by Jane Kindred
“What is this about?” I demanded. “I know full well the Liberationists have lost the palace to my terrestrial forces, so if you’re expecting me to surrender, you’re sadly mistaken.”
Her laughter was irritatingly lovely and sincere. “Ah, charming to the last, my dear. I have come to offer you a proposal.”
“I’ll make no concessions to you. You’re wasting your time.”
“Don’t be hasty, angel. It is not a queenly attribute.” She smiled. “I am offering you the kingdom of Heaven.”
I stared, certain one of us had lost her mind.
“Oh, come now,” she said. “Surely that’s enough.”
“What are you playing at? Do you expect me to believe you’ve come here to concede?”
“What an ugly word.” She waved it away with a dismissive motion. “I plan to abdicate the throne. I find Heaven and its insipid little angels tiresome. And the Firmament,” she added as I regarded her in stark astonishment, “is in utter disarray. You may have noticed it’s completely gone to hell.”
“Do you think I’m a fool?” I exclaimed, infuriated by whatever game she was playing.
“My dear cousin,” she said sweetly. “That is the sort of question one ought never to ask. It simply begs the obvious answer.” She gave a delicate yawn and covered her mouth as if I were boring her.
I’d heard enough. I turned to walk away from her when a sudden breeze flirted around me. “Padshaya Koroleva.” Someone unseen spoke the words, or a host of someones speaking in such perfect unison it was impossible to separate them. I looked at Aeval with suspicion, as if she might have thrown her voice.
She smiled her calculating smile. “I have had a better offer. From the First Choir. I shall gladly leave the inferior races of Heaven to you, as you are so much better suited to them.”
The words fluttered around me. “Queen of syla shall return to Polnochnoi Sud.”
She was returning to the Midnight Court in the world of Man. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. The syla always told only what they saw, not simply what they wished to be so.
Aeval smiled. “Of course, there are a few conditions. And they are not negotiable.”
I rode back to camp with a strange mix of elation and sorrow, not quite certain if what had just happened was real. To my relief, Kae had left the pavilion. I couldn’t face him just now. Aeval had driven a hard bargain, but I had to believe she would honor it, for I’d spoken privately with the invisible syla and they’d given me their assurance they’d seen it all just as she promised.
Lively alone waited for me. It seemed fitting I tell her first, for she had the least emotional involvement in what I had to say.
She confirmed for me first that Helga’s appearance had been the last desperate act of a woman who knew she’d been beaten. As Misha had told Belphagor, the Exiles had indeed overrun the palace, while the Unseen had wreaked havoc within the city among the frightened demons until half had deserted and the other half were ready to defect. I was gratified to hear that given the choice between Aeval and me, most had seemed to prefer me—even if it was as the lesser of two evils. Vasily and Margarita, Lively said, had things well in hand and had only lost her due to the sudden appearance of the Cherub who’d whisked her away.
When I told her what I’d agreed to, she assured me I had acted as a queen must, and I took comfort that I would have at least one friend—though the most unlikely I could have imagined—when this was over.
“There’s something I should give you.” She drew a small pouch from her pocket and shook out a signet ring of the House of Arkhangel’sk—my own. “I stole it from the apothecary after you traded him for my glamour. Auntie didn’t know I had it; it was sort of my backup plan in case she left me destitute. I should have given it to you long ago. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, Lively.” I bit back tears as she placed it in my hand. If I’d had it before, I might have stopped the Cherubim. The celestine protected the House of Arkhangel’sk from firespirit harm. But Lively couldn’t have known. “Thank you,” I said earnestly as I put it on my finger, and kept the regret to myself.
I asked her then if I could sit and hold her hand awhile for courage before I went out to address my troops. Moved, she sat with me patiently until I was ready.
When I went out at last and called the troops together, I trembled horribly, hoping only those closest to me could see it, for it was not very queenly. Indeed, I had never felt less queenly in all my life.
Belphagor and Love emerged from the infirmary, Ola on Belphagor’s shoulders. I smiled. At least this was as it should be after such long, dark months without our sun-kissed darling.
