The Morning Star Part 10

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"Her loyalties lie with Konstantin because of Princess Cantacuzene, who was your mother's half sister and mortal enemy. How does Mala feel about your mother?"

"We do not discuss my mother." Danilo frowned. "Mala has sworn on her life to protect me. I will not doubt her."

"Of course," I said. But I remained wary of her. And it was not because I worried about the crown prince. I worried about the stability of Russia.

Danilo sipped his coffee silently while I finished eating. As the waiter cleared our plates away, I asked the crown prince when we would be returning to St. Petersburg.

"Patience, my dear Katerina. We still have business here in Cairo."

"What sort of business?"

His hand came down on the table suddenly and violently. "We still have not found the sword!"

I jumped, once again startled by the sudden change in his personality. "Is there anyone else who can tell us where it is?" I asked calmly. We would receive no more help from Ankh-al-Sekhem. And the sphinx's advice had been too cryptic.

A commotion in the hallway drew our attention. Danilo stood up and reached for my arm. "We must go quickly."

I stared at him, hesitating. As cruel as Papus had been in the carriage, I could not believe he was working with George and the Koldun. Still, I couldn't help praying for a rescue.

"Quickly!" Danilo repeated as he herded me out of the dining room and into the courtyard. There was a spiral staircase leading to the second-floor balcony. He dragged me up the stairs and into the music room. It was not even midmorning yet, but a trio of Egyptian musicians already sat playing haunting folk songs. The air was smoky from pipes and incense, making it hard to see.

Mala was here as well, dressed in a shockingly low-cut bloodred gown, her long black hair hanging in wild curls. Silver hoops dangled from her ears, and a belt of delicate silver bells hugged her hips. She wore silver on both wrists and one ankle as well. I gasped as I noticed her bare feet turning prettily in time with the music. Her arms were graceful and thin as she wove them upward in circles. She was swaying her hips to the exotic music, moving in a hypnotic rhythm like a cobra.

She had a captive audience. A group of travelers stood just inside the doorway, staring in silent admiration. Several other men sat at tables around the room, all eyes on Mala, the wicked faerie dancer.

Danilo pulled me back behind a large potted palm tree before the travelers could spot us. He stood very close behind me, his lips inches from my ear as he whispered, "Do not make a sound, d.u.c.h.ess."

I began to feel the old hypnotic pull of the Vladiki prince as his lips barely touched my skin. I could not give in to him. I reminded myself that what I felt for him was not real. I tried to pull away, but he merely laughed.

Finally he let me go. "I think it is safe for us to go back downstairs and find a carriage. We have business in the city this morning."

"What is Mala doing?" I asked as he dragged me away. I'd seen no signs of the Grigori, and no mages that I recognized. "Won't she be cold in such a scandalous dress?"

Danilo laughed softly. "Do not worry about her, my dear. But I live for the day I see you dressed like that for me."

"That will never happen," I said, blushing fiercely. I hated to admit it to myself, but her dancing did look far more fun than any polonaise.

Danilo laughed again. I blushed even more as I realized he was listening to my thoughts.

He found us a carriage and seemed to relax as we left the hotel. I stared out the window, taking an interest in the loud and colorful streets of Cairo. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"To the museum. They have several artifacts on display that have been recovered from the pyramids over the years."

"Would the sword be in a museum?" I asked, hoping it would not be that simple.

"No. But the emerald scroll attributed to Ankh-al-Sekhem is in a display case there."

"And you read hieroglyphics?"

Danilo nodded. "It is one of the many languages I have learned over the years."

"How extraordinary. Will you be needing my services in the museum?" I asked sarcastically. I was wearing the Talisman of Isis beneath my gown, just in case.

He shook his head. "No, Katerina. Please do not resurrect any mummies while we are at the museum. However, I do not intend to let you out of my sight as long as there is danger in Cairo. And we will not leave before I find the sword."

