The Armies of Heaven (10 page)

“And I didn’t almost leave you.” Belphagor kissed his throat, as high as he could reach without pulling Vasily’s head down or pushing him to his knees, and whispered against his skin. “I will never leave you. I thought you were leaving me, and I was being a fool once more and letting you go. But I have no intention of doing
that
ever again, either.”

With Vasily’s defenses down, it took him completely by surprise when Belphagor grabbed his locks at the crown and twisted, spinning him onto one knee.

Stepping in and pinning the leg with his boot, Belphagor forced Vasily to look up at him, his face the hard stone that made Vasily’s spine tingle—among other things. “You are to trust me,
malchik
.
Ponimayesh
?” He loosened his grip just enough to let Vasily nod. “I will never do anything to hurt you. That we haven’t agreed on.” The addition of the last phrase made Vasily weak with need. A slight smile crept into the dark glint of Belphagor’s eyes. “And if you ever pee on me again, Vasya…so help me, I’m going to make you sorry in a way you
won’t
like.”

§

Kirill lay awake beside Love after he’d sinned with her again. She’d fallen asleep with a smile on her face, snuggled against him, her curls damp against her temple and forehead. He felt himself blush at the thought of what had put the smile on her face and caused her to work up such a sweat. He’d known nothing at all about a woman’s body before except the shape of it.

He could see now why St. Pavel had warned men so of temptations of the flesh. Once tasted, he knew he could never resist her again if he stayed. And he wanted to stay. He wanted not to resist her, to give himself over to depravity for her. He would take eternal damnation for the chance to lie in sin with her. But this, more than anything, was why he must leave. He had promised the angel of light he’d follow the path set before him and find the children. He might have waited to part with Love until their paths diverged, but each minute with her made the leaving harder.

He’d written her a note, using his poor angelic to scrounge pen and ink from one of the Virtues, but nothing he could say was adequate. He placed the note next to her and tucked the blanket around her, and she rolled over without waking. Kirill kissed her forehead lightly, then kissed her again on the cheek and temple and nearly woke her before making himself stop.

“
Da svedanya, maya
Lyuba,” he whispered, and set out to find the angel’s path.

Sedmaya
: Iriy

from the memoirs of the Grand Duchess Anazakia Helisonovna of the House of Arkhangel’sk

A light shower had begun sometime in the night, and by morning, the camp was awash in mud. The fire had fizzled out, but Vasily was keeping a kettle of water hot with his hand against it. I made myself a cup of Aravothan tea while the Virtues darted about breaking up camp, looking like silvery drops of rain.

I couldn’t stop thinking of what Misha had told me about Azel. Helga had captured my brother’s shade as he died and somehow forced it into my sister’s child. It gave me a terrible feeling, as if both of them had been obscenely violated.

The syla believed the flower of the fern had only recently given her enough power to accomplish it. This corroborated what Lively told me when I’d questioned her about whether she’d known about Azel. If Helga had been keeping him with her, Lively hadn’t been aware of it, but her aunt had acquired her newfound power among the Party just weeks before ordering Ola’s abduction. It had apparently been some time before Helga had tapped into the magic of the bloom after taking it from me.

Love appeared outside the makeshift mess tent, walking with her head down, but at a glance from her it was clear there was something other than rain on her cheeks.

I held out my hand. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Kirill left.” She handed me a note. “He’s got some crazy idea in his head he’s meant to go alone to save Ola and the little boy.” She paused. “I don’t mean crazy. He’s just…a little confused.”

“He’s gone to Arcadia?” I frowned as I looked over the note. “They definitely weren’t in Arcadia. I’ve been there, visiting my mother’s family. The palace I saw in my dream was completely different. I wish he’d waited and just talked to us.”

“I think he was ashamed of what we’d done.” Love looked miserable. “It’s my fault.”

I tried to hide my surprise. “You mean you hadn’t before?” Lively had given us both charms against pregnancy some time ago, so I’d just assumed.

