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It is evening and Lucas and Solace are alone together in their private sitting room, curled together on cushions in front of the fire.
"Solace," says Lucas, his arms around her, and his dark head resting against her fair one. "Would you mind if I tried a little experiment? There's something I've heard of ... I want to try it. It won't hurt or harm you at all. In fact, it will be rather fun.
"I want you to go into the nursery with the children. Chase Nanny Starch out, and stay there till you hear me.
"Erm ... you may see me too."
"All right," says Solace. She seems a little confused, but as always, complies with Lucas' wishes. She kisses him, rises, and goes out to the nursery.
Lucas allows her five minutes to reach the nursery and shoo away Nanny Starch. Then he takes out the trump of her that he has created and begins to focus on it.
"Solace?"
Lucas feels the contact beginning to come together, the questioning feel of Solace's sweet, biddable mind touching his. Then it fails, and the vision of Solace in the nursery collapses inward on itself.
He hears Solace scream, and then Hope is crying loudly for him.
In his hand, the sketch is intact, but there is no power in it.
Lucas, for all his indolence and languor, has a fast turn of speed when he wants, and he uses it now.
In a very few seconds he is in the Nursery.
Hope is standing over her mother's crumpled form, wailing. Solace is unconscious, but her face is drawn in lines of pain. She doesn't seem to have hit her head or otherwise hurt herself in the fall. Whatever happened to her, happened before.
Philippe has been awakened by his sister's cries, and is complaining vocally himself. Lucas has only a few moments before the household descends on the nursery.
"Shh, Hope," says Lucas in his 'firm Father' voice (not unkind, but meant to be heeded). "Mother and Father are playing."
He lifts Solace in his arms - after all, it will not be the first time that Hope has seen her mother carried thus out of the nursery - although usually Solace will be awake and voicing giggling protests on the way to the bedroom. But this should be enough to calm Hope. Nanny Starch will take care of the nursery - for all her appearance as a dragon to outsiders she is, like all Lucas's staff, fiercely loyal and devoted.
And, surely enough, Lucas hears her bustling into the nursery and calming the children.
Lucas therefore carries Solace to their bedroom and lays her gently on the bed. He dips a silk kerchief in the water jug and begins to sponge her face gently with the cool liquid. Even as he does so, he is running over the trump contact in his mind. Did it feel like a normal trump contact? Was he conscious of a third person? Was he conscious of barriers set against contact?
It felt like a normal contact as it formed, but the way it broke up was completely new to him. He didn't sense any other persons or any barrier against contact. It is unlike anything he has ever experienced--although his experiences with trumping people are limited, since no one knows he is a master of the art.
As he tends her, Lucas is revolving possibilities.
Either Solace is not of the blood, as this is what happens when you try to trump the unblooded. Lucas thinks this unlikely - if Solace was not of the blood, the trump would never have quickened in the first place. If he decides to test this hypothesis, he will need to make a trump of a definitely unblooded person - his unfortunate food taster, Goutier, springs to mind.
The second possibility is something that Lucas is slightly concerned about - that this is an effect of the attack at the Masque. He resolves to test this by using one of his place trumps (probably his bedroom) when he is next alone. It won't be the same as a personal trump ... but if one style is corrupted, then presumably all are - Dara wasn't =that= subtle with the cards, he suspects.
The third possibility is that something - or someone - blocked the connection. And Lucas has his own suspicions who - or what - that might have been.
Lucas doesn't know anything that would invalidate any of these hypotheses.
As soon as she shows the first signs of stirring, he calls her name gently.
It takes several minutes for Solace to come around.
"Lucas?" she whispers, sounding a little thick-tongued. "What happened?" She opens her eyes, then closes them again, as if the room is too bright for her.
"I'm not sure," says Lucas quietly and soothingly. "You were in the nursery - I was just about to test something I wanted to show you. Then I heard you call out - and collapse. Then Hope started to bawl and I ran in.
"What do you remember, sweet?"
"I thought I saw you, Lucas." Solace opens her eyes again starts to sit up, but she can't quite manage it and she falls back to the bed. This time she stays down and her eyes remain closed. "I seemed to see you, and then, it was like a dream, and the colours all faded and the picture went away, and it hurt, oh Lucas, it hurt! It hurt like I was coming apart!"
She pauses to take a breath. "And then I woke up in here with you tending to me. And my vision is blurry and my head aches and it's so bright."
It doesn't seem very bright at all to Lucas.
Nevertheless he dims the lights in the room, and has the estimable Gaston fetch lavender water and cloths that he might bathe Solace's head. As he does so, he speaks to her gently.
"Solace ... I think you've been attacked by something - I'm not sure what. I had set up what I hoped would be a simple alarm in the nursery - you should have heard my voice ... But I think something - or someone - intervened. Rest now. For the moment we should say nothing ... I think this will be a migraine and you'll be able to sleep it off. But if there are lasting effects, we'll have Gerard have a look at you.
"And we're going to change the children's nursery. If you could be attacked there ... "
He says no more, but holds her hand tightly.
