Prince and the Throne (Fedosian Wars #2)

22. Ridiculous

twenty-two

Ridiculous

The dining hall had two fireplaces, but both were black. Lev tossed a wooden chair into one then casually flicked Dragon’s Breath. He walked through the hall, touching and inspecting the Guard relics Sofia had along the wall and above the mantles. He used to have a single gold bracelet for his alchemy, but now wore heavy cuffs on both arms, exactly as the archmage used to. The only difference was he wasn’t wearing rings on his sword hand.

Sofia sat behind the table, following Lev with her eyes, and waiting for the tea a nervous servant was making.

“The water is boiling, my lady,” she whispered, afraid of Lev.

Lord Fedya took his men and left to storm Raven, but Lev had enough city patrol at Red Manor to be his private army. They’d all gathered to see that Lev Guard had truly returned. But in the dining room, it was just Sofia, her brother, and an anxious young woman fumbling cups because Lev had looked at her.

“Aleksei must be freezing,” Sofia said.

“Oh.” Lev set down the icon of a saint on the mantle and turned to her. “I can have quicklime tossed down the well. That will heat things up, you think?”

“Please don’t do that,” she whispered.

“Then don’t say his name again, mmm?”

Was she supposed to apologize? Be afraid of Lev? She didn’t think so, but it was hard to interact with this person he had become.

“So, Soful, Songbird, how have you been?” He settled across the table from her as the steward came running with the wine Lev had asked for. Lev took the bottle and shooed the man who was rather glad to be dismissed.

Sofia did the same and let the servant leave and took over her tea. “Do you want tea, Lev?” Sofia poured hot water from the samovar into the cups and let the tea steep.

“I saw you had an indoor garden. It made me think of Father,” he said, pouring wine into his cup. “Why do you have church stuff here?” He gestured at the saints.

For months, Sofia had been wanting to speak with him about the stranger but now that she was looking at him, it was hard to do because the conversation had to start with how she killed their uncle. This wasn’t the best time, she decided.

“Luminary Matvey had been selling off church property, I heard, and wanted to save them,” she said.

“Get the fuck out of here. Are you serious?” He called in the patrol and demanded they bring him Matvey, but mercifully, the old man had left for Murmia.

Lev saw blood just then, and Sofia realized she should be very careful speaking with him, lest she cause harm to others. He dismissed the captain of the patrol as he would a servant, but tossed a pouch of silver and the man caught it like a dog who fetched, with a grin, nonetheless.

“Anything else for you today, my lord?” the captain asked.

“Take the day off, Captain. Let me know when the sentinels return to the city, but don’t worry, I don’t expect your men to engage with them. I have druzhina for that. And tell your mother I said hello. I remember she didn’t miss a Day Solis when Uncle was alive.”

“Oh, she’d be so delighted to hear my lord remembers her. You’ve made her year, my lord.” He left with a bow.

“Where’s Semyon?” Sofia asked, stirring some sugar into her tea.

“With Zoya, I suppose.” Lev flicked a silver coin on the table and watched it spin. It rattled.

“Zoya passed, Lev.”

“I know,” he said.

Then, she realized what he was saying. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She reached across the table and touched his hand. He stopped fiddling with the coin, lifted his gaze at her, and was himself for a brief moment, but then it was gone.

“Have you seen Grigori around?” He pulled his hand from Sofia and she straightened in her seat, bringing the teacup to her lips.

“Not in Krakova. I heard he was at Chartorisky Port, but that was…” Sofia counted back the days. “More than two months ago.”

“Mmm.” He strummed the table. “Were you at the White Palace when my father died?”

“Yes.”

“How did he do?”

“He drank with Clodt in the music room, laughed, and went to see Auntie in his armor and holding his sword,” she said.

“Clodt,” said Lev, staring out the windows as though the old captain of the knights was out there in the courtyard. “What did him in, finally?” He was asking who killed his father.

Sofia studied her teacup. “Watchmen.”

“I see.”

When she stole a look at him, Lev was in a reverie. Being back in Krakova must bring up memories. Unlike Sofia, he grew up here.

“Lev, I’m glad you’re well. People kept telling me you’ve…” She exhaled and wiped a rogue tear making a path down her cheek. “I’m glad you’re here.” It was true, and she nodded, but she hadn’t forgotten Aleksei. “So… What are you going to do?”

