by E. P. Clark
“Not for you, no. But as I said, Valya, I’m afraid of what you’ll find.”
“Whom should I be spying upon that’s so terrible, then?” I asked. “Vyacheslav Irinovich’s family? My own?”
“Oh no, nothing like that, Valya.”
“Your own sisters back in Pristanograd?” I guessed again.
“Our own sisters back in Pristanograd, Valya. And no, not them either, or not directly. No, I…I don’t even know exactly whom to suspect, Valya, or what to suspect of them, which is what makes it so bad. But I fear…I fear that the black earth princesses are hatching something.”
“I’m sure they are,” I said, laughing a little in my relief at not having to spy on my own family. “But why that should be a surprise or an embarrassment to you, I don’t know. Wasn’t that what you feared last time? Wasn’t that why I ended up spending so much time in the company of black earth people? And see how that turned out? No conspiracy—well, no more than usual—and me with child. Admittedly, there was a bit of a scandal, but nothing we couldn’t weather. And every time I’ve looked into things for you, here in Krasnograd or out on the steppe, nothing bad has happened to me—not permanently, anyway—and the information I’ve uncovered has been useful but nothing more. Certainly nothing that threatened our realm or your rule. So why should this time be any different?”
“Because…” She looked away. “Because I’m afraid they might succeed, Valya!”
“Succeed? Succeed in what?”
“I don’t know! But bringing down my rule, certainly, perhaps even that of our whole family.”
“Surely even the black earth princesses would find bringing down the entire Zerkalitsa rule to be a little too big for their crooked, ugly teeth,” I said.
“Valya! We are speaking of your future relations!”
“They’re not my relations yet,” I said. “I can still notice their crooked teeth if I want to.”
Sera rolled her eyes, and so, although he did it more discreetly, did Vyacheslav Irinovich. “Oh fine,” I said. “I’ll try to rein myself in a bit. But you know what I mean. Taking on the Zerkalitsa line is an awfully big day’s work—not that any of them know what work is—even for that nest of vipers.”
“I know, Valya, I know, I feel silly even mentioning it to you, but they are certainly plotting something, and this time I have a feeling it is worse than the usual infighting that goes on between them. This time they seem…worrisomely united. That’s what has me concerned, Valya. There hasn’t been one contentious marriage, one attempt at assassination, in over a year, and now there is talk of a match between Ivan Marinovich and Princess Srednekrasnova’s younger daughter…the Srednekrasnova heir has already been betrothed to a Zapadnokrasnov, and… not that there’s anything unusual in the black earth families intermarrying, since you know what an insular, incestuous group they are, but there’s just something about all these alliances, something I can’t quite put my finger on but that worries me, Valya, it worries me. Which is why…which is why I am willing to risk so much for the chance to bring an heir from my own line into the world. Before…after last time…I was willing, even happy, to turn the rule over to you and Mirochka when the time came, but now…now I’m afraid, Valya, I’m truly afraid, that that would be the spark that would set the black earth district afire, and Krasnograd along with it.” Her face gave the truth of her words: she truly was afraid of whatever it was she sensed might be coming, and she was rubbing her fingers against her cheeks as she did only when she was uncontrollably agitated.
“Have you seen something?” I asked.
“No, not as such, it’s just…a feeling. Less than a vision, but more than nothing. And…I do not like these rumors from the West. You know what I wrote you last. And it is getting worse and worse, if reports are to be believed. And somehow…it all makes me uneasy.”
I nodded. The troubles outside our borders were well known. We generally didn’t pay too much attention to the West, but there had been an empire of sorts, down on the Middle Sea, that had kept much of the West in line, or as much in line as it could be kept. But during Darya Krasnoslavovna’s time the empire had first threatened the borders of Zem’, and then collapsed (we liked to think the two things were related, but by all accounts it had collapsed all on its own, without any help on our part), only to be replaced by an alliance between our neighbors the Rutsi and the Tanskans, who had during the reign of Sera’s mother gone so far as to march all the way to Krasnograd and even take the city for a week or two. Their hold of Krasnograd and Zem’ had lasted precisely as long as it had taken the bulk of the steppe army to make its way to the Krasna, at which point they had been routed utterly, driven back beyond our borders, and their alliance smashed into smithereens. Now, a generation later, the entire West was still, if the reports were accurate, a patchwork of warring tribes, with no more notion of law than what could be found on the blade of a sword. Which made them weak and strong in equal measure.
“They make me uneasy, too,” I said. “But you surely don’t believe the black earth princesses have anything to do with it?”
“No, but…altogether it makes me feel as if Zem’ is…is under attack, almost. Which is why I need you to look into it, Valya, as quietly as you know how. I don’t want even a hint of my suspicions to reach anyone, especially the black earth princesses, before we have solid proof either of their treason, or of my own imaginings brought on by frayed nerves. Which is why I need you married to a black earth prince as soon as may be.”
“Very well,” I said. “The looking into things is easy enough, or at least it will be easy enough to get started. You said Princess Srednekrasnova has just arrived in town with a large party?”
“Yes, her whole family, and a number of friends and companions, amongst them Ivan Marinovich.”
