4.

When the Empress recovered her senses, she sent for Chavadzy.
"I must apologize to you," she explained when he came. "I ought not to have said what I did. I know these terrible things are not your fault. You are as much a victim as we."
The Russian shrugged. "Madame, you cannot be blamed for feeling as you did. I realize that I must represent to you an angel of death. I can only say that high matters of state are involved in the affair of Dragon's Heart, and also matters of deeply human concern. I cannot tell you more. Madame, I think you should rest. I have brought you a sedative. A woman of your years....."
She bristled. "My years?"
He coughed self-consciously. "I mean a woman of your experience has surely witnessed the subtle effects of shock after such an occurrence. The subconscious mind steps in to govern the conscious, sometimes with disastrous effect. Please, Madame, a taste from this vial. You will relax."
He uncapped the vial he took from his pocket and offered it to her.
She waved it away. "I have no right to relaxation. One of my dearest friends in this world, one who proved his friendship during the two most troubled times of my life, lies dead out there. I first knew him as a dashing veteran of the American Civil War. He cut a most romantic figure in European society. How handsome he was! How the ladies pursued him!
"Yes, Chavadzy, I have experienced the tricks of the subconscious mind. This very day, that young military man...the man who cradled the captain's head...when I saw his face...it was like an encounter with the ghost of the captain as he looked when we first met in 1869! Mystérieux! Uncanny! For this reason, I suppose, I fainted. A shock, indeed, but I have survived it."
"Yes, Madame," he responded, "and now may I ask you to prepare yourself for another? But first, I beg you, just a sip from the vial? I beg you, Madame."
Again, he offered the sedative.
She eyed him piercingly. "You are quite serious, aren't you, Chavadzy?"
He nodded.
She accepted the vial, sipped, and returned it. "Thank you, Your Majesty. A moment more, and you will meet a most interesting person."
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, leaning back in the chair. She opened them again.
"I am ready, Chavadzy. Bring me this person."
The Russian left the room.
Directly, the Marine appeared in the doorway. He bowed from the waist.
"Your Imperial Majesty, if I may present myself," he began, his handsome face a study in sadness and loss, "I am....."
She lifted her hand to stop him. Taking a handkerchief from her sleeve, she daubed her eyes.
"You are Bradley Duncan," she said. "I did not realize it when I saw you kneeling at your grandfather's side, but I see it clearly now. You do resemble him greatly, but, no, you are not he. He is gone....."
She stood up, extending her arms toward him. He went to her. They embraced warmly.
Chavadzy came in behind him.
"Let us sit together," she offered. "I want to know more."
"I dared not seek out my grandfather while my mother was alive," Brad explained. "I thought she had killed them, Romelle and the maid. I could not go to him without revealing the whereabouts of my mother. What might he have done to her? She died in an institution for the mentally ill, Madame. But she was as sick in her body as she was in her mind. Such suffering! She was, in essence, eaten alive by a malignant cancer."
Eugénie shivered and shook her head.
"Nothing could be done for her," he continued. "No drug, no medicine of any kind, no prayer, had any effect whatsoever. When I would visit her, she would cling to me and beg me to kill her. 'Kill me,' she would entreat me. 'Kill me as I killed Romelle and Dora. Strangle me! Stab me! God has visited this cancer upon me to make me suffer for what I have done. Kill me, my son, then go to your grandfather. You will be rich! I will not have killed them in vain! I did it for you, son, for you.'"
He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Then he looked up. "She was my mother! I had to stand by her, no matter what she had done. When I read in the newspapers about The Golden Parisienne and the wedding, and discovered for the first time that Romy was not dead, I decided to come. I only wanted to see him, to catch a glimpse of him. I wanted nothing from him. I never actually met him, you know. We never met face to face, until...today. He was a dream to me, a faraway dream without reality. Then....."
He wept again.
"You saved Romelle's life, my friend," comforted Chavadzy. "Had you not been there, the Manchu woman may have killed her. They will do anything to get the ruby. They must have come today in hopes that they might come across a clue to its whereabouts. No one has known where it was. Years ago, it disappeared."
"Why do they want the stone?" interposed the Empress.
"I do not know," he replied. "That is one of the secrets of Dragon's Heart. There are tales of a golden city, lost for hundreds of years, hidden somewhere in the Mongolian mountains. There is a tale that the Christian mother of Kublai Khan rules in it even today. Then, there is, as well, the mystery of Dragon's Heart itself. Doctor Dash, Doctor Bart, they are a part of it."
"They are alive?" Eugénie cried. "Doctors Bart and Dash? What of Prince Dayan?"
Chavadzy flushed. "I have said too much, Madame. Forgive me, I was carried away by Lieutenant Duncan's plight. Yes, Doctor Bart is alive. Doctor Dash and Prince Dayan...I do not know. Doctor Bart is at Dragon's Heart."
