by Ruth Lauren
“I told you, I … have some skill with a bow,” I say.
CHAPTER 10
A smile starts to creep across my face, my heart soaring. I saved Prince Anatol, and though nobody may know it, I can hold my head up again. Best of all, I’ve gotten what I needed, and in the most unexpected way. I think Sasha will like Feliks, and he will like her. Even Katia won’t be able to resist once she meets my sister.
Warden Kirov sweeps toward me. “I must meet with the prince. A Peacekeeper will return you to your meal.” Crisis over, she’s returned to her calm, cold self.
I hold in the grin that’s trying to burst out of me as I return my weapon to the stand.
Warden Kirov stares at me, her head tilted. “I did the right thing letting you do that.”
“I’m very happy I could help.”
“Yes. I’m sure you are. The young prince takes a great interest in the workings of the prison of late. He decided to ride with Peacekeeper Rurik out of curiosity, ahead of the royal visit tomorrow.”
I say nothing, but she must see my surprise. “Oh, yes, Valor—while the search for the music box continues, the royal family and Lady Olegevna are touring Demidova. The prince will of course be heavily guarded tonight, as will the rest of the family tomorrow.”
She gestures, and we start walking toward the tower and into the topmost room and down the spiral staircase behind the Peacekeepers.
“Warden Kirov, about my sister, Sasha. When can she—”
“Ah, yes.” The warden smiles pleasantly. “That was a most impressive display tonight, Valor. Truly astounding. With regards to introducing your sister into the general population, regrettably, this will not be possible; but on behalf of His Royal Highness, we thank you for your service.”
Warden Kirov walks away, and I stand speechless on the thick, blue carpet on the ground floor of the tower. She promised. My face gets hot. I clench my fists to stop myself from breaking something.
“Move,” says the Peacekeeper. I barely look at him as I follow the order, leaving the tower and walking back to the ice hall. Its eerie blue sheen rises up from the snow, still lit from within by torchlight.
Inside, Nicolai and the girl who held my arms are eating. There’s a bowl waiting for me. There’s a big hunk of bread too. I should be as happy as Nicolai looks to get extra rations, but all I can think about is Warden Kirov.
The Peacekeeper deposits me next to Nicolai and moves into the corner. On the other side of the room, there’s another small group of prisoners. One of them, a broad girl with rough, unbraided hair, shifts quickly into another seat, and through the gap, I see a face beaming at me. Sasha. We’re here so late that the Black Hands are having their meal. There are two Peacekeepers with them, one standing in each corner.
I keep my head down, but as I lift my spoon, I wave. It’s so good to see her that I regain my lost appetite and begin spooning the lukewarm potato broth into my mouth.
“I’m sorry about chasing after you and holding you back from the warden like that. I had no choice,” murmurs Nicolai. He almost looks anxious that I believe him, as if he feels bad.
I shrug and turn my attention back to Sasha. I suppose this is how he gains his responsibilities in the mines, by doing as he’s told. I’d be angrier with him but for the fact I can see my sister.
“Who is that girl over there grinning at us like a lunatic?” he asks.
“That’s—” I hesitate, but there’s no harm in telling him. “It’s my sister.”
Nicolai takes a good look at Sasha. “She looks like you.”
I open my mouth and then close it. We’re not identical. Sasha has big dark-brown eyes, bronze skin a shade darker than mine, and glossy, braided hair. Her features are even and pleasing, and when she smiles, her face sparkles. She is beautiful, and I have never thought she looked like me.
The Black Hands sitting around her dwarf her, and my heart cracks to think I tried my best and still couldn’t get her away from them. As I watch, trying to tell her how sorry I am with my eyes, she picks up her spoon and jams the handle into her hunk of bread. Then she reaches across and takes the spoon of the girl next to her. I almost push to my feet in horror, but the girl just sits there as my sister does the same thing to the girl’s bread, holds the two spoons in front of her, and makes the bread walk down the table.
