The Morning Star (22 page)

Nicholas Alexandrovich was happy to stand up for his brother. Amin, my donkey, and the little boy from the village waited outside the monastery with the Grigori. Papus stood quietly in the shadows in the back of the sanctuary. I knew he was anxious to find the sword. I was too, and I was worried about facing Konstantin and Johanna again. But George stood beside me with a reassuring smile. Everything was going to be all right in the end. Or so we hoped.

Our ceremony was much simpler than it would have been if we’d been married in St. Petersburg. I remembered Grand Duchess Militza’s wedding to my cousin. She’d worn a silver
gown embroidered with pearls and the jewel-encrusted Romanov nuptial crown with a veil of lace. The ceremony had taken place in the great Orthodox chapel at Peterhof Palace. It had lasted for hours as we stood in the crowded chapel in the summer, made even hotter by banks of burning candles.

Brother Ananias chanted the litany in a beautiful bass voice as the other monks lit incense and chanted the responses. Everything became a blur after that. It had been days since I’d had a proper meal, and the exhaustion I felt from escaping Konstantin and Johanna earlier that morning had finally caught up with me.

I remember repeating the words that the priest asked me to. I remember him blessing two golden rings, and I remember the smoky fog from the incense. I remember the embroidered capes they draped on both George’s and my shoulders. I remember the simple crowns placed on each of our heads, to symbolize our roles as the king and queen of our newly created household.

George held my hand and placed the golden ring upon my finger. I remember feeling nothing but happiness when George kissed me as his wife. “I will love you always, Katiya,” he whispered. At last, I felt a sense of peace.

We took the train back north, which was slightly faster than the trip by boat. The railroad line began at Assiut, several miles north of Abydos, so we used the hired steamer to bridge the gap. The dragoman was not sorry that Danilo was absent from our party. He accepted the extra gold offered by the tsarevitch,
and within an hour we were boarding the train. I’d changed back into my blue traveling dress. I’d never been so happy to wear stockings and shoes in my life. George ordered the Grigori to see to my trunk.

“That is not necessary,” I said. “There’s nothing in there that I want to keep. Except this,” I said, picking up the French copy of
A Necromancer’s Companion
. “And this,” I added, stuffing the medical book from the bazaar into a small suitcase Nicholas had purchased for me. I would repay the tsarevitch for the luggage and repay Danilo for the book. I did not want to have a reason to feel obligated to anyone.

At my request, the Grigori took the trunk to the local orphanage where the nuns would distribute the clothing among the poor. Everything except for the almost-indecent negligee, of course, and even that I hoped could be torn apart and made into infant’s clothing or a child’s dress. But now I would be faced with a similar dilemma. I did not want to feel obligated to George for buying new clothes for me, even if we were now husband and wife. I could not get over how pleased I was with how that sounded.

“The bride should be able to provide her own trousseau,” I said, feeling ridiculous. George could not stop grinning. We made a ridiculous couple. And it made me grin too.

“Think of it as a wedding present,” his brother Nicholas suggested with a kind smile. He seemed happy to help us get married, even if he knew the trouble we would face when we reached St. Petersburg. I only hoped he would not share in our punishment.

We stayed in the dining car all night as the train rolled north in the darkness. Neither of us suggested moving to the sleeping
car. As Nicholas and Papus discussed the merits of Polish and French ballerinas at their own table, I fell asleep against George’s strong shoulder, hardly able to believe that we were together again after everything. My hand clasped in his, I dreamed of a future we might have after all.

We reached Cairo by sunrise. At some point, George had wrapped a blanket around both of us. I awoke to his gentle kisses up and down the side of my face. “Good morning,” he murmured. “We’re coming into the station, Katiya. It’s time to get up.”

The Graylands awaited us. As did the Morning Star, hidden beyond the seven gates. I groaned and reluctantly stood and stretched. We did not stay on the train for breakfast. Instead, we took the electric tram through the city and headed east across the river, toward the necropolis. The Grigori loyal to Papus sat silently in the seats behind us. Nicholas and Papus were seated in front of us, also silent, each one wrapped up in his own thoughts.

The great pyramids of Giza rose up out of the desert. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as we drew closer to the ancient tombs. George seemed to sense this and took my hand in his.

It had been decided that Papus would not go to the seven gates after all. He would accompany Nicholas back to Russia. Papus would use the Grigori portals and escort the tsarevitch through the Graylands swiftly so they could reach St. Petersburg before us—hopefully before Konstantin arrived. George wished his brother could travel the Graylands with us, but we both knew it was impossible.

“But it would be safer for the two of you if Papus and I went along to retrieve the sword,” the tsarevitch argued one last time. “We would make a formidable team.”

George shook his head. “Out of the question. You are the heir. Go with Papus straight to St. Petersburg. And don’t worry about us.” He squeezed my hand affectionately. “Katiya and I will be fine. We’ll meet up with you as soon as possible. It should not take us long.”

George embraced his brother as we stood at one of the temple walls near the sphinx. The two Grigori stood at attention, awaiting Papus’s instructions. “Give Mother Dear and Xenia my love,” George told Nicholas. “I hate that you will face Papa’s wrath before I do.”

Nicholas smiled and shook his head. “There will be plenty of wrath to go around when you get back. Take care of yourself, Brother.”

