The Midnight Land: Part Two: The Gift (The Zemnian Trilogy Book 2)

by E. P. Clark

  “Her mind has wandered…Tsarina,” said the healer. “Sometimes people who are sick in the head, their minds wander back and forth. Sometimes it’s like they’re right in the room there with you, and sometimes it’s like they’re somewhere across the Middle Sea, and you never know when it’s going to be which.”

  “Do they ever get better?” Slava asked.

  “Sometimes, Tsarina.”

  “But sometimes not,” Slava concluded.

  “Often not, Tsarina.”

  “I thought not. Guards! Escort the others to more comfortable quarters for a moment. I would speak with my niece alone.”

  “No!” cried Prasha.

  “We must have this conversation someday, Prasha,” said Slava. “Let us have it now.”

  “Boleslav Vlasiyevich!” pleaded Prasha. “Surely you won’t leave me here with this traitor!”

  “She is your Tsarina now,” said Boleslav Vlasiyevich, looking rather more resolute than Slava had ever seen him before.

  “I will do you no harm, I promise,” Slava said. “You have no reason to fear me.”

  “No? Then why is my mother lying here in this bed?”

  “Boleslav Vlasiyevich! I would speak with my niece in private.”

  Slava waited until Boleslav Vlasiyevich and Anna Avdotyevna had shepherded everyone—including themselves, although it was clear that Anna Avdotyevna found leaving painful, and was in grave doubts about Slava’s ability to handle Prasha—out of the room.

  “Dry your eyes, Prasha,” she said once they were gone. “You will do no one any good with your weeping, least of all my sister.”

  “How dare you call her sister!” cried Prasha.

  “Because I have known her for three times as long as you have, my dear. Like it or not, she is my older sister, and I have spent my entire life by her side.”

  “And yet you…you…”

  “Prasha,” said Slava firmly. “What do you know of your mother’s rule? What do you know of her actions of late?”

  “What is it to you?!”

  “Do you know what happened to her, Prasha?”

  “You…You cursed her!”

  “No,” said Slava. “Others did. Only…Do you know how a curse works, Prasha?”

  “Why? No, of course not,” said Prasha sullenly.

  “I have little knowledge of it myself, but I have been told that curses take the easiest way, like water running downhill. And it seems to me, from what I have seen of them, that the easiest way for them is through our weaknesses. It seems to me, from what I have seen of curses, that they merely make use of what is evil in us already. We let them in. I do not know whether it is possible to withstand them, but everyone I have seen who was brought down by one let it happen through their own evil actions. We bring them upon ourselves, at least in part. Or so it seems to me, from what I have seen of them.”

  “This isn’t her fault!”

  “No,” said Slava. “And yes. Do you know what happened today, Prasha?”

  “You…You came back with your monsters, and you attacked my mother, and usurped her place!”

  “Do you know why I came back, Prasha?”

  “To attack her!”

  “I received word that she intended to kill my friends. Even Vladislava Vasilisovna, Prasha, who is younger than you, and a guest in this kremlin. So I came back, and word had not deceived me. She did intend to kill them. And me too. She gave the order to have me killed, Prasha. I heard the words issue from her own mouth.”

  “You…You’re a traitor! The Tsarina said so herself!”

  “I do not think that one can condemn someone for treason so easily…” said Slava, staring thoughtfully off at the wall. She shook her head and brought herself back to the matter at hand. “You see, Prasha, it was the curse, eating at her mind, making her say such things, but she could not have said such things if she had not been thinking them anyway. A curse, it seems to me, will not make you act against your will: quite the reverse, in fact. It merely brings out what you have been secretly willing all along. And so she ordered to have me killed, and so I let her look into my heart.”

  “And it was that evil! She looked in, and the horror struck her down, it was so evil!”

  “Prasha,” said Slava. “If you look into my heart, the only thing you will see is yourself. It is my gift.”

  “That’s not true!” cried Prasha.

