CHAPTER 21.

Madame Andar-Nagarian,I must apologize for my behavior; it was quite unpardonable. To make amends, I wish to propose a meeting at the Tea Pavilion in the Water Gardens at three today.Altan Kazimir.

Elysia glanced around again. She had gone out unaccompanied on the pretext of needing to purchase some new oil paints. Yet since she left the shop with her purchases, she had been certain someone was shadowing her.

Now that she had reached the Water Gardens, she hurried along the winding paths, following the signs to the Tea Pavilion, hoping she had been mistaken. Frost still dusted the frozen grass. The last of the autumn leaves were slowly drifting down from the bare branches; as she reached the lake, she saw the Tea Pavilion, a graceful summerhouse painted a delicate shade of willow green, standing beside the gray, still waters.

The Tea Pavilion was busy, and the scent of roasting coffee beans warmed the steamy air. To Elysia's astonishment, many of the customers were eating ices in spite of the frosty temperature outside. She saw glass after glass of pale green pistachio, apricot, and vivid pink raspberry being eagerly consumed as she gazed across the room, searching for Doctor Kazimir.

She caught sight of him in a window seat overlooking the lake, staring into the distant reed beds, lost in thought.

"Doctor Kazimir?"

He started. Below the window black swans glided past on the lake.

"Madame." He rose to his feet. "I'm so glad you came. I wanted to apologize." He was neatly dressed today, clean-shaven, with his fine fair hair combed back off his face. With relief she saw there was no sign of the drunken, disheveled Kazimir she had met above the Orrery tavern. She prayed this meeting would prove more fruitful than the last.

"No need to apologize, Doctor," she said. "You have been through a terrible ordeal. And I caught you at an inopportune moment. I should have sent a letter. It's just that I've been so worried about Gavril." She sat down at the little table. "And I must confess, what you told me about your discoveries did little to allay my fears."

"Will you try the ices, madame? They're the best in Mirom."

"Ices?" Ice cream had been the last thing on Elysia's mind. "Oh, yes, thank you," she said distractedly.

A waitress came past, and Doctor Kazimir beckoned her over. "Two sundaes," he said. When the waitress had gone, he leaned forward and said in a low voice, "There is something else you should know."

"I'd hoped there would be more to this meeting than ices," Elysia said, unable to resist smiling.

Kazimir glanced around, as though checking they were not overheard. The general noise of conversation and clinking spoons on glasses was enough to afford a little privacy.

"I may have mentioned Lilias Arbelian," he began, but broke off as the waitress appeared with two glass dishes filled with scoops of the brightly colored ices.

"You said she was Volkh's mistress," Elysia said bluntly. She picked up her spoon and began pressing the pistachio ice with it.

"I'm sorry I was so unsubtle."

"No, no. Plain speaking. That's what I prefer."

"What I didn't tell you," and Kazimir leaned forward across the table, "is that she was working for Velemir."

"Count Velemir?" Elysia said, genuinely surprised.

"Ssh." Kazimir glanced around uneasily again. "His agents are everywhere."

"You mean she was officially representing Muscobar's interests in Azhkendir?" Elysia sampled the red raspberry sorbet; the flavor was both sweet and refreshingly sharp.

"Lilias?" An ironic little smile twisted Kazimir's lips. "Good heavens, no, there was nothing official about Lilias. I mean she was sent to spy."

Elysia laid down her spoon in the saucer. So the charming Count Velemir was Muscobar's spymaster. Suddenly she found she had lost her appetite for ice cream.

"You didn't know, madame?"

"No." All Velemir's talk of diplomacy and embassies was merely a cover; how could she have been so blind? She tried to dismiss the sense of betrayal from her mind, but somehow she felt cheapened, naive. "But what was so important to Muscobar about Volkh?"

"His powers, of course."

"I don't understand."

"They thought your late husband had developed a weapon of massive destructive potential. They heard the stories of explosions, blue fire; hundreds, thousands dead. So they were more than a little perplexed when they heard the true explanation."

"It does defy rational analysis, doesn't it?" Elysia said wryly.

"They had hoped for the recipe for a new kind of gunpowder that could be manufactured here and used to defeat Eugene's armies. Instead they were spun fairy tales about flying dragons and shape-shifting wizards."

It was all so ludicrous that Elysia wanted to laugh. She clapped one lace-gloved hand to her mouth to hold the laughter in.

"But your son, Gavril. He is in a decidedly tricky situation."

Sobered, Elysia nodded.

"Did I tell you Lilias was pregnant?"

"Pregnant? With Volkh's child?" The possibility had not occurred to Elysia till now. She was not sure how she felt about the news.

"Well, no one was entirely sure whose child, including Lilias herself." Kazimir's expression had become cold and distant but Elysia sensed a slow simmering of suppressed emotion. "But she made certain everyone thought it was Lord Volkh's."

"You think it might be your child?" Elysia said, with a sudden rush of understanding.

Kazimir did not reply but beckoned the waitress over. "Vodka," he said.

"And for madame?" the girl asked.

"Nothing else for me, thank you," Elysia said with a sigh. Vodka again. Was this where the conversation ended, just when it was beginning to prove fruitful?

Kazimir was silent until the vodka came in a slender glass bottle; he poured a measure and swallowed it in one gulp. Elysia watched, not knowing what to say.

"Lilias is a dangerous woman," he said at last. "Manipulative, clever . . . and very beautiful."

"You are in love with her."

"Was," he corrected.

"In what respect is she dangerous?" persisted Elysia.

"She's ambitious. She wanted to be Drakhys, mother to the heir of Azhkendir."

"And still spying for Muscobar? Oh, please!"

