It took several tries to figure out how to use Casimir's paper bird. Unfolding it was not enough; she had to toss it aloft so its wings caught the air, which was tricky with lead manacles binding her wrists. Eventually Jane managed, and the paper bird vanished.
She sat back to wait.
Minutes ticked by—anxious, nail-biting minutes. Would Casimir come at all? Did he hate her for failing her godstest after he'd spent so many hours teaching her? She had almost given up hope that he would appear, when a shimmer of magic lit the air.
"Casimir!"
Jane leaped to her feet but stopped dead as he stepped into the light.
Casimir's hands were bloody; his eyes looked exhausted, haunted and grim. Jane wondered how long it had been since he'd slept. He glanced at his hands, then flicked the blood off with a quick spell and hugged her carefully.
"It's good to see you," he said, and Jane thought he meant it. "Kir told me about your imprisonment. I'm sorry I haven't visited before this. I should have come."
"It's all right, Casimir."
Had Casimir been tending soldiers in the infirmary this whole time? No wonder he hadn't visited her. He needed every scrap of magic he could muster, and teleporting in and out of her cell was not the best use of his energy.
"What's happening outside?" said Jane.
"The sudok are near the palace gates." Casimir's mouth twisted. "Ironically, until the fighting ends, you might be safest in this cell..."
"No," said Jane. "No, I am not safer down here — I need to get out. I need to talk to the tsar. Nikolay has betrayed us, and the tsar needs to know—"
"Nikolay," said Casimir blankly.
"He set the Kanachskiy prisoner free. He told me so, half an hour ago, right here in this cell. Nikolay set the prisoner free so he could carry a message to Zakhar — a message containing the secret spell protecting Dalnushka. He's the reason the sudok got in and everyone died. He did it because the Kanachskiy agreed to give him a potion that would break his Oath-spell — flowerfire or some such—"
"Fireflower."
Jane nodded.
Casimir sucked in a breath. "The spells on Dalnushka are similar to the spells on the palace."
"He'll give those up too, if it means breaking his Oath-spell."
Casimir's face was pale. "I have to tell the tsar. Wait here."
"Set me free first."
"You're safer down here."
Jane shook her head. "Nikolay knows where I am. He already stole my magic—"
"He what?"
"—and he knows that I know what he did."
She didn't want to think about how angry Nikolay would be if he found out she'd contacted Casimir. Would he kill her? Destroy the evidence against him? He'd had no qualms about causing the deaths of thousands of innocents in Dalnushka...
"You can bring me to any other pit cell," Jane offered. "Just — don't leave me in this one — not until Nikolay's in jail..."
Casimir leaned forward. Silver magic flickered across her manacles, probing the keyholes. Jane saw Casimir's brow furrow, saw sweat bead across his temple. At last, with a 'pop!', her manacles sprang open.
Casimir grabbed her hand. When the whirling, twisting nothingness had dissipated, they were in Casimir's quarters.
"I will relay what you've told me to the tsar," he said. "Stay here. Do not leave these rooms."
He teleported away in a swish of silver magic.
And Jane was left waiting again.
She paced back and forth across the tiled floor, glaring at the potted plants. She desperately needed a bath. She'd been wearing her nightgown for two days, the same gown she'd had on when the battle mages arrested her, and it was really starting to itch.
The walls of Casimir's rooms, while infinitely more pleasant than the walls of the pit cell, still felt oppressive. She wanted to get out, to see what the damage was, to learn what was happening in the rest of the palace.
Where was Casimir? Half an hour must have passed already. Had he given her news to the tsar? Or had he been called back to the healers' wing?
Frustrated, she stared out the window. Chaos reigned outside. People scurried to and fro — soldiers, servants, nobles, peasants. A herd of goats grazed obstinately in the courtyard, ignoring the people tripping past. It seemed the palace now sheltered villagers from the surrounding towns, along with all their livestock.
In the distance, beyond the castle walls, wyverns swooped against a stormy sky. Flashes of magic lit the clouds, brilliant and silver like lightning. Jane squinted, but the battle was too far away, and Casimir's rooms too low, to make out much more of the battle. Until out of nowhere, a black shape leaped into view, clamped its jaws around a wyvern's throat, and dragged it down.
Jane shuddered.
The sudok were durable — that was what made them terrifying. It took the concentrated fire of ten battle mages to kill just one. And from what Jane had seen at Lanskoye, training fire on a sudok was nearly impossible when the creatures were constantly moving — ducking and leaping and twisting away.
Was there really no other way to destroy them?
A thought itched at the back of her mind — a vision — a memory — The smell of brimstone and fire, the heat of scales, and blue, blue eyes that threatened to swallow her.