“I’ve come to meet my nephew.” He swished wine, didn’t like the taste from the grimace on his face but kept drinking it. “But first things first, I’m here for the necromancer.”

“Necromancer?”

“Grigori is a necromancer. Elfurian, I think, but that may be an act. We’ll see once we find him.”

“What about the prince?” she asked.

“He’s my nephew. He’s family.” He smirked.

“You want tsar regent,” Sofia said.

“The birds in Krakova tell me Duke Rodion and his whole family suffered the Shield ailment of the head rolling off the shoulders, is that true?”

“It is.”

“I suppose the old age and natural causes the queen died of was contagious and her watchmen suffered the same fate?”

“I heard,” she said. “I don’t know how that happened.” They sat in silence, listening to the burning chair crackle and pop. “Lev,” she begged. “It’s freezing outside and Aleksei—”

“He’s fine, Soful,” he whispered. “If I see him, I’ll kill him, and I’m trying not to do that, all right? A lot of people died because of that necromancer and I’m kind of… angry about it, all right?”

“He didn’t know,” Sofia insisted. “I believe you, but I don’t think anyone knew.”

“That may be. We’ll see.” He finished his wine and got up. “It was good to see you, Soful.”

“Where are you going?” She got up with him.

“Raven. I just wanted to catch up with you and gather my calm.” He smiled. “I’m better now. I probably won’t kill their fucken prince on sight, probably. Enough Fedosians have died. I’d rather avoid more carnage.” He was supposing Raven had already been taken by the Pulyazin.

“Lev, will you wait a moment while I change? I’ll go with you.”

“No, I’d rather you stayed out of the ugliness. I’ll send for you once I’ve had the blood washed from the floors.”

“Lev.” Sofia climbed up on the table and slid across it, because it was too long to go around, and embraced Lev as tight as she could. “I missed you.” When the hug ended, she ruffled his gold hair. “Let me just grab my cloak, it will only be a moment.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and ran.

There was a bigger problem than Lev realized. He was going to kill the prince and didn’t know it yet. Then there would be a bloodbath in Krakova once the Shield forces arrived, and it would end with either Aleksei or Lev dead.

Sofia had seen Niko cut his finger on paper of all things, and the bleeding stopped normally. He wasn’t afraid of getting injured, didn’t restrict his physical activity, and the illness that prevented his blood from clotting only came up when people were asked to remove their jewelry and weapons, things with gold, around the prince. Niko wasn’t ill, but he corrupted gold when it touched him. There was much yellow metal at Raven which appeared to be gold but couldn’t be. Aleksei might or might not know, but Eugene must. The reason the queen allowed Eugene to live, Sofia thought, was that he forged them all, took the gilded and gold furnishing of Raven, and replaced them with fakes, and that was a grand endeavor.

Lev had a lot of gold on him which would turn black when he touched the prince. A bad thing to happen even if he hadn’t been looking for a necromancer specifically. Whatever else Niko was, he was a Shield prince first, and Fedosia would bleed dry should Lev murder him.

Her mind in a frenzy of worry and imagined terrible possibilities, Sofia rushed past the foyer to get to the bedchamber in the other wing. She meant to put on a simple dress and grab her wool lined cloak, but the wooden truck the luminary sent her caught her eye and she had an idea.

“That was an incredibly long time for you to be still in your sleeping garment.” Lev leaned against the doorframe.

Sofia had made an improvised potion stand in the far end of the music room, and stood behind the apothecary table, mixing her concoctions. “Come on in, Lev. It’ll be only a few more moments.”

He took in the powder blue walls, the gold and crystal chandelier, the white veils hanging from the tall windows, and the ceiling meant to look like cotton puffs of cloud, and smiled. He came in. He mindlessly ran his hand along the carved crest of a velvet chair as he slowly made his way toward Sofia.

The music room of the Red Manor had a lacquered white upright piano. Lev knocked on the fallboard, then he lifted it, took off his cloak, tossed it on a settee, and sat down on the piano stool.

“I remember this room.” His fingers fluttered across the keyboard, teasing out a tune as light as a summer butterfly. “This needs to be tuned, Soful. Where’s the tuning key?”

“I don’t know. Yani tuned it last.”

