Chapter ten: The old Russian Court.
The old Russian court was situated in the west of Russia. The literal middle of nowhere. I thought Saint Vladimir's was isolated, but this was just crazy in comparison. Russian court was just like the American version, a palace which was the center of everything and allot of buildings around it. Only from down here it looked like it had come straight out of some Barbie princess movie. Then again that made it pretty clear when in history the Moroi ruled from Russia.
We got out the same style like we had in St Vladimir's. Only I felt more serious here. Nobody knew me. They could easily get the wrong impression and think I was a crap guardian. I got my guardian mask up and got ready for everything. Lissa was perfect though. She smiled and waved at everyone. We got into a car and drove to the palace.
Once we got in inside we met up whit the person who was responsible for ruling the under the rein of Lissa. According to the ancient rules, it would be someone from the Dragomir family. Tatiantia chanced that and appointed the responsibility to the Voda family during her rein. We were guided to the offices of the current governors, or that how called them. The probably had an official title, but moroi politics wasn't my favorite subject. The Voda couple was standing just outside the office. their guardians behind them. They welcomed Lissa with a bow, so did their guardians.
"Queen Vasilissa Dragomir, Lord Ozera, Princess Dragomir. Guardian Hathaway, Guardian Belikov, Guardian Castile, we would like to welcome you to Russia. My name is Cealan Voda. This is my wife Amber Voda and our guardians Gerasim Ivlovka and Yegor Kulinechev." We greeted each other with a nod. Dimitri and Gerasim had a smile on their face and spoke a few Russian words to each other. Of course he would know one of the guardians. Something else couth my attention. They greeted us, the guardian. That meant that one they held the same ideas as Lissa against guardians or at least respected them. Or that they knew where Lissa was standing on that point. I suspected the lather and hoped for both. I should ask Dimitri lather, he could ask his friend. Lissa was already talking whit Lady Voda. She was perfect at this.
"So" Whispered Eddie in my ear."You think they want to get the queens good graces or they just respect us?"
"You read my mind, brother. You read my mind." I answered loud enough for others to hear.
"Brother? I didn't know that you were related." Asked Lord Voda? Guess he did respected us. Or was just a curious man in general.
"Not Biological, but I have known him since I was five so yes. Brother." I answered.
"Never anything romantic?" He asked. Jill stiffened, Eddie eyes grew big, Dimitri's fists clenched and me, Lissa and Christian begun to laugh. Voda looked a bit taken back on this. Well it was a strange reaction on a perfectly normal question.
"Please no, I wouldn't survive that." Eddie said.
"Hey!" That was me.
"He's right, Rosie. There's only one able to put up whit you." Christian should know better than challenge me.
"Well since Liss is the only person who could live whit you. I guess we're even then."
"You're actually admitting that you to are the same?" Lissa asked.
"Never!" Christian and I spoke at the same time. Lissa just chuckled."Right"
"Well it's true what they say then. You guys are a family." Amber Voda spoke.
After this Lady Voda, her guardian and Jill whit Eddie went to some reception that had been set up. Lissa, Christian, Dimitri and I went inside. Lissa had to arrange some politics. The film crew followed Jill. This was privet anyway.
They sat down and begun talking politics. I zoned out and did something I was much better at. I sized the guarding up I front of me. He was strong and tall, then again he was Russian. Seriously I needed to know what the hell they put in water here. So as I was saying he was tall and strong. But as I noticed earlier he was left handed. Every time he did something, it left first. Not a problem, but his stake and other weapons were on his right sight. If you instinct is to use left then put your weapon on your left. Idiot. Gerasim noticed I was looking at him. He winked.
What? He thought I was interested in him? My eyebrows shot up in disbelieve and I looked at Dimitri. He had seen the wink to and had to hold his smile at the look of disbelieve and disgust that was undoubtedly on my face. Gerasim on the other hand didn't seem to get the message and smiled smugly.
I felt like castrating him.
