The Unfailing Light (The Katerina Trilogy 2)

by Robin Bridges

  Sucre smiled. “A glamour would have easily persuaded your friends that you were talking and walking in your sleep. Don’t you want to know who your visitors are?”

  My heart leapt for just half a heartbeat, and I immediately felt stupid for thinking of George Alexandrovich. What reason would he have to sneak into Smolny Institute when he was thousands of miles away?

  “I hate to disappoint you, my love,” the crown prince’s lazy voice filled my head.

  No. Danilo? Why are you here? Alarmed and suspicious now, I followed Sucre down the stairs and into the kitchen, still warm from the dying hearth fire. As he opened the outside door, however, a gust blew through, killing the flames. He stepped back, holding the door open for me.

  “I feel it is necessary to protect you from your newest creature.”

  As I looked out into the darkness, I saw two figures standing at the edge of the courtyard, just beyond the barrier of the empress’s spell. Sucre struck a match and the figures’ faces were illuminated: Dr. Badmaev and Madame Metcherskey. Madame was looking even paler than before. The Tibetan doctor did not look quite his normal color either. “Mon Dieu!” was all I could think to say when I saw the pair. The crown prince stepped out of the shadows as well.

  “Good evening, my beloved.” I could see Danilo smirking even by the light of the tiny flame.

  “Stop calling me that,” I said to the crown prince, but I glared at Sucre. He enjoyed his little games too much. I stepped forward to greet Dr. Badmaev, but Madame Metcherskey hissed when I moved toward them. I froze.

  Dr. Badmaev shook his head. “I am sorry, Duchess. She is very strong, and insists that she needs to be here. If you listen to her story, I think you will agree with her.”

  “Madame?” I looked at her.

  “You must release me, Mistressss. I still have tasks of my own to complete. She is in danger.” Madame had been pulling on her sleeves. The edges were frayed, and looked as if they’d been chewed on. I tried very hard not to shudder.

  “Who is in danger?” I asked.

  Madame stood ramrod straight, her hands clasped firmly in front of her. “I was told to protect her. I am here to watch her.”

  “Can you tell me who she is?” I pressed, but Madame stared straight ahead, her eyes now empty and colorless. I looked at Dr. Badmaev. “Has she told you anything else?”

  He shrugged. “Only that there is a Smolny student that she has been protecting for scores of years.”

  “Scores? No one has been here that long.” But there was, I realized, as the back of my neck prickled with fear. “Madame? Are you protecting the ghost? Who is she?”

  Madame continued to stare straight ahead and wring her hands. Slowly, her eyes focused on me. “I promised not to tell a soul. She must be kept from harm.”

  “What harm, Madame? She is a danger to everyone at Smolny. She has already killed someone.”

  “Duchess,” Sucre leaned over and said in a soft voice, “I do not think even you can command her to break her vow. You must allow her to complete her mission.”

  “You’ve known about her all these years?” I asked Madame. “Why wasn’t a priest consulted for an exorcism?”

  Madame Metcherskey’s face wrinkled into a scowl. “There were several attempts to send her soul on. Every attempt … failed.”

  “You kept her from disturbing us all this time, didn’t you? She didn’t start causing trouble until after you became ill and left.”

  “She is looking for me, Mistressss. If you had not called me back from the grave, I would have been here in spirit and would have been able to guide her to a safe place.”

  A stab of guilt twisted in my gut. Not only had I disturbed Madame’s soul, but I had also prevented her from helping another. Everything the ghost had done to terrorize the students at Smolny, it was all my fault. “What can we do now, Madame?”

  She drew herself up straighter. “We must do God’s will. You must pray for our souls. Each and every one of us. I must see her.”

  I looked from Dr. Badmaev to Sucre in alarm. “But you can’t come inside, Madame. The empress’s spell will prevent you.”

  “I must be allowed to see her. I must talk to her, to calm her fears.” She took a step toward me. Immediately there was a burst of light and she was pushed backward.

  Dr. Badmaev gently helped her to stand. “Madame, we must think of another way.”