Despite everything, I feel a sense of wonder and a smile building inside me. Father used to do this at dinnertime to make us laugh. And if he came home from work frowning, we’d do it for him, each of us responsible for one of the bread feet.
She’s charmed the Black Hands in some way, like she does everyone else. And if she can do that, if she can smile after everything that’s happened to her, just to cheer me up, then I can carry on too. I will get her out of here, no matter what Warden Kirov does. The two tall Black Hands on either side of Sasha block the Peacekeepers’ view of her, and when she pulls a funny face and makes the bread dance, I let my smile out.
The cellblock is silent when we’re taken back after the meal. Katia is asleep facing the wall as the Peacekeeper opens the cell door. I try not to stare too long at the bunch of keys attached to his belt. The bowl of water sits in its usual place at the back of the cell. I look at Katia, then sigh and plunge my hands into it, scrubbing quickly. I duck down to the floor and check that the pick is secure, flat against the slats on Katia’s bed, and then I climb up to my bunk.
Lying in my bed, I stare at the wall with the blanket drawn up over my shoulder. The soap hidden in my mattress digs into my side, and I shuffle forward.
“What happened?” asks Katia quietly.
I hold still for a moment, surprised that she’s talking to me. But she asked, and I want to tell someone. I tell her about Prince Anatol and the wolves and Warden Kirov. And even though seeing Sasha afterward made me feel better, now it isn’t enough. Wanting really badly to get her out of here isn’t going to make it happen. I have to do it. And I thought I’d found the perfect way tonight. It isn’t fair.
“I wish I’d shot him the first time,” I say savagely, though it’s Warden Kirov I’m actually furious with.
“The prince? What do you mean?”
I can’t believe she’s talking after we’re in our bunks, much less that she wants to hear this now, but I tell her the whole story, right from the start—my plan to rescue Sasha, the parade where I shot at the prince, my arrest, and the way I stopped Feliks from escaping. All of it comes out in a whisper to the wall, until I’ve told her how Sasha didn’t steal the music box and how we think her being kept in isolation has something to do with whoever did take it.
There’s only quiet from the bunk below. I curl up tighter, pulling my knees to my chest. Maybe she’s not interested. Maybe she fell asleep. She doesn’t care that Sasha’s innocent. I bite my lip. I didn’t even believe it myself. Maybe I shouldn’t have spilled everything out the way I did.
“Valor—who do you think took the box, then? And why was the prince asking you about it?”
So she was listening when I told Feliks about my little interrogation. My head aches. I can think about the answers to those questions all day, but I’m not going to find out the truth stuck in here staring at a wall.
I sigh. “I don’t know. He must think I know something, or that Sasha does.” Something new occurs to me; maybe it’s what Katia was trying to say. “And if he had something to do with it himself and thinks we know about it …”
Her voice comes back after a while, just as I’m thinking it all through. She’s thinking the exact same thing I am. “You have to get out of here soon.”
“Yes,” I say, thinking of Sasha, alone up in her cell.
“We have to get out of here soon.”
The words are so quiet I think they might only have been in my head. “What did you—?”
“I’m going to help you.”
“Why?” It slips out before I can stop it. She’s been so certain that none of my plans can work. And after today, I was beginni
ng to believe her.
“Why do you need to know that?” Now she sounds peevish again. “Isn’t it enough that I’m in?”
It is. So I say nothing.
“Valor?”
“Yes?”
There’s a long pause. “Thanks for washing your hands.”
As we rush out of the cellblock in the morning toward the ice hall and breakfast, I look to the tower. I don’t know what I expect to see, but there’s nothing out of place, nothing to suggest the prince is inside. I don’t see Feliks either, though I look for him after the hectic spill from the cells is over and we’ve gotten our bowls of food.
Once we’ve eaten and are standing behind our stools waiting for our orders, Warden Kirov steps into the ice hall. Everyone stands straighter. I clench my jaw, unwilling to even look at her.
