Page 34 of The Tsarina's Favorite
I shivered.Summer it may be, but Ilyichia always burned with cold.My longing for the warm, lush climes of Varnasia twisted in my spleen.
I followed out of uncertainty.Could I just walk back out to the guards and ask them to take me to my cell again?Or would I have enough time to climb the hedge walls from the balcony and make an escape over the other side?
“I hate games,” I grumbled.
I trailed her, mostly because I was certain that I would get caught if I attempted to escape.A small courtyard greeted us at the bottom of the stairs, dark from the immensely tall hedges and barren of any decorative flora.A closed door offered the only additional feature of interest.
“You might like this one, since you have a chance to win your life and your freedom,” she said as she opened the door and led me into another courtyard, this one overflowing with color.
Roses overwhelmed all else in the alcove.
Drook told me that roses were linked with magic.Not that I believed in magic, but the roses served a dire warning of my situation.Could The Kind and Fair truly give the tsarina magic to uphold the empire?
Most of the roses were white here, although other colors lived on the periphery.The white marble basin used for offerings and currently serving as a birdbath formed the focal point between bushes.I had never left an offering for The Kind and Fair or the Great Holy, but the setup looked much the same for both entities.And in my disappointing life, I had never seen much proof to believe in the existence of one or the other.
I surveyed the courtyard, taking note of another door on the far side of the roses if I needed to plan for escape.
“Your life and your freedom, Mikhail,” she repeated.
“I know you too well.I have no chance.”
“Slim, you’re correct, but there is.”She moved to the basin and removed a glove, twirling the tip of a finger in the water.“Or should I just have you stuffed back into a costume and remove your tongue since it’s not serving me?”
She would do it too.
“I propose a test of faith.”She stopped swirling the water and gazed into the mirror of it once the ripples faded away.“My Kind and Fair against your Great Holy.”
If I had to rely on the Great Holy or The Kind and Fair to provide my freedom, it was as I told her.I could not win.Even with offerings I could not give.Even with belief I did not have.
“How do you propose to test them?”
“The Kind and Fair protect Ilyichia, but I will give your Great Holy an opportunity to sway me.”She grasped one of the blooms on the nearest bush and twisted it off the stem.“Pray, Mikhail.Ask that the Great Holy guides your steps to freedom.I will then release you.If you can leave the palace grounds before my guards catch you, then you are free, and the Great Holy presides.If you cannot, you are mine again.”
I knelt in an attitude of prayer, although I could not pray.I had spent weeks praying to any higher power that deigned to listen for Irena and the baby before they died.Nothing answered.
The tsarina turned away, devoting her attention to her ritual.I watched her instead of attending to my own futile prayers, uncertain how she went about asking favors from The Kind and Fair.
“Please hear me,” she murmured during her rite.“Please hear the petition of one who has long worshipped you.My bird will fly from the nest within moments.See that he returns.”
She pressed one of the thorns from the flower stem into the tip of her finger until a drop of blood welled up.She pressed the blood to the broken stem on the bush and then stained one of the white petals of the rose with what remained.She dipped her bleeding finger into the basin of water before she thrust the blood-stained rose at me.
“Take it and you may go.May your Great Holy look kindly upon you, for no one else will if you fail.”
A fool’s bargain.The threat heated my bones.But I had no better choice.
I found my feet and took the rose she held out.Although the broken stem bore no thorns, I did not want to touch it.The bloodstain boded ill.Something worse than I had known awaited me if I failed, and I could not imagine worse than the past months.
“Go, Mikhail.”She pointed to the other door.“You have no time to waste.I will inform my guards of your flight in a quarter hour.Use it wisely.”
As she instructed, I fled.
I had no expectation of escape, but I would not make recapture easy.The black clothing, cloak, gloves, and boots served a better camouflage than anything else I might have accessed.Did she plan it that way?And if so, why would she help me?
This game possessed all the trappings of a fair opportunity, but the prickled hairs on the back of my neck warned me otherwise.The nervous energy that built up in anticipation of a future certainly worse than death drove me through the forest.I discarded the rose at my earliest awareness of anything but the distance between me and the palace.The pale flower lay on the forest floor, innocent and luminous.
I diverted my journey to the east, toward the densest forest, anticipating the movements of the pursuing palace guards.Perhaps I should have continued on the fastest path to the border of the park, but that would be the first route explored.Although I trusted in my own abilities far more than those of the guards, I was a possession the tsarina would never allow to depart with ease, and the guards would be searching for me as if their lives depended upon it.And for all I knew, they may.
My heart beat twice as fast with each uncertain moment.The blood rushed through my veins.Sweat poured off my brow.I tried to muffle my labored breathing.As if the forest knew of my plight and conspired in my downfall, all other sounds halted.No birds sang to each other.No rabbits explored the bases of trees or bushes.Only the leaves crunched beneath my boots, announcing to all of my position.I surveyed the trees in my vicinity to see which might offer the best cover should I need to climb instead and wait out any approaching search party.
