The Russian Cage Read online

  “No, he does not. But why you did it is another matter, and why you happened to be so conveniently on the spot to do it is yet another matter.”

  “A seer told me to be there,” I said. “I asked how I could draw attention to Eli’s dilemma, and the seer told me to be on the spot. I didn’t know what would happen, only that I had to be ready to act. If I’d been there by accident, I would have done exactly the same thing.”

  The spell seemed to be wearing off, because Lilias Abramova was able to raise her eyebrows. “What seer?” she asked.

  “Does it make a difference? I did what I was told to do. There I was. Caroline’s life was spared. I was able to help Eli and his family.”

  “I’m going to sit up now,” she said. “Do you object?”

  “No,” Felix said. He was smiling.

  I held out my hand to help her, and after looking at it for a second, she took it.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “I’m Lizbeth Rose from Texoma. I’m a gunnie.”

  She made a face like I’d given her an answer in baby talk. “Why are you here?” Lilias Abramova said. “In the Holy Russian Empire? Instead of back in Fleabag, Texoma?”

  “I have worked with Eli a lot,” I said. “I heard he needed some help. I came.”

  “Who’s paying you?” she asked.

  A few different answers were in my throat, but out of them all, I picked, “I don’t see that as being any of your business.”

  “Do you not?” She was definitely mocking me. I don’t enjoy that any more than the next person, but I know who I am and what I’m capable of doing. Since we were giving each other steely glares, I raised her one.

  “So Captain McMurtry, the tsarina’s attaché, took it on himself to find out why the tsarina’s life was saved by someone besides himself? Let’s move this conversation along, Lilias. Felix and I haven’t got all day, though you seem to.”

  “Oh? What are you doing next? Going to the zoo?”

  “I been,” I said, for what seemed like the tenth time. “I didn’t like it. I got to go make my phone call, Felix. You okay?”

  “I am.” Felix wasn’t taking his eyes off our visitor, though.

  This time I made it down the hall and into the phone booth with my coins, dialed the school, got Tom O’Day again, and was glad to hear that the school agreed to my picking up Felicia and keeping her out until after dinner.

  “Thank you,” I said. “I’ll be there within an hour.”

  O’Day hung up. What a charmer.

  I went back to the room and found Felix and Lilias in an argument. That wasn’t any large surprise.

  Lilias told Felix he should trust her, and Felix wondered why he should.

  Lilias said some things in a language neither Felix nor I could understand (from the look on Felix’s face) and threw her hands up in the air.

  “You!” she said to me as she stood, about to make her exit. “You tell him, since he won’t listen to me. He needs help on this, and some of us are loyal. If you don’t want to die, call me at the grigori dormitory.”

  I nodded. She had her hand on the door, but she stood, giving me one of those long looks. “I think you might,” Lilias Abramova said slowly.

  I didn’t know if the woman meant I might not want to die or I might call her. I nodded again, just in case.

  Lilias reached into one of her vest pockets, and Felix and I both tensed, but she pulled out a white card and handed it to me. It was a business card, my second one. On it was printed her name, underneath that FIRE GRIGORI, and underneath that a phone number.

  “Thanks,” I said, and Lilias left. I listened for her footsteps until I heard the elevator arrive.

  Felix was looking off into space like he was pondering something, and I let him be while I got ready to go. “Time to get Felicia,” I said, and he came out of his thoughts to stand and head for the door.

  Felix did not talk on our drive to the school, and I left him in the car when I went in. Felicia was sitting in the lobby, or whatever they called it, chatting away with our friend Tom O’Day, who was even smiling. There was a spark in my sister that made people interested in talking to her. It was a spark I didn’t have.

  Felicia jumped up when she saw me and threw her arms around my waist. I hugged her back. Tom’s face got blank again when he saw me. I didn’t seem to be anyone’s favorite person here in the Holy Russian Empire—except Felicia’s, and I didn’t know how much of that was manufactured for O’Day’s benefit.

