The Grigori motioned for me to be silent, but it was not necessary. I was too scared to make a noise. We heard hushed voices in my room, and I strained my ears to make out the language. French?
My rescuer pulled me back from the balcony and showed me a hidden door behind the curtains. A secret staircase led down into darkness. "Follow me, Duchess," he whispered.
He did not seem to need a light to see where we were going. Blind, I placed my hands along the rough stucco walls to guide myself down the stairs. When the Grigori reached the bottom, he opened a door and the stairwell was flooded with light. I skipped down the rest of the stairs to follow him.
We were in an empty passageway lit by several small windows along the upper walls. "This is the basement of the hotel, Duchess," the Grigori explained. "It is a safe way out."
The passageway was narrow and winding, but we reached a door that was locked from the outside. "Now what?" I asked, beginning to panic.
The Grigori did not reply but knocked once, then two more times upon the heavy wood. Nothing happened at first; then we heard the lock give way and the door swung open inward.
Sister Mala was standing outside. "Hurry!" she said. Behind her in the alley, a black carriage waited for us. She pulled me by the arm and pushed me inside. Danilo was already waiting for me. Sister Mala stayed with the Grigori as the carriage took off. I turned around in alarm, but Danilo took my hand.
"They will be fine, love. It is you and I they are after."
"Who is after us? The grand duke?" My heart began to race. Had I just escaped from George's rescue? I tried to pull free of Danilo's grasp and look back, but the crowded city traffic already blocked my view of the hotel.
Danilo shook his head grimly. "The Order of the Black Lily. They seek the Morning Star as well."
"The French mages?" Papus and Sucre had tried to raise Konstantin from the dead by sacrificing Princess Alix. "I thought they were working with you."
"Not any longer." Danilo's grip tightened around my wrist. "They have Grigori on their side as well, Katerina. If they catch us, it will be unpleasant."
"And Papus is working with the Romanovs?" Hope surged within my chest. Perhaps I was about to be rescued.
"Papus will side with whoever pays him the most. And I do not think the Romanovs are the wealthiest players on this chessboard." Danilo stared out the window, frowning as we went speeding through Alexandria.
"If there's someone else who wants the sword, why are the French mages after us?" I asked. "Why don't they just try to find the sword before we do?"
"I'm sure they are pursuing both goals with equal determination. The Grigori are fierce, and every last one of them has been stirred by the possibility of the sword's return."
"We can't run from the French mages forever," I pointed out.
"No, but we will run toward Cairo, where the fight will be more evenly matched." He nodded toward the window. "We should be there in a few hours. More of our Grigori are there waiting for us."
"Our Grigori? How do you keep their loyalty, Danilo?"
His laugh was short, and tired, I thought. "That is not something you should worry your pretty little head over, my dear."
I leaned back and closed my eyes, thinking my family must be frantic about me by now. If not furious. What if they believed I'd run off on my own? Would George have traveled back to St. Petersburg and said nothing of his elopement plans? My mother must be hysterical. And what would the tsar and the empress think? I did not know if I'd ever be allowed to return to St. Petersburg.
We were passing through the outer streets of Alexandria on the desert road to Cairo. The green waters of the Nile River flowed alongside us, with large dark shapes floating lazily in the water. I shuddered, praying we would not see any crocodiles or snakes up close.
As we neared a dusty crossroads, the carriage stopped with a lurch. I slid forward and would have fallen to the floor if Danilo had not grabbed me.
"Merci," I said immediately, out of habit.
Danilo's face was hard. "Please allow me to do all the talking, Katerina," he said. And before I could ask what he meant, the door on my side opened. An Ottoman, swathed in white, stood pointing a rifle at us. I raised my hands slowly and tried not to make any sudden movements.
"If you would not mind, please step out of the carriage." The Ottoman spoke in perfect, crisp English.
"Let the young girl go," Danilo said, his hands raised like mine. "She knows nothing."
The Ottoman smiled and nodded at me, his white teeth gleaming in the hot sun. "She is more important to us than you, Your Majesty. But we require that both of you join us, just the same."
Such polite manners for an armed man who was kidnapping me. Danilo could take a few lessons from him. Still, I was impressed that the crown prince tried to protect me. My hands still raised cautiously in the air, I stepped out of the carriage, with Danilo following.
Another carriage stood in front of ours, driven by two Grigori. The Ottoman gestured toward the carriage with his rifle. "If you would be so kind."
I hesitated.
"Do as they ask and you will not be in any danger," Danilo murmured. "At least, not yet."
The crown prince's voice in my head startled me. I'd not heard his thoughts since we'd arrived in Egypt. "Danilo?"
"Yes, it is me, but Konstantin is never far. We are becoming one and the same person. With powers beyond my wildest dreams."
"Can you use these powers to keep us safe?" I climbed into the carriage, afraid I would find someone inside with a rifle as well. But the carriage was empty.
I sat down with Danilo sitting next to me.
"Only with your help, necromancer. I will need your blood and your shadow spells to defeat our meddlesome friends."
"Who are these men working for?" I asked.
"They are working for me," a new but familiar French voice said as the door to the other side of the carriage opened. A man in a gray linen suit and a darker gray bowler hat joined us. The mage Papus sat down across from us with a sinister smile. "As will the rest of the Grigori, when I find the Morning Star."
"You betrayed the Koldun and the Order of St. John," I said. "You betrayed the tsar."
Papus did not move a muscle, and yet I felt something cold close around my throat.
Danilo's voice was in my head again, sighing. "That was not wise, Duchess."
I struggled to breathe and remain conscious, even as I saw spots in front of my eyes as the crushing feeling continued to tighten. I grasped for unseen hands, but there was nothing there.
"Leave her be," Danilo said in a bored voice. "You have proven your point. You have become very powerful since we last met."
The French mage rolled his eyes, and the pain vanished. I slumped against Danilo and tried to catch my breath. "Hold on to your cold light, Katerina," the crown prince warned. "He will steal it from you and use it against you again if you let your guard down."
"How can he do such a thing?" I murmured. Papus was not a necromancer. My head was pounding and I just wanted to lie down and sleep. But I concentrated and pulled my cold light as close to me as possible. The white tendrils floating around me began to curl inward.
"Dear, dear," said Papus. "We cannot have you in suspense, Duchess. But all will be revealed to you soon. For now, sleep."
With the slightest movement of his fingers, I fell into a black oblivion. But not before I felt a tug as Danilo grasped my hand.