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suggesting I shouldn’t try? Wouldn’t
you want … would not you hope someone would look for you, my
lady?”
    “I’m suggesting that even if you survived the
quest, and I must tell you, they know you are coming. These traders
aren’t interested in love, only the cost and physics of it. It’s a
commodity of the trade. Your Crimson is undoubtedly a conscript of
a distant court by now. But maybe most important of all, and this
is something you should consider. It’s possible you wouldn’t find
the Crimson you fell in love with.”
    “You mean the trade is about sex?” Viktor’s
eyes blanked over.
    Sophia could see his heart drop into this
stomach so she decided to ignore his question.
    Viktor felt anger tremble through him. “How
could you let this be?”
    “It has always been. Many women find
excitement in the tales, the possibility of being taken.”
    “Then my lady, I feel sorry for you and your
court. Shame your reputation is that of an idealist, a pursuer of
love. I think in some way you are more of a coward than the
deserters we have in the stockade.”
    “Tic, tic, tic. Such strong words, such
strong emotions, all founded in immaturity. You speak as if my
choices were easy. Trust me. The alternative, marriage of
arrangement would’ve been far easier—my reputation is well deserved
and has cost me much.”
    She grasped Viktor’s cheeks in her hands and
looked him deep in the eyes, “Answer me this and I will overlook
your derision and spare your head this day. Why did you use the
word betray earlier?”
    “Because I’ve never known of Kieran or the
trade and you’ve known all this time. You should’ve warned me and I
would’ve protected Crimson.”
    Viktor collected the diamond necklace from
his pocket and held it in his palm so Sophia could see it. “If I
had known, I would’ve given her a silver cross rather than this
useless diamond necklace.”
    Sophia placed her hand on his shoulder,
walked behind him, and whispered in his ear, “I see. Crimson knew
too, did she betray you? She knew of the trade and marveled at the
tales we would tell. Her skin would blush and her bosom would match
the beats of her excited heart. She would implore for more and more
details.”
    Viktor’s face twisted and then turned blank.
“Crimson knew?”
    “Yes. Ah, there it is. Betrayal is never
unblemished, is it? It’s pitted with all those little lies, those
little omissions over time. Everyone slants betrayal as if it’s an
abrupt act, as if it all of a sudden happened—it doesn’t, Viktor.
It’s a slow drift that accumulates like the snow on our mountains
up north. Sometimes it feels like betrayal when it isn’t betrayal
at all. Even now you don’t consider Crimson to have betrayed and
that is the reason I asked you that question.”
    Sophia was back in front of him. “I’m the
only one you can trust. I’m the one who knows more about your
pursuit than you or anyone else. You can stand here and cleverly
mask your judgments of me, or you can shut your reckless mouth,
open your ears, and listen. Whichever, it’s your choice.”
    And so it began.
    Viktor didn’t say a word as he was coached in
the ways of the trade, told what he would face if he did, in fact,
make it to the auction house in Pinsk, Poland. His predispositions
were obvious, however, when she suggested his course of action
should be to head to Finland. She insisted that he and his two
guards’ stopover in Nyberg, but knew Viktor had little interest.
Sophia molded the young man for his battle as best she could.
    She took considerable time to interview two
guards, when convinced they would die for the young nobleman she
assigned them the task of guardian. She then collected enough krona
for the long trip across the Baltic, Finland and Poland and wrote a
decree to the slayer in Nyberg: Train these men in all manners of
extermination of the dark creatures of the night.
    Viktor thanked her as he took the krona and
decree. He handed the decree