The Egyptian Museum was located on a street near the river, past the marketplace and several European hotels and bars. Past places that admitted only men and where girls danced wearing almost nothing at all. Mala had not looked ashamed to have all those men staring at her. She seemed to thrive on the attention. Perhaps it fed her fae powers somehow.

Danilo held out his hand for me as we pulled up in front of the museum. "Stay close, d.u.c.h.ess."

The museum was flanked by two small sphinx statues. I shuddered as we walked between them, but neither one seemed to notice us. Perhaps not all sphinxes spoke; I'd never heard the ones in St. Petersburg utter a word. They'd been brought to the Academy of Arts years ago, bought by Tsar Nicholas from the French to decorate the Neva riverfront.

Danilo took my arm in his as we strolled through the front doors of the museum. "I think the exhibit we want is on the second floor," he said. We walked up the enormous white staircase, and at the first landing, I glanced back down at the marble lobby, onto a very large column covered in hieroglyphics. Large statues of cats and ibises stood guard around the stone column.

When we reached the top landing, Danilo swore under his breath. I spotted two of his Grigori rushing over to us. "They've already been here, Your Majesty," the elder one said.

"Did they find the tablet?"

"They looked at it, but they did not take it."

"Hurry!" Danilo said, his grip on my arm tightening. We rushed toward the Writings Room. The tablet that Danilo sought was in a gla.s.s case in the center of the room. He let go of me and put both of his hands on the case, peering down at the tablet.

"Perhaps they didn't know how to read the hieroglyphics," I said. I truly wished that Danilo were not so talented in languages either. A sword as dangerous as the Morning Star needed to stay lost. It did not belong in anyone's hands.

"It does not matter," Danilo said. "The tablet mentions nothing. Only the same seven gates of heaven spoken of by the sphinx. More meaningless text about the star that rises in the morning sky."

"What if it's not meaningless?" I couldn't help asking. "What if they're not talking about Venus?"

" 'Past the seven gates of heaven, the Morning Star lies,' " Danilo said, repeating the sphinx's words. "What else could the sphinx have meant? Unless... " He turned around and glared at the Grigori. "The gates are part of a mage's highest initiation, are they not?"

"The seventh gate can be opened only by those who have completed the most extensive training in ceremonial magic," the elder Grigori said. "Mages who have successfully mastered all the secret rituals of the Emerald Tablet."

"The mages of the highest degree," Danilo said, frowning. "No one in the Order of the Black Lily is that talented, save Papus himself."

"But you were a member of the Black Lily," I said. "How far in your training did you progress?" And how far had George progressed when he studied with them? I did not dare ask Danilo.

"Not far enough. It takes decades of studying to be able to complete such a ritual." The crown prince pounded both fists on the wall. The shelves nearest him rattled but thankfully did not fall. He swore under his breath in six different languages.

I felt a slight wave of relief flood through me. If Danilo had not been a member of the Order long enough to be initiated, he would not be able to retrieve the sword.

Papus had been the one to rescue me the first time I found myself in the Graylands. He'd told me he called on the powers of higher beings to help him travel back and forth between the worlds of the living and the dead. I realized now it had been the Grigori who helped him.

Still, even though he'd rescued me once, he was a dangerous magician. He had betrayed George when George was studying magic in Paris. Papus had lured George into the Order of the Black Lily in order to gain access to the Koldun. With Danilo's help, the French magicians tried to raise Konstantin Pavlovich from the dead. And Papus had just tried to kill me here in Cairo.

"Why did Papus ally himself with you to begin with?" I asked the crown prince. "What would he have had to gain by Konstantin's return?"

"Money, of course," Danilo said. "I promised him the riches of the Romanovs when I became tsar. But after my arrest, the traitor ran to the Koldun and his brother and begged for forgiveness." The crown prince scowled. "He will regret this one day."

"We will find the French mage and his a.s.sociates for you," the elder Grigori said. With a bow, he turned and departed.

A sliver of hope rose in my chest. Could Papus be working with George and the Koldun now? What if George was here in Egypt?