  “I fear that it is. But it is true that when she looked into my heart, and saw herself, she was indeed struck down with horror, and her mind was broken. I fear it will never recover. And I fear that she should never rule again, even if her mind should return to her. She is not fit to rule.”

  “And you are! You just want the throne to yourself! You are a traitor!”

  “Prasha,” said Slava patiently. “You must see that this means my sister’s line has ended. Your sole duty now is to care for your mother. Do you understand what I am saying, Prasha?”

  “Yes! You’ve usurped the throne from my mother and me! I understand perfectly!”

  “I think it might be best if you went with my sister to Deep Pond sanctuary,” said Slava. “To your grandmother. They will care for you both there, and you will want for nothing.”

  “And now you’re exiling me!” cried Prasha. “Exiling us both!”

  “There can be no other way,” said Slava. “I will ensure that you both have the best of care, but my sister’s line is ended.” She rose from the bed. “It will do you good to spend time with your grandmother, Prasha. There is much that you could learn from her, and I am sure that she longs to be with you.”

  “I…” Prasha’s mouth suddenly twisted and her face turned such an alarming shade that Slava had already shouted “Healer!” before the shriek was able to leave Prasha’s mouth.

  Anna Avdotyevna and the healer came rushing in. Prasha was still shrieking incoherently.

  “See if you can calm her,” said Slava. “If she appears to be bothering my sister, have her moved.”

  The healer bowed silently without looking up from Prasha’s quivering form.

  “Send word if you have need of me,” said Slava. “I will leave you to your work.” She swept out of the room, with Anna Avdotyevna hurrying behind her.

  “I take it that did not go well, Tsarina?” said Anna Avdotyevna, once they were out in the corridor. Boleslav Vlasiyevich and half-a-dozen guards formed up around them.

  “Was there ever any chance that it would?” said Slava. “But I had to tell her of her new position with my own mouth. I think I shall send both of them to Gluboky Prud, to my mother. It will do them good.”

  “You are disinheriting Praskovya, then?” asked Anna Avdotyevna approvingly.

  “Yes,” said Slava. “It is the only way.”

  “I know it is, Tsarina, but I feared you lacked the ability to do it. Are you sure Deep Pond is far enough away?”

  Slava stopped and turned to face Anna Avdotyevna. “It was far enough away to keep my mother from the throne for many years,” she said. “It is far enough. I believe I have little to fear on that score, for the moment at least. The princesses will be plunged into confusion by this sudden change in power, and Prasha is still too young—and frankly, too incompetent—to organize an uprising any time soon. I think they will be safely contained for many years there.”

  “If you say so, Tsarina,” said Anna Avdotyevna, sounding more agreeable than Slava had imagined possible. “But now, if I may make a suggestion…”

  “Yes?” said Slava.

  “Return to your chambers and rest. The throne, and the princesses, and your troublesome family, will still be waiting for you tomorrow. You must refresh yourself for your coming labors, especially considering…” she looked meaningfully at Slava’s waist.

  “Wise advice,” said Slava.

  “Good. Boleslav Vlasiyevich! Escort the Tsarina back to her quarters! Ensure that she has everything she might need. Good night, Tsarina, and may your sleep be restful.” Anna Avdotyevna bowed and
walked off back towards Slava’s sister’s chambers. Slava suspected that she meant to spend the night there, watching over Vladya and Prasha. Anna Avdotyevna was, under her terrifying outer surface, a kind person, Slava thought. Rather kinder than she was herself, in fact, or at least softer. She, after all, unlike Slava, had not traded away her own sister’s life for that of some Northern slip of a girl and the possibility of a daughter.

  Boleslav Vlasiyevich and the other guards walked Slava the rest of the way back to her chambers, and, after a knock failed to raise either Masha or Manya, Boleslav Vlasiyevich opened the door and led her in himself. The room was dark and empty, except for a small fire in the fireplace.

  “Go find the maids!” Boleslav Vlasiyevich told the other guards. “I’ll light some candles while we wait, Tsarina,” he added, once the others were gone.

