If I thought St Vladimir's was in a remote part of Montana, St Basil's may have been hidden in a country no one knew existed. Or else, on a different planet. In a different solar system.
I wasn't exactly sure where in Russia we were. Then again, I'm not sure if anyone did, not even the pilot.
As we approached the school's landing strip, I found myself looking out over vast stretches of lush forests, unbroken as far as the eye could see except for a wide, meandering river. And then, springing up as if out of nowhere ahead of us, the tell-tale sight of civilization. Sort of.
The Moroi pilot announced that the local temperature was in the mid sixties and would slowly be dipping to the fourties around the mid-day sunset. I realized with a start that it was 6pm. By now in Montana, the sun would be preparing to set within the hour. Here? Not so much.
It was a wonder that Siberia held a thriving subpopulation of Moroi. The long bouts of sunshine must take a lot of getting used to for sensitive Moroi skin in this kind of climate.
I, for one, was looking forward to basking in it as much as I could.
Our entourage made to disembark and I stood up behind Alexei who turned to me, bag slung over his shoulder.
"Home sweet home," he said warmly, lacking his usual sarcasm. "What did you think of the flight over?"
"There's less snow than I thought there'd be," I mused. "Though it looks just as much like a deserted wasteland as I'd expected."
He narrowed his eyes in jest, turning to descend the stairs. Alexei and I had quickly settled into a sarcastic banter, as if we'd been friends for longer than a few days.
"Wasteland?" he scoffed. "This academy will put yours to shame."
From what I'd seen flying over, they looked damn similar. Though, I suppose the gothic architecture was more true to form here than it was in Montana, considering our school had been modeled after the more established academies in Europe. This school was much, much older.
"Alyosha," a new voiced shouted. "Don't you give that girl too much trouble."
The voice in question must have belonged to Ivan. Though I'd never met him before, he looked like a Zeklos if I'd ever seen one.
Tall and lean, I was surprised to see that his slim body belied light muscles that were uncharacteristic of most of his kind. Nonetheless, Ivan had the well-styled bronze hair and muted blue eyes of another Zeklos I'd known at the Academy: Jesse. They could have been brothers. Though Jesse was widely believed to be the hottest guy at St Vladimir's, something I could confirm myself, even Ivan gave him a run for his money.
"Rosemarie Hathaway?" Ivan asked, stretching out his hand and introducing himself. It was a dumb question for him to ask considering we'd traveled with my father's all-male security detail and Alexei. I held my quip, hoping to start off on a good, fresh foot here.
"Rose Mazur," I corrected him, taking his hand for a brief moment. While I expected Ivan's hand to be soft and supple, like any other Moroi who did little to no hard labor, I was surprised to feel hard callouses lining his palm.
Abe sidled out from behind me, giving Ivan a nod. "We weren't sure how quickly news travelled," he explained in response to their raised eyebrows.
Ivan nodded, turning to clap the shoulder of Alexei. "I'm sure that you've had more than your fair share of time with Alyosha. This is my other guardian, Dima," he said, gesturing to a figure beside him. My eyes followed his movement, and I fought the urge to let them bug out.
He was tall, taller than Ivan even. While not impossible, height was rarer in dhampirs. Alexei took a place at his side and I snickered at the difference in stature.
"You've got a guardian on either side of the size bracket," I noted. "How fortunate."
"Watch yourself, kolyuchka," Alexei taunted. (thorn)
Looking at them side by side was comical. While Alexei was almost the same height as me and raw muscles, the other guardian was well over six foot. He had much more subtle muscles, though they were still very evident based solely on the stretch of the strange, long leather duster he was wearing. He looked like he would be even more at home in Montana among his fellow cowboys than here.
Despite that, he was much more my speed.
Dark hair, grown long, abnormal even amongst female guardians, and tied tight at the nape of his neck. His eyes were the same rich chocolate color of his hair. Though muted by the mask of a true guardian, I could see that his eyes shone with amusement from Alexei and I's banter.
Maybe training wouldn't be so hard after all.
"Please," he spoke, and if I wasn't getting so used to the deep tenor of a Russian accent, I swear I would've gone weak in the knees. "Call me Dimitri."
"He really likes when you call him Dimka," Alexei teased, receiving a glare from Dimitri and slap up the back of the head from Ivan.
"Dimitri is far too proper and sentimental… only his family is allowed to call him Dimka," noted Ivan with a wink. "He'll warm up to you, though. He'll be your combat mentor while you're here. Hopefully he'll be able to catch you up and get you on track to graduate on time."
By now, we'd started towards some cars that would take us closer to the main campus. With my dad and his men clambering towards one and Ivan still deep in conservation with me, I veered towards the other.
