Pure (Book 1, Pure Series) (38 page)

           
After dinner, GM and I went for a walk.
 
I was done with my meditations and soul-searching for the day.
 
I was also out of ideas.
 
I had to hope that something would come to me in the morning.
 
Maybe Aleksandr would come with me to the Pure Woods, and I could try to get the inner spark I'd felt to return to me there.

           
And then there was William.
 
I missed him more with every passing hour, and I had no way of finding out what had happened to him.
 
I thought back to what Galina had said – about my mother's first visions being about my father.
 
I felt a strange fluttering in my stomach as I thought about it.
 
I wondered what such a thing could mean.

           
"Are you all right, Solnyshko?" GM asked.

           
I blinked, startled out of my reverie.
 
"What was that, GM?"

           
"I asked if you were all right.
 
You had a funny expression on your face.
 
I would almost call it dreamy."

           
I felt a blush rising to my cheeks.
 
"I was just thinking.
 
Things have been so strange lately."

           
"Don't worry, Solnyshko," GM said.
 
"I will take care of this situation.
 
So what if the police won't listen?
 
Who needs them?
 
I certainly don't.
 
I will take care of this madman all on my own."

           
The sun had set while we were out on our walk, and we returned home by streetlight.

           
Shortly after we got back, Odette came in, her arms laden with bags.
 
Her hair had been trimmed and styled, and she smelled like strawberries.
 
She swirled into the kitchen where GM and I were sitting and dropped her bags onto the table and herself into a chair.

           
She smiled at us over her purchases.

           
"How are you this evening, Odette?" GM asked.

           
"Tired but happy," Odette sighed.
 
"I spent the whole day shopping, getting my hair done – my nails."

           
She turned to me.
 
"They have sprung the surprise.
 
The Mstislav ball is tomorrow night.
 
Are you sure you won't come with me?"

           
Once again Gleb's bloated face rose in my mind, and I had to fight off a shudder.
 
"No, thank you, Odette.
 
I don't think I'm really up to it."

           
"If you're worried about a dress, I bought several of them weeks ago.
 
I told you I have one you could wear."

           
"Oh, no, really – I just couldn't."

           
I caught GM's eye.
 
I could tell she agreed with me.

           
I looked over all of Odette's bags.
 
"If you have a dress already, what did you buy?"

           
Odette laughed.
 
"There's more to your look than a dress.
 
You need makeup, jewelry, shoes, an evening bag, a wrap.
 
And sometimes you need to bring home a few options so you can decided on just the right ones."

           
Odette looked over her bags and sighed again.
 
"I guess if you aren't going with me, then I'll have to take Aleksandr – I can hardly go alone.
 
At the very least you'll have to help me make the final decisions on my outfit."

           
"Sure, I can do that."

           
Odette's face suddenly lit up.
 
"Oh!
 
And the most exciting news is that the Mstislav private jet landed at their airfield late last night.
 
The Mstislav family must be in residence now."

           
I felt a flash of panic run through me.
 
Galina and Aleksandr had warned us back in Elspeth's Grove that they feared Gleb had used his plane to come to the U.S.
 
Now, that same plane had returned to Russia.
 
I had a terrible feeling that Gleb was back in Krov.

           
I glanced over at GM.
 
I could tell by her expression that she had come to the same conclusion.

           
Odette seemed to be unaware of the effect her words had had on GM and me.
 
"Would you like to see what I bought?"

           
"Of course, dear," GM said politely.
 
"But first, I made lamb for dinner tonight.
 
Would you like me to heat some up for you?"

           
Odette waved a hand.
 
"You are kind, Annushka, but I stopped for dinner on the way home."
 
She pulled a bag toward her.
 
"Now, wait till you see these earrings."

           
I stayed with GM and Odette the rest of the evening, and Odette's cheerful chattering helped to take the edge off my fears – but I was uneasy all the same, and I felt my stomach tying itself into knots.

           
When I finally decided to go up to bed, GM stopped me and gave me a hug.

           
"It will be okay, Solnyshko," she whispered in my ear.

           
Clearly, she could tell I was worried.

           
I got ready for bed, but lay awake for a very long time.
 
I heard Odette and GM both come up for bed after a little while, and I heard the house settle into silence.
 
But sleep still eluded me.

           
Gleb Mstislav had returned and would be after me soon – if not this very night – and I still had to find the clear fire.

           
I tried to turn my concentration inward and find the spark within me again, but all I managed to do was make my stomach hurt.

           
Find the clear fire, find the clear fire, find the clear fire
, I told myself.

           
As the night wore on, I began to feel feverish, and I thought longingly of my mother – if only she were here to help me.

           
I wished I could just go down the hall to my parents' room like I did when I was small and tell my parents that I was scared.
 
And then I could just ask my mother where the clear fire was.

