The Gathering Storm (20 page)

“Roses,” I said, not really paying attention to what he was saying. I was intoxicated by the sound of his voice, by his warm touch, by his hypnotic eyes. He led me back to my Bavarian friends, but I honestly cannot remember anything
more about the ball other than Prince Danilo’s standing at my side throughout the evening. He had whispered, “Do not dance with anyone else tonight,” low enough that no one else could hear. And I did not dance any more after that. Who else could I have danced with? I didn’t think there was another soul in the world who could make me feel like the prince did. Wasn’t that love?

T
he next morning I slept late, exhausted from the previous night. It all seemed a blur. Wasn’t I to do something today?

I dragged myself out of bed with a horrible migraine and rang for Anya to bring tea. Then crawled back into bed.

My mother burst into my room, shouting and crying. “Katerina Alexandra Marija! Why did you not tell your
maman
? Shame on you, you wicked girl!” But she was crying tears of joy. “Who do you think has just left your father’s study?” She sat down on my bed, causing it to shake. I felt nauseated.

Suddenly, I remembered. I sat straight up, feeling as if the room were spinning. “Oh, Maman, what have I done?” I burst out.

The smile on her face faded. “You have consented to marry the crown prince Danilo of Montenegro. He has just received permission from your father. It took plenty of
convincing on my part, I’ll have you know. Anya, bring Katiya some cold water, please. She looks ill.”

“Oh, poor Papa. He said he didn’t want me to leave Russia.”

“Yes, but a crown prince cannot be expected to simply pack up and move to his new wife’s country. You will become queen someday. You must get to know your new country and its people.”

“Queen?” The consort of the Vladiki. How had I gotten seduced into this? Had I been drugged the previous night? Or was it just that I was infatuated with the first young man to pay attention to me?
Mon Dieu
, I’d let him kiss me! I had kissed him back! There was truly no way to refuse the prince now.

“But I don’t want to be a queen,” I said, a lump catching in my throat. “I want to be a doctor.”

“Enough of that nonsense,” Maman said. “We have so much work to do. We shall plan a trip to Cetinje within the next month to meet Prince Danilo’s parents. I shall have to order a new wardrobe for you. And for myself.” She kissed me on the cheek. “Why don’t you try to rest some more, dear? You do look rather pale.”

“I do?” Had the prince drunk my blood the night before? No, he’d not become a blood drinker yet, at least not according to Princess Canta— Oh,
mon Dieu
, what would she say when she heard about the engagement?
Zut
and
merde
. What had I done with my ring? I remembered Dariya telling me she had something that I had lost. It must have been the ring. I hoped she still had it.

I flopped back down on the bed, covering my head with a pillow.
“Merde! Merde! Merde!”

I
returned to Smolny on Monday. My parents had decided I would finish out the school year before my marriage in the fall. The prince would turn eighteen in June, and I would turn seventeen in October. My father forbade a wedding before my seventeenth birthday and would have postponed it until my thirtieth if not for Maman. I tried to ignore all the attention at school, but everyone congratulated me and asked about the moment the prince had proposed. I had to tell my story over and over, making the kiss seem much more chaste than it had actually felt.

My cousin was furious with me. “How could you be so stupid, Katiya?” She grabbed my hand and placed the obsidian ring in my palm. “I found this on the floor by your cot. If only you’d been wearing it at the ball!”

I felt miserable. “I will think of something,” I told her. “There has to be a way.”

As soon as I could slip off, I visited Princess Cantacuzene. I dreaded telling her about the engagement. She swept into her parlor in a bloodred tea gown. “I believe congratulations are in order, my dear,” Princess Cantacuzene said, kissing me on the cheek.

“I know you are disappointed in me, but I have not—”

“Disappointed?” She laughed. “Why, my dear, it’s the cleverest idea possible! You will be able to go to Cetinje and murder the prince in your marriage bed! It is perfect!”

It must have been one of her off days. “Your Highness, the marriage isn’t to be until October, long after the prince’s ascension. Besides, if I murdered him in our bridal bed, wouldn’t I be the only suspect in his death?”

“Remember your gift?” The madness was returning in her eyes. “You have the power of life and death. A necromancer can not only raise the dead, but can also destroy the living. Your blasphemous prince is still one of the living until his ascension. You must destroy him before he becomes one of the immortals. Before he can harm the tsar.”

“I don’t know how.” And I didn’t ever want to know either. I promised myself I would never kill anyone, no matter how evil the person was. “Your Highness, you spoke to me before of ghouls and revenants. How are they created?”

She frowned. “Have you not been studying the text I gave you?”

“I do not intend to study it!” I stood up, shaking. “Please forgive me, Your Highness, but I only ask because I believe
there is a revenant loose in the city.” I was surprised to feel my eyes flooding with tears. “I believe I may have created him. I swear before God I do not want to do it again.”

The princess stared at me with her piercing black eyes. Her hair, piled up on her head in a bun, was streaked with silver, but I could tell it had been Gypsy black when she was younger. She was still a beautiful woman at her advanced age. “Dear Katerina Alexandrovich,” she said. “It is quite impossible to raise the undead without consciously working at it. Do not worry your head about such things. Tell me, where did you see this revenant?”

“In the woods near Smolny, at the park at Tauride.” I sat back down on the settee, gratefully accepting a cup of tea from my hostess. “Thank you.”

“Did he see you? Did he try to say anything to you?” The princess took her tea and sat opposite me in a large overstuffed chintz chair, watching me closely.

“Yes, he called me mistress and said I had called him. He never tried to hurt me, and I wasn’t afraid of him.” I sipped my tea mournfully. “I just felt so sorry for him.”

“That is impossible,” the princess said softly. “It simply cannot be.” She grabbed my hand, staring at the obsidian ring. I knew I would not take it off again.

There was a strange look in the princess’s eyes. Fright, I thought. But no, it was simply astonishment.

“I am so sorry, Your Highness. Please help me understand. I do not want this to happen again.”

“No, of course you wouldn’t, my child.” She set her teacup down on her table and rang the bell for her servant.
“Come, Katerina Alexandrovna. We must go and see the grand duchess Maria Pavlovna, immediately.” She asked her servant to send for her carriage.

I felt all the blood drain from my face. A cold, clammy sensation clenched my belly. “Miechen? You wish to tell Miechen about my curse?”

Princess Cantacuzene smiled, hustling me out the door and into her carriage. “We’re going to tell her about your gift and your revenant. My dear, we are going to tell her everything.”

I
fretted all through the ride across town to the Vladimir Palace. It was an enormous residence, not far from our own home on Millionaya Street. We walked through ornately arched hallways, up the marble stairs, past several silent and impeccably dressed servants. The grand duchess received us in her parlor, opulently decorated in shades of deepest red. She did not look happy to see Princess Cantacuzene. Or me. Her smile was cold, but polite. “Princess Cantacuzene, Katerina Alexandrovna, it is always a pleasure.”

We all sat down as the servants provided tea from the samovar.

Princess Cantacuzene stirred the spoon in her cup slowly. “Katerina Alexandrovna has been telling me the most interesting stories,” she said. “My dear, won’t you tell the grand duchess?”

I didn’t know where to begin. I felt small, like a little
child. I wanted to go home. Or back to Smolny. Instead, I took a deep breath and told Grand Duchess Miechen everything.

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?