  “Monsieur Sucre?” I asked. “Is there a glamour you could disguise her with?” I was freezing and longed to forget all of this and crawl back into my bed.

  Sucre shook his head. “No glamour would allow her to get past the empress’s spell, Duchess.”

  I turned to look at Dr. Badmaev. It was a little awkward, after our last conversation in the cemetery. And there had been times when I’d wondered if I’d made a mistake to turn his offer down. But he smiled at me with his usual kind smile.

  Madame Metcherskey was fretting and chewing on her fingernails, which were blackened from the wards. “I must see her now,” she said.

  “You know there is a way we can solve this, beloved,” Danilo said. “Our blood bond is more powerful than the empress’s spell. We can use it to help deal with your ghost problem.”

  “No,” I said. “We can’t just tear the wards apart. What would the empress say?”

  Danilo laughed. “You are just afraid she won’t let you marry her son. It’s too late for that already, beloved.”

  My cheeks grew hot even in the icy night air. I hated that the crown prince was right. The empress already disliked me. Destroying her wards would not change anything between us.

  “Are you certain our bond is strong enough for this?” The crown prince shrugged carelessly. I had no other choice. I worried that I was making a deal with the devil, but finally nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

  “This may hurt a bit, Duchess. I need your blood.”

  Sucre took a kitchen knife I had not realized he was holding and grabbed my hand before I realized what he meant to do.

  “Ouch!” Sucre had stabbed my palm, and a few drops of blood dripped onto the snow. He and Danilo had planned this all along.

  “Now give me your hand.” The crown prince held his hand out, just touching the edge of the barrier. There was nothing to see, but we could sense the power of the empress’s spell between us. No one should have been able to pass through.

  I lifted my hand toward him, and Danilo took it. There was a sharp tingling, not just from the injury, but also from the empress’s spell as my hand passed through it.

  Danilo took my hand and held my palm up to his mouth. I don’t think I had truly realized until that moment how strong our blood bond was. The spell fabric wobbled and surged as Danilo drank my blood. He closed his eyes, enjoying every second of it. He drank as if he’d been dying of thirst.

  I gasped at the pull I felt toward him. There was no other way, I kept telling myself. I had to get Madame Metcherskey inside to the ghost. Before anyone else was hurt.

  The tingling subsided and Danilo let go of my hand with a satisfied sigh. He took a step toward me. The barrier was gone. We had torn down the empress’s magic.

  Moving away from the crown prince, I reached out and took my dead instructor’s arm. “Come with me, Madame.”

  “I know the way, Mistressss.” She jerked her cold arm out of my grip and pushed past me.

  “I will take my leave now,” Dr. Badmaev said, backing up. “Good night, Duchess. And good luck to you.” He touched his hat and nodded to Sucre. “Monsieur.”

  “Bonne nuit,” Sucre said, as if he were saying goodbye to a guest at a dinner party.

  We hurried after Madame toward the library. She had no need for light, as she seemed to know instinctively where she was going. I shuddered, afraid of what the ghost’s reaction would be. Would she truly be soothed by the presence of Madame?

  Madame had already stepped into the library when we reached the doorway. She stood very still in the center of the room, with her ey
es closed.

  I took a step over the threshold and felt the cold hatred of the ghost immediately.

  Madame’s eyes flew open and she turned to me. “Get out of here, Mistressss.”

  “Are you all right?” I couldn’t help asking. “Does she recognize you?”

  “Everything will be fine. But you must leave. Now.”

  Before I could take a step back, I was pulled into the hallway by the crown prince. “This might be interesting, Duchess.”

  Madame raised her arms up. “I have kept you safe, and I have kept your secret. You must listen to me now. You must stop frightening the students.”

  There was a loud moan that grew into a wail. The bookcase began to shake and I feared that the others would wake up. Books began to topple off the shelves onto the floor. The wail grew louder and louder still. I had to cover my ears.

  Madame did not move. She stood in the center of the room, holding her arms out as if to welcome a child. “You must listen to me now. You must trust me.”

