Prince and the Throne (Fedosian Wars #2)

9. The Stone House of Cuckoo

nine

The Stone House of Cuckoo

Aleksei was passed out on the bed of the room with the sentinels. Ignat sat on the floor bedside and lifted his gaze from the blade he’d been cleaning when Sofia entered with Dominik. A blond brow arched, asking, waiting.

“How’s Aleksei?” Sofia went to check on him and found him frowning in his sleep. He also ground his teeth and mumbled, nursing a bit of fever.

“Not well,” Ignat said. “But if there is a fight, he’ll get up. He always does. So, what’s happening?”

Dominik closed the door. “Volg wants us to kill the duke.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Ignat said.

“If there is fighting and the commander backs out, we’ll be trapped,” Sofia said. She felt Aleksei’s crown. His body frail and still healing, he was drenched from cold sweat.

“Again, what are we doing?” Ignat asked.

“How good of a forger is Eugene?” Sofia asked.

The two sentinels turned to her, not liking Eugene being involved, but she had a plan that didn’t involve fighting or Aleksei getting hurt again. At the end of the day, his well-being was more important than having a sense of honor, and there was her Guard showing. Sometimes, it paid off to have been the archmage’s niece, though the thing she was going to do, she learned from Baltar. She was his protégé, or so the old physician would claim.

It was snowing outside. The winds were calm, and the large snowflakes were feathers floating in the air.

“Sofia,” Aleksei said.

She blinked, her eyes coming into focus. The large arched window was behind him, and she’d been watching the snow over his shoulder. “The saints must be having a pillow fight,” she said.

He twisted in his seat to see, then returned with a smile. “My lady is a poet at heart.”

“What lines of poetry have I said?”

“You find beauty in things a poet might. I see the coming snowstorm and the travel difficulties, but my lady thinks of feathers falling from heaven.”

She reached across the table and tucked a loose strand of curl behind Aleksei’s ear. His locks were getting longer and wilder. His hair was fairly straight when the length was short, but beyond a certain point they’d decided to curl like Niko’s, or just their father’s, she supposed.

“Love birds.” Oleksandra snapped her fingers in front of Aleksei’s face. They weren’t alone. The duke, duchess, their children, Volg, and a handful of other commanders were in the den’s sunroom, though not very sunny at the moment. The weather outside was silver and the fireplace crackled behind Sofia, warming her back. “She’s rather old for you, no?” Pretending to nudge Aleksei, she struck him in the shoulder of his injured arm.

Aleksei didn’t flinch and swung his scarlet gaze to Oleksandra. She was sitting beside him. “He’s rather related to you, no?” He looked at Dragan who was speaking with his father.

Oleksandra cleared her throat and brought the gold cup to her lips. They were waiting for the prince and drinking in the meantime. It was sometime after ten in the morning.

“Good clean fight yesterday, Captain,” Volg said from down the table where he sat with four other commanders.

“Is there a general?” Sofia asked. “I don’t know how Shield forces are organized.”

“We’re organized in tens,” Volg said. “The smallest unit is made of ten soldiers, a desyet. Ten desyet a hundred, the next a thousand, and once you lead ten thousand, you are called a commander. Below that, you are called by the number you have. A soldier in charge of a ten is a desyetniik for instance.”

“So, there are five commanders?” Sofia asked.

“Not at the den, but in total, yes.” Volg smiled. “Antev is a commander.” He draped his arm over the broad shoulders of a sour man next to him. His mouth had a downward curve. Then he gestured at the rest of them. “They are tisachniik. They each lead a thousand.”

“They are Volg’s unit,” Commander Antev clarified, unhappy about something, and slurped wine. “His Highness must sleep well.”

“We all used to at that age, Antev,” Volg said. “Before blood and politics kept us awake.”

“You don’t drink enough,” Vukhir said, his shoulder leaning into Sofia.

“A Guard has never been accused of such.” She emptied her cup.

The Chartorisky were leaving and Zoya and Daniil came in to bid their aunt goodbye, and the duchess got up to see them out.

“Bye, Aleksei,” Daniil said.

“Careful out there, bad weather coming,” the captain said.

Daniil nodded at Sofia, but she didn’t bother getting up. “Best you get going before the prince arrives,” she said.

After the Chartorisky left, Dragan, who’d been at the head of the table speaking with his father, came and sat down next to Sofia. “What did I miss?”

“Not much.” Sofia turned to him and smiled.

“Cousin, you’re a sentinel,” Dragan said to Aleksei.

“Yes.” Aleksei frowned.

“You can have neither title nor family. How about we marry Sofia to Fedir? She’s too old for Vukhir, but Fedir is due for a wife. I think that will bring peace with the Guards. What say you?” Dragan asked.

Aleksei smiled. “Best you ask Lev Guard and see how that goes.”

