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Chapter Three: Zagreb
An hour later Mikhail came down to my cell, he stood on the other side of the bars, a big grin on his face. I faked innocence, only a select few knew that I could go in Lissa's head and I preferred to keep it that way.
"Why are you so happy?" I asked in a tired, uninterested voice.
"I have some good news for you," he replied.
"Really? Mikhail, the only good new you could give me is a free pass out of here." I said sarcastically, playing the game.
"Well now, that is exactly why I am here." Mikhail said gleefully.
"Haha. Very funny."
"No, seriously. Your friend, Princess Dragomir, has a meeting with the council. No clue what it was about. Just got told to let you out. I had some misgivings, thought they were pulling my leg, but the captain looked dead serious, if a little confused." Mikhail rambled thoughtfully.
"Are you serious? I get to go free?" I asked with fake incredulity.
"Sort of. Again, I don't know the details, but you will be escorted at all times by four royal guardians. We will meet them at the Princess' room." He said as he unlocked my cell door.
I walked out and Mikhail brought out a set of handcuffs, I eyed them suspiciously.
"What are they for?"
"Well, until we get there we have to. I know you won't try anything with me but it's a formality. Bear with me?"
I grumbled incoherently, nodding my head.
"Good."
We walked across the Royal Court's lucious, well-manicured lawn towards Lissa's room. As we went Moroi and dhampirs alike cast me furtive, angry and sometimes even frightened looks. I supposed that was to be expected, if not annoying. Mothers' clutched their children to them as we passed, guardians became more alert and people in general avoided our path like we, or should I say 'I', was plagued.
When we arrived at Lissa's room it was packed! There were four royal guardians dressed in formal attire. Abe, Lissa, Dimitri, Christian, Adrian, Mia, Eddie and Prince Ivashkov were also milling around and chatting. There was rubbish littering Lissa's usual impeccable room. Everyone had been talking genially amongst themselves until I walked in with Mikhail, then the silence that cocooned us became almost tangible.
"Rose!" Lissa exclaimed, breaking the tension, she rushed over and hugged me.
"Hey," I said tearfully. Hugging her back fiercely. "How you been?"
"Better now. God, Rose, never do that to me again!" Lissa replied.
"I'll try," I murmured back.
Lord Ivashkov cleared his throat. I looked over Lissa's shoulder to see him tapping his foot impatiently. I raised my eyebrows at him, silently asking him to speak as I let go of Lissa and moved to stand in front of him. The room was stiff with tension once again.
"Once I say my piece I will go and let you catch up with your friends and family," the Moroi said calmly.
"Alright. Throw it at me," I said in a resigned tone.
"Now, the conditions of your release are as follows:…" Lord Ivashkov went on to tell me everything I had already heard at the council meeting earlier.
"I think I can abide to that," I said earnestly.
"Good. I shall leave you to it then," he said, before turning to Adrian. "I expect you to be home in one hour. Your mother wants to farewell you before you go traipsing around the world with a criminal."
Adrian just nodded and his father left. I went over to my new stalkers, AKA, my guardians, while everyone else fell into chatter.
"Hello. I am Rose Hathaway." I said in a slightly pompous tone.
"Hello, miss. I am Tamryn Likhachev," said the tallest one, he had jet-black hair and icy, calculating blue eyes. I smiled up at him.
"I'm Czar Bratus," said the youngest one with a cheeky grin. He flipped his sandy blonde hair and winked at me. I grinned back at him slyly and also a bit self-consciously.
"My name is Semyon Neverov, but please call me Sem." Said a middle-aged man with graying dark brown hair.
"And I am Filip Zubov, Fil for short," said an older guy with slightly reddish hair and brown eyes.
"Hey guys. It's nice to meet you. I promise to be on my best behavior and not cause too much trouble," I said with a laugh. "I'm sorry that you guys have to be my stalkers for the next week but it's out of my hands.
"Hey, we're not arguing," Czar Bratus said with a flirty smile.
"I'm glad, Guardian Bratus."
"Call me Czar,"
"Sure." I said as Adrian came and slipped an arm around my waist.
"Its nice to see you in the flesh, little dhampir," Adrian said with a slightly possessive edge.
"You too, its nice to talk to someone properly clothed." I returned, knowing it would embarrass and confuse.
"Why what was wrong with the ones I put you in?"
"They were slutty!"
"They weren't slutty, just a bit revealing."
"My definition of slutty," I said with a smirk. I really had missed this precocious guy. I dreaded the conversation that was doomed to come in the near future.
Adrian and I laughed and he gave me a hug, kissing my forehead. "I missed you, Rose."
"I missed you too." I said with a slight hint of guilt, although it was true it wasn't going to appear that way soon.