Love shook her head as if she didn’t trust her voice.

I put a comforting hand on her arm. “We’ll send someone after him. We’ll find him.”

“You read the note. He doesn’t want to be found. He believes he’s doing God’s work.” She sighed. “I think we should leave him be, Nazkia. I think this is the only way he can live with himself. I can’t take his last sense of purpose from him. Knowing me has destroyed him.”

“That isn’t true,” I insisted. “He loves you.”

“I know he does.” Love’s voice fell to a whisper. “That’s what destroyed him.”

We rode for Iriy in the drizzling rain. Perhaps because of the weather, we were greeted with little fanfare as we trudged over muddy ruts past a peculiar mix of farmland, humble cottages, and the sprawling summer homes of the nobility. The rain didn’t let up until the morning we reached Iriy proper.

We entered the city looking filthy and ragged after twenty days on the road, the last five through mud, and I tried to maintain my dignity and project authority as the curious citizens of Iriy lined the streets to see the duchess who dared to defy Queen Aeval. It wasn’t the joyous welcome we’d received in the countryside.

As we neared what had once been the palace of the grand duke of Iriy—the last of whom had been Kae himself—a small battalion of the Iriyan Mounted Guard came out to meet us, brilliant in rich maroon uniforms with braids of gold trim. Though officially they were part of the Supernal Army, Iriy maintained its own armed forces, called upon by the principality when needed to defend the Firmament.

This was a pivotal moment in our campaign; if they chose to stand against us as the queen’s representatives, our fight would begin in earnest today. As we’d hoped, it appeared the bulk of their forces had gone with Aeval to Aravoth. Nonetheless, they could give my limited retinue more than a fair fight.

The Captain of the Guard rode out ahead of his men on the square, and though Margarita cautioned me, I rode forward alone to meet him. The captain looked me over. He was an older gentleman, past the celestial state of grace, of the order of Archangels by his insignia.

“You have entered the Celestial Duchy of Iriy, subject and protectorate of Her Supernal Majesty Aeval, Queen and Autocrat of All the Heavens.” The stern and formal address was not a good sign. “By whose authority do you enter?”

I screwed up my courage, though I felt like sinking into the ground. “By my own. I am the Grand Duchess Anazakia Helisonovna of the House of Arkhangel’sk, the rightful heir to the throne of the Firmament of Shehaqim and All the Heavens.” This was the first legal declaration of my claim to the throne, and I hoped he couldn’t see me trembling beneath the heavy brigandine. Kae had urged me to wear it from the day we started out, but it had seemed excessive. Today, I thought, it might at least give me an air of authority, and managed to cover some of the grime that coated me. I’d made certain all my men were equally attired and ready for battle if need be.

Instead of responding to the challenge, the captain seemed visibly shaken. “So it’s true.” His voice was full of emotion. He dismounted his horse and knelt on one knee on the cobblestones, removing his plumed helmet and bowing his head. “The Iriyan Mounted Guard is at your service, Your Supernal Highness.”

I let out the ragged breath I’d been holding, almost giddy with relief and gratitude. “Please rise. I’m grateful for your loyalty, Captain…”

“Iaoth.” Still holding his helmet at his side, he stood studying me as if he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. “The Ereline Palace is at your disposal, Your Supernal Highness, should you wish to lodge your men there for the night.”

I inclined my head. “Thank you, Captain Iaoth. But we plan to press on toward Elysium.”

“If I may speak freely, Your Supernal Highness.”

“Please.”

“It looks as if your men could use a rest and a dry bed. I believe it would do them good and leave them better prepared for what awaits them at Elysium. And I dare say your horses could use the rest as well.”