Solace's grip is weak, but it tightens on Lucas' hand, and her pale face grows even paler. "I trust you to take care of us, Lucas," she whispers.
After a while he leaves her to sleep (probably once she is asleep). Solace's maid (or the pageboy Pert) is instructed to sit with her; the rest of the staff are enlisted into a quiet (for Solace's sake) removal of the nursery to another room. Lucas's staff should be used to obeying without asking troublesome questions - room reorganisations on the basis of transient whims are not entirely unknown in Lucas' household.
Once all his staff are busy, Lucas quietly makes his way to his study. From a locked wall safe (or possibly a secret drawer in his desk) he takes out his trumps. He looks to select one of a location close at hand (his bedroom, for example, or his dressing room). Then he draws a deep breath and attempts to make contact.
Lucas finds that he is able to make the contact normally. He feels that he could step through if he wishes.
He decides not to, but it does relieve his mind a little. However ... for his next test he requires Goutier, his usual hapless victim. In the mean-time he goes to check on arrangements for the new nursery, and to see how far his instructions have been carried out.
Arrangements are proceeding satisfactorily, and his staff has moved quickly to put things together in the new room.
He immediately takes Hope into his own charge.
"I shall bring her back when the nursery is fully organised," he promises Nanny Starch as he bears her off.
He takes Hope to the inner sanctum of his dressing room - a place she is only ever allowed to enter when she has been very, very good - so this is a high treat. There he addresses her in grave, adult tones (Lucas does not believe in speaking down to children - their minds will be more stretched, he considers, by having to rise to adult levels).
"Now Hope, I want you to tell me exactly what you saw in the nursery - and exactly what you did. Papa isn't cross with you - in fact, Papa is very pleased. You have been a very sensible girl.
"And now Papa wants to hear all about it."
Hope clings to her father's hand. She speaks in her usual high-pitched voice, but she is very serious, and her pronunciation is very correct. "Mama was playing with the baby in his crib, and she suddenly stood straight. It was like she was looking at something, but I couldn't tell what she was seeing. And then Mama cried, like the baby, and she fell over. I ran over to her, Papa, but I couldn't wake her, and I was afraid, so I cried."
Her chin quivers. "Is Mama all right, Papa?"
"She has a rather nasty headache, my angel, but I am sure she will be over it in a day or two," says Lucas almost absently. "Now, Hope, you may re-arrange the contents of my cufflink drawer, and then we shall take you back to your nice new nursery - and you can choose what colour silk you would like for the walls."
The cufflink drawer is, as Lucas knows, Hope's favourite, and she never tires of imposing new and intricate systems for its arrangement.
"Thank you, Papa." Hope still looks quite solemn, but the prospect of the cufflink drawer elicits a smile from her.
Once she is absorbed, he returns quietly to the bedroom to see how Solace is faring.
Solace has gone to sleep.
Lucas sits and quietly examines his trump of her before returning to the dressing room.
The Trump remains dead. Lucas doubts it will ever quicken again.
Once Hope is finished, Lucas takes her back to the nursery. He then declares that his nerves have been shattered by the whole thing, and that, as Solace's indisposition renders it impossible for him to revive himself by playing his violin (a fact which doubtless pleases his staff), he will attempt to draw instead. He instructs Goutier to pose for him while Solace sleeps. And he commences a sketch of the man, attempting to see if he can create a trump of someone who is resolutely not an Amberite.
Lucas will continue to do this until Solace wakes up.
After a couple of hours, Lucas has concluded that the sketch of Goutier will not ever quicken. His instincts with Trump tell him this is so.
Solace awakens briefly, long enough to take a glass of water. If she is to see Gerard, waiting any longer would be suspicious.
If Solace seems no better, Lucas will send for Gerard. His message will be brief.
"I believe my wife has been attacked. Please come."
Gerard comes at once. His wheelchair is a bit awkward, and he requires Lucas' assistance to examine Solace, since she's weak and feels ill, but he is very thorough, and asks both of them what happened.
Solace repeats the explanation she gave to Lucas.
Lucas looks worriedly at Gerard. "What do you think it was?"
"I've no idea, lad." He shakes his head. "Solace, I see nothing wrong wi' ye but the headache now, and if I read the signs right, that should pass in a day or so. Surely it's naught that would strike the children, although Lucas was wise to move them. Don't you worry."
He says to Lucas, "Let's let Solace sleep now," and starts to adjust his wheelchair to wheel himself out of the room.
Lucas goes with him.
"Thank you," he says, when they are out of earshot of Solace's room. "You've relieved her mind - and mine as well."
He looks a little questioningly at his uncle, however, in case there is more to come.
"Well, first, I don't think she's pregnant, which is a good thing," Gerard says. Lucas may recall that they have had a discussion about the inadvisability of any more children for Solace.
"Second, I do think this will wear off, or at least I see no reason why it shouldn't. And third, if you think she's been attacked, it must be by magic. We'd best speak to Venesch and Dame Lilly about it."
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XV: Catching up with the Gossip | Index | XVII: Attack Aftermath