  I signed a book to show I’d checked Felicia out of the school, and as I did so, I noticed a cluster of children in the hall, ranging from maybe nine years old to at least fifteen, boys and girls, all peering at me and exclaiming to one another in hushed tones. The hotel was cleaning my pants and new jacket, I hadn’t picked up Veronika’s dress from the cleaner’s, so I was wearing my jeans and boots, Veronika’s blouse, and my old jacket.

  I hoped the children were saying good things about me, or at least that they couldn’t find anything to tease Felicia about.

  I grinned at them, and they all laughed. I took Felicia’s hand like she was really the eleven-year-old she seemed. We went out together. It was about three in the afternoon, and the clouds had blown away. The far glimmer of the water made the afternoon seem like a festival, a far cry from yesterday.

  Even Felix smiled when he saw Felicia, or at least his mouth moved a little. She scrambled into the back seat and said, “Felix, hello! What have you and my sister been up to?”

  “We gained an ally,” Felix said. “Or at least, we found out we had one. Do you know Lilias Abramova?”

  “Only by sight.” Felicia waited for the follow-up, but it didn’t come. We pulled away from the curb and set out.

  “I think we’ll go to my house where we can’t be overheard,” Felix said. “Though they may have stationed someone close to overhear or to simply detail who comes in and who goes out.”

  While we rode, I told Felicia about John Brightwood and Natalya, and then about Katharine Demisova and Derek Smythe.

  I got to say it felt strange talking about the people I’d killed… to my little sister. But in her years, however many there had been, Felicia had seen a lot of death in some strange and terrible ways. She’d seen me shoot a lot of people at the train station in Ciudad Juárez. So the unpleasantness was only on my part. Or I thought so until Felicia said, “I kind of liked Derek Smythe. He helped teach water magic at the school when Instructor Medvedev was ill.”

  I felt terrible until she added, after a moment of thought, “But he was a rule follower, and if he was ordered to do something, that was what he’d do, no matter if his sense told him it wasn’t right.”

  “Derek Smythe didn’t have any reason to like me, or to think I was above suspicion,” I said, picking my way through the words. “So he didn’t have any reason to balk at his orders. But I had to defend myself, and so did Felix.”

  “Where did you put the bodies?” Felicia asked Felix, sounding real calm.

  “Least said, soonest mended,” Felix told her primly. I couldn’t help but laugh. Even Felix smiled a bit. “That’s what the English say,” he added.

  “I’ll summarize,” Felicia said. “That’s what they teach us in class.”

  “I’m ready,” I said.

  “Eli is in jail for murder, though he didn’t do it.”

  I nodded.

  “Since Peter’s not a man yet and Eli’s not around, his mom and sisters are available to be picked on by the older half brothers, Bogdan and Dagmar.”

  “That’s right.” Felix turned a corner. We were close to his house.

  “Two wizards who were following orders began to trail you two. We don’t know what their orders were, but since they were lying in wait at Eli’s house, we can assume they were about to take action, and they did.”

  “Which was not successful,” Felix said with some satisfaction.

  “Not successful. They died,” Felicia said. “And then you learn
ed what Peter had done, since he can be a real idiot. You tracked the other witness, and Felix killed him so he couldn’t testify against Peter truthfully or Eli falsely.”

  “Right,” I said. This really sounded bad when you put it all together.

  “And then Grand Duke Alexander freed John Brightwood and sent him to prey on the Savarov family,” Felicia said.

  We were all silent for a long moment.

  “But you surprised him, Lizbeth, and you killed him,” Felicia said. She sounded proud.

  “I did, and that Natalya, too.” Didn’t regret either killing at all.

  “And Eli has the pebble,” Felicia said.

  “Yes, last I knew.”

  “What pebble?” Felix said.

  “I made a pebble full of power,” my sister said, with not a little pride. “It should explode when it’s thrown.”

  “Should?” I was worried, all of a sudden. “Did you try one out?”

  “How could I? Everyone in school would know about it. You can’t use those silently… though that would be pretty great.”