After Lissa looked a few document through and discussed a few things, the meeting was over. It had taken a few hours. It was almost midday and my stomach was making it very clear.
"Let me guess. "Lissa said to me. "it's almost time for lunch?" Lissa said to me as we arrived at the former throne room. Lady Voda and Jill were standing just outside.
"Sure sounds like it." I answered.
"Oh, you're already hungry?" Lady Voda asked. "Good, just after the speech we're going to have lunch. Or chef will be pleased to hear you already hungry." She sounded like the perfect hostess to me now.
"Well then sure tell him to make enough because she eats like three men. And I can know that." Christian said.
"What I'm a growing girl" I retorted.
"Rose, you haven't grown an inch in three years" Eddie said
"Still is a valid excuse"
"I'm sure there will be enough." Yegor Said
Dimitre said something in Russian to him. I recognized his last name and the word 'food' in it.
"What did you say about food to him?" I asked.
"Of Course, You would know the word 'food' in Russian, Roza"
"Well you still have to learn me how to curse in Russian. And I know you treated your sister with Vlad know what not to teach me." It was true. I asked Victoria. She wouldn't learn me and I knew that whatever Dimitri had on her, must be good.
"Lissa?" I asked
"He said something about there never being enough food."
"Well at least, the man knows me."
Lissa was announced with full title and name and she walked in and up podium. Gracefully. I slammed my guardian mask on and was right behind her. After me was Christian with Dimitri. Then Jill and Eddie. Ending with Lady and Lord Voda and there guardians.
The entire room bowed. Lissa spoke one Russian word and they all stood up. The word was probably 'rise' or something meaning the same.
Lissa started her Russian speech. I recognized a few word but wasn't listing. I scanned the room for hidden treats. Didn't find any.
After the speech the people applauded. Bunch of stiff royals. Though there was a smile on most of their faces. We went off stage and went to the dining hall. Finally.
During lunch there were soft conversation going on. Dimitri was talking with Gerasim in Russian.
"So, you and Jill?" I silently asked Eddie. His fork stopped halfway to his mouth and he put it back down.
"How do you know?"
"I'm not blind you know." Okay I had been, but he didn't need to know that.
"Doesn't matter, She the Dragomir Princess. She doesn't even feel the same way."
"BS and are you blind?" I whispered loudly to and looked at him" You know Lissa would fully support you. So do I"
"Thank you" And he smiled at me. I filled my plate again from the plaits in the middle. Yegor looked at me. "You seriously going to eat that to? Where do you put it?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Her stomach" Eddie answered for me. I smiled at him and gave him a high five under the table.
"So when are you leaving." Gerasim asked in English
"Tomorrow morning." Dimitri answered.
"So Roza, you want to go somewhere tonight" Gerasim asked? Me and Dimitri coughed. WHAT? The entire table fell silence as they were wanting on my answer. The ones who knew this would be good.
" İlk ve en önemli, you don't get to call me Roza. it's rose or guardian Hathaway for you. Ikinci, There is now way you could handle me. Üç, There is nothing you could even offer me, that would remotely please me in any way. Dördüncü. When I was looking at you, I was sizing you up and deciding that you are an idiot. You are left handed. Still you put your weapons on your right side. It slows you down when you're counting on your reflexes. And when you winked at me, that was a look of disgust I gave to you. çok, The language I'm speaking in-between the reasons I'm giving you is Turkish. You see my full name is Rosemarie Adlain Hathaway MAZUR .Ve son alarak The person I do spend my nights with is sitting right in front of you."
During my speech I must have stood up because I sat dawn and begun eating again. Gerasim looked at Dimitri. Dimitri was glaring back.
"Anything else?" I asked after I swallowed.
"So Mazur as in Ibrahim Mazur?"
"Exactly" Dimitri said.
"And you two are together?"
"Yes" I answered.
"Well that changes things" At this some of the table laughed.
"You have to admit he has guts, rose." Christian said.