Ivan climbed into the front seat, next to someone who was likely a school guardian, leaving me sandwiched in the back between Dimitri and Alexei.
I felt jittery where I sat next to Dimitri, squished closer to him due to Alexei's sheer size. There was no denying that Dimitri was gorgeous, but I really needed to get a hold on myself. I wasn't here to meet people, I was here as an avenue of getting back to Lissa. As if sensing my thought, Dimitri glanced down to where our legs touched and shuffled further away in the limited space.
"Dima and I will also be tutoring you in Russian," Ivan continued. "I will give you private instruction on grammar when we can arrange it and he will be with you in classes to translate as needed. St. Basil's, naturally, does all their instruction in Russian, but you shouldn't feel totally helpless in your combat classes."
"You and I will meet before and after classes for training," Dimitri spoke up. "And on Saturdays."
I audibly groaned, sinking into myself.
"What's that for?" Alexei laughed. "It's not like you have any friends to keep up with here."
"Alexei," both Ivan and Dimitri warned in unison. It seemed like something I would hear often.
"I'm not wrong," he defended. "You're going to spend Saturdays with the only besties you need: Alyosha and Dimka."
"Keep calling him that and I think Ivan will only have one guardian left," I retorted, noting Dimitri's exasperated sigh next to me.
Much like it had on the flight, St. Basil's seemed to materialize out of nowhere. I leaned forward to get a better look at the ornate buildings we passed by. Where my old school was all slate stone, the buildings here were warm-toned red brick, with more ornate details and color woven through. St. Vladimir's paled in comparison, and I automatically felt more welcome in my new home.
We exited the vehicles, all of Abe's guardians but Pavel splitting off in a different direction with the bags. Ivan introduced the large, open courtyard we'd stopped in as the commons. Surrounding us were administrative buildings, the mess hall, and some classrooms, all connected by an outdoor, covered hallway, he explained.
The students milling about watched curiously. It must have been a spectacle – guardians and Moroi they knew and respected, mixed with those they didn't, all centered around a unfamiliar dhampir right about their own age. I almost felt as though I had my own guardian escort.
Dimitri nudged me when a voice called out his name, pointing out a pretty dhampir girl who waved at us from across the square. Besides the purple streaks running through her brown hair, they could have been twins.
He smiled softly as he explained, waving back to her. "That is my sister, Viktoria. She's very excited to meet you, she'll no doubt try and be your best friend."
I knew better, but the travel and whirlwind of the past few days got the better of me. "I already have one," I snapped, quickly regretting it.
A few seconds passed as we made our way inside one of the buildings and down a wide hallway, paintings of formers headmasters and Queen Tatiana lining the wall to our left.
"I'm sorry."
He simply nodded in understanding, eyes set ahead.
A cheerful voice welcomed us into the Headmistress' office. At the desk sat a tall, willowy Moroi woman, who I recognized from one of the more prominent photos in the hallway. She had long, dark hair framing a warm face with wide, emerald green eyes.
"Headmistress Tarus," Abe crooned, taking her hand in another overly friendly shake. "Thank you so much for working on this arrangement with me."
"Nonsense," she said, gesturing for us all to take a seat. "Here at St. Basil's, we believe anyone has the right to become a guardian or, at the very least, learn to defend themselves.
"Rosemarie, I presume?" she asked.
I nodded politely. "Please, call me Rose."
She smiled kindly, we weren't at St Vladimir's anymore.
"Rose, I'll be blunt. I have been told that we have a lot of refinement to do." I shrank in on myself, suddenly self-conscious. "But, I also here that you have dedication that just might win out. You have an assignment in mind after graduation, correct?"
"Yes, ma'am. My best friend Vasilisa Dragomir."
"A worthy charge," the headmistress smiled. "She will be graduating this coming year. So, try as we might, we'll work on getting you caught up and on track to graduate as well. Fortunately, Guardian Belikov here has agreed to be your mentor. You're a lucky one," she winked. "Guardian Belikov was at the very top of his graduating class here at St Basil's."
That didn't surprise me in the slightest. I turned towards him, impressed nonetheless.
"He's the most sought after mentor we have at this school, but he has never relented to train a novice until now. I trust that you'll be able to grow a great deal under him"
As a whole, the meeting went smoothly. We set my schedule and confirmed the details of my language lessons with Ivan and Dimitri. Before leaving St Vladimir's two years ago, I had taken a first year Russian class that taught me some basics. Though I would have to dig back, we hoped that my previous experience would give me a leg up, especially with learning the brand new alphabet more or less behind me.
When we stood to leave, Headmistress Tarus rose with us, giving me one last kind smile and some encouragement. "I know that your dedication will help you rise up the ranks here at St. Basil's, Ms Mazur. It'll work hand in hand with our specialized system of learning to help you get back on track."
