The Unfailing Light (The Katerina Trilogy 2)

by Robin Bridges

  “I’ll catch up with you. There is something in the library that I need.”

  Elena rolled her eyes. “You and your books! Augusta, come along.”

  I hurried alone to the library, not sure what I could actually do. The empress’s spell had rendered me powerless. If there was a ghost, what would I be able to do about it?

  Princess Alix was in the library, reading a volume of English poetry. I was not expecting to see anyone there, and I know I looked startled. “Excuse me,” I said. “I’m … just getting a book and I’ll leave you in peace.”

  “You’re not bothering me.”

  “That’s good.” What else was I supposed to say? I stared at the bookshelves, not sure what to do. Would the ghost come back if there was more than one person here? Had Alix felt its presence already? She seemed so calm. It was unlikely she had noticed anything. The presence I’d felt was not really evil, but it was mean. And it definitely did not want me in the library.

  “Is something wrong?” Alix asked. “Why are you staring at me?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “May I ask you something? The noises at night have not bothered you at all?”

  The princess stared at me with her clear blue eyes. “If you are wondering whether the ghost is disturbing me, then no. If you are asking whether the moaning of my roommates is keeping me awake, then yes.”

  We stared at each other in silence for a long time. She knew of the ghost, and yet was not afraid of it. Finally, I said, “I felt the presence in here last week.”

  Alix closed her eyes and was perfectly still. “Yes, but she is not here now.”

  “She? Do you know who she is? She has not tried to harm you?”

  But the German princess was not interested in chatting with me anymore. Alix stood up abruptly and gathered her things. “If you will excuse me, I must be somewhere.” She brushed past me, and I wished more than anything that I could see her cold light. She was most definitely a good person, which was probably why she irritated Elena so. There was no evil lingering around her, but there was a sense of grimness in her blue eyes. No sense of joy at all. She was the strangest girl I’d ever met.

  I tried to find Erzsebet next. I wanted to know how she was doing after her outburst that morning. She was resting in her room.

  “Come sit with me, Katerina,” she said. “Please don’t go.”

  “How are you feeling?” I asked, sitting down on the bed beside her.

  “Better,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Madame Tomilov was kind. She only gave me a five-page essay to write.”

  “Why were you so upset this morning? Was it the lack of sleep or was it something else?”

  “I don’t know,” Erzsebet mumbled, staring down at her quilt. She seemed to be debating whether or not to tell me. “Everyone will think I’m crazy.”

  “Erzsebet, what are you talking about? You know I wouldn’t think that.”

  “I heard voices last night.” She sniffled and shook her head. “Well, one voice, actually. A girl laughing. I thought it was Augusta, but she was sleeping. The girl sounded like she was in the hallway, but when I opened my door, the laughing stopped. It’s like she just vanished.”

  I took a deep breath. I couldn’t tell her what Alix had said, but I could tell her what I’d experienced. “I think I’ve heard her too. In the library last week.” Erzsebet gasped and grasped my hand, squeezing it tight. “Who do you think it is?”

  The Bavarian princess looked at me like I was insane. “Isn’t it obvious? It’s Marija of Montenegro. Elena’s sister.”

  No wonder the girls had been whispering about Elena that morning. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Do you know anyone else who’s actually seen her?”

  Erzsebet shook her head. “Madame Tomilov told me not to discuss it with any of the other girls. I shouldn’t have said anything to you, Katerina, but you won’t tell anyone, will you? Especially not Elena. It’s her fault somehow. I’m sure of it.”

  “We can’t be certain of that,” I said. “Or even that it’s truly Elena’s dead sister haunting us.”

  Erzsebet shrugged. “I don’t know, Katerina, but there has been a lot of gossip around the school that Elena was responsible for the strange illnesses last year. I’ve heard she knows some kind of folk magic from the Black Mountains.”