The dragon, the dragon had mentioned sudok, during those agonizing minutes in her cave. She'd told Jane — what had she said again? Your kind are almost as weak-willed as the sudok, and twice as fun to control...
Jane's heart beat faster.
If dragons could control sudok, a human using a dragon's egg potion should also have that power. Hadn't Casimir said potions made from magical beasts gave you the qualities of their bearer? Of course, if this were universally true, a dragon's egg potion would also give people the ability to breathe fire, so Jane couldn't be sure the potion would let them control the sudok.
But wasn't it worth a shot?
Nikolay had made dragon's egg potion. She'd seen that cauldron bubbling each time she visited his workroom. Maybe she could...
Restlessly, she paced the confines of the room. Casimir had told her to stay put. But what if something had happened to him? What if he'd run into Nikolay, or been arrested for freeing her from prison? By her estimate, it had been forty-five minutes, and he hadn't even sent a message...
And if she was right, and they could use this potion to defeat the sudok...
Jane hesitated — and then, hoping desperately that she was doing the right thing, she scrawled a quick note for Casimir, turned the handle on his door...
...and let herself out.
The palace halls were almost as chaotic as the courtyard. Jane was grateful for the crush of bodies; no one noticed the short woman in a shabby nightgown hurrying toward her chambers. Thankfully, the usually temperamental palace didn't give her as much trouble as usual with directions. Jane wondered if the castle sensed her urgency, or if it was so overwhelmed at the sudden influx of people that it had ceased being coy.
To her relief, her rooms were as she'd left them. She swapped her nightgown for an old Rider's outfit, then dug the kladenet from the drawer where she'd stashed it. A knife strapped to her arm completed the ensemble. Jane hesitated and then stripped the rope from the long curtains that lined her windows. She had a feeling she might need it.
She flipped through her potions book until she reached the section on dragon-derived potions. The book had a few details on how to use a potion of control, but it did not say if the potion worked on sudok. Jane made a mental note of how to use the potion — "Mix a few drops of your blood into the potionne, and throw it in the eyes of the personne you wish to control."
She closed the book and hurried out.
The rush of people ebbed as she neared Nikolay's solar. After the crowds below, the tower stairs seemed eerily deserted.
Heart hammering, she pressed an ear to the door to Nikolay's solar. Pain stung her skin almost immediately, and she jerked back with a grimace.
She strained her ears, searching for signs of life within the room, but heard only silence.
He's not here, she told herself bracingly. He's probably at a war council, or fighting in battle, or at some top-secret, nefarious meeting, slipping critical information to the enemy... I've just got to sneak in, take the dragon's egg potion, and leave before he gets back.
She tried the handle and was unsurprised to find it locked. Even prodding it with the kladenet did little good.
It was time for Plan B.
Jane opened the window, unloosed the rope from her arms, and tied it several times around the wrought iron fixture at the base of the tower roof. She tested her weight against it to make sure it held.
Then she secured the rope around her waist and eased herself onto the thin outcropping of rock that encircled the tower.
Wind whipped her hair, driving it into her eyes. Scattered raindrops froze her fingers. Jane ignored them as best she could and pressed forward, hugging the rock. At least her arms didn't shake as badly as they had the last time she'd found herself outside Nikolay's tower.
Even on the windiest days, Nikolay always left one small window cracked for the azdaja to fly in and out. Today, luck was with her, and he had left the first window ajar. Jane was about to congratulate herself, when the low rumble of voices reached her ears.
Jane froze. Her hands tightened on the rock.
The voices were low, male, tense. Jane heard Nikolay speak in harsh tones; the other voice struck a chord in her memory, but she couldn't recall where she'd heard it before...
Praying they wouldn't see her, Jane edged closer. The breeze carried snippets of conversation to her through the window.
"...must say, I'm surprised. And then again, not."
"You will deal with me from now on. I hope that is satisfactory, seeing as how I was the one you wished to contact in the first place."
"It will serve. I have your payment. Do you have the spell I asked for?"
Heart pounding, Jane summoned the last dregs of her magic to conceal herself and peered through the window.
The first thing she noticed was that the dragon's egg potion was gone. The cauldron still stood atop its customary brazier, but it was empty, its insides polished to gleaming. Jane glanced in consternation toward the shelves at the back of the room. Could the potion be in one of those drawers?
Nikolay and his visitor stood on opposite sides of the room. Nikolay moved with a cool aloofness that Jane sensed masked deep anger. His visitor wore midnight robes that swept to the floor. As he turned, Jane caught a glimpse his profile and flinched.
Zakhar again.
With dread, Jane saw that a small vial dangled from Zakhar's fingers. It was bright and glittered red, like liquid rubies.
As Jane watched, torn over her next move, something heavy slithered across her shoulder.
-v-
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