Holy City: Chapter Twenty-Four

V stayed in his room that night. He did not have dinner. He stayed in his room and looked out his window at the moving clouds and at the falling sun in the sky. He looked out at the rooftops of the city of Hatusha, lights in windows just as there was a light in his. He watched many of the lights go out one at a time over several hours until it was late in the evening and it was time to rest in the high bed in the great room. V rested and thought and remembered a little. He wanted to dream once again but he knew he could not. He wanted to drift once again but he knew he could not.

Several more hours passed and there was no light anywhere in the city and the moon was covered by dark clouds. The air turned cold and V listened as a strong wind blew trees back and forth outside the windows of the Palace. The noise of marching feet in the hallway overtook the wind as a very late night turned into a very early morning. The feet marched directly and quickly to V’s door and burst in without bothering to unlock it. V turned over in his bed and was grabbed by the strong hands of a couple of military guards who lifted him onto his feet. A man in a white coat was standing behind the two military guards, the room was lit by the light from the hallway.

“Come with us.” The man in the white coat said. “You are needed.”

V did not have time to get dressed in his clothes of the day. He wore his night clothes as he walked quickly with an entourage down the hallways of the Summer Palace. A half dozen military guards and a half dozen men and women in white coats led V down long corridors and winding halls and up one flight of stairs until they arrived outside a room with much machinery.

V and the original man in a white coat and the original two guards who grabbed him from his bed entered the room. In the center of the room of machinery was a tiny little blue creature that was not moving. It was in a steel bucket on top of a gray metal platform with wheels. The two guards, each with an arm, led V to that tiny little being. The man in the white coat was looking over his shoulder. V was looking down.

“We need you to save this child.” The man in the white coat said. “It is not breathing. We have done everything we can do.”

V continued to look down. The baby was born blue. The face was blue, cold. There was no movement in its limbs. There were no cries from its voice. The blue baby sat in that sterile bucket on top of that sterile platform, unmoving.

V stared at its body. It was 3:45 in the morning. He could hear the staff of the King running and shouting in the background down the hallways and corridors of the Summer Palace. There were more men and women in white coats now attending to the machinery in the room. The original man in a white coat was still looking over his shoulder, still waiting for him to do something, anything to save the baby. V kept looking at the unmoving blue child.

A new guard, the head of the King’s security, entered the room and marched swiftly over to V and gave him a direct order.

“We know you can save the child. You have done it in the refugee camps, our men have seen you do it. Save this baby. Save the heir to the King.”

V’s eyes had not left the delicate little blue creature.

“I cannot save this child.”

“We know you have the powers to save this baby, save this baby.” The head of security said in strong tones.

V repeated the same five words, “I cannot save this child.”

The man in the white coat was pushed aside by the head of security. The head of security took the back of V’s neck and grabbed it roughly in his right hand as he took the back of V’s shirt in his left hand. He turned V around and began to march him out of the room. “If you cannot save this child then you will save the Queen.”

The Queen of Lyonesse was in a bed in a room next door. There were almost as many machines in this room as the room with the lifeless child. It did not take long for V and the head of security to reach the Queen’s room and when they did V was pushed into the room alone, stumbling through the swinging door. The guards and the men and women in white coats stayed outside. V was now alone with the Queen.

The sweating sickness had acted very fast. She had tubes in her arms, she had a tube in her nose. She was dressed in a thin gown beneath thin sheets. There was a machine that showed an unsteady red line. A monitor beeped at regular intervals in the background.

Isabel noticed there was someone else in the room. She looked up from her place in bed and saw V. Her eyes had rings around them like she had not slept for many years.

“It’s you. I didn’t expect to see your face again,” the Queen gave a weak smile.

V went to the side of her bed to comfort her. He crouched down so his face was at the same level as her face.

“It’s nice to see a face again. Everyone else has abandoned me. All I’ve seen are masks and gloves, masks and gloves, moving from this place to that place, no faces. Never any faces. No one will speak to me. No one will tell me anything. They think I am contagious. They think I am cursed and if they get too close to me they will become cursed as well.”

“You are not cursed,” V said with great compassion. Isabel looked away, disagreeing with V’s statement, then she looked back and searched for the center of his eyes.

“My baby, how is my baby?” Her sad weak smile turned hopeful.

V stood up and stiffened. He took a step back as if by reflex. V tried to speak, to tell her what he knew. He had trouble speaking. Water appeared in his eyes and his throat dried out. He closed his eyes and opened them and gave a slight shake of the head.

Isabel knew what this meant. Her eyes unfocused and she drifted far away from the palace. She floated over time itself.

When she returned her weakened state was weaker. The life now flowed out of the tubes that were trying to save her.

V did not know what to say. He wished he knew what to say. For a second time, he tried to speak, to say something to reassure, but Isabel spoke before he could. Her bloodshot eyes seemed larger than ever before, perhaps because her body seemed smaller than before.

“Show me a trick, magician. It will be the last thing that I ever see.”

V stood still for a second as he looked at Isabel and she looked back at him. They were still the only two people in the room. Outside there was commotion. Inside the room it was only the quiet pulse of the machines that imitated a steady but faint heartbeat.

V walked across the room to a table along the far wall. It held the dishes of the last meal of the day. V withdrew an empty cup and saucer from those dishes. He put the cup back down on the table and walked over to the bed with the saucer in his hands. He held the saucer out on the palm of his right hand. He put his left hand on top of the saucer. He removed his right hand from underneath the saucer and it stayed in place. He lifted his left hand and the saucer hung beautifully suspended in the air, no strings. V’s hands were at his waist, palms open. The saucer starting spinning in place.

Isabel gave a sadder weaker smile than the one she had given before. “That’s a nice trick.” She said. The saucer continued to spin in midair. Then the Queen of Lyonesse closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

The quiet pulse of the imitation heartbeat became a steady tone that filled the room. The saucer was still spinning in the air. V looked at the resting body of Isabel, a sad smile remaining on her face. V could hear footsteps from far away. Those footsteps came closer. He closed his eyes and waited until the doors behind him were pushed open. The saucer still spinning in the air.

Several people entered. One of the doctors or one of the guards shouted the Queen had died and V had done nothing to save her. Two of the king’s men grabbed V roughly. The saucer still spinning in the air.

The men dragged V away. He did not resist. V opened his eyes as the doors swung closed. He said goodbye to Isabel. The saucer fell to the floor, smashing into pieces.


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