Burning Glass (36 page)

“Tonight you will not leave me.” Valko’s grip tightened like manacles. “Tonight, you stay.”

I gasped, a weak and terrible pleading sound as he pulled me closer, taking his time, knowing he could, knowing I was no match for his strength. Tears pooled in my eyes. So many times I had evaded him. But now with the sun lost under the horizon and the night gathering its forces in the sky, with his body silhouetted by the remnants of dying light, I knew I’d reached the breaking point of my war against him—the war I had waged since I first set foot in the palace—to keep my own integrity. To hold sacred that space within myself that was my last fragment of honor, of liberty. The space that was mine to share, and not anyone else’s to take. And now he would strip it from me until all his lies of esteem and high regard would be exposed for the pitiful truth they were. I wasn’t his beloved. In his eyes, I was lower than the ground he trod on. And he would relentlessly trample me into nothing. Until there was no Sonya remaining. Only a possession. Another forgotten treasure he held under lock and key.

As his mouth neared mine, as tears streaked my face, an
orange glow framed his hair, different from the dwindling sunset red. It almost looked like . . .
fire.
I glanced past him to the city, to the wide avenue that cut its long path to the palace. There, in the distance, was a band—no, a battalion—of people. My heart surged with hope. They were mere specks from here, but they were coming. The orange glow must be their torchlight.

“Valko,” I said as I pointed to the city, to his night of reckoning. The people were meant to come tomorrow, but they were already on their way, as if they somehow knew tomorrow would be too late.

The emperor’s eyes flew wide. He dropped my hand and rushed to his balcony wall. “They wouldn’t dare,” he breathed.

I backed slowly to the door of his chambers. My fingers clutched the latch when he noticed me. His gaze narrowed. “What are you doing?”

I pulled my gown back over my shoulder. “As your Auraseer, it is my duty to warn you your life is now in grave danger.” I opened the door. “However, it is
not
my duty to fight for you, and it will
never
be my duty to lie with you. I bid you farewell. You will soon discover how much the gods value your life.”

His face hardened to stone. “If you leave me, Sonya, you will live to regret it.”

“Perhaps.” I drew up taller. “But I
will
live. I cannot say the same for you.” I whirled around and raced down the corridor.

“Sonya!” Valko bellowed. “Guards, seize her!”

I panted, my lungs already burning. Of course he would
send his guards after me, and not to reinforce his regiments outside. I knew I’d damned myself by being so bold, but I couldn’t help it. The people gave me strength—the same daring people whom Anton feared coming and Nicolai didn’t believe stood a chance against the emperor’s forces—
I
believed in them. I felt their courageous energy steel inside me. And I no longer cared if they slit Valko’s throat in order to throw down his reign.

I grabbed the banister of the twirling staircase and hurtled downward. I tripped over the hem of my dress, barely able to stay on my feet. The guards’ sabers rang out from their sheaths. At least they hadn’t fired their muskets. They must know Valko wanted me alive.

I stumbled onto the landing of the second floor and stole a backward glance. Ten or so guards were on my trail. They would soon be upon me. “Let me alone!” I shouted with a ragged breath as I descended the last staircase. “Don’t you know where the danger lies?” I pointed to the great doors of the palace.

I sensed their panic and understood their compulsion to serve their emperor. I had once felt the same. But there came a time when obedience needed to be broken.

“The people are coming,” I said, “and they will bring this government to an end!” I stared at them beseechingly and willed the guards to feel the might of the revolutionaries. With all my conviction, I shouted, “If you want to live, now is your last chance to join them!”

Their expressions of determination went blank. They shuffled to a halt and looked to the great doors. Surprised I had
stalled them, I didn’t waste my opportunity. I fled down the remaining stairs.

Once my slippers clapped the lobby floor and I turned my focus to finding the dungeons, my spell over the guards broke. Their boots picked up speed, and they rumbled like a storm down the marble staircase.

I darted for the corridor in the opposite direction of the great hall and ballroom. When the guards reached the lobby, half bolted for the great doors, their curiosity propelling them outside. The others stayed fast after me.

I pressed onward at a relentless pace. The entrance to the dungeons had to be this way. Perhaps the auras of desperate prisoners would lead me there.

The storm of guards came louder. They were gaining on me. I lengthened my stride and ran faster. My legs trembled. My throat burned raw. My vision flashed with white. Auras danced inside my breast. The righteous indignation of the people. The shock of the servants. The dogged tenacity of the guards.

With my waning physical strength, I kept their energy at bay and forced my purpose to take precedence.
Anton.
I had to free
Anton
.

A dark, unlit corridor loomed to the left. I took it on a whim. I could very well be headed in the wrong direction, but I was running out of options.

