"Awaiting your highness' instructions."

"Bring him to me."

A few minutes later the aide returned followed by Kazimir, whey-faced and breathless.

"How do I know this doesn't contain poison?" Eugene said curtly.

"I-I would never presume to-" stuttered Kazimir.

"Take some yourself." Eugene thrust the phial into Kazimir's hands.

"A few drops on the tongue, that's all you need to protect yourself, highness, from the Drakhaon's poisonous breath." Kazimir did as he was bid, pulling a grimace at the taste.

Eugene watched. Kazimir had not hesitated. He took back the phial and tipped some of the contents into his mouth.

A shimmer of thunder, black and electric blue, shuddered through his mind.

He blinked. For a moment he had glimpsed something quite alien to his own experience. A touch of darkness that left his skin crawling.

He had tasted the blood of the creature that had killed Jaromir.

He felt tainted. Polluted.

He looked at Kazimir. "You have done well, Doctor. But there is one thing more you will do for me. There is an urgent dispatch to be delivered to the Drakhaon."

The doctor's face crumpled like old parchment.

"No, highness. Don't make me go back. I beg you. Please don't make me."

Eugene turned away. He found the doctor's pleading embarrassing.

"Do you wish to live?"

"B-but they'll kill me if they find out I've-"

"That is a risk you will have to take."

Elysia dried her eyes. What was the use of weeping? She was cross with herself now to have shown such weakness, and all over a little cut. She examined her finger and saw that the bleeding had stopped.

She would just have to start again with her fourth hairpin.

She went to the washbowl and with her left hand poured cold water into the bowl, dabbing some around her eyes to reduce the redness.

"Madame Andar?"

Someone had called her name.

"Elysia?"

She picked up a candle and hurried into her bedchamber to see Astasia standing there, holding a fair-haired little girl by the hand.

"How did you-" she began, but before she could finish, Astasia threw herself into her arms, hugging her tight.

"Oh, Madame Andar, I'm so pleased to see you. Velemir told me you had gone to Azhkendir. If it were not for Kari, I would have gone on believing it."

"But how did you get past the guards?"

"I know all the secret passages," said a small, clear voice proudly.

"Princess Karila?" Elysia curtsied to the child.

"Now can we have a story?" Karila said, yawning. "I'm tired."

"Take us back to your rooms, Kari," Astasia coaxed, "and I'll tell you a story from Muscobar."

"But not a sad story. I don't want to have bad dreams."

"This one will have a blissfully happy ending," Astasia said, smiling at Elysia over Karila's head.

Elysia watched in astonishment as Karila walked over to the marble mantelpiece and touched one of the carved acanthus leaves. A panel slid to one side, just wide enough for a child to walk through without bumping her head.

"Follow us," said Astasia, beckoning.

Elysia tucked Princess Karila into her gilded bed, and Astasia began to tell Karila the tale of the young prince and his mother washed up on the shores of a magical island. Elysia observed Astasia's mobile face, her dark eyes bewitchingly alight with every nuance of the story, and wondered if she should pinch herself to make certain she was not dreaming.

By the time Astasia reached the musical squirrel and the bumblebee, Karila was yawning, and long before the swan princess made her appearance, the little girl had fallen asleep.

The two women retreated into the princess' dressing room and talked in whispers so as not to wake Karila.

"Velemir has treated us both shamefully," Astasia said when Elysia had finished her tale. "Your life is in danger, Madame Andar. We have to get you away from here."

"The palace is surrounded by an invisible protective ward," Elysia said, shaking her head. "I fear we would not get far."

"You speak as if we were on that magical island in the story!"

"Eugene employs a Magus to protect him. He is a man of considerable powers. We must not underestimate what he can do."

Astasia gave an impatient little shrug. "Then we must play Velemir at his own game-"

"Aiii!" The child's scream pierced their whispering. They hurried back into Karila's bedchamber to see the little girl sitting upright in her bed, staring fixedly into the dim light.

Elysia put her arms around her, hugging her close.

"It's all right, Kari, it was only a dream."

Karila's body was hot, soaked with sweat. She clutched Elysia tightly.

"It flew right over the palace," she said in a small, toneless voice. "I saw its eyes. Blue. Like the blue at the heart of a flame. Dragon eyes."

Dragon eyes . . .

