The Unfailing Light (21 page)

“
Oui
, Mademoiselle?” he asked. He tossed the apple into a large bowl with the others and wiped his hands on his apron. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

I shook my head. “No. I mean, yes … I should, but I needed to ask you …” What had I wanted to ask him exactly? It seemed no amount of glamour could hide what he was from me. He was beautiful. Too beautiful to be human. Too beautiful to be harmless. “Why did you come to Smolny?” I asked. “What have you done to us?”

His clear blue eyes blinked. Then he grinned, showing the faintest flash of his sharp, tiny teeth. “I serve at the will of Her Imperial Majesty. She has been informed that there is an unfortunate lost soul that has been trapped here within her spell. I am here to make sure that it does not harm anyone.”

“Do you know who she is? Can you get rid of her?”

“Sadly, no. I’m afraid even Her Imperial Majesty does not know who this lost soul is. And no, I cannot do anything to expel it. Only a necromancer such as yourself could do that.” He searched through the cupboards for something.

My jaw dropped. In a most unladylike manner. “But I’m powerless under the empress’s spell here. How can I do anything?”

He began to roll out a piecrust with his marble rolling pin. “It is true. There is nothing you can do, while the empress’s spell remains. That is why I am here. To make sure everyone forgets about the ghost.”

“How does your magic work, then?” I asked. “Is it stronger than the empress’s spell?”

“Of course not. My fae glamour inserts itself within the
fabric of the empress’s fae spell. The glamour is only an illusion. Nothing more. And all the more pity for you, since you see through it. The lost soul will still be able to affect you with its malicious tantrums.” He was making apple turnovers. It smelled heavenly when he sprinkled the cinnamon and sugar over the apple pieces. It brought a smile to the corners of my lips.

“Here,” he said with a dramatic sigh. He reached over into the picnic basket on the kitchen table and pulled out two blueberry muffins. They were still warm. “These should keep you protected until lunchtime. But stay away from the library.”

“
Merci
, Monsieur …” I smiled helplessly, realizing I did not know his name. It would be helpful if I did.

He grinned his wicked grin again. “Oh no, you’re not getting that out of me. You may call me Sucre. That is the name Madame Tomilov knows me by.”

“
Merci
, Monsieur Sucre.” I curtsied politely, afraid to eat the tempting muffins. They smelled divine. Their sweet scent rose up out of my hands, like a whisper. I knew it was only an illusion. The glamour, the fae called it. Would it hurt me to not see reality for a little while? It would be so nice to not worry about the lost soul, as Sucre called her. “Have you seen her? The ghost?”

The cook scowled and spat on the floor, muttering something in a language I’d never heard before. Definitely not French. And not Russian. “No, and I hope that I do not.” He opened the large oven door and placed the tray of turnovers inside. “Now, it is time for you to go, Mademoiselle. I cannot let you see all of my tricks.”

“But—”

His eyes flashed. The blue was unbearable. “Now, Mademoiselle.” His voice was soft, but deadly.

I curtsied again. “Of course. Thank you once again,” I said, waving the muffins at him as I turned to go.

“And tell your Bavarian friend she should not be wandering into the kitchen late at night. You would not want her to eat something that disagreed with her.”

My skin turned cold. Would he really dare to harm one of us? “Of course not, Monsieur.” I gritted my teeth and left, not bothering to glance back at him. I hurried outside into the frozen courtyard and tore the blueberry muffins into tiny pieces, scattering them into the wind. I’d let the rest of the students skip and sing along with the beglamoured instructors and Sister Anna. I wanted to be able to see the evil things that were stalking us at Smolny.

CHAPTER THIRTY
 

T
he apple turnovers were a special treat for dessert that night after huge bowls of belly-warming cabbage stew. Sister Anna brought out her ukulele and even persuaded Madame Tomilov to sing with her. Madame Orbellani had a bright blush in her cheeks as she danced a polonaise around the dining room with Elena. I pushed my turnover toward Augusta’s plate. She gobbled it happily.

I could not understand why the empress wanted everyone so giddy. Of course she wouldn’t want everyone sleep-deprived and pale, but this much happiness was abnormal. And definitely not healthy. Monsieur Sucre. I frowned. I began to wonder if it was indeed the empress who had sent the fae cook, or someone with mischief in mind. Would Miechen have even told the empress about the ghost? Or did Miechen send the cook herself?

“Dance with me, Katerina Alexandrovna!” Elena said, trying
to pull me away from the table. She was laughing and out of breath.

Sister Anna was now playing an old folk ballad based on the tale of St. George and the dragon. In her song, St. George actually turned into a dragon to fight the evil one. It was an interesting version of the story. I smiled and shook my head at Elena. “Dance with Erzsebet. I have studying to do.”

Augusta was laughing. “Can you imagine turning into a dragon?”

I shrugged, but Alix looked fascinated with the idea. “Yes,” she whispered. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

Augusta laughed again. “I would be the dragon princess and you would be the dragon queen.” She took Alix’s hands and they swung around the table, just like Elena and Erzsebet.

I left the dining hall and passed the library on my way back to our room. I paused, remembering Sucre’s warnings, but I needed to borrow the German text of
Faust
for our upcoming German exam.

I peeked into the library, seeing nothing unusual. Cautiously, I stepped into the room and approached the bookcase. The temperature in the room dropped suddenly to below freezing. I could see my breath as I gasped.