“Yani? I hope he didn’t charge you. He owes me a lot of money.” Lev played the song he wrote when he was eight years old. It was called Lavander Garden and it had been for his mother, Sofia remembered. “You know they tried emulating the White Palace with this room. A baroness had it decorated before for her birthday party so she could feel as though she was hosting it at the palace. The courtiers are sad people.”

Yes, Sofia knew, which was why she was in here. They hadn’t done a shabby job and the room felt like a piece of home.

“Do you know Baltar?” Sofia asked.

“I am from Krakova.” Lev sighed as his hands dropped from the keyboard. “The tuning is bothering me. I’ll have a word with Yani about ripping you off. He was lazy with it. This always happens when I’m not around. Just because Guards are thought wealthy, people assume they can swindle us. Happened to Mother a lot because she was kind, like you. It doesn’t hurt to be an asshole once in a while, Soful, so these pompous fucks who call themselves the ‘high society’ take you seriously… About Baltar, he’s equally likely to sell you snake oil than he is a miracle. It depends on whether he likes you.”

“I’m learning elixirs and potions from him,” said Sofia. “Look,” she held up two vials, “one is Euphoria, the other is my own making. Which one would you like?”

“Are you peddling potions with Baltar?” Lev brightened and marched over to Sofia’s little setup and prodded through her ingredients. “How are you doing it? I suck at this shit. Once I tried making a potion for a shindig I was hosting and nearly killed everyone.”

“Well, I have to be good at something. ” Sofia handed him the lime blue potion which was Euphoria. He downed it and returned the empty glass. “You’re good at a lot of things others aren’t.”

“Yeah, like what?” she asked.

“Being nice to people you don’t like, for one. You also have the patience of a saint.” He picked up another vial and sniffed it. “It smells like sugar. What is this?”

“Baltar calls it the Unicorn. We may have been selling it at gatherings.”

“Get the fuck out of here.” Lev drank it. “Tastes exactly as it smells. I can’t believe you invented a new potion while I was away. How did you learn elixirs so fast? Uncle had acolytes for this shit. Perhaps not to make this kind of potions, but it is a study field on its own merit.”

“Talent.” Sofia smiled. “I am Guard.”

“So you are.” Lev spun, his movement flurried though the attire he’d been wearing was simple and for riding. “Woah, Soful, this is pretty good.” He went back to the piano. “We should get going, though. I actually should have gone with them. The patrol said Grigori wasn’t at Krakova, but who knows.”

“How do you know he’s a necromancer, Lev?”

“He turned the Menshikov into monsters and brought back Vasily and the Apraksin retainers as soulless, among other things.”

“That’s terrible. What happened at Usolya?”

“Later, Soful. Get dressed, let’s go.” He played a note and whispered, “I can taste that.” He moved down the cord, sustaining the notes with the pedal. “This shit is wild.”

“I’ll go get dressed, then.” Sofia cleaned up her potion stand, then pretended to find the wooden trunk she placed by the settee. “Oh, Lev, here.” She dragged the trunk along the parquet boards, scratching her floor.

“What the fuck is that? Better be a handsome man in there. It’s big enough.”

“It’s Uncle’s things,” Sofia murmured, now regretting having made a scene at the church about the gold being forged. But Lev hadn’t had the time to gossip with courtiers, she hoped.

“Archmage?”

Lev came, and as they sat on the floor like children with a treasure trove, digging through the trunk, Sofia held her breath waiting for him to notice. Lev would know, surely. But he was high, too high. He tossed a ring across the room to hear the ‘music’ it played.

He put on the archmage’s gold cuff and held a ball of light. The alchemy was working because he had real gold on the other arm, but soon he switched that out for the forgery as well. Then he slipped on ten gold rings and rubbed his hands together, laughing. “Do I look as ridiculous as he used to?”

“If Uncle was ridiculous, it wasn’t the gold.” She ruffled his soft blond locks as she got up. “I’ll be right back, all right?”

“Yeah.” Lev lay down on the floor and stared at the blue and white ceiling, reaching up as though trying to touch it. “Aren’t we all ridiculous down here, Syoma?” he whispered.

Sofia left to get dressed, and on the way she checked to see what was happening with Aleksei. A few of the male servants were chipping at the ice with an axe but they were nowhere near reaching the lid. It would be a few hours at least.