Seeker of the Crown

by Ruth Lauren

  She bows. “It would be an honor, Your Grace.”

  The queen relaxes a fraction, but as she turns her attention back to me, I can almost see the weight on her shoulders. This past month, I’ve chafed under the fuss my mother has made over my sister and me. Now I think about how the queen must feel to have a daughter who’s betrayed her. There’s nothing I can say or do; I’m not the right person for this. Not old enough, not clever enough, not someone who can use words the way my father and sister do.

  I swallow. “What will you ask of me, Queen Ana?”

  She folds her hands to still them and squares her shoulders. “I am asking you to work for me, to answer to me alone. I am asking you to capture Anastasia.”

  The stifled rush of breath my sister lets out is the only sound in the chamber. I can’t tear my gaze away from the queen.

  “Valor, I must impress upon you that I can offer little in the way of assistance. I have issued a decree that Anastasia is to be brought to justice, but since she must have had help from within the palace, neither my court nor my Guard can as yet be trusted. I …” Her voice dips like a guttering candle. “Do you accept? Will you help me capture Anastasia and clear Anatol’s name?”

  I think about what the princess did to my sister, about how the ripples spread to my family, to Anastasia’s own family, and through Demidova. And when I think about all she’s done, about what I’m being asked to do, there’s really nothing to think about at all.

  “I do,” I say. “I accept.”

  CHAPTER 4

  When we step out into the fountain again, I almost expect something to have changed outside to match the dizzying blizzard in my head. Each piece of information I’ve learned tonight is a snowflake blowing in a multidirectional wind.

  Instead, it’s calm outside. The square is silent and quilted in perfect, untouched snow. It’s still darkest night, though it feels as if it should be morning already.

  Sasha and I don’t talk as we trudge home, both of us turning over our new missions in our minds. When I drop into bed, I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but when I bolt upright a few short hours later, it’s clear. Sasha and I leave the quiet house again before dawn, though it’s not until we’re nearing the square that either of us speaks.

  “Where are you even going to start?” Sasha’s voice cuts through the silence. The sun has begun to come up. I can’t see it yet, but the light changes and the sky shifts. I breathe in the cold air and look out at the empty market. I know exactly what I need first.

  “Feliks and Katia,” I say. “They have something to tell me.”

  I saw them at the ceremony to hand the music box over to Lady Olegevna and make the treaty with Magadanskya official. I’m certain they came there to find me. I don’t know for a fact that they do have anything to tell me, but the way I say it, with a little bit of emphasis on the word “they,” is enough to make Sasha react.

  “There’s really nothing else I know that could help you at all, Valor. You have to understand that I couldn’t just tell you about Anatol’s banishment. And really, what would have been the point of worrying you when we were still in Magadanskya and there was nothing you could do about it? I would have told you when we got—”

  “I know. I heard you the first time. It’s going to be your job to keep secrets. Don’t worry, I understand.”

  “Valor, don’t be like that.”

  My boots crunch the ice as I step forward. I ran through this market with the entire Queen’s Guard after me, threw part of my crossbow here, paused here—

  “What are you doing now?” Sasha sounds tired. She looks it too, as she stops trudging and stares at me with dull eyes.

  I almost feel bad as I duck down, dislodging snow as I heave off the cover of a market stall. As the snow falls, I see I’m right—this is the spot where Feliks was hiding on the day we both got arrested.

  “Valor?”

  I push underneath, squeezing into the spot where I hid before, and twist around, trying to hold up the cover so I can get some light. Sasha’s face appears in the gap I’ve made. She’s frowning, but she helps me hold the stiff canvas high.

  A piece of paper is folded several times and wedged into a gap in the warped wood. My heart surges with triumph as I strip off my mitten to work the paper free. I know already that I’m right about who left it here—there’s a smudgy fingerprint on it.

  “Feliks,” I say, and Sasha lets out a laugh.

