“What are you saying?”
His face grew serious, his eyes haunted. “Konstantin has found me, love. The bond I share with you I also share with him. He was released the night of my ascension. Now he wants to use me to get to you. I am trying to hold him back as long as I can, but I am growing weak. I must have blood. And it must be yours, my love.”
“No.” I pulled my hand again, and this time he let go. “How can he use you to get to me?”
Danilo’s smile was malicious as his black eyes suddenly flashed green. His voice changed. “NECROMANCER, I WILL TAKE THIS BODY AND YOU WILL REPLACE MY BRIDE.”
I was too terrified to move. My worst fears had been realized. The lich tsar had returned. He was standing in front of me. In Danilo’s body. “You don’t want me, Konstantin Pavlovich.”
“I MUST HAVE A NECROMANCER. AND I WILL HAVE YOU, MY LOVE.”
Was it Danilo or the lich tsar speaking? I was not Konstantin’s love. “The bogatyr will stop you,” I said with as much bravery as I could muster.
“Are you so very certain?” Danilo’s eyes flashed again, and he appeared to be back in control. “Are you so sure the tsar and his son are willing to go through such enormous sacrifices again to protect you? The tsar would be safer if you were dead, Katerina. Summoning the bogatyr again could kill him.”
I knew he was right. But I could not believe that the tsar would kill me to keep everyone safe from Konstantin. “Stay away from me, Danilo,” I said, backing away from him. There were plenty of people walking around in the park, and the front gates of Betskoi House were in sight. Yet I did not want to cause a scene if I could help it. “If the imperial guard finds you, they will arrest you again.”
Danilo’s black eyes gleamed. “There is no prison that can hold me, Katerina. And there is nowhere you can hide that you will be safe. Run back to your family, if it makes you feel better. Just remember the lich tsar can come after them as well.”
I could stay and listen no longer. My heart pounding, I turned and ran back to Betskoi House.
I made it to the front steps before I dared to look behind me. Danilo was seated once again on the bench, his hood back over his face. But I knew he was watching me. I hurried inside past the guards at the portico and slammed the front door shut, locking every bolt.
“Is something wrong, Duchess?” the footman asked.
“Do not, for any reason, allow any of the Montenegrin siblings to enter our house. Do you understand?” I was trembling and my voice was shaky.
He nodded, and the brief look of surprise was carefully concealed. “Of course, Duchess.”
I hoped to slip up to my room unnoticed, but Maman caught me on the staircase.
“Katiya, where have you been? You look like you’ve been romping in the yard with the dogs!”
I halfheartedly smoothed my hair and sighed. “Just getting some fresh air. But it gave me a headache and now I should go to bed early.”
“But we are having dinner at the Vladimir Palace tonight.”
I sighed. “Please, Maman, we should stay home.”
“Not attend Miechen’s dinner party?” She looked at me as if I’d grown another head. “Katerina, if you are feeling poorly, I will allow you to stay home, but I wouldn’t miss Miechen’s dinner party for the world! Her French chef is divine!”
Not divine, but probably fae, I remembered unhappily. The grand duchess always did have a passion for the exotic.
“No one is going anywhere tonight,” Papa said as the footman let him in. He took off his hat with a frown. “Except Katerina.”
George Alexandrovich entered the house behind him. He did not look happy either. Nevertheless, he seemed like my knight in shining armor when he clicked his heels together and said, “Katerina Alexandrovna, you must come with me immediately.”
12
“What has happened?” I asked, rushing back down the stairs.
Papa put a heavy hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. “I should let the grand duke explain everything to you.” He turned to my mother and asked, “Shenia, will you have Anya begin packing a trunk for Katiya?”
Maman gave a frightened little cry. “She must leave now? Where is she going?”
“I’ll explain it to you in a minute, my dear. You must tell Anya to hurry. They do not have much time.” He led Maman gently up the stairs with her exclaiming the whole way.
I looked at George, who was standing in the hall at the foot of the staircase. “Tell me what has happened,” I demanded.
“You were right about the lich tsar. He is here, in St. Petersburg, and he’s been raising a new army of the undead.”
“Then I need to help your father.” We would be summoning the bogatyr to fight Konstantin Pavlovich.
George shook his head. “No. The Koldun believes it is not safe for my father to go through the ritual again. There is another weapon we think might work.”
“And you want to leave your father unprotected to look for this weapon?”
“He is safe, Katiya, for the time being. Both the Order of St. John and the Order of St. Lazarus are escorting him and my mother back to Gatchina tonight. The Koldun is under heavy guard as well. You are the one we are concerned about.”
“Me?” I could not help thinking Danilo’s words might be true. That I was a liability to the tsar as long as I was alive. Should I tell George that I’d just been standing in the Field of Mars speaking with the lich tsar?
“Without your powers, Konstantin cannot fully return to life.”
“But he’s a powerful sorcerer.” Before he’d married the blood drinker and necromancer Princess Cantacuzene, he’d been the Koldun for his elder brother, Tsar Alexander the First.
“He is a powerful sorcerer without a physical body. He cannot perform any rituals himself.”
“But he could possess someone else and use their body,” I suggested.
George stared at me, and I realized neither he nor the Koldun had thought of this possibility. “He could not pick just any body to possess,” George said. “It would have to be someone to whom he was closely linked. Like you.” He put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed them gently. “But you will be safe, I promise. I’m taking you to Gatchina tonight. The palace is built like a fortress. No one can get to you there.”
“I can’t go with you alone!”
“Your brother is going as a chaperone,” he said with a grim smile. “And my parents will be there soon as well.”
That did not make me feel any better. How could I face his parents now? I’d chosen medicine over marriage to their son. The empress might be happy that I would not become a daughter-in-law, but like the tsar, she did not believe women should become doctors.
“And Xenia will be delighted to have you. She has been lonely since her Greek cousins left.”
One more thing for the empress to be displeased with. I was certain to be labeled an inappropriate influence on the grand duchess.
“And what about this weapon you’re seeking?”
“It’s an ancient sword, rumored to command a magical army when held by a necromancer.”
“You want me to use the sword?” I asked.
George laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. We just want to keep the sword from falling into Konstantin’s hands.”
I was irritated by his dismissive tone. I’d never wielded a heavy sword before, but I had taken fencing with Petya when we were young. Our tutor had often told me I was the better pupil. “Fine,” I said at last. If it was the tsar’s will to lock me up as a prisoner, there was nothing I could do.
“You must be ready to leave immediately, Katiya. We are expected at Gatchina by nightfall.”