  The glamours of the Light and Dark Courts could only hide so much from everyone. Of course there were always rumors and hints that something more sinister lurked in the shadows. If only I could’ve told her about the empress’s spell, I think she would’ve felt safer. Then again, not many people in St. Petersburg knew the empress was a faerie. “But why would Elena make her sister’s ghost haunt Smolny?” I asked. “And why now and not sooner? She could have appeared years ago.”

  “I don’t know, Katerina.” Erzsebet shook her head, her blond curls swinging. She was not quite old enough to wear her hair up. “I’m probably being ridiculous. But you’ve heard the ghost too, right? I’m not going insane?”

  “I can’t promise you that you’re not insane,” I said, teasing her gently. “But yes, I’ve heard something that I can’t easily explain. But I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “We have to tell Sister Anna. She’ll know what to do.” Erzsebet sat up. “Let me put my uniform back on, and we can speak to her right now.”

  I hesitated. “What if she doesn’t believe us? I think we need some kind of proof before we bother any of the staff with this. Otherwise, she might punish us for lying.”

  Erzsebet slumped back down against her pillow and sighed unhappily. “What does one do to get rid of a ghost?”

  There were a thousand other questions I would have rather asked first, like who she was, and why was she here. After all those years of watching Maman’s séances, I knew how to properly conjure a ghost, and the polite way to dismiss one. But I had a feeling this ghost would not leave politely. And without being able to see cold light, I was stumbling around in the dark.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  A few weeks later, Alix fell ill and was bedridden for several days. She lay pale and damp with sweat, clenching her bed linens in stoic suffering. She was not able to get up from her bed to go to class with us, and at night, I listened to her tossing and turning. She whimpered in her sleep as if in pain. I asked Sister Anna to check on her, but the woman would only agree to say prayers for Alix.

  Those prayers were useless. I crawled out of my own bed to check on the German princess several times during the night. She always woke up before I could cross the room. Sitting straight up in bed, she whispered in alarm, “What are you doing?”

  “Can I get you some water?” I asked, reaching for the pitcher at Aurora’s bed stand.

  “No!” Alix cried, but her voice was strange, as if she weren’t even talking to me. With an anguished moan, she fell back against her pillow again. She was drifting in and out of consciousness and her fever seemed to grow worse as the nights went on. Ignoring her weak protests, I put damp washcloths on her forehead and coaxed her to take sips of water.

  Her sister, Grand Duchess Ella, arrived the day of the full moon and insisted upon taking Alix away from Smolny and to her St. Petersburg palace to recuperate. At first our headmistress forbade it, but the grand duchess was adamant. Sister Anna sided with the grand duchess, suggesting that Alix would feel better in her dear sister’s care.

  Madame Tomilov looked very displeased that anyone, including a grand duchess, would dare oppose her, but in the end instructed me to help Alix pack her things. The German princess seemed unsteady on her feet.

  “Is it time for your monthly course?” I whispered as we reached our room. I knew that would not cause her to have a fever, but it could be exacerbating her problem.

  Alix blushed, but only shook her head. She pulled a small suitcase out from under her neatly made cot and laid it open on top of the blankets. The first thing she placed inside was her German Bible.

  “Has the fever returned? Do you have any aches or pains?” I c
ould not help asking.

  “No. Please, Katerina. I do not wish to discuss my illness with anyone.” She dropped down on her hands and knees, searching for something else under her cot. Her small, dark wooden box, which she slid out and placed in her suitcase.

  “Is it your digestion?” Alix had been teased by Aurora and some of the other girls for having a weak stomach. But the food at Smolny truly left something to be desired. Especially the boiled mutton they’d served to us every night that week. “I am sure Sister Anna or I could persuade the cook to make a nice broth for you.”

  Grand Duchess Ella stood in the doorway and watched as Alix gathered her things. “You won’t need most of those,” she said impatiently. “Sunny, we really must hurry and get you home.”

  Alix finished packing and fastened the lid on her suitcase. She turned and glared at me, but then her face relaxed, and she was civil as she answered me. “I thank you for your concern. I hope I will be able to return to Smolny soon.”