  The wailing went on and on, and I could not figure out why the entire school had not come running to the library. I looked from Sucre to the crown prince. Danilo shook his head. “Madame, you must get her to stop!”

  I took a step back into the library, not sure how I was going to help, but wanting desperately to do something to make the wailing and the shaking end.

  Madame turned to look at me again with a hiss. “You should not have done that, Mistressss.”

  And then all hell broke loose.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  The bookcases themselves began to fall over. Madame did not move, but she started to sing in a low, shaky voice. I stepped closer to listen, but could not make out the words. It sounded like an old Russian lullaby.

  I heard Sucre’s warning in a low voice behind me. “Duchess, get down!”

  I turned in time to see a white, furry mass hurtling in my direction. I screamed and dropped to the floor. It was an enormous wolf, and it dove straight for Madame Metcherskey.

  “Stop!” I screamed. I didn’t care anymore if I woke every last person in the institute. I screamed until I was hoarse.

  Madame never stopped singing. Not until the wolf had ripped her throat out.

  The wolf held fast to Madame, growling low. Madame did not fight or struggle at all.

  “Get a stick or something! Can’t you stop it?” I cried, scrambling backward out of the room on my hands and knees. “Kill it! Hurry!”

  Sucre shook his head. “It’s too late to save her, Duchess.” He held out his hand to me but I pushed it away.

  I heard a sickening crunch as the wolf’s jaws clamped down on Madame’s neck. My stomach heaved. Danilo pulled me up and curved me toward him so I wouldn’t see.

  “I wish I could throw a glamour over all of this for you,” Sucre said, “but it’s taking everything I have to keep the noise from reaching the other rooms.”

  I shook my head, not even caring that I was sobbing into the crown prince’s shoulder. “It’s all my fault. I brought Madame back with my horrible curse. She deserved so much better than this.”

  The bookcase stopped shaking, and the ghost stopped wailing too. I did not know if the wolf had scared off the ghost or not. But the wolf’s terrible business was finished. It let go of Madame’s neck, her spine completely severed. There was no blood since she had already been dead, but there was a terrible stench. I could not hold my stomach contents in anymore. I pushed away from the crown prince and retched in the corner.

  The wolf rocked back on its haunches, preparing to leap. It stared at me with its yellow eyes and I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was as if the wolf knew me.

  “Get out of the way!” Sucre said, as the wolf leapt over us and ran down the hallway. With a loud crash, it broke through the large window at the stairwell landing. It was a long drop to the snow-covered ground below.

  We ran to the end of the hallway and looked out. “Careful of the glass, Duchess,” Sucre warned. The wolf was nowhere to be seen. It had landed on all four paws below us, then run off into the woods.

  I looked around and back down the hall, toward the library. “What a mess!”

  “No one will see it. I will make sure of it.” Sucre looked me up and down. “You have caused enough trouble for the night. Clean yourself up and get some rest.”

  “But—”

  “Now, Duchess. The crown prince and I will take care of this.”

  Danilo looked at the library with disgust. “I’m not sure what you wish me to do, Monsieur.”

  I nodded, trying hard to hold back tears, so they would not see. It was no use. Sucre spotted a teardrop and touched a finger to my cheek. “Ah, the taste of sorrow and regret,” he said, licking his finger. “Bittersweet.”

  I shuddered and hurried back to my room. I did not care if the headmistress found them or not.

  It was close to dawn, and our room was dim and gray. Elena and Aurora were still snoring, but Alix’s bed was empty. My heart skipped a beat, and I ran back down the hall to tell Sucre. She could be killed by the wolf if it spotted her.

  “Monsieur! Alix is missing!”

  “Oui?” He looked thoughtful. “Return to bed at once, Duchess. I will go and look for her.”

  “But—”

  “I am here under the empress’s orders to keep all the students at Smolny safe. You will be safe if you stay in your room. Your crown prince has already taken the remains to dispose of them. Everything will be back to normal in a few hours.”