  I scramble out from under the stall and go to open the paper, but Sasha stills my hand. The sky is lightening rapidly, and a woman in dark furs appears across the square. The shutters on the bakery rattle open. In the distance, there’s a metallic clatter.

  I nod to my sister, and we move quickly away from the stall, through the market, and out into a quiet street before I finally unfold the paper.

  V,

  Need to talk to you urgently. Use the network.

  F & K

  Sasha reads upside down, her face close to mine. “What network?”

  “I don’t know.” For a second, I’m blank. “No, wait—I do. Feliks told me about it. A thieves’ network within the city.”

  Sasha looks around her as though she expects the network to be visible.

  “They pass information, trade things on the black market …” I trail off, because I’m really not sure what they do. Or where to find them. But I need Feliks and Katia—and not just because they want to tell me something important enough to risk attending the ceremony before their pardons were finalized. I need to find them because I know how much harder it will be to do what Queen Ana’s asked me to do on my own. I could never have gotten Sasha out of Tyur’ma without their help.

  Around us, the market is coming to life. Snow is shifted off awnings, and bright fruit is laid out. A skinny figure slips between two stalls and I step forward, Feliks’s name right there in my mouth. But it’s not him—not tall enough—and the boy disappears into the growing mass of workers.

  “The only thing I really know is that I met Feliks right here at the market,” I say.

  Sasha half smiles. “Well then, it’s a good thing I left a note for Mother saying that we’d gone out early to come here and get a proper Demidovan breakfast after all that Magadanskyan palace food.”

  I feel a smile break across my face in spite of myself. “In that case, I think we should stay right here and keep our eyes open.” My stomach growls. “I don’t suppose you brought any—”

  Sasha pulls a purse from inside her furs and produces a silver coin.

  We have to wait another half hour, scouring the market all the time for anyone who might be able to lead us to the network, before we can order hot cocoa and sticky pastries. Delicious steam wafts into the air in front of my face, but the drink is still too hot. I’ve already scalded my tongue while Sasha carefully blows across the top of her cup.

  I look at the side of her face as she blows again, rippling the surface of the liquid.

  “It’s cold today,” she says.

  “It’s always cold.”

  “I really am sorry,” she says quietly. “I barely knew anything other than that Anatol was banished. You heard what Queen Ana said—even the guard who came to tell us didn’t know the truth of the matter. I bet not even Father does yet.”

  I cup my hands tighter around my cocoa. Leaving something out when you talk to someone is still lying. Across the market, a busker starts strumming a balalaika. Maybe she’s getting an early start—I didn’t think the festival started for days.

  Sasha sighs. “I told you everything else the guard said, I really did. The only other news involved Princess Inessa coming to visit.”

  I search through my memories of the royal family for Inessa. “Which one is she?” I ask.

  “She’s Queen Ana’s sister’s second-eldest daughter, fourth in line for the throne. The family estate is—” Sasha stops and rolls her eyes at my expression. “She’s the one who licked the icing on Anatol’s birthday cake.”

&n
bsp; “Oh, her. What’s she doing here?”

  “It’s a show of support from the family. The older sister is already doing diplomatic work with her mother in Magadanskya, so Inessa’s going to attend functions with the queen in Anastasia’s place.”

  I nod, but I can’t muster up much pretense that I’m interested, the way I usually do when Sasha tells me what’s going on at court. Instead we sink into silence. I begin to think that finding the letter from Feliks was more luck than judgment, but just as I’m trying to clean the last of the pastry glaze off my fingers to put my mittens back on, I catch a glimpse of someone familiar. Someone distinctive.

  “Is that Mila?” I jut my chin in her direction, trying to be discreet, but the girl is limping straight for us through the growing crowd anyway. I’m so pleased to see her. She helped me back in Tyur’ma when no one else would. She saved my life before I’d even found Sasha’s cell.

  “It is,” says Sasha. I hear eagerness in her voice. “Anatol must have pardoned her.”

  I can’t help but wonder why not Feliks and Katia too, but after what Warden Kirov did to Mila, I’m glad it happened for her.