  I smiled at her. It was just her extreme shyness that caused her to act so stiffly. She must have been quite a different person at home to be called Sunny by her family. “I am sure you will,” I said. “Your sister will take excellent care of you.”

  “Yes, she worries constantly about all of her sisters,” she answered as she and the grand duchess exchanged glances.

  “May God bless and protect you, Katerina,” Grand Duchess Ella said to me. “Thank you for looking after Alix.”

  I watched from the tiny window in the stairwell as Alix climbed into the imperial carriage. The carriage stopped suddenly at the archway leading from the inner courtyard, and then just as suddenly lurched forward. The horses galloped off, pulling the carriage in a hurry, as if they’d been spooked. It was almost as if the empress’s spell did not want to let the German princess leave Smolny.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Alix was still gone a few weeks later when I celebrated my seventeenth birthday. The headmistress discouraged extravagant celebrations for student birthdays, but allowed us to receive notes and small packages from relatives. My parents, who were still in Biarritz on the French coast, had sent a large package of cakes and fruits for me to share with my friends. I received letters from my brother and a mysterious parcel of Swiss chocolates in a heart-shaped tin. Elena smiled. “They are from Danilo, of course.”

  I was almost afraid to try them, worried they would be laced with some sort of Vladiki poison. But Elena sampled one without asking, and was kind enough to even offer some to Erzsebet and Augusta as well. I decided the candies were probably safe and chose one before Elena had given them all away.

  It was delicious. I vowed to find more Swiss chocolates at Christmastime to give as gifts. Dariya and Countess Zina would adore them. So would my father.

  Madame Orbellani had managed to find me a copy of the latest medical journal from Berlin. “This is to help you study your German,” she said with a wink.

  “Danke, Madame,” I said, giving her a hug.

  Sister Anna said a prayer for me and gave me a tiny icon of St. Katerina in a golden frame.

  “Merci, Sister,” I said, dutifully hugging her as well. I tried not to think about my namesake saint, the fourth-century virgin of Alexandria, who was beheaded at age eighteen for refusing to make sacrifices to the emperor’s pagan gods. The daughter of nobility, she was one of the most highly educated young women of her time, which made her the patron saint of female students everywhere.

  Dariya surprised me with a visit that afternoon, and we strolled in the garden, which was covered with fallen brown leaves. They crackled under our boots as we walked arm in arm just like we had for years together before, sharing secrets and gossip.

  “How do you like being a lady-in-waiting?” I asked.

  “It’s dreadfully boring!” Dariya said. “Nothing to do but stand around in a scratchy old gown and wait.”

  “Wait for what?” I asked distractedly. A toad was hopping out from beneath the decaying leaves.

  “Nothing, or anything!” Dariya said with a long sigh. “I go to balls and stand behind Grand Duchess Miechen waiting in case she needs a shawl, or waiting to see if she needs tea.”

  “But that is what the pages are for,” I said. It was an honor reserved for only the brightest young men of the Corps de Pages, who studied at Vorontsov Palace, to be chosen to serve as a page to one of the imperial family members. It often sparked a brilliant diplomatic or military career.

  My cousin shook her head. “Miechen likes to be surrounded by handsome young men in their smart uniforms, but she doesn’t trust them to make the tea the way she likes it.”

  I’d had no idea the dark faerie was so particular about her tea. My cousin giggled when she saw the dubious look I gave her.

  “Two sugars,” she said, mimicking the grand duchess’s faintly German accent. “And just a hint of cream.”

  “Cream?”

  Dariya shrugged. “It is the English way,” she said. “Perhaps one of the children’s nannies introduced it to her.”

  Russians loved their tea, and we swarmed around the hissing samovar found in every house and every café or bakery to warm our hands and bellies with the strong drink. Some people liked it very sweet, and I’d seen my grandmother drink it in the ancient fashionable style with the sugar cube held between her teeth. I myself liked more lemon than sugar in mine. But to defile one’s tea with cream? I couldn’t help shuddering.

  “I prefer raspberry jelly,” Dariya said. “But I did try adding cream once, and really, Katiya, it wasn’t bad.”