I spoke when the murmuring and shushing faded into silence. “As many of you may know, our reinforcements have come from the world of Man and the Liberationists have abandoned their cause.” A loud cheer went up at this and it took nearly a minute for them to settle down enough for me to continue.
“I have met with Her Supernal Majesty this morning.” Now I waited for the booing to die down. “And she has agreed to a cessation of hostilities, effective immediately.” This brought instant silence as everyone stared at one another, uncertain they’d heard correctly. “Queen Aeval of the Firmament of Shehaqim and All the Heavens will formally abdicate the throne this afternoon and return the rule of Heaven to the House of Arkhangel’sk.”
The roar of approval started small and hesitant as my words sank in, swelling into a joyous sound as soldiers began to slap one another on the back and raise their fists in the air in victory. Convalescing Virtues hobbled to the opening of the infirmary to join the cheering.
Love and Belphagor hurried to me through the crowd, astonished I hadn’t told them first. Belphagor set Ola down and hugged me in celebration, his dark eyes, though still full of grief, shining with pride, “When did you sneak off to do this?” He stepped back and let Love tackle me with her embrace. Ola joined in the merriment, giggling and wrapping herself around my leg, though she couldn’t have understood what was happening.
“A messenger came…just after.”
Belphagor nodded.
Love was nearly bouncing. “Oh, Nazkia, I can’t believe it!” She pulled back when I didn’t join in her enthusiasm. “Why don’t you look happy?”
“Later,” I murmured as Kae approached.
“You’ve done it.” He gave me his ghost of a smile. “I said you would.”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have been victorious without you. You brought us through against impossible odds. I want you to understand what your service has meant to me.” I hesitated and his tenuous smile faltered as shadows crossed his face. “I need you at my side this afternoon. We must demonstrate a strong and ready presence.”
“Nazkia, you don’t need me for this,” he protested.
“Please don’t argue with me.” The words came out more harshly than I’d intended and the smile disappeared entirely. “I’ve sent a tailor to your tent.”
He stepped back and gave me a stiff bow. “I will attend you, Your Supernal Highness.”
With little time to prepare, and anxious not to be any more outshone by Aeval than necessary at this pivotal moment, I told Love and Belphagor of our terms as I hurriedly bathed and dressed. Lively had already set to work taking in the gown I’d carried with me in my trunk from Aravoth, and she and Love bustled about me, helping to make me presentable. Belphagor listened soberly, bouncing Ola on his knee, and agreed I’d done the only thing that could be done.
Love, however, frowned in disapproval as she pinned up my damp hair. “I don’t see how you can trust Aeval.”
“I don’t trust her,” I said. “I trust the syla.”
Lively had taken my gown for one last tuck when Gereimon ducked his head into the tent with his eyes averted to announce I had a visitor. From behind him, Vasily swung the staid Virtue aside with a grin and grabbed me from where I sat, and I squealed in surprise as he scooped me up in his arms like a child and kissed me.
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nbsp; “Papa!” crowed Ola with delight, and Vasily nearly dropped me in his shock. She scrambled off Belphagor’s lap and Vasily set me down and crouched low to gather her up, blinking back tears as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Live’y sew?” she asked as she played with the spikes at the side of his neck.
Vasily laughed. “No, sweetheart. Beli sewed that.” He kissed her forehead and smoothed one of her wispy curls. “Papa’s missed you very much,” he said gruffly. He looked up at Belphagor, who raised an amused eyebrow at him.
“You never scoop me up and make me squeal.”
“Because you’d beat the tar out of me, you bastard.” Vasily set Ola aside as he came up on his knees before Belphagor and kissed him with a passion that made me blush, while Belphagor dug his fingers into the red locks. “Besides.” He sat back after Belphagor released him. “You’re not a half-naked queen.”
“Give me a moment,” said Belphagor.
My blush deepened and I looked up to see what was taking Lively so long with the gown. Her eyes were on the entrance of the tent.
Margarita entered and approached with a hesitant bow. “Your Supernal Highness. I didn’t want to interrupt. We heard the news as we arrived. Has she really surrendered?”
