Prince and the Throne (Fedosian Wars #2)

24. Father

twenty-four

Father

Eugene realized they lost the city as soon as the patrolmen in their plain armor had the gall to detain Imperial Sentinels on the Krakova bridge. They’d been running around too freely after the queen’s demise, extorting coins from the nobles and merchants for ‘protection’ while they allowed mayhem, caused them in some instances, and the fat captain had begun to believe he had an army for hire—and someone had hired him. The Guard coin pouch ran deep, and now the prince was a hostage in his capital, or so he thought, because he hadn’t believed Raven would fall so quickly. But it had. Someone had let them in, more traitors. People didn’t fear the prince was the trouble. Commoners heard hangings and lashes but not sweet words and that included the captain of the patrols.

So, Eugene’s evening began as shit, progressively grew worse with every street he rode through as commoners flung rocks and garbage at the sentinels, then took a complete dive into the bottomless pit when he was accosted by Pulyazin druzhina at the gates of Raven. He had to stand down because otherwise, they would have killed his prince.

As night fell, it grew too cold to sleep by the riverbank and Eugene stuffed his men into a common inn in the poor district, a warehouse full of drunks they had to kick out. It had straw on the floor for sleeping and a single stove doubling as a fireplace. No one had eaten or slept in days and tempers ran high. The red legion was some five days behind them, and Eugene’s options were extremely limited till they arrived.

He sat on the barrel and was trying to eat some porridge when Ignat kicked straw in his eye. “Hey, blind fuck, there’s lice here.”

That was the end of his patience. Eugene punched the insubordinate brat, they rolled around on the straw drunks had spat on, pissed on too probably, and Eugene had mounted Ignat, raining down his fists, when he was picked up like a child and thrown against the table, which he tripped on, and went toppling his legs above his head.

Aleksei stood over him and hissed, “Get your shit together.” The boy was in his sentinel uniform.

“The prince?” Eugene got up and dusted himself off.

“Where’s Grigori?” Aleksei asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Eugene grumbled.

“Fuck if you know anything,” Ignat yelled.

“Enough,” Aleksei snapped. “You realize patrol is stealing your fucken horses?”

A dozen sentinels dashed out the door, but the remaining eyes blinked at Eugene and Aleksei from dim corners.

“It reeks like a pigsty in here.” Aleksei sneered, then spoke in a clear, loud voice. “Can everyone hear me?”

Sentinels called out from the far corners to confirm they could hear.

“The prince has restored my command, so I’m your captain now,” said Aleksei.

“Thank the saints for that,” Ignat muttered.

“Just your word?” Eugene asked. “I’ll be seeing that order now.” He looked at Aleksei’s empty hands, but the boy ignored him.

“If I don’t call your name you take the night off, go stay with a patron or a friend, or do whatever you wish so as long as it doesn’t involve antagonizing the Pulyazin or the city patrol. Find plain clothes to wear. Tomorrow, gather at rendezvous seven to receive further orders.

“If I call your name, I’ll see you at Red Manor.”

Aleksei proceeded to call a dozen names which didn’t include Eugene’s, and sentinels filed out of the inn. Feet shuffled on the bare floor as hushed voices discussed plans for the night amongst themselves.

“What are you doing, boy?” Eugene asked.

“Cleaning up after your fucken mess,” Aleksei barked.

“Whatever you’re doing, you will include me.” Eugene grabbed Aleksei’s cloak when the boy began walking away from him.

“I can’t have you if you won’t hear me,” Aleksei said, the cold red gaze flicking down to Eugene's grip, warning him.

“All right, all right.” Eugene raised his hands because he did fuck up. “What are we doing? Seeing as how I’m tagging along whether I’m invited or not, it’ll be better just to brief me.”

“You will follow orders,” Aleksei said. “If you can’t, I will put a steel through you. I don’t have time for your bullshit. Come to Red Manor only if you understand that. Otherwise, you’re better off going to see your lady friend. I promise you that, Eugene.”

Eugene sighed and contemplated his life because he took Aleksei at his word. It had been a while since he saw the baroness and thought he owed her a visit. He’d been wondering what to do when Aleksei turned at the door and produced a sealed envelope from his cloak.

“Almost forgot.” He held out the envelope to Eugene. “From Niko.”

Daylight grew shorter. Eugene thought the sun had only risen, he’d blinked, and it was setting again. He sat on a gold settee in the music room of the Red Manor, where the prince had danced with Sofia what seemed like a lifetime ago, and thumbed over the four words his boy had written.

Kill Lev Guard, Father.

