Page 96 of The Crown's Fate
“That’s painfully accurate,” Vika said. “Now let’s change it. How would it look if I helped bring them back together, rather than simply standing where they pull apart?”
Renata chewed her lip as she thought. “I suppose if the saffron is not at the split but at the top of the V, arching like a bridge reconnecting the paths.”
“Can you do that?”
Renata took a deep breath. “I’ll try.” She gripped a braid in each hand and focused on the cup.
The tea inside quivered. Then, slowly, it began to ripple, but only near the red thread. The black leaves remained in their V shape, but the saffron floated away.
Five minutes of intense concentration later, the saffron bridged the top of the black paths.
“You did it!” Vika said.
Renata slouched in her chair. “Not quite. There’s still tea left in the cup. It’s not a prophecy until the liquid is gone. But I don’t know how you’re going to manage to drink it without moving the leaves some more.”
Vika smirked. “You forget I’m an enchantress.” She eyed the cup, and a second later, the last of the tea rose up as if through an invisible straw, only there was no straw at all, only air. Vika winked as she slurped the final drops of tea.
The leaves stayed exactly where Renata had placed them.
Both girls simply looked at the prophecy for a while.
“Do you think it will work?” Renata finally asked.
Vika sighed. “Nikolai thinks our fates are already determined. I refuse to believe that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be trying to change them. It would be even better if you could shift not onlymyleaves, but also Nikolai’s. It would be more direct that way. Do you think you can?”
“I don’t know. I promised him I’d never read his leaves unless he wanted me to.”
“I think this, if any, is an acceptable time to break a promise.”
Renata nodded, although she also frowned. “But how would I get him to drink the tea only partially like I asked you to do?”
Vika looked at her own leaves, then pushed the cup away. “You’ll have to manipulate the leaves when his cup is dry.”
“I’m not sure I can.”
Vika reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It’s worth a try.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
That night, Evgeny Obolensky bowed as he entered the armory to greet Nikolai. “Your Imperial Highness, it is a great honor to finally meet you.” Obolensky had a soft, round face that made him appear younger than his twenty-nine years, but Nikolai knew better than to judge by appearances. Obolensky was aide-de-camp to the most elite of the Imperial Army’s regiments, and his family could trace their noble roots all the way back to the age of Rurik, the dynasty that ruled Russia centuries ago.
Major General Volkonsky and Ilya were with him, and they bowed as well.
“I’m glad you could come.” Nikolai pushed off from the wall against which he’d been leaning, between two racks of muskets. He wore his facade again, so he looked like a person, but the habit of hiding in the shadows was hard to shake.
“Where is Trubetskoy?” Nikolai asked. If Trubetskoy was supposed to be the leader of the entire movement, hisabsence the night before the coup was mildly disturbing.
Volkonsky shrugged. “Don’t worry about him, Your Imperial Highness. If there is anyone whose blood runs thicker with the ideals of our cause than Trubetskoy, I haven’t met him.”
“I saw him earlier,” Obolensky said. “He had something urgent to take care of for his wife.”
“More likely for Lebzeltern,” Volkonsky said. “His brother-in-law.”
“That’s the Austrian Empire’s minister here in our capital,” Obolensky added.
Nikolai crossed his arms. “I know who Lebzeltern is.” He’d made it his business long ago to know everyone who was important in Saint Petersburg, even if they did not know him.
“Of course. My apologies, Your Imperial Highness.” Obolensky dipped his head.