“I doubt surrender is in her vocabulary.” I held out my hand. “But she has agreed to step down as the queen of Heaven.”
Instead of coming in for a hug as I’d intended, Margarita knelt on one knee and kissed my ring. “May you reign for a thousand years.”
I laughed to cover the awkwardness I felt. “We don’t live quite that long in Heaven. I’ll be happy with a century or two.”
“Belphagor is one hundred and ten,” Vasily announced to no one in particular.
I breathed in too sharply in my corset and had to reach for the cup of water on the trunk beside me to cover my surprise. In Heaven’s air, age was relative, as we didn’t experience the damaging effects one was prone to in the world of Man. Belphagor had spoken of falling many times, but though the signs of terrestrial aging were there, he looked hardly older than anyone I knew.
Belphagor pushed his boot roughly against Vasily’s thigh. “Shut up, love,” he murmured. “Or you won’t believe the spanking you’re going to get.”
“You’re right, that was a year ago.” Vasily winked and gave me a wicked grin. “He’s one hundred and eleven.”
Lively’s needle still hovered over the gown as if she hadn’t heard any of this.
“The dress is perfect, Lively,” I said. “You must be starving. Why don’t you and Margarita get something to eat?”
She handed me the dress as she stood and curtsied, her cheeks unnaturally pink.
“Your hand!” Margarita grabbed Lively and turned her palm up. She looked at me in surprise. “You healed it?”
“It was Ola,” said Lively shyly.
“Ola?” Vasily’s eyes widened at his daughter as she climbed back into his lap. “By herself?”
I smiled. “It seems she truly is an aetherspirit.”
Still stroking Lively’s hand, Margarita tucked it over her arm and gave me a gallant bow as she turned and led Lively out.
Despite the lovely jade silk to which Lively had added her expert touches of embroidery, and the upswept curls Love had arranged to give me a regal yet serious air, Aeval’s stunning simplicity in a bone-colored sheath with a trailing train drew all eyes as she rode sidesaddle into the square. I had come by carriage and I felt a fool as I stepped down and she remained mounted. Kae stood behind me trying to fade into the background, but the striking black silhouette of his uniform made it impossible. He’d begun to break a sweat as our carriage neared the square and I worried this proximity to Aeval would be too much for him, but there was no turning back now.
The demons began to boo and curse as Aeval prepared to address the crowd, but I could see there were many of the Host among the gathered who seemed attentive to her as loyal subjects, while they gave me sullen looks of mistrust. She had come unattended beside my large contingent of Virtues and she looked for all of Heaven the wronged and Virtuous maiden to my apparent role as conquering usurper. I began to regret having allowed her to set the terms of her departure, but it had seemed almost anything was worth being rid of her for good.
“I have come to bid you all adieu,” she said simply over the noise of the crowd. “My dear cousin, Her Supernal Highness Anazakia Helisonovna of the House of Arkhangel’sk, has made a miraculous recovery from the madness that befell her and darkened our land.”
My mouth dropped open and I took a step toward her in outrage, but the whisper of the syla around me steadied me.
“Bloody Anazakia!” someone shouted.
“Where’s the boy?” yelled someone else. “We want the grand duke! The rightful heir!”
“The traitorous Cherubim have abducted him,” Aeval announced with righteous indignation. “I shall make it my life’s work to find him, no matter how far away he may be or how long it takes me.”
I swayed on my feet, feeling faint. I’d made a terrible blunder.
“Her Supernal Highness is beside herself with grief,” she added, glancing at me. “And has given me the great honor of seeking His poor Supernal Highness, for which I thank her and wish her all good health.”
She held out her hand toward my Virtues for assistance and one of them stepped forward automatically and helped her as she slipped gracefully down from her mount. Aeval raised his hand in the air, clutched in hers as if in victory, and he looked toward me with chagrin.
“All hail the queen of Heaven!” She turned and curtsied deeply to me, sweeping the Virtue’s hand down with hers. The crowd broke out in a cacophony in which it was difficult to make out whether there were more cheers or jeers.
Gereimon murmured at my side. “We must get you into the palace, Your Supernal Highness.”