  “A boom without noise?” Felix grinned from behind the wheel. “That would be wonderful.”

  I was riding through San Diego with two lunatics.

  “How can Eli decide when to use it if he doesn’t know what it does?” I asked, pretty sharp. I didn’t care for this smiling when Eli’s safety was at stake.

  “He’s a grigori!” Felicia looked at me like I was the crazy one. “He’ll know what to do.”

  “So grigoris can hold something that has a spell on it and know what the spell is?” That would be pretty great.

  “No, but what else would I have given him?” My sister clearly thought I was being dumb on purpose.

  I wanted to scream. I put my hands over my ears for a moment and tried to think about a plan for now. Then I covered my eyes instead. Helped a little. “So here’s what we want to do,” I said, sounding real level and sure. “No one is arresting us for anything right now, so we’re in the clear. At the moment. I’m in good with the tsarina, not that she’s that powerful, and Felix is in good with his guild, right?”

  Felix shrugged. I had to let that go.

  “Felicia, you’re okay with the school. No one suspects we’re going to try to bust Eli out of jail. The pebble may help with that. Or Eli may use it because something happens that we can’t foresee.” That made me gloomy. “Howsomever, we’ve got to be ready to get Eli out of the city.”

  “What about his mom and sisters?” Felicia said.

  “That’s a good question, and I got no answer,” I said.

  “I will propose to Lucy and give them my protection,” Felix said. He sounded more like he was going to face a band of grigoris than propose to a girl he cared for.

  I should have thought more about the expression on my sister’s face. It wasn’t a happy one. But it smoothed out almost before I’d been sure I’d seen it, and I was glad to forget it. Because if Felicia had some kind of crush on Felix, that would be just too messy. If I thought Felix was too old for Lucy, he was really too old for Felicia, no matter what her real age was.

  And this was all besides my belief that Felix was unlikely to fully love any woman.

  Peter arrived at Felix’s little house very soon after we got there. He was fuming angry about something, but he was determined not to tell us what. I left him alone to brood in a corner of the sofa, while Felix made us some hot chocolate at Felicia’s request and I went to stare out the front window. Because I had nothing else to do. I wondered where Grand Duke Alexander lived. I wondered how good his security was. I wondered if his death would really end the vendetta against Eli and his family. Would I have to kill his half brothers, too? At this rate, I could whittle away at the Russians for weeks until I’d arrived at a group I could get along with. And then it would be time to go back home.

  All of a sudden, the sun was gone, the clouds gathered, and rain sprinkled down again.

  Great.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Felicia complimented Felix on the hot chocolate, and she got a lopsided smile for her courtesy. “Just like my mother never made,” he said, and stood staring at Peter, who had refused a drink.

  The rain made me feel cold, and I was glad to have my own cup in my hands.

  “Peter, stop acting like a bear with a sore paw, and tell us what’s got you all sulky,” Felicia said.

  I applauded her silently.

  “If you must know,” Peter said, as if we’d been begging him to tell the story, “one of my classmates heard the new director talking about expelling me.”

  I could see from the reaction this produced that getting expelled from the Rasputin School was rare and serious. Felix and Felicia both had their mouths open.

  “Just because? Or for something in particular?” I said, to break the silence.

  “She told one of my instructors that my family could no longer be counted as loyal to the Russian court,” Peter said. “In her opinion, I’m no longer deserving of my education.”

  “Who told you this?”

  “The student aide of the new head of the school, Emma Morozova. She was appointed after Boris Morozov, her father, died in his sleep last month.”

  “We wondered if he did die in his sleep,” Felicia said. “Me and my friends.” She did not seem upset by the possibility that Mr. Morozov’s death had not been natural. The more I got to know my sister, the more I loved her… and the more frightening she seemed.

  Peter nodded. “But people do just die. Especially old people.”

  Couldn’t argue with that. But it did seem like a real suspicious time for Mr. Morozov to die, with Eli in jail and Peter at the school. Suddenly, an idea came to me. What if my sister was expelled, too? What if the school made the connection between me and the Savarov family and decided she needed to go? After all, it wasn’t a secret. I’d talked about it at court.