  I shook my head and looked at her in what I hoped would be stern reproach. “What would your stepmother say?”

  She giggled. “My stepmother has already taken to drinking her tea exactly like the grand duchess. I don’t think she likes it that way, but she pretends she does!”

  It really did not matter to me how the dark faerie drank her tea. Or how the rest of the Dark Court drank theirs, for that matter. “Have you heard any news of the Light Court?”

  Dariya narrowed her eyes at me shrewdly. “I’ve heard lots of news. Especially about a particular grand duke who is all the rage in Paris.”

  I blushed as she gave me a friendly nudge. “I was curious about Grand Duchess Xenia,” I protested. “She is always kind to me.”

  “But she is not in Paris,” Dariya teased. “I have heard that George Alexandrovich has found himself a new set of fast friends. Dangerous magicians,” she added in a lower, less teasing voice. A group of younger girls wearing brown uniforms passed us on their way to afternoon music lessons.

  The fact that George was destined to become the next Koldun was a secret I could not share with Dariya. Especially since she now owed her allegiance to Miechen. What damage could the dark faerie do if she knew the name of the Koldun who protected the tsar? Even if she did know who the current Koldun was, I would protect George’s secret all the way to the grave.

  Dariya went on, “There are several young officers in the Order of St. John who dabble in ceremonial magic. I hear they have secret gatherings in London and Paris as well.”

  “To do what?” I asked. This must be what Petya had written to warn me about. I prayed he wasn’t involved.

  My cousin shrugged. “I expect it’s mostly for entertainment, just like séances. But I’m sure there are a few magicians who perform real spells and rituals.”

  I stopped walking to look at her. “Dariya. Have you forgotten how dangerous it can be when people ‘dabble’?”

  She was not teasing anymore. “Of course not. This is why I wanted you to know about your grand duke. It’s not safe for him in Paris.”

  “What exactly have you heard?” I asked.

  “That he has fallen in with a group of powerful dark wizards. That he is enjoying Paris and all that it has to offer.”

  “And what would you have me do about it?” I felt helpless, trapped here at Smolny. “I cannot leave.”

  “Why not? I honestly can’t understand w
hy you chose to return here in the first place, Katiya. I didn’t understand your desire to go to Zurich either, but what on earth made you change your mind?”

  I couldn’t trust Dariya and tell her the truth. She knew about my powers, and she knew about Elena. But anything I confided to her now could be passed along to Grand Duchess Miechen. She couldn’t learn about the empress’s spell around Smolny, or that I was being held a prisoner here for my own safety. As well as for the tsar’s. He needed me close by, and safe, in case Konstantin returned. I was certain that the empress did not want the grand duchess knowing of the threat to the tsar.

  “I’m really too young,” I said finally. “I only just turned seventeen, Dariya. Next year I will be ready.” The tsar could not make me stay at Smolny longer than that.

  “That is true,” Dariya said, nodding sympathetically. “You’d probably be the youngest student at the university, and you would hate all the attention that drew. But tell me, how is teaching? I would imagine that the Blue Form girls are just as silly as ever.”

  I smiled. “They are. And yet, they seem so bright and eager to learn. I don’t remember being so intelligent when we were in the Blue Form classes.”

  “Speaking of silly girls,” Dariya said, “I did hear one piece of Light Court gossip that will amuse you. Grand Duchess Ella made the empress furious when she insisted on taking Alix from Smolny. She said Alix was very ill.” Dariya’s liveliness disappeared and she looked at me anxiously. “It wasn’t the veshtiza, was it?” she asked.

  “No,” I assured her. “I’m positive it wasn’t.” I suspected it had to do with the empress’s spell around the school. But if Alix was some sort of supernatural creature, like Elena and myself, how had Ella convinced the empress to release Alix? I remembered the way the carriage had passed through the spell’s barrier with extreme difficulty. “How do you know the empress was angry?”

  My cousin shrugged again. “Grand Duchess Ella has not been invited to dinner at the Winter Palace since. But I’m sure the empress will forgive her soon.”