“Can someone watch over Mirochka?”
“Of course, Valya, of course. In fact, I was going to suggest it anyway. Let her come and take her lessons with the boys.”
“I don’t think their lessons line up very well,” I said.
“Well, let her play in the corner while they’re taking their lessons, and then they can amuse themselves together afterwards. Have her sent to them after breakfast, and they can while away the whole day together. She will be well taken care of, Valya, you have no need to worry on that score.”
“In that case I’ll start tomorrow.”
“Excellent! How?”
“You implied that this party includes a number of young men, out on the town for the first time since coming into their manhood?”
“Yes, at least three or four of them. All fast friends, as far as I know.”
“Young men like to talk, my dear Sera, and they especially like to talk while gathered in taverns, out from under the eye of their mothers and protectors. I will wager you any money you like that our princes will be making a trip to an inn just as soon as they can escape the house. There’s a place where black earth people like to congregate. I’ll start there. Perhaps it will lead me to something. If not, I’ll watch the house a bit and see what I find.”
“As long as you’re back in time for the feast tomorrow, Valya.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said.
“Give me your word, Valya!”
“Oh fine. You have my word. I will make the feast tomorrow night on pain of death, and I will refuse to dance with Ivan Marinovich, but challenge him to a sword match instead, at which I will most likely give the young pup a sound hiding, but if that seems unlikely, I’ll lose gracefully and then beseech him to teach me the tricks of his mastery. Or perhaps I’ll challenge him to a shooting match instead, and promise to teach him the secrets of steppe archery. Are you satisfied?”
She laughed, and for the first time since I’d arrived in Krasnograd, the strain on her face appeared almost gone. “Oh Valya! I knew I could count on you. Already I feel better. Now go!” She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Collect Mirochka and go to bed. You have a big day tomorrow, and you wil
l want to look your best for all the intrigues we have planned for you.”
“Good night, Sera,” I said, kissing her cheek in return and trying to ignore the unaccountable lump that rose up in my throat as my lips touched her face, and also the faint whiff of ill health I caught rising off her skin. “It will all turn out well for us, I promise.”
“I don’t doubt it for a moment, sister,” she said, and showed me to the door.
Chapter Four
Mirochka was fractious that night about going to bed, and afraid of the new bedchamber, and kept complaining that the bed we shared was too high and too hard. And then, after she finally had slept a few hours, she impatient to be up and off playing with her new brothers. When in the end I was able to send her off to spend the day with the little tsarinoviches, I was tired and out of sorts and in no good state to be off spying on or wooing princes. I found it easier to be patient with Mirochka than with anyone else in the world, but that was only relative. I found it easy to be patient with no one.
So as I tried to ready myself for the tasks that lay ahead of me, I did so with the sinking knowledge that my stock of patience had already all been used up for the day, and that I had an aching head and dark circles under my eyes from my short night’s sleep on top of my two-week journey. I had always been hale, hearty, and quick to heal, so that such things affected me less than they did other women, but I had to admit that they did affect me, and so my spirits were in very low ebb as I dressed in my traveler’s garb, the better to disguise myself, and set off for the inns and taverns of Krasnograd.
At least I was doing something useful and that, under other circumstances, I would have even found fun. I liked spying, or whatever you wanted to call it, and I was good at it. I was quick to notice things, and despite my inability to get along with my sister princesses, I had the knack of making friends with servants, soldiers, and what these city folk would call low company. Probably because on the steppe we didn’t make such a sharp distinction between high and low company, and I had served on the steppe patrols myself when I was younger. I was not the open and outgoing type, but even so, I made friends very easily. Or rather, followers. I didn’t really have many friends. I had many people who would cheerfully obey my commands, or who might even consider themselves my friends, but they…they were followers. Even if I were not a princess and heir to the Tsarina, I suspected that they would still be followers, since I tended to lead any group of people I found myself in, but as it was, there was just no one around who could ever be a real friend, if by “friend” I meant someone who could disobey me and speak her mind without fear of retribution.
Putting all that aside was part of the fun of spying. I hadn’t gotten to be someone else in far too long, and being myself was starting to chafe, as it always did. Surely being yourself shouldn’t be so irksome, but it was, it was…some days my sword felt heavy and alien in my hand, and I could barely even stand to practice my bladework.
Well, I had the cure for that now, didn’t I? I was about to go lurk about the city and eavesdrop and get people to spill their secrets to me. Which should be easy. People tended to tell me all kinds of things that I had a hard time imagining revealing to another person, let alone a near-stranger. But most people seemed to think I looked trustworthy (which was true) and kind (which was less true), and no one ever seemed to connect my face with the kremlin and the throne and the woman sitting in it.
It helped that I didn’t look much like my Zerkalitsa kin, who since the time of Darya Krasnoslavovna had all been stamped with her curly red hair, her freckles, her heart-shaped face, and her solid, even, in some of our family, voluptuous body shape. But all that had skipped right over me. No one had ever guessed my affiliation with the Zerkalitsa family just by looking at me, which was all to the good when I wanted to pass myself off as someone else. Which I often did. Aside from the call of duty, I found surrendering myself to the ever-changing movement of events and to my own inspiration to be exhilarating and yet relaxing at the same time.