  I take a step forward, but Mila walks right past us, saying in a low voice, “Follow me. I’ll take you to them.”

  Sasha looks to me, and I nod. The snow crunches as we head into a side street. I hurry to keep up with Mila. Her gait is uneven, but she moves fast.

  “Been waiting for you for quite a while,” she says.

  I move to walk at her side, the one with her good eye. “You were looking for me?”

  “Katia and Feliks looked for you for days, until we found out you were in Magadanskya. Since then, they’ve been waiting for you to get back.”

  “I found their note,” I say, unable to hide the hint of pride in my voice.

  “Which one? They left those notes everywhere they thought you might look, and I’ve been out in the marketplace watching for you the better part of every day.”

  “Oh.”

  Mila stops walking and nods. Ahead of us in the tiny, winding street is a narrow doorway I wouldn’t have seen if it hadn’t been open and Katia wasn’t standing right there in it. Feliks is behind her, trying to peer over her shoulder and then, when that doesn’t work, through the crook of her arm.

  I hurry toward them. “Katia, I’m so happy to see you.”

  She returns my smile, but I know her; I can see the worry underneath her expression even when Feliks bursts out from behind her and flings a rough hug at my midsection.

  We reach the door. Mila glances behind us as I peer inside to see a narrow, unlit hallway and a room where a fire blazes in a stone hearth.

  “We weren’t followed,” Mila says to Feliks. Then, once Sasha and I step inside, Mila closes the door. I hear her boots crunch the snow as she walks away.

  “Followed by who?” I ask. “Are you both all right? I saw you that day at the ceremony. But you’re going to be pardoned. Why haven’t you just come forward? Prince Anatol wou—”

  “Prince Anatol’s been banished,” says Feliks. “Come on, let’s talk in here. We’ve got a lot to tell you.”

  Katia squeezes my arm briefly, and I follow her and Sasha into the room. Feliks stokes the fire, and a damp, woody smell fills the space. There isn’t any furniture; just some rugs on the floor, so we sit on them, and I place my crossbow at my side.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  Katia and Feliks look at each other. Katia’s sandy hair, twisted into braids, slips over one shoulder. “The day of the escape,” she says, “after we got out of the tunnel and onto the dock, we heard Natalia trying to get Sasha to go with her.”

  “Something was up,” says Feliks. “Why would she want Sasha to go with her? If you’d seen the look on her face, how desperate she was, you’d have thought it was strange too.”

  “So we knew we had to follow her,” Katia cuts back in. She frowns at a smudge of soot that’s found its way onto Feliks’s eyebrow. “It was clear she was up to something.”

  “She was—working for Princess Anastasia,” says Sasha, a note of bitterness in her voice.

  Feliks leans forward, nodding. “Natalia met the princess herself down by the docks. She wore a cloak with the hood pulled low, but I knew it was her. So I crept closer—close enough to see a purse change hands. She raised her voice too when she heard what had happened—that you and Sasha never got out of the tunnel. Stamped her foot and threw a proper fit. Vowed she’d make both of you and her brother suffer.”

  Sasha’s head snaps up.

  Feliks crosses his arms. “I know. Look what she already did to Prince Anatol. That’s why we’ve been dying to speak to you all this time.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, that’s when the princess handed over the money to Natalia, and Natalia asked what they were going to do next, and …”

  “And what?” I ask. “What’s she going to do next?”

  Feliks’s big teeth bite into his lower lip. “Don’t know. She stopped shouting then, so I couldn’t hear that part. And I couldn’t get any closer without getting caught.”

  I clamp my hands on my knees. My damp trousers are starting to dry, the fire’s warmth seeping through to my legs. The flames pop and spit. “You should have told the queen,” I say. “She could have …” But I trail off. What could she have done?

  “What?” asks Katia, a challenge in her eyes. “You’ve been in a palace this past month, Valor. We’ve been in hiding, frightened to go anywhere. At least in Tyur’ma we knew where we stood.”

