Chapter 139

Isabel glanced back at the ladies-in-waiting behind her. They hurried to pull vials of medicine from a large pouch and lined them up on the table.

"What is all this?"

"These are the medicines that have been going into the Emperor's chambers lately. I wonder if you could tell me what they are."

"I hear a great deal of medicine has been going into Marble Palace, where the Emperor is staying these days. No imperial physician in attendance, only the medicine itself being called for — it does make one think there's some illness he'd rather not have known."

It was just as Seira had said.

Was the Emperor really ill?

Now that she thought of it, he had looked quite unwell the last time they'd crossed paths, at the opera house. And there had been other moments, here and there, when his color had seemed poor.

But as Mark…