I surveyed the troops, the proud Virtues gracefully sitting their mounts as if they were not splattered with mud, their magnificent queues of hair in disarray and dull. It would certainly present a more formidable picture if we entered Elysium in the full glory of the Virtuous Army. I noticed Lively holding her belly and leaning against Love, and I suffered a pang of guilt at dragging her on this long march, though she’d been perfectly happy to come.

I sighed and acquiesced. “Your counsel is well received, Captain Iaoth.” I turned my horse and signaled them. “We will hold here for today.”

Once our horses had been seen to, I walked with Captain Iaoth as we entered the palace. It felt strange to find myself here. I hadn’t set foot in this place since I was a young child visiting my uncle Lebes.

“Who occupies the palace?” I asked him. “I don’t want to put anyone out.”

“No one, Your Supernal Highness. There has been no one here but the staff since the Grand Duke Lebes died.”

“Were you here then?”

Iaoth nodded. “It was an unhappy time…preceding a more unhappy time.” He looked sidelong at me. “I served your uncle for many years, Your Supernal Highness. I remember you as a child in pigtails. I gave you candy once, and it gave you a bellyache.”

I laughed. “Yes, that sounds familiar. Usually, I was stealing sweets from Nurse—” I stopped, overcome with sudden fury at the thought of Helga.

“Are you all right?” He touched my arm with concern.

“Are you aware of the rebellion? The Social Liberation Party?”

He scowled. “All too aware. They’ve been making trouble here for months. But you’re not— I mean, they’ve put forth a different heir. You’re not the leader of that party?”

“No, I am not,” I said vehemently. “My former nurse Helga Semyazovna is their leader, and she has stolen my daughter, Ola.”

The captain regarded me with a look of shock and disbelief. “Your nurse?”

“She has also stolen my nephew, taken in a most vile assault upon my sister before her death,” I told him grimly. “The heir she’s put forth she has no right to represent. He is her prisoner.” My face must have gone white with anger.

Iaoth led me to a chair in the salon we had stopped outside. “I’ve never heard of such a thing in my life.” He shook his head. “And your daughter. We’d heard there was a child, but I hadn’t learned her name. It was the Grand Duchess Omeliea Helisonovna’s nickname, was it not?”

I nodded, preoccupied with the wave of anger that had ridden over me.

“I never saw four more lovely sisters,” he said with a fond, sad smile. “All of Heaven was devastated by the tragedy. And I never for a moment believed the rumors about you, Your Supernal Highness. That you could have killed all those you loved. Impossible.”

I thought about those words later as I lay waiting for sleep after a blessedly hot bath and a fine meal. I’d insisted on sleeping alone, not wanting to give the servants at the Ereline Palace any appearance of impropriety, and Vasily, I believed, was glad to have the time alone with Belphagor. As I stared up at the ceiling in the grand room that had been prepared for me, my mind seemed too full, too agitated to rest.
Impossible
, Iaoth had said. Yet Kae had done it. He’d killed everyone he loved.

I thought of the dream I’d had of Aeval poisoning his mind before the murders. If I’d dreamt the truth, it wasn’t, as I’d imagined, that he’d simply done her bidding because she’d enchanted him. She’d driven him mad first with her cruel lies, painting pictures for him—like moving pictures in the world of Man—that had seemed more real than his own life. She had preyed upon his fears and insecurities, upon his darkest thoughts. Could it have happened to any one of us? Could I have killed the ones I loved if my heart and mind had been filled with poison?

For the first time since the murders, I let myself think of Kae not in terms of what he’d done or what he’d become, or even the friend for whom I grieved, but as a man, lost and troubled. He was like the survivor of a devastating accident, coming slowly back to himself, and what had I done? Reminded him continually of who he’d been and could be no longer, and of the darkness from which he’d returned.

My cheeks damp with tears, I drifted off at last to dream of sitting on the bluff over the Gihon Valley where Kae and I had stopped to let the horses graze on our strained ride. Kae lay with his head in my lap, no mask or scars—no physical signs of the trauma he’d suffered but the tears trailing his cheeks. My sister’s words came back to me:
Be kind to him. It hurts so to hear him weeping.