“Never met the man but I assume he’s reasonable,” Dragan said. “We’re offering peace.”

“All right,” was all Aleksei said, hardly containing his laughter because Sofia had gone ‘pfff’ at the mention of her brother being ‘reasonable’.

“That is what we’re doing,” Dragan said, not keen on being laughed at. “I’m just letting you know.”

“It won’t bother me when you die. I’m just letting you know,” Aleksei said.

“They say Burkhard was mad. Is it true?” Oleksandra asked.

“He wasn’t mad,” Aleksei said.

“But he did kill your mother?” Oleksandra was instigating.

“He did,” Aleksei said, pretending to be unbothered though his jugular pulsed.

“Must be tough growing up with so many brothers and mattering less to your father,” Sofia said. “Always having something to prove, it appears exhausting.”

“Fuck you,” Oleksandra said.

“Foul language doesn’t make you tough, only crude,” Sofia said.

“Heard your cousin is a cocksucker.” Oleksandra sneered.

“So what? Are you not?” Sofia cocked her head.

“Woah, too much wine, ladies,” Dragan said. “We’re all friends here.”

“Friends don’t marry friends to your brother,” Sofia said. “He smells bad and is rude.”

“That, we don’t deny,” Vukhir said.

“Where is that little shit anyway? Has he fallen down a hole?” Oleksandra looked to the door. The brown oak door was closed and there were two castleguards outside it, for now.

“Where is the parson you sent for? Has he fallen down a hole?” Sofia asked.

Oleksandra was confused because they never sent for a parson and there wasn’t a church north of the den. Dragan was such a good liar Sofia had almost believed him. The duke’s children were being belligerent because they expected Aleksei to be killed before the evening, and Sofia was speaking her mind because she expected the lot to drop dead any moment.

She excused herself and got up when the duke coughed. He’d been clearing his throat for a while. She went to stand by the window and Aleksei came up behind her. She turned and checked his forehead. The fever had subsided.

He draped his cloak over her. “Are you sure you don’t want to step out?”

Behind them, the Shields were having a coughing fit. Fedir collapsed. Dragan looked at his hands and saw he’d coughed blood. The duchess screamed because the duke toppled over. Everyone sprung up from the table, Volg spitting his wine out.

“Simmer down. It’s not the wine, Commander,” Sofia said, flicking a look at Volg. No one was armed, all the swords were left by the door at the duke’s request, which was good because hysteria took hold. She touched Aleksei’s splinted arm, wondering if he was going to be using it in a moment.

The castleguards weren’t bursting in despite the screams, most probably because they were dead. Not the poison, though, just sentinels. They were using the hollow in the wall to move around. Guards liked secret passages, which was why Raven had them too. Fedosia was built by Guards.

“I wonder how Lev is doing. It gets cold at Usolya,” she said.

“We’ll send an envoy once we’re back in Krakova,” Aleksei said. “Hopefully, it will go better this time.”

“I’ll go. The train is running?”

“It is,” he said.

Vukhir had found a sword and screaming, frothing blood from the mouth and eyes, he swung at Aleksei. The captain twisted out of the way, caught the lord’s hand, and put his blade through his throat.

Another man who’d had a hidden blade up his sleeve was Volg, and he’d stuck his in Commander Antev’s eye socket. He’d calmed down, and sat there with his men, drinking the rest of his wine. Chaos was about to ensue as the sentinels dealt with the castleguards to bring the den under control. The rest of it, Volg would take care of. That had been the deal. He’d just been surprised because Sofia hadn’t told him she’d be poisoning the duke’s family.

It was their cups. Gold would corrupt with the touch of poison, but she’d had Niko steal them because he didn’t need light to see, and no one ever heard the prince sneak around. Eugene forged the gold and Sofia poisoned it. Though elixirs, poisons, and tonics weren’t alchemy, she finally found something she was good at. At the moment, she didn’t feel proud because with her talent she’d killed people, but she did feel useful, and that was a start, she supposed.

The wind outside whistled in varying pitches from a shrill scream to a coarse hiss and reminded Sofia in part of a wobbling metal plate. Night had claimed Fedosia hours ago, and the men were getting to eat only now as Niko hosted dinner in the Hall of Grace—Sofia had been calling it that because of the church like structure—that Aleksei hadn’t been allowed in their first night at the den.

Aleksei had lost a few men, Volg too, ridding the den of the hundreds of castleguards who were all loyal to Rodion, but the keep was quiet now. The northern garrison had arrived, and they bent the knee for their prince.

Antev was dead, but the four other commanders, including Volg, were at the prince’s table. A number of key sentinels, Dominik, Ignat, Shura, Ruslan, and Eugene shared the table as well, but the others ate in the common hall, boar and not porridge.