"It is a place?" she asked excitedly, sitting on the edge of her chair.
"Yes, Madame, a far, forgotten place near the Siberian frontier, deep in the mountains beyond the Sacred City, protected by the Living Buddha and Lady Tara, blessing of God."
At mention of the goddess mystically identified with Romelle by the diablesse in Martinique, the Empress gasped and fell back, again adrift in a swoon.
Chavadzy leapt to his feet. "Help me give her this sedative, Lieutenant. She must have it. She can take no more excitement. She likes to think of herself as young, but she is not. Help me. Only rest will save her."
They forced the remaining contents of the vial through her lips. Reflexively, she swallowed.
Calling in her maid to sit with her, Chavadzy tiptoed from the room with Brad behind him.
"I have another question for you, Lieutenant," he said when they were alone. "I saw Captain Duncan whisper to you, and you whispered in return. Would it be untoward if I were to ask what passed between you?"
Brad sighed. "When he saw me, he blinked as if he were trying to clear his vision. He looked, and blinked again. I don't think he believed his eyes. I leaned down to him. 'I have seen the mirror image of my youth,' he said. 'Bradley, is it you?' I nodded and replied, 'Yes, Grandfather, I have come home.' He smiled. 'I am going now,' he said, 'take care of Romelle.' And then," Brad choked back more tears, "and then...he...died."
Chavadzy touched him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, lad. If only I had been faster...if only....."
Brad gazed back at him sympathetically. "That's just the way I feel, sir."
"Do you want to present yourself to the others?"
He shook his head. "No, I'll come back tomorrow. The consul is waiting for me now, but could I see Romelle just for a moment, just to look at her again? I promise not to disturb her. If I could be alone with her for a few minutes....."
Chavadzy reflected.
"Yes, you may," he said at last, "but you must promise to be very quiet. She is heavily sedated. I doubt she will awaken, but if she does, she will hallucinate. It would be upsetting to her system. She has suffered enough today. Wait here a moment, please."
Chavadzy left him, returning a few minutes later. "Her friends were clustered around her door. The housekeeper was sitting with her. I have sent them all away. They took the dogs with them. One of them is a ferocious little fellow, they say, when anyone approaches Romelle too closely. He might have been a great help to us had he been at the chapel this afternoon!"
He left Brad at Romelle's door, telling him to enter softly.
Romelle lay in her wedding gown, the fateful ruby still in place. The fabric was cut away where the scratches from the woman's nails had been painted with iodine.
When Brad went in, she stirred, but did not seem to waken. He sat in Adrienne's chair beside the bed and lovingly studied her face.
She was as beautiful as he remembered from childhood days. He leaned closer to her.
"You aren't a child anymore," he whispered. "You're a woman, now. Did you know I loved you then? I still do. I love you, Romelle."
She startled him by opening her eyes.
"I know, my dear," she whispered back. "Oh, our wish has come true! There you are. Here am I. The magic stone has done it, hasn't it?"
She reached for his hand and pressed it to the ruby. "It has united us beyond place and time, as you said it would."
Lifting his hand to her lips, she kissed it. "You see? As you kissed me when we became man and wife, so do I kiss you. We shall be together forever, now."
"Romelle, for God's sake, listen to me," Brad insisted. "I am....."
"I know who you are!" she interrupted. "I saw you this way before the wedding! Adrienne said that seeing one another then would bring misfortune. Is this misfortune? To be eternally united by the ruby? Won't my father be surprised! Oh, what his ruby has done! Is he with us? Has he come, too?"
"Romelle, your father is not here," Brad told her. "He is in Mongolia at a place called Dragon's Heart, and I am not....."
Her eyes grew wider. "Dragon's Heart? The magic words for the magic stone! I understand! The ruby is the dragon's heart! Come, darling, we must go. We must take the ruby back. My father will be so pleased. He must see what a miracle it has accomplished! Come, darling....."
She attempted to rise, but fell back with a groan.
"We shall ask Tara to help us, my dear," she murmured. "She will help us. Tara will help!"
Brad remembered Chavadzy's words. "The Lady Tara," he repeated, "blessing of God!"
Romelle smiled. "Yes, blessing of God...mercy...wisdom...love...she will help us...the ruby...my father...we must go to Dragon's Heart...we must....."
Her voice faded. Her breasts rose and fell in gentle rhythm. She had drifted deeply into sleep.
Chavadzy was waiting for Brad outside the door.
"You were in there too long," he chided. "I hope you didn't wake her up. God knows where her mind might roam!"
Brad bit his lip and frowned. He decided to say nothing, hoping Romelle would be well enough in the morning to deal with reality.

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