"Katerina, there is something else of interest on this tablet," Danilo said to me, beckoning me to look closer.

He pointed to the stone lying beneath the gla.s.s. "This is the history of the sword up until the time Ankh-al-Sekhem wrote this. The first human to wield the sword was a pharaoh princess: Meresankh, a daughter of Menes. She united Upper and Lower Egypt with the Grigori's help."

"A daughter?"

"A Queen of Swords." Danilo shook his head. "How ridiculous! Still, she must have been a powerful necromancer for the sword to succ.u.mb to her. And for the Grigori to follow her."

A Queen of Swords. I shuddered as I remembered the superst.i.tious Pushkin tale. And Maman's tarot deck.

"If the sword can only be carried by a necromancer," I asked, "then why would it be hidden where only a magician can find it?"

"It is bitterly ironic, yes?" He had not antic.i.p.ated this, I realized. "To force the magician to work with the necromancer. We must make Papus see reason."

I worried then for George and the French mage. They could not let the lich tsar find Papus. Konstantin would force the mage to escort him past the seven gates and retrieve the sword. "Shall we go, d.u.c.h.ess?" Danilo asked. "I believe there is some beautiful jewelry downstairs that belonged to the wife of Ramses the Second." But he really wasn't asking me. He led me off to the floor below and showed me the elegant necklaces and earrings made of faience and gold that were thousands of years old. The museum was lucky to have these priceless artifacts in their possession. Most of the tombs found had long been robbed of their riches by adventurers wishing to sell the artifacts on the black market. Egyptian antiquities were a lucrative trade. I'd seen many suspicious but beautiful pieces not only in the Vladimir Palace, but also in the Winter Palace itself.

We paused in front of a golden statue of a fierce-looking lion-headed G.o.ddess. "That is Sekhmet," Danilo said quietly. "Both a deity of war and of medicine."

I stared at the statue in wonder and had a pagan urge to ask the G.o.ddess for her blessing. But before I could commit such blasphemy, the crown prince was pulling me toward another jewelry collection.

I wondered how the Cantacuzene family had gotten a hold of the Talisman of Isis. I suspected it was an artifact that should have been under a gla.s.s case in a museum as well. I examined the beautiful ruby bracelets and sapphire earrings and lapis necklaces in the case. Dariya would have been beside herself to see these jewels. She would have enjoyed vacationing in such an exotic place as this.

But I was not here on vacation. I'd been abducted by an insane lich tsar who believed I was going to be his tsarina. And I had to keep him from finding the sword that could destroy the whole world.

We pa.s.sed through the marketplace on our way to the hotel. The bazaar was a dazzling chaos of colors and sounds and scents. Merchants ran up to us, shoving silks and foods and perfumes, while children pulled on our clothing, begging for coins. Haunting songs from the minarets called the faithful to prayer at intervals throughout the day. I watched the shopkeepers stop and prostrate themselves on their rugs and face west to pray.

Danilo ignored them. "This way," he said, leading me toward the stalls of the spice market, where one could buy frankincense and myrrh, cinnamon, and the precious attar of roses. Wax candles hung by their wicks from one stall, and an old woman sat in the shadows in front of a tray of gla.s.s vials. Some were filled with narcotic drugs: opium and morphine. Danilo pulled me onward, until we came to a young man with frankincense resin.

Danilo took a handkerchief out of his pocket and used it to pick up a piece of the resin. "Dragon's blood?" he asked.

"Yes," the young man said. "From the southernmost part of Arabia."

"Do you have myrrh as well?"

"Of course, my lord."

"I'll need some of each."

I noticed that Danilo seemed reluctant to touch the frankincense, which the empress had used as an antidote to the hemlock poisoning caused by Danilo's veshtiza sister at Smolni. Militza, too, had used frankincense to poison her veshtiza aunt, Princess Cantacuzene. Did the resin affect him as well? "What do you need these herbs for?" I asked innocently as Danilo completed his purchases.