Aleksei had cleaned up before the midnight dinner, but Ignat had red in his white hair. Volg had blood on him too, as did most of the men, and the dead were being taken to the undercroft to be burned in the incinerator, because a snowstorm was passing through where Fedosia bordered Elfur and the pyre couldn’t be lit outside. The necromancers were sending their bad weather, the soldiers had been joking.

Food was good but Sofia was so tired she’d been yawning with tears. Aleksei was no better and he’d nodded off a couple of times beside her.

Niko sat at the head of the table with his commanders and cheerily discussed matters going forward, promising them lands and estate from the bit of conversation Sofia caught. She hardly cared about the topic and had been turned to Aleksei, adjusting the straps on his vambrace because they were interfering with his splint, when he said, “Niko, you can’t do that.”

“Why not?” the prince’s voice came.

“The Chartorisky are a house of Boyar Duma, ” Aleksei said. “You can’t just kill them and take their lands because Zoya lied.”

“Well, I’m the prince and I say I can. Commander Volg agrees,” the prince said. “I also asked you to kill them, Zoya and Daniil, but you let them leave. Why?”

“This morning?” Aleksei asked. “I didn’t know they were leaving till they were, and I can’t have a fight with both the castleguards and the Chartorisky retainers.”

“I don’t think that’s the real reason. I think it’s because you love Zoya. You disobeyed me and let her escape though she committed high treason.”

Sofia let go of Aleksei’s arm and turned to Niko, frowning, because it wasn’t a way to speak to Aleksei in front of other sentinels. They had fallen silent, the sentinels, their gazes swinging between their captain and the prince. Volg smirked and decided to stay out of it, literally pushing his chair away from the table as he was seated between the captain and the prince.

Aleksei didn’t respond, probably because the commanders were watching, but he tossed his fork on the table, apparently done with the dinner. Sofia thought he should eat more but she wouldn’t say that in front of other men and minded her food and wine instead.

“Anyway,” Niko said. “The silver mines the throne keeps but the land and the castles, I’m distributing to my men and my allies. All land of Fedosia belongs to the throne.”

Aleksei let it be and took Sofia’s hand and held it on his lap, finding a smile as he gazed down.

“Aleksei,” Niko called.

“Yeah?” Aleksei shot him a look.

“I’ve been thinking,” Niko began crisply but lost his nerve and played with the napkin on the table, making everyone wait. After a long pause, he murmured, “You’re the queen’s captain. You served my mother well, but I think it’s time I pick my own.”

“Niko,” Aleksei’s pitch dropped to a growl. “You’re at war. Don’t do that.”

“Lev will die soon. Perhaps he’s already dead. I don’t need you anymore. Especially that you don’t obey me when you like women. Lev of Guard, Zoya of Chartorisky both are guilty of high treason. I want them dead, but I don’t think you agree with me, and I can’t have a captain of the sentinels whom I can’t trust.”

“What are you doing, Your Highness?” Sofia whispered, eyeing the amused commanders. Behind her, the sentinels had fallen dead silent. “Your Highness?”

Niko folded and unfolded the white napkin on the table and didn’t look at her. “I pardon you because of your helpfulness but Lev must die.”

“His Highness was seeking peace once. What happened?” Sofia asked.

“I never was.” Niko blinked, then stared at the table and didn’t say more.

“We’ll discuss this another time. Everyone has had a long day,” Sofia said.

“His Highness has spoken, please turn in your gear and leave, Aleksei,” Eugene said.

For a moment, nothing but the wind sounded in the Hall of Grace. Aleksei scowled, the chair screeched as he pushed back from the table and got up. The sentinels rose with him.

Aleksei gestured them down. “Your duty remains the same, protect the prince.” He turned on his heels and strode out.

Sofia excused herself and got up. She took a good look at Eugene, because this underhandedness to dismiss Aleksei in front of the commanders so the sentinels didn’t throw a fit came from him and not Niko.

“Perhaps His Highness will reconsider when he has rested.” She curtsied.

“I told you it’d be awful,” she heard Niko mumble as she turned her back on the prince and strutted out.

Upstairs in the room with the blue ceiling, she found Aleksei packing his saddlebags.

“You’re leaving now ?” She stood by the door with her arms folded.

“Yeah.” He strode past her, collecting his things from here and there. “I’ll tell them to protect you. They’ll obey me that much.”

“If you’re leaving, I’m leaving with you, Aleksei.”

“Sofia, there’s a blizzard.” He stopped and looked at her.

“You will wait for me, and you will take me with you.” Sofia turned. “Let me change and bring my things. I won’t be long.”

“Sofia, there’s a blizzard.”

“I have eyes and ears, Aleksei. You will wait.” She’d hoped for sleep but there would be none if she let him leave alone, so she was riding through the snowstorm, she supposed.