“We are expecting to be graced with a royal inspection today as part of the tour of the realm Queen Ana and Lady Olegevna are conducting,” she says. “As such, there will be dire consequences for anyone exhibiting any … infraction-worthy behavior. There may also be chances to earn rewards.” She smiles but doesn’t elaborate. I seethe, knowing that she doesn’t mean it at all.
She summons Nicolai and speaks with him quietly for a moment. While she’s talking, she glances at me. It sends a flash of anger through me, followed by fear. I hate feeling so helpless.
Nicolai assumes his position at the head of the room, just as he does every morning. Warden Kirov leaves without looking at me again, and Nicolai starts to hand out work detail. I’m relieved when he announces our group will be in the mines today. No one likes the work, but I was expecting something worse.
As we separate, Nicolai smiles, so fast that I think maybe I imagine it, but when he moves back to lead us to the mine, Feliks is standing behind him, and I remember why I need to talk to him. I fall in line between Feliks and Katia. “There’s something I need to ask you later,” I whisper to him.
I’m the first to light my torch, tools in hand, ready to disappear down whatever tunnel Nicolai tells me to. The faster we get to the mine, the faster we can be rid of our Peacekeeper escort and I can speak with Feliks. But it seems Nicolai has other ideas.
“Natalia, you’re in charge today. Take these four and work the malachite shaft. Can I trust you?”
Natalia nods. I look at Feliks and he looks at me, understanding that we can’t speak freely in front of Nicolai.
With our torches raised, we split from Natalia’s group and take a tunnel on the far right. It’s pitch-black and narrow, and my heart sinks. I’m impatient to tell Feliks my plan. And now, though he’s right behind me, close enough for me to touch, I may have to go all day without getting a chance.
A soft glow of light warms the space ahead of me. Nicolai and Katia pass through the tunnel into a cave, and I follow. Stunning swirls of pink minerals are studded through the white rock of the mountain, but it’s the glow surrounding us that makes me stare in wonder. Up on the high roof there are hundreds of points of light, glowing like the night sky has been caught in a net and cast into this cavern.
“Valor?” Nicolai has holstered his torch in a bracket on the wall. “Can I speak to you about something? Katia, you can be in charge until I get back.” His eyes flit between us, and he shifts from one foot to the other.
Katia and I exchange a glance. I don’t know what’s going on, but I can hardly say no. My chest tightens as I follow Nicolai away from the others.
“Let’s go this way.” Nicolai walks right by me, using the light from the torch I’m holding; it’s the only one we have now. He leads the way into a narrow shaft that twists up and seems to fold back the way we came, toward the surface. It’s cold and airless, blacker than night outside the glow of the torch.
“Where are we going?” I ask, my voice loud and sounding far more scared than I wanted it to. I’m ready to bash him on the head with my torch and run if I have to, but without Sasha there would be no point.
He stops in the tiny space. I hold my torch out to the side, away from our bodies. His face is lit from one side. My heart pounds hard. There’s light coming from ahead of us, but I might be mistaken.
“Valor, there is something I wanted to—What’s the matter?” He looks concerned. I can’t work him out.
“Nothing,” I say. “What do you want to speak to me about?” I sound gruff and suspicious.
“Warden Kirov asked me today to keep you out of sight during the royal visit. I couldn’t ask her why, but I thought … I thought I could ask you.”
I frown. What does she think I’m going to do? Hurl snow at them in retribution? The more I think about it, though, the more I want to see them. Without them seeing me. I’m not going to get another chance after today, and someone wants me out of the way for this visit. Maybe the same someone who framed Sasha.
“There are lots of ledges and fissures in these mountains, aren’t there?” I ask. “Places we could watch the royal visiting party from?”
“What?” Nicolai stops. He frowns, and then understanding flashes across his face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“You wanted to talk to me, didn’t you? If you know somewhere we can go to see the royal family, we can talk there. Okay?”
Nicolai bites his lip. “There’s something going on, isn’t there? You’re planning to—”
He stops dead. Suddenly, I think we’re on the same page. I think we both have the word “escape” in our heads. But I’m not going to be the one to say it. He may have been nice to me, but he has the ear of the warden far too often for me to blurt out my plans now.