This part of the palace was built haphazardly—added onto over time as the laws became stricter and the prisoners multiplied. Corridors branched in a mazelike fashion as they blurred
before my eyes. I reached out for any new auras emanating from the dungeons, but my racing pulse was too much a distraction.

A shadowy figure flickered to my right. I spun around. It was a man. Bearded, but young. Somehow familiar. Close-set eyes. A wide nose. And—my nerves surged with panic—wearing a soldier’s uniform.

“Sonya?” he asked.

The thunder of the Imperial Guard pounded behind me. Any moment now and they would turn the corner. I took a desperate chance and whispered, “Help!”

The man grabbed my hand and tossed me behind him. “Hide,” he rasped. I did my best and flattened myself behind the jutted edge of an uneven, patched-together wall.

The man sprang into the hallway where the guards had just emerged. “There!” he shouted. “She ran that way, past the door to the wine cellar! I think she’s headed outside.”

The guards advanced without pausing. The word of their comrade had been enough. I waited a few moments and prayed they wouldn’t backtrack for me. When I felt assured I was safe and made ready to peel off the wall, the bearded guard flashed in front of me, the barrel of a flintlock pistol aimed at my chest.

“I’m sorry, Sonya,” the man said, “but I need you.”

I blinked at him, this time with recognition. His new beard had disguised him. It covered his jaw and lips with matted blond hair. “Yuri?” I asked in amazement.

I
STARED AT THE SOLDIER.
H
E WAS BACK, ALIVE.
P
IA’S
Y
URI.
A
member of Anton’s league, not captured. Still loyal. Or maybe not. I glanced at the pistol. “How is it you are here?” I asked. “The emperor has a bounty on your head.”

“I still have friends at the palace.” He looked around, his thumb jittery on the pistol hammer. Apparently not enough friends to make him feel safe. “We must hurry. You’re a favorite of the emperor’s. I need you to arrange for me a private audience with him.”

A flare of panic seized me at the thought of returning to Valko, but it dwindled as I took in Yuri’s red-rimmed eyes, his aura crazed and violent and broken. “You know about Pia,” I said in realization, my shoulders falling as his nostrils flared with emotion and a vein engorged on his brow. “Oh, Yuri, I’m so sorry.”

His voice wavered. “Please tell me you pleaded for her life.”

“I did. I was too late.”

“Then this can also be your vengeance. If you truly loved Pia, you will help me.” He swallowed with determination and planted the pistol barrel on my breastbone.

I sucked in a sharp breath from the cool bite of metal. “It appears I don’t have a choice.”

“See it how you will.” He shrugged. “Let’s go.”

“This isn’t necessary,” I said, desperate for some means to persuade him. I was losing time to free Anton. “Do you know the peasants are marching?”

“The emperor will die at my hands, and no one else’s.”

My racing heartbeat slowed as I contemplated Yuri and considered a new strategy. “If I promise to help you, I’ll need a favor first.”

“What?” he growled.

“You said you have friends here. Guards. Are any loyal to you in the dungeons?”

His jaw ticked. “Some. Why?”

“Tosya isn’t the only one imprisoned. Anton is in the dungeons, as well. Valko plans to have them both executed in the morning.”

Yuri’s brows pinched together, then he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. When Valko dies and the people storm the palace, they will be freed, anyway.”

“I need him.” I gripped Yuri’s arm, then flinched as the pistol bit harder into my skin. “I can’t chance anything going awry until he is released.” When Yuri didn’t budge, I added, “This
revolution
needs him. They need a leader. After all Anton has done, doesn’t he deserve to stand alongside his people?”

“I can’t.” Yuri dropped his gaze. “We have to find Valko now.”

“Please . . .” How could I reach him? “He is to me what Pia was to you. Please . . . help me.”

Yuri’s pistol hand shook harder. I felt our shared love for Pia intensify his struggle.

Tentatively, I touched his arm. He made a muffled noise of pain. “She would want you to help me,” I said, and I believed it wholeheartedly.

He cursed and lowered the gun, raking his hands through his hair. “Very well, Sonya. But quickly.”

The entrance to the dungeons wasn’t far away. As Yuri opened the door, he exposed a winding stone staircase. The cloying stench of refuse and rotting flesh assaulted me. I held my sleeve over my nose and rushed down as quietly as possible.

Yuri grabbed my arm when we reached the dungeons’ floor. “Stay here until I return,” he whispered before he strode off through a stone archway where the light of the sconced torches couldn’t reach him.

I tucked away into a corner. The walls dripped with condensation. A rat skittered across the stones. How much longer did we have before the peasants stormed the palace, before the chaos of raging battle came?

When I thought I might scream from impatience, Yuri
finally returned. “The gods are with us.” He grinned. “The jail master is sleeping, and one of the guards stationed at Anton’s cell is my friend. He’s willing to distract his partner, pinch the keys, and give you five minutes to do your business.”