  “Thank you,” Slava told him. “And...Boleslav Vlasiyevich?”

  “Yes, Tsarina?” he asked, staring hard at the candle he had picked up off the table.

  “I have two questions.”

  “Only two, Tsarina?” She thought he smiled despite his best efforts to stop himself.

  “Only two. Why did you let us go?”

  “At the gate, you mean, Tsarina?”

  “Yes, at the gate. Why did you…why did you let us go but not go with us?”

  “Are you angry about that, Tsarina?” he asked, no longer smiling but still staring hard at the candle, as if afraid to meet her gaze.

  “No, just puzzled. You see, I never could tell where your loyalty lies, Boleslav Vlasiyevich, and I still can’t. So why did you let us go?”

  “My loyalty is always to Zem’, Tsarina.”

  “I’m very glad to hear that. How did…doing what you did at the gate serve Zem’?”

  This time he glanced up for a moment and then quickly looked back down, as if scalded or…shy. It was such an odd thought to have of him that Slava wanted to dismiss it out of hand, but nonetheless she could sense some reticence in him she had never sensed before, as if he were fighting hard to hide something from her.

  “If your sister had caught you, Tsarina…” he said eventually, turning the candle over and over in his hands.

  “Yes?”

  “If your sister had caught you, it would have torn the realm apart. I knew she was mad that day, not in her right mind, and I knew…I knew that she mustn’t catch you, not for anything. I had hoped and hoped that you had slipped out already, but when you ran into me…” his breath caught for a moment, “…when you ran into me, I knew that I couldn’t turn you in. But if I had also gone missing…well, that would have been even uglier. The guard would have descended into chaos, and…it was too much of a risk. Are you angry that I didn’t go with you, Tsarina?”

  “Of course you couldn’t just disappear,” said Slava by way of answering. “That was well done on your part.”

  “Thank you, Tsarina.” He played with the candle a bit more, and then asked, in a voice that in another man Slava would have called apprehensive, “And your second question, Tsarina?”

  “What would you have done?” she asked.

  “About what, Tsarina?” he asked, squatting down to light the candle from the fire in the fireplace.

  “Today,” Slava said, even though she knew that he knew what she meant. “Down…down there. What would you have done, if I hadn’t done anything?”

  “If you hadn’t saved us, you mean, Tsarina?” he asked, standing back up. The candle in his hand blossomed with fire, shedding an unsteady light on his face.

  “Yes. What would you have done?”

  “Speaking truthfully, Tsarina?”

  “Of course.”

  “Speaking truthfully, Tsarina, I don’t know what I would have done. I didn’t know what I was doing the whole time we were down there. All I could think was that I had to buy us more time, buy you more time. All I could think of was not to let her kill any of you—all of you—especially you—for as long as possible. When she gave the order and I started walking towards you, I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking anything at all, except that the house spirit was walking with me, and so maybe I had a chance. All I could think was that as long as I hadn’t killed any of you, especially you, there was still a chance. Because I knew that I would never shed your blood, nor the little princess’s. But I couldn’t see how not to do it. Your sister…well, you saw how she was, and half the guard will do whatever they’re told without a second thought. I knew I couldn’t tell her no, not straight out to her face, without there being bloodshed, but I didn’t know what else to do. All I could think of was that as long as I hadn’t done it yet, there was still a chance. When the house spirit tripped me it was the happiest moment of my life. I never went down so easy in my life. I knew it was my chance.”

  “Did you ever consider yourself loyal to my sister?” asked Slava.

  Even in the flickering candelight Slava could see the shame-faced smile that flitted across his face at that question.

  “I was loyal to what your sister should have been, Tsarina,” he said finally. “I wanted to serve a great Empress, someone to be proud of. Even guards and merchants’ sons have pride. I wanted to serve a great Empress, and be proud of that service. Only…”

  “You could not take pride in my sister’s service?” Slava asked.