  “Anybody say anything to you?” I asked Felicia.

  She understood without me having to explain. “Not yet. I think it would be harder to get rid of me since my blood is valuable to the tsar.”

  And I had more bad thoughts. “You know a child of Rasputin and a bastard of his died when they shouldn’t have.”

  Felicia nodded. “I’m looking around me,” she said.

  That didn’t seem good enough, but I had nothing else to offer her, at least not at the moment. I had to stay here to get Eli out. I realized that ever since Eli and I had found Felicia in Ciudad Juárez, she’d been in danger. I gave a gusty sigh. I’d truly thought I was saving her. Instead, I might have condemned her to an earlier death than she’d have faced in the slums of Mexico. Some big favor.

  “Why are you looking so dark, Lizbeth?” There was a wrinkle between Felicia’s eyebrows.

  “I thought I was bringing you to a safer place,” I said. “I wasn’t.”

  Felicia jumped up and threw her arms around me. “No, don’t think that,” she said. “You did save me. I have learned so much here. The teacher who likes me says I am a sponge.”

  “A sponge, huh? Soaking up the learning.” I put down my chocolate on the nearest surface and hugged her back. It kind of scared me, how smart and quick Felicia was. “Maybe you can come visit me in Texoma.”

  “We got time to talk about it,” Felicia said stoutly. “We have time.”

  I sure hoped so. After a moment’s more of clutching, we separated. “Now we have to make a plan,” I said. “Peter, what’s happening at your house? How are your mom and your sisters? When did you get there?”

  “Mother called me early this morning, and the school gave me leave to go home. Then I came here, then I went to class, then I called home again and talked to Lucy. The police finally left our house an hour or two ago. Captain McMurtry came to advise Mother, and he’s still there. He was a great help,” Peter said, like he was holding a grudge.

  “Then you must be glad he was there to help, and you must thank him,” Felix said. He seemed to understand something I
didn’t.

  Peter looked grim, but he nodded. “Yes, as you say. The police wanted to ask Mother more questions about the, ah, exposure Brightwood insisted on, and Captain McMurtry cut that line of questioning off. Alice has been very… distraught.”

  “Good thing the captain cut ’em off,” I said.

  “And they had a lot of questions about how Natalya came to kill Brightwood and how Brightwood got her in return.”

  “Natural,” I said.

  “They also wondered about some scratches on the table,” Peter said, raising his eyebrows.

  My belt must have gouged the wood as I slid.

  “That Brightwood didn’t have any manners,” I said, and Felix laughed.

  “Mother and Lucy and Alice are getting the house back together. Mother put an ad in the paper for another housemaid. Formerly, she would have called the Russian Society, which finds jobs for indigent people who fled from Russia. But she’s afraid she might get another Natalya.”

  God forbid the Savarov women should have to keep house themselves. But I gave them a pass. They weren’t used to it, and also it would look funny if they didn’t keep the help they’d always had.

  “So I need to see Eli again,” I said. “He has to know what’s happened, and if his family can’t see him, that leaves me.”

  “You need to warn him about the pebble,” Peter said, giving Felicia a sort of sneery look. He didn’t mean it, I could tell. In fact, Peter was envious that my little sister could create something so dangerous.

  “Eli needs to know Brightwood is dead,” Felix said. “And he needs to know exactly why he’s in jail.”

  Peter blanched.

  “Peter, you got to carry the weight on this,” I said. “It’s you who put Eli in jail, though you didn’t mean to. I know you were trying to protect your sisters. And it’s your responsibility that Felix had to use his magic to kill Dima.”

  “Zaitsev’s dead?” Peter looked even whiter than before.

  “Yep. I was set to do it, but Felix got in there ahead of me. Your sister had to come with us to point Dima out.”

  “You let my sister go with you?”

  That was what outraged Peter, that Lucy had been with us—not that he had himself brought about the need for the man to die.