I stared at him, too stunned to move, and Kae took my arm as if I’d commanded it and led me toward the gates.
“Bring her!” I hissed at Gereimon.
He turned toward Aeval, but she’d already risen, taking the arm of the Virtue she’d appropriated. She stepped into place behind me as if it had all been prearranged.
Inside, the palace was a shambles from the morning’s battle and from days of occupation by the demons, apparently having been looted at some point in the last few weeks. My troops had taken control of the crowd in the square, and as if I’d called them, the Ophanim appeared and took up their positions around the palace as they’d done for hundreds of years.
“They are not particular whom they serve.” Aeval shrugged as I gazed out at them. “As long as it isn’t demons.” She sat on the only piece of furniture in the hall, a stone bench by the grand staircase, spreading her train out beside her. “You don’t intend to make that demon your formal consort, I hope?” She addressed me pleasantly, as if we were compatriots and she was giving me advice on a potential match. “I suppose he’s technically not a demon after all, but appearances are what matter to the people.”
“Shut up,” I ordered, feeling as if my eyes were blazing as hot as Vasily’s when his ire was roused.
“You really must be more gracious, dear, in front of the help,” she whispered loudly. “They will spread stories. Your madness, after all, is legendary.”
“If you’ve had enough of her,” growled Kae, “I can have her locked up in the cellar until the House of Correction is ready.”
“She’s not a prisoner, Kae.”
He stared at me as if his hearing were going.
“I’ve made a bargain with her to secure her cooperation.” I turned to her with a furious scowl. “Which you have promised to stand by.”
“Ask my woodspirits.” She lifted her hands and glanced around her as if she could see them all. “I will stand by every word of it.”
“Her woodspirits?” Kae blinked, following her glance at nothing.
“The Splendors,” I said. “The syla from the Unseen World. She was their queen once and has
agreed to resume her former position.”
“Are you mad, Nazkia?” he exclaimed. “You’re just going to let her go?”
“You wanted the killing to stop,” I said quietly. “This was the only way. I have the word of the syla.” I paused a moment to collect myself, not wanting to lose my composure before him. “I hope you can understand that I’ve done what I had to, what I thought was best.” Though I couldn’t see them, I felt the leshi as they moved in around him.
Kae looked puzzled.
“I’m sorry.” There was nothing else I could add that wouldn’t cause me to break down in front of everyone assembled, and I could not afford to be seen as defeated.
“For what?” He’d asked me this once before, with equal bafflement, before I’d stabbed him in the gut. I was about to do it again.
Aeval rose, and the triumphant smile on her face was almost more than I could bear. “Did you think you could simply walk away from me?” She moved toward him with Virtuous grace. He tried to step back, but the force of the Unseen around him held him there.
“I am the queen of the Midnight Court. I am the judge of weak and faithless men. And you, my fair angel, are the weakest and most faithless of men.” She breathed against his ear. “In any world.” Aeval walked toward the garden exit and Kae stumbled forward, prodded by the invisible leshi at his back.
He shot me a look of disbelief, trying to pull away from the unseen force. “Nazkia.”
I shook my head.
His look of puzzlement turned to anguish. “Nazkia, please! For the love of Heaven! Take my head, but don’t do this.”
The leshi moved him away and he reached out his hand toward me as he struggled uselessly with them. I turned my back and he cursed me in his throaty voice as they took him from me and jumped into the breach.
Dvadtsat Vtoraya: Of All the Heavens
It ought to have been the happiest of times, but everyone around him seemed heartbroken. Vasily had been left out of the loop about the deal with Aeval until afterward. Anazakia had suspected he’d give the thing away by goading Kae, and she was probably right. He couldn’t understand her sorrow over what she’d done. It seemed only just that the man who’d slaughtered her entire family be relegated to his own special hell. Regardless of how he’d served her in battle, he deserved to pay for his crimes. But Belphagor wouldn’t allow him to speak of it. He, too, seemed inexplicably saddened by the angel’s fate and Vasily found this maddening. After what Kae had done to him, he ought to have gift-wrapped the bastard for Aeval.