Princess Cantacuzene sat with a fiendish gleam in her eye as she watched Miechen’s face. The grand duchess looked as astonished as the princess had. She also looked furious.
When I finished telling her about Count Chermenensky, I was in tears. Again. Miechen stood up and stared out the window across the frozen Neva River. The spires of the Pyotr and Pavel Fortress could be seen in the distance. “Ruxandra Mikhailovna, you should not have brought her here,” Miechen said as she turned to face us.
I didn’t think I’d ever heard Princess Cantacuzene’s first name before. I wasn’t even sure if Maman knew it. Why did she and Miechen suddenly seem to hate each other so much?
“We want nothing more to do with your kind,” Miechen went on. “The family cannot be involved with this.”
Princess Cantacuzene laughed. “Grand Duchess, your family is already involved. Perhaps I should have taken the poor girl to the empress instead?”
Miechen’s lips pursed into a thin line. She appeared cold and calculating. “And what is the extent of my family’s involvement, Your Highness?”
“The Dekebristi are returning,” the princess said. She was calmly stirring her tea. It looked as if she was enjoying herself, while I sat wondering what the grand duchess meant when she’d said “your kind.”
Miechen’s face went white. “And the Bear?”
“He does not believe they, or the vampires, exist anymore.”
“The tsar will not put up with any such foolishness.”
The princess glanced at me, giving Miechen one of those “not in front of the children” looks. The grand duchess rolled her eyes. “You are the one that brought her here, Ruxandra. She already knows too much for her own safety.”
What was she talking about? I knew nothing of the Dekebristi’s return. Was she implying that I was somehow to blame?
The princess smiled. “No doubt you have heard the happy news of Katerina Alexandrovna’s engagement? She is going to marry the heir of the Vladiki.”
“Poor child, you fell under their spell, did you?” Miechen said. “You do realize the prince plans to kill you on your wedding night, do you not?”
My mouth was dry. “Princess Cantacuzene said I must kill him before his eighteenth birthday, before we are married.”
“Ruxandra, what lies have you been spreading?”
The princess laughed wickedly. I was starting to feel very cold, and short of breath. “Katerina Alexandrovna is much more powerful than I ever dared to hope. How do you think she turned the dead knight?”
“He is not one of the Dekebristi!” I cried. “I did not bring him back on purpose!”
“Of course you didn’t,” Miechen said, pacing back and forth and pausing to study me intently. “Child, do you know why it is so important that the prince does not live to see his own ascension?”
Was this a trick question? Why was it so cold in here? I shivered. “He will become a blood drinker,” I said. “By killing him, we can prevent him from killing many more people.”
Miechen’s smile was grim. “Ruxandra, shame on you. You have not told her everything, have you?”
I did not hear what Princess Cantacuzene said to her then, for at that moment, I fainted and slid out of my chair onto the floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“The Ten of Wands! Mon Dieu.” I heard my mother’s voice, at a near hysterical pitch. “Burdens, and responsibilities. You have an uphill battle ahead of you. My poor baby has been overtaxed with these wedding plans. You have worn yourself out.”
“Maman?” I opened my eyes and realized I was not in my own bed at home, but in a green ornately decorated room.
“Where am I?”
Maman put her tarot cards down and ran a cool hand over my head, pushing my hair back as she had done when I was little. “My poor Katiya. You are still at the grand duchess Miechen’s house, in one of her bedrooms. They sent for me as soon as you fainted. Do you remember anything?”
“I remember drinking tea with the grand duchess and Princess Cantacuzene,” I said. They had been having the most terrible argument.
Maman sighed. “You bumped your head. Miechen thought you looked overwrought.” She smiled and kissed my forehead, clearly happy that she thought she could fix everything for me. “Planning a wedding can be a difficult thing. You just relax and let me worry about the preparations. That is what mothers are for.”
I closed my eyes again, trying to remember what had happened. My nerves had been on edge, I supposed. Miechen and Princess Cantacuzene had been discussing the return of the undead Dekebristi, and I had fainted when they had implied I might be involved. Or had the grand duchess put something in my tea? I tried to sit up. I needed to see Dr. Kruglevski to be certain. “The doctor …” I tried to speak, tried to get out of bed. The room was spinning around in circles.
“The doctor has been sent for, Katerina Alexandrovna,” Grand Duchess Miechen said, entering the room and sitting at my bedside, opposite my mother. “How long has she been awake?”
“Not but a few minutes,” my mother said.
“How long have I been out?” I asked. It still looked like morning to me.
“Two days. We sent for your mother when you first fell, as we were afraid to have you moved anywhere in a carriage.”
“Two days?” I tried to sit up again. The room was still spinning and the back of my head throbbed. “Has Dr. Kruglevski been to see me? Did I have a concussion, or some sort of seizure?” Or … or had they wanted me to remain unconscious all that time for a reason? I stared at Miechen’s blue-violet eyes, wishing I could read minds, like Grand Duke George. Could Miechen read minds, with her dark-faerie blood? I shuddered as she gave me a wicked smile.
“Yevgenia Maximilianovna, why don’t you take a short walk through the orangery?” the grand duchess asked. “You have been at your daughter’s bedside all this time. I will sit with her.”
Maman refused at first, but she looked so very tired I begged her to get up and get some fresh air. “I shall be fine, Maman,” I promised, although I was wary of being left with Miechen. “Take your time, and enjoy the grand duchess’s garden.”
When Maman had gone, Miechen picked up the tarot card that had been left lying on the bedclothes. “Ten of Wands. It usually means that someone is overburdened, but it can also mean a dangerous trial, whether by fire or by pain. The card is ruled by Saturn, the planet of necromancy. The number ten is the number of the end of things.”
“The end of a dangerous trial?” I asked. “What am I being tested on?”
“Your wits, girl. For good or evil, you have been given a terrible power. Now that certain groups in St. Petersburg know it, you have become a very desirable pawn. The Montenegrins want you. And the St. Petersburg vampires need you as well.”
I shivered. “The Montenegrins want me alive, but what about the others? Is my life in danger? Do I know any of the St. Petersburg vampires?”
“Your life has always been in danger, Katerina Alexandrovna,” Miechen said. “From the vampires, from the faeries, from the tsar. It is a delicate balance the humans in this city dance.”
“What should I do?” I asked, closing my eyes, not sure if I should trust the dark faerie. “What role does Princess Cantacuzene play in all of this?”
Miechen smiled. “Clever girl. You are right to worry. You are right not to trust Princess Cantacuzene completely, for she is not what she seems. Nor should you trust me completely, for my interests in all matters are self-motivated. But you may believe me when I tell you this: the Montenegrins must not be allowed to gain too much power in St. Petersburg. Princess Elena will never become empress, no matter how many rituals or spells she, or her sisters, or her mother casts. Militza believes she will gain powerful influence when she marries a Romanov, but she underestimates her rival.”