  I wanted to laugh. What was normal anymore? A giant wolf had sneaked into Smolny and attacked my undead teacher. An undead teacher who had been trying to calm an angry adolescent ghost out of terrorizing the students. I shook my head and headed back to my room. I was too tired to argue any more with Sucre. I decided to trust him to bring Alix back safe.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  I woke up to see Elena and Aurora whispering at the doorway, peeking out into the hall.

  “What is going on?” I said, sitting up immediately.

  Elena turned around to look at me. “It’s about time you woke up. It is almost noon!”

  “Mon Dieu!” I jumped out of bed and quickly dressed. “Why did you not wake me? I’ve missed my morning classes!”

  “Relax, Katerina Alexandrovna,” Aurora said, rolling her eyes. “Classes have been cancelled today.”

  “What?” I dropped the shoe I was holding. My hand was shaking. Had the glamour not worked? Did the headmistress find out about Madame Metcherskey?

  Elena turned around from her vigil in the hallway. “Monsieur Sucre is hunting a wolf on the grounds.”

  “And Alix is missing,” Aurora said. “They think the wolf might have gotten her.”

  I saw Elena glance under Alix’s bed, then at me. The room started to spin as I realized what she was thinking. Surely not.

  Was Alix the wolf? She wouldn’t have been able to change while the empress’s spell was in place. But last night, I had broken the spell. And perhaps I’d unleashed something in the process.

  “This is getting tedious,” Aurora said, sighing. “I hope that they don’t cancel any balls this spring if something happened to Alix.”

  “Balls?” I was confused.

  Aurora Demidova looked at me as if I were stupid. “She’s a daughter of the grand duke of Hesse. If anything happened to her, most of Europe would fall into mourning.”

  Elena nodded, sadly. “Like the crown prince of Austria last year.”

  “And that is what concerns you most?” I looked from Elena to Aurora. “A stupid ball?”

  “The Winter Ball at the Yussupov Palace. My grandmother is taking me,” Aurora said. “I’ll die if I don’t get to go.”

  Elena twirled around the room holding the edges of her apron up like a skirt. “I’ve written to Militza and asked if she would take me as well. All of the imperial family will be invited.”

  I finished getting dressed and pushed Aurora and Elena out of my way. I wa
s tired of listening to them both. Alix was in danger. I had to reach Sucre and help him find her.

  I passed the library on my way downstairs and peeked inside. The room had been cleaned up and straightened. It looked as if nothing had happened in there. No ghostly temper tantrum, no werewolf attack, no decapitated undead Smolny teacher. It was still very cold in the room, however, and I could feel the ghost mourning Madame Metcherskey. Perhaps now that her soul had been released, she would be able to help the ghost as she had intended?

  I took a step inside and was pushed back by a painful blast.

  My heart sank. Madame Metcherskey had been unable to appease the ghost. I had hoped her spirit would be able to rest now, but would she rest if her task was still unfinished? The memory of last night’s violence made me nauseous again.

  The Bavarian sisters were sitting in the front parlor with several of the younger girls. Erzsebet jumped up out of her seat when she saw me. “Katerina! Isn’t it terrible? I’m so frightened!”

  I embraced her. “Everything will be all right. Monsieur Sucre and the Smolny guards will find the wolf and keep us all safe.”

  “Alix!” Augusta cried, getting up and running to the door. I saw a flash of a woolen cloak as someone walked quickly past the parlor.

  I followed Augusta into the hall. She ran after Alix and asked, “Are you all right? We’ve been so worried about you!”

  “I’m fine, but I need to lie down.” Alix did not stop. She was in a hurry to get to our room. I hurried after her. Augusta shrugged and returned to the parlor with her classmates.

  “Elena and Aurora are in there,” I told Alix. “It might be more restful if you go to see Sister Anna and lie down in her study.”

  Alix turned to me with a glare. “Why should you care, Katerina Alexandrovna?”

  I wasn’t sure how much I could say. “Where have you been, Alix? Did you know there was a wolf on the loose at Smolny? It came inside the school and …”