6
The three intruders froze, visibly lost, when they took notice that the bed was empty.
The sheets were still unmoved, the pillows untouched, and there was no trace of Grand Duchess Ekaterina.
The cause for this unexpected situation became clear in a few minutes' time, when their two comrades left to guard the floor heard some light footsteps come closer.
"Oh, dear." said Nina, coming round the corner, while trying to hold up a half asleep Katyusha and to keep high with her other hand the oil lamp. "Waiting for you, I ended up falling asleep myself. If I don't hurry and put you to bed now, Miss Nonna will have words with me."
When the two groups ended up in face of one another, for an instant silence reigned absolute.
"Who are you?" she worriedly asked. "What are you doing here?"
Then, her light showed two grim-looking figures in cloaks, with high collars to cover their faces, and, more importantly, armed with curved swords, and the worry turned to terror.
"Help!" the little girl shrieked as loud as she could, waking Katyusha up as well. "Guards!"
Luckily for them, a couple of soldiers were by chance nearby, during their patrol.
"Hey, you!" they yelled, running for them.
The two aggressors avoided the bullets with surprising agility, and even though one of the guards was able to stab one of them with his bayonet as he was about to jump him, his companion instead had no problems in cutting the throats of both soldiers.
"What's happening here?" yelped Katyusha.
"This way, Your Highness, quickly!" said Nina, dragging her away.
The surviving intruder could only see them disappear in the dark, immediately going after him. But unfortunately for him and the others, the surprise had by then disappeared, and after a few seconds the bells in the tower woke up everyone within two miles.
At that, the whole palace turned upside down.
"Alert! Intruders!"
"They're looking for Her Highness!"
"Surround the palace!"
The three men still in the bedroom, understanding that the situation was slipping out of control, broke through the closest window and landed in the very courtyard, but were immediately spotted by some soldiers. Not without difficulty, and with one of them nursing a forearm mangled by a point-blank bullet, they managed to eliminate six opponents, and disappear in three different directions afterwards.
"Don't let them escape!" ordered the company leader, a young lieutenant no older than thirty. "There could be more! Look everywhere!"
"Shouldn't we try and capture one alive, Your Excellency?" one of his men suggested.
"We'll think about it later! Right now the priority is protecting Her Highness! Move it!"
The first interloper somehow managed to slip through the guards thanks to a few smoke bombs that he dropped while fleeing, but when he was just about to pass over the outer fence he ended up in the sights of a sharpshooter posted on the roof; hit right in the chest, he only managed two more steps before being finished off at bayonet point.
The second one, after looking for a safe place in the woods near the Monplaisir, managed to climb up a tree, evading his pursuers just in time.
"Did you find him?" asked the soldiers while they huddled behind the same tree, unaware that their target was right above them.
"No, still nothing."
"Look harder! He must be around here!"
The intruder held still until he was sure he was once more alone, then he jumped down the tree and was about to resume his escape, when a threatening shadow come out of nowhere stood before hi.
Almost as if aware that the newcomer had no intention of letting him go, and that trying to boot it was useless, the aggressor unsheathed his sword once more, and after a studying glance he went for the opponent. The latter, however, proved surprisingly agile, perhaps even more than him, managing to avoid any slash like a ghost, or like an incorporeal being impossible to strike down.
The clash lasted for a mere twenty seconds, during which the assassin was repeatedly wounded in several parts of his body by thin daggers, just a few inches long, as quick as bullets, and it ended when he, in the final attempt to slay his enemy rather than admit defeat, threw himself into a ferocious frontal attack, only to end up with one of those daggers stuck right in the middle of his forehead, dead as a doornail.
Meanwhile, the last of the three, the one with a wounded arm, had been able to sneak through the central canal without being seen, reaching the pier where a small rowboat was awaiting for him.
"The plan has failed. Quick, let's get out of here."
His accomplice seated in the boat, however, showed no reaction, and it was after a few moments that the assassin realized that he was talking to a corpse, its cut throat still bleeding. The terror of seeing his chances of survival taking an unexpected, severe drop was augmented by that he felt when he sensed that someone was behind him.
He suddenly turned.
"You?!" he blurted, eyes wide. "What does this mean? You told us we wouldn't meet any problems."
But then, his eyes got even wider, if possible.
"What are you doing? Wait! They told us you were with us! This was your plan! No, please! No!"
Meanwhile, the lone survivor was still looking for Nina and Katyusha inside the royal residence.
Even though the whole palace was swarming with soldiers, the intruder incredibly managed to remain hidden, at times even clinging to the roof, while the guards in the dark passed under him none the wiser.
"Look for Her Highness!"
"Turn the whole palace upside down!"
"Find him!"
Loathe to renounce to his mission without trying everything to execute it, the man waited to be alone once more to resume following the tracks of his prey.
As a bloodhound smelling a cornered prey, he managed to follow the Grand Duchess and her handmaid to a remote wing of the palace, stopping before the anonymous door of a closet for the servants. Obviously it was locked, but it took just a bit of effort with a picklock to take care of that; however, as soon as the door slammed open, someone hiding behind it tried to attack him, swinging a heavy wooden beam.
"Your Highness, run, now!"
Unfortunately, considering how tiny and weak Nina was, it was child's play for the intruder to grab the beam and slam the girl against the wall.
And as this happened Katyusha, cowering in a corner, froze out of sheer terror, while that black and ominous figure came closer and closer.