When Eugene was a boy, he’d taught himself a little alchemy and used it to get by. He’d started thieving, then robbing, had his share of nights in dungeons and public lashings, but real trouble found him when he began forging silver coins with alchemy… The Chartorisky retainers came for him. The rest, everyone knew. He lost his eye and his honor, as little of it as he had, to the Chartorisky. Ignat wasn’t wrong that he sold out his crew. There was only so much pain a man could endure before he found his breaking point. Everyone had one, no matter how brave they thought themselves.

Because of his talent in alchemy, he was given a choice between turning sentinel and being flayed. He chose to keep his skin. Eugene was good at looking out for Eugene. He’d been twenty-five at the time, too old to start meaningful training by any measure, but failure hadn’t been an option, not if he valued his life. He hadn’t minded when they took his ability to sire children, he thought he’d never want them anyway, more mouths to feed. Funny how time and a boy who called him Father could change a man’s priorities.

He’d known something was wrong with the boy long before he put Burkhard through the wall. He could move physical objects with shadows, which Eugene had thought was dark art, and had many talks with the prince about not using it. The church burned you for that, prince and peasant alike. It was only later he learned, from Grigori nonetheless, the art was reserved for a powerful soulless only. The magic wasn’t alchemy and he’d never seen it before because those possessing light, or so called the living, couldn’t perform the feat. That didn’t make him love the boy less, only worry for him more.

The House of White Guard was on its last leg, and he had no qualm kicking it out, but whether he was able to was the trouble. When he tried to discuss his plan to assassinate Lev and reclaim Raven, Aleksei’s answer was, ‘No, you will follow my orders.’

Eugene folded the letter and tucked it under his leather armor when Aleksei came in. He’d somehow destroyed his custom gear, had been wearing a standard one yesterday, but the smith appeared to have come through, replacing his custom vambraces with the added Durnov symbols, and Aleksei sat down across from him, adjusting the alchemy and synchronizing it to his lash. The alchemy of movement needed a lot of tinkering and tweaking.

“You didn’t want to eat or get shuteye in a warm bed, Eugene?” he asked, looking down. “We’re going to be on the road for a while. I need your skeleton key, by the way.”

The plan was to steal the prince, hightail it out of Krakova, and let the red legion purge Pulyazin out of the city. Except for the dozen riding with the prince, Aleksei was leaving the sentinels behind to support the legion so the commander didn’t suffer extraordinary casualties against the druzhina. A reasonable plan but…

“We should do away with the Guard boy while we have the chance,” Eugene said. Elbows propped on his knees, he rubbed his neck.

“We won’t have peace if we do that,” said Aleksei.

What peace? The boy assaulted Raven, twice now. The real reason Aleksei wouldn’t touch Lev was he didn’t want to upset Sofia, and Eugene didn’t see it changing for the foreseeable future. He could tell him about the prince’s precarious position being hostage to a necromancer, but he’d also have to tell him he was neither the prince nor his brother. Then there was the matter of Grigori wanting Sofia and that would never fly with the kid. So, Eugene was on his own.

“What happened to your gear and your key?” Eugene asked. There were three keys: the queen, the captain, and the prince. The prince had given Eugene the queen’s key rather than ask Aleksei for it when he dismissed him as captain.

“Lost it,” was his answer, and Eugene didn’t find it satisfactory.

“You gave it to Lev,” said Eugene, and Aleksei’s red eyes flicked up, displeased.

“Key, Eugene.”

“Say pretty please.”

“Now.”

“That works.” Eugene mustered a smile and reached into his armor.

Every door in Raven yielded to a single key, and so did the three-inch thick, four thousand pound steel gates separating the sections of the tunnels webbing underneath the castle and veining out through the city. It wasn’t a flaw. By design, the hundreds of doors opened with the same key, done so they remained functional without having to carry around a wheelbarrow full of keys. Could they be bypassed by alchemy? With enough gold, everything was possible, but it would be a painstakingly slow and one hell of an expensive journey through the dark. You could easily get lost, wander for days, and die without seeing sunlight. It was vast, was the point, and the easterners hadn’t scratched the surface of it, but to be the captain of the sentinels, you had to have mapped it in your mind. Eugene didn’t, but Aleksei did, and four hundred sentinels could have easily marched back into Raven, yet the captain chose to run.

‘Shut up and follow orders,’ Aleksei would bark at Eugene whenever he voiced his concern. The kid had changed. Sofia Guard had him under her thumb. So much so that Aleksei gave his skeleton key to Lev. But that was neither here nor there because they’d arrived directly under Raven.

Aleksei said something, but Eugene didn’t hear him. Instead, he thought of his boy as he tapped his face armor, and the plate came down. The alchemy on his vambraces glowed, and Eugene pulled down the iron ladder, ready to climb to his last fight.

Kill Lev Guard, Father.