"They are key to the ritual outlined in the papyrus. These are the fragrances that helped souls cross back over to the land of the living."

"Whose soul are you planning to aid?" I asked warily. I wanted no part of this.

But Danilo merely laughed. "Come, d.u.c.h.ess, no need for you to fret. Let me buy you some food at the other end of the market. Let us enjoy this beautiful weather."

I looked up at the clear blue sky and took in the dizzying pandemonium swirling around me. Above the sounds of barking dogs and shouting shopkeepers, amid the dusty streets crowded with carts and donkeys and people, it was indeed a beautiful day. Danilo bought two pieces of warm flatbread sold by a shy girl who did not look to be older than eight or nine. She took the coins from him greedily and scampered back to her mother's bakery stall. The bread was delicious and soft.

The crown prince tried to buy me several trinkets as we walked back toward the entrance of the marketplace. Red silk slippers, silver bracelets, statuettes of ivory and alabaster were all offered to us by loud men and women. I admired the woolen blankets and rugs from Tunis and the damask silks of Arabia. But I would not let Danilo buy me anything expensive, as I had no way of repaying him.

I did stop, however, when I saw the bookseller's stall. Here, stacks and stacks of books and clumsily sewn together folios were being sold by an elderly man in a red fez. I tugged on Danilo's coat sleeve. "May I take a look?" I asked.

"Of course," he said politely. "Let me know if you find anything you like."

Wedged between two piles of Arabic poetry were a few old medical journals. Many were written in Arabic, but one was from England and another from France. They were not too terribly out of date, both written in the past ten years.

At the bottom of the pile, I found a leather-bound reprint of an ancient Greek text about the Alexandrian physician Herophilos. "How much for this?" I asked the shopkeeper, sliding the faded brown book out from beneath the others.

The elderly man happily bargained with Danilo for several minutes in Arabic before Danilo finally handed him a paper bill. "The book is yours, d.u.c.h.ess."

"Was it very costly?" I asked.

"Don't be ridiculous. We must rejoin the others."

I placed my hand on the crown prince's arm. "Merci, Danilo."

He took my hand and kissed it. "It is nothing. I am happy to find something here that pleases you."

Mala and the elder Grigori met us at the front gates of the bazaar. "Did you acquire what you needed, Your Majesty?" Mala asked with a formal bow.

"Yes. Now it is time to prepare Katerina for the ritual."

"Ritual?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

Mala took me gently by the arm and pulled me away from the crown prince. "You will not be harmed, d.u.c.h.ess." In a lower voice she added, "The necromancer who performs the ritual must be ceremonially pure. She must not have eaten the flesh of any animal, and she must not have consorted with men."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means that His Majesty needs you to remain a virgin until after the ritual," she answered, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "But after that, he will wish to marry you as soon as possible."

That evening, the elder Grigori escorted me to my room, waiting patiently outside while I washed up and changed into a clean gown for dinner. I decided to wear the blue dress again and found Danilo and Mala waiting for me in the dining room.

They stopped talking as soon as they saw me. Whatever they'd been discussing had surely not been pleasant, as neither looked happy.

"We will make plans to board the boat in the morning," Danilo said. "It is safer than the carriage, I believe. Especially with our own steamer."

"You've found Papus, then," I said.

"No," Mala said, frustrated. "I've told His Imperial Majesty that he should not believe the sphinx's cryptic words. But he feels we are very close on the French mage's tail." She turned to Danilo. "The Order of the Black Lily is dangerous. They could be luring you into a trap."

Danilo laughed. "My dear dancer, your concern is touching. But we are leaving in the morning nevertheless."

"Papus and his band of Grigori were seen leaving Cairo this morning," Mala told me. "Our Grigori believe they have found the resting place of the sword. And I worry that they will reach it before we do."

"Does Papus know any necromancers he would take with him past the seven gates?" I asked. I hoped Papus had joined forces with George and the Koldun for real this time. But what if he was still pursuing his own ambitions? What if he was working with another necromancer?