A Test

The urgent scream by the healer was enough to motivate all of the group to follow the doctor as he hurried from the room. Hanna plodded along like a mortal creature, and Devrim clutched his son to his side as he walked quickly away from the bed.

Unwilling to be left behind, Aurora called until two servants helped her onto her stiffened legs. After passing through the doctor's surgery and into the main room of the infirmary, the Empress found a half dozen healers surrounding a cot along with the four beings who had left her behind. Their faces were in various states of shock and surprise.

With the help of the servants, Aurora huffed over, ready to berate them for leaving her behind. However, when she reached the bed, her expression changed also.

On the cot, Nanny lay still. "She was dead, I swear!" a healer explained frantically.

Aurora was struck by his words. 'Was?'

The doctor knelt by the cot, his hand firmly placed on Nanny's wrist. After a moment, his eyes widened slightly and he glared at the healer.

"I don't know what happened!" The healer insisted. "She had no heartbeat, at least none we could detect..."

Aurora noticed the white sheet covering most of the Nanny's body. From what she could see of the woman's clothes, they had not been changed. The beds next to hers had been recently emptied and the sheets were still soiled.

"The undertaker's men came to get Nanny and the others, but when they were to move her, she moved first!" The healer was close to swooning.

"Moved?" Aurora interrupted. "Moved how?"

"They said she took a breath. But that cannot be!" The man could not fathom that he could have made such a mistake. His job was hanging in the balance of this possible blunder.

"I was there, and I saw it!" the healer who had initially alerted them claimed. Lina had grown up in the palace as a servant from a young age before becoming a healer. She had been shown kindness by Nanny more than once.

Knowing how much the Empress loved the caretaker, Lina had taken it upon herself to give a word of parting when the undertaker's men had come to retrieve her. It was then that she witnessed the shuddering breath of the old woman. "She's alive."

The Doctor nodded briefly. "She has the weakest pulse I have ever felt, arrhythmic and unsteady, but it is there. Get me a basin to wash my hands! I need my tools to close her wounds. I will work on her immediately." The servants and healer went to work at blinding speed.

"Take care of her!" The Empress begged the doctor as she was ushered away. "I want news as soon as you have any."

Aurora had been sure that the Councilwoman was dead when she saw her in the nursery. She had not bothered to ask because there seemed no way to survive that much trauma. Yet, somehow she had fought against the damage and hung on.

It was devastating that the care had been delayed, but hopefully the error would not be the final nail in the old woman's coffin. If only Nanny could keep holding on, perhaps she would pull through and live. Aurora held tight to that glimmer of hope.

Rather than being led back to her room, the Empress directed the servants supporting her back toward the main part of the palace.

"Where do you think you are going, Your Majesty?" Devrim scolded. Colvyr babbled something that sounded like chiding as he sat clinging to his father. They both followed the woman from the infirmary.

"I have to meet with the Council." Aurora paused, unhappy with her slow and painful progress. "Do we have another chair like the one Renat fashioned for former King Zoltan?"

From some hidden place in the storage room of the medical supplies, a chair on wheels was quickly produced. The Empress was lowered into it gently. "Much better," she relaxed into the cushions.

Nurlan, who was waiting patiently outside the infirmary, watched as his boss was wheeled outside. His heart lifted to see her.

"Allow me!" He offered, pushing the servant behind the chair aside.

"Thank you, General. I can always rely on you, please take me to the Council," Aurora ordered.

Nurlan nodded, motioning for a few of the male servants to help him when he got to the stairs.

"You are in no condition to have a meeting just now," the grey-eyed man admonished as he followed her down the hall.

Barking a laugh, Aurora did not even look back. "I have been in far worse condition and still had to go on ruling. I will not let a few scratches on my limbs stop me this time."

Even when Alaron had nearly killed her at his sixteenth birthday party, Aurora had gone back to ruling even before her voice had fully returned. It was the burden of the human leader to never truly rest.

Dervim sighed. Arguing with his determined wife would only lead to a headache. "You will take it easy, my love. I will have one of the guest suites prepared for when you exhaust yourself."

The Emperor motioned to one of the many servants chasing them down the hall. She bowed and left. Another was sent to make sure the Council would be expecting them. Having already been summoned, a nursemaid appeared and took the prince from Devrim's arms.

"I want a full battalion of soldiers guarding him." The Emperor released his son with a firm command. The nursemaid curtsied and left with the child to make sure that Colvyr was well protected.

Aurora's face was grim as she thought about how close she had come to losing another son. "Better make it two battalions."

They wound their way through the palace to the Council's meeting room. The group had not left since the departure of the Emperor and they were eager to welcome the rulers into their company.

"Glory to the Empress!" Zan called when Aurora entered the room. The others echoed him as they all stood and bowed.

Food of all varieties was spread across the Council's table. Aurora's stomach made an uncouth growl. Having passed a window in her journey to the Council, the Empress found that is was past midday. She had slept far longer than she thought and was quite hungry. Seeing her need, a servant prepared her a plate as the general and Emperor helped Aurora into her throne at one end of the long, heavy-laden table.

Aurora straightened her appearance and tucked her wild hair behind her ears, careful not to disturb the fresh bandage on her cheek. "I would like to be filled in on everything that has occurred in my…absence," she said calmly before taking a bite of the largest piece of fruit.

Chief Zan cleared his throat. "We need Advisor Junayd in here to present his findings again," he told a servant quietly before returning his attention to his leader. "I think it will be easier if you hear everything from him. We are still processing it ourselves."

There was a lot to process, though Aurora sensed there was something more to his words. The Council seemed even more on edge than she would have expected after an attack by wolves that not even a Fate could sense. Of course, who would not be on edge after a situation like that?

Still, Aurora could not shake the feeling of foreboding, which only grew when Junayd entered the room. The general-turned-advisor looked grim. His normally jovial expression was replaced with deep lines of worry.

Unlike the Empress, Junayd had not slept since the early hours of the morning, and the news he had to share did nothing to improve his mood.

"Glory to the Empress! I am happy to see you, Your Majesty," Junayd greeted the monarch. His deep, sweeping bow was a far cry from the crisp military salute that he had known for so many years.

Junayd had taken to civilian life, or rather life at court as an advisor, quite well. His charming and disarming manner went far to persuade the nobility around to his (and the Emperor's) way of thinking.

Once the room was cleared of servants and everyone but the Council, royals, and Nurlan, then Junayd was able to make his report.

Aurora sat on the edge of her throne, trying to keep any of her injuries from rubbing against the polished wood. "What can you tell us about last night's attack?"

Standing tall with his broad shoulders, Junayd shifted uncomfortably between his feet. "I am sorry to disagree with Your Majesty," he pleaded, "but I do not think it was an attack."

Aurora's temper flared. She gripped the arm of her throne and narrowed her gaze. "Two horrific monsters tried to murder my son and I in our beds while we slept. If that was not an attack, what exactly was it?"

Junayd stopped shifting and held her eyes with his own. "It wasn't an attack, Your Majesty. I believe it was only…a test."