Give the Dark My Love(52)

I could see the weariness etched on his face. I wondered if Master Ostrum started out this way, and he only looked old now because he had seen too much of the darkness in the world.

“You there!” an authoritative voice cut across the hallway. Silence fell immediately. A broad man with white hair and pallid skin pointed at Grey and me. “Fetch your masters.”

I crossed the corridor to the man. “Our master isn’t here.”

The man glanced at the golden crucible in my hands. “You any good?” He was dressed stylishly and spoke with the quick, clipped tones of someone from the city.

“She’s the best,” Grey said, his voice icy. I wondered if he knew the man standing in front of us. He did look familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him.

The man jerked his head toward a nearby suite of rooms that had clearly already been prepared for him. A potion maker stood to the side, a large bottle of tincture of blue ivy in his hands.

The man got into the bed in the center of the room. I blinked away my surprise—he spoke with such authority that I’d assumed he worked at the hospital, not that he was a patient. But then I noticed the black stain on the fingertips of his left hand.

“Do you have plague anywhere else?” I asked. “There are many more people outside who need immediate attention—”

“It is not that gods-forsaken disease!” the man roared, clutching his hand to his chest.

Grey moved protectively behind me. “Lord Anton,” he started.

The man barked with bitter laughter. “So, you recognize me.”

And I did, too—the man Master Ostrum had argued with in his office, who had a large gold crest on his hat.

“This is not the plague,” Lord Anton said, extending his hand past me and to Grey. “I do not interact with the filth of this city.”

My jaw set, and I stepped back. So. It was like that.

“Excuse me,” I said as Grey attempted to examine a man whose diagnosis was as visible as the nose on his face. “I have filth to attend to.” I left the room before Grey could protest.

And I bumped directly into the governor, almost knocking her down in the hallway.

“Your, um . . .” I started. She was the governor, ruling in regency for the Emperor, so she wasn’t technically a “highness.”

“Hello,” she said kindly. “I’m Adelaide.”

“Yes, ma’am, I know, ma’am,” I stuttered foolishly.

She was one of the most beautiful people I’d ever met. She wore a dress of embroidered silk that cinched in at the waist with a silver girdle, and her hair was chestnut brown, shot through with strands of white that looked almost decorative. A silver diadem was woven through her locks. Even though the hospital was muggy and oppressively hot, she was cool and collected, and made it seem as if we were the only two people in the entire building.

Her smile was kind and genuine. “Are you an alchemist here?” she asked.

“Studying to be one,” I said.

“At Yūgen?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good,” Governor Adelaide said. “We need all the people we can get to help with this plague—both in treating patients and in finding a cure. Who is your master at the academy?”

“Master Ostrum,” I said.

I had become accustomed to people being impressed when I mentioned my master’s name; his reputation was well established. Instead, Governor Adelaide frowned slightly. “I’m afraid he doesn’t like me very much,” she said when she noticed my look of concern. “But he’s one of the best, that’s for certain.”

“If it helps,” I said, “I don’t think Master Ostrum likes much of anybody.”

Governor Adelaide laughed.

“Get that infernal woman out of here!” Lord Anton bellowed from his suite.

“Well, off to work,” Governor Adelaide said, and although I knew she was trying to be cheerful in the face of Lord Anton’s rudeness, her smile was strained. She entered the suite. I hesitated a moment, but then followed her inside.

“Lord Anton,” Governor Adelaide said.

Grey’s eyes widened as the governor swept into the room. He looked past her shoulder, probably expecting an entourage of lords and ladies, and seemed a little surprised when it was only me.

“Get out,” Lord Anton growled.

“I came to wish you well,” Governor Adelaide said. “I heard you were ill, and—”

“Your hospital sent me here,” Lord Anton said. “Despite the fact that I do not have the plague.”

Governor Adelaide looked down at his hand, but did not say what we were all thinking.

“It’s a filthy, disgusting poor man’s disease,” Lord Anton muttered. “This is just another attempt to malign my good name.”

“We’re no longer campaigning for the governorship,” Governor Adelaide said gently.

Lord Anton wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Get out,” he grumbled. And then, after no one moved, he added, “Please.”

“Young lady,” the governor said, turning to me, “would you be so kind as to show me how I may help out here?”

“Nedra, ma’am,” Grey said. “Her name is Nedra Brysstain, and she’s the brightest alchemist at Yūgen.” Pride radiated from him as I escorted the governor from the suite, leaving him with a grumpy Lord Anton.