"I said she was dangerous. Dangerously fickle. Now that Lord Volkh is dead, do you think her aspirations have changed? Her son is to be Drakhaon."

Kazimir reached for the bottle again but she put out her hand, covering the top. She wanted him to be lucid, not to slide back into inebriated incoherence. To her surprise, he did not protest.

"I should never have let myself be tempted. I should have been stronger. But she was lonely and I was lonely. You know what a dismal place Azhkendir can be in winter. . . ."

"Yes," Elysia said, remembering. "I can see it would have been indelicate of you to stay."

"I begged her to come away with me. But she refused! She didn't love your husband. She admired him, in her own warped kind of way, for his power-and his cruelty. Oh yes, that appealed to Lilias. But love?" His voice trembled. "She doesn't understand the meaning of the word."

He pushed back his chair, turning away from Elysia to gaze out over the mist-gray lake. Elysia thought she saw the glisten of tears in his eyes. In spite of herself, she found that she felt a little sorry for him.

"She must be a bewitching woman, this Lilias," she said softly.

"And that is why your son, madame," he said, clearing his throat, "is doubly in danger. He is a threat to her ambitions."

"Are you saying she is ambitious enough to try to kill my son?"

"I believe she used me, manipulated my affections, with the sole purpose of gaining access to the elixir. And then I believe she used it to poison Lord Volkh."

"Lilias?" Elysia exclaimed. Elysia exclaimed.

"Now I've alarmed you. I'm so sorry. That was never my intention, madame, I assure you. I only wanted to-"

"Yes, yes." Elysia nodded, angry with herself for showing any sign of weakness. "But you haven't really answered my question, Doctor Kazimir. How can you you help Gavril?" help Gavril?"

"Altan!" A man's voice rang out above the buzz of conversation. Heads turned to stare.

Elysia looked up and saw to her annoyance that the man she had met in Kazimir's room was forcing his way toward them. Matyev.

"Altan, where the hell have you been? Had you forgotten the meeting? Of the philosophical philosophical society?" society?"

"Oh, sorry, Matyev, I must have lost all-"

Matyev picked up the vodka bottle; now he set it down hard on the table.

"And you've been drinking again! What use are you to our philosophical society if your brain's soggy with alcohol?"

Matyev had ignored Elysia during the whole exchange. She looked coldly at him.

"M-may I present Madame El-"

Matyev turned to stare at Elysia.

"We've met," he said curtly, turning away.

"Elysia Andar," Kazimir finished.

Matyev turned back. "Andar? You are the portrait painter from Vermeille," he said, eyes burning. "You work for the Orlovs." The scornful way he pronounced the name left Elysia in no doubt of his feelings. "The gardens are crawling with his his men. How can you be sure she's not in his pay as well?" men. How can you be sure she's not in his pay as well?"

"If you have an accusation to make, sir, at least make it to my face," said Elysia, affronted by Matyev's belligerent manner. "Do I take it to mean that you suspect me of some kind of double-dealing? Because-let me assure you-my meeting with the doctor here is of a purely personal nature. And none of your business!"

"Madame is a friend-" Kazimir began.

"Altan, Altan, why still so naive? Friend? When she keeps company with Butcher Velemir?" Matyev's voice trembled with anger. "Haven't you heard, man? Stepan is dead."

"D-dead?" Kazimir looked up, stricken.

"Stepan?" Elysia murmured.

"The official version is that he hung himself in his cell. But they won't let anyone see the body, not even his wife Natalya. I say they they put him to the question-and botched the job." put him to the question-and botched the job."

"Do you think he talked?" Kazimir said, suddenly agitated, shaking hands reaching for his glass. "Mentioned n-names?"

"Listen, you drunkard." Matyev's hand clamped down on his wrist, stopping him raising the glass to his lips. "Are we going to let this pass? Another 'suicide' in custody? Another unofficial execution?"

"The regime is corrupt, we all know it." Kazimir said. "But what can we do?"

"Do? What can we do?" Matyev repeated in a harsh parody of Kazimir's tone of voice. "I've just come from Stepan's house. Natalya's distraught, half-mad with grief. Four children to raise and her husband dead." He glanced up and glared at Elysia. "And now I suppose you'll go running back to your friends at court and blab all this out?"

"I can see why you have no reason to trust me," Elysia said with chill disdain.

"You're in a privileged position. You could be of use to us." Matyev's voice dropped, low and confidential as he leaned toward her across the table. "You know details, intimate details of the Orlov household. Who will leave the palace, by which gate, at which times-"

"Matyev, no!" Kazimir interrupted.

"You're asking me to betray the confidentiality of a patron?" Elysia said, her voice brittle with contempt. "Do you think I have no professional ethics?"

"You see?" Matyev said with a shrug which said all too obviously what he thought of her professional ethics.

That was enough. Why should she stay only to be insulted? Matyev might be passionate about his beliefs, but he was a boor. Elysia rose. "It's getting dark; I must be going."

"M-madame, I-" Kazimir struggled to stammer out an apology.

"Thank you for the ices, Doctor," she said crisply. She had no wish to hear his excuses. She had wanted his help, and he had let her down. "They were most . . . refreshing."

She had the distinct impression as she threaded her way through the crowded tables that Kazimir had made a blundering move to come after her, but that Matyev had held him back.

Twilight had faded into night, and the Water Gardens were shrouded in the gloomy autumnal fog that Elysia had already come to associate with Mirom. She shivered, pulling her cloak up to cover her mouth so that she did not breathe in too much of the damp, chill air.

That infuriating man Matyev! Twice now he had interrupted her meetings with Altan Kazimir-and twice now she had come away frustrated, with only glimmers of answers to her questions.