"Keep away from the Grand Duchess, you dog!" shrieked Nina, throwing at him everything her hand could find in the dark. "Guards! Guards!"
This time, the poor girl received for her troubles a kick so strong that she flopped to the ground, dazed, and the intruder was now free to focus only on Katyusha.
The princess found him before her, as a monster out of a children's book, about to grab her with those enormous hands smelling of spices.
"Highness!"
The assassin was barely able to avoid the lunge of the young Lieutenant; at first he tried to take care of him once and for all, but the boy turned out to be better with a sword than predicted, so the enemy had to decide and try to escape. Unfortunately for him, the few seconds he had lost had been enough for a group of soldiers to place themselves between him and the exit, boxing him in.
One of them instinctively fired, hitting him in a leg, but the intruder nonetheless lunged for him with a beast-like fury, killing him with a slash.
"Fire! Kill him!"
With that, the opponent took no less than five more bullets all over his body, and after attempting a last, doomed stand, he died once and for all, stabbed in the throat by the Lieutenant.
"The danger is over." the youngster stated, as soon as he was certain that the target was dead. "Your Highness, are you alright?"
Katyusha did not answer that, instead shivering like a leaf, her eyes never leaving the ground.
"Your Highness!" Nonna blurted out, coming in at that moment.
The way she hugged her was worthy of a mother to whom the birth of her daughter had just been announced.
"Thank God you are fine. I am sorry. I was sleeping so soundly that I wasn't aware of anything. If something had happened to you, I..."
Understanding that for her liege it was better to get to bed, Nonna convinced Katyusha to come back to her rooms; before leaving the closet, however, the princess once more stared at the lifeless body of her aggressor, riffled with bullets and within a pool of his own blood.
For the first time ever, she saw Death before her very eyes.
The palace was thoroughly searched, more than once, until it was ascertained that no more intruders were hiding somewhere inside it.
Then, the officers of the garrison and a group of servants met on the balcony in the rear.
"Everything's in order, Your Excellency." said the Lieutenant to Captain Michailov. "No enemies left. The guards dealt with three of the intruders, the other two are still missing. They have likely fled."
"Well done, Lieutenant Yerematev. I am sure this will earn you a nice promotion. As for me, I think instead that running would do. As soon as the Tsar will know of this, he'll have my head."
"This is not the time to think about that." Nonna interrupted him. "Are you certain that Her Highness is now safe?"
"Her current room has no windows, and there are ten soldiers watching the doors." said Yerematev. "I dare anybody to try and get in."
"Anyway, who the hell were they?"
"Perhaps I could answer that." said a voice that caught everybody's attention.
A moment later, Padre Ansaldi showed up on the balcony's stairs, weighed down by his burden, a corpse that he dropped on the floor with the true care of a holy man, in the middle of the group.
"What about this?" asked the commander.
"I found him near the Monplairis where I lodge, with a knife in his head. Perhaps his own companions did that, to facilitate their own escape."
The priest then uncovered the face of the man under the collar; like the others, his features were Central Asian, similar to those of the Chinese, but with a curious tanned, almost mixed skin, barely noticeable mustaches, bulging eyes and thin lips.
However, there was something even more interesting that left everybody speechless; a light blue half-moon and star tattoo at the base of his neck.
"Uyghurs." said Yerematev.
"What in the world are they doing around here?"
"Mercenaries, probably." was Padre Ansaldi's comment. "For the right price, they follow anybody."
"You seem to know a lot of things." said the Lieutenant, almost cryptically. "Perhaps even too many, for a priest."
"A missionary, to be precise. Believe me, in my lifetime I have seen too many things for me to talk about. Among which were the Uyghurs' skills. These were no rabble, but trained warriors. Whoever recruited them, surely paid a small fortune."
"Too bad we couldn't capture one of them alive." commented the commander. "We could have interrogated him."
"Perhaps the others are still around." said Yerematev. "Perhaps if we look well enough..."
"You won't find anything, only more corpses."
Again, an unexpected voice captured everybody's attention, but this time the very figure who had spoken left everyone shocked.
"Mr. Parson!?" said Nonna. "What are you doing here?"
"I came by boat from Petersburg. A ship with supplies is inbound, and I wished to verify the cargo's quality before delivering it."
That said, the fat American made a gesture, and three men in civvies, but whose military being could be seen a mile away, dropped on the floor two more corpses, this time soaking wet. And their black clothes made it immediately clear who it was.
"We found them floating in the sea at less than half a mile away from here. Whoever hired them made sure that he remained unnamed."
"It does seem strange to move out for inspections at this hour." was Nonna's acid observation. "Are you sure you are telling us everything?"
"I will forget I heard anything. It is in my best interests to have a good relationship with His Imperial Majesty. Why should I try and kidnap His daughter?"
"I would advise to postpone any subsequent discussion after we all take a few hours' rest." said Padre Ansaldi in a calm, conciliatory tone. "Right now what matters is that Her Highness is safe." Then he turned to the commander. "I'd guess you already took steps to inform the Tsar."
"Of course. I immediately sent a courier with adequate escort. By tomorrow morning he'll be back already."
"Good. With that, and the increased surveillance, I believe that for tonight we'll be able to sleep tight, don't you?"
Indeed, everyone agreed that it was pointless to throw around accusations and ill-founded suspicions, so it was convened to close down for the night and go their separate ways.
Before Nonna could start towards her own room, however, a hand dropped on her shoulder.
"You have a moment?" the same Padre Ansaldi whispered to her "We need to talk".