Page 2 of The Tsarina's Favorite
“That’s what she wants,” the tsarina grumbled.“But I wasn’t allowed to go home when my husband died.I refuse to let her either.”
I refrained from offering any additional ideas, and the tsarina continued so that I would not have to devise any additional topic of conversation.
“There were riots not long ago,” she continued.“I don’t understand why.We’re winning our campaign in the south.The Ilyichians should be happy, and yet, I fear, they are only happy when they are miserable.I have had to suppress so many demonstrations and issue countless executions.Thank The Kind and Fair that the empire is so vast, or I might run out of subjects!”
I could not speak to her direct experience, but if being a sovereign meant taking such human suffering in stride and becoming callous to it, I would never have made a good one.Even when in the military, I had not savored issuing punishments for the transgressions of my men.
“We had several more sightings of the firebird,” she added when I did not comment on the state of the country.“Do you remember when I wanted the white jackdaw?I thought that was something special.Can you imagine what a coup having a firebird would be?”
“You have everything now, ma’am,” I said, gesturing to the palace.“If you caught the firebird, what wish would you have it grant?”
“I would ensure that you never parted from me again,” she teased.“But you won’t, will you?Of course, you won’t.You’re back now.”
Anything safe I could say would have been a lie, so I kept silent.
“And, in other good news,” she continued, “my engineers finished the designs for my ice palace so I can make a marvelous tribute to The Kind and Fair this winter.The Royal Academy of Science even requested to use it to study the weather, which, of course, I’ll allow.Every region of the empire will send representatives dressed in their traditional clothing to form a procession unlike any other seen before in the city.The ice palace will have everything made of ice, down to the furniture!Even with tufted upholstery and blankets.We have hundreds of sculptors lined up for the project.”
The expenditure, the frivolity, the pointlessness of such an endeavor struck me as an affront to the people of the city who already despised the nobility as unconcerned with their plight.Festivities would be a distraction, but only for a short duration.Their hunger and discontent would still be there when the festivities ended.
I settled on, “That sounds like a lot of planning.”
“Almost the entire time you’ve been gone.You spent all that time in Varnasia?”
“I went to Alfinia first, Talvia, Allemandia, then south.”
“And you forgot all about me.”
She directed us towards doors that led out to a courtyard and garden, the fountains bubbling, the birds singing, several people walking the gardens, laughing together over a shared joke.
Even in the fading spring, the Ilyichian chill crept into my bones.
“Never, ma’am,” I assured her.Nightmares refused to let me forget her.
“I had to arrest you to ensure your return to me.”
“I would have returned if I had but a little more time,” I lied.
“I have had to satisfy myself with my Allemandian in your absence.”She pushed a long dark ringlet strand behind her shoulder.“Long-standing though he is, he isn’t you.”
“I had obligations, ma’am.”
“Mmmm.”Her tone soured.“I heard you married again.A Varnasian wife.”
“Yes.”
“A Varnasian wife who worshipped the Great Holy.”
“Yes.”
She fell into silence, her quiet a dangerous calm that heralded a pending disaster.
We strolled through the garden, the other courtiers sliding glances at me.She noticed and nodded her head at them when they dipped into curtsies.
“It seems no one has seen the beautiful and elegant Prince Mikhail so disheveled before,” she said after we passed them.The tsarina stopped us in our walk as soon as there was enough distance between us and the other strollers and turned her face up to me, her mouth tightening, her brows drawing together.“Mikhail, I have been very angry at you in your absence.You broke many a lady’s heart when they heard of your marriage.”
Could the tsarina be speaking about herself?
“I only intended on doing the honorable thing,” I assured her, “not wound anyone.It’s been eight years since Marfa passed.I need heirs.”