I stare at him.
He looks around us, sighs, and then starts walking. After a while he says, sounding a bit sullen, “Okay. Just ahead there’s an opening in the cliff. Be careful, though.”
Ice-blue sky shows through the crack in the rock.
“You have it all wrong, you know,” he says. “You can trust me. I only wanted to talk to you alone to be careful. There; I’ve done what you wanted. Now tell me. You have a plan, don’t you?”
I place my feet carefully and walk to the edge of the fissure in the cliff. It opens onto sky and a sheer drop down to the ground. We’re a little higher than the walls surrounding Tyur’ma. I pull back a step, breathing the clear, cold mountain air.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I say.
Nicolai stands on the other side of the gap. “Listen, it might not seem like it, but I was trying to help you last night by the tower. I saw today that Warden Kirov didn’t do as she said she would and let your sister in with the rest of us.” He gazes out over the prison. “I could have told you she wouldn’t keep her word.”
I shrug and say nothing. She doesn’t seem to have a problem keeping her word to Nicolai.
“I have eyes, Valor—and a working brain. I see you with Katia and Feliks. I hear things about why your sister is in here, and why you are. I know this all has something to do with the prince, I know you’re planning something, and do you know what else I know? That I want in on it. Just … think about it, okay?”
In the distance, the onion domes of the palace are bright, reaching up above the spread of the city. The houses and businesses, the docks, the school, the cobbled square, and the golden gates around the palace gardens—it’s all so beautiful. And so far removed from where we stand.
I can’t help but think about what Nicolai’s asking me, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to answer him.
“I didn’t think you could miss a place,” I say. But I do. Deep in my chest, I miss home. Miss the four of us being together, being happy. Will I ever be able to go into the city again? Or will I only ever see it like this, from afar?
I pretend I can see my house—the one that doesn’t belong to us anymore—where I used to live with Mother and Father and Sasha. Pretend I can see the target in the garden that Mother made for me to practice shooting when I was little. A few months ago I climbed onto our roof and hit it from there, remembering when it towered above me
and my arrows used to fly wide and miss it altogether.
“Do you miss your family?” I ask. “Do you have one?”
His face softens. “Of course I do. I don’t want to be here any more than you do. If I had a choice—” He cuts himself off as though he’s said too much, then looks at the floor. “You and your sister are going to escape,” he says quietly. “You don’t have to admit it. But I’ve already helped you, and you know it. I could have told the warden you weren’t paying attention right from the first time we worked the mines. But I didn’t. You can tell me what you’re planning if you want. That’s all I wanted to say. You can’t hold it against me that I act like a model prisoner so I can make the warden like me.”
As he stops talking, there’s movement below. Out from the tower, onto the battlements, a procession of people appears. Warden Kirov comes first at a brisk walk, followed by Lady Olegevna. Her headdress of pearls glows milky white, and her deep purple cloak sweeps the floor behind her as she walks.
We duck into a crouch in the shadows on my side of the opening. I pass the torch back to Nicolai, and he holds it low to the ground.
The queen herself, dazzling in white, steps out. The king follows. In the prison grounds, those who are working on the ice buildings openly stare until a Peacekeeper shouts for them to keep working.
The warden gestures, and her voice carries faintly on the wind. The queen nods, her eyes made up with a mask of black filigree. Her braids spill in loops and twists from under her ushanka.
Prince Anatol and his sister, Princess Anastasia, walk out side by side, their heads close together. I motion Nicolai to get back, and then lean into the shadows in our narrow hiding place. The royal siblings stand a little apart from their mother, gazing out over the prison. Prince Anatol looks none the worse for his second brush with death in as many weeks. His hair, ruffled by the breeze, curls at the front, and the gold on his tunic and cloak shines in the morning sun. Next to him, his sister’s white-gloved hands are clasped in front of her. Her eyes are painted in a simple, striking design, black under the snow-white fur of her ushanka.