Everyone had launched into full-blown conversations now, rather than just small talk and minor chatter, but I could feel one set of eyes on me that hadn't left since I had entered the room. The one set of eyes I had been averting. I gradually looked up and saw Dimitri glaring at Adrian, then he realised I was staring at him and he put his guardian mask on.
"Hey Adrian, I'm gonna go and chat with the Academy gang." I said.
"Sure thing, little dhampir."
I walked over to Eddie, Mia, Lissa and Christian who sitting on the couch's. "Hey guys, how's it going?"
I sat down on the arm of Lissa's chair.
"Nice to see you again, Rose," Christian said. "I'm disappointed though. You got let out. You didn't do an amazing 'Rose Hathaway' escape."
"Sorry to let you down. I'll keep it in mind for the next time I get chucked in a cell for being wrongly accused of murdering the Moroi queen." I said sarcastically.
"Good. It will make a nice addition to my collection of stories to tell the grandkids."
"You'll have to get Lissa to give you kids first." I threw at him, which earn me a slap on my thigh from Lissa.
"Rose!"
"Sorry," I said insincerely.
Eddie snorted.
"What?"
"Just glad your back and still Rose."
"Who else would I be? The President?" I said with sarcasm dripping off every word.
Eddie laughed, shaking his head, the others joined in.
"So, what's new?" I asked.
"Well…" Mia said.
"Well? What?" I pressed.
Mia looked down and I noticed her hand was entwined with Eddie's. "Oh my God! When did that happen?" I cried.
"About a week after you were thrown in a cell," said Eddie with a huge smirk plastered across his face.
"Wow! Go Eddie!" I cheered.
Eddie and Mia both laughed and blushed, gazing at each other all lovey dovey.
"Hey Rose! Come say hello to your old man." Abe called.
"Alright." I shouted back. "See you all later," I trilled.
I sauntered over to Abe who was standing with the royal guardians and Dimitri.
"So, how you been?" I asked him.
"Pretty good," Abe replied. "Better now you're out of that hell hole."
"Amen to that." I agreed. Abe gave me a quick hug.
"So, why did you guys get picked to stalk me?" I asked the guardians.
"Because we're the best. Well we're the best that aren't crippled." Tamryn Likhachev said.
"What do you mean, Guardian Likhachev?" I asked formally. I didn't know whether these guardians preferred their first names or their full title so I thought it best to go with the full title path.
"I mean, that after your arrest their were very few royal guardians that came out unscathed, whether that be with broken, fractured or bruised something," he replied. "Oh, and call me Tamryn." So I guess it was first name terms with him.
"Oh. Right." I said glancing at Dimitri. He had looked away but when I stared at him, he stared back.
"You know, you would be a major asset to the royal guardians," Sem Neverov said thoughtfully.
"I'm not really interested in that line of work," Dimitri replied cautiously.
"Why? You would be great at it!" I exclaimed incredulously.
Dimitri ignored me. "Excuse me," he murmured.
"He could do it," I said childishly.
"We know. But you have to be interested. It can be tedious and if you don't want to be there in the first place, it can make everything seem rather horrible." Sem said wisely.
"Makes sense," I said nodding my head.
"Rose, we need to have a chat," Abe said. "About what we're going to do and where we are going to go."
"W have two mysteries to solve. Both will require Sydney's help. I say we go wherever she is." I said loudly. " Lissa, Christian and Dimitri can work on the other case. You, me and Eddie on mine. Adrian and Mia can choose where they want to go."
"Let's see what everyone else thinks and I want to go to bed." I said yawning.
We sat down with the rest of the gang and told them our plans; there was instant uproar. Apparently no one else liked my idea. Lissa looked the most offended by the scenario I had just described and she was my best friend so I thought I better see why she was mad first.
"What's wrong, Liss?"
"I want us all to stay together. Make you our most important thing to focus on. The rest can be done later." Lissa said forcefully.
"That could work, but Lissa you need to do know, I know that." I said hiding a slight innuendo into those last three words, only a few people in the room would know what I was really getting at.
"And I will. Once we prove your innocence," Lissa said.
"Yes, but I think you need to do this sooner rather than later," said I.
"Hey. Why don't we use our week of research for Rose's case, then while we are proving her innocence we start on Lissa's?" Mia proposed.
Lissa and I looked at one another with raised eyebrows before we nodded our heads.
"Ok, now that that is settled. I am going to call Sydney and arrange our flight tickets. When I come back and give you the details you may wander off to bed." Abe said looking directly at me with a knowing smirk on his face.
A couple of minutes later Abe returned. "Looks like we are going to Zagreb!" he announced grandly.
"Where?" Everyone asked simultaneously.
"It's the capital of Croatia," Abe said like he was talking to a bunch of slow-witted children.
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