"I do"
"Why" Yegor asked?
"He is still sitting there and he still has dry pants" Lissa said.
At this all of the not court people stared at Lissa. "What? It wouldn't be the first time someone ran away crying after Rose scolded him. As a matter of fact the first one was our teacher when we were five." I smiled at the memory of people telling me what apparently had happened. No one remembers what they were doing as five year olds.
"What happened?" Lady Voda asked Lissa. She probably didn't wanted to interrupt me while I was eating. Smart woman.
"Well" She begun, first explaining the book throwing incident. "When we were five we had to learn how to write our name's. We both we had long name's but I tried anyway. Rose simply refused to write anything longer the 'Rose' and I was having trouble whit anything longer than 'Lissa'. The teacher got quit infuriated at Rose for refusing and at me for not trying hard enough. So Rose picked up the dictionary from the corner of the desk and threw it at the teacher calling her a.."
"Fascist bastard. I didn't know what it meant, but I did know how to hit a moving target." I filled in.
"After that Mason and Edison screamed something about hitting a target bulls-eye." Lissa continued. "The teacher was mad and started ranting at Rose about why you can't hit someone with a book."
"Rose gave her some twisted explanation why she could in true Rose-logic. After a while the teacher couldn't handle it anymore and ran outside crying because she was verbally taken down by a five year old." Eddie continued. "We were friends ever since."
"A few years later, I was ten I think, we went up to on of the guardians asking why the kinder garden teacher always ran in a different direction when she saw Rose. He told us the story and asked if she wanted to apologies to her."
"I declined." I said. "What? What kind of person make a five year old write 'Vasilissa Sabrina Rea Dragomir' That is being a fascist bastard." Dimitri looked at me weird
"You still don't know what it means, do you?"
"Of course I do, how else am I to be insulting people?"
He just laughed.
"Who is mason?" Yegor asked. We all stiffened.
"Me and Eddie's dead best friend" I sad cold.
"Oh didn't..."
"Ever heard of Spokane?"
"Yes there were a bunch of novices and royal moroi. One died...Oh!"
"Where do think I got my first two molenia?...exactly"
"I knew I recognized the name Rose Hathaway from somewhere. You're where the novice who killed more strigoi before she graduated then most will ever see in their live."
I knotted "Nice to meet you to." This relaxed the tension that had build up during the last part of the conversation. People went on with the other their other conversions and left me and Eddie alone. Our minds where with Mason right know.
After a while someone asked Christain what Rose-logic meant. He explained that I could turn something completely illogical into something perfectly understandable just be changing how to look at it.
After lunch we got a tour in the palace and the city. It was beautiful. It was obvious from the architecture when this city and court had bloomed. The middle ages I though. We were walking through the street know. Our guide was explaining in Russian to Lissa about different part from the city and other specifics you would get in an old city. Christian had his arm around Lissa's waist. It looked romantic. It was romantic. Lissa was enjoying this. Stroll around in an old cultured city with the man she loved. Completely oblivious to the other twenty persons around her. I wanted to enjoy this city to with Dimitri's arm around me. I was just a bit too busy with looking for hidden people or anything that could harm Lissa in any way. Lissa was de-stressing and happy, that was all I needed. When we were almost back at the palace, something couth my eye. Three moroi man and a woman dressed in long black robes. Hiding in the shadows. I poked Dimitri and Eddie and showed him were to look. We walked closer to the royal couple. Eddie was now walking next to Jill, in-between the possible treats and her. My hand was on my gun. The other guardians noticed our little change and got more on guard just as the suspicious moroi came from out from the ally. Two were walking towards Lissa and Christian two towards Jill.
Christian immediately put a ring of fire around them and Lady and Lord Voda. Amber followed Christians idea an put a ring of wind just behind it, making the fire more aggressive towards to outside. Her husband was concentrating on something, I didn't know what until I saw the fire turning slightly bleu, making hotter and deadly. I got my weapons out and pointed my gun at one of the moroi, who by now stood completely still. The woman turned around and started to run back in the ally. The others started to fight against the guardians.