I brushed my fingers through the pale golden waves at his temple and leaned down. “Don’t be sad,” I whispered. I kissed him and woke with a start.

After a sumptuous breakfast of poached eggs on crusty toast, flat cakes with currant jelly that reminded me of Russian
blinchiki
, smoked ham and sausages of every description, and an abundance of fresh berries, Iaoth approached me with a deep, reverential bow.

“If I might have a word, Your Supernal Highness.”

I rose and followed him to a nearby sitting room to discover Vasily waiting there for us.

“I’ve discussed the matter with your…friend.” His gaze flitted hesitantly toward Vasily.

“His Supernal Highness the Grand Duke Vasily of the House of Arcadia,” I filled in.

Iaoth gaped at me, turning red. “I beg Your Supernal Highness’s pardon.” He bowed nervously to Vasily. “I didn’t realize…”

“Why should you?” Vasily glared at me, profoundly uncomfortable with his newfound nobility. “Please. Forget the formalities. Just Vasily will do.”

The captain straightened awkwardly and cleared his throat as he addressed me. “I would like to offer the services of the Iriyan Mounted Guard to His Supernal Highness in retrieving the Grand Duchess Ola Vasilyevna and the Grand Duke Azel Kaeyevich.”

I looked to Vasily in surprise.

“I’d like to go with them, Nazkia. Bel’s still set on his mysterious little ‘side trip’ to the world of Man, and I need to do something. I’m not a soldier, and I’m not a strategist. You don’t need me in Elysium. But if I can find Ola— I just can’t stand the thought of Helga keeping her like an animal in a hole!” His eyes had gone red with anger, and Iaoth looked a bit alarmed.

“Of course I need you.” I pressed his hand, and our aether fluttered for a moment, further startling the captain. “But Ola needs you more.” I nodded to our host. “We’d be very grateful, Captain Iaoth.”

He tore his gaze away from our hands. “You should know, Your Supernal Highness, the offer is not entirely altruistic. While I support your bid for the throne, to be perfectly blunt, your success seems tenuous at best with only five hundred men. If I were to pledge the Guard in helping you to take Elysium and fail…” He paused, his cheeks pink.

“I see.” With a glance at Vasily, who obviously hadn’t revealed that we had another thirty-five hundred men behind us, I nodded to the captain. “Thank you for your honesty.”

“Since the Social Liberation Party is an avowed enemy of the queen,” he went on, “our involvement in apprehending them would not be seen as treasonous, no matter the outcome of your endeavor. And if I can bring home your little girl, I will at least feel I have been loyal to the rightful queen of Heaven.”

I tightened my grip on Vasily’s hand. “And you’ll be with Ola. If I cannot make it back to her.”

He reproved me gruffly. “Don’t say that.”

I kissed him on the cheek above his rough patch of beard, trying to suppress the sudden longing his scent inspired. As before, when we’d traveled from the world of Man intent on taking Ola back from her captors, the journey to this point might have marked our last hours together. I wished now I’d taken him to my bed and damned the consequences. Perhaps I wouldn’t have had such peculiar dreams.

The door closed behind me. Iaoth had quietly excused himself.

Vasily’s eyes smoldered at the heat in mine and he lifted me off my feet and carried me to the couch. “We don’t have time for much,” he growled.

“I don’t need time. I need you inside me.”

I’d never seen him unlace himself faster. I’d come down to breakfast in a dressing gown while I waited for my uniform to be pressed, and Vasily threw the skirt out of his way and pulled me onto his lap as he fell back against the cushions. I bit his shoulder to keep from crying out as his heat spread me open, and Vasily pressed me down with his hands at my waist. When I raised my head, he pushed open the collar of the gown and dipped me back to lower his mouth to my breast, tugging at it hungrily, his warm tongue making my breath come in gasps.