Gouts of red spattered Gavril's dreams. He woke with the taste and stink of spilled blood rank in his throat and nostrils. He woke knowing something had gone wrong. He had no idea what hour of the night it was, only that he could smell death.

"My lord!" The door to his chamber burst open and Juri staggered in, collapsing to his knees. His scalp was glazed with half-dried blood. "Forgive us. We've failed you."

"What's happened?" Gavril struggled to get up. His head spun; his limbs felt weak and sinewless.

"Tielens have taken Jushko. We'd got Michailo cornered. A neat little ambush. But the Tielens were below in the gorge, and when they heard the noise, they returned fire. Michailo fell, Grisha-"

"Michailo was shot?"

"Didn't stand a chance. Came to . . . saw them taking away Jushko. Tielens were bayoneting anyone on the ground . . . dragged myself into the gorse . . . or I'd be lying up there with the rest, food for kites-"

"But Lilias!" Gavril cried. "Did they find Lilias?"

"It looks bad, my lord. Very bad-"

A sudden clanging drowned out his voice. A warning bell frantically dinning from one of the watchtowers.

"Now what?" Gavril pulled a morning robe over his nightshirt and hurried out onto the landing to find the kastel filled with running men.

"They're coming this way!" someone shouted from the hall below.

Gavril caught hold of one of the druzhina druzhina. "Who's coming?"

"The Tielen army, my lord." It was young Semyon; his eyes were wide with fear.

"It can't be!" Gavril gripped at the balcony rail to steady himself.

He had fulfilled Eugene's conditions. Why had the Tielens broken their bond?

CHAPTER 38.

Gavril wavered in the keen wind as he clambered out onto the Kalika Tower roof. His father's telescopes were still there. If only he didn't feel so weak, weak enough for a strong gust of wind to blow him right off the roof. . . .

He staggered as he caught hold of the larger telescope and struggled to take the lens cover off; it seemed to be rusted on.

In the courtyard far below, Askold was mustering the kastel druzhina, druzhina, ordering them to defend the outer walls and the watchtowers. ordering them to defend the outer walls and the watchtowers.

"Up-about forty-five degrees to the left," Gavril muttered, squinting down the lens, trying to focus the great telescope on the white blur of moorlands.

And then he saw them.

Line upon line of uniformed soldiers were marching over the moorlands toward the kastel, led by officers on horseback. There were cannons, drawn by horses; blue and gray standards rippled in the wind.

The Tielen army.

"Save us, Lord Drakhaon." Ninusha clutched at Gavril's sleeve, her eyes filled with tears. "Please save us."

Gavril looked around at his assembled household: the women, children, and elderly men who had served him and his father so faithfully. They looked back at him, their eyes wide with fear, hope-and trust. They were counting on him to protect them. And he knew in that moment that he could not sacrifice them to Eugene's troops.

"You must go into the East Wing and hide in the tunnels," he said, forcing confidence into his voice. "Stay underground until it's all over."

"There's ghosts in the East Wing," cried one of the children, bursting into terrified sobs.

Bugle fanfares, militarily dry and precise, rang out in the distance.

"Go," Gavril said. "Go now."

"This way! Follow me." Sosia began to lead the way toward the boarded-up door.

"I'm s-so frightened." Ninusha stood trembling, rooted to the spot. Ilsi grabbed hold of Ninusha's hand and dragged her away.

"Where's Kostya?" Sosia cried, turning back. "We can't leave Kostya!"

The fanfares rang out again.

"Leave Kostya to me," Gavril said, pushing her gently toward the others. "Ilsi, take care of Sosia."

He set out toward Kostya's rooms.

A deafening explosion rocked the whole building. Gavril swayed, clutching at a doorframe to right himself. He heard the crash of falling masonry.

They were bombarding the kastel.

Kostya, moustaches bristling, was trying to pull on his old leather campaign jacket over his nightshirt.

"Kostya, you must come with me. Down to the East Wing. You can't stay here."

Kostya swore. "If you think I'm going to hide with the women and children, you're mistaken. My place is with my men."

"And I'm not leaving you here to be killed in your bed."

"In my bed?" Kostya let out a withering stream of curses and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Hand me my crossbow. I may not be much use, but I'll be damned if I don't take a few of these Tielens with me to the Ways Beyond." He stood up unsteadily, only to sink down again.