“You too, Nicky.” George stepped back and wrapped his arm around my waist.

“Be careful, Your Imperial Highness,” I said. I dreaded the return to St. Petersburg. The tsar may have given his blessing for our engagement, but only at a price I was not willing to pay. The empress would be furious with us for eloping and depriving her of a wedding to orchestrate. I hoped her anger would not
last. It would not be long before she would have Nicholas’s wedding and Xenia’s to plan. And many years in the future, the weddings of Olga and Mikhail.

Papus murmured an incantation in a language I could not understand. A doorway appeared in the side of the temple, between the two Grigori. With a polite tip of his hat, the French mage stepped through the doorway with Nicholas following him.

“Are we to use the same portal?” I asked George. The doorway remained open, but I could not see past its threshold.

“No, we will use a portal you create,” he said. “That way I can save my energy for the seven gates.” Before our eyes, the doorway between the Grigori faded. George motioned for me to follow him and we walked around to the main entrance of the temple.

I paused to look at him anxiously. Had he lost more weight since we’d been in Riga? “Are you certain it’s safe for you to go?” I asked.

He answered with a reassuring kiss on my forehead. “Stop worrying about me. We’re wasting time.”

This area had been excavated decades earlier and then abandoned, as there had been nothing worthy of stealing within. A few carvings along the walls looked as if someone had tried to chip into the granite and remove the carvings. Images of pharaohs and other men wearing crowns lined the narrow entrance hall. And at the end of the hallway I saw a carving that alarmed me. A figure in a robe held his hands out as rays of light spiraled up around his body.

“The sun?” I asked.

“No, the cold light. The ka,” George said. He told me to put
my hands on the figure and push. I gasped in surprise when the carving turned into a door and opened. George took a dripping candle from its handle on the wall and followed me inside.

The opening did not lead to another chamber but directly into the Graylands.

“Are you certain it’s safe for you to be here?” I asked. I clasped George’s arm, feeling his solid warmth for reassurance. His heart still beat. He still drew breath.

“I am to be the next Koldun, Katiya. I walk many of the same paths you walk. But it is a much greater price that I pay. Come, we must hurry to the seven gates. Before Konstantin finds us.”

Not letting go of my hand, he led me through the swirls of fog for what seemed like forever. How could anyone tell where they were going in this strange place? How could you hope to find anyone in such fog?

George began to hum a tune that sounded similar to the chanting of the monks at Abydos. I struggled to keep up with him, and finally we arrived at a wide river. “Is this the Nile?” I asked.

“No, it’s the river of the dead.” He took two coins from his pocket and set them down on the dock.

It wasn’t long before a boat arrived, directed by a jackal-headed man. I stood closer to George as the man retrieved the coins from the dock. He held a hand up and beckoned to both of us. George supported my arm as I took a step into the small barge.

No sooner had we both arranged ourselves in the boat than the man pushed off from the dock and the boat floated down the dark river. “Where are we going?” I whispered.

“Into the heart of the underworld,” George replied. “Beyond
the seven gates.” His face was grim. “Don’t worry. We’ll make it to the sword soon, love.”

I reached over and threaded my fingers in his. “How did you learn so much about the Morning Star?” I asked. “From the Order of the Black Lily?”

He nodded. “We also found an old manuscript in Moscow that described it. It took Papus and me several months to find the ritual that would reveal its hiding place.”

I shivered as we floated through the mist. The motion of the boat was making me sleepy, and I leaned my head against George’s shoulder.

“Don’t fall asleep, Katiya.” He shook me gently. “That is one of the worst things you can do in the Graylands. Focus on your cold light.”

It was like sleepwalking on a boat. I started to see visions of girls in white ball gowns dancing the mazurka with dashing young Cossacks dressed in red. I saw crocodile shapes swimming in the water. I saw skinny wolves trotting warily alongside the riverbank, tracking us. I did not know if I was dreaming or if these visions were real. I tried to focus on my cold light and hoped that George knew where we were headed.

We came at last to a stone landing, and the boat pulled up close enough to let us out. George went first, then held my hand and helped me. He led me up the stone steps to a great hallway lined with enormous golden doors. We hurried through the hall, not stopping at any of the doors.

“Katerina, you realize that once you hold the sword, we will have to destroy Konstantin and Johanna once and for all. It’s the only way to end the threat against my father.”

“How, though? Death did not stop them before.”

“Only a necromancer can grant the second death that the pharaohs were so terrified of in ancient Egypt. Only you can prevent them from ever returning to the land of the living. The words you’ll have to recite should be in your
Necromancer’s Companion
.”

He had insisted I bring the ancient book with me. I opened it and began flipping through the pages. I knew I’d seen a spell that mentioned the second death.

“And what of Danilo and Mala?” I asked. For certainly their souls were still here in the Graylands. “What if we could bring them back instead of Konstantin and Johanna?”

He picked up my hand tenderly. “Katiya, you know that for us to be absolutely safe, the crown prince and the ballerina must not return. I’m sorry.”

“But Mala did not ask to be sacrificed for Princess Cantacuzene,” I said. “She did not deserve to die like that. And if Konstantin and his princess are gone, there’s nothing to cause Danilo to act against the tsar.”