           
I smiled to myself as I pictured her – she would probably tell me, as she always did, that it was behind the great gate at Kiev.

           
Something clicked in my mind, and I sat up.
 
A rush of excitement ran through me.
 
I knew exactly where the clear fire was.

           
Behind the great gate at Kiev.

Chapter 17.

After changing my clothes, I slipped out of the house and ran through the darkness toward the Pure Woods.
 
I was nearly frantic to get to the stone ring.
 
I ran past the shops, and the Mstislav mansion with its banners and spotlights.
 
I ran on past the fields.

           
The night air was pleasantly cold on my too-warm skin.

           
I ran until my breath was ragged and my sides were sore.
 
Then I was forced to walk, and I cursed my own exhaustion.
 
I began to fear that I would never reach the stone ring, and that something horrible would detach itself from the darkness and overtake me.
 
The air around me seemed to be full of grotesque shapes, and every sound I heard made me jump.

           
As I continued on past empty, featureless fields that seemed to last forever, my feet began to hurt.
 
Just when I thought I couldn't go on any longer, I saw the large, rambling shape of the monastery silhouetted against the moon.
 
Beyond it, the Pure Woods reached its ghostly white arms to the sky.

           
I got out the flashlight of GM's that I had brought with me and plunged into the Woods.
 
The flashlight's powerful beam illuminated the forest floor for me, and I was able to make quick progress.
 
I silently thanked GM for picking out good equipment.

           
When the flashlight's beam lit up the stone ring, my heart began to beat faster.
 
I stepped into the ring.
 
Then I switched off the flashlight and put it away.
 
I closed my eyes.

           
I took a deep breath.
 
I knew I was right.

           
I had to be right.

           
I turned my attention inward and searched for the spark.
 
At the same time, I began to sing the melody from
The Great Gate at Kiev
– it was the same theme that ran throughout Mussorgsky's
Pictures at an Exhibition
, tying the entire piece together.
 
The melody was strong and beautiful, and I knew now that there was a reason my mother had worked so hard to get me to remember it.

           
She knew that someday I would need it.

           
As I continued to sing, I concentrated harder, delving deeper within.
 
I felt the spark I was searching for ignite within me.
 
I caught the spark and held it with my mind, willing it to grow brighter.
 
And grow brighter it did.

           
I felt a fire erupt within me.

           
My eyes flew open.

           
There in front of me, hanging in the air, was a sphere of red and gold.
 
I caught my breath – it was a strange and impossible thing.
 
Clear, yet somehow opaque, the sphere shone with a light was brighter than any I had ever seen, yet my eyes were not dazzled – I could look at it comfortably.
 
The air around the sphere seemed to resonate with a sound I couldn't hear but could only feel.

           
I had found the clear fire.

           
There was a gasp behind me, and I turned, no longer afraid of what might be in the night.
 
The clear fire gave me a deep calm unlike any I had ever experienced.

           
The sphere illuminated the area around me, and a tall form stepped into the ring.
 
I saw the face I had most hoped to see in all the world.

           
William was standing before me, his face alight with wonder – it was the same image I had seen in my last vision.

           
Following an instinct I didn't quite understand, I placed my hand under the clear fire and willed it to rise up into the air.

           
William watched the sphere fly up a few feet and come to a stop over our heads, bathing us both in red-and-gold light.

           
Then he looked back down at me.

           
I don't know which one of us moved first, but within moments, William's arms were around me, and mine were around him.
 
Where his fingers touched, I could feel a tingle run through me.

           
I could hardly believe that he was safe.
 
I held him tighter to make sure that he was real.

           
"You're alive," I whispered.

           
"I'm hard to get rid of," William replied.

           
I blinked in surprise and looked up at him.
 
"You speak Russian."

           
"So do you."

           
I was puzzled, but it wasn't important.
 
What mattered was the fact that he was here.

           
"What happened back at the house?" I asked.
 
"How did you get away from that horrible creature?"

           
"We fought, and he got away," William said.
 
"But I stopped him from chasing after you and your grandmother.
 
What are you doing here?
 
Don't you know this is the last place you should be?
 
Gleb has returned to Krov, and I’m here hunting him.
 
You have to get out of this country right now."

           
"I came here to find this."
 
I pointed up at the clear fire.
 
"Though I had no idea until this morning that such a thing even existed."

           
William stared up at the glowing sphere.
 
"What is it?"

           
"Oh, William," said a new voice.
 
"Do you really not know?"

           
William and I both turned.
 
A man was standing a few feet from us, just outside the stone ring.
 
He had chin-length hair and a trim beard and strangely old-fashioned, almost medieval clothes.
 
There was a hint of amusement in his clear, light-colored eyes.

           
William quickly moved in front of me.
 
"You stay away from her."