  “No…Sometimes…Of late, not much. Tsarina.”

  “And mine?” asked Slava.

  He smiled a strange smile. Slava couldn’t help but be struck again by how hard it was for her to read him, when most other people were open books to her.

  “Thus far your wavering has served me well, Boleslav Vlasiyevich,” she said. “I cannot criticize you for it too harshly. But I will not hold with you wavering in your service when it is me you serve, do you understand me?”

  For a moment she thought he might laugh, or perhaps shout at her in anger. “You have to ask?” he said. “After…after everything I’ve done for you? How many times do I have to prove myself?”

  “What have you ever done to prove yourself to me, Boleslav Vlasiyevich?” she asked sharply. “You…you let me escape, true enough, and you stood by while I…did what I had to do, but truly, I don’t know why. How should I know you will not do the same to me, if some other woman should ask it of you? What have you done, that you think I should trust in you? For I will need to have people around me I can trust, in the coming days. Why should one of them be you?”

  “How could you doubt me, Tsarina!” he cried, now truly angry. “After…after…”

  “After what, Boleslav Vlasiyevich! After what?”

  “You don’t…” his voice changed from anger to bewilderment, and something softer. “You don’t know,” he said. “You never knew, did you Tsarina?”

  “Know what, Boleslav Vlasiyevich?”

  He put the candle down on the table, hiding his face in darkness. For a moment there was silence.

  “I smashed his hands,” he said eventually. “I found out who he was and I smashed his hands so that he would never work again. He used to beg by the North Gate until he disappeared a few winters ago, probably frozen to death.”

  “Whose…” Slava’s voice cracked, and she had to swallow and try again, even though she knew the answer already. “Whose hands did you break, Boleslav Vlasiyevich?”

  “The man…the guard your mother and your sister…it was the week after I was taken into service here. You had already been so kind to me, Tsarina, although perhaps you don’t remember it. You gave me money to send word to my mother of what had become of me, because I wouldn’t receive any pay for a month and I hadn’t a grosh to my name. And you told me you were sure I would bring great honor to my family with my service. Already I knew, knew that…well, anyway. And then one night when I was standing guard, I saw you running away from the kremlin in the dark, and you were bareheaded and crying and your clothes were torn, and I know something terrible had happened, so I left my post and I followed you, and I heard…I heard what y
ou told the herbwoman, and I kept watch while you were there, and I heard what passed between you and your mother and your sister. I waited till I was sure you had gone home before I returned to the barracks, and after my punishment for deserting my post was over, I found out who it was and I caught him when he wasn’t expecting it and I smashed his hands so that he would never use them again. And after my punishment for that was over, word got out that I was the man for brutal work, and I rose higher and higher because of it. No one guessed why I’d done what I’d done, and I…it was not my secret to share. Except with your mother. One day when she offered me the chance to be her Captain, I told her that I knew, and asked her what restitution she would make to you, what the Stepnaya family would demand in retribution, and she stepped down from the throne rather than answer.” He smiled bitterly. “I’m afraid I didn’t serve you very well in that, Tsarina. I know that many had cause to love her, but I hated her every day of my service to her, and I thought anyone would treat you better, even your sister. But it seems I was wrong about that.”

  “Who can tell,” said Slava softly. “My mother loved me more, of that I am sure, but we do not always serve the ones we love very well. And what will you do about it now, Boleslav Vlasiyevich?”

  “What would you have me do, Tsarina?”

  “Keep your secret, Boleslav Vlasiyevich. Does anyone else know?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then let us keep it that way. I would not tarnish the reputation of my kinswomen even more than I have already done. The Stepnaya family’s retribution would be…unhelpful, I fear, especially with the succession in such disarray now. And I would have my mother remembered as the good-hearted Empress. She…she did help many people, even if she failed me. And even me—it’s not as if she failed me entirely. She did what she thought was best, and much of what she did was good.”

  “As you wish, Tsarina.” He was staring at her as if expecting something more from her, but said nothing more.