I put my gun away and ran behind her just shouting. "You better keep that ring up Sparky!"
"Just get her"
The woman in black started to climb a rain pipe that was against a wall and set it under her on fire. Want to play dirty? Fine! It was about time I freshened up on parcours skills anyway. I jumped on a dumpster and ran up the wall, while turning around and pushing of against the wall and griping the balcony on the other side, pulling myself up fast. I griped the window decoration and pulled myself up even farther, literally climbing the wall. Thank Vlad for the expensive taste and too much unnecessary decoration along the side of the house. In now time we were both standing on the roof. It was about twenty inches wide before the roof went up in a point. She turned to me and said something in Russian.
"No matter how much I would like to answer that, I don't speak Russian."
"Right, I said finally somebody that may reach my level."
"If you think you're so good, why didn't you stay down and fight?"
"Because I'm not stupid. We lost our element of surprise. There is now way we could defied all of you and break through that circle." At that she turned and ran to next roof top jumping over the ally in between the houses, on to the next roof. She ran farter to the next roof. There was a street in-between these, not an ally. You couldn't just jump from one to the other. She ran and jumped on one the one inch wide iron bars that was between the houses everywhere here. I jumped after her when she suddenly turned around.
"Let's see how you handle this." She said, right after she send out a huge amount of fire over the bar. To mush, I know how Christian fights and she was using too much fire for her own good, she would get worn out fast. I jumped up and did a summersault while the fire was spreading under me. Because of the summersault I was getting closer to her. I landed on my feet on the bar in front of her. I bend over, gripped the bar under me and kicked her in the chest. She lost her balance and was hanging from her hands now.
"Now let's see how you handle this" I retorted her earlier question. She pulled her legs up, threw them around the bar then let go of hands and flipped over till she gripped the bar again, let her legs fall and swung herself to a balcony. I ran over the rest of the bar and jumped wall just above the balcony. When she turned around to look where I was, I 'wasn't there. I was right above her. I let go and jumped onto her shoulders. Her knees give out from the surprise extra weight and she hit her head to the side of the balcony. She was alive but unconscious. I put her in iron cuffs just as three guardians ran through the doors of the balcony.
"You could just have shot her you know?" one said.
"I know, but this was way more fun."
We went down, using the stairs this time.
"Oh by Vlad, Are you okay?" Lissa came running op to me."Where did you learn that stuff, I've never seen that before." Dimitri was right behind her. He hugged me and kissed me on the cheek.
"Where did you learn how to do that Roza? You are going to give me a heart attack one day."
"I know nicer ways to his you a heart attack, Comrade."
"Remember Jermey's friend?" I said to Lissa
"Brody?"
"Yes that one. He and a few friends do this for fun. He called it Parcours or something. They learned me some basics one time. I knew it would come in handy one day."
"So that was what you were up to, I taught you and him had something going on but didn't wanted to tell me. Sorry"
"Ieuw Brody? Never! Plus you know I have something with ascents."
"I didn't then." And she he hugged me too.
After everything was cleared out we went back to the palace. The four moroi would be on trail later that month and they would inform us from everything. The film crew showed us the changed pilot episode and this time it was okay. We got a nice dinner in the old throne room. There were a lot of imported people there from all over the city. They talked whit Lissa while there guardians talked whit us. Well mostly with Dimitri, since most of them were Russian. It was quit boring except for the food.
After dinner we went back to the plane and everyone went to sleep expect for the five night guards. The plane wasn't leaving till the next early morning, so there were a few of the guardians who patrolled around the plan as well. The next morning we would leave for st-Basil. I was lying next to Dimitri, the last thing I remember was him whispering.
"Life is never going to be boring with you, I love you R
Thank for the good luck wishes
Lots of love
Born to Love, Protect and Die