Read Online The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges - Free Book Online
Authors: Robin Bridges
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mountains stretched out before us, the rich farmlands disappearing into the distance.
When night fell and the view outside the window darkened, everyone climbed into their sleeping berths. The swaying of the train lulled me to sleep and I dreamed I was back at the Livadia Ball. I dreamed that I was searching the ballroomfor George Alexandrovich. I wandered in and out between hundreds of dancing couples as the orchestra played a polonaise from the opera
A Life for the Tsar
. But I could not find George anywhere.
A man grabbed my arm, digging his fingers painfully into my skin. I turned around but the man was wearing a black mask. He was much taller than George, but nowhere near as tall as the tsar.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The man smiled; his white teeth were dazzling and sharp. “Your life will be in less danger if you do not know, Duchess. You have been poking around where you should not be.”
The man had a French accent, but did not look like the wizard Papus. He was much taller and his movements were far too graceful and quick. Almost unnatural. Before I realized what he was doing, he had swept me up into the crowd and we were dancing the polonaise. “The Koldun is keeping his eye on you,” he said. “He believes you are a danger to the tsar.”
I was confused. The Koldun was the tsar’s own wizard. George was in training to replace the existing one. Who that was, I did not know.
I raised my chin and stared into his black eyes. “I can assure you, and you can assure your Koldun, I will give my life to protect the tsar.”
He chuckled. “That would be a terrible waste,
ma petite
.”
A sudden chill gripped my heart. “What do you mean?”
The masked man did not answer but instead spun me away from him as the music swelled. I found myself unable to stop spinning. The ballroom turned into a huge blur.
I woke up with a gasp. The train was rocking gently as itraced through the dark Crimean night. My mother was asleep in the berth next to me. At some point she had covered me with a thin blanket, but I was shivering. I could still hear the masked man’s laughter in my ears.
Maman shifted and moaned softly in her sleep. The train berths were small and cramped, but our car was much more comfortable than others. I had no right to complain. Taking my blanket and wrapping it around my shoulders, I climbed out of my berth and stood at the window. The sky was beginning to lighten, and by sunrise, we would be passing through Kharkov. I dressed quietly and slipped out of our compartment and headed to the dining car. A cup of hot tea would clear my head.
It was near Kharkov that the imperial train had run off the track last autumn. Twenty-one people on the train had died in the crash, and many more than that had been injured. Officially, the train had been going too fast and the engineer had lost control.
I’d heard whispers from the Dark Court that the train had been sabotaged by vampires. But even an army of vampires could not have accomplished such destruction. In my heart, I suspected dark magic, and remembered Grand Duchess Miechen’s express disappointment when the imperial family survived. She did not hide the fact that she wished for her husband, the brother of the tsar, Vladimir Alexandrovich, to inherit the throne of all the Russias. Was she cruel enough to plot the murders of her own nieces and nephews?
It would have taken much more than any man-made explosive to blow the imperial train completely off its track. The tsar had been forced to tear the crumpled metal roof withhis own hands to free the empress and their children. The empress had a sprained hand, and Grand Duchess Xenia had had cuts and scratches on her face and arms. The youngest, Grand Duchess Olga, had been thrown clear through a broken window. The young grand dukes had been badly bruised but were all right. I’d seen the faint scar on George’s hand where the glass had cut him.
Shaking the awful images from my head, I slipped into
When night fell and the view outside the window darkened, everyone climbed into their sleeping berths. The swaying of the train lulled me to sleep and I dreamed I was back at the Livadia Ball. I dreamed that I was searching the ballroomfor George Alexandrovich. I wandered in and out between hundreds of dancing couples as the orchestra played a polonaise from the opera
A Life for the Tsar
. But I could not find George anywhere.
A man grabbed my arm, digging his fingers painfully into my skin. I turned around but the man was wearing a black mask. He was much taller than George, but nowhere near as tall as the tsar.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The man smiled; his white teeth were dazzling and sharp. “Your life will be in less danger if you do not know, Duchess. You have been poking around where you should not be.”
The man had a French accent, but did not look like the wizard Papus. He was much taller and his movements were far too graceful and quick. Almost unnatural. Before I realized what he was doing, he had swept me up into the crowd and we were dancing the polonaise. “The Koldun is keeping his eye on you,” he said. “He believes you are a danger to the tsar.”
I was confused. The Koldun was the tsar’s own wizard. George was in training to replace the existing one. Who that was, I did not know.
I raised my chin and stared into his black eyes. “I can assure you, and you can assure your Koldun, I will give my life to protect the tsar.”
He chuckled. “That would be a terrible waste,
ma petite
.”
A sudden chill gripped my heart. “What do you mean?”
The masked man did not answer but instead spun me away from him as the music swelled. I found myself unable to stop spinning. The ballroom turned into a huge blur.
I woke up with a gasp. The train was rocking gently as itraced through the dark Crimean night. My mother was asleep in the berth next to me. At some point she had covered me with a thin blanket, but I was shivering. I could still hear the masked man’s laughter in my ears.
Maman shifted and moaned softly in her sleep. The train berths were small and cramped, but our car was much more comfortable than others. I had no right to complain. Taking my blanket and wrapping it around my shoulders, I climbed out of my berth and stood at the window. The sky was beginning to lighten, and by sunrise, we would be passing through Kharkov. I dressed quietly and slipped out of our compartment and headed to the dining car. A cup of hot tea would clear my head.
It was near Kharkov that the imperial train had run off the track last autumn. Twenty-one people on the train had died in the crash, and many more than that had been injured. Officially, the train had been going too fast and the engineer had lost control.
I’d heard whispers from the Dark Court that the train had been sabotaged by vampires. But even an army of vampires could not have accomplished such destruction. In my heart, I suspected dark magic, and remembered Grand Duchess Miechen’s express disappointment when the imperial family survived. She did not hide the fact that she wished for her husband, the brother of the tsar, Vladimir Alexandrovich, to inherit the throne of all the Russias. Was she cruel enough to plot the murders of her own nieces and nephews?
It would have taken much more than any man-made explosive to blow the imperial train completely off its track. The tsar had been forced to tear the crumpled metal roof withhis own hands to free the empress and their children. The empress had a sprained hand, and Grand Duchess Xenia had had cuts and scratches on her face and arms. The youngest, Grand Duchess Olga, had been thrown clear through a broken window. The young grand dukes had been badly bruised but were all right. I’d seen the faint scar on George’s hand where the glass had cut him.
Shaking the awful images from my head, I slipped into
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