I had discovered this by accident, my first summer in Krasnograd after I had come of age, when Sera had mentioned her concerns that the black earth princesses were up to something, and I had offered to befriend their daughters and see if I could find anything out. She had accepted my offer with a laugh, expecting nothing to come of it, but to both our surprise, no one had recognized me as the Tsarina’s second-sister, taking me for some steppe rider come in to sell her horses.
When we had told this to the old Captain of the Guard, already in retirement, but known to be cunning about such things, he had given me tips on spying and concealment, and had suggested ways of infiltrating the black earth princesses’ servants and other potential malcontents. I had fallen in with the serving folk and younger sons and daughters with no trouble at all, and been able to report back within a matter of days that the black earth princesses were unhappy with the influence the steppe was exerting on the rule of the country, but that they did not seem to have any immediate plans to change that, other than perhaps through a fortunate marriage alliance…and then I had met him, and thought that the fortunate marriage alliance was going to be made through me…more fool me…best not to think about it too much…best just to give myself over to the task at hand. Or at least the street in front of me. I stepped over a puddle of filth, and nearly collided with a mother duck and a gaggle of ducklings. There was an outburst of outraged quacking, and I only avoided crushing the ducklings by leaping over them and spinning away on one foot—which caused me to slip in the slops and almost fall full-length on them anyway, saving myself only by grabbing hold of the fence next to me and sliding around in an inelegant dance until I regained my footing.
“I apologize, little mother,” I said to the mother duck, who fixed me with a beady-eyed look of contempt, before shepherding her charges away from me and my clumsiness. A sharp pang went through me as I watched them go: I could have killed them so easily, I could have ruined things for another mother so easily and so irrevocably, and entirely without meaning to. I watched them, my head still muzzy despite the beating of my heart at my near escape, until they slipped through a fence and disappeared from my sight, and I was able to turn and start moving again.
As I walked through the still and stifling summer morning, sweating lightly despite my slow pace and wishing I were back on the steppe, which would also be stifling but less rank with the reek of privies and middens than the part of Krasnograd I was currently strolling through, I tried to buck myself up by telling myself that this first part of the day would be easy, and by the time the more challenging evening assignment rolled around, I would be prepared for it and would have thought of something clever to do and say when I encountered Ivan Marinovich. What that clever thing was, and how I was to prevent him from turning his back on me the moment we met, I still didn’t know, and despite Sera’s faith in my abilities as a wooer, my own doubts were severe. True, I had had some successes in the past, but ultimately they had been short-lived and hollow victories.
The plain truth was, even if Sera was unwilling to see it, that at nine-and-twenty I had yet to bring a man to marriage, despite all the advantages that family could bring, and despite on at least one occasion my own very vigorous efforts. That kind of failure tended to leave scars. I stopped worrying for a moment and probed at the area where, I thought (fancifully), my heart had once been. For the longest time it had felt burnt out, like the husk of a house that had been caught in a fatal conflagration. I contemplated bringing another man into it, to see if that would raise some speck of warmth. Alas, no. Still nothing but cold ash. I prodded at it some more, but just as it had always been for the past nine years, to no avail. The best I could hope for if I kept poking around in there would be to bring the whole shaky structure down around my ears. Hardly the best foundation on which to build a courtship and a marriage. Sera, I thought bitterly, could not have chosen a more difficult task for me if she had tried. If fear hadn’t been burnt out of me along with all the warm
er emotions, I might have even felt afraid.
As it was, since I couldn’t work up any actual fear, my aching head and tired body were suffused with a dull dread for what lay ahead. I tried to quell it, and quite successfully. And, I told myself, this was the task that Sera had chosen, and not out of spite but out of necessity, a necessity I also recognized, so I would just have to go through with it. Besides, whatever my heart might be feeling, my blood was already starting to rise for the chase, even if not for the capture. But first things first. Before I set out to conquer the heart of Ivan Marinovich Velikokrasnov, I needed to find out what his family and all their allies were up to, and for that there was nothing like gossip as a good jumping-off place, and for gossip there was nothing like a tavern.
Knowledge that I had paid a pretty high price for told me that the most likely place for young princes from the black earth district looking to escape their mothers’ eyes and have a good time was an inn of middling reputation not far from the kremlin, but far enough from where all the black earth princesses had their houses that they themselves would be unlikely to walk there, if they fancied going to an inn. Strong and idle young men, on the other hand, found the walk to be a mere trifle, and generations of the sons and servants of the black earth princesses had made the place their spot for activities that were best done not under the eye of their mothers and mistresses.
I, of course, was not a Krasna black earth woman and had no hope of passing as one, but travelers stopped there too, hence my traveling clothes. I only hoped that the innkeeper wouldn’t be out on the floor when I arrived, or wouldn’t recognize me if she were. I couldn’t count on my traveler’s clothes to disguise me from her, since I had worn pretty much exactly the same attire when I had used to frequent the place on my ill-fated summer nine years ago. I probably could have disguised myself better, but my heart had not been in it this morning.