“I am not here to hurt you,” I whispered, trying to remain calm. “I only want to help you. But I will need to know your name to do that.”

I heard a low hiss behind me as several books flew off the shelves toward me. I threw up my arms to shield myself—a few of the books were heavy.
“Mon Dieu!”
I screamed.

The gloom and malice all came flooding back to me, and I started to regret throwing away Sucre’s muffins. I could feel
the ghost trying to hurt me. My chest tightened, making it difficult to breathe. Why was she so full of hatred? And why did she haunt the library?

Goethe’s
Faust
was one of the books that had fallen from the shelves. I grabbed it quickly and retreated to my room, leaving the other books open on the floor. The ghost could clean up her own mess. The dark feelings had passed as soon as I crossed the threshold into the hallway, and by the time I returned to my room and sat down on my cot, I could breathe easily again. I pushed up my sleeves to look at the bruises on my arms from the books hitting me. At least they would be hidden under my long sleeves, so Madame Tomilov and Sister Anna would not see. Hopefully, Elena and Aurora would not see them either.

I was already changed into my long-sleeved nightgown and tucked under my covers, reading
Faust
, when the girls returned to our room sometime later that night.

They were giggling and out of breath. “Katiya, why did you leave the dining hall? You missed all the fun!” Elena gushed.

Aurora flopped back on her cot. “We wanted to dance all night, but Madame would not let us!”

Elena shook her head. “I think Madame
would
have let us, if Sister Anna had not reminded her we needed to go to sleep.”

“Are all of you ready for our German exam tomorrow?” I asked. “Madame Orbellani
sagte dass es schwierig sein würde
.”

Aurora rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m ready. I don’t care how difficult Madame Orbellani believes she’s made it. I grew up with a German nanny.”

“And I grew up in Germany,” Alix said.

“I plan to copy off of Alix,” Aurora said.

“And I plan to copy off of Aurora,” Elena said, still twirling around the room.

Aurora laughed as she got ready for bed. “Then I shall mark every answer wrong on purpose.”

Elena stuck her tongue out at Aurora playfully.

Alix smiled at them, looking more animated than she had in months.

I was glad the three of them had warmed up to each other, even if it was only because of some enchanted pastries. Still, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit left out. Which was ridiculous. Elena and I weren’t really friends. She’d tried to poison me, and had cast a charm on me. We could never have a true friendship, like the kind Dariya and I shared. I would never be able to trust any of the Montenegrins. And pastry or no pastry, I wasn’t sure I trusted Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt either.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
 

O
n the first sunny day, Madame Tomilov allowed Sister Anna to take our class out for a walk in the courtyard. The sister had argued that we needed fresh air and exercise to keep us strong and healthy during the winter months, and the headmistress had agreed. She sent along a picnic basket full of Sucre’s apple and cinnamon muffins.

Elena seemed to be acting more like her normal wicked and conniving self, however. She grabbed my arm and we hung back behind the others, allowing Aurora and the rest of the girls to hurry ahead.

“What is it?” I whispered. “They’ll never let us out again if you do something horrible.”

“I just wanted to speak with you, Katerina Alexandrovna. Without Alix listening. I found something mysterious under her bed last night.”

“What were you up to?”

Elena shrugged. “I needed to put something there. I did not expect to see witchcraft already in place.”

“Witchcraft?”

“The box she keeps tucked under her bed. It has a red ribbon coiled up inside.”

“And what makes you think that it is witchcraft? You had no right to search the princess’s things, Elena.”

“There was a protective symbol scratched inside the box’s lid. A German hex symbol.”

“How do you know?” But I already could guess. I shook my head. “Never mind. Your sisters.”

Elena smiled. “They are extremely well educated, Katerina. Not only did they finish at the tops of their classes here at Smolny, they also were tutored during the summers at home in Greek and Persian. We have quite a large occult library at home in Cetinje.”

Briefly, I regretted missing out on this library when I was in Montenegro last spring. “Perhaps it is something a superstitious servant gave her.”

“Anyway, I wonder what the ribbon is for.”

I looked at Elena. “And I wonder what you were planning on putting under her bed.”

Elena took my arm in hers as she looked up at the sky and smiled. “Oh, just a little something to keep her from looking her best.”

I shook my head again and sighed. I realized nothing magical would work under the empress’s spell, so Alix was safe for the moment from Elena’s creepy trinkets. But whatever magic was in that box would not be able to work either. What was the German princess hiding?

I wished that Alix and I had become closer friends during the school year, but she kept mostly to herself. She definitely had her own strange secrets.

“What is that?” Elena asked, stopping just before we reached the archway leading to the outer courtyard. In the snow, under a barren hedge, there was a pile of dark cloth. Just beyond the empress’s enchanted barrier.

Aurora and the Bavarian princesses were walking back to join us. They spotted the cloth at the same time. Aurora reached out and picked it up, shaking the snow off.

Her hands passed easily through the empress’s wards. It was good to know I had one roommate with no supernatural abilities.

“It looks like a woman’s shawl,” I said. “Someone must be very cold.”

Aurora held it up. The black wool was fringed and dotted with tiny pearls. “It’s beautiful. I’m keeping it.”

“It’s dirty,” I said. “Not only has it been lying here in the snow, it also looks valuable. Someone will be looking for it.”