Chapter 2 – Alexis’s Joy
Even now I catch myself wondering whether what I saw a little while ago was a dream that happened to suit me. My daughter Martine fell ill some time in the winter, and a few days ago I was even told that there was no telling how many days she had left. When I went to her room I saw the truth of it: she had wasted so far that the light of her life looked ready to go out where she lay.
Then Master Leon used healing magic, and a gentle light closed over the whole of her, and by degrees the color came back into her face. A few minutes later, when the light went out, her breathing had steadied and the wasted look was unmistakably gone. Thin she still is, certainly. But the life is back in her, if that is the way to put it.
I was astonished as I watched it, and under the astonishment came a relief that went all the way down. I was not going to lose my daughter after all. I cannot thank Master Leon enough for it. A power of that size will become a seed of conflict sooner or later, and when it does I intend to be of use to him.
“Your Majesty. May we send word to Her Highness the Queen and His Highness the Prince?”
Master Leon had gone from the room by then, and Martine was in the middle of sharing her joy with her servants when her guard put the question to me. She is right. The two of them should be told at once.
“Yes. See to it.”
“Certainly, Your Majesty.”
A few minutes after that came a commotion outside the door, and Elisabeth and Stephane came into Martine’s room. Neither of them is ever noisy, which is the measure of how worried for her they had been.
“Martine! Is it true that you are cured?!”
“Mother. Nothing hurts me any more.”
“Martine… I am glad. Truly, truly glad.”
Elisabeth gathered Martine into her arms and wept. Stephane’s eyes had filled as well. It came right in the end… Without Master Leon these would have been the tears of a family that had lost her, and that they are tears of joy instead is his doing from first to last.
“Martine, are you all right now?”
“Brother, nothing is hard for me any more. I shall be well again very soon.”
“I see… I am truly glad.”
“Yes. It is thanks to Father, who had a celebrated apothecary brought here from another country.”
“A celebrated apothecary…?”
Something in that had snagged on Elisabeth, and she tilted her head.
“Alexis. I have heard nothing of your sending for any such apothecary.”
This is bad… Elisabeth is angry, and I have no idea why. Why? There shouldn’t be a single false note anywhere in the story.
“If it had come to nothing, your hopes would have been raised for nothing, would they not? That is why I said nothing of it.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Of course it is the truth.”
I’ve never been any match for that look of hers when she means to have the truth out of me… Stop. Please stop. I was praying it when she took her eyes off me and turned back to Martine. Hah… Saved.
“Alexis. We shall talk after this.”
The cold voice came almost at once, though. Settle me first, then drop it on me… that’s Elisabeth for you. Since I’d been meaning to tell the family about Master Leon in any case, the timing does me no harm. We shall clear the room afterward and talk it out.
We stayed with Martine a while longer, then left her to her maids, and the three of us went out. The moment we were in the corridor, the Elisabeth who had been smiling so happily a breath before turned on me the face that means business.
“Let us go to your room.”
“Very well. We shall talk there.”
We reached the room, had a valet bring tea and nothing else, and sent every servant out.
“Alexis, tell me the truth. It is not possible that you should send for an apothecary and keep it a secret from me.”
“Yes. I shall tell you all of it. Martine was cured because I asked it of a user of healing magic who can cure illness. His name is Master Leon, and he is the Apostle of God.”
“Surely not… the Apostle has come down to us?”
“He has. It makes a long story. Will you hear it from the beginning?”
“Of course.”
So I told Elisabeth and Stephane the whole course of it, from the first I ever heard that Master Leon existed, and I hid nothing.
“That the Apostle should have come down at this hour of all hours… we must be grateful for it.”
“We must. That Martine was saved at all, I can call nothing but fortune.”
“I should like to thank him.”
“Then I shall make an occasion for it before long. But we are not to treat Master Leon as the Apostle. He says himself that he is not the Apostle, and Richard and I talked it over and settled that pressing the title on him against his own word would not do. He may have reasons of his own for keeping his standing to himself.”
“That is true. I shall be careful.”
Elisabeth nodded, deeply. She had taken the point, which was a relief.
“One thing more. If Master Leon’s ability becomes known the danger of his being made a target is high, so I want it spoken of to nobody until he has noble standing of his own. Stephane, that means you are not to tell a soul either.”
“I understand. But Master Leon is to be in my year, is he not?”
“He is.”
“Then I shall have a good deal to do with him. May I tell him myself that I know what he can do?”
“Of course. That is no trouble at all. When Master Leon next comes to the palace I shall tell him from my side as well, that the two of you know.”
“Thank you, Father. I would be grateful.”
“My dear, what would do for Master Leon’s gift? And when are we to be able to meet him?”
When he next comes up to the palace would do, presumably. The magic lessons will begin once Martine is well again, and that leaves time enough to have a gift prepared besides.
“When Master Leon comes to teach Martine magic, I shall make an occasion after the lesson.”
“Certainly. Then I shall have the gift ready against that day. Do you know of anything Master Leon wants?”
“No, I don’t. Would ornaments or clothes not be safe enough?”
“Oh, that would do very well. I shall have something worthy of Master Leon prepared.”
Elisabeth has thrown herself into it entirely… She’s likely to send something outrageous, but this is the man who saved Martine’s life; however dear the gift, it’ll be cheap at the price.
“When the day he comes is settled, I shall send word.”
“I shall look forward to it.”
“So shall I.”
So our talk ended, the three of us together. That we are able to sit and speak quietly like this is Master Leon’s doing entirely; my family’s smiles have been kept safe, and I am more glad of that than I can say.