  “She’s right,” says Feliks. “Do you think the thieves’ network would have let us back into places like this if we showed our faces to the queen? We couldn’t take the chance. She might never have pardoned us. She might have sent us back to Tyur’ma.”

  I can feel Sasha looking at me. I take a deep breath. “So … how would you two feel if I said the queen just this morning charged me with finding Anastasia? And that I wanted to ask you to help me do it?”

  Katia huffs in frustration. “What? No, Valor. Didn’t you hear what Feliks just said?” She shakes her head. “We didn’t tell you this so you would try to stop her. We wanted to warn you so you and Sasha could stay safe. What do you think Anastasia wants to do to you? What do you think she’d do to the likes of us?”

  “That’s exactly why I have to stop her,” I say. “What you’ve told me only makes it more important that I do.”

  Katia just presses her lips together and worries the end of her braid.

  I turn so the sides of my damp boots face the fire. I’ll do this without them if I have to, but it surprises me how much I really want their help.

  I stare into the flames. “Right now, Natalia’s my best lead. She’s the only one who knows anything about where the princess is. I have to go to the docks.”

  Feliks makes a noise somewhere between a grumble and a snort.

  “What?” I ask.

  “There’s no saying Natalia’s even still there. Plus there’s every chance thieves, pirates, and press gangs are. It’s not all pretty sailboats down there, you know. The people getting aboard some of those ships are desperate for one reason or another—and trust me, none of the reasons are good.” Feliks scrutinizes me. “I’m not even close to convincing you not to do this, am I?”

  “I have to, Feliks. What’s the alternative? Let Anastasia get away with what she already did to my family? Let her do something worse? And what about Anatol? After everything he did for Sasha and me, I can’t just abandon him. Besides, I can’t ignore what the queen herself has asked me to do. Sasha and I both have work to do for her.”

  Sasha nods. “I’m to take over Anatol’s work at Tyur’ma.”

  Feliks sits bolt upright. “You can pardon us?”

  Sasha’s face falls.

  “Only the queen can do that,” says Katia quietly.

  Feliks opens his mouth at that last part, but one look at Sasha has him closing it again. He still looks like he’s bitten orange peel at any mention of the queen, tho
ugh.

  I’m uncomfortable sitting on the floor, too warm from the fire in front of me and too cold from the draft blowing on my back. I feel the same way inside. Katia and Feliks could have gotten their pardons while Anatol was free, but they didn’t come forward just to keep their links with the thieves’ network, just so they could wait out here to tell me what they knew about Natalia. Now their chance at getting pardons is gone. This isn’t how I pictured seeing Katia and Feliks again now that we’re all out of Tyur’ma.

  Katia rests her chin on her knees and stares into the fire. I want to say something, but I know from sharing a cell with her that it’s better if I don’t.

  Feliks’s eyes dart from me to Katia to Sasha.

  I hold out as long as I can, but patience isn’t my strong suit. “Oh, saints. Somebody say something.” I get to my feet and strap my crossbow back into place. “I’m going to the docks.”

  When I get to the door and turn around, the other three are standing too. Feliks pulls his furs into place.

  I shake my head. “I thought—”

  Katia marches past me. “Feliks and I need those pardons, and with Anatol banished, we need to get them from the queen.”

  Feliks follows her. “She’s right. I’m not happy about it, Valor, but if the queen needs Anastasia found, then so do we.”

  CHAPTER 5

  “Sasha,” I say as Feliks peeks out through the front door. I hesitate, biting the corner of my lip. I don’t know how I’m going to say what I need to say.

  She raises her eyebrows.

  “I think maybe you should—I mean, you could … instead of …”

  The coast is clear, and Feliks ushers us all back outside.

  “What?” Sasha asks.

  I don’t want her coming with us. There’s something not quite right between us still, but I can’t bear the thought of her doing something dangerous. Seeing her caught by Nicolai at the house made me realize I can’t do it. Not after she just got out of Tyur’ma. Not after I just got her back. I can’t lose her again.