him. “They think the gods themselves have reached out and touched me. They think this is a purging of my sins. They thinkmecapable of sin!” He struck the table again with a roar.
I kept my gaze studiously on the floor before me, letting him storm. Millennia ago, when the world was new, the Holy First had drawn up a list of one hundred sins, crimes against order and purity and her, that all mortals should seek to avoid. I tried not to tally up the number of sins I’d spotted since arriving within the king’s chambers: excess, greed, vanity, and arrogance. Pretension and anger, wrath and rage. And there still was the matter of the maid….
It didn’t bother me. The king’s morality was his to hold or cast aside as he chose, but if the servants believed the Shivers was an actof cleansing sent from the gods…I could see the logic of their superstitions.
But they were superstitions all the same.
“Why don’t you lie back, Your Majesty, and I can begin,” I instructed once his outburst had died away. Being around the king felt more and more like conversing with Merrick when he was in a bad mood. You had to tiptoe around their furies and find little ways to sweeten their tempers without drawing attention to the work you were doing.
Marnaigne sighed but didn’t protest. He settled back onto the table and I got to work.
“We’ll start with the hot water, washing away all the dried pigments, and then, once you’re clean, I’ll use the astringent to draw out more of the Brilliance. If we can get all of it out, it may stop the tremors from occurring.”
