Hey everyone!
Dimitri
Lissa's face showed nothing but shock.
"I want to find her," I continued. "I know I can. She found me, when I was in Siberia. I just know that if I set out to find her, I'll be able to track her down. And if I can't find her in time – " I shuddered at the thought. "Well, I know that she'd rather die than become Strigoi. This is something I have to do."
"What about me?"
We both turned to face Christian. He was looking at me very seriously. I felt a pang of guilt. Christian was a good employer. He wasn't one of those snobby Moroi who treated their guardians like an invisible ghost – rather, he interacted with me as a friend, and I'd had a wonderful time being his guardian. It would be hard leaving him, but I knew I had to.
"I'm sorry," I told him truthfully. "But this is something I feel I have to do."
Christian shook his head impatiently. "That's not what I meant. I want to go with you."
It was my turn to be taken by shock.
"Christian!" Lissa gasped. "You can't go! What will everyone say?"
"Screw everyone," Christian growled. "Rose is my friend. She's saved me before, and I intend on repaying the favour." He turned to me. "You know I can fight."
I nodded reluctantly. That was what we had been doing in Europe just before I'd come back to Court to surprise Rose – Christian had been training in fighting manoeuvres with some Moroi fighting groups. The concept of Moroi fighters was still taboo in Moroi society.
"I don't care what everyone says," Christian continued. "It's not like I have much of a reputation to lose, anyway. Hell, my parents turned Strigoi."
Lissa and I winced.
"If you're going to find Rose, I want to go with you," Christian told me.
I hesitated and considered. Christian was already pretty formidable in fighting ability. The fact that he was a fire-using Moroi and could wield fire magic as a weapon was also a great advantage, as fire was one of the few ways to kill a Strigoi.
I slowly nodded. "I'd like that," I said carefully.
Lissa stood. "If you two are going, I'm going with you."
"No," Christian and I said in unison.
Hurt flashed in Lissa's eyes. "You don't think I'm tough? You don't think I can stand Strigoi?"
"It's not that," Christian said. "It's that you're the queen. If you up and leave – things are going to get pretty ugly."
"Christian's right," I added. "You're the leader of the Moroi. If you leave, the Moroi are going to fall into chaos, and possibly civil war as factions battle to claim the throne. In the ensuing chaos, it might actually be harder for us to find Rose."
I knew I'd spoken correctly. Lissa sat back down, hanging her head. Her platinum blond hair fell about her neck.
"Besides, it may be advantageous to us if you stay in Court," I pointed out. "As queen, you have access to resources that none of us would even come close to touching otherwise. You can help us right here from Court. We'll be in almost daily contact and let you know where it is we're going and you can help us right from your throne." I lowered my voice. "Besides, Rose wouldn't have wanted you to leave your throne. Rose would've wanted you to stay."
Lissa still looked miserable. "I just want to help her. I just feel so useless. Like that time when Rose fled Court and became a fugitive, and all I did was campaign to be queen."
"You helped her then, and you'll help her now," soothed Christian. "Don't undermine what you've done for Rose. You brought her back from the dead. You can help her now."
Lissa was quiet for a moment, then nodded. "All right," she said reluctantly. "But I don't like it. And I want regular updates from you two."
Christian and I nodded in agreement.
"Is that all?" Christian asked. "I'm ready to get started right now."
"Actually, there's one more person who I thought would be very interested in what we're doing," I told them. "And she's right here at Court."
~~Page Break~~
Janine Hathaway looked surprised to be summoned to the Moroi queen's bedroom.
"Your Majesty," she said, bowing to Lissa. "Lord Ozera." She saw me and gave me an acknowledging nod. "Guardian Belikov."
I'd heard from my bed in the hospital wing that Janine was one of the guardians who'd been summoned to Court as part of the post-attack reinforcements. Under the neutral, formal guardian expression she wore now, I saw grief and misery in her eyes. That misery changed to shock, disbelief and then shock again when I told her what I'd heard Rose's Strigoi captor say and then what Christian and I intended to do.
"I must warn you, Guardian Belikov and Lord Ozera," she exclaimed, "this is highly unusual. I'll even go so far as to suggest it's not permissible under guardian protocol. After such a disastrous Strigoi hunt, it would cause a terrible scandal to undertake another such mission now – especially when they learn of your involvement, Your Majesty. A scandal that may cost you your throne."
"We know," Christian responded. "We understand."
"But we care enough about Rose that we're willing to do so anyway," Lissa said.
"Guardian Hathaway," I said, "we're fully willing to risk our lives and our reputations to save your daughter, if she can still be saved. We were hoping that you'd join us on our mission."
Janine looked startled. She turned away, apparently forgetting that it was almost unforgivably rude in Moroi circles to turn your back on the queen.
"I risk losing my reputation and my position as guardian," she murmured. "Assuming I return from this alive, I'll be lucky to ever be employed again." She paused. "But Rose is my daughter."
I heard in her voice a hint of regret, and I remembered that this was Janine Hathaway. She and Rose hadn't had the easiest of relationships, and for years there had been little love between them. But they had started out on the road to rebuilding a mother-daughter relationship, and listening to Janine now, I found it hard to believe that Rose had ever doubted her mother's love.
She turned around again, and a fierce determination burned in her dark eyes, a determination born from a mother's love. I saw that she loved Rose every bit as much as everyone here did. "When do we start?" she asked.
Rose's POV coming soon :)