I exhaled with amazement. Perhaps the gods
were
real and lending their assistance. “That’s wonderful.”

Yuri’s grin slipped. “He
is
my friend, but he still wants some kind of payment for taking such a risk.” His gaze dropped to my sapphire necklace.

“Yes, of course.” I unclasped and handed it over without second thought.

He tucked it into his pocket. “Ready, then?”

I nodded. My heart beat wildly at the thought of seeing Anton—of freeing him.

“Keep close behind me. Be light on your toes. When I hide, you hide. Understand?” Only then did I notice Yuri had holstered his pistol and now held a gleaming knife. A smarter weapon, I realized. Gunfire would draw the attention of every guard in the dungeons, but one could stab a man silently. A hand at the mouth would even muffle his death cry. My stomach turned as I imagined it—imagined Yuri capable of such a thing. Even now his dark, unbalanced aura made me twitch and dig my nails into my palms.

We advanced into the dungeons. The corridors seemed a reflection of the mazelike hallways above as they twisted and branched without order. The torchlight was minimal, the sconces spread apart with long patches of blackness between
them. Rodents’ tails occasionally slithered at my ankles, but I swallowed my fright and made myself keep walking. I awaited the moment Anton’s steadfast aura would take hold within me.

“We’re close.” Yuri’s beard scratched my ear as he turned around and whispered. “Wait here while I signal my friend.”

I leaned against the mildewing wall and counted my heartbeats, preparing for another unendurable wait. The growing panic of the residents in the palace started to infiltrate me. Their awareness of the danger and the coming people’s army chafed my skin with icy terror.
I want the peasants to come
, I reasoned with myself as I fought to push the other conflicting emotions away.

“Sonya.” Yuri’s hoarse voice bounced off the stones. “
Now.
We must hurry. Five minutes.” I startled as I felt him at my side. I hadn’t seen him coming in the darkness. He pressed a heavy ring of keys in my hand. “This way.” He set his hand on the small of my back and guided me forward.

We rounded a corner into a pool of torchlight. The stench of the dungeons increased tenfold. A long gallery of cells loomed in the distance. The quiet misery of countless prisoners gripped me and surpassed the terror of the upstairs servants and nobles. The prisoners’ auras held the expected hunger, pain, and affliction—but their energy was weak and without hope. Their collective despondency made me want to lie down and sleep in the rotting straw that littered the floor. It spilled out past the iron bars from what must have been their pitiful beds and refuse heaps. The dreary feeling made me never want to wake
up. What was the use? Who would save me?

A burly guard kept watch and walked away from us down the gallery of cells. When he turned on his heel to pace in our direction, Yuri hurried me to a heavy oak door. Unlocked. We crept inside. The helpless aura of the prisoners abated to the extent I was able to widen my eyes and take in my new surroundings.

The room was split in two, the middle divided by a wall of bars. This place seemed to be a separate, solitary prison for the more dangerous criminals of the empire. My side of the room held two torch sconces and nothing more. The side beyond held two weary friends, who after all their years of plotting a glorious revolution had been led to this miserable fate.

Tosya sat in the far left corner on a bed of fresh straw. It hadn’t mildewed yet as he’d only arrived last night. The intervening time seemed enough to sober him more than I’d ever seen. He had his knees bent to his chest and twirled a piece of straw between his fingers like it was the most precious thing in the world. Like it was the last thing he would ever look upon.

Anton rested against the middle of the wall, his ankles crossed over each other, his aura strangely at peace. He didn’t seem to fear for his life—perhaps due to his confidence in me. Until this moment, he probably thought I was with Valko as the emperor crawled like a subservient dog at my feet. He must have imagined I’d succeeded in the hellish task he’d given me. I hesitated to disturb his calm surety, even for the promise of rescue.

But then Anton saw me. His eyes lifted to roam over my face with wonder. He knew me well enough to see what I couldn’t hide. I
hadn’t
overcome Valko; he’d nearly overcome me. I hadn’t persuaded the emperor to abdicate.

“Sonya.” He sat up from the wall.

The empathy in his gaze undid me. All of the fear and helplessness I’d felt with Valko as he’d tried to force me into submission came back to me now. I’d suppressed it as I fled to Anton like the needle of a compass to north. “I’m sorry,” I said and hovered near the door. “Valko tried to . . . I couldn’t . . .” A sob caught in my throat. “I’m so sorry, Anton.”

A look of sadness crossed his face. Perhaps he was disappointed. Perhaps he simply felt my pain—as if he, for the moment, were the Auraseer. He rose up on his feet with difficulty—had the guards wounded him in their struggle to bring him here?—and came to the barrier between us, to its bolted door. He reached past the bars, and I rushed to him, feeling the warmth of his arms enfold me, despite the cold iron at my chest.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, and pressed a kiss on my head.

I blinked back my emotions as I fought to awaken myself from the spell of his tenderness. “We’ve come to free you.” I pulled away. My hands trembled as I flipped through the keys for a size to match the lock. “Yuri knows one of the guards,” I explained.

Tosya stood and glanced past me. “Yuri? Is that you?”

The soldier came to my side. “Apparently a beard makes me invisible. I should have grown one long ago, but Pia . . .” His voice hitched. He cleared his throat and took the ring of keys. “Let me. Our time is running short.”

As he tried key after key, I looked to Anton and Tosya, my spirits lifting. “The peasants did not wait until tomorrow. They’re marching on the palace as we speak.” When Anton’s face fell, I said reassuringly, “This is
good
. The emperor planned to have you both executed in the morning.”

The prince stepped back and rubbed a hand across his jaw. Tosya quietly studied him, as if he knew what he was thinking. “This
isn’t
good,” Anton replied. “Our lives aren’t worth the deaths of so many. And make no mistake, the casualties will be enormous—no matter which side wins.”

I stared at him in bewilderment. “They’re coming whether you like it or not, and I won’t leave you here if the palace burns. Now is your chance to fight for the dream you’ve given these people!”

“I
have
been fighting, Sonya. For years. But not like this. Not with gunpowder and sabers. If that is the dream I gave, I want no part of it.”

“Will you not even defend yourself?” His obstinate idealism made me want to reach through the bars and shake him.

“Hush, you two!” Yuri struggled with another key. “You’ll alert the guards and—” His words fell silent as he put all his strength into turning the lock. His fingers went white. His veins bulged at the temple. But it was no use. “Damn!” He hit the
barred door. The noise rang through the chamber with greater volume than that of my or Anton’s voice. “None of these fit.”

I gaped at him. “Well, then go and tell your friend he fetched the wrong set.”

“This is the only set, the only ring! Don’t you understand? The jail master doesn’t have the key.”

The weak fabric of hope holding me together threatened to rend at the seams. “Then we must find it.”

“If he doesn’t have it, no one in the dungeons does.” Yuri paced away and kicked up the straw. He left the last key jammed in the lock.

“Valko has them,” Anton said, looking at all of us with grim acceptance. “He must. It makes perfect sense. He’s sought to have me imprisoned for ages. Now that he’s succeeded, he won’t trust anyone one else with the means of releasing me. He’s too suspicious of his own people—too worried, in the end, of their loyalty to him.”

My stomach hardened into stone with the heavy weight of dread. “I must return to the emperor.”

“No, Sonya,” Anton said resolutely. “I won’t ask that of you.” Tosya kept his lips sealed and lowered his eyes, entrusting his fate to his friend.

“I must. I won’t leave you here! What if the revolution doesn’t succeed?”

“It’s going to succeed.” Yuri broadened his chest. “And you needn’t worry about the emperor. Just grant me access, and I will finish him. I won’t fail this time.”

Despite the desperation of the moment, the urgency, and the blood rushing through my veins, I felt a darkness in Yuri. And I recognized it—its snakelike writhing in my gut. I’d also felt it the night of the ball, when I was sure someone meant to kill Valko. But Yuri never tried to kill him then—never
failed
at that time—only plotted. What failure, then, was he referring to? Suddenly understanding dawned on me, as crystal clear as the goblet Yuri must have tainted. “You killed the dowager empress,” I gasped.

Yuri’s mouth fell open. His eyes flew wide, darting to Anton. “What are you speaking of?”

“You tried to kill the emperor before, by poison,” I said. “You evaded Izolda by using Pia.” The mystery unfolded before me like a row of painted murals. “The sovereign Auraseer would never have detected an unknowing girl’s involvement. You wouldn’t have told Pia, of course. She was too pure to ever consider being your accomplice. But it would have been simple enough—perhaps something laced in the herbs of the emperor’s tea. You could have dropped it in while kissing Pia in the kitchens. Of course, you would have made sure to be far away when it was administered, so Izolda wouldn’t sniff you out. But you still failed. The empress consumed what was meant for her son.”

“This is absurd!” Yuri shifted backward. His neck and ears flushed red.

“She was with me,” Anton said, more to himself than anyone else. “My mother had taken up the custom of bidding me
good night to make up for all the times she couldn’t. After she spoke with me, she went to see Valko. I was on the verge of sleep when I heard shouts to summon a physician. I ran into Valko’s room and . . . I was with him when our mother drew her last breath.” The tendons of his throat contracted as his eyes